Publications

April 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Unleashing Human Magic at Best Buy

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger, Sunil Gupta and Amram Migdal

The case examines the transformation of Best Buy under CEO Hubert Joly's leadership from 2012. Facing significant business challenges, including competition from online and physical retailers, Joly implemented the "Renew Blue" turnaround strategy, which focused on... View Details

April 2025
Supplement

Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion PowerPoint Supplement

By: Michael W. Toffel, Ken Pucker and Stacy Straaberg

The Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (A) case introduces Allbirds as a footwear startup not only focused on simple design, comfort, and sustainable natural materials but on decarbonizing the wider fashion industry. Background material highlights the growing... View Details

Keywords: Decarbonization; Climate Impact; Environmental Strategy; Innovation; Product Design; Supply Chain Management; Innovation Strategy; Innovation and Management; Product Development; Climate Change; Environmental Management; Environmental Sustainability; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Fashion Industry; United States; California

13 Mar 2023
Op-Ed

How Leaders Should Leave

Leonard M. Miller University Professor and former dean of the University of Miami Herbert Business School. You Might Also Like: Time to Move On? Career Advice for Entrepreneurs Preparing for the Next Stage Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

18 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

When It Comes to Climate Regulation, Energy Companies Take a More Nuanced View

Common wisdom holds that oil and gas companies, electric utilities, and other industries known for their large carbon emissions generally oppose clean energy policies. Now, a study of corporate advocacy spanning 30 years reveals that many companies are more flexible... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Utilities

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Organizing the Family-Run Business

seat on the board. But draw a line so that the siblings do not appoint their heirs to assume their board seats when the ownership transitions to the Cousin Consortium stage. The board—not the shareholders, the family or the family... View Details

February 2023 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Graphic Packaging: Project Cowboy (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

In July 2019, Graphic Packaging CEO Michael Doss was proposing a $600 million investment in a new machine to produce coated recycled board (CRB), a type of paper packaging used for consumer products (cups, cereal boxes, beverage boxes, etc.) that utilized recycled... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Value Creation; Supply and Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North America

12 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities

recognize and try to stay ahead of these changes brought by scale. Here is advice for the CEO/founders of early-stage companies, but it also applies to leaders of any scaling organization, even inside a large corporate entity. Leadership... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

February 2025
Case

Luca de Meo at Renault Group (A) (Abridged)

By: Emily Truelove, Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

When Luca de Meo became CEO of Renault Group in 2020, the 122-year-old French automaker faced financial challenges and the double technological disruption of the automotive industry: the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and the rise of software-defined vehicles (SDVs).... View Details

29 Jan 2018
Book

How 'Teaming' Saved 33 Lives in the Chilean Mining Disaster

is in process. Teaming, she says, is essential to organizational learning. In her new book Extreme Teaming: Lessons in Complex, Cross-Sector Leadership, Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by Amy C. Edmondson; Mining

November 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Infarm: Betting the (Indoor) Farm on Food Security

By: Elie Ofek

In the summer of 2023, the co-founders of Infarm, a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) company, were contemplating a major pivot going forward. While Infarm had successfully shown it could grow over 75 products—mainly herbs, leafy greens and mushrooms—in modular... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Business Model; Market Entry and Exit; Science-Based Business; Business Strategy; Transition; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Europe; North America; Toronto; Northeastern United States

February 2025
Case

Luca de Meo at Renault Group (A)

By: Emily Truelove, Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

When Luca de Meo became CEO of Renault Group in 2020, the 122-year-old French automaker faced financial challenges and the double technological disruption of the automotive industry: the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and the rise of software-defined vehicles (SDVs).... View Details

19 Jul 2016
First Look

July 19, 2016

complicated—and instructive. Kodak suffered from a technology transition in which it lost the benefits of a learning curve to a general-purpose technology platform where there were no entry barriers. It also suffered from difficulty in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Patagonia: 'Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder'

By: Brian Trelstad, Nien-hê Hsieh, Michael Norris and Susan Pinckney

In September 2022, Yvon Chouinard, the iconoclastic founder of outdoor apparel company Patagonia, announced a new ownership model for his company. Chouinard and his family had held complete control of the company's voting and non-voting stock since its founding 50... View Details

16 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business

Edmondson: Leadership will engage people to work together creatively I hope we will come to learn that hiding bad news is never a good idea. That will mean recommitting ourselves to mastering the View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

24 Feb 2021
Lessons from the Classroom

What History's Biggest Wars Teach Us About Leading in Peace

balancing perseverance and flexibility when implementing a strategy. He says this war also demonstrates the potential impact of leadership transition on strategy, and the pitfalls of negotiated agreements... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

31 Mar 2022
Op-Ed

Navigating the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ in Professional Services

congenial work atmosphere for doctors and nurses, and handsome economic returns for its owners. The hospital’s leadership has forsworn expansion to avoid diluting its unique offering. But then we also have Narayana Hrudalaya, a cardiac... View Details

Keywords: by Ashish Nanda

January 2025
Case

Apax Partners: Deciding Whether to Bid for Trader Corp.

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

Apax Partners’ investment committee was schedule to meet on March 21, 2011, to decide whether to invest in Trader Corporation, a Canadian classified advertising business for used automobiles with both print (magazines) and digital (website) distribution. What made this... View Details