Publications

17 Oct 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, October 17, 2017

2017 Boston: Harvard Business Review Press Entering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right Job By: Bussgang, Jeffrey J. Abstract—Many professionals aspire to work for startups. Executives from large companies view them as models to help them View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2006 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Putnam Investments: Rebuilding the Culture

By: Nitin Nohria and Charles Nichols

Charles "Ed" Haldeman Jr. is promoted CEO of Putnam Investments after the firm was badly damaged by a series of improper trading practices. He is charged with the task of managing the crisis, repairing the company culture, and putting the firm back into a pattern of... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Ethics; Investment Funds; Investment; Leading Change; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry; United States

January 2011
Case

Founder-CEO Succession at Acer

By: Noam T. Wasserman, Michael Shih-ta Chen and Keith Chi-ho Wong

Stan Shih, founder-CEO of Acer, Inc., had proactively chosen and transitioned the "perfect" successor as CEO, but was now faced with major problems. Over the last two years, his heir apparent, Leonard Liu, had made the changes he had been hired to make, including... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Management Style; Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Conflict Management

2014
Working Paper

Conflicts of College Conference Realignment: Pursuing Revenue, Preserving Tradition, and Assessing the Future

By: Vadim Kogan and Stephen A. Greyser

Over the past two years, conference realignment has taken a front seat in the college sports landscape. Economic incentives were too attractive to overlook for some universities. College football programs across the country have a lot at stake, because for many,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Motivation and Incentives; Higher Education; Sports; Revenue; Emotions; Sports Industry; Education Industry

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October 1987 (Revised October 1989)
Background Note

Moving Ideas into Action: Mastering the Art of Change

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Discusses elements in organizing a large scale change effort: defining a shared vision, coalition building, management structure and process, communication and education, local participation and innovation, standards and measures, and symbols and signals. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Communication; Policy; Innovation and Invention; Standards; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy

15 Dec 2024
News

On The Case

Professor Linda Hill first met Tom Mihaljevic (GMP 15, 2013) when he came to campus to participate in a fireside chat that Hill unexpectedly wound up facilitating. At that time, he was the CEO of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, and the pair found they had a lot to talk... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Educational Support Services; Educational Services

March 2023
Case

Azenta Life Sciences: The Road to Transformation

By: Gary P. Pisano and Catherine Piner

When the Board brought Steve Schwartz in as President of Brooks Automation in 2010, they gave him a clear mission: strengthen the company’s core semiconductor equipment business and find a new industry to enter. Over the course of the next decade, Schwartz and the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Market Entry and Exit; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Segmentation; Technology Industry

January 2015 (Revised December 2015)
Case

Mauboussin

By: Anat Keinan, Sandrine Crener and Audrey Azoulay

Mauboussin is a French jewelry brand founded in 1827 in Paris. In the 1920s, the company earned a huge notoriety for capturing the aesthetic and emotional dimension of the Art Deco movement in its design and gained a worldwide reputation for innovation and expertise in... View Details

July 2001 (Revised December 2001)
Case

WeServeHomes.com

ServiceMaster, a Fortune 500 supplier of home services such as Terminex, Trugreen (lawn care), and MerryMaids, has a 50% interest in an Internet start-up designed to attract new customers to its services and help service providers improve quality and lower costs.... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Service Industry

May 2008
Supplement

Kenny Kahn at Muzak (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

Supplemental Material for 408-057 View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Geographic Location; Innovation and Invention; Employees; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Design; Music Industry

May 1994 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Motorola Corp.: The View from the CEO Office

By: Shoshana Zuboff and Janis Lee Gogan

Motorola, a leader in semiconductors and telecommunications, embarked on an ambitious program of renewal beginning in the early 1980s, leading to dramatic improvements in the company's quality, cycle time, and growth. Much of this progress was attributed to a major... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Leading Change; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Telecommunications Industry

May–June 2021
Article

How to Close the Gender Gap

By: Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg

Most companies say they’re committed to advancing women into leadership roles. What they may fail to recognize, though, is that systemic barriers are holding women back. As a result, women remain disadvantaged at every stage of their employment and underrepresented in... View Details

Keywords: Gender Discrimination; Employment; Gender; Prejudice and Bias; Talent and Talent Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation

October 1987
Case

Philips Group--1987, The

By: Francis Aguilar and Michael Y. Yoshino

Discusses how Philips, a major Dutch-based multinational company, attempts to bring about a fundamental change in its strategy, organization, and culture in response to a rapidly changing market and competitive environment. View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Markets; Change Management; Netherlands

May 28, 2018
Article

How Companies Can Identify Racial and Gender Bias in Their Customer Service

By: Alexandra C. Feldberg and Tami Kim

Research shows that minority customers — blacks and Asians — regularly receive worse customer service than whites in ways that are not immediately obvious to onlookers (or even managers). These results prompt a couple of questions for executives and managers. One, does... View Details

Keywords: Internal Audit; Customers; Service Delivery; Prejudice and Bias; Race; Gender; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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April 1994 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition 1980-1986

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Describes the environmental, organizational, and information technology context in the late 1970s that led to the development of the initial vision for change and the actions taken to implement that vision. The case ends with the abrupt departure of the CEO as profits... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Information Technology; Management Succession; Management Teams; Business Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

1998
Chapter

Commentary: Strategic Flexibility, Firm Organization, and Managerial Work in Dynamic Models

By: C. A. Bartlett

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management; Management Practices and Processes

July 1999
Case

Restructuring General Motors North America (A): Pay-for-Performance

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Presents the new pay-for-performance scheme adopted by General Motors (GM) in its 1999 reorganization of its sales and marketing organization. Once in operation, many administrative problems developed requiring a reconsideration of the scheme's basic architecture. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Compensation and Benefits; Marketing; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Auto Industry; North America

November 1990 (Revised September 1991)
Case

First Chicago Corp.: Global Corporate Bank (A)

Presents the human resource challenges associated with First Chicago Corp.'s strategy in the corporate banking market. They want to maintain strong "relationships" with customers, while also developing strong investment banking capabilities. They face three problems:... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Human Resources; Commercial Banking; Banking Industry; United States

April 2014
Supplement

Managing Change at Axis Bank (B)

By: Paul Healy and Rachna Tahilyani

Axis Bank is India's third largest private sector bank. In April 2009, Shikha Sharma, an outsider was appointed as its CEO. She took over from a person who had overseen ten years of rapid growth at the bank. The selection of an outsider as the new CEO surprised many... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Valuation; Finance; Banks and Banking; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; India