Publications

July 2010
Case

Mekong Capital: Building a Culture of Leadership in Vietnam

By: Christopher Marquis, Vinay Ganti, Kevin Smith and Doug Guthrie

Mekong Capital, a private equity firm specializing in investing in Vietnam, had grown dramatically since its inception in 2002 and faced numerous organizational issues in 2007. There was a shortage of qualified middle managers, an overall lack of leadership, and a... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams; Alignment; Financial Services Industry

11 Oct 2016
First Look

October 11, 2016

controlling for current performance, and that this relation is driven by the perceptions of middle management and professional staff rather than senior executives, hourly, or commissioned workers. Taken... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2016
Teaching Note

Advanced Leadership Pathways: David Weinstein and Write the World

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Tessa Natanay Hamilton and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

Following a successful career as a lawyer, Chief Administrative Officer of Fidelity Investments, and law school instructor, David Weinstein became a 2011 Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University. During his Advanced Leadership Fellowship he conceived an idea to... View Details

Keywords: Student Evaluation; Feedback; Online; Leadership; Change Management; Social Enterprise; Entrepreneurship; Education; Leadership Development; Knowledge Sharing; Performance Evaluation; Secondary Education; Middle School Education

30 Aug 2017
News

Why Do We Undervalue Competent Management?

November 2004 (Revised August 2008)
Case

KIPP National (A) (Abridged)

The KIPP Academies are, two high-performing public middle schools founded in 1995 by Michael Feinberg and David Levin in Houston and New York. In January 2000, Feinberg and Levin meet with Scott Hamilton, managing director of the Pisces Foundation, to discuss the... View Details

Keywords: Middle School Education; Framework; Leadership; Performance Effectiveness; Programs; Expansion

Career Coach

Lobna Dawoud

During her RC summer, Lobna interned at an investment bank and specialized in Financial Institutions Group. She is passionate about helping students with career visioning, setting a recruitment strategy, interview prep, networking tips, resume/cover letter reviews and... View Details

11 Oct 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Corporate Purpose and Financial Performance

Keywords: by Claudine Gartenberg, Andrea Prat, and George Serafeim

April 2023
Case

Drive Capital: A New Road for Venture

By: Paul A. Gompers and Alicia Dadlani

Founded by two former Sequoia Capital partners, Columbus-Ohio-based Drive Capital’s mission was to build a world-class venture capital firm in the middle of the U.S., an area historically overlooked by VCs. Drive faced early challenges of attracting investors, sourcing... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States; Ohio

THOMAS R. PIPER, Baker Foundation Professor and Lawrence E. Fouraker Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, is a faculty member in the Finance and Accounting Units at the Graduate School of Business Administration. He has taught in the MBA Program, as well... View Details

March 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Cedar Environmental: Innovation vs. Corruption in Lebanon?

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case follows Ziad Abi Chaker, founder and CEO of Cedar Environmental, as he weighs options for how to grow the company in the face of growing economic and political instability in Lebanon in 2019.

Founded after the Lebanese civil war, Cedar... View Details

16 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

HBS Center Focuses on Europe

to have an HBS case written about them? Isn't it very unusual to be studied up-close in this fashion? Dessain: The Harvard Business School name is well known in Europe, but there are still a relatively small number of alumni in senior View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

December 2018 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Brand Activism: Nike and Colin Kaepernick

By: Jill Avery and Koen Pauwels

Nike's selection of politically polarizing Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson for the 30th anniversary of its iconic "Just Do It" campaign catapulted the brand into the media spotlight and made it a political flashpoint for consumers across America. Would the choice... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Entertainment; Politics; Activism; Brand Equity; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Sports; Advertising; Social Media; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America

17 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

What’s Good about Quiet Rule-Breaking

time, managers gain the employees' engagement, and perhaps, more importantly, managers get to decide who benefits from its leniencies. “Moral gray zones enable both managers... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

October 1999
Case

Overhead Reduction Task Force, The

By: J. Richard Hackman, Ruth Wageman and John J. Gabarro

A middle manager is about to meet with his boss to discuss her request that he head up a task force to determine how overhead can be reduced by 20%. He must decide what to address in that meeting and how the task force should be launched and led. The focus is on team... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Leadership Style; Management Teams; Management Style; Groups and Teams

October 2018 (Revised July 2019)
Case

BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE

By: Katherine Coffman, Christine Exley and Alpana Thapar

This case follows Amira Rashad as she founds BulkWhiz, a Dubai-based buy-in-bulk grocery delivery platform. Following its launch in September 2017, BulkWhiz experiences rapid growth of 30 percent per month in the United Arab Emirates. Despite this initial success,... View Details

23 Apr 2018
News

Governor Baker Swears In New Commission on Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning

January 2003 (Revised April 2003)
Case

KIPP National, 1999 (A): Designing a School Network

Covers the origin, evolution, and nature of the KIPP Academies, two high-performing public middle schools founded in 1995 by Michael Feinberg and David Levin in Houston and New York. In January 2000, Feinberg and Levin meet with Scott Hamilton, managing director of the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Middle School Education; Expansion; Education Industry; Houston