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Q. Who should take the lead in fixing market capitalism? A. Business, not government alone. The spread of capitalism worldwide has made people wealthier than ever before. But capitalism's future is far from assured. Pandemics, income inequality, resource depletion,... View Details

2025
Working Paper

Trade and Industrial Policy in Supply Chains: Directed Technological Change in Rare Earths

By: Laura Alfaro, Harald Fadinger, Jay Schymik and Gede Virananda

Trade and industrial policies, while primarily intended to support domestic industries, may unintentionally stimulate technological progress abroad. We document this mechanism in the case of rare earth elements (REEs)—critical inputs for manufacturing at the knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Industrial Policy; Global Value Chains; Directed Technological Change; Input-output Linkages; Innovation; Trade; Metals and Minerals; Technological Innovation; Supply Chain; Technology Industry

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2016
Book

The Three Box Solution: A Strategy for Leading Innovation

By: Vijay Govindarajan

How to Innovate and Execute. Leaders already know that innovation calls for a different set of activities, skills, methods, metrics, mind-sets, and leadership approaches. And it is well understood that creating a new business and optimizing an already existing one are... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Innovation Leadership

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16 Jan 2019
News

How Retirement Changes Your Identity

11 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Four Ways to Create Lasting Change

Many managers know that even when their firm launches a change initiative with great fanfare, it is tough to make the changes last. More often than not, employees wearily dismiss the initiative as another... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

February 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Case

P.T. Barnum: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case describes the life of P.T. Barnum, widely considered to the be the father of modern advertising and marketing. Barnum showed his genius for business early, selling lottery tickets and confections from his father’s store. He went on to found a famous museum of... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Marketing; Success; Values and Beliefs; Mission and Purpose; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; Europe

04 Sep 2019
News

A Climate Change Optimist

If climate change feels like an impossibly knotty threat to unravel, consider the outlook of Alisa Gravitz (MBA 1980), who sees being carbon negative worldwide by 2050 as entirely possible. As president and CEO of the Washington,... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photo by Seth Lowe

June 24, 2020
Article

Wolfgang Puck on Leading His Restaurants Through the Pandemic

By: Boris Groysberg

Chef Wolfgang Puck shares his experience leading his restaurants and other businesses through the pandemic crisis. He explains how his company has pivoted to find new sources of revenue and how he has become a vocal advocate for the restaurant industry. He also... View Details

Keywords: Coronavirus Pandemic; Restaurants; Restaurant Industry; Reopening; Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Safety

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January 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Jackie Robinson: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Max Saffer

This case traces the rise of Jackie Robinson from the poor streets of Pasadena, California to one of the most famous people in America after he overturned the color barrier in baseball. The case describes how as a youth he excelled at basketball, football, baseball,... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Power And Influence; Personal Characteristics; Values And Beliefs; Mission And Purpose; Sports; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Leading Change; Personal Development and Career; United States

18 Oct 2016
News

Leading the Way for Women Entrepreneurs

entrepreneurs, creating a network of thousands of women helping other business women cross the country. “The world will only change when women lead companies from $0 to multi-billion dollar corporations,”... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers; Birchbox; Rent the Runway; Hello Alfred; Retail Trade; Finance

August 2002 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Gillette Company (A): Pressure for Change

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and James Weber

After years of strong performance with market-dominating brands, Gillette's performance slips and a new CEO is selected from outside the company to lead a turnaround. This case describes the business and financial situation he inherited and asks what he should do... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Performance Consistency; Product Positioning; Selection and Staffing; Change Management; Leading Change; Competitive Strategy; Planning; Retail Industry

26 Jul 2022
Blog Post

Driving Change in Education-to-Employment

the fact that it must change systems and not just build more programs if it is to solve what they refer to as the “Opportunity Divide.” It leads me to reflect about the tradeoffs between different levers of... View Details

December 2024
Article

Can Activists Change Business for Good?

By: Hiske Arts, Geoffrey Jones, Sarah Soule and Lora Verheecke

Leading experts debate the ability of activists to successfully challenge unsustainable corporate behavior. Includes a discussion of the role of business leaders as actvivists. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Responsibility; Activism; Spirituality; Power and Influence; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

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September 2024
Case

Topaz: Navigating Governance, Legacy, and Change

By: Christina R. Wing and Carla Larangeira

Since its founding in 2011, the Garza Sada brothers and their father positioned Topaz among leading family offices in Monterrey, Mexico, with several assets under management. Topaz aspired to have a transformative impact across multiple Mexican industries. An industry... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Family Business; Governing and Advisory Boards; Managerial Roles; Management Succession; Family Ownership; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Adoption; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Education Industry; Energy Industry; Latin America; Mexico

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Women Leading Business: A New Kind of Conversation

For high-powered executive women, the HBS program Women Leading Business: An Executive Forum offers a unique opportunity to discuss strategy, examine problems, and explore solutions. Below Professor Myra Hart shares her vision of the... View Details

Keywords: Re: Myra M. Hart & Cynthia A. Montgomery

Reconsidering Culture and Poverty

Culture has returned to the poverty research agenda. Over the past decade, sociologists, demographers, and even economists have begun asking questions about the role of culture in many aspects of poverty, at times even explaining the behavior of low-income... View Details

September 2007
Case

Still Leading (B4): Lee Iacocca—Driving Impact

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Lance P. Pierce

Lee Iacocca, a successful CEO of an auto company, devoted himself after retirement to several social causes. Describes issues in the transition. View Details

Keywords: Transition; Transformation; Retirement; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Civil Society or Community; Auto Industry