Publications

December 2000 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Rise and Fall of Iridium, The

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Kerry Herman

Examines the history of Iridium Communications, a provider of mobile satellite services. Discusses the genesis of Iridium's technical design, then follows the venture through various stages of development. Describes Iridium's attempts to build a subscriber base after... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Business Model; Business Growth and Maturation; Organizational Structure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry

01 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Keeping Track: Performance Measurement, Control & Strategy

that? A: We offer a number of useful tools in the book. Take a mechanism we call the "risk exposure calculator," for instance. Keyed to elements of growth, culture, and information management, it alerts managers, even as they're toasting... View Details

Keywords: Re: Robert Simons

10 Apr 2013
Research & Ideas

Learning Curve: Making the Most of Outsourcing

the vendor of outsourced services can improve the efficiency and perhaps the quality of services delivered—particularly in health care, where outsourcing is on the rise. In research recently published in the journal Organization Science,... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry; Health

December 2023
Case

Davivienda Bank's Upskilling and Reskilling Strategy in Colombia

By: Jorge Tamayo, Raffaella Sadun and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago

Set in 2022, this case describes the digital transformation strategy of Davivienda— a leading player in Colombia’s commercial banking and one of the companies belonging to Grupo Bolívar, a major Colombian financial conglomerate—and the bank’s upskilling and reskilling... View Details

August 2011
Supplement

Interview with Raj Datta, Former Chief Knowledge Officer of MindTree

By: David A. Garvin

MindTree is a mid-sized Indian IT services company known for its knowledge management practices, its collborative communities, and its strong culture and values. The CEO has a set a goal of becoming a $1 billion company by 2014; to reach that goal, employees must... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Management; Social and Collaborative Networks; Innovation and Invention; Organizational Culture; Learning; Values and Beliefs; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; India

20 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

New Dean Sets Five Priorities for HBS

came to this country chasing the American dream. I never thought I would be Dean of Harvard Business School." When Harvard President Drew Faust called on May 4 to inform him that he was her choice, Nohria, drawing on his years of... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Education

30 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Mapping Your Board’s Effectiveness

The objectives in this perspective identify which jobs (the human capital), which systems (the information capital), and what kind of climate (the organization capital) are required to support the... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan

07 Jan 2002
What Do You Think?

Did Consumer Behavior Tracking Come of Age on September 11?

observed, "Chat rooms and corporate message boards have had a much more profound change on the privacy of business organizations than the tragic events of 9/11." There is almost a tone of resignation in the responses. For... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

July 2019 (Revised November 2019)
Case

Osaro: Picking the Best Path

By: William R. Kerr, James Palano and Bastiane Huang

The founder of Osaro saw the potential of deep reinforcement learning to allow robots to be applied to new applications. Osaro targeted warehousing, already a dynamic industry for robotics and automation, for its initial product—a system which would allow robotic arms... View Details

February 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Accelerating the Accelerator: Raja Al Mazrouei at DIFC Fintech Hive

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

In January 2023, Raja Al Mazrouei became the Managing Director and Acting CEO of Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI) in Dubai, UAE. In her previous role as the Executive Vice President of the DIFC Fintech Hive, she successfully built and led an accelerator program for... View Details

August 2000
Case

Beansprout Networks

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Rasheea Williams

Beansprout Networks is a 3-year-old Internet company designed to foster effective communication between parents and the pediatricians and child-care providers who care for their children. With a significant headstart in the marketplace, it has attracted considerable... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Strategy; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

11 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

E-Commerce Unplugged

behavior. Good examples of such companies are leaders in the consumer packaged-goods industry such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and Kraft Foods—or retail organizations such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Consider the following... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria & Marty Leestma

24 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 24

and resource-efficient development with the use of information and communication technologies to better manage complex urban systems. Book: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415893169/ Integrated Reporting Requires Integrated... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

05 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

How New BofA Executives Learn its ’Deep Smarts’

Editor's note: How does an organization hold on to its wealth of accumulated knowledge when the knowledge-holders depart? It's a very real dilemma made even more critical as Baby Boomers begin their mass exit into retirement. The new book... View Details

Keywords: Re: Dorothy A. Leonard; Banking

16 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Confronting the Reality of Web Services

equally well within and between companies. Cross-company implementations, however, are still comparatively rare. We see them between large and technically sophisticated organizations who have longstanding ties, and we're also starting to... View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Where Main Street Meets Wall Street

information made available to consumers; and on the nature and variety of products being offered. Not surprisingly, competition has heightened activity and stimulated change in these areas." Tufano adds that the proliferation of... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Financial Services

2017
Other Article

Designing an Agile Software Portfolio Architecture: The Impact of Coupling on Performance

By: Alan MacCormack and Robert Lagerstrom

The modern industrial corporation encompasses a myriad of different software applications, each of which must work in concert to deliver functionality to end-users. However, the increasingly complex and dynamic nature of competition in today’s product-markets dictates... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Effectiveness