Publications

October 1991 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Workplace Safety at Alcoa (A)

By: Kim B. Clark and Joshua D. Margolis

Examines the challenge facing the managers of a large aluminum manufacturing plant in its drive to improve workplace safety. The CEO of the company has made safety a top priority. The plant has made good progress in reducing the injury rate, but now confronts the need... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Safety; Problems and Challenges; Change Management; Operations; Resignation and Termination; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Manufacturing Industry; United States

August 2014
Case

Opening the Valve: From Software to Hardware (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats

Valve, one of the world's top video game software companies, has also become an iconic example of an organization with virtually no hierarchy. A 400-person organization, Valve's unique organizational form (described in detail in the case and accompanying employee... View Details

February 2022
Article

How Global Leaders Gain Power Through Downward Deference and Reduction of Social Distance

By: Tsedal Neeley and Sebastian Reiche

We theorize about how people with positional power enact downward deference—a practice of lowering oneself to be equal to that of lower power workers—based on a study of 115 top global leaders at a large U.S. company. These leaders were charged with advancing... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Leadership Style; Global Range; Relationships; Rank and Position; Power and Influence; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues

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14 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Blockbuster! Why Star Power Works

agencies; and even nightclubs, among other industries. The idea: Invest big money in a few top talents or brands—think Jay-Z, LeBron James, or Marvel Comics—to create buzz for a "tent-pole" product that produces most of a... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation

06 Nov 2013
What Do You Think?

Is Top-Down Resource Allocation on the Rise?

Summing Up Is Business Agility a Product of Top-Down or Bottom-Up Resource Allocation? Respondents to this month's column provided possible explanations for greater reliance on top-down resource allocation processes (RAPs) while reminding us that a blend of influences... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

October 2004
Case

Continuing Transformation of Asahi Glass, The: Implementing EVA

By: Mihir A. Desai, Masako Egawa and Yanjun Wang

This case explores the use of EVA--economic value added--methodology at Asahi Glass. EVA is among the changes initiated by the CEO aimed at transforming Asahi Glass from a traditional Japanese company to a global firm. Other changes included a corporate reorganization... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Change Management; Global Strategy; Corporate Governance; Recruitment; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Performance Evaluation

May 2004
Article

The Risky Business of Hiring Stars

By: Boris Groysberg, Ashish Nanda and Nitin Nohria

With the battle for the best and brightest people heating up again, you're most likely out there looking for first-rate talent in the ranks of your competitors. Chances are, you're sold on the idea of recruiting from outside your organization, since developing people... View Details

Keywords: Staffing; Employee Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employees; Retention; Competitive Advantage; Human Resources; Performance

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03 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Who Guarantees Your Workplace Is Safe for Return?

expected to look for some objective standard of reasonable care before they will concur that indoor environments are reasonably safe. There are likely to be do-it-yourselfers, top shelf evaluators—and charlatans. You will need to be able... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber and Joseph Allen; Real Estate

January 2008 (Revised August 2011)
Case

ProntoWash: Washing the World's Cars to a Tango Beat

ProntoWash management considers whether franchising and the Balanced Scorecard could be combined to help customer-facing employees provide consistent service across the world and capture relevant management information. In 2007, ProntoWash, an international car-wash... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Growth and Development Strategy; Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Franchise Ownership; Performance Consistency; Argentina

Teaching Interest

Short Intensive Program (SIP): Agile at Scale: From OKR's and Agile to Execution Excellence

What do you want to get out of your remaining time at HBS, your career and life-plan to make an impact, starting from Day 1 post-HBS? By developing tools to drive your personal success and strategy at HBS, in this interactive immersion, we will dive into how the... View Details

14 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 14

characterized by some boundary conditions (Study 6). We discuss the theoretical contribution of this work to research on moral regulation and ethical behavior. "CEO Relational Leadership and Strategic Decision Quality in Top... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Research Summary

Overview

By: Aiyesha Dey

Professor Dey’s research explores governance and agency conflicts, board structure, governance regulation and corporate behavior, ownership structure, and the relation between executives’ characteristics and corporate behavior. In analyzing corporate governance... View Details

March 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting–and... View Details

July – August 2011
Article

What Factors Drive Analyst Forecasts?

By: Boris Groysberg, Paul Healy, Nitin Nohria and George Serafeim

A firm's competitive environment, its strategic choices, and its internal capabilities are considered important determinants of its future performance. Yet there is little evidence on whether analysts' forecasts of firm performance actually reflect any of these factors... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Forecasting and Prediction; Industry Growth; Judgments; Performance; Valuation; Price; Quality; Innovation and Invention; Organizational Culture; Competency and Skills; Surveys

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September 1983 (Revised October 1984)
Case

Boston Whaler, Inc.: Managing the Dealer Network

Mr. Joseph Lawler, newly-appointed president of Boston Whaler, Inc. (BWI), believes that better dealer management is the key to his company's continued growth. BWI manufactured a high-price, high performance line of power and other boats for the recreational,... View Details

Keywords: Distribution Channels; Product Marketing; Consumer Products Industry

May 2024
Case

LinkedIn Corporation, 2024

By: David B. Yoffie, George Gonzalez and Emily Grandjean

By 2024, the LinkedIn profile was well established as the professional identity of record on the Internet. Following a multi-year effort to expand the platform’s user base, as well as a period of rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, LinkedIn’s membership had... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Goals and Objectives; Social Media; Network Effects; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Technology Industry; Employment Industry; Sunnyvale