Publications

March 2006 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Putnam Investments: Rebuilding the Culture

By: Nitin Nohria and Charles Nichols

Charles "Ed" Haldeman Jr. is promoted CEO of Putnam Investments after the firm was badly damaged by a series of improper trading practices. He is charged with the task of managing the crisis, repairing the company culture, and putting the firm back into a pattern of... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Ethics; Investment Funds; Investment; Leading Change; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry; United States

March 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Supplement

Arck Systems (B)

By: Ian Larkin

The Arck Systems series of cases describes the dilemmas faced by a senior sales manager in determining a sales compensation plan at an enterprise software company. The existing compensation plan is aggressive and highly rewards "star" performers. The cases track a... View Details

Keywords: Change; Framework; Compensation and Benefits; Management; Organizational Design; Outcome or Result; Performance Evaluation; Sales; Motivation and Incentives; System; Software

20 Dec 2022
Op-Ed

Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation

“Great Resignation” and other challenges from a constantly changing competitive landscape? First, these companies have CEOs—indeed, leaders at all levels—who care equally about profits and employee well-being and don’t see them as... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

Web

2023 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

introduction of larger bases and a pitch clock. In this live taping of the HBS alumni podcast, Skydeck , Marinak talks about what it is like to lead change at a historic brand, how to build and nurture an View Details

30 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

Your Crisis Response Plan: The Ten Effective Elements

conducted by the crisis response team, and regular testing of channels, inventorying of resources, and the like. These tests should be done regularly, but not scheduled in order to test speed of response. 10. Disciplined post-crisis review. Each crisis provides an... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Watkins

27 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

These Management Practices, Like Certain Technologies, Boost Company Performance

employees may balk at changes. For example, they may resist the introduction of new processes fearing that increased productivity will lead to fewer jobs, causing layoffs. Management changes can be equally threatening to bosses, Sadun... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

June 2007 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Reinventing Ericsson

By: Das Narayandas, Vincent Marie Dessain, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Anders Sjoman

Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO of the Swedish telecom infrastructure company Ericsson, has to reorganize the recovering company in late 2003 after a major industry downturn. He is convinced that only a more market-orientated and customer-focused organization will be able to... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Customer Focus and Relationships; Marketing; Organizational Structure; Sales; Competitive Advantage; Telecommunications Industry; Sweden

Allison Mnookin is a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) Unit at the Harvard Business School. She currently is the co-chair of the first-year MBA Technology and Operations Management course. In addition, she... View Details

Web

Entrepreneurship - Faculty & Research

rural students in Kazakhstan? Keywords: Mission and Purpose ; Organizational Change and Adaptation ; Leadership ; Social Enterprise ; Social Entrepreneurship ; Growth and Development Strategy ; Growth... View Details

01 Nov 2017
What Do You Think?

What Are the Real Lessons of the Wells Fargo Case?

control, questionable organizational (particularly human resource management) practices, and human behavior traits in general. As “Former Employee” put it, “much of the language in the Visions and Values about caring for team members and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Banking

Web

Technology & Innovation - Faculty & Research

Globalized Markets and Industries ; Government and Politics ; AI and Machine Learning ; Innovation and Management ; Innovation Strategy ; Innovation Leadership ; Leadership Style ; Leading Change ; Management ; Product Design ; Product... View Details

October 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Thermo Fisher Scientific: Foray into Contract Research

By: Satish Tadikonda, William Marks and Kevin Emancipator

After publicly declaring that they would not enter the contract research organization (CRO) business in 2017, Thermo Fisher purchased Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD), one of the biggest players in the CRO space, in 2021. Much had changed in the intervening... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Biotechnology Industry

March 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Supplement

Arck Systems (E)

By: Ian Larkin

The Arck Systems series of cases describes the dilemmas faced by a senior sales manager in determining a sales compensation plan at an enterprise software company. The existing compensation plan is aggressive and highly rewards "star" performers. The cases track a... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Framework; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Design; Performance Evaluation; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Software

October 2019
Case

Kaspi.kz IPO

By: Victoria Ivashina and Esel Çekin

This case follows Kaspi.kz, a private equity (Baring Vostok) co-owned retail bank in Central Asia that evolved into a fintech, payments and e-commerce company. It provides insights into private equity financing, portfolio company management, and initial public offering... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Central Asia