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This technical note explains what corporate governance is and why it is important. It examines how corporate governance is practised within developed and developing economies by identifying four distinct models of capitalism in which corporate governance is embedded: liberal market economies, coordinated market economies, family-led market economies and state-led market economies. Depending on the model of capitalism in which they operate, governance actors — owners, managers, directors and employees — engage distinct governance practices. The note concludes with a discussion of the corporate governance challenges facing multinational firms.

Mental illness has been described as an epidemic affecting nearly a quarter of all Americans in their lifetimes, often during their most productive working years. Managers who can design organizations that maximize mental health can minimize these risks and boost productivity. This note serves as a guide to understanding mental health in the American workplace. It provides an overview of the most prevalent mental health conditions among employees and the aspects of the work environment that can exacerbate the issues. It also looks at the costs, both to individuals and to companies, of treating or not treating mental health conditions, and outlines the legal framework, insurance plans, and managerial responses to accommodating employees who struggle with mental health issues. To engage students in a role play, the note includes a vignette featuring a struggling CEO.

Discusses the various types of costs that can exist in manufacturing settings; how to compute cost of good manufactured and cost of goods sold; how to determine predetermined overhead rates; how to compute flexible overhead budgets; the managerial use of overhead variances; the distinction between absorption and variable costing; and the impact of JIT on the differences between absorption and variable costing.

Discusses several analytical techniques that incorporate the multi-year period over which a new asset will be used, and looks at three of these techniques (payback period, net present value, and internal rate of return). Examines the choice of a rate of return (or discount rate), the issue of risk, and how companies deal with risk in assessing investment proposals. Also discusses some non-quantitative considerations that can influence senior management's decision about a capital investment (or programming) proposal. Concludes with a description of ways that programming relates to several other organizational activities.

Focuses on the way managers can affect the items on an organization's financial statements. In particular, financial management is concerned with the choices that managers make about (a) the use of debt or equity to finance assets, (b) the structure of debt, (c) the magnitude of net income, and (d) the management of cash. Discusses both the operating cycle and the financing cycle as two cash-related cycles that must be carefully managed.

Discusses some basic techniques for financial statement forecasting, including the operating and financing cycles. Discusses three important financial management concepts: debt structure, leverage, and the role of profit. Makes a distinction between financial risk and business risk. Examines some issues related to financing fixed assets, including issues related to financing growth. Discusses cost behavior and its relationship to forecasting financial statements, and the differential cost concept, Examines some techniques for undertaking alternative choice decisions concerning discontinuing a product line, and discusses several important principles associated with alternative choice decisions. Concludes with a discussion of the concept of contribution and the structure of a contribution income statement.

Discusses the gap between reality and the NPM paradigm and the lessons that can be transferred from the private to the public sector. Address the difference between bureaucratic control and managerial control, and how to move toward managerial control. Focuses on the barriers to effective managerial control and how to overcome them, including the control culture, centralized decision making, the distinction between planning and control, absence of market forces, task complexity, and personnel policies. Includes a discussion of responsibility centers as a decentralizing mechanism, and how a well-prepared set of management control reports can assist managers.

Discusses some basic concepts of financial statements, including the balance sheet and what it measures, the nature of some specific assets and liabilities, the income statement and what it measures, the creation of owners' equity, and the basis for changes in it. Also addresses several fundamental accounting concepts (entity, dual aspect, money measurement, cost, realization), and some basic accounting and finance matters, including the nature of an account, leverage, unmeasured value, and depreciation.

The purpose of this note is to characterize the challenges entrepreneurs may face in creating a well-functioning ecosystem of users, and to equip entrepreneurs with tools to overcome these obstacles. The note is meant to accompany the final module of the "The Online Economy: Strategy and Entrepreneurship," an elective course taught at Harvard Business School. This is an abridgment of HBP 911066.

Managing change is consistently ranked as one of the most critical and difficult tasks that leaders face. This note outlines the key choices that leaders must make when engineering change. It is organized into four sections, offering guidance on how to: 1) diagnose the need for change; 2) determine what sort of change is called for (e.g., radical or incremental); 3) develop a delivery strategy that fosters stakeholder buy-in; and, 4) evaluate impact. In addition to providing diagnostic frameworks for managing change, it offers a conceptual overview of both foundational and contemporary change management theory. Managers, instructors, and students of change management should find this note especially useful for discussing the core tenants of designing and implementing a change initiative.

Part of a leader's job is to equip the organization to transform inputs into outputs by defining organizational strategy, shaping organizational identity, and then managing four organizational components-formal organizational structure, culture, people, and critical tasks-such that each component, and their interaction, aligns to produce performance. Substantial research has demonstrated that well-aligned organizations will be more capable of (1) attaining strategic goals, (2) efficiently utilizing resources to do so, and (3) adapting to unforeseen, future challenges. This short note walks through the Congruence Model, a simple yet powerful tool for achieving alignment in an organization.

Apple Inc. sued Samsung Electronics for approximately $2 billion, contending that Samsung violated some of its patents by copying Apple's product features. Apple's expert witness team used a conjoint analysis in order to assign a value to the product features in question-thereby attempting to assess the magnitude of Apples' revenue loss as a result of the patent infringement. This case asks students to evaluate the design of this study as well as the pros and cons of its use in this context.

This note presents two related measures for assessing the financial value of a customer to the firm. The first is the well-known measure of Customer Lifetime Value, or CLV for short. The second, which has received much less attention, treats the acquisition of a customer as a financial investment that has a quantifiable return based on future profit streams. Accordingly, we term this latter measure Customer Lifetime Return on Investment, or CLROI for short, and explain how it is calculated. We further show how employing CLROI can yield wildly different marketing implications relative to CLV (despite the strong link between them), particularly for targeting decisions. The note provides multiple examples to illustrate the concepts and also introduces formal characterizations of the two measures. The relevance of segment sizes, customer dynamics, social network influences, and strategic considerations are discussed.

Culture is a highly complex set of learned behaviors that function at multiple levels. Cultural challenges go beyond overcoming language differences and navigating different national legal systems. Cultural values interlock with many national systems, which influence the way business is developed and how deals are made. Managers who understand how to navigate such differences are in high demand.

If you want to create change in public education but are not a school principal or other traditional public education leader, what do you need to do? This long, integrated background note examines the inspiring models and stories of individuals who are improving outcomes for low-income students through innovative social ventures. It shows how small innovations that start outside the traditional public education establishment get off the ground and overcome obstacles; how, if properly set up and tended, they can scale to multiple sites to move inside the "school building" for greater impact. They demonstrate the advanced leadership skills, tools, and principles that courageous education innovators everywhere can use to guide their thinking from outside the school building in.

This note considers common legal pitfalls associated with the launch of new products. A series of questions are presented that companies poised to launch a product should keep in mind. Questions about advertising, pricing, and branding are explored, as well as who in a product's supply chain might bear liability if the product is faulty.

China faces enormous environmental challenges. This background note looks at the historical, economic and political origins of the environmental crisis that faces the world's fastest-growing economy.

This note introduces a framework for deliberately building effective interpersonal relationships. First, we will define the necessary attributes of these relationships. Next, we will discuss common barriers to effectiveness. Lastly, we will provide tools to build and maintain these relationships.

This technical note provides suggestions for influencing others when the person doing the influencing does not have formal power or authority.