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• Case | HBS Case Collection | 2011 (Revised from original 1995 version)

  Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (A)

  Examines Beer's actions on assuming leadership of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, the world's sixth largest advertising agency, during a period of rapid industry change and organizational crisis. Focuses on how Beers, the first outsider CEO, engages and leads a senior team through a vision formulation process. Chronicles closely the debates among senior executives struggling to reconcile creative, strategic, and global vs. local priorities. Sixteen months later, with a vision statement agreed upon, Beers faces a series of implementation problems. Turnaround has begun, but organizational structures and systems are not yet aligned with the firm's new direction. Concludes as Beers must decide how to work best with her senior team to achieve alignment in 1994.

  Citation:

  Ibarra, Herminia M., and Nicole Sackley. "Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (A)." Harvard Business School Case 495-031, September 2011. (Revised from original January 1995 version.)

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• Supplement | HBS Case Collection | 2011 (Revised from original version)

  Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (B)

  Updates CEO Beers' progress two years after her initiation of a massive organizational change effort. Designed as an in-class handout.

  Citation:

  Ibarra, Herminia M., and Nicole Sackley. "Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 495-032, September 2011. (Revised from original January 1995 version.)

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• Article | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management | summer 2011

  Fluid Tasks and Fluid Teams: The Impact of Diversity in Experience and Team Familiarity on Team Performance

  Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

  In this paper, we consider how the structures of tasks and teams interact to affect team performance. We study the effects of diversity in experience on a team's ability to respond to task changes by separately examining interpersonal team diversity (i.e., differences in experience across the entire team) and intrapersonal team diversity (i.e., whether individuals on the team are more or less specialized). We also examine whether team familiarity-team members' prior experience working with one another-helps teams to better manage challenges created by task changes and greater interpersonal team diversity. Using detailed project- and individual-level data from an Indian software services firm, we find that the interaction of task change with intrapersonal diversity is related to improved project performance, while the interaction of task change with interpersonal diversity is related to diminished performance. Additionally, the interaction of team familiarity with interpersonal diversity is related to improved project performance in some cases. Our results highlight a need for more nuanced approaches to leveraging experience in team management.

  Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Groups and Teams; Performance; Diversity Characteristics; Problems and Challenges; Change; Projects; Management; Information Technology Industry; India;

  Citation:

  Huckman, Robert S., and Bradley R. Staats. "Fluid Tasks and Fluid Teams: The Impact of Diversity in Experience and Team Familiarity on Team Performance." Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 13, no. 3 (summer 2011): 310–328.

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