Publications

November 2020
Teaching Note

Unilever's Response to the Future of Work

By: William R. Kerr and Bailey McAfee

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 820-104. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Human Capital; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Structure; Transformation; Human Resources; Consumer Products Industry; Europe

April 2025
Case

Radical Transformation at Bayer: Dynamic Shared Ownership

By: Boris Groysberg and Gamze Yucaoglu

In 2023, Bill Anderson became CEO of Bayer AG, a 160-year-old life sciences giant looking to strengthen its pharma pipeline, manage debt, and cut through bureaucracy. His bold response: Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO), a radical model replacing traditional hierarchies... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Business Strategy; Alignment; Innovation and Management; Organizational Structure; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

January 2010 (Revised March 2011)
Case

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Network Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter, Carolyn Daly and Andrew Peter Dervan

In 2009 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) had been recognized as the best children's hospital in the country for six years in a row; but leadership saw CHOP as more than the large main campus in western Philadelphia. Beginning in the 1990s, CHOP had created a... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Organizational Structure; Networks; Integration; Health Industry; Philadelphia

15 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 15

standard preferences and show that the endogenous structure of the network is conducive to sharing by a significant number of peers, even if sharing is costlier than freeriding. We build on this model of p2p to analyze the optimal... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Web

Departments | Employment

orientation Analytical thinking Comfort with ambiguity Applied expertise Measurement-focused What makes it challenging to work in Baker Library? Constant evolution in the information industry and scholarly publishing A shift to a more... View Details

18 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 18, 2007

modularized. Instead these areas should be located in transaction-free zones so that the costs of transacting do not overburden the system. The boundaries of transaction-free zones constitute breakpoints where firms and industries may... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Mar 2021
Blog Post

Best Practices for Creating a Successful Virtual Internship

situation. Students with particularly positive experiences often remark that they felt integrated into the work of the team and that people in the organization cared about what they were working on.” To replicate this integration, consider how you can create an online... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

January 2001 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Ford Motor Company's Value Enhancement Plan

By: Andre F. Perold

In April 2000, Ford Motor Co. announced a shareholder Value Enhancement Plan (VEP) to significantly recapitalize the firm's ownership structure. Ford had accumulated $23 billion in cash reserves and under the VEP would return as much as $10 billion of this cash to... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Forecasting and Prediction; Capital Structure; Cash; Financial Liquidity; Policy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value; Auto Industry

05 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 5

facilitating face-to-face interactions can provide information that impacts the formation of scientific collaborations. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/13-023.pdf Risky Business: The Impact of Property Rights on Investment and Revenue in the Film... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 21

show how the trio of disruptive forces (disintermediation, disaggregation, and decoupling) that have figured prominently in other industries disrupted by digitalization (media, travel, publishing) are likely to reshape the View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

December 1989 (Revised February 1993)
Case

Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition (C)

By: Lynda M. Applegate

In 1989, Frito-Lay designed an information technology infrastructure to support time-based competition and organizational restructuring. The company planned to provide timely flexible information to all major decision makers at all levels. This case describes the... View Details

Keywords: Design; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Competitive Strategy; Time Management; Organizational Structure; Information Management; Strategic Planning; Performance Effectiveness; Decision Choices and Conditions; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

February 1975 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Elizabeth Best (A)

By: Wickham Skinner and Ardis Burst

New political appointee with years of volunteer experience takes over highly responsible job in state government and is met with bureaucratic resistance. View Details

Keywords: Government Administration; Organizational Structure; Attitudes; Groups and Teams; Human Resources; Jobs and Positions; Prejudice and Bias; Public Administration Industry

01 Jun 2009
News

Inside the Partnership

memorandum advocated a complete change in the firm’s organizational structure — a change that would, in time, decisively accelerate Goldman Sachs’s becoming the nation’s and then the world’s preeminent investment bank, and in time would... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons

23 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

China’s 60-Year Road from Revolution to World Power

in state industries—became a closed caste, an industrial elite with hereditary jobs, and with privileges and security far above that of their rural cousins. If anything, the gap between urban and rural identities became greater. And the... View Details

Keywords: by William C. Kirby

01 Mar 2009
News

Honoring HBS’s Organization Men

developed the idea of organizations as social systems. “That’s been the underlying framework of everything I’ve done,” said Lorsch, the author most recently of Back to the Drawing Board: Designing Corporate Boards for a Complex World. One participant wondered how the... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Publishing Industries (except Internet); Publishing Industries (except Internet); Publishing Industries (except Internet)

Web

IFC: Italy; Tradition and Innovation - Course Catalog

evolution and the present business, economic and political situation in Italy, (2) explore examples of how Italian companies innovate and compete, (3) gain an understanding of the structure of the Italian View Details

May 1994 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Motorola Corp.: The View from the CEO Office

By: Shoshana Zuboff and Janis Lee Gogan

Motorola, a leader in semiconductors and telecommunications, embarked on an ambitious program of renewal beginning in the early 1980s, leading to dramatic improvements in the company's quality, cycle time, and growth. Much of this progress was attributed to a major... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Leading Change; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Managerial Roles; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Telecommunications Industry