Publications

September 2010 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Sherritt Goes to Cuba (A): Political Risk in Unchartered Territory

By: Aldo Musacchio and Jonathan Schlefer

Ian Delaney, CEO of Sherritt, a primarily a mining company, visited Cuba in the early 1990s to negotiate a deal to export nickel for their Canadian refineries. The case describes the difficulties of doing business in Cuba and the challenges Delaney overcame to turn... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Joint Ventures; Multinational Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Risk Management; Emerging Markets; Business and Government Relations; Mining Industry; Canada; Cuba; United States

Kash Rangan is the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing at the Harvard Business School. Formerly the chairman of the Marketing Department (1998-2002), he is now the co-chairman of the school's Social Enterprise Initiative. He has taught in a wide variety of MBA... View Details

Keywords: advertising; agribusiness; apparel; automobiles; computer; consumer products; e-commerce industry; high technology; industrial goods; marketing industry; pharmaceuticals

Robert S. Kaplan

Robert S. Kaplan is Senior Fellow and Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. He joined the HBS faculty in 1984 after spending 16 years on the faculty of the business school at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he... View Details

Keywords: health care; nonprofit industry

10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

approaches to address the increasing demand from society for a deeper understanding of what causes even good people to cross ethical boundaries. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/12-054.pdf Management Practices Across... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 May 2020
News

Discover Your Trust Wobble

September 2014 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Belk: Towards Exceptional Scheduling

By: Ethan Bernstein, Saravanan Kesavan, Bradley Staats and Luke Hassall

With 24,000 staff and over 300 stores, Belk Inc. sought to replace its entirely manual labor scheduling system with an automated software solution from Reflexis. Belk hoped the upgrade would simplify scheduling, reduce time employees spent in non-customer-facing roles,... View Details

2012
Book

Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy

By: Amy C. Edmondson

Continuous improvement, understanding complex systems, and promoting innovation are all part of the landscape of learning challenges today's companies face. I show that organizations thrive, or fail to thrive, based on how well the small groups within those... View Details

Keywords: Change; Interpersonal Communication; Learning; Values and Beliefs; Innovation and Invention; Management; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams; Research; Strategy; Complexity; Value

August 2014
Case

Netflix in 2011

By: Willy Shih and Stephen Kaufman

Reed Hastings founded Netflix to provide a home movie service that would do a better job satisfying customers than the traditional retail rental model. But as it encountered challenges it underwent several major strategy shifts, ultimately developing a business model... View Details

January 2007
Case

AMD: A Customer-Centric Approach to Innovation

By: Elie Ofek and Lauren Barley

AMD's launch of the Opteron microprocessor in 2003 has allowed the company to make inroads into the lucrative server segment. A long-time follower to Intel, AMD management felt it was in a position to lead the microprocessor industry in new directions. However, in 2006... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Price; Leadership; Brands and Branding; Product Launch; Product Development; Competitive Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Semiconductor Industry

Article

Strategies and Tactics in NGO-Government Relations: Insights from Slum Housing in Mumbai

By: Ramya Ramanath and Alnoor Ebrahim

Relationships between nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and government agencies have been variously described in the nonprofit literature as cooperative, complementary, adversarial, confrontational, or even co-optive. But how do NGO-government relationships emerge... View Details

Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; Housing; Corporate Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Nonprofit Organizations; Change Management; Business Strategy; Growth and Development; Non-Governmental Organizations; Accommodations Industry; Mumbai

Research Summary

The Impact of ABC on Managerial Decisions

In this type of research, Ratna Sarkar seeks to determine whether, in fact, new cost systems such as ABC (Activity Based Costing) have a measurable effect on managerial decisions regarding product and customer mix.

The theory of ABC is now academically established,... View Details

June 2010
Article

Leadership Competencies for Implementing Planned Organizational Change

By: Julie Battilana, Mattia Gilmartin, Anne-Claire Pache, Metin Sengul and Jeffrey A. Alexander

This paper bridges the leadership and organizational change literatures by exploring the relationship between managers' leadership competencies (namely, their effectiveness at person-oriented and task-oriented behaviors) and the likelihood that they will emphasize the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Competency and Skills; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Planning; Relationships; Business Processes; Projects; Theory; Change; Behavior; Health Industry; United Kingdom

January 2011
Case

A Slice of the Pie: Ruby Collins and Tenants in Common

By: John D. Macomber and Kristian Peterson

A securitized small real estate investment vehicle fails and the many individual owners have to decide how to manage or dispose of the asset. This case follows Ruby Collins, a small investor, through the logic of Section 1031 Like Kind Exchanges as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Instruments; Investment; Risk Management; Ownership Stake; Partners and Partnerships; Valuation; Real Estate Industry

February 1994 (Revised May 1999)
Case

Manville Corp. Fiber Glass Group (C)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Sarah Gant

Manville Corp.'s senior managers are surprised when Japanese government officials advise them not to go forward with their plan to add a cancer warning label to diatomaceous earth (DE) products sold in Japan. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has ruled... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Ethics; Conflict of Interests; Health; Safety; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Policy; Japan

Teaching Interest

Overview

Professor Mukunda teaches Leadership and Organizational Behavior (LEAD.) This course focuses on how managers become effective leaders by addressing the human side of enterprise.

The first modules examine teams, individuals, and networks in the context... View Details

July 2023
Case

Schuberg Philis: From Success to Significance

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Daniela Beyersdorfer

The founders of Dutch professional services firm Schuberg Philis, and the new leadership team entrusted with the day-to-day management, must set the path forward in 2019. The company has grown into a €70 million revenue strong IT provider with top ranks in the... View Details

Keywords: Management Succession; Growth Management; Change Management; Transformation; Mission and Purpose; Leadership; Leading Change; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry; Europe; Netherlands

January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Arçelik: From a Dealer Network to an Omnichannel Experience

By: Ayelet Israeli and Fares Khrais

Arçelik Turkey, the country’s market leader in household appliances, was at an omnichannel crossroads in January 2020. Arçelik was a B2B player utilizing a dealership network with an umbrella of brands and had one of the largest brick-and-mortar store networks in... View Details