This case describes how a Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google, Bill Coughran, leads a high-performing engineering organization. The case focuses specifically on Coughran's encouraging two teams of engineers to develop competing solutions for application storage systems. It also shows how Coughran assembled an informal brain trust of managers and technical leaders that assist him in leading his 2,000-person organization. This case will be relevant for those interested in what it takes to lead for sustained innovation, particularly of knowledge workers like engineers. It also sheds light on how to develop leaders in engineering organizations.

This case is a thick description of how a Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google, Bill Coughran, leads a high-performing engineering organization. The case focuses specifically on Coughran's use of encouraging two teams of engineers to develop competing solutions for application storage systems. It also shows how Coughran assembled an informal brain trust of managers and technical leaders that assist him in leading his 2,000-person organization. This case will be relevant for those interested in what it takes to lead for sustained innovation, particularly of knowledge workers like engineers. It also sheds light on how to develop leaders in engineering organizations.

This note describes the rapidly changing environment of social media and how managers can leverage it.

Roll Back Malaria, a global partnership dedicated to fighting malaria has not met its founders' expectations of effectively combatting malaria. In 2005, after several internal evaluations, RBM leadership has decided to engage the Boston Consulting Group to work on a Change Initiative that when completed will enable RBM to address the eradication of malaria both more effectively and through larger scale efforts. However, the Initiative has become derailed after BCG's first major presentation to the RBM board. Will this end the Change Initiative prematurely?

Using the terminology of lean management practices, this note addresses muda, or waste, by defining its subtypes and providing a framework for their identification in production and service processes. A form useful for conducting a muda audit is provided.

Kodak has been a leader in convenient and cutting edge products for many decades. However, the company has not adapted well to the market's shift toward digital technology. Now, the CEO must decide how to handle the decline of earnings and stock prices, which began in the last decade. This case is included in Module 3 of the course Business Thought & Action.

In September 2008, as Lehman Brothers struggled to survive, John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch, realized that his bank was also on the brink of failure. Throughout the weekend of September 13-14, 2008, Thain successfully negotiated a deal with Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, for BofA to acquire Merrill. However, throughout the fourth quarter of 2008, Merrill's financial condition deteriorated at an alarming rate, with expected 4Q08 losses ballooning from $5.3 billion in November to over $12 billion by mid-December. Shareholders of both companies approved the deal on December 5th, 2008, but soon after, Lewis telephoned fed officials and declared he would invoke the MAC clause to exit the deal unless fed officials provided government financial assistance. Fed officials instructed Lewis to "stand down" and not to invoke the MAC clause. As he convened his Board on December 22nd, 2008, Lewis had to make a decision. Should he close the deal "for the good of the country?" Or should he declare a MAC and exit the deal, potentially invoking the wrath of the U.S. government. Was there another way?

This case examines the various considerations relevant to selecting and compensating workers in a context where their work involves a pro-social component. This is relevant to not only health care in Zambia, but to NGO and public sector workers who are both motivated by the mission of their positions and the remuneration. Zambia was facing a healthcare human resource crisis with less than half of the healthcare workers needed to meet health needs. Yet, it was simultaneously burdened by high incidence of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, malnutrition, and respiratory and diarrheal diseases. The Zambian Ministry of Health (MoH) realized that in the short term, it would be impossible to train the number of doctors and nurses needed to fill this gap. Thus, they were considering incorporating the primarily volunteer community health worker (CHW) force into salaried health workers of the MoH. Given the high level of personal commitment and dedication combined with the proper education and skill needed to be an effective community health worker, the MoH was struggling to identify the best strategy to recruit and retain motivated and capable CHWs.

Silver Sales Company's president is building a growing company that sells extremely accurate flow meters used to measure water flow in pipes and channels. In addition, Silver Sales Company provides inspection and assessment services to water agencies. The president owns 31 per cent of the company. Ring Manufacturing, the sole owner of the intellectual property and manufacturing facility for the flow meters, controls 62 per cent of the ownership of Silver Sales Company. The president is considering his long-term stake in the organization. Recently, the president has been approached by a U.K. company that is a sales agent for Silver Sales Company's products. The company has expressed an interest in a possible merger or acquisition between the two companies and has further indicated that it has an investor to support its desires. The president is now trying to determine whether a closer relationship with, or sale to, the U.K. company might be a way for him to capture some of the value he has created over the last several years.

The Brigham and Women's Physician's Organization (BWPO) and its corporate parent disagree over who has jurisdiction over significant legacy funds. Are they controlled by the BWPO or do they belong to BWPO's corporate parent? The BWPO and its corporate parent must negotiate who has control of the funds which impacts how the funds may be used.

