-
How Apple Is Organized for Innovation
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleWhen Steve Jobs returned to Apple, in 1997, it had a conventional structure for a company of its size and scope. It was divided into business units, each... -
6 Key Levers of a Successful Organizational Transformation
Organizational Development Digital ArticleLeaders, don't overlook your employees' emotional journey. -
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. -
Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow
Managing people Magazine ArticleManagement practices that work well in one phase may bring on a crisis in another. -
First, Let’s Fire All the Managers
Corporate governance Magazine ArticleMorning Star, a leading food processor, demonstrates how to create an organization that combines managerial discipline and market-centric flexibility—without bosses, titles, or promotions. -
What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers
Organizational restructuring Magazine ArticleThe distinctions among followers are every bit as consequential as those among leaders—and have critical implications for how managers should manage. -
The Theory of the Business
Managing people Magazine ArticleNot in a very long time—not, perhaps, since the late 1940s or early 1950s—have there been as many new major management techniques as there are today: downsizing, out-sourcing, total quality management, economic value analysis, benchmarking, reengineering. Each is a powerful tool. But, with the exceptions of outsourcing and reengineering, these tools are designed primarily to […] -
Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier
Leading teams Magazine ArticleNot so long ago, companies were reinvented by teams. Communities of practice may reinvent them yet again—if managers learn to cultivate these fertile organizational forms without destroying them. -
Where Does the Customer Fit in a Service Operation?
Organizational restructuring Magazine ArticleWhile management skills can improve service systems, a manager is better off if he or she first has a clear understanding of the operating characteristics that set one service system apart from another. This author offers one view of services, which, if followed, results in a “rational approach to the rationalization” of services. His view, […] -
Traeger’s CEO on Cleaning Up a Toxic Culture
Organizational culture Magazine ArticleThe company essentially had to start from scratch. -
How Process Enterprises Really Work
Managing people Magazine ArticleWhat do IBM, Texas Instruments, Owens Corning, and Duke Power have in common? They’re all redesigning their organizations around their core processes—and reaping enormous benefits as a result. -
Change Management in Government
International business Magazine ArticleLeaders of government agencies operate under handicaps largely unknown within the private sector. But the best of them have improved performance by adopting and adapting some goals and methods that have been proven in business. -
Taking Time Seriously in Evaluating Jobs
Organizational restructuring Magazine ArticleIn appraising performance, designing pay systems, and in organizing and planning work, managers make assessments about the size and importance of jobs. Whether the assessments are accurate deeply affects how well the organization runs. But what do we mean when we say that one job is bigger than another? Bigger in what sense? One way […] -
The Feudal World of Japanese Manufacturing
Competitive strategy Magazine ArticleYears ago, while visiting friends in the United States, I happened to see the classic children’s film The Wizard of Oz. Near the end, Dorothy at last appears before the all-powerful wizard—a terrifying image of smoke and light. Only when her dog, Toto, tugs at a curtain over to one side does she see a […] -
Managing Without Managers
Managing people Magazine ArticleIn Brazil, where paternalism and the family business fiefdom still flourish, I am president of a manufacturing company that treats its 800 employees like responsible adults. Most of them—including factory workers—set their own working hours. All have access to the company books. The vast majority vote on many important corporate decisions. Everyone gets paid by […] -
Coevolving: At Last, a Way to Make Synergies Work
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleThe promise of synergy is the prime rationale for the existence of the multibusiness corporation. Yet for most corporations, the "1-plus-1-equals-3" arithmetic... -
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... -
How I Learned to Let My Workers Lead
Managing people Magazine ArticleI wanted employees who would fly like geese. What I had was a company that wallowed like a herd of buffalo. -
When Social Capital Stifles Innovation
Innovation Magazine ArticleRegions where social ties are tight may be the worst places for creative operations.
