Publications

March 2017 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Interline Brands: Don't Stop Believing

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

Interline Brands, a leading distributor of residential housing maintenance and repair parts and equipment in the U.S., had just held its November 2014 board meeting. The meeting had been productive but not without some soul searching for both the company’s management... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Exit; Consumer Goods; IPO; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Decision Choices and Conditions

Program

Finance for Senior Executives

Balance profit, growth, and control in dynamic environments Implement restructuring strategies Understand the implications of financial reports Establish optimal systems for management and control Develop successful and realistic View Details

30 Jan 2022
News

How America’s Talent Wars Are Reshaping Business

The Transparency Paradox

2013 Winner of Academy of Management Awards for Outstanding Publication in Organizational Behavior and Best Published Paper in Organization and Management Theory

Using data from embedded participant-observers and a field experiment at the second... View Details

December 2008 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Rosetree Mortgage Opportunity Fund

By: Victoria Ivashina and Andre F. Perold

In December 2008, in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Rosetree Capital Management was evaluating the purchase of a pool of U.S. residential mortgages. The firm had formed an investment vehicle to acquire troubled residential mortgages... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Mortgages; Investment; Housing; Valuation; United States

2016
Chapter

Nudging as a Tool for Leaders

By: Max Bazerman

BOOK ABSTRACT: Jewish organizational life is inundated with publications on organizational change and effective leadership, but from mutually exclusive sources: business and organizational studies, on the one hand, and Jewish studies, on the other. One addresses... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Leadership; Civil Society or Community; Religion; Business and Community Relations

Find at Harvard

July 2005
Case

Harvard Business School and the Making of a New Profession

By: Rakesh Khurana, Tarun Khanna and Daniel Penrice

Since its founding in 1908, Harvard Business School's mission has been to perform a much-needed service for American society by turning business management into a profession. One of the most important factors in the founding of HBS and the nation's other new business... View Details

Keywords: Business Education; Mission and Purpose; Alignment; Social Issues; Practice

March 2011 (Revised June 2011)
Case

QuikTrip

QuikTrip, a large convenience store chain with over 500 stores, was known for its outstanding labor practices and fast, reliable, and friendly customer service. In November 2010, the CEO Chet Cadieux, had to decide how many new locations to open when QuikTrip entered a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Growth and Development Strategy; Logistics; Service Delivery; Performance Effectiveness; Expansion; Retail Industry; United States

2010
Book

Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

By: Robert L. Simons

To stay ahead of the pack, you must translate your organization's competitive strategy into day-to-day actions that will enable your company to win in the marketplace. This means channeling resources into the right efforts, striking a balance between innovation and... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Innovation and Management; Resource Allocation; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy

Find at Harvard

February 18, 2022
Article

Transparency as a Solution for COVID-19 Related Hospital Capacity Issues

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Richard Boxer

In the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, many U.S. hospitals could not provide an adequate supply of beds to meet demand. Solving the problem of hospital bed capacity is of great importance in the “new normal,” which requires recognizing that SARS-CoV-2 is but... View Details

Keywords: COVID; COVID-19 Pandemic; Health Care; Health Care Demand; Health Care Delivery; Health Care Industry; Health Care Operations; Health Care Policy; Transparency; Hospital; Hospital Management; Hospitals; Health Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Operations; Performance Capacity; Policy; Health Industry

Read Now

October 2014
Article

The Transparency Trap

By: Ethan Bernstein

To get people to be more creative and productive, managers increase transparency with open workspaces and access to real-time data. But less transparent work environments can yield more-transparent employees. Employees perform better when they can try out new ideas and... View Details

Find at Harvard

April 2008 (Revised July 2011)
Background Note

Strategic Decline

By: David J. Collis and Jan W. Rivkin

This note first documents the facts around the sustainability of competitive advantage. It then observes that the demise of a previously successful strategy, in the first instance, often comes from some change in the external environment. It, therefore, characterizes... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Advantage; Strategy; Situation or Environment; Organizational Change and Adaptation

2008
Working Paper

CEO and CFO Career Penalties to Missing Quarterly Analysts Forecasts

By: Rick Mergenthaler, Shiva Rajgopal and Suraj Srinivasan

We find that missing the quarterly analyst consensus earnings forecast is associated with career penalties in the form of a reduced bonus, smaller equity grants, and a greater chance of forced dismissal for both CEOs and CFOs during the period 1993-2004. These results... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Compensation and Benefits; Managerial Roles; Personal Development and Career

SSRN

14 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

The Hard Work of Measuring Social Impact

everyone needs to measure impact.” "There are two big conversations among nonprofit leaders," says HBS associate professor Alnoor Ebrahim. "One is around accountability. The second focuses on performance, particularly impact." Ebrahim is teaching in View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

March 2015
Case

Pearson Affordable Learning Fund

By: Michael Chu, Vincent Dessain and Kristina Maslauskaite

An in-house venture capital fund for affordable private schools at the base of the pyramid established by Pearson, the world's largest education company, PALF sought to invest in business models providing superior educational outcomes in emerging markets on a... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investment; Low Cost Private Schools; Investment Fund; Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Transition; Investment; Development Economics; Business Growth and Maturation; Social Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Private Sector; Education; Education Industry; Asia; Africa

March 2010
Case

Sonoco Products Company (A): Building a World-Class HR Organization (Abridged)

By: David A. Thomas and Boris Groysberg

Describes the steps the vice-president of human resources takes in revamping an HR function that was noncooperative and, at times, competitive and introducing the company to the notion of HR as a strategic business partner. Explores changes made to the company's... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Organizations; Restructuring; Partners and Partnerships; Management Succession; Strategic Planning; Performance

September 1998 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Cisco Systems, Inc.: Implementing ERP

By: Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan and Mark J. Cotteleer

Reviews Cisco System's approach to implementing Oracle's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product. This case chronologically reviews the diverse, critical success factors and obstacles facing Cisco during its implementation. Cisco faced the need for... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Complexity; Information Management