個案總覽

This case is set in November 2020. Despite COVID-19, Ray of Hope (ROH), a crowdfunding charity in Singapore had grown crowdfunded donations for their clients (individuals requiring financial assistance) six-fold from S$500,000 (US$400,000) in 2019 to S$3 million (US$2.2 million) in the period April to September 2020, without an increase in headcount. The nationwide circuit breaker - Singapore's version of a lockdown, further hampered the work at ROH as no face-to-face meetings could be held with its clients in the two-month period from 7 April 2020 to 1 June 2020. Tan En, ROH's General Manager, was quick to pivot ROH's strategy from focusing on fundraising campaigns that helped individual clients directly (individual campaigns) to serving as the intermediary that raised and administered public donations for the volunteer groups (group campaigns). What were the reasons why ROH could pivot so quickly?

As the chairman of a publicly traded multinational corporation, it's difficult to contemplate replacing a charismatic, visionary CEO who tripled your organization's revenue, increased its net income sixfold, and grew the company from $30 billion in market capitalization to $300 billion during his 10-year tenure. As a chief executive, it's perhaps even harder to think about how to replace yourself with someone who you believe will do the job better than you could over the next decade. But Mastercard found a way to approach its most recent CEO transition thoughtfully and systematically by sticking to several rules: It cast a wide net, considering more than 40 internal employees and a handful of standout externals. It committed to inclusivity in decision-making, asking the entire board to participate. It insisted on solving for tomorrow's problems, not today's, in clarifying what type of new leader was needed. It focused on developing and retaining all its current and future stars--not just filling the top job. Finally, the authors pledged to keep their minds open and their personal opinions to themselves--while discouraging early preferences and groupthink among the directors--until one final candid and decisive debate.

Agile methodology, created to fast-track software development, is now being used throughout organizations by teams that want to execute projects quickly. But those efforts often don't pan out, say Babson's Rob Cross and Alia Crocker and Harvard Law School's Heidi K. Gardner. Their research reveals that many large agile initiatives not only miss their goals but also cause organizational disruption--including staff burnout, the loss of key talent, and infighting among teams. What's going wrong? With the help of organizational network analysis--a methodology for mapping how people collaborate--the authors have identified where unforeseen barriers undermine agile initiatives. The main problem they found: Traditional practices for executing agile projects are ineffective. Companies err by staffing agile teams only with stars, isolating them from the main business, and dedicating members 100% to teams. In this article, they offer alternative approaches: tapping "hidden stars," who will be less overloaded, for agile initiatives, and then identifying and reaching out to highly connected potential resources who can bring in expertise as needed.

Senior leaders, particularly CEOs, confront a central paradox in their work: They generally have access to more lines of communication than anybody else, but the information that flows to them is suspect and compromised. Warning signals are tamped down. Key facts are omitted. Data sets are given a positive spin. All of it isolates leaders in a dangerous information bubble. But they can escape that bubble, the authors argue, by working actively to create a more expansive "listening ecosystem." They first have to learn how to listen actively themselves, without distraction or judgment, purely for comprehension; then they have to create systems and processes all around them that elevate listening to a constant state of hypervigilance. This sort of sustained attention to listening allows leaders to pick up on early signs of both danger and opportunity--and that, in turn, allows them to do their jobs and serve their organizations better. The authors conclude this piece by sharing advice--gleaned from interviews and personal experience--about how leaders can learn to listen better.

During economic slowdowns, consulting, law, and accounting firms often start offering services and taking on clients they really shouldn't, just to keep the lights on. This path is perilous. If a firm's practices have a diffuse mix of clients and unclear strategic positioning, it will weaken the firm's market profile and lead to internal conflicts, especially about the organization's future direction. This article presents two tools that professional service firms can use to manage their client mix and optimize their strategic position. The first is the practice spectrum. All practices fall on a continuum of sophistication that ranges from "commodity" to "rocket science." Any position on this spectrum can be profitable, though the forces driving profits change as you move along it--as do the capabilities and skills required. Successful practices understand their true position on the spectrum and know which performance levers to pull. The second tool is the client portfolio matrix, which separates clients into four categories on the basis of cost to serve and willingness to pay. Rather than spreading clients across all four, firms should target their acquisition efforts and follow different relationship strategies for each type of client.

We live in an age of polarization. Many of us may be asking ourselves how, when people disagree with or discount us, we can persuade them to rethink their positions. The author, an organizational psychologist, has spent time with a number of people who succeeded in motivating the notoriously self-confident Steve Jobs to change his mind and has analyzed the science behind their techniques. Some leaders are so sure of themselves that they reject good opinions and ideas from others and refuse to abandon their own bad ones. But, he writes, "it is possible to get even the most overconfident, stubborn, narcissistic, and disagreeable people to open their minds." He offers some approaches that can help you encourage a know-it-all to recognize when there's something to be learned, a stubborn colleague to make a U-turn, a narcissist to show humility, and a disagreeable boss to agree with you.

The contemporary artist on how he went from being a lonely, unpopular geek to commercial success and critical acclaim.

