Publications

April 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Case

Unilever's Response to the Future of Work

By: William R. Kerr, Emilie Billaud and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej

In February 2020, Nick Dalton, executive vice president HR business transformation at Unilever, reflected on the changing nature of work marked by rapid advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation. Launched in 2016, Unilever’s Future of Work... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Human Capital; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Structure; Transformation; Human Resources; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

September 1988 (Revised September 1993)
Case

Mrs. Fields Cookies

By: James I. Cash Jr.

Mrs. Fields Cookies is a small company selling freshly baked goods through privately owned specialty stores (each store sells only Mrs. Fields products). The company has about 8,000 employees worldwide and less than 150 information systems people for a unique leverage... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Information Management; Organizational Structure; Customer Relationship Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Networks; Internet and the Web; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

Web

Entrepreneurial Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Research Paper for “How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?” ( Journal of Financial Economics , January 2020) with William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan, and Ilya A. Strebulaev. Ebehi Iyoha : Winner of the 2021 Young Economists' Essay Award from the European Association... View Details

February 2020
Case

Leading Change in Talent at L'Oréal

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Vincent Dessain and Emer Moloney

Jean-Claude Le Grand just stepped into a new role as Executive Vice-President for Human Resources at the global cosmetics company, L’Oréal. He is now responsible for the hiring, development, promotion, and retention of 83,000 employees worldwide. The highly successful... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Business Headquarters; Business Divisions; Business Organization; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Demographics; Diversity; Gender; Nationality; Multinational Firms and Management; Human Resources; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Management; Jobs and Positions; Employment; Human Capital; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Management Practices and Processes; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Product Marketing; Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Personal Development and Career; Planning; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Networks; Social Psychology; Attitudes; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Business Strategy; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry; France; Paris

15 Jul 2019
Book

Many Executives Are Afraid of Finance. Here's How They Can Gain Confidence

it’s a forward-looking, subjective, creative exercise that requires a lot of imagination. Think about valuing Facebook today. It requires predicting the future of privacy policies around the world, the actions of Google and Amazon in the advertising market, the future... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

30 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Real Estate: The Most Imperfect Asset

my course is about risk mitigation. I hope they will be able to answer the following question after a term in my course: How does one use all the tools learned at HBS to successfully structure deals and companies around the risks in this... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Construction; Real Estate

June 2022 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Strategic Innovation at the United Nations: A Network of Ecosystems

By: Frank Nagle, Elizabeth J. Altman and Amy Klopfenstein

In 2021, Gina Lucarelli, leader of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Accelerator Labs, prepared for a meeting with UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. The two planned to discuss the future of the Accelerator Labs, a network of social innovation labs located... View Details

Keywords: Change; Disruption; Transformation; Change Management; Education; Learning; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Geography; Geographic Scope; Global Range; Local Range; Geopolitical Units; Country; Human Resources; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Information Technology; Information Management; Innovation and Invention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge; Knowledge Acquisition; Knowledge Dissemination; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Social Enterprise; Non-Governmental Organizations; Social Psychology; Social and Collaborative Networks; Society; Social Issues; Welfare; Strategy; Cooperation; Adaptation; Public Administration Industry; North and Central America

January 2013 (Revised March 2017)
Case

CloudFlare, Inc.: Running Hot?

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alex Godden

In July 2012, the cofounders of CloudFlare, a Silicon Valley startup that protects websites and accelerates their traffic, are considering the implications of five employees' resignations over the prior three months. Was this natural attrition for a high-tech venture... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth Management; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Resignation and Termination; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; California

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

standardization has been a failure mode for innovation and productivity until recently,” he observes. Yang has spent much of his career in the cleantech industry and is founder and CEO of Liatris, an eco-friendly insulation startup. He... View Details

Keywords: Kathleen Fu, Deborah Blagg, Julia Hanna, and Maureen Harmon; illustrations by; energy; environment; sustainability; entrepreneurship; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation; Transportation; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities; Construction of Buildings; Construction; Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services

Web

Teaching Quantitative Material - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

an answer do we need? What range would you expect given the industry or circumstance? What would happen if we changed the variables or assumptions in a particular way? How would the numbers change if situation y manifested itself? Why do... View Details

18 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Looking in the Mirror: Questions Every Leader Must Ask

enjoy and which would you prefer not to do yourself? What you delegate, how you structure your job, whether or not you are in the right job-all of this should flow from and be influenced by a realistic understanding of your likes and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Web

Electricity - Business & Environment

Manager, Strategy & Business Development Distributed Generation, NextEra Energy Resources Tanuj Deora HBS MBA 2006 Vice President, Market Development and Regulatory Affairs, Uplight “I'm addressing climate change by helping transform energy from a dirty, brittle,... View Details

10 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

The COVID Two-Step for Leaders: Protect and Pivot

things. Companies then compensate for this separation with integration at the senior management level, ensuring alignment at the top. As Charles A. O’Reilly III and Michael L. Tushman explain: “The structure of ambidextrous organizations... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden

September 2022 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Esas Group: Investing Together, Staying Together

By: Christina R. Wing and Alpana Thapar

This case opens in June 2022, after Esas Group, one of Turkey’s largest family-owned investment firms, implements a series of changes to professionalize the business and help transition family members from operators to responsible investors. In December 2019, the Group... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Transition; Business or Company Management; Organizational Structure; Governing and Advisory Boards; Governance; Financial Services Industry; Turkey

22 May 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 22, 2018

depend on management’s ability to significantly improve the efficiency of its manufacturing operations. ETF needed to decide whether to invest in the company and, if so, at what valuation. In addition, ETF needed to decide the structure... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

20 Dec 2011
First Look

First Look: December 20

stereotype-incongruent information. Implications for impression formation are discussed. Inducement Prizes and Innovation Authors:Liam Brunt, Josh Lerner, and Tom Nicholas Publication:Journal of Industrial Economics (forthcoming) Abstract... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

November 2007
Article

If Private Equity Sized Up Your Business

By: Robert C. Pozen

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. As the dust settles on the recent frenzy of private equity deals (including... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Structure; Private Equity; Investment Return; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry

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