Publications

JOSEPH L. BOWER, Donald K. David Professor Emeritus, has been a leader in general management at Harvard Business School for 51 years. He also served on the faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School during its first decade. He has served in many administrative roles... View Details

Keywords: banking; chemical; electronics; financial services; home appliances; hotels ＆ motels; information technology industry; insurance industry; private equity (LBO funds); retailing

February 1991 (Revised July 1993)
Case

Cultural Change at Nissan Motors

By: John P. Kotter

Depicts the reformation of Nissan Motor Co.'s corporate culture and the company's subsequent turnaround in market share and profits. In 1985, Yutaka Kume became president of Nissan and thereafter, he continually emphasized the need for internal change throughout the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Leadership; Behavior; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Change Management; Management; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry

February 1990 (Revised July 1992)
Case

Whistler Corp. (A)

By: Gary P. Pisano

Describes the circumstances surrounding Whistler Corp.'s decision whether or not to continue manufacturing operations in the United States. The company had been experiencing severe problems in its domestic manufacturing operations and was thus unable to compete with... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Production; Problems and Challenges; Competitive Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

July 2023
Teaching Note

Belden and Digital Transformation: From Product Sales to Solutions Sales

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 823-002. Belden manufactures devices such as switches, cables, adapters, and connectors. Faced with market changes, the firm initiated a new Enhanced Solutions Delivery (ESD) initiative. In November 2022 executives are evaluating the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Digital Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sales; Marketing Channels; Manufacturing Industry

20 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.com

stores to 2,227. This surprising resurgence piqued the interest of Ryan Raffaelli, an assistant professor in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School, who studies how mature organizations and industries faced with... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel (with video by Amelia Kunhardt); Retail

2013
Article

Logic Pluralism, Organizational Design, and Practice Adoption: The Structural Embeddedness of CSR Programs

By: Mary Ann Glynn and Ryan Raffaelli

The institutional logics perspective highlights how organizations are embedded within broader systems of meaning and how this embeddedness activates salient institutional logics in organizations that can enable or constrain organizational decisions, practices, and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Management Practices and Processes; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

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2012
Chapter

Structuring Consulting Firms

By: Tim Morris, Heidi K. Gardner and N. Anand

This chapter presents a model of the way in which consulting and other professional-service firms organize themselves and grow. We will argue that the fundamental structural-design challenge for consulting firms, like other professional firms, is to adapt appropriately... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Management Practices and Processes; Demand and Consumers; Service Operations; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Projects; Groups and Teams; Consulting Industry; Service Industry

2008
Working Paper

The Flattening Firm and Product Market Competition: The Effect of Trade Liberalization

By: Maria Guadalupe and Julie Wulf

This paper establishes a causal effect of competition from trade liberalization on various characteristics of organizational design. We exploit a unique panel dataset on firm hierarchies (1986-1999) of large U.S. firms and find that increasing competition leads firms... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy

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2022
Book

Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies

By: Ranjay Gulati

This book offers a compelling reassessment and defense of purpose as a management ethos, documenting the vast performance gains and social benefits that become possible when firms manage to get purpose right. Few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Business And Society; Organizations; Mission and Purpose; Performance Effectiveness; Organizational Culture

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08 Jul 2020
News

We Have an Unemployment Crisis. Now What?

22 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

Want Hybrid Work to Succeed? Trust, Don’t Track, Employees

The COVID-19 pandemic made remote work more the norm than the exception, and now many companies are struggling to map out a hybrid plan that both managers and employees can embrace long term. With return-to-work policies in flux, this is... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

11 AM – 12 PM EST, 25 Jan 2018
Webinars: Trending@HBS

Becoming Effective Change Makers: The Power of Networks

Instituting change in an organization or in a sector of society has always been the bane of leaders. However, some leaders do succeed--often spectacularly--at transforming their organizations and even whole sectors of society. What makes some change makers triumph in a... View Details

15 Jul 2019
Book

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

problem and the various pathologies that are associated with it. In short, the capital allocation problem is simple. The dominant question for managers is: Do you keep free cash or do you distribute it? If you keep it, should you invest... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

12 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 12

the Use of Unverifiable Estimates in Required Goodwill Impairment Authors:Karthik Ramanna and Ross L. Watts Publication:Review of Accounting Studies (forthcoming) Abstract SFAS 142 requires managers to estimate the current fair value of... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

December 2018 (Revised March 2021)
Background Note

Modern Automation (A): Artificial Intelligence

By: William R. Kerr and James Palano

This primer is meant to be a field guide to the late 2010s' surge in business use of "Artificial Intelligence" (AI), or enterprise software based in machine learning. First, it provides an overview of the key trends—digitization, connectivity, the continuation of... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Digitization; Connectivity; Computing; Future Of Work; Automation; AI and Machine Learning

January 1990 (Revised June 1995)
Case

Colliers International Property Consultants

By: Nitin Nohria

Describes the origins, organizational structure, management practices, and use of information technology (IT) in Colliers, a real estate network. Colliers provides local firms with a way to maintain local autonomy while gaining national and international coverage.... View Details

Keywords: Property; Organizational Structure; Information Technology; Management Practices and Processes; Partners and Partnerships; Business Model; Mission and Purpose; Business Growth and Maturation; Conflict and Resolution; Quality; Real Estate Industry

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September 1996 (Revised September 1999)
Case

Mobil USM&R (A): Linking the Balanced Scorecard

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The CEO of the marketing and refining division of a major oil company is in the midst of implementing a profit turnaround. He transforms the strongly centralized, functionally-organized division into 17 independent business units and 14 internal service companies. The... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Measurement and Metrics; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Balanced Scorecard; Corporate Strategy; Mining Industry; Energy Industry