Publications

11 Dec 2023
Research & Ideas

Doing Well by Doing Good? One Industry’s Struggle to Balance Values and Profits

they have to live in some crappy apartment with five roommates.” You Might Also Like: Reunited and It Feels (Not) So Good: Tips for Managing a Rocky Return Managers, Your Employees Don’t Want to Be Facebook ‘Friends’ The Moral Enterprise:... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

21 Nov 2019
Blog Post

Finding My North Star at the Crossroads of Profit and Purpose

learned how large companies think about sustaining businesses for decades, and what it means to manage shareholder value while thinking about its people, their families, and all those whose lives depend upon you. Companies like Tatas and... View Details

01 Dec 2000
News

Opening Doors: Inside the World of Museum Management

advertising savvy are but two of the myriad skills that are required of today's museum manager. Traditionally, museums have been run by academics who worked their way through the curatorial ranks, but more and more museum trustees are putting their faith in people with... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; museums; marketing; management; nonprofits; education; facilities; Internet; Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions; Arts, Entertainment; Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services; Professional Services

April 2009
Case

Merck: Managing Vioxx (A)

By: Robert L. Simons, Kathryn Rosenberg and Natalie Kindred

This two-class case series allows students to stand in the shoes of CEO Ray Gilmartin during the unfolding stages of a reputational crisis. Merck's mission statement claims to "put patients first," but the company is widely criticized for putting profit before patient... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Crisis Management; Reputation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Customers; Business or Company Management; Cost vs Benefits; Corporate Accountability; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Pharmaceutical Industry

October 1994
Case

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd. (B): Functional Group Management

Documents the emergence of the functional group management system at Olympus's camera manufacturing facility. This system increases the pressure on the work force to decrease costs and improve output by treating the facility's 10 autonomous groups as profit centers,... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Performance Improvement; Manufacturing Industry; Japan

Research Summary

Managing Marketspace Service Interfaces

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Jeffrey F. Rayport is focusing on the strategic challenges that face businesses selling information-intensive products and services. A key strategic issue in such businesses is the dematerialization of information-intensive products and services as a consequence of... View Details

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Germany’s Pioneering Corporate Managers

When you think about which countries have produced the greatest management innovations, the United States and Japan are likely to top your list. But it was Germany in the late 1800s and early 1900s that was a cauldron of innovative and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

October 1991 (Revised July 1993)
Case

Bill Gates and the Management of Microsoft

In July 1991, Microsoft has achieved record growth and profitability in the PC software industry. The case focuses on Microsoft's founder and CEO, Bill Gates, and his top management team, as they seek to retain the innovation and spirit of a small company in a rapidly... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth Management; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Information Technology Industry; United States

24 Sep 2021
News

‘Enthusiastic Entrepreneurs’: Pre-IPO Statements On Profitability Prove To Be Larger Than Real Life

May 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

Cotopaxi: Managing Growth for Good

By: Andy Wu and Laura Huang

Cotopaxi, an innovative outdoor gear business targeting millennials, focuses on profit and social impact. This registered benefit corporation was formed by Davis Smith who coalesced his experiences as a Wharton MBA student along with professional knowledge from an... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Social Venture; Benefit Corporation; B-Corp; Retail; Consumer Products; Apparel; Social Impact; Social Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Product Positioning; Social Enterprise; Mission and Purpose; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry

07 Sep 2012
Working Paper Summaries

IP Modularity: Profiting from Innovation by Aligning Product Architecture with Intellectual Property

Keywords: by Joachim Henkel, Carliss Y. Baldwin & Willy C. Shih

22 Feb 2016
News

Every Company Needs a Growth Manager

Research Summary

Strategy Implementation: Role and Management of the Sales Force

My research concerns the role and management of the sales force as agents of a firm's business strategy and not only as individual or team contributors to profitable growth. This work takes the form of course development, teaching and workshops in HBS executive... View Details

Article

Price and Quality Decisions by Self-Serving Managers

By: Marco Bertini, Daniel Halbheer and Oded Koenigsberg

We present a theory of price and quality decisions by managers who are self-serving. In the theory, firms stress the price or quality of their products, but not both. Accounting for this, managers exploit any uncertainty about the cause of market outcomes to credit... View Details

Keywords: Causal Reasoning; Self-serving Bias; Strategic Orientation; Managerial Decision-making; Price; Quality; Decision Making; Theory

Find at Harvard

02 Aug 2013
News

HBS Hosts Annual Summer Venture in Management Program

TeachingInterests

Executive Education - Owner/President Management Program

By: Martin A. Sinozich

Delivered in three units that span 24 months over three calendar years, the Owner/President Management (OPM) program is a transformative learning experience that boosts leadership skills and the value of participants’ enterprises. Sinozich teaches the Finance... View Details

09 May 2017
What Do You Think?

Should Management Be Primarily Responsible to Shareholders?

Summing Up How Do We Encourage CEOs to Manage for Sustainability? Important forces encourage short-term perspectives among managers as well as investors today. These include governance biases, tax policies,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

18 Jul 2023
Interview

Jeffrey Rayport on Product Market Fit, Profit Market Fit and Whiplash, and More

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Doug Levin

This episode of "Lessons from Startup Life" podcast features Jeffrey Rayport, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Jeffrey specializes in teaching and researching growth-stage technology ventures and their scalability. Prior to... View Details

Keywords: Scaling And Growth; Start-up; Diversity; Equity; Inclusion; Technology; Business Startups; Product Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation