Publications

October 2008 (Revised December 2008)
Supplement

Gillette Company (E): Procter & Gamble

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Matthew Bird

After arriving in 2001 as the first outsider Chairman and CEO in Gillette history, Jim Kilts led a remarkable turnaround. But by late 2004 he had to make a difficult decision. To better position the 104-year-old, Boston-based company, he opted to sell it to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leading Change; Growth and Development Strategy; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation

07 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

Even for Non-Believers, These Are the Next Steps on Climate Change

arguments about whether sea level rise is human caused or even if it’s real; we just need to invest with the probabilities in mind the same way we make risk management decisions under uncertainty about... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber

30 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Measuring the Efficacy of the World’s Managers

Firms in the United States, Japan, and Germany tend to be managed especially well, while firms in Brazil, China, and India tend to be managed poorly. Those are among the initial findings of the World... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

22 Feb 2010
Op-Ed

Tragedy at Toyota: How Not to Lead in Crisis

Toyota's ever-widening problems are a tragic case study in how not to lead in crisis. Under the media spotlight, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder, went into hiding and sent American CEO Jim Lentz to make apologies.... View Details

Keywords: by William George; Auto

20 Jan 2015
First Look

First Look: January 20

http://ssrn.com/abstract=2545972 Match Your Own Price? Self-Matching as a Retailer's Multichannel Pricing Strategy By: Kireyev, Pavel, Vineet Kumar, and Elie Ofek Abstract—Multichannel retailing has created several new strategic View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 1992
Exercise

Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group B, Utility #1

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Describes the position of Utility #1 in negotiating Group B with respect to 1) its SO emissions reduction requirements; 2) the costs of its alternative compliance strategies; and 3) the nature of its state regulatory environment. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Governance Compliance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government Legislation; Negotiation; Pollutants; Strategy; Utilities Industry

18 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 18, 2008

observing other people's behavior affects risk taking in repeated decision tasks. In Study 1, 100 participants performed experience-based decision tasks either alone or in pairs, with the two members being... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Profile

Patrick Connolly

Why was earning your MBA at HBS important to you? In my life before business school, I was a concert pianist and music theorist-disciplines that require truly deep, vertical expertise. My decision to attend... View Details

Keywords: Investment Banking; Venture Capital / Private Equity; Financial Services; Other Financial Services

April 2007 (Revised July 2011)
Case

The Tale of the Lynx (A)

By: Noam Wasserman

The founders of Lynx Solutions have survived major challenges within their board of directors, the firing of Lynx's founder-CEO and departure of its successor CEO, and a crisis sparked by media allegations that it had been spying on its users. Now that the company is... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Conflict and Resolution; Business Strategy; Computer Industry

01 Dec 2000
News

In War-Torn Liberia, Student Gains a Wealth of Experience

field, there is a critical need in project management for people with strong business skills." Ballou's work in Liberia also gave her a clearer sense of the role of business in shaping local political and social structures. In particular,... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Mining (except Oil and Gas); Mining (except Oil and Gas)

May 2024
Supplement

gWorks (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

In January of 2019, Joe Heieck, CEO of gWorks, was deciding whether to proceed with his acquisition of Data Tech, that was a business roughly the same size as gWorks. gWorks, which provided geospatial software to small city and rural county governments, was acquired by... View Details

October 1992 (Revised October 1993)
Case

MCI Communications Corporation: National Accounts Program (Condensed)

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Concerns the early stages of a major-account program at MCI, a telecommunications firm seeking to penetrate the corporate-account market. Among the issues are: 1) coordination of field sales efforts with national account selling efforts; 2) sales strategy for major... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Decision Choices and Conditions; Training; Compensation and Benefits; Management Practices and Processes; Marketing Strategy; Groups and Teams; Sales

Find at Harvard

March 1986 (Revised November 1990)
Case

Valerie Morgan

By: Howard H. Stevenson

Presents interviews and conversations with a woman who recently started a publishing house. Primarily concerns her immediate future regarding harvesting options: IPO, sell out, step up to chairman, venture capital, etc. Also deals with the excitement and thrill of... View Details

Keywords: Interactive Communication; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Cash; Initial Public Offering; Business or Company Management; Strategic Planning; Publishing Industry

02 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Stuck in Gear: Why Managers Don’t Act

that a success formula may frequently go stale or, as he puts it, "harden," for a complex set of reasons that are, in fact, surprisingly predictable—though not easy to avoid. "To succeed in business, every manager must make View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

18 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 18, 2008

Working PapersWhere Does It Go? Spending by the Financially Constrained Authors:Shawn A. Cole, John Thompson, and Peter Tufano Abstract In this paper, we analyze the spending decisions of over 1.5 million... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Automating Morality: Ethics for Intelligent Machines

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Tom Quinn

As autonomy became a more significant part of modern life – most notably in autonomous vehicles (AVs), such as Teslas – ethical debates about whether and how to impart ethics to machines heated up. Utilitarians pointed out that autonomous vehicles crashed much less... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Judgments; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Disruptive Innovation; Technology Adoption; Risk and Uncertainty; Cognition and Thinking; Technological Innovation; Auto Industry; Technology Industry; Africa; Asia; Europe; North and Central America; Oceania; South America

01 Mar 2018
News

Research Brief: A Path to Moral Management

Eugene Soltes (photo by Russ Campbell) Eugene Soltes (photo by Russ Campbell) Making ethical and moral decisions in business can be murky and is difficult to teach in the... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers

Summer 2014
Article

When Does a Platform Create Value by Limiting Choice?

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Hanna Halaburda

We present a theory for why it might be rational for a platform to limit the number of applications available on it. Our model is based on the observation that even if users prefer application variety, applications often also exhibit direct network effects. When there... View Details

Keywords: Platform Governance; Direct Network Effects; Indirect Network Effects; Complements; Tragedy Of The Commons; Equilibrium Selection; Coordination; Foresight; Strategy; Value Creation; Digital Platforms; Balance and Stability; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consumer Behavior; Applications and Software; Network Effects