The case describes the various reactions of doctors and administrators to the solutions they developed.

The case describes how the Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization and its corporate parent resolved the issue of how the disputed funds would be distributed and used.

In March 2008 the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, approved a revised master plan designed to guide the development of the city through the year 2025. Vietnam's economy had been growing at rates of 6 to 8 percent per year for nearly two decades, and much of that growth was located in its cities, and in Ho Chi Minh City in particular. Real estate prices were at all time highs, development pressures threatened the historic French colonial core of the city and the wetlands to the west and southeast, and traffic congestion was growing rapidly as the city was registering 1300 new motorcycles and 150 new cars per day. The new master plan designated areas where growth would be encouraged and included a list of transportation and other infrastructure projects and policies designed to support the desired developments. Not all the elements of the plan seemed consistent with its goals, however, and the list of projects was so ambitious-that it was unlikely that all would be built on schedule. The obvious question was what policies and projects should receive priority. This case is designed to support a discussion of the problems of managing growth in a rapidly developing city. HKS Case Number 1909.0

In January 2010, Jen McDonald, head of Bank of America Corporation's (BoA) Digital Marketing group, was discussing the bank's mobile strategy with Douglas Brown, senior vice president, Mobile Product Development. BoA launched mobile banking in 2007 and within three years it had 4 million active customers. This success prompted line-of-business managers to request Jen and Doug to include more functionality in the bank's mobile app that were specific to their businesses such as credit cards and mortgages. Jen and Doug had to decide how to leverage the mobile platform for various businesses of the bank without creating confusion or increasing complexity for the consumers. Recognizing the potential impact mobile technology could have on the entire banking industry, they also had to decide on how to position BoA's mobile banking in the long run.

Discusses how Alibaba Group successfully managed new business ventures to become a leader in China's online marketplaces. Students follow Alibaba Group's transition from a startup to a multibusiness firm with over 15,000 employees in just over a decade. They analyze the evolving dynamics of internal competition and cooperation among Alibaba Group's subsidiaries. Students are also asked to address Alibaba Group's strategy, the role of its corporate center and how to incentivize subsidiary executives.

Pandora Radio is at a crossroads. Founder Tim Westergren has just been told by a well known VC to get rid of his unprofitable customers in order to get his costs down, but Westergren is not sure that such actions are consistent with his company's business model. Pandora Radio is the largest Internet music stream site, and its rapidly growing user base loves the free customizable music stream under an advertising supported model. Pandora has to pay royalties for every song streamed, and has other variable costs that scale linearly with hours consumed, but it has taken no steps to restrict the amount of usage among its heaviest and most loyal users. Can Pandora make its model work when a significant percentage of its users cause it to lose money?

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group) is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis says true leaders are not born but made, and usually self-made. He studies examples from recent US history; goes on to distinguish leadership from management; and explores the critical process of self-invention (including self-reinvention).

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis explores the importance of learning to leaders, and distinguishes among three types of learning: shock, maintenance, and innovative. He goes on to demonstrate the value of (1) looking back at your childhood and adolescence and using your experiences to make things happen in the present; (2) consciously seeking the kinds of experiences that will improve and enlarge you; (3) taking risks as a matter of course, with the knowledge that failure is as vital as it is inevitable; (4) seeing the future as an opportunity to do things that need to be done, rather than as a trial or a test.

Warren Bennis's classic book On Becoming a Leader examines the differences between leaders and followers and explains how leaders emerge and sustain themselves. The 2009 edition, published by Basic Books (a member of the Perseus Books group), is substantially updated from the original. In this chapter, Bennis asserts that: in order to lead you must win people's trust; the characteristic essential to winning trust is integrity; and the foundation of integrity is adherence to a strong and clearly defined ethical code. Bennis also says that leaders must be committed to proactively stimulating and orchestrating change.

This case describes how Netflix created the business model of delivering DVDs using mail services. Essentially, Netflix exploited a whitespace that other players, such as Blockbuster, could not engage in primarily because they were constrained by their own business models. The case allows the instructor to develop the details of the capabilities that have allowed Netflix to deliver the values its customers desire. The case can then explore the competitive dynamics between Blockbuster, Netflix and Wal-Mart, a new entrant, in this space. Finally, the case describes future technologies, such as Video on Demand (VOD), that in turn pose a threat to Netflix's business model.<br><br>There are two follow-up cases: Netflix Inc.: The Second Act - Moving into Streaming, 9B16M080 and Netflix: Proving the Skeptics Wrongs, 9B16M081.