Publications

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26 Sep 2018
News

Getting Life Back in Balance

Disenchanted with the corporate world, Benjamin Gower (GMP 19, 2015) quit his job as senior vice president of operations for Australia’s Cobham Aviation Services and made a bold career and lifestyle change, moving to rural South Australia... View Details

September 1996 (Revised September 1999)
Case

Mobil USM&R (A): Linking the Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The CEO of the marketing and refining division of a major oil company is in the midst of implementing a profit turnaround. He transforms the strongly centralized, functionally-organized division into 17 independent business units and 14 internal service companies. The... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Measurement and Metrics; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Balanced Scorecard; Corporate Strategy; Mining Industry; Energy Industry

Article

Reimagining the Balanced Scorecard for the ESG Era

By: Robert S. Kaplan and David McMillan

Companies are increasingly aware that their customers and society in general expect businesses to adopt and work towards social and environmental objectives as well as the traditional financial ones. This involves not only re-evaluating firms’ models but re-imagining... View Details

Keywords: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Business Ecosystems; Balanced Scorecard; Adaptation; Business Model; Business and Stakeholder Relations

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October 2016
Case

Elon Musk: Balancing Purpose and Risk

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Sarah Mehta

The case is used to illustrate the place of ‘Purpose’ versus financial risk and returns in a founder’s objectives. It also addresses personal risk profile of different founders, and when paired with the Risk Tolerance Exercise, it enables evaluating one’s own appetite... View Details

Keywords: Electric Vehicle; Solar Power; Vision; Trade-offs; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Risk and Uncertainty; Entrepreneurship; Failure; United States; North America

Web

Balancing Work & Life - Alumni

or ambitions. Finding balance requires careful thought. Avenues for Exploration Given the variety of personal hopes and commitments, there is no one set formula for finding balance. There are, however, a... View Details

2019
Working Paper

Don't Just Venmo Me: How Digital Payments Decrease Feelings of Interpersonal Closeness

By: Anne Wilson, Shelle Santana and Neeru Paharia

2023
Working Paper

Too Many Managers: The Strategic Use of Titles to Avoid Overtime Payments

By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and N. Bugra Ozel

We find widespread evidence of firms appearing to avoid paying overtime wages by exploiting a federal law that allows them to do so for employees termed as “managers” and paid a salary above a pre-defined dollar threshold. We show that listings for salaried positions... View Details

Keywords: Wages; Organizational Design; Job Design and Levels; Compensation and Benefits

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October 26, 2021
Article

It's Time to Knock Down the Walled Gardens of the Payments System

By: Christian Catalini and Scott Duke Kominers

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07 Mar 2023
News

Too Many Managers: The Strategic Use of Titles to Avoid Overtime Payments

Balancing Digital Safety and Innovation

Designers of consumer-facing digital products have tended to focus on novelty and speed (“move fast and break things”). They’ve spent more effort on innovating than on anticipating how customers—and bad actors—might engage with products. But as digital products become... View Details

08 Aug 2018
News

Getting Life Back in Balance

Photos by Louise Agnew The day he returned home to Australia from three months in Harvard Business School’s General Management Program, Benjamin Gower (GMP 19, 2015) quit his job as senior vice president of operations for Australian... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers

October 1991
Article

Power Balance and the Rationality of Outcomes in Matching Markets

By: H. Sondak and M. H. Bazerman

Keywords: Markets

October 2010 (Revised June 2014)
Case

Volkswagen do Brasil: Driving Strategy with the Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

A new management team at VW do Brazil develops and deploys a strategy map and Balanced Scorecard to accomplish a turnaround and cultural change after eight consecutive years of financial losses and market share declines. The team uses the strategy map to align... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Developing Countries and Economies; Management Teams; Leadership; Balanced Scorecard; Strategic Planning; Balance and Stability; Motivation and Incentives; Communication Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Auto Industry; Brazil; Germany

March 2003
Article

Balancing Search and Stability: Interdependencies Among Elements of Organizational Design

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Nicolaj Siggelkow

Keywords: Balance and Stability; Organizational Design

2002
Working Paper

Balancing Search and Stability: Interdependencies among Elements of Organizational Design

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Nicolaj Siggelkow

2025
Working Paper

Balancing Engagement and Polarization: Multi-Objective Alignment of News Content Using LLMs

By: Mengjie Cheng, Elie Ofek and Hema Yoganarasimhan

We study how media firms can use LLMs to generate news content that aligns with multiple objectives—making content more engaging while maintaining a preferred level of polarization/slant consistent with the firm’s editorial policy. Using news articles from The New York... View Details

Keywords: Large Language Models; Content Creation; Media; Polarization; Generative Ai; Direct Preference Optimization; AI and Machine Learning; News; Perspective; Digital Marketing; Policy; Media and Broadcasting Industry

SSRN

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September 2011 (Revised November 2011)
Case

CP Group: Balancing the Needs of a Family Business with the Needs of a Family of Businesses

By: William C. Kirby and Tracy Yuen Manty

As a second generation business leader, Chairman Dhanin Chearavanont took over the family agribusiness company and built it to become a major diversified conglomerate in Thailand and expanded the business in SE Asia and China. While growing the business, he and his... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Family Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Conglomerates; Family Ownership; Growth and Development; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Thailand; China; Southeast Asia