Publications

November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
Supplement

GE's Talent Machine: The Making of a CEO

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

CEO Jeff Immelt, ex-CEO Jack Welch, and HR Chief Bill Conaty discuss how GE has made talent development a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Immelt describes GE's deeply embedded philosophy around its people and how it has allowed the company to add value... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Business or Company Management; Performance Capacity; Performance Effectiveness; Competitive Advantage; System; Value

March 2021
Case

Dasra: From Strategic Philanthropy to Field Building

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tanya Bijlani

Dasra, a pioneer in the Indian Strategic Philanthropy space founded by a husband and wife team, had grown and evolved with the fast changing philanthropy scene in India. By 2017 it had managed to raise nearly $100 million of new capital for NGOs and Nonprofits in... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Impact Investing; Corporate Social Responsibility; Social Sector; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Entrepreneurship; Strategy; India

July 1991 (Revised July 1993)
Case

Alliant Health System: A Vision of Total Quality

Alliant has been a leader in the health care industry in implementing total quality management. After five years, however, they do not have much to show for their efforts except a "foundation" of quality attitudes and processes. The case discusses their plans to "jump... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Management Practices and Processes; Information Technology; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

26 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

High-Stakes Decision Making: The Lessons of Mount Everest

control that particular day. Several explanations compete: human error, weather, all the dangers inherent in human beings pitting themselves against the world's most forbidding peak. A single cause of the 1996 tragedy may never be known,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael A. Roberto

March 2008
Article

Radically Simple IT

Many managers think that developing and rolling out a major IT system is like putting up a warehouse: You build it and you're done. But that does not work for IT anymore. Taking that approach results in rigid, costly systems that are outdated from the day they are... View Details

Keywords: Design; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

May 2007
Article

The Governance of Open Source Initiatives: What Does it Mean to be Community Managed?

The concept of 'open source' software initially referred to software projects managed by grassroots communities in public forums. Since 1998, the concept has been adapted and diffused to new settings that extend beyond software. While the open source community has... View Details

Keywords: Governance; Open Source Distribution

March 2008
Article

When Growth Stalls

By: Matthew S. Olson, Derek C. M. van Bever and Seth Verry

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. An abrupt and lasting drop in revenue growth is a crisis that can strike even the... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy; Revenues; Crisis Management; Revenue; Growth and Development Strategy

29 Nov 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Fiscal Risk and the Portfolio of Government Programs

Keywords: by Samuel G. Hanson, David S. Scharfstein, and Adi Sunderam

May 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Pal's Sudden Service—Scaling an Organizational Model to Drive Growth

By: Gary P. Pisano, Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats

Pal's Sudden Service has developed a unique operating model and organizational culture in the quick service restaurant business. With a deep emphasis on process control and improvement, zero defects, extensive training, and a high level of employee engagement, Pal's... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy; Corporate Culture; Operations Strategy; Motivation; Values; Motivation and Incentives; Strategy; Values and Beliefs; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

April 2003
Case

Captain Crisis in the United States Army, The

From 1989 to 1999, the Army watched as captain attrition rose from a planned and acceptable 6.7% to a staggering 10.6%. At the beginning of a new century, the Army leadership is concerned that current and projected staffing levels for junior officers are insufficient... View Details

Keywords: Human Capital; Retention; Government and Politics; Public Administration Industry

May 2016
Article

Transformation of Health Care—Perspectives of Opinion Leaders

By: Joanne Disch, Thomas W. Feeley, Diana J. Mason, Richard L. Schilsky, Ellen L. Stovall and Shelley Fuld Nasso

"What Health System Transformations Do You Believe Are Necessary for the Future of Health Care?" We need to transform to a true value-based health care delivery system. That means organizing care around medical conditions, not simply around hospitals and doctors. We... View Details

Keywords: Perspective; Health Disorders; Performance Improvement; Health Care and Treatment; Transformation; Health Industry

June 1994 (Revised December 1997)
Case

Safeway, Inc.'s Leveraged Buyout (A)

After years of deteriorating financial performance and eroding market position, Safeway, Inc., the largest public grocery store chain in the United States, found itself the target of a hostile takeover offer. Management decided to take the company private in a $4.3... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Retail Industry; United States

September 1996 (Revised June 1998)
Case

InterSoft of Argentina (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Stacy Palestrant

Focuses on InterSoft of Argentina, a growing software company in Argentina. In 1993, InterSoft acquires a Russian software company and Emilo Lopez, the vice president and director of InterSoft's Systems Software Lab, must manage a creative, cross-cultural, "virtual"... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Business Growth and Maturation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Teams; Groups and Teams; Partners and Partnerships; Conflict Management; Information Technology Industry; Argentina; Russia

Article

Towards a Single European Sky

By: Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Bert De Reyck

We describe an integrated decision-making framework and model that we developed to aid EUROCONTROL, the European air traffic management organization, in its vital role of constructing a single unified European sky. Combining multicriteria decision analysis with... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Analysis; Air Transportation Industry; Europe

18 Mar 2013
HBS Case

HBS Cases: LEGO

managing a balanced business system," says Thomke. "Complexity is something you need to watch very closely." Controlling complexity, clarifying the core of its business, and engaging the... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Entertainment & Recreation

03 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

How to Succeed With Your New Boss

Your new boss will have more impact than anyone else over whether you succeed or fail. Your boss establishes benchmarks for your success, interprets your actions for other key players, and controls resources you need. Building a... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Watkins

August 1998
Case

Electronic Commerce at Air Products

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey

In 1998,chief information officers (CIOs) in the highly competitive international gases and chemicals business faced the reality that electronic commerce capability was a strategic necessity. The results of annual surveys of technology officers in the chemical industry... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Information Technology; Globalized Markets and Industries; Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Technology Adoption; Business Strategy; Chemical Industry; United States