Publications

19 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

How to be Extremely Productive

and maintained rewarding relationships with his wife and their two children. “It takes a lot more than organizing your schedule to be productive.” In a widely read Harvard Business Review article (May 2011),... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg

December 2023
Case

Gabriela Santana Goldstein

By: Leslie Perlow and Hannah Weisman

Gabriela Santana Goldstein was pursuing her passion, working as the Head of Business for a telehealth startup, when her father went into sudden cardiac arrest and family duty called. The case discusses Goldstein’s difficult decision to leave her dream job, and her path... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Well-being; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships; Decisions; Health Industry; United States; Boston; New York (city, NY)

22 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 22, 2019

predictions. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54314 January–February 2019 Harvard Business Review Cracking Frontier Markets By: Christensen, Clayton M., Efosa Ojomo, and Karen Dillon Abstract— With... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

October 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture

By: Frances X. Frei, Robin J. Ely and Laura Winig

On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, had won its board of directors' approval to offer to merge the two companies.... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

January 2008 (Revised November 2009)
Supplement

China's Evolving Labor Laws (B)

By: Lynn Sharp Paine and Aldo Sesia Jr.

The (B) case describes how the various business groups responded to the Chinese government's invitation to submit comments on its draft labor contract law and details the ensuing global controversy. The (B) case also describes changes made to the working draft and... View Details

Keywords: Government Legislation; Labor; Contracts; Laws and Statutes; Business and Government Relations; Labor and Management Relations; Conflict and Resolution; China

Article

The Error at the Heart of Corporate Leadership

By: Joseph L. Bower and Lynn S. Paine

Agency theory, a new model of governance promulgated by academic economists in the 1970s, is behind the idea that corporate managers should make shareholder value their primary concern and that boards should ensure they do. The theory regards shareholders as owners of... View Details

Keywords: Agency Theory; Business and Shareholder Relations; Leadership; Corporate Governance

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11 Apr 2024
Blog Post

Climate Stories: Water Series - Episode #17: Leni Peterson Redondo (HBS MS/MBA 2023), Founder & CEO of Celeste

business world. Thank you for reading, and please share your stories with us at bei@hbs.edu! – Lynn Schenk, BEI Director Climate Stories: Water Series - Episode #17: Leni Peterson Redondo (HBS MS/MBA 2023), Founder & CEO of Celeste “I... View Details

June 1993 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Duckworth Industries, Inc.--Incentive Compensation Programs

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

A private company is considering an introduction of a long-run incentive compensation system in which payoffs to managers are determined by the economic value added for shareholders by their individual business units. The proposed new system is compared to a number of... View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Management Teams; Business and Shareholder Relations; Motivation and Incentives; Value Creation

22 Jul 2008
First Look

First Look: July 22, 2008

goals has different effects on performance. This paper reports on a longitudinal study of 23 neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in a structured, quality-improvement program. We test the relationship between collaboration within the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

10 Mar 2021
Blog Post

COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace

again? Should companies do away with Zoom and return the workplace to its pre-COVID ways? The answer, in a word: No. At least that’s not the future of work envisioned by several members of the Harvard Business School faculty—all of whom... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

23 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

The Power of Conversational Leadership

Harvard Business School Professor Boris Groysberg. "Nobody knows what strategic conversations are actually unfolding." For that reason, many CEOs are reconsidering the classic command-and-control structure in which a few people are... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

01 Dec 2022
News

My First Job

furniture business when a fire started in the factory’s ventilation system. The fire alarms were loud, and every instinct I had learned in school told me to leave the building, but the president of the company grabbed my arm and told me... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

12 Nov 2024
HBS Case

Inside One Startup's Journey to Break Down Hiring (and Funding) Barriers

Florida after serving his time would likely land him back in jail. Rekindled relationships with an aunt and grandmother in Ohio inspired him to turn his life around and move to the Midwest after his release instead. He spent his remaining... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Employment

02 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

Negotiating in Three Dimensions

is an essential skill, and where the science of negotiation is headed. Negotiation is a core competence for life, "not merely an important skill to be wheeled out for special occasions," they argue. James K. Sebenius is the Gordon Donaldson Professor of View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

February 2001 (Revised October 2002)
Background Note

Entrepreneurial History: A Conceptual Overview

By: Nancy F. Koehn

Analyzes HBS cases on five entrepreneurs and the companies they built: Josiah Wedgwood, Henry Heinz, Marshall Field, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, and Michael Dell. These five cases and their accompanying teaching notes comprise a course module on entrepreneurial... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Demand and Consumers; Competition; Business History; Entrepreneurship; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business Strategy; Society

August 2005 (Revised April 2015)
Background Note

Employment At Will: A Legal Perspective

By: Lynn S. Paine and Christopher M. Bruner

Provides a brief overview of the employment-at-will doctrine, an important concept unique to the U.S. legal system and business landscape. Briefly surveys the history and development of this doctrine and certain limitations and exceptions to it, as well as some of the... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Resignation and Termination; Employment; Common Law; Laws and Statutes; Business and Government Relations; United States

2012
Chapter

Schumpeterian Competition and Diseconomies of Scope: Illustrations from the Histories of Microsoft and IBM

By: Timothy F. Bresnahan, Shane Greenstein and Rebecca M. Henderson

We address a longstanding question about the causes of creative destruction. Dominant incumbent firms, long successful in an existing technology, are often much less successful in new technological eras. This is puzzling, since a cursory analysis would suggest that... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Opportunities; Competition; Information Technology; Innovation and Management; Organizations; Relationships; Information Technology Industry