Publications

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17 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Being the Boss

Nineteen years ago, Harvard Business School professor Linda A. Hill wrote the first edition of her book Becoming a Manager, detailing the experiences of several first-year supervisors who were making the daunting transition from star... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

15 Sep 2010
Working Paper Summaries

From Bench to Board: Gender Differences in University Scientists’ Participation in Commercial Science

Keywords: by Waverly W. Ding, Fiona Murray & Toby E. Stuart; Biotechnology

October 2012
Teaching Note

Liberia (TN)

By: Eric Werker and Ian Cornell

From 1989 to 2003 civil war raged in Liberia, causing GDP per capita to drop an unprecedented 90% from peak to trough. The roots of Liberia's conflict and economic decline are complex and intertwined, resting on over a century of discriminatory elite rule and twisted... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Economic Systems; War; Economy; Government and Politics; Liberia

September 1993
Case

Rhone-Poulenc (A)

Rhone-Poulenc, France's largest chemical firm, with revenues of more than $7 billion in 1985, seeks to dramatically expand its presence in the United States. From 1986 to 1990, Rhone-Poulenc undertakes 18 separate acquisitions, ranging from small entrepreneurial firms... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Globalized Firms and Management; Acquisition; Chemical Industry; France

17 Nov 2015
Blog Post

What is HBS START Week?

Transitioning to business school is a big change. New place, new people, a new schedule – it’s a lot to adjust to. To ease that shift, HBS hosts something called “START week”: the first official welcome for the new class of MBA students.... View Details

30 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

‘Intrinsic Joy’ Sparks Ideas Better than Cash

contributed far more “repos” (software packages placed and held in a repository) during the run-up to their payout than those who didn’t participate. Yet, once paid, a sponsored user’s community-driven contributions and long-term engagement tanked, finds recent... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology

January 1994 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Judo Economics

The early 1990s saw a new wave of start-ups in the U.S. airline business. One entrant, Kiwi International Air Lines, took to the skies in September 1992 with a strategy of attracting small-business travelers looking to save money but lacking the flexibility to book in... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Advantage; Business Startups; Air Transportation Industry; Financial Services Industry

28 Jun 2016
First Look

June 28, 2016

businesses. The strategy literature uses real option theory to explain the transition to scale, but does not consider the complex relationships between corporate ventures and their parent organizations. By comparing six longitudinal cases of large firms’ new View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 1994 (Revised May 2002)
Case

K-III: A Leveraged Build-Up

By: George P. Baker III, Nicola Bamford and Nicolas Greenspan

Explores the strategy, financing, and governance of a new type of organizational form, dubbed the Leveraged Build-Up by its inventor, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. The company makes leveraged acquisitions of small publishing companies, managing them in a very... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Financial Management; Leveraged Buyouts; Cash Flow; Organizational Structure; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Publishing Industry

22 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

How to Make AI 'Forget' All the Private Data It Shouldn't Have

underpin this technology typically subsume the information that users enter, helping the software provide better answers over time. Working Knowledge spoke with Seth Neel, an expert on machine “unlearning” who is an assistant professor at Harvard View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Technology; Information Technology

December 2008 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

By: David E. Bell and Brian Matthew Milder

In 2006, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation joined together to form a new organization, AGRA, to tackle the historic challenge of increasing agricultural production in Africa. Launched with much fanfare and led by former U.N.... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Investment Funds; Food; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Business and Government Relations; Non-Governmental Organizations; Poverty; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Africa

August 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Kemps LLC: Introducing Time-Driven ABC

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Kemps is making a strategy shift: from being focused on fulfilling customer requests to becoming the best cost dairy producer in the industry. Its existing manufacturing cost system, however, fails to capture the costs associated with handling special flavors, small... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Customer Relationship Management; Cost Accounting; Managerial Roles; Cost Management; Earnings Management; Business Strategy; Time Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Decisions; Food and Beverage Industry

December 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Nestlé: Agricultural Material Sourcing Within the Concept of Creating Shared Value (CSV)

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Lorin A. Fries

Corporate Head of Agriculture Hans Jöhr's mind raced in anticipation of the executive board meeting that afternoon. Jöhr recognized the meeting as a key opportunity to strategize far into the future, reexamining how his team's efforts in sustainable agricultural... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Value Creation; Quality; Supply Chain Management; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Problems and Challenges; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Health Industry

October 1993 (Revised September 1996)
Case

BANC ONE - 1993

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven and Myra M. Hart

From a small local bank, Banc One has grown to one of the largest and most profitable banks in the United States under the leadership of its CEO, John B. McCoy. It has an impressive track record of improving the performance of its acquisitions while retaining the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Acquisition; Organizational Culture; Policy; Adaptation; Business Growth and Maturation; Strategy; Performance Improvement; Industry Structures; Banking Industry; United States

August 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

The Oakland Athletics: Strategy & Metrics for a Budget

By: Srikant M. Datar and Caitlin N. Bowler

This case considers Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane’s data driven and, in baseball circles unconventional, approach to winning games over the duration of the long Major League Baseball season. Beane’s critical approach to crafting strategy within his... View Details

Keywords: Data Analysis; Metrics; Data Science; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Measurement and Metrics; Competitive Strategy; Organizational Culture; Sports Industry

November 2002 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Forest Stewardship Council

By: James E. Austin and Ezequiel Reficco

In just a few years the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) made impressive progress toward its mission of promoting "environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests." By 2001, 25.5 million hectares of forests in... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Corporate Governance; Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Competitive Strategy