Publications

April 2002 (Revised May 2005)
Case

GE's Digital Revolution: Redefining the E in GE

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Meg Glinska

This case details the implementation of the e-business initiative--the last of Jack Welch's four company-wide strategic thrusts. First, it summarizes the 20-year change process that Welch led, detailing the initiatives he put in place. It then traces how Gerry Podesta,... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Performance Effectiveness; Corporate Strategy; Internet and the Web

April 2021
Case

Etsy: Crafting a Turnaround to Save the Business and Its Soul

By: Ranjay Gulati, Luciana Silvestri and Monte Burke

Etsy, the online seller of handmade goods, was founded in 2005 on an almost utopian ideal—a responsible, caring company that offered individual crafters a place to sell their wares, a wholesome alternative to companies that sold mass-manufactured products. The company... View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Organizational Culture; Financial Condition; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Transformation; Leadership

12 Mar 2019
Blog Post

What I Learned in the Africa Rising Short Intensive Program

forced to scale back their plans or exit markets entirely. Because of a combination of cultural context and a lack of robust systems to ascertain the trustworthiness of unknown market participants, building and maintaining strong... View Details

October 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Club Med (C): The "Re-New" Plan

By: Frances X. Frei, Daniel Rethazy and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

Supplements the (A) and (B) cases. View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Industry Structures; Competitive Advantage; Organizational Culture; Cost; Customer Satisfaction; Accommodations Industry; United States

Career Coach

Cheryl Rousseau

transitions of all kinds: On-Boarding; Inter-Company Movements; Succession/Planned Exits; Out-Boarding; Job Search; Boards Seats. Cheryl has an MBA in Finance and Strategy (Kellogg ’87) and gained first-hand executive knowledge in a... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Investment Banking; Financial Services (All); Investment Management; Financial Services (All); Private Equity; Financial Services (All); Health Care; Retail

06 Nov 2013
What Do You Think?

Is Top-Down Resource Allocation on the Rise?

Business unit buy in was a concern of Asit Goel. "Sponsorship from the top is critical to make innovation part of the culture but resource commitment from the BUs (business units) is critical if an idea is to ever take off."... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

11 Jan 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

New Game, New Rules: Developing Managers for a Competitive World

are the first to learn of changing customer needs, first to see competitors' marketing strategies in action, and first to encounter new regulatory initiatives. Top management increasingly relies on the ability of its geographically and... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

16 Feb 2012
Op-Ed

Nitin Nohria: Why US Competitiveness Matters

American Competitiveness site where resources, commentary, and solutions are showcased. Harvard Business School's US Competitiveness Project is another must-visit-site to better understand the complex problems facing the US. One good way to observe a View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria

November 2008 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Stone Finch, Inc.: Young Division, Old Division

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Elizabeth Collins

CEO Jim Billings wants to attract energetic, entrepreneurial talent to Stone Finch, Inc., which comprises an older division that fabricates products like piping and tanks for water and wastewater processing plants, and a much newer division that develops biochemical... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Human Resource Management; Motivation; Business Growth; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Business Subsidiaries; Innovation Strategy; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Retention; Operations; Recruitment; Integration; Business Growth and Maturation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

16 Nov 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Data.gov: Matching Government Data with Rapid Innovation

"Second, to explore the organizational constraints and resistance to an open-data approach. All agencies will have issues, of course, about making data available, because historically they may have not. "Third, to probe issues of View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

April 1993 (Revised September 1996)
Case

ABB Deutschland (A)

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

Describes Europe's most famous postwar multinational merger between Asea of Sweden and Brown Boveri of Switzerland. Gives background on both companies and focuses particularly on BBC's geographic organization, its corporate culture, and the relationship between its... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Subsidiaries; Corporate Governance; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Behavior; Business Strategy; Sweden; Switzerland