Publications

2022
Book

Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies

By: Ranjay Gulati

This book offers a compelling reassessment and defense of purpose as a management ethos, documenting the vast performance gains and social benefits that become possible when firms manage to get purpose right. Few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Performance Effectiveness; Organizational Culture

13 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

Are Companies Actually Greener—or Are They All Talk?

Most companies now account for social good in their financial reports in some way, but with regulation scattershot and evolving, it’s complicated for investors to assess so-called ESG reports. The disclosures, known as Environmental, Social, and Governance reports,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

November 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

CNOOC: Building a World-Class Energy Company

By: Joseph L. Bower, Nancy Hua Dai and Michael Shih-ta Chen

Fu Chengyu is the fifth CEO to lead China National Offshore Oil Company - an SOE founded in 1982 to exploit Chinese offshore deposits. In 2010 he is trying to decide how to drive further growth in a company that has grown 556 times in less than 30 years, with profits... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Leadership Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Resource Allocation; Organizational Culture; State Ownership; Competitive Strategy; Energy Industry; China

November 2020
Case

The 1,000-Year Plan: Lee Kum Kee and Sustaining a Family Culture

By: Lauren Cohen, Dawn H. Lau and Billy Chan

The Lee family, whose Hong Kong-based Lee Kum Kee company has established itself as a legend within the Chinese and Asian sauce world, sets out to create a daring new vision of what family legacy means. With the family business having been established in 1888, and by... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Business and Community Relations; Organizational Structure; Strategic Planning

March–April 2024
Article

How Fast Should Your Company Really Grow?

By: Gary P. Pisano

Growth—in revenues and profits—is the yardstick by which the competitive fitness and health of organizations is measured. Consistent profitable growth is thus a near universal goal for leaders—and an elusive one.

To achieve that goal, companies need a growth... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Strategy; Organizational Culture

Register to Read

December 2000 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Promise (A): Building a Consumer Finance Company in Japan

Describes Promise, the third-largest consumer finance company in Japan. Promise was created in 1963 by an entrepreneur and has grown rapidly, especially in the 1990s when commercial banks struggled. Promise's core business consists of providing unsecured loans of up to... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Entrepreneurship; Financial Institutions; Financial Services Industry; Japan

03 Dec 2020
News

Race at Work: Lessons in Diversity and Culture from Mastercard

2009
Chapter

On the Goals of Successful Family Companies

By: John A. Davis and Renato Tagiuri

Providing clear goals for a company and communicating them are among the most powerful means for guiding the behavior of the people in an organization. In this article, we explore the range of objectives or goals of family-owned and -managed companies and identify... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Interpersonal Communication; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Culture; Family Ownership

11 Oct 2018
News

Baseball’s Billy Beane Shows Companies the Power of Data

22 Nov 2017
News

How to Build a Winning Culture on a Losing Team

this unique, thoughtful, workplace culture, right? And your company now, HBSE, is in expansion mode. As your organization gets wider, so to speak, how do you ensure that that culture that you've built and... View Details

29 Jul 2019
Research & Ideas

How Companies Benefit When Employees Work Remotely

Companies that let their workers decide where and when to do their jobs—whether in another city or in the middle of the night—increase employee productivity, reduce turnover, and lower organizational costs, new research suggests.... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

November 22, 2023
Article

Unifying Your Company Around a Moral Goal

By: Ranjay Gulati

In turbulent times, companies need a reliable anchor to guide decision-making. When organizations become moral communities, underpinned by purpose, they provide that stability for stakeholders as well as a reassuring sense of hope, solidarity, agency, and meaning.... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Corporate Strategy; Leadership

18 Mar 2021
News

Analysis: Firms’ Surveillance Use Risks Squashing Positive Compliance Behavior, Culture Change Gains

October 2013 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American (A)

By: Gautam Mukunda, Lisa Mazzanti and Aldo Sesia

In 2007, Cynthia Carroll, the newly-appointed chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, was considering shutting down mines in South Africa for safety reasons, namely worker fatalities. No company had ever done so before. Carroll felt that operating a company... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Leadership; Gender; Safety; Working Conditions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Mining; Mining Industry; South Africa

April 2023 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Dena Almansoori at e&: Fostering Culture Change at a UAE Telco Transforming to a Global Techco (Abridged)

By: Emily Truelove, Michelle Zhang and Alpana Thapar

Dena Almansoori, the first female and one of the youngest members of the United Arab Emirates-based e&’s leadership team, joined in 2020 just before e& began a strategic transition from being a regional telecommunications company to becoming a global technology... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Telecommunications; Employee Mobility; Leading Change; Human Resources; Organizational Culture; Transformation; Change Management; Employee Relationship Management; Leadership; Talent and Talent Management; Telecommunications Industry; Technology Industry; Middle East; United Arab Emirates

July–August 2019
Article

How to Scandal-Proof Your Company

By: Paul M. Healy

Despite efforts to crack down on illegal activity, crimes like fraud, bribery, embezzlement, and money laundering are rampant in corporations. What steps can leaders take to fix this growing problem? View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Crime and Corruption; Organizational Culture; Leadership; Ethics