Publications

20 Oct 2017
Blog Post

Taking Care to Prepare Leaders: Lessons in Leadership Development from DaVita Kidney Care

In September 2010, Lauren Coyle, HBS MBA 2010, entered the leadership development program at DaVita Kidney Care. Formally titled, “The Redwoods Program,” it would guide Coyle through a three-phase curriculum that concluded in April 2011, and View Details

Keywords: Health Care

Lynn S. Paine

Lynn Sharp Paine is a Baker Foundation Professor and John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration, Emerita, at Harvard Business School. A member and former chair of the General Management unit, she has served in numerous leadership positions including Senior... View Details

November 1993 (Revised January 1995)
Case

Orit Gadiesh: Pride at Bain & Co. (A)

Describes the events surrounding Bain & Co.'s financial and organizational struggles between 1988 and 1991. Focuses on the role of Orit Gadiesh, then vice chairman of Bain & Co., in leading the effort to restructure the company and restore company pride. View Details

Keywords: Restructuring

01 Jan 2004
News

22 Apr 2021
News

Driving a Large Transformation with Leadership and Purpose – Lessons from the Turnaround at Best Buy

2018
Working Paper

Opportunistic Returns and Dynamic Pricing: Empirical Evidence from Online Retailing in Emerging Markets

By: Chaithanya Bandi, Antonio Moreno, Donald Ngwe and Zhiji Xu

We investigate how dynamic pricing can lead to higher operational costs through more product returns in the online retail industry. Dynamic pricing has been widely applied by many online retailers. Research has shown that, in response to dynamic pricing, some customers... View Details

Keywords: Price; Policy; Consumer Behavior; Cost Management; Emerging Markets; Retail Industry

June 2003
Case

Peabody Elementary School (A)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Kevin Morris

A new principal, Marty Pettigrew, has just joined this inner-city optional school--which offers special programs in international studies to attract children from all over the city. Entering mid-way through the school year, he observes a number of areas of concern,... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Leading Change; Early Childhood Education; Education Industry

October 2017
Case

LeBron James: Building a Hollywood Empire

By: Anita Elberse

It is June 2016. Superstar basketball player LeBron James and his childhood friend and business partner Maverick Carter are celebrating James’ third NBA championship. The duo will soon have to decide on a strategy for their media businesses—their film and television... View Details

05 Jul 2023
HBS Case

What Kind of Leader Are You? How Three Action Orientations Can Help You Meet the Moment

contextual, or relational. The challenge for leaders is to develop a style that blends elements of all three, because “an overreliance on any one orientation can lead to poor action plans that may derail your ability to execute,” the note... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

Career Coach

Kendall Borges

Kendall Borges (HGSE ’16) is the Director of Alumni and Student Programming in Career & Professional Development at Harvard Business School. In her role, she leads high-impact programming to support both students and alumni throughout... View Details

Keywords: Health Care

31 Jan 2018
Blog Post

Tiffany Nida’s Amazon Journey: “I Continue to Grow Because They Keep Giving Me Responsibility.”

At Amazon, Tiffany Nida (HBS MBA 2012) leads a fifteen-person team in her current role as Senior Manager, Product Management, in one of the company’s frontier business segments, Amazon Transportation. Her five-and-a-half year tenure... View Details

Keywords: Technology

October 2015 (Revised February 2020)
Teaching Note

Trouble at Tessei

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan Buell

In 2005, Teruo Yabe is asked to revive Tessei, the 669-person JR-East subsidiary responsible for cleaning its Shinkansen ("bullet") trains. Operational mistakes, customer complaints, safety issues, and employee turnover are at or near all-time highs, even as the... View Details

Keywords: Service Management; Employee Engagement; Employee Motivation; Leadership And Managing People; Quality Improvement; Efficiency; Japan; Operational Transparency; Employee Coordination; Transparency; Leadership; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Employees; Quality; Transportation Industry; Japan

2010
Book

Building World Class Universities in Asia

By: D. Quinn Mills

After discussing higher education's potential contribution to Asia's economic progress and the characteristics (and limitations) of a leading university, Professor Emeritus Daniel Quinn Mills lays out his recommendations for building a world-class university in Asia,... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Curriculum and Courses; Higher Education; Selection and Staffing; Research; Asia

Find at Harvard

August 2000 (Revised September 2002)
Exercise

Working with Your Shadow Partner in Analyzing IT Strategic Partnering

By: Richard L. Nolan

A team-based exercise allowing students to conduct a strategy analysis of the leading companies in the IT business. Involves searching on the web for both public information sources and company information sources. The teams work together to analyze the information and... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

November 1993
Case

Edgar J. Scherick Associates

Edgar Scherick, a leading television movie producer, must determine whether fact-based movies garner higher Nielsen ratings than fictional movies. Scherick has data for all 1992 TV movies broadcast on major networks. Ultimately, Scherick must decide whether it is... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Film Entertainment; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

August 1984 (Revised March 1989)
Background Note

Direct, Personal Leadership

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Richard R. Ellsworth

Argues that to be effective leaders, general managers must focus on substance, not process, and aggressively combat the forces that can lead to the politicization of the organization. Examines the leader's direct role in setting and communicating goals, managing the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Style; Management Practices and Processes

Research Summary

Managing Human Resources for Competitive Advantage

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

This stream of research is leading to a study of companies that are gaining competitive advantage through their ability to attract, recruit, develop, deploy, and retain superior human resources. The objective is to develop a more strategically-based and general... View Details

October 1996 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Schroder Ventures: Launch of the Euro Fund

By: Josh Lerner, Kate Bringham and Nick Ferguson

Schroder Ventures is considering launching a pan-European fund in response to investor demand. This will lead to changes in the interactions between the parent organization and the national affiliates. A related question is the extent to which the private equity model... View Details

Keywords: Change; Private Equity; Investment Funds; Multinational Firms and Management; Product Launch; Europe

October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

GameStop: Social Media Finds a Cheat Code (A)

By: Joseph Pacelli and Sarah Mehta

This case covers the events leading up to the 2021 GameStop short squeeze. Using GameStop as an illustrative example, the case explores the rise in retail trading, increased financial information sharing on social media, and the gamification of investing enabled by... View Details

Keywords: Value; Stocks; Financial Markets; Social Media; Investment; Applications and Software; Financial Services Industry; United States