Publications

09 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Are Management Consulting Firms Failing to Manage Themselves?

are experts at diagnosing and solving a variety of issues for their clients, are struggling to apply their own management principles internally.” To regain equilibrium, over the past two years, some major consulting firms have... View Details

Keywords: by David Fubini; Consulting

October 2014 (Revised December 2018)
Background Note

Leading and Managing Change

By: Ryan Raffaelli

Managing change is consistently ranked as one of the most critical and difficult tasks that leaders face. This note outlines the key choices that leaders must make when engineering change. It is organized into four sections, offering guidance on how to 1) diagnose the... View Details

Keywords: Change Leadership; Leading Change; Change Management

Research Summary

Performance Management Systems

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Kaplan's research on performance management systems includes further applications of strategy maps and The Balanced Scorecard for effective strategy execution. His recent research... View Details

Teaching Interest

Supply Chain Management

By: Kris Johnson Ferreira

The Supply Chain Management (SCM) course builds on aspects of the first-year Technology and Operations Management (RC TOM) course. However, whereas RC TOM focuses primarily on developing and producing products and services, SCM emphasizes managing... View Details

2017
Working Paper

Learning by Doing: The Value of Experience and the Origins of Skill for Mutual Fund Managers

By: Elisabeth Kempf, Alberto Manconi and Oliver Spalt

Learning by doing matters for professional investors. We develop a new methodology to show that mutual fund managers outperform in industries where they have obtained experience on the job. The key to our identification strategy is that we look "inside" funds and... View Details

Keywords: Fund Managers; Experience and Expertise; Performance; Forecasting and Prediction

SSRN

February 1992 (Revised February 1996)
Case

Jupiter Management Co.

The manager of a small company growth fund considers relative merits of investing in a company's convertible debt versus its common. View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Investment Portfolio

March 2001 (Revised May 2001)
Case

&Samhoud Service Management

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Ashish Nanda and Monica Mullick

&Samhoud, a small service management consulting firm in the Netherlands, grapples with the dilemma of firing its largest client while introducing Heskett's theory of the service profit chain. View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Management Practices and Processes; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Relationship Management; Consulting Industry; Netherlands

2005
Working Paper

Macro for Managers

By: David A. Moss

This note attempts to provide a conceptual overview of macroeconomics. Designed for managers and students of management, it emphasizes fundamental ideas and relationships, rather than mathematical models and formulas. The note identifies—and is structured around—three... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Money; Relationships; Performance Expectations

October 1978 (Revised November 1985)
Background Note

Managing Interpersonal Conflict

Discusses the nature and dynamics of interpersonal conflict and suggests how to diagnose and manage a conflict situation. The perspective employed is that of an interested third party who wishes to intervene in the conflict to resolve or control it. Focuses on how to... View Details

Keywords: Conflict Management

November 2001 (Revised September 2002)
Case

International Management Group (IMG)

By: Bharat N. Anand and Kate Attea

In 2001, International Management Group (IMG) is the dominant company in the sports management industry. Its founder and CEO, Mark McCormack, is credited with having created the industry of sports management in the early 1960s. Over the next 40 years, IMG's expansion... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Finance; Organizational Structure; Planning; Relationships; Conflict of Interests; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Sports Industry

January 2004 (Revised March 2005)
Background Note

Managing Client Conflicts

By: Ashish Nanda

This case describes the two types of client conflict--conflict of duty and conflict of service--that professionals manage. It delineates how the management of these conflicts affects the scale and scope of service that professionals provide. View Details

Keywords: Conflict Management; Service Industry

July–August 1983
Article

Managing for Efficiency, Managing for Equity

By: Joseph L. Bower

Keywords: Management

Find at Harvard

September 2017 (Revised January 2019)
Case

FJ Management Inc.

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Matthew G. Preble

In late 2015, Crystal Call Maggelet, president and CEO of FJ Management, is working with her investment committee to help set the company’s strategic direction. Maggelet, daughter of the company’s founder, has led FJ Management since 2009 when she stepped in as CEO... View Details

Research Summary

Cost Management and Management Control Systems in Hospitals

By: V.G. Narayanan

Hospitals tend not to have very good cost accounting and control systems. More broadly, there is enormous opportunity for managing costs and aligning incentives in the health care industry. I am studying how cost accounting methods can be used to... View Details

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 14: Managing Strategic Risk

By: Robert Simons

This module reading provides an overview of the business conduct boundaries, strategic boundaries, and internal control systems used to manage risk. Boundary systems—linked to clear, enforceable sanctions—are essential whenever demanding performance goals are set and... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Boundary Systems; Innovation; Internal Controls; Fraud; Human Behavior; Staff Experts; Strategy; Risk Management; Behavior; Governance Controls; Management Practices and Processes; Boundaries; Employees; Business Strategy; Innovation and Invention

2018
Book

Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value

By: Melissa Perri

This book is a guide to getting out of the build trap with great product management. We look at what it means to become and be a product-led organization, which involves four key components: creating a product manager role with the right responsibilities and structure;... View Details

Keywords: Product And Process Development; Product Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Value Creation

Find at Harvard

Research Summary

Managing Networked Businesses

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Platform-based businesses that leverage network effects face a distinctive set of management challenges. A platform encompasses components and rules that facilitate interactions between the platform's users. A platform-based product or service exhibits a network... View Details

February 1996
Background Note

Managing for Creativity

By: Teresa M. Amabile

Organizational stimulants and obstacles to creativity are summarized. The management tasks of supporting creativity and encouraging innovation are described as a delicate balance between over-control and chaos. A technology used to assess the climate for creativity is... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Creativity; Motivation and Incentives; Technology