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Layoffs That Don't Break Your Company
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleToday layoffs have become companies' default response to the challenges created by advances in technology and global competition. Yet research shows that... -
What Companies Still Get Wrong About Layoffs
Organizational Development Digital ArticleMany cling to the idea that reducing staff is the fastest, easiest way to cut costs. But there are smarter, more humane approaches. -
The Gentleman's "Three" (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
Leadership & Managing People Magazine ArticleHow do you reduce headcount when almost everyone gets the same scores on performance reviews? HR vice president Nils Ekdahl confronts that question at... -
Case Study: Can You Fix a Toxic Culture Without Firing People?
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleA CFO wonders how to turn around a struggling division. -
Inside Outplacement—My Search for a Job
Human resource management Magazine ArticleIt took three months for the shock to wear off. There we were in England, the land of my birth. After 32 years with a global oil corporation, the only employer I had ever had, at the age of 54, with what seemed to me a string of successes in marketing behind me, I was […] -
If You Think Downsizing Might Save Your Company, Think Again
Downsizing Digital ArticleResearch shows it increases the chances of bankruptcy. -
How's Your Return on People?
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleManagers pay lip service to employees as "valuable assets." But when numbers are down, staffers are often seen merely as costs to be cut. Treating employees... -
The Right Way to Close an Operation
Crisis management Magazine ArticleIt pays to go the extra mile for employees, customers, and suppliers. -
Make Overhead Cuts that Last
Finance & Accounting Magazine ArticleOverhead value analysis identifies structural cuts that will reduce overhead costs by 15% to 30%. Overhead value analysis requires delegating to every... -
The Case of the Downsizing Decision
Decision making and problem solving Magazine ArticleAndrew Jordan sat at his desk, absentmindedly watching a barge chug slowly upstream on the Thames. The dinner meeting he had scheduled with a select group of senior managers at Universal Products Company, Ltd. would begin in an hour. For three years, it had seemed enough to focus on the business problems of UPC’s Connectors […] -
When Lean Isn't Mean
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleThe trend is to downsize corporate headquarters--but sometimes a bigger HQ is better. -
The Layoff (Commentary for HBR Case Study)
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleAstrigo is in trouble. The home improvement chain has missed its earnings forecast badly and sales are falling. A 10% reduction in staff looks like the... -
Look Before You Lay Off
Corporate communications Magazine ArticleDownsizing in a downturn can do more harm than good. -
What Can CEOs Do for Displaced Workers?
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleMany U.S. corporations are shedding operations that are doing poorly, are superfluous because of mergers, or are obsolete because of a strategy of streamlining... -
Keeping Your Team Motivated When the Company Is Struggling
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleDon't pretend you have all the answers. Do be prepared to deal with the messy emotions people may be experiencing. -
Hollow Ring of the Productivity Revival
Global Business Magazine ArticleThe U.S. economy has been on the upswing for more than four years. Inflation is low, corporate profits are up, and the stock market has risen beyond anyone's... -
The Gentleman's "Three" (HBR Case Study)
Leadership & Managing People Magazine ArticleHow do you reduce headcount when almost everyone gets the same scores on performance reviews? HR vice president Nils Ekdahl confronts that question at... -
Incredibly Unproductive Shareholder
Leadership & Managing People Magazine ArticleAlthough CEOs are cast as the bad guys when they lay off staff or move operations overseas, they are simply serving their masters--the shareholders. This... -
Why My Former Employees Still Work for Me
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleRicardo Semler is a Brazilian industrialist whose company, Semco, manufactures marine equipment, food-service machinery, and other highly differentiated... -
Cutting Costs Without Drawing Blood
Finance & Accounting Magazine ArticleWhen looking for ways to cut costs, most managers reach for the head-count hatchet, and the markets usually roar with approval. But a company can almost...
