Crisis management

To meet the challenges of a complex world, strategic planners need to understand the differences between the four elements of VUCA--volatility, uncertainty,...

During her career, Cheryl Bachelder had been a senior executive at two other food franchising companies, Domino's and KFC, and she'd learned to love the...

What is the most damning criticism to be leveled at the CEO of BP and his senior team for what has happened in the Gulf of Mexico? It’s that they committed the company to a global strategy but failed to implement global operating policies necessary to execute it effectively. It’s become abundantly clear that BP […]

It’s about emotional truth, not spin.

In dark times, be the leader other people need.

It pays to go the extra mile for employees, customers, and suppliers.

But well-rounded leaders might be able to.

A golden statue of a winged youth once perched on the roof of AT&T;'s old headquarters. But when AT&T; lowered the 24-foot-high statue for regilding so...

Sometimes a CEO’s most challenging leadership transition is not a matter of switching jobs but of guiding the company onto a new path. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, a former McKinsey consultant who came to the family-owned Lego Group as an outsider in 2001 and was named CEO in 2004, learned that a series of distinct leadership […]

Lessons in recovering from a crisis.

The company missed a crucial leadership task.

Leaders in transition reflexively rely on the skills and strategies that worked for them in the past. That's a mistake, says Watkins, whose research shows...

GM needs to create a safety culture that encourages employees to speak up about large, small, and potential failures.

During the 2000s, in one of the largest commodity booms in history, Rio Tinto allowed itself to be swept up along with other mining companies in the mad...

20 March 2003: The first wave of coalition helicopters carrying Royal Marines from 42 Commando and the elite Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF) flew across the night sky from their base in Kuwait to support their fellow Marines of 40 Commando, who had landed on Iraq’s Al Faw peninsula from the sea and were securing strategic […]

BP doesn’t need an engineer at the helm. It needs a leader. Of course engineers matter, when the task is stemming damage from the largest oil spill in U.S. history. BP needs all the talent it can get. Scientists, engineers, and technicians, including the 2500 BOP employees sent to the Gulf from all over the […]

Just a few years after its 2005 opening, Georgia Aquarium faced a challenge common to all experience-based businesses: After an initial rush of traffic,...

When he joined T-Mobile, in September 2012, the author writes, the most important thing he recognized wasn't specific to T-Mobile; it was true for the...

Burned once by groupthink, Kennedy came up with a process to root it out.

When your company’s image is threatened, what do you say to the press?

How to be human at work. HBR's Emotional Intelligence Series features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of...

Describes the events that transpired during the May 1996, Mount Everest tragedy. Examines the flawed decisions that climbing teams made before and during...

Putting the iconic coffee company back on track for growth.

As this case opens, iconic toymaker LEGO stands on the brink of bankruptcy. Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, LEGO's young and newly appointed CEO, must size up changes...

Royal Dutch Shell has been among the early players to implement diversity and inclusion policies in the 1990s, first in the U.S. and then globally. In...

Provides an opportunity to examine leadership and entrepreneurship in the context of Ernest Shackleton's 1914 Antarctic expedition, a compelling story...

Barbara Norris struggles to address the many problems facing her as a recently promoted nurse manager in the General Surgery Unit (GSU) at Eastern Massachusetts...

70% of all change initiatives fail. But the odds turn in your company's favor once you understand that change is a multi-stage process--not an event--and...

The case is a detailed 'inside' account of the 'dieselgate' scandal at Volkswagen which revealed how engineers had programmed software that enabled its...

Presents a new divisional vice president's entry into a well-established and still successful manufacturing organization which is nevertheless facing...

Describes Jan Carlzon's actions on assuming the CEO's responsibility at SAS in a time of financial and organizational difficulty. After tracing Carlzon's...

Set in early-2017, this case examines widespread sales misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank. Wells Fargo's governance and controls are described in...

70% of all change initiatives fail. But the odds turn in your company's favor once you understand that change is a multi-stage process--not an event--and...

The CEO of Biogen Idec faces a set of difficult decisions regarding a promising drug for Multiple Sclerosis that is headed for early approval by the FDA....

At the end of September 2015, Matthias Mueller stepped in as CEO for the Volkswagen Group, days after Martin Winterkorn resigned over the biggest automotive...

Traces the history of IKEA's response to a TV report that its Indian carpet suppliers were using child labor. Describes IKEA's growth, including the importance...

Describes the 1949 firefighting tragedy in Montana that led to the deaths of 12 smoke jumpers. Explores the myriad of poor decisions by the firefighting...

In November and December of 2013, Target Corporation suffered one of the largest cyber breaches till date. The breach that occurred during the busy holiday...

In October 1982, Johnson & Johnson was confronted with a major crisis when seven deaths were attributed to poisoned Tylenol. The case reviews the facts...

This case describes the challenges facing CEO Kent Thiry and DaVita as they being thinking about how to integrate a recent acquisition, Health Care Partners...