Publications

August 2025
Case

Meta and the Superintelligence Talent Race

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In June 2025, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg upped the ante in the ongoing AI talent wars. Some analysts praised Zuckerberg’s aggressive approach to building Meta's AI capabilities, while others pointed to the high costs this strategy entailed and questioned how effectively... View Details

July–August 2025
Article

Case Study: Do We Reskill or Replace Our Workforce?

By: William Kerr

To remain competitive in the internet-of-things era, should the CEO of SolidTech Innovations, a fictional elevator company, invest a lot of money in reskilling its entire staff? The industry is moving from hardware to software in the form of smart, connected elevators.... View Details

Keywords: Training; Competency and Skills; Employees; Change Management; Leading Change

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July 2025
Case

ICARE: Frontline Leadership at Michelin

By: Hubert Joly and Emilie Billaud

In 2025, Michelin CEO Florent Menegaux reflected on the company’s transformation since taking the helm in 2019. Amid a volatile global landscape marked by inflation, rising competition, and geopolitical and sustainability pressures, Michelin had achieved strong... View Details

June 2025
Case

From Single Stock to Diversified Portfolio: Mastercard Foundation's $42 Billion Asset Management Launch

By: Luis M. Viceira and Justin Cohen

This case examines the decision of the Mastercard Foundation in 2023 to divest its holdings of Mastercard stock, its only asset since inception in 2006 and worth $42 billion in early 2024, and to invest the proceeds in a newly designed diversified portfolio. To this... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Financial Liquidity; Financial Strategy; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Governance; Selection and Staffing; Risk Management; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Motivation and Incentives

June 2025
Case

(Family) Size Matters: Nico Oprée and the Decreasing Power of Family Unity over Time

By: Lauren Cohen, Octavian Graf Pilati, Dominik V. Eynern and Sophia Pan

Nico Oprée, a fourth-generation (G4) member of his family’s heavy manufacturing business, found himself reflecting on how the firm would navigate a deepening shareholder conflict. While the second generation (G2) had managed the business in harmony, dynamics shifted... View Details

June 2025
Supplement

Transforming a Titan (B)

By: George Serafeim and Lena Duchene

After a global search the board appoints Marcel Cobuz—ex-LafargeHolcim executive with deep innovation experience—as TITAN’s first non-family CEO. Cobuz co-creates a four-pillar roadmap: sharpen the core cement portfolio, accelerate low-carbon products and aggregates,... View Details

Keywords: CEO Succession; CEO Role; Family Business; AI and Machine Learning; Green Technology; Multinational Firms and Management; Selection and Staffing; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Strategic Planning; Business Strategy

June 2025
Case

Scale AI Scales Up

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Scale AI, the data labeling and AI infrastructure company, had grown rapidly since it was founded in 2016; however, as Scale’s generative AI business was taking off, Alexandr Wang, Scale’s founder and CEO, became concerned that Scale was slowing down. Wang and the... View Details

Keywords: Technology And Innovation Management; Entrepreneur; Managing Growth; Hiring; Generative Ai; Data Labeling; Scale; AI and Machine Learning; Entrepreneurship; Talent and Talent Management; Growth Management; Leadership; Organizational Culture; Business Startups; Selection and Staffing; Technology Industry; United States

June 10, 2025
Article

Research: When Help Isn’t Helpful

By: Colin M. Fisher, Julianna Pillemer and Teresa M. Amabile

Asking for and receiving help at work can boost employees’ creativity, help them learn new skills, and strengthen their interpersonal ties. Yet a years-long study at a global design consultancy found that even in organizations with strong helping cultures, a... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Employees; Talent and Talent Management

June 2025
Case

TfL Pension Fund and the 2022 Gilt Market Crisis

By: Emil N. Siriwardane, Vincent Dessain, Emer Moloney and Carlota Moniz

On September 27, 2022, Padmesh Shukla, CIO of the Transport for London (TfL) Pension Fund, was keeping a careful eye on the turmoil in the U.K. sovereign bond (or gilt) market. When the new government announced the largest tax cuts the U.K. had seen in half a century,... View Details

June 4, 2025
Editorial

Employee Stress Is a Business Risk—Not an HR Problem

By: Marion Chomse, Lydia Roos, Reeva Misra and Ashley Whillans

Workplace stress, on the rise for decades, has been treated by many organizations as a personal issue instead of a business-critical risk that merits executive oversight. This is likely due in part to the fact that companies have not effectively quantified and tracked... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Well-being; Risk Management; Competitive Advantage

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June 2025
Article

Outcome and Process Frames: Strategic Renewal and Capability Reprioritization at the Federal Bureau of Investigation

