Publications

01 Jun 2016
What Do You Think?

When Business Performance Falters, is Culture Change the Fix?

comments concerning the issue of appropriate starting points for dealing with an organization’s lagging performance. There was little support for an approach that first addresses an organization’s culture, “how we do things around here.” But Rick Mayhall commented that... View Details

Keywords: by James L. Heskett

27 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Employee-Suggestion Programs That Work

expedient work around? The nurses overwhelmingly chose to work around a problem, because that is what allows them to get their very demanding jobs done in the most efficient way. Tucker's future research will continue focus on how human behavior intersects with process... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry

November 1999 (Revised February 2002)
Case

Family Feud (A): Andersen v. Andersen

By: Ashish Nanda and Scot H. Landry

Traces the history and development of consulting within Andersen and the history of the schism between Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting. Ends with the two units seeking external arbitration of their dispute. View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Corporate Governance; Conflict and Resolution; Consulting Industry

October 2018 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Safecast: Bootstrapping Human Capital to Big Data

By: Ethan Bernstein and Stephanie Marton

On March 11, 2011, at 2:46pm, a 9.1-on-the-Richter-scale, six-minute long earthquake unleashed a tsunami that ravaged the Tohoku region of Japan, damaging the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power facility and releasing sufficient radioactive material into the air and ocean... View Details

10 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt--‘Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World’

book excerpt Management Is Not Leadership From Chapter 4, Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World By John Kotter Listen to how most people talk in everyday conversation, and you'll find that they often use the words "management" and... View Details

Keywords: Re: John P. Kotter

2009
Book

High Commitment, High Performance: How to Build a Resilient Organization for Sustained Advantage

By: Michael Beer

Integrating knowledge from strategic management, performance management, and organization design, strategic human resource expert and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Beer outlines what the high-commitment, high-performance organization looks like and provides... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Leadership; Management; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance; Practice; Business Strategy; System

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September 1984 (Revised September 1993)
Case

Nestle S.A.: International Marketing (A)

By: John A. Quelch

A senior manager at Nestle's headquarters is reviewing the role of the central marketing staff with respect to Nestle's operating companies around the world. Two specific examples of the role of the central staff in guiding the advertising and packaging decisions of... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Marketing; Operations; Advertising; Management Teams; Food and Beverage Industry; Health Industry; Switzerland

Web

Our Leadership | Information Technology

Security Chris Pringle, HBS Campus Information Security Officer IT Talent Management, Services & Support Heath Racine, Senior Managing Director Learning Experience Design & Interactive Spaces Jeanne Po, Managing Director View Details

June 2004
Case

Aventis SA (A): Planning for a Merger

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Eight executives at Hoechst and Rhone-Poulenc must make four crucial decisions on the eve of merging their companies to become Aventis--what would become the world's third largest pharmaceutical firm. In addition to formulating a vision and strategy, the two firms must... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Mergers and Acquisitions; Horizontal Integration; Organizational Design; Organizational Culture; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

March 2001 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Virgin.com

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Describes the evolution of Virgin's dot-com organization and the decision it faced in mid-2000--whether to consolidate several separate dot-com ventures into one larger venture or, instead, to allow each to run independently. Also contains a history of Virgin's... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Motivation and Incentives; Internet and the Web; Consolidation

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2010
Working Paper

When Open Architecture Beats Closed: The Entrepreneurial Use of Architectural Knowledge

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

This paper describes how entrepreneurial firms can use superior architectural knowledge to open up a technical system to gain strategic advantage. The strategy involves, first, identifying "bottlenecks" in the existing system, and then creating a new open architecture... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Investment Return; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Design; Organizational Design; Competitive Advantage; Technology Industry

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October 1996 (Revised January 1997)
Case

MacTemps: Building Commitment in the Interim Workforce

MacTemps is a provider of temporary workers skilled in computer graphics and database management. Unlike many temporary agencies that treat temps as a commodity, MacTemps has attempted to build relationships with temps through offering benefits and training. This case... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Organizational Design; Personal Development and Career; Information Technology Industry; Employment Industry

2008
Working Paper

Performance and Control across Multiple Markets

By: Tatiana Sandino, Dennis Campbell and Shelby Yu

Chain organizations typically operate units across different types of markets, with significantly diverging customer bases. Such market-type dispersion potentially influences performance through two channels: it makes performance a noisier indicator of store manager... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Organizational Design; Markets; Franchise Ownership; Performance; Retail Industry

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01 Apr 1998
News

Short Takes

is substantially lessened. Thomke and Reinertsen, while studying several hundred development projects in the fast-paced integrated circuit (IC) design industry, focused on the efficacy of two production technologies. One technology had... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons and Caroline Chauncey

June 2004
Case

Aventis SA (B): A Company is Born

By: Joshua D. Margolis and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Mergers and Acquisitions; Horizontal Integration; Organizational Design; Organizational Culture; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

01 Mar 2004
News

Alumni Bookshelf

The Big Book of New Design Ideas edited by David E. Carter (OPM 26, 1998) (Harper Design International) In his 100th book, Carter, an expert on logo design and corporate... View Details

Keywords: Educational Support Services; Educational Services

August 1994 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Engineering Inspection & Insurance Company

By: Robert H. Hayes

Engineering Inspection & Insurance Co. (EIIC) is a small but highly successful company that offers machinery and boiler inspection and insurance services. After years of above-average growth and profits, both are retreating toward the industry average, policy delivery... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Business Strategy; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Insurance; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Insurance Industry; United States