Publications

18 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

It’s Not Nagging: Why Persistent, Redundant Communication Works

move their projects forward more quickly and smoothly than those who are not. Neeley's research evolved out of an ethnography of managers' use of technology used to persuade their team members to meet their deliverables on time and on... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

August 2011 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Social Innovation at Salesforce.com

By: Christopher Marquis, Marley C. Kornreich and Bobbi Thomason

Salesforce.com recently implemented an innovative social enterprise business model whereby the Salesforce.com Foundation funds its operations and grant budget by selling discounted salesforce.com software licenses to nonprofits and education clients. The case recounts... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Model; Information Technology; Leading Change; Problems and Challenges

April 2003
Case

Captain Crisis in the United States Army, The

From 1989 to 1999, the Army watched as captain attrition rose from a planned and acceptable 6.7% to a staggering 10.6%. At the beginning of a new century, the Army leadership is concerned that current and projected staffing levels for junior officers are insufficient... View Details

Keywords: Human Capital; Retention; Government and Politics; Public Administration Industry

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Teaching Interest

Overview

Laura taught undergraduate Military Leadership and Intro to Sociology for 6 and 4 semesters, respectively, at the United States Military Academy (West Point) from 2013-2016 (see course descriptions and links below). She was promoted from instructor to Assistant... View Details

November 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Starbucks: Reaffirming Commitment to the Third Place Ideal

By: Francesca Gino, Katherine B. Coffman and Jeff Huizinga

On April 12, 2018, two African American entrepreneurs had scheduled a business meeting at a Starbucks in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. They sat without ordering, waiting for a local businessman to show up for the meeting. The store manager called 911... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Prejudice and Bias; Crisis Management; Employees; Training

May 2008 (Revised April 2018)
Case

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Interdisciplinary Cancer Care

By: Michael E. Porter and Sachin H. Jain

In 2006, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was an internationally leading institution for cancer care, education, and research. Since 1996, it had successfully reorganized itself from a cancer hospital that was physically organized around clinical... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Health Disorders; Organizational Structure; Medical Specialties; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Value Creation; Service Delivery; Research; Health Care and Treatment; Education Industry; Education Industry; Texas

12 Jul 2016
First Look

July 12, 2016

growing public discourse cites the rising cost of education and student debt overhang as a contributor to slow economic growth. A parallel discussion explores the causes of the secular decline in business... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Jun 2015
HBS Case

Upgrading School with a Startup Mentality

launch his own network of schools because he believed typical elementary education was not preparing students adequately for the future. Instead, Ventilla created "microschools," each with 80 to 150 K-8 students, with a focus on... View Details

Keywords: Re: John Jong-Hyun Kim; Education

07 May 2012
Research & Ideas

The Art of Haggling

of bargaining, while in Getting to YES, Harvard Law School Professor Roger Fisher and Harvard Negotiation Project Senior Fellow William Ury advocated for an approach that can benefit both parties. Fisher and Ury's message took hold, given... View Details

Keywords: by Katie Johnston

03 May 2016
First Look

First Look, May 3, 2016

for "big teaming": intense collaboration between professions and industries with completely different mindsets. To explore the kind of leadership required to build the future, Edmondson and Reynolds tell the story of an... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Nov 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

The New Challenge of Leading Financial Firms

A worldwide economic crisis. Intense scrutiny from board members, customers, and government regulators. Expanding global markets. Public protests aimed squarely at your industry. Running a financial institution, never easy to begin with,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

Article

Reflections: Toward a Normative and Actionable Theory of Planned Organizational Change and Development

By: Michael Beer

A normative and actionable theory of planned organizational change and development is proposed based on fifty years of engagement by the author as a scholar-consultant. Five principles are central features of the theory and practice proposed: 1) Organizations are... View Details

Keywords: Consultant; Process; Systems; Silence; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Learning; Management Teams

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04 Aug 2009
First Look

First Look: August 4

Montgomery County Public Schools Authors:Stacey M. Childress, Dennis Doyle, and David A. Thomas, with a foreword by David Gergen Publication:Cambridge: Harvard Education Press, 2009. Abstract Leading for... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Jul 2014
What Do You Think?

Are Today’s Business Heroes Challenging Our Ideas About Leadership?

conclude that I understood leadership pretty well, I've begun to wonder. Let's start with the leadership associated with large organizations with relatively long histories. In recent years, we have been... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2017
Case

Outrageous Ambition: Duke University

By: William C. Kirby and Yuanzhuo Wang

Duke University had grown from a one room schoolhouse in rural North Carolina in 1859 to one of the leading research universities in the U.S. and the world. Since the late 1950s, Duke’s leaders had consciously used the process of strategic planning to guide the... View Details