Publications

January 15, 2015
Article

Surviving in a Family Business When You're Not Part of the Family

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

Navigating office politics in a family-owned business can be challenging for non-family executives. Based on experience with various business families worldwide, this article offers strategies for success:

Play in your room: Non-family executives should... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Family and Family Relationships; Employees; Problems and Challenges; Talent and Talent Management

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November 2013
Article

Simplification and Saving

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

The daunting complexity of important financial decisions can lead to procrastination. We evaluate a low-cost intervention that substantially simplifies the retirement savings plan participation decision. Individuals received an opportunity to enroll in a retirement... View Details

Keywords: Retirement Savings; Simplification; Procrastination; Behavioral Economics; Saving; Motivation and Incentives; Retirement

July 1989 (Revised October 1992)
Case

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.: MIS Reorganization (A)

As a part of the Management Information Services (MIS) Division's evolution, it was planned to distribute all systems development and applications (SD&S) activities and resources (assets and personnel) from the central MIS Division to the operating areas by October... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Decision Making

March 2006 (Revised June 2006)
Case

The Speedway That Won't Slow Down

Dick Berggren, well-known FOXTV announcer for NASCAR races and executive editor of Speedway Illustrated magazine, considers how to grow the business he founded and balance his time, energy, and commitments to his wife. Explores the explosive growth of media businesses... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Business Plan; Media; Sports; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

April 2005
Case

FBI: Mission Extended

Following the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, there was consensus that the FBI needed to make organizational changes. The FBI had long distinguished itself as the world's pre-eminent organization for conducting after-the-fact investigations that laid the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Law Enforcement; United States

Teaching Interest

General Management Program (GMP)

By: Stefan H. Thomke

As global business challenges become more complex, companies are turning to exceptional general managers who can take on greater cross-functional responsibilities and contribute to corporate growth on a more strategic level. Moving beyond your field of expertise,... View Details

June 2019
Teaching Note

CEWD: Closing the Skills Gap

By: William R. Kerr and Ted Smalley Bowen

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-081. The teaching note presents background, case details, and teaching strategies, along with board plans and supporting graphics. View Details

July–August 2020
Article

Make the Most of Your Relocation

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury

Although the COVID-19 crisis has halted travel in recent months, geographic mobility has become critical for managers and knowledge workers hoping to advance in today’s globalized economy, and that trend is unlikely to reverse. Geographic mobility can pay off... View Details

Keywords: Relocation; Mobility; Personal Development and Career; Geographic Location; Work-Life Balance

16 Apr 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Chris Christensen: Legend of the Classroom

discussion from one point to the next—are remembered often by the legions of MBA students, doctoral candidates, and faculty members Christensen taught during an HBS career that spanned half a century, from the 1940s until his death in... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg; Education

Article

The Effect of Providing Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian and Katherine L. Milkman

Using a field experiment in a 401(k) plan, we measure the effect of disseminating information about peer behavior on savings. Low-saving employees received simplified plan enrollment or contribution increase forms. A randomized subset of forms stated the fraction of... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Decision Choices and Conditions; Retirement

February 2008 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Laurence Longren: End Game

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Shirley M. Spence

This case examines a successful 64-year old as he considers his goals, and how he should be spending his time, at this stage of his life. It briefly recounts his life story, and provides a special focus on personal financial planning and wealth management issues. View Details

Keywords: Age; Financial Management; Time Management; Personal Development and Career; Planning

February 2020
Case

Leading Change in Talent at L'Oréal

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Vincent Dessain and Emer Moloney

Jean-Claude Le Grand just stepped into a new role as Executive Vice-President for Human Resources at the global cosmetics company, L’Oréal. He is now responsible for the hiring, development, promotion, and retention of 83,000 employees worldwide. The highly successful... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Business Headquarters; Business Divisions; Business Organization; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Demographics; Diversity; Gender; Nationality; Multinational Firms and Management; Human Resources; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Management; Jobs and Positions; Employment; Human Capital; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Management Practices and Processes; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Product Marketing; Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Personal Development and Career; Planning; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Networks; Social Psychology; Attitudes; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Business Strategy; Advertising Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; France; Paris

April 2024
Case

Cyrus: Turning a Traditional Business Model on Its Head (A)

By: James Heskett

The loss of the lease at their Michelin-starred Cyrus 1.0 in Sonoma County, California gives the partners an opportunity to shut down and rework a “broken” business model, one with labor intensive experiences six or seven nights a week, high burnout, high... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Retention; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leasing; Work-Life Balance; Strategic Planning; Loss; Profit; Working Conditions; California

18 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Looking in the Mirror: Questions Every Leader Must Ask

questions that will help them regroup, mobilize their team, formulate a plan of action, and move forward." In his new book, What to Ask the Person in the Mirror, Kaplan argues against the notion that great leadership is about having... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

2024
Working Paper

Smaller than We Thought? The Effect of Automatic Savings Policies

By: James J. Choi, David Laibson, Jordan Cammarota, Richard Lombardo and John Beshears

Medium- and long-run dynamics undermine the effect of automatic enrollment and default savings-rate auto-escalation on retirement savings. Our analysis of 401(k) plans incorporates the facts that employees frequently leave firms (often before matching contributions... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Saving; Retirement; Behavioral Finance; Compensation and Benefits

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Women Leading Business: A New Kind of Conversation

issues—dual career families, the glass ceiling, and so on—and while those issues are certainly worth discussing, they are not what I intended for this program. "Women Leading Business" is about senior executive decision-making,... View Details

Keywords: Re: Myra M. Hart & Cynthia A. Montgomery

Article

Using Fresh Starts to Nudge Increased Retirement Savings

By: John Beshears, Hengchen Dai, Katherine L. Milkman and Shlomo Benartzi

We conducted a field experiment to study the effect of framing future moments in time as new beginnings (or “fresh starts”). University employees (N=6,082) received mailings with an opportunity to choose between increasing their contributions to a savings plan... View Details

Keywords: Choice Architecture; Randomized Field Experiment; Savings; New Beginning; Fresh Start; Saving; Retirement; Behavior

June 2007 (Revised January 2008)
Case

The Vanguard Group, Inc. in 2006 and Target Retirement Funds

By: Luis M. Viceira

The Vanguard Group is one of the largest asset managers in the U.S., with over $1 trillion in assets, ninety percent of which are mutual fund assets, and more than 12,000 employees at year-end 2006. Vanguard has built a strong reputation as the manager of reference for... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Investment Funds; Personal Finance; Brands and Branding; Retirement; Trust; Financial Services Industry; United States