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati and Jan Rivkin

[Research Summary]: Framing is critical for leaders who must build support for strategic renewal. While research has concentrated on renewal that replaces one set of capabilities with another, we explore a distinctive challenge: how leaders persuade stakeholders to... View Details

Keywords: Framing; Stakeholder Management; Capabilities; Transformation; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Resource Allocation; Government and Politics; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Public Administration Industry

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May 2025
Case

IQanat: Empowering Rural Youth in Kazakhstan

By: Boris Groysberg and Maxim Pike Harrell

In June 2025, IQanat CEO Aliya Salikova considered scaling opportunities for the foundation, which provided educational opportunities for children from rural regions of Kazakhstan. Established by Kazakhstani businessman and philanthropist Aidyn Rakhimbayev, IQanat... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Rural Scope; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Equality and Inequality; Education Industry; Central Asia; Kazakhstan

May 2025
Background Note

Skills-First Talent Management: The Importance of Managers

By: Boris Groysberg, Nicole Zelazko, Tom Quinn, Robin Abrahams, Izzy Yeoh and Colleen Ammerman

This note supplements a 2025 series on skills-first talent management in organizations, comprising “Skills-First Talent Management: Hiring” (HBS No. 425-019), “Skills-First Talent Management: Onboarding, Development, and Performance Management” (HBS No. 425-020), and... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Experience and Expertise; Job Design and Levels; Employment; Human Capital; Management Practices and Processes; Employee Relationship Management; Retention; Personal Development and Career; United States

May 2025 (Revised July 2025)
Case

Mission First at Coinbase

By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Brian K. Baik

This case examines Coinbase’s two major organizational transformations in 2020 amid significant market volatility and social upheaval. As the leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange prepared for its landmark IPO, CEO Brian Armstrong made two controversial decisions:... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Management Control; Talent and Talent Management; Business or Company Management; Management Systems; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Employee Relationship Management

May 2025
Case

RTX's Lifetime Income Strategy: Shaping the Future of Retirement

By: Daniel Green, Luis M. Viceira and Sarah Mehta

Set in 2024, this case explores the Lifetime Income Strategy (LIS), a novel retirement product launched by aerospace and defense company RTX in 2012. Aiming to embed the security of a traditional pension within a 401(k) plan, the LIS allowed participants to secure a... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Compensation and Benefits; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Jobs and Positions; Labor; Retirement; Society; Adoption; Personal Finance; Aerospace Industry; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; United States; Virginia

May 2025
Case

The Micro-Family Office: Aamir Rehman

By: Lauren Cohen and Sophia Pan

With a successful career and strong academic credentials, Aamir Rehman sought to design a life grounded in autonomy. For him, this meant serving on boards, continuing his professorship, and ensuring a secure and comfortable life for his family. While he didn’t possess... View Details

April 2025
Case

Thrivent: From Insurance Agents to Financial Advisors

By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Tom Quinn

Thrivent, a midwestern financial services company with a centuries-long history rooted in Lutheranism, had reached $10 billion in revenue mostly by selling life insurance. In the 2020s, however, CEO Terry Rasmussen began a transformation process centered around the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Transformation; Talent and Talent Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Forecasting and Prediction; Employee Relationship Management; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Job Design and Levels; Human Capital; Leading Change; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Insurance Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States; Minneapolis

April 2025 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Techint: Strategic Choices for Community Impact

By: Lauren Cohen, Virak Prum, Kenneth Charman, Pedro Levindo and Mariana Cal

In early 2024 Erika Bienek, Chief Community Relations Officer at Techint, had to decide whether to invest in a new company-owned and operated technical school in Veracruz, Mexico, or invest instead in strengthening the city’s public education system. Techint, a global... View Details

Keywords: Technical Institutes; Community Relations; Social Impact; Argentina; Mexico; Brazil; Conglomerate; Stakeholder Management; Government And Business; Community Impact; Philanthropy; Business Conglomerates; Business Subsidiaries; Business Headquarters; Family Business; Decision Making; Private Sector; Public Sector; Education; Curriculum and Courses; Middle School Education; Secondary Education; Teaching; Training; Learning; Energy; Engineering; Construction; Values and Beliefs; Geography; Global Range; Local Range; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Firms and Management; Government Legislation; Recruitment; Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Knowledge; Resource Allocation; Industry Clusters; Infrastructure; Family Ownership; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Business and Community Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Business and Government Relations; Creativity; Reputation; Social and Collaborative Networks; Civil Society or Community; Social Issues; Poverty; Strategy; Construction Industry; Education Industry; Energy Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Steel Industry; Europe; Italy; Latin America; North and Central America; Mexico; North America; United States; South America; Argentina; Buenos Aires; Brazil

April 2025
Teaching Note

ZEISS: Commercializing Science

By: Maria P. Roche

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 725-359. View Details