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Vector (A): Labour Negotiations at Maxime Platform
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details This series of three sequential cases recounts the story of labour negotiations. The Maxime Platform, France, built in 1916 to accommodate the increasing... -
Shanghai Euclid Printing Machine Co.: Navigating through Layoffs and Closure
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details In late 2012, Shanghai Euclid Printing Machine Co. (Shanghai Euclid), a joint venture between a Chinese state-owned enterprise and an American multinational... -
Nick Fiore: Healer or Hitman? (B)
Strategy & Execution Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the (A) case. -
Sun Hydraulics Corp. (A)
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details Involves the design and creation of a company with no formally-defined hierarchy. Describes the steps the founder takes to avoid the organizational politics... -
Vector (B): Labour Negotiations at Maxime Platform
Strategy & Execution Case Study5.00View Details Case B covers the period between May and October 2001. It describes the change and effects of a new leadership style on the negotiation process. It shows... -
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing in a Downturn, Expanded Edition (with bonus article "Preparing Your Business for a Post-Pandemic World' by Carsten Lund Pedersen and Thomas Ritter)
24.95View Details How do the most resilient companies survive--and even thrive--during a slowdown? If you read nothing else on surviving a tough economy and coming back... -
Global Recession: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review
22.95View Details Roar Out of the Covid-19 Recession. You've weathered the shock, the lockdowns, and the slow crawl back. But with a new normal come new risks--and new... -
Bradley Marquez: Reduction in Force (A), Spanish Version
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details The Bradley Marquez advertising agency had created a successful niche delivering ethnic markets to their clients, corporate giants like Compaq, Sprint,... -
Cat Is Out of the Bag: KANA and the Layoff Gone Awry (A)
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details Vicki Amon-Higa, vice president of KANA, a publicly traded, midsize development company, was working with Bryan Kettle, KANA's CFO, to plan a layoff in... -
The Breakfast of Champions: Can General Mills Make the Dough with Pillsbury (B)
Organizational Development Case Study5.00View Details Despite all the uncertainty mergers and acquisitions create for buyers and sellers, a solid, well-planned post acquisition integration strategy can create... -
Sun Hydraulics: Leading in Tough Times (A) (Abridged)
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details Sun Hydraulics, 32-year-old global hydraulics engineering and manufacturing company headquartered in Sarasota, Florida; confronts tough choices due to... -
The Breakfast of Champions: Can General Mills Make the Dough with Pillsbury? (A)
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details Why do so many corporate initiatives, such as mergers and acquisitions, downsizings, or re-engineerings, look good on paper and turn out so poorly? This... -
Honeywell and the Great Recession: The Economic Recovery (B)
Leadership & Managing People Case Study5.00View Details Five years after the Great Recession, Honeywell's CEO Dave Cote and his executive team reflect on the choices they made to manage costs and earnings forecasts... -
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing in a Downturn (with bonus article "Reigniting Growth" By Chris Zook and James Allen)
24.95View Details How do the most resilient companies survive--and even thrive--during a slowdown? If you read nothing else on preparing for a tough economy and coming... -
John Preston
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details For the last year, Mountain Hardware (MH), a leading hardware retailer in the Rocky Mountain region, had evaded bankruptcy and liquidation. The week... -
Cat Is Out of the Bag: KANA and the Layoff Gone Awry (B), Spanish Version
Organizational Development Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the (A) case. -
Cat Is Out of the Bag: KANA and the Layoff Gone Awry (C)
Organizational Development Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the (A) case. -
Large-scale Change at the WSSC
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details Describes the organizational transformation occurring at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), a public utility. Faced with the possibility... -
Navistar International
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details As a consequence of laying off half its workforce in a massive downsizing program, the company--a large manufacturer of medium and heavy trucks--struggles...
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Layoffs That Don't Break Your Company
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleToday layoffs have become companies' default response to the challenges created by advances in technology and global competition. Yet research shows that... -
What Companies Still Get Wrong About Layoffs
Organizational Development Digital ArticleMany cling to the idea that reducing staff is the fastest, easiest way to cut costs. But there are smarter, more humane approaches. -
The Gentleman's "Three" (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
Leadership & Managing People Magazine ArticleHow do you reduce headcount when almost everyone gets the same scores on performance reviews? HR vice president Nils Ekdahl confronts that question at... -
Vector (A): Labour Negotiations at Maxime Platform
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details This series of three sequential cases recounts the story of labour negotiations. The Maxime Platform, France, built in 1916 to accommodate the increasing... -
Shanghai Euclid Printing Machine Co.: Navigating through Layoffs and Closure
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details In late 2012, Shanghai Euclid Printing Machine Co. (Shanghai Euclid), a joint venture between a Chinese state-owned enterprise and an American multinational... -
Nick Fiore: Healer or Hitman? (B)
Strategy & Execution Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the (A) case. -
Case Study: Can You Fix a Toxic Culture Without Firing People?
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleA CFO wonders how to turn around a struggling division. -
Sun Hydraulics Corp. (A)
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details Involves the design and creation of a company with no formally-defined hierarchy. Describes the steps the founder takes to avoid the organizational politics... -
Inside Outplacement—My Search for a Job
Human resource management Magazine ArticleIt took three months for the shock to wear off. There we were in England, the land of my birth. After 32 years with a global oil corporation, the only employer I had ever had, at the age of 54, with what seemed to me a string of successes in marketing behind me, I was […]