Publications

June 2012
Article

Leadership Is a Conversation

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Globalization and new technologies have sharply reduced the efficacy of command-and-control management and its accompanying forms of corporate communication. In the course of a recent research project, the authors concluded that by talking with employees, rather than... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Management Style; Interpersonal Communication; Leadership; Cooperation; Partners and Partnerships

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Organizational Behavior - Faculty & Research

Information featured in The New Yorker Kodak's Old-School Response to Disruption By: Ryan Raffaelli More Information HBS Working Knowledge CEOs and Coaches How Important is Organizational 'Fit'? By: Boris Groysberg & Abhijit Naik How big... View Details

September 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Case

MOD Pizza: A Winning Recipe?

By: Boris Groysberg, John D. Vaughan and Matthew Preble

Scott and Ally Svenson, the founders of MOD Pizza, had to make a number of decisions in planning how to scale their small company. They wanted to grow MOD from 45 stores as of May 2015 to 200 stores by the end of 2016, and while the two believed that MOD could manage... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Selection and Staffing; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Service Industry; United States

Web

Finance Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Insurance: Regulation and Cross-Subsidies" with Sangmin Oh and Ana-Maria Tenekedijieva. Boris Vallee : Recipient of the Distinguished Referee Award from the Review of Financial Studies in 2022. 2021 Malcolm... View Details

October 2010 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Building a Developmental Culture: The Birth of Deloitte University

By: Boris Groysberg, Maureen Gibbons and Joshua Bronstein

It is October 2009 and Barry Salzberg, CEO of Deloitte LLP, has just returned from the groundbreaking of Deloitte University. When completed, Deloitte University would be a world class learning and development center owned by, and for the exclusive use by the employees... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Problems and Challenges; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Teams; Competency and Skills; Training; Employees; Values and Beliefs; Education Industry; Consulting Industry; United States

January–February 2021
Article

Compensation Packages That Actually Drive Performance

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah Abbott, Michael R. Marino and Metin Aksoy

By aligning executives’ financial incentives with company strategy, a firm can inspire its management to deliver superior results. But it can be hard to get pay packages right. In this article four experts break down the key elements of compensation and explain how to... View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Strategy; Performance

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February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

OpenInvest

By: Shawn Cole, Boris Vallée and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolios to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapons manufacturers stocks or overweighting... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Impact Investing; Investment Portfolio; Customization and Personalization; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Financial Services Industry

Web

Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

Falk’s other research here and Victoria’s other research here . More Info Weak Credit Covenants By: Victoria Ivashina & Boris Vallee JUNE 2020 Using novel data on 1,240 credit agreements, Victoria and View Details

Article

Making Exit Interviews Count

By: Everett Spain and Boris Groysberg

In the knowledge economy, skilled employees are the assets that drive organizational success. Thus companies must learn from them—why they stay, why they leave, and how the organization needs to change. A thoughtful exit interview—whether it be a face-to-face... View Details

Keywords: Information; Management Practices and Processes; Retention; Resignation and Termination

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November 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

BrightStar Care: The Evolution of a Leadership Team

By: Boris Groysberg, Colleen Ammerman and John D. Vaughan

BrightStar Care was a rapidly growing franchise of home health care agencies. Founded by husband and wife team JD and Shelly Sun as a single agency near Chicago in 2002, BrightStar had opened nearly 300 franchises across the United States by 2016, generating over $300... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Services; Entrepreneurs; Board Of Directors; Boards Of Directors; Health Care Industry; Growth Strategy; Organizational Change; Brand Positioning; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Entrepreneurial Management; Franchising; Family-owned Business; Home Health Care; Managing Growth; Management Styles; Organizational Development; Talent Management; Women Executives; Women And Leadership; Business Startups; Family Business; Small Business; Talent and Talent Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Health Care and Treatment; Human Capital; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Succession; Management Systems; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Strategy

June 2016
Teaching Note

The Rawlinsons: Facing Life and Career Decisions as a Couple

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

David and Nadia Rawlinson are a dual-career power couple who both seek executive careers in large organizations. At the beginning of the case, Nadia has taken a new job in San Francisco, while David has been offered an opportunity in London. What are the risks of... View Details

Keywords: Career Management; Career Planning; Personal Development and Career; Gender

Research Summary

Overview

By: Boris Vallee

Professor Vallée focuses on financial innovation, investigating it from different angles. This research thread has led him to relate the methods and insights of corporate finance and banking with those of other subfields, including household finance, public finance,... View Details

March 2016 (Revised November 2020)
Case

Tableau

By: Boris Vallee

Matrix Capital Management, a long-short equity hedge fund based in Waltham, Massachusetts, is assessing its investment in Tableau, a data visualization company. Tableau, which conducted an IPO a few years ago, has been experiencing substantial growth as it aims at... View Details

Keywords: Hedge Fund; Long-short Equity; Growth Investing; Growth and Development Strategy; Investment; Valuation; Technology; Technology Industry; Waltham

Web

Japan - Global

operations. July 2024 Case Wizards of the Coast and Magic: The Rebounding By: Boris Groysberg and Tom Quinn This case traces the history and growth of the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. From its development in 1993 View Details

May 2009
Article

The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad

By: Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, Boris Groysberg and Nitin Nohria

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. Few companies are thinking about hiring right now, but that's a mistake. If history... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Management Practices and Processes; Managerial Roles

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Blog

What Can You Do to Foster Gender Equity?

More? Check out these resources on gender equity. Book: Glass Half Broken, Shattering the Barriers that Still Hold Women Back at Work, by Colleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg, Harvard Business Review Press,... View Details

February 2009 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Big Spaceship: Ready to Go Big?

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Big Spaceship, a digital marketing agency, faced a rather big challenge: How to scale the distinctive culture that was essential to its competitive strategy? Renowned for the cutting-edge websites that it developed to market major Hollywood movies and leading consumer... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Human Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Groups and Teams; Competitive Strategy; Value Creation