Case | HBS Case Collection | 2006 (Revised from original 2004 version)

Salt Lake Organizing Committee, The: 2002 Olympics

by H. Kent Bowen, Bryce LaPierre and Courtney Purrington

Abstract

After two and a half years of effort, Fraser Bullock, COO of the 2002 Winter Olympics, faced projected deficits and post-9/11 security requirements only five months before the opening ceremony. Summarizes the organizational structure and processes put in place by Bullock and CEO Mitt Romney, as well as how they created systems and culture to endow effective working knowledge to the 90% of their staff who started working two weeks before the games began.

Keywords: Framework; Knowledge Dissemination; Business or Company Management; Managerial Roles; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Planning; Practice; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Sports; System;

Format: Print

21 pages

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Citation:

Bowen, H. Kent, Bryce LaPierre, and Courtney Purrington. "Salt Lake Organizing Committee, The: 2002 Olympics." Harvard Business School Case 604-092, February 2006. (Revised from original March 2004 version.)

As 2012 approached, the woes of the financial crisis seemed to be fading, companies were resuming business as usual, and some of the scrutiny on corporate governance practices began to recede as well. That is until another major financial scandal emerged in Japan in the fall of 2011. It was slowly revealed that the 92-year-old camera and medical photo-imaging company, Olympus, had been hiding its losses for more than a decade—to the tune of $1.7 billion—long before the current economic pressures, slow job growth, and poor investor confidence plagued the global economy. The fraud renewed the focus on corporate governance policies worldwide, but especially in Japan, where the lack of board independence and a deep-rooted corporate culture entrenched in personal loyalties fostered an environment that made it difficult for scandals such as this to be unveiled, let alone for whistleblowers to come forward about them.

Jim Sharpe, 11 years after receiving his MBA from Harvard and working for others, has finally become his own boss and 100% owner of manufacturer of aluminum extrusions. After 10 months of an unfunded search, he acquires the business in an LBO and prepares to face his employees on the first day.

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Salt Lake Organizing Committee, The: 2002 Olympics

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