Publications

27 Oct 2008
Lessons from the Classroom

Achieving Excellence in Nonprofits

toward other interests. Staying on mission and building an effective organization to carry out the mission requires a clear strategic focus and a well-developed strategy backed by well-aligned operations. This is the focus of our research... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

November 2006 (Revised August 2012)
Background Note

A Strategic Perspective on Bankruptcy

By: Bill George, Jim Sharpe and Andrew N. McLean

An overview of bankruptcy procedures in U.S. courts, recent filing data and a framework for evaluating a reorganization with creditors or considering opening a court-supervised reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Financial Distress; Turnarounds; Legal Aspects Of Business; Liquidation; Boards Of Directors; Hedge Funds; Strategy; Law; Governing and Advisory Boards; Negotiation; Crisis Management; Policy; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Credit; Financial Crisis; United States

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Technical Note

Strategy and Strategic Thinking

By: Eric Van den Steen

This note gives managers a concrete perspective on what ‘a strategy’ really is, what makes a decision ‘strategic,’ and what ‘strategic thinking’ means. It also gives them practical frameworks to assess whether some set of decisions is really a strategy and how to... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Alignment; Strategy Definition; Strategy And Execution; Strategy Test; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Decision Making

2010
Conference Presentation

Induced Variation in Administrative Systems: Experimenting with Contexts for Innovation

By: Adrian Caldart, Roberto Vassolo and Luciana Silvestri

Keywords: Evolutionary Perspective On Strategic Management; International Business; Management; Organizational Design; Globalization

2002
Book

Organizations, Policy and the Natural Environment: Institutional and Strategic Perspectives

By: Andrew J. Hoffman and Marc Ventresca

This book brings together emerging perspectives from organization theory and management, environmental sociology, international regime studies, and the social studies of science and technology to provide a starting point for discipline-based studies of environmental... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Regulation

September 2018
Case

The Financial Management of Harvard Business School

By: C. Fritz Foley and F. Katelynn Boland

In the spring of 2018, the Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Financial Planning at Harvard Business School considers potential refinements to the School's financial management practices. He faced questions about whether the metrics that had been used to evaluate... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit; Financial Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Education Industry; United States

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Connecting With Nonprofits

Core competency transferMore equal exchange of resources Joint value creation Need for value renewal Relationship Management Corporate contact usually in community affairs or foundation; View Details

Keywords: by James Austin

Article

Strategic Orientations in a Competitive Context: The Role of Strategic Orientation Differentiation

By: Rohit Deshpandé, Amir Grinstein and Elie Ofek

Strategic orientation studies often provide 'best practice prescriptions' for firms in a given context—matching orientations to environmental conditions. While this perspective has value, empirical results are equivocal, and an important reality has been overlooked:... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Change Management; Situation or Environment; Decision Choices and Conditions

August 2017 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Audubon in 2017: The Turnaround

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

The case briefly describes the 112-year history of the organization and focuses particularly on the changes wrought by its new leader David Yarnold who was brought in by the board in 2010. Under Yarnold's leadership the organization went through two strategic plans... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Strategy; Change Management; Change; Leadership; Nonprofit Organizations; Strategy; Transformation

16 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Nonprofit Networking: The New Way to Grow

management strategy for nonprofits is still relatively uncommon. Oftentimes an organization might be engaged in a partnership at one point or another, or be a member of an... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

14 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

The New Measures for Improving Nonprofit Performance

multiple stakeholders, including funders, boards, and clients—all while staying true to a core mission and values. In today's climate of scarce economic resources, the pressure for nonprofits to show... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

25 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Strategic Alliances

development of ten additional case studies—all presented in the forthcoming book The Collaboration Challenge: How Nonprofits and Businesses Succeed through Strategic Alliances... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy O. Perry

23 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

It’s Back to Business-Basics for Nonprofits

To transform lofty aspirations into quantifiable impact, nonprofits need to become more familiar with traditional business tools such as business plans, precise mission statements, and goal setting to improve their performance. That was... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

12 May 2011
Research & Ideas

The Difficult Transition from For-Profit to Nonprofit Boards

do I need to read a book on nonprofit management? Isn't it just a subset of the for-profit world, with little difference in the tasks and perspectives of View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

January 2002 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Strategic Planning at NFTE

By: Allen S. Grossman and Daniel F. Curran

The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), is a successful nonprofit poised on the verge of explosive growth. The senior management contracted with McKinsey consultants to help guide the process. The founders of NFTE brought it from a small program... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations

2009
Article

Placing the Normative Logics of Accountability in 'Thick' Perspective

By: Alnoor Ebrahim

This article provides a critical reflection on the heavily normative nature of current accountability debates. In particular, it explores three streams of normative discourse on nonprofit accountability: improving board governance, improving performance-based... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Accounting; Governance; Performance Evaluation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Organizational Structure; Relationships; Accounting Industry

July – August 2011
Article

The New Psychology of Strategic Leadership

In this article, it is argued that today's dominant ideas about the practice of business strategy-defined by Porter three decades ago-hinge on a specific and therefore partial interpretation of competition. The result is an equally partial picture of the strategist's... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Leadership; Business Strategy; Training; Experience and Expertise; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Practices and Processes; Competition; Markets

November 1993 (Revised September 1995)
Supplement

Block 16: Management's Perspective

By: Malcolm S. Salter and Susan E.A. Hall

Supplements Block 16: Conoco's Green Oil Strategy (A). Reviews the environmental challenges facing the oil industry throughout upstream and downstream operations, and oil companies' competitive responses. Reviews Conoco's and Du Pont's environmental initiatives in more... View Details

Keywords: Local Range; Operations; Environmental Sustainability; Perspective; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy