Publications

2010
Book

Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down

By: John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead

You've got a good idea. You know it could make a crucial difference for you, your organization, your community. You present it to the group but get confounding questions, inane comments, and verbal bullets in return. Before you know what's happened, your idea is dead,... View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Cost vs Benefits; Problems and Challenges; Interests; Value

Find at Harvard

2016
Working Paper

Immigrant Entrepreneurs and the Social Safety Net

By: Gareth Olds

This paper explores the role of public health insurance in small business ownership among immigrants, a group with high rates of entrepreneurship. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 created a five-year “waiting period” for legal... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Entrepreneurship; Welfare or Wellbeing; Immigration

Read Now

The pandemic spawned by the novel coronavirus has forced a global reckoning with the awesome power of infectious diseases to grind economies to a halt. The forced lockdowns and retreat into home isolation has also given us a heightened awareness of the role our... View Details

21 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

The Most Common Strategy Mistakes

"Michael Porter didn't get to be a giant in the field of competition and strategy by hunting small game." Joan Magretta begins her new book on Harvard Business School's Michael Porter's work by noting that, from the start of his... View Details

Keywords: by Joan Magretta

30 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

The Future of IT Consulting

The explosion of "computer-to-computer" communication in the twenty-first century is triggering a growth phase for IT consultants. Harvard Business School professor Richard Nolan and HBS Interactive Senior Vice President Larry... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Consulting

April 2009 (Revised July 2010)
Case

Corporate Solutions at Jones Lang LaSalle (2001)

By: Ranjay Gulati and Lucia Menzer Marshall

Peter Barge, CEO of the newly created Corporate Solutions Group of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), is executing a restructuring of the U.S. corporate real estate services division that will enable the company to offer its clients integrated solutions. Barge has created an... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Restructuring; Customer Relationship Management; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Integration

20 Aug 2008
Op-Ed

The Time is Right for Creative Capitalism

capitalism is "an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world's inequities." Harvard View Details

Keywords: by Nancy Koehn

October 2003
Case

Henry Tam and the MGI Team

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Ingrid Vargas and Hillary Anger Elfenbein

Within a short time frame, seven diverse team members assemble to write a business plan for a new company and struggle to define their roles, make decisions together, and resolve conflict. Henry Tam, a second-year Harvard MBA student, who joins an aspiring start-up... View Details

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication; Business Plan; Groups and Teams; Decision Making; Jobs and Positions; Leadership Style; Human Resources; Management Teams; Conflict and Resolution; Diversity

May 2014
Case

Building a High Performance Culture at IDFC

By: V.G. Narayanan and Vidhya Muthuram

IDFC was set up in 1997 to direct private finance to infrastructure projects in India. Over the years, it expanded its capabilities to become a 'complete solutions provider' offering financing solutions including debt and equity, investment banking, brokerage and asset... View Details

10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/312054-PDF-ENG Gracious Eloise: What Do Angels Want? (B) Lena G. Goldberg, Janet Kraus, and Mary Beth FindlayHarvard Business School Supplement 312-055 Having received an extensive critique of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

18 Mar 2014
Blog Post

BaubleBar Brought to Life, and Other Tales of Joining a Start-up

It’s Tuesday afternoon, March 4th. A lively group of HBS students passionate about retail entrepreneurship sit in Aldrich 108, waiting. Then “ping!” – up pop Julia Straus (HBS ’11) and Katharine Hill (HBS ’12) who both work at BaubleBar,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technology; Consumer Products / Retail

December 1986 (Revised December 1987)
Case

Hewlett-Packard: Manufacturing Productivity Division (B)

By: Benson P. Shapiro and Lawrence B. Levine

Asks where in the Hewlett-Packard (HP) network of groups and sectors the Manufacturing Productivity Division should be placed. Provides a great deal of background regarding marketing, sales, and engineering at HP. It is thus possible to expand and broaden the... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Marketing; Production; Networks; Sales; Expansion; Manufacturing Industry

18 Apr 2011
Research & Ideas

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

Research showed that asking employees to do something multiple times, whether in person or via technology, is especially common for managers who are under intense pressure to finish particular projects. Considering how busy most managers... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

June 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Suzhou Good-Ark Electronics: Creating and Implementing a Sage Culture

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Nien-he Hsieh, Susan J. Winterberg, Nancy Hua Dai and Shalene Gupta

Suzhou Good-Ark, a Chinese semiconductor implemented "Sage Culture" management based on traditional Chinese philosophy. Productivity doubled, turnover decreased, and employee satisfaction shot up. By 2015, more than 2,000 companies had toured Wu’s factories, and Wu had... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Philosophy; Leadership; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Transformation; Performance; Semiconductor Industry; China; Singapore

May 2018 (Revised June 2018)
Case

Ashar Group: Brokers and Co-opetition in the Life Settlement Industry

By: Alexander Braun, Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Jiahua Xu

Connecting life insurance policyholders with potential investors (called Life Settlement Providers), Ashar Group plays a pivotal role in the industry. Its current position is, however, increasingly being challenged by consumer-direct models, led by major providers... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Investment; Markets; Competitive Strategy; Cooperation; Financial Services Industry