Publications

05 Nov 2020
Blog Post

12 Weeks of VC Summer: Remote Edition

When it became clear that my summer internship with Maverick Ventures, an early stage Venture Capital firm based in San Francisco, was going to be remote, I had a lot of questions on my mind. What would it be like to work with a team I... View Details

July 2020 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Rosalind Fox at John Deere

By: Anthony Mayo and Olivia Hull

Rosalind Fox, the factory manager at John Deere’s Des Moines, Iowa plant, has improved the financial standing of the factory in the three years she’s been at its helm. But employee engagement scores—which measured employees’ satisfaction with working conditions and... View Details

13 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Company Reviews on Glassdoor: Petty Complaints or Signs of Potential Misconduct?

corporate misconduct, pointing to cultural factors that might eventually result in scandal earlier than they would otherwise attract attention. In a business environment where ethics are paramount, the findings may offer managers and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

February 2015 (Revised April 2018)
Supplement

Dalian Wanda Group: The AMC Entertainment Acquisition (B)

By: Willy Shih

When Dalian Wanda Group of China announced its plan to acquire the AMC Entertainment theatrical exhibition chain in the United States, many people in the U.S were mystified. Unlike China where theatrical exhibition was experiencing rapid growth, the U.S. market was... View Details

Keywords: AMC Entertainment; Wanda Group; Wang Jianlin; Theater Entertainment; Film Entertainment; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Foreign Direct Investment; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Expansion; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; China; United States

23 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Brand Power from Wedgwood to Dell: Part Two

entrepreneurs, says HBS professor Nancy F. Koehn. In Part One of a discussion about her recent book—in the April 16 issue of HBS Working Knowledge—Koehn described the brand-building savvy of three entrepreneurs in the past, as well as their clear lessons for View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

19 Aug 2021
Op-Ed

Don't Ignore Your Employees' Misery—TAKE Control

officers—some of the military’s most senior leaders—sometimes assume that great officers leave the military for the private sector because they want to make more money. In reality, some of those officers move on because their needs have changed, and perhaps they don’t... View Details

Keywords: by Hise O. Gibson and MaShon Wilson

October 2020 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Experimentation at Yelp

By: Iavor Bojinov and Karim R. Lakhani

Over the last decade, experimentation has become integral to the research and development processes of technology companies—including Yelp—for understanding customer preferences and mitigating innovation risks. The case describes Yelp's journey with experimentation,... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Risk Management; Advertising; Research and Development; Technology Industry

October 2016
Case

Addicaid: Scaling a Digital Platform for Addiction Wellness and Recovery

By: Robert S. Huckman and Sarah Mehta

In 2013, Sam Frons founded Addicaid—a mobile application (app) that allowed people in addiction recovery to track their progress, check in with counselors, and connect with others in recovery programs. The app was grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy and used the... View Details

Keywords: Digital Health Interventions; Substance Use Disorder; Addiction Treatment; Addiction Recovery; Scale; Innovation; Health; Health Disorders; Health Industry; New York (city, NY)

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

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2011
Chapter

Developing an Effective Organization: Intervention Method, Empirical Evidence, and Theory

By: Michael Beer

The field of organization development is fragmented and lacks a coherent and integrated theory and method for developing an effective organization. A 20-year action research program led to the development and evaluation of the Strategic Fitness Process (SFP)-a platform... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Corporate Governance; Leadership Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Organizational Design; Performance Effectiveness; Research; Alignment; Theory; Value

January 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Zaoui & Co. (A): Consigliere for High Stakes M&A Transactions

By: Ashish Nanda, Alex Kitsberg and Zack Kurtovich

In September 2019, Zaoui & Co.’s close-knit team of professionals convened for their annual off-site. In its nine years of operation, the boutique investment bank founded by the brothers Michael (HBS ’83) and Yoel Zaoui (Stanford GSB ’88), had garnered a track record... View Details

Keywords: Professional Service Firm; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Strategy; Investment Banking; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Europe; United Kingdom

April 2012
Article

How Many Direct Reports?

By: Gary L. Neilson and Julie Wulf

If senior executives are feeling ever more pressed for time, why would they add more to their plates? It might sound counterintuitive, but research by Booz & Company's Gary L. Neilson and me shows that over the past 20 years the CEO's average span of control, measured... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Governance Controls; Managerial Roles; Adaptation; Personal Development and Career; Cooperation; Management Teams

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Read Now

June 2024
Case

Aidoc: Building a Hospital-Centric AI Platform

By: Ariel D. Stern and Susan Pinckney

In 2023, Israel-based AI health care company Aidoc evaluated its future. The company, founded in 2016, had grown from commercializing a single AI product for radiologists to a software platform that could detect 20 conditions and immediately notify care teams of... View Details

July 2005 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Real Madrid Club de Futbol (Multimedia)

By: John A. Quelch

In June 2004, Florentino Perez, a well-known Spanish businessman, was elected president of Real Madrid, one of the world's top soccer clubs. In his campaign, Perez had promised to turn around the club's finances, bring in world-class talent, and extend the club's brand... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sports; Expansion; Sports Industry; Spain

October 1999 (Revised July 2002)
Case

WingspanBank.com (A)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Daniel Galvin

The case describes the new product development process for WingspanBank.com, an Internet-only financial services "infomediary" created by a team from Bank One's First USA division. The creation of the bank is described from concept development to prelaunch decision... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Making; Information Management; Management Practices and Processes; Managerial Roles; Product Development; Performance Consistency; Competitive Advantage; Internet; Financial Services Industry; Web Services Industry; United States

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31 Jan 2018
Blog Post

Tiffany Nida’s Amazon Journey: “I Continue to Grow Because They Keep Giving Me Responsibility.”

year-and-a-half, Tiffany was rotated into a new role within a product management team in Amazon Home Services. This time around, there was no formal training, but, Tiffany says, “I created opportunities for... View Details

Keywords: Technology

14 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Getting Down to the Business of Creativity

in captivity? Three professors in Harvard Business School's Entrepreneurial Management unit who focus on the study of creativity recognize the romantic allure of believing it's a rare quality bestowed on a chosen few, but all agree that... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Entertainment & Recreation

September 2019
Case

Dementia Discovery Fund

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Kathy Giusti and Sarah Gulick

The case is set in March 2019, and tells the story of the founding of the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF). The idea for the fund began in 2015, when then-Prime Minister David Cameron spoke about the importance of making breakthroughs in dementia research, and pledged... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Mission and Purpose; Recruitment; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Financial Services Industry; Boston; Massachusetts; London; England

2015
Chapter

Leading Proactive Punctuated Change

By: Michael Tushman, Charles O'Reilly and Bruce Harreld

This chapter focuses on leading proactive punctuated change. Based on the institutional and organizational change literatures and our extended involvement with IBM between 1999 and 2008, we suggest that proactive punctuated change can be effectively managed through an... View Details