-
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... -
Kmart, Inc. and Builders Square
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details In 1997, Kmart received an offer from retail buyout specialists Leonard Green & Partners for the purchase of its ailing 162-store home improvement chain,... -
Endo Pharmaceuticals (E): Judge Stein Rules
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study5.00View Details An abstract is not available for this product. -
Thomas Cook Group on the Brink (C): Transformation Year 2 Results
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details Analyzes the results of the Thomas Cook turnaround plan after the second year under Harriet Green's leadership (November 2014). -
Du Pont: The Birth of the Modern Multidivisional Corporation
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details Du Pont's realization in 1921 that its "U-form" corporate structure was ill-suited its new diversification strategy led to a pioneering new kind of organization... -
Splitting the Founders' Equity Pie: Is Equal Equitable?
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study8.95View Details Negotiating the initial equity split among founders is not as straight-forward as it might first appear. In this case, five Belgians launch Novosanis,... -
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... -
Chrysler's Sale to Fiat
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details This case provides students with an opportunity to analyze the restructuring of Chrysler in the midst of the financial crisis of 2008-2009. It describes... -
PayPal in 2015: Reshaping the Financial Services Landscape
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details The case follows PayPal, a digital payments platform that found early success processing online payments for purchases on eBay, which acquired the company... -
GlaxoSmithKline: Reorganizing Drug Discovery (B)
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the (A) case. -
Pacesetters
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study8.95View Details City Sealcoating CEO Keith Chaney had just publicly called out the Boston Chamber of Commerce for their slow progress on their supplier diversity program,... -
Paula Evans and the Redesign of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (B), Spanish Version
Leadership & Managing People Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the (A) case. -
Korea Stock Exchange--1998
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details Following a major financial crisis, the South Korean government attempted to revive the Korea Stock Exchange to spur equity investment in Korean companies.... -
Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: Unilever and the Kraft Heinz Takeover Bid (B), Spanish Version
Leadership & Managing People Case Study5.00View Details This (B) case describes the aftermath of Unilever's February 2017 rejection of Kraft Heinz Company's (KHC)/3G Capital's (3G) unsolicited $143 billion... -
Pinkerton (B), Spanish Version
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details The CEO of Pinkerton, a security guard service firm, is considering options to alter the company's current restrictive and expensive capital structure.... -
Dressen
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details Divisional management must decide whether to support a leveraged buyout by a private equity group and, if so, what percent of ownership should go to the... -
Messer Griesheim (A)
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details In 2001, Allianz Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs acquired a majority stake in Messer Griesheim, a European industrial gas concern held by Hoechst.... -
Safeway, Inc.'s Leveraged Buyout (B)
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the (A) case. -
Nick Fiore: Healer or Hitman? (B)
Strategy & Execution Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the (A) case.
-
How Apple Is Organized for Innovation
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleWhen Steve Jobs returned to Apple, in 1997, it had a conventional structure for a company of its size and scope. It was divided into business units, each... -
6 Key Levers of a Successful Organizational Transformation
Organizational Development Digital ArticleLeaders, don't overlook your employees' emotional journey. -
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. -
Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow
Managing people Magazine ArticleManagement practices that work well in one phase may bring on a crisis in another. -
First, Let’s Fire All the Managers
Corporate governance Magazine ArticleMorning Star, a leading food processor, demonstrates how to create an organization that combines managerial discipline and market-centric flexibility—without bosses, titles, or promotions. -
What Every Leader Needs to Know About Followers
Organizational restructuring Magazine ArticleThe distinctions among followers are every bit as consequential as those among leaders—and have critical implications for how managers should manage. -
The Theory of the Business
Managing people Magazine ArticleNot in a very long time—not, perhaps, since the late 1940s or early 1950s—have there been as many new major management techniques as there are today: downsizing, out-sourcing, total quality management, economic value analysis, benchmarking, reengineering. Each is a powerful tool. But, with the exceptions of outsourcing and reengineering, these tools are designed primarily to […] -
Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier
Leading teams Magazine ArticleNot so long ago, companies were reinvented by teams. Communities of practice may reinvent them yet again—if managers learn to cultivate these fertile organizational forms without destroying them. -
Where Does the Customer Fit in a Service Operation?
Organizational restructuring Magazine ArticleWhile management skills can improve service systems, a manager is better off if he or she first has a clear understanding of the operating characteristics that set one service system apart from another. This author offers one view of services, which, if followed, results in a “rational approach to the rationalization” of services. His view, […]