Publications

2014
Book

Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World

By: John P. Kotter

Based on the award-winning article in Harvard Business Review, from global leadership expert John Kotter. It's a familiar scene in organizations today: a new competitive threat or a big opportunity emerges. You quickly create a strategic initiative in response and... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Organizational Structure

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January 2001 (Revised May 2001)
Case

Return Logic, Inc. (A)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Michele Lutz

Follows three graduating HBS students as they build a business-to-business Internet venture and highlights the challenges they confront in structuring financing terms with venture capitalists. Requires students to carefully read a six-page term sheet to identify which... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Private Equity; Internet and the Web; Negotiation Deal; Entrepreneurship

February 2000 (Revised October 2000)
Case

E-commerce at Williams-Sonoma

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Daniel Galvin

Describes Williams-Sonoma's development of a third channel of business on the Internet. Describes the strategies for managing changes in the organizational, operational, and technological structure of the company. The new e-commerce division confronts challenges posed... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Internet and the Web; Trade; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Operations; Information Technology; Technological Innovation; Information Technology Industry; Retail Industry; California

2024
Case

Christiana Figueres and the Paris Climate Negotiations (A)

By: James K. Sebenius, Laurence A. Green, Hannah Riley-Bowles, Lara SanPietro and Mina Subramanian

This three-part, stop action case study, structured for classroom discussion, centers on Harvard’s Program on Negotiation 2022 Great Negotiator, Christiana Figueres, and her efforts as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Negotiation; Environmental Regulation; International Relations; Leadership

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May 16, 2016
Article

Food Safety Economics: The Cost of a Sick Customer

By: Dina Gerdeman and John A. Quelch

Chipotle Mexican Grill’s ongoing struggle to win customers back months after a contaminated food crisis highlights the challenges companies face with keeping food safe.

Chipotle has seen its shares tumble and recently reported its first-ever quarterly loss... View Details

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January 2004
Case

Macroeconomic Policy and the State of the U.S. Economy, 2003

By: David A. Moss

Based on excerpts from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on July 16, 2003, as well as economic data that were available to Chairman Greenspan at the time. Taken together, the text... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Banks and Banking; Policy; Housing; Analytics and Data Science; Problems and Challenges; Urban Development; United States

Allen Grossman was appointed a Harvard Business School Professor of Management Practice in July 2000. He joined the Business School faculty in July 1998, with a concurrent appointment as a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). He... View Details

Keywords: education industry; nonprofit industry

29 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Star Power! How to Win in Professional Services

Limits To Leadership Being the chief executive of any company is a demanding job. Carrying out the responsibilities of a CEO in a professional service firm is exceptionally challenging because the position lacks the inherent power and... View Details

Keywords: by Jay W. Lorsch & Thomas J. Tierney

Rajiv Lal

Rajiv Lal, is the Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing at Harvard Business School. He is currently teaching an elective MBA course on the Business of Smart Connected Products/IOT. He has been responsible for the retailing curriculum and has served as the course... View Details

September 2016 (Revised December 2018)
Case

Joan Bavaria and Multi-Dimensional Capitalism

By: Geoffrey Jones and Seema Amble

The case examines the career of Joan Bavaria, a pioneer of socially responsible investing and founder of Trillium Asset Management and Ceres, the nonprofit organization advocating for sustainability leadership. It describes her personal journey from art student and... View Details

Keywords: Integrated Corporate Reporting; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Personal Development and Career

Program

Agribusiness Seminar

presents many challenges but also new possibilities for firms that can embrace innovation, develop new strategies, deliver value, and build resilience. For more than 60 years, business leaders from around the world have gathered for the... View Details

Keywords: Agriculture; Agriculture

04 Mar 2024
What Do You Think?

Do People Want to Work Anymore?

organization than they did four years ago.” This raises the question of the degree to which management policies vs. employee attitudes toward work are to blame. Do people want to work anymore? What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Reference: Jim... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

20 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

What’s Next for Japan

success—and that mismatch poses a lot of challenges for Japan today. "Unless Japan can come to a consensus on what worked in the past and what didn't, it is pretty hard to create a new economic strategy. "And it is that model... View Details

Keywords: by Hilah Geer

23 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

How to Keep Employees Productive: Support Caregivers

proper return-on-investment analysis can it understand the extent of the caregiving challenges facing their workforce,” Fuller warns. How COVID-19 changed the caregiving landscape For years, caregiving wasn’t discussed on the job. Taking... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

January 1996 (Revised December 2005)
Case

First Community Bank (A)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

First Community Bank, a bank-within-a-bank at Bank of Boston, was established in 1990 as a unique venture to serve urban communities. By 1995 it has achieved profitability but must manage relationships with the mainstream at Bank of Boston, serve as a change agent and... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Business Ventures; Business and Community Relations; Agency Theory; Change Management; Leadership; Balanced Scorecard; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Structure; Problems and Challenges; Banking Industry; Boston

Web

Initiatives & Projects - Faculty & Research

seeks to deepen business leaders' understanding of today’s environmental challenges and to assist them in developing effective solutions. Business History The Business History Initiative seeks to facilitate learning from the past through... View Details

April 2018
Case

Hawk Electronics, Inc.

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and John J. Lafkas

Hawk Electronics ("Hawk") presents the problems that a company can encounter when its divisions have distinct strategies, especially when one division has been favored at another's expense. It also highlights how such problems can reflect cognitive biases, which... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Resource Allocation; Strategy; Innovation and Management

August 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Lark International Entertainment Ltd. (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Jennifer Suesse

Two HBS MBA's leave McKinsey and Morgan Stanley to become entrepreneurs in Hong Kong. Together they start up a cinema chain throughout Asia. This case describes the experiences of managing a team in their Wuhan, China cinema. Looks at the challenges of managing growth... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Problems and Challenges; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Leadership Style; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Hong Kong; China; Asia

June 2024
Teaching Note

Numenta in 2020: The Future of AI

By: David B. Yoffie

In 2020, Numenta’s co-founder, Jeff Hawkins, completed his pathbreaking research on artificial intelligence. His co-founder and CEO, Donna Dubinsky, had to find a business model to monetize the technology. This teaching note explores the challenges of building a... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Monetization; Strategy; Intellectual Property; AI and Machine Learning; Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Technology Industry