Publications

01 Mar 2009
News

Alumni Books

Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty: The New Rules for Getting the Right Things Done in Difficult Times by Ram Charan (MBA ’65, DBA ’67) (McGraw-Hill) Economic turbulence has arrived with a vengeance, and only companies that face it head-on at the beginning... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

01 Feb 2012
What Do You Think?

Is Support for Small Business Misplaced?

then the obvious answer (to the question) is NO!" Other comments emphasized values of small business for management development. David Lindsay commented that " managers evolve their wisdom through... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Apr 1998
News

Student Conferences Inspire Campus Dialogue

panels on the affirmative action debate, the potential for technology to strengthen the African-American community, entrepreneurship and economic development, and careers in the venture-capital and private-equity arenas. Frank Savage, chairman of Alliance Capital View Details

May 2015 (Revised March 2016)
Supplement

Thomas Cook Group on the Brink (B): Transformation Year 1 Results

By: Benjamin C. Esty

Analyzes the results of the Thomas Cook turnaround plan after the first year under Harriet Green's leadership (November 2013). View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Corporate Restructuring; Female Ceo; Transformation; Change Management; Communication Strategy; Cost Management; Financial Liquidity; Financial Management; Management Succession; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Value Creation; Leadership; Travel Industry; United Kingdom

November 1996
Case

Del Webb Corporation (C), The

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Samanta Graff

Dion and the other Del Webb directors were open to having Industrial Equity Pacific (IEP) and Webcott Holdings representation on the board. The IEP representative was perceived as reserved and lacking in sophistication. Cotter of Webcott, however, struck the directors... View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Management Succession; Strategic Planning; Governing and Advisory Boards; Horizontal Integration; Conflict Management

February 2009
Case

Avid Radiopharmaceuticals: The Venture Debt Question

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Ann Leamon

The CEO of a promising biotech company must decide how to respond to the macro-economic slump of late 2008. He had planned to pursue an aggressive schedule, moving the firm's Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease imaging compounds through clinical trials and into the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Borrowing and Debt; Venture Capital; Financial Management; Investment; Health Testing and Trials; Expansion; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

July 2005 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Recall 2000: Bridgestone Corp. (A) (Abridged)

By: Lynn S. Paine

In September 2000, the president of Bridgestone-Firestone, the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Bridgestone Corp., was invited to appear before a U.S. congressional subcommittee investigating the August 2000 recall of more than 6.5 million tires made by the subsidiary. The... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Product; Trade; Organizational Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Auto Industry; United States; Japan

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December 2007 (Revised June 2009)
Case

KPMG (A): A Near-Death Experience

By: Robert G. Eccles and Eliot Sherman

Describes the way in which "Big Four" auditor KPMG dealt with an indictment stemming from the firm's sale of tax shelters. In 2005 Tim Flynn has been KPMG Chairman for a matter of days when he learns that the government is preparing to indict the firm on charges of... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Audits; Crime and Corruption; Taxation; Lawsuits and Litigation; Crisis Management; Partners and Partnerships; Accounting Industry; Service Industry

22 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 22

require a grand organizational makeover or buy-in from the CEO. All it takes is collaboration between you and your team-working together and making small, doable changes. What started as an experiment with a six-person team at The Boston Consulting Group-one of the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Supplement

Odebrecht's 'Transformation Journey' (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Ruth Costas and Pedro Levindo

The case describes the changes in Odebrecht’s board of directors while the company had to file for court-supervised reorganization and cope with an ongoing feud within its founding family, and the new challenges that the Group’s leadership has to face. The changes in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Reputation; Mission and Purpose; Business and Government Relations; Engineering; Family Business; Emerging Markets; Construction Industry; Brazil; Latin America

01 Jun 2006
News

HBS Students Help Rebuild New Orleans

fund would help restart the hard-hit New Orleans business community. Several faculty also made the trip to New Orleans, including Professor Herman (“Dutch”) Leonard, whose work on crisis management led him... View Details

Keywords: Construction of Buildings; Construction; Administration of Housing Programs, Urban Planning, and Community Development; Government; Health, Social Assistance

01 Dec 2003
News

Alumni Luminaries Discuss Careers, Values with HBS Students

77abe8cba3eedbccfb190e7c02022d30 The headlines scream of scandal and crisis in corporate governance. It’s no wonder, then, that HBS students are concerned about responding properly to ethical and leadership issues during their business... View Details

Web

Alumni in Climate Networking Series: San Francisco - Addressing Extreme Weather, Climate Risk, and Resilience - Blog - Business & Environment

He discussed the growing fragility of the insurance market in the face of worsening climate events and called attention to the increasing number of U.S. regions becoming "uninsurable." Jones advocated for integrating risk-reducing investments—such as forest View Details

January 2014 (Revised August 2014)
Case

The Kursk Submarine Rescue Mission

By: Anette Mikes

The Kursk, a Russian nuclear-powered submarine sank in the relatively shallow waters of the Barents Sea in August 2000, during a naval exercise. Numerous survivors were reported to be awaiting rescue, and within a week, an international rescue party gathered at the... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Moral Sensibility; Leadership; Organizational Structure; Crisis Management; Failure; Cooperation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Norway; United Kingdom; Russia

April 2012
Article

Corporate Ownership Structure and Bank Loan Syndicate Structure

By: Chen Lin, Yue Ma, Paul Malatesta and Yuhai Xuan

Using a novel data set on corporate ownership and control, we show that the divergence between the control rights and cash-flow rights of a borrowing firm's largest ultimate owner has a significant impact on the concentration and composition of the firm's loan... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Financing and Loans; Cash Flow; Borrowing and Debt; Accounting; Crisis Management; Relationships; Law; Contracts; Banking Industry

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Read Now

November 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

The Tzu Chi Foundation's China Relief Mission

By: Herman B. Leonard and YiKwan Chu

Tzu Chi is one of the largest charities in Taiwan, and one of the swiftest and most effective relief organizations internationally. Rooted in the value of compassion, the organization has many unusual operating features -- including having no long term plan. This case... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Crisis Management; Service Delivery; Mission and Purpose; Religion; Natural Disasters; Nonprofit Organizations; Welfare; China; Taiwan

December 1999
Article

Changes in the Work Environment for Creativity during Downsizing

By: T. M. Amabile and Regina Conti

This study examined the work environment for creativity at a large high-technology firm before, during, and after a major downsizing. Creativity and most creativity-supporting aspects of the perceived work environment declined significantly during the downsizing but... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Situation or Environment; Creativity; Resignation and Termination; Employees; Business or Company Management; Motivation and Incentives; Management Practices and Processes; Crisis Management; Groups and Teams; Communication; Announcements; Interpersonal Communication