The leadership literature is replete with admonitions that successful leadership requires confidence. While that may be true, striving for greater confidence runs the risk of overconfidence. Overconfident leaders put themselves, their teams, and their organizations at risk. There are reasons to be skeptical that greater confidence improves performance, and substantial reasons to worry that greater confidence can undermine preparation. This article offers suggestions to avoid being fooled by overconfident charlatans. It also offers strategies for wise and honest leaders who would like to be both confident and truthful.

The Jobs to Be Done methodology is both a theory and a practical approach for understanding customer behavior and why people make the choices they make. Many practitioners, whether they work for startups or incumbent businesses, find Jobs to Be Done useful because it provides an uncommon solution to a common problem - understanding your customers as you start a new enterprise or losing touch with customers as your business grows. The theory of Jobs to Be Done is taught at Harvard Business School in the course "Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise ("BSSE," in HBS shorthand), which was created by the late Professor Clayton Christensen. It is practiced by many alumni of the course, as well as by numerous industry practitioners. Beyond them, there is a wider circle of professionals who are familiar with the theory or curious about it, and who are interested in converting that curiosity into practice. This multimedia toolbox walks through all of the stages of understanding and implementing Jobs to Be Done, including the foundational theory and its benefits to businesses; how to recruit customers, interview them, and analyze results; and feed that analysis into product development and marketing. The toolbox is a collection of original content as well as existing resources aggregated from across the web. To illustrate the theory the authors conducted a Jobs to Be Done research project to understand why our students "hire" Harvard Business School.

In 2017, the general manager of Rajarambapu Patil Co-operative Sugar Factory, a 50-year-old sugar plant in India, needed to recommend a strategy for the factory's upcoming production cycle. For the aggregate production plan, he was considering three options: a chase strategy, a level strategy, and a subcontracting strategy. The company faced multiple challenges, including a limited pool of skilled labourers, employee poaching by competitors and allied manufacturers, the wide availability of job options in metro cities, and pressure from the labour union. Company management wanted to optimize profits, while reducing risks and incurring no extra costs. How should the general manager decide which strategy would best meet all the criteria?

Following problems during the 2016 Iowa caucus, the Democratic National Committee mandated the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) to publish raw vote totals for the upcoming 2020 Iowa caucus. This mandate coincided with the IDP’s shift for the 2020 caucus from a partnership with Microsoft, Inc. to one with a political consultancy, Shadow Inc., for developing a vote-recording application (app)---a partnership choice believed by many to have been politically motivated. Shadow developers were given much less time and resources than Microsoft had been afforded for the previous caucus. When the time came for the app to be used on February 3, eligible users could not download the app, which led to several problems. The consequences of the problematic app led to embarrassment for the Democratic Party, political ridicule by the Republican Party, distrust among democrat voters, and ambiguity and a delay in election results.

More than one third of Americans were said to suffer some type of behavioral health ailment at some point in their lifetime, with many people requiring chronic therapy or intervention. Despite significant clinical needs, access to reliable treatment has been difficult due to shortage of providers, stigma, and poor reimbursement. Marvin's primary offering was online teletherapy via video chat. They hoped to bring Marvin's solution to a wider audience and thought that the race belonged to the swift. As they considered the market opportunity and the complex landscape of digital mental health, they wondered what to do?

This case focuses on a board director of a diversified holding company. The firm's longtime CEO had always exhibited a cautious, methodical approach to growth. Now, the CEO is raising the idea of joining with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to spin off part of the business as a separate company. This strategy shift-a spinoff, use of a SPAC, and accumulation of cash for larger acquisitions-was a dramatic shift for the company, and the board director must consider how to respond.

This case focuses on a junior partner at a private equity (PE) firm who sits on the board of one of the firm's portfolio companies. In the case, the board member asks the CEO to accelerate a cost-cutting initiative and looks to a seasoned industry veteran who is also a PE-appointed director for reinforcement. When the second board member sides with the CEO instead, the young director must consider how to respond.

This case describes the rise of Marie Curie from a poor family in Poland to the pinnacle of scientific fame. The case describes how Curie, as a young woman interested in science, found a way to earn a doctorate at the Sorbonne and perform pathbreaking research on radioactive materials that won her two Nobel Prizes. Students will learn how Marie Curie navigated life's choices to leave a lasting impact on the world.

Can Brainlab, a privately held firm, compete with giants like Medtronic and Amazon in delivering the Digital Operating Room of the future? The CEO is pondering solutions for secure exchange of medical information, pricing a new robotic imaging device, and reorganizing the firm. Thirty years have passed since the self-taught computer programmer Stefan Vilsmeier founded the firm and achieved dominance in many fields. How can he maintain it in the face of this new, powerful, and well-funded competition?

In late 2015, the chief executive officer of Extraordinary Journeys, an African safari tour operator, faced a rare opportunity to buy a smaller competitor, Safari Specialists Inc. The chief executive officer worried that her firm's strong organic growth would slow, and she was interested in examining alternative growth strategies. The smaller company was offered at a reasonable price and had a remarkably similar organizational culture. On the other hand, it relied heavily on outside contractors, not employees, creating potentially difficult human resources challenges. Further, it was located in rural Georgia, far from the Extraordinary Journeys home office in downtown Manhattan. All things considered, the chief executive officer was wondering if she should buy her competitor.

Instructor spreadsheet for product 8B21M008.