Nitin Nohria
George F. Baker Professor of Administration
Dean of the Faculty
Nitin Nohria became the tenth dean of Harvard Business School on 1 July 2010. He previously served as co-chair of the Leadership Initiative, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development, and Head of the Organizational Behavior unit.
As Dean, building on input from faculty, students, staff, and alumni, he has identified five priorities for Harvard Business School: innovation in the School's educational programs, beginning with the MBA Program; intellectual ambition that advances ideas with impact in practice; continued internationalization, through building a global intellectual footprint; creating a culture of inclusion, where every member of the community can do their best work in support of the School's mission; and fostering a culture of integration within HBS and across Harvard University that acts as a catalyst for entrepreneurship. Recent examples of activities in support of these priorities include:
• A new year-long course in the Required Curriculum of the MBA Program, Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development (FIELD), that provides students with intensive, immersive, small-group opportunities to develop leadership, global, and integrative intelligence.
• The U.S. Competitiveness Project, a multi-faculty research-led effort to understand and improve the competitiveness of the United States—that is, the ability of firms operating in the U.S. to compete successfully in the global economy while supporting high and rising living standards for Americans.
• The launch of the Harvard Innovation Lab, an initiative to foster team-based and entrepreneurial activities and deepen interactions among Harvard students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of the Allston and Greater Boston community.
Dean Nohria's intellectual interests center on human motivation, leadership, corporate transformation and accountability, and sustainable economic and human performance. He is co-author or co-editor of 16 books. The most recent, Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, is a compendium dedicated to advancing research on leadership based on a colloquium he organized during HBS’s centennial celebrations. Dean Nohria is also the author of over 50 journal articles, book chapters, cases, working papers, and notes. He sits on the board of directors of Tata Sons and Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition, he serves as an advisor to the Piramal Group. He has been interviewed by ABC, CNN, and NPR, and cited in Business Week, Economist, Financial Times, Fortune, New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.
Prior to joining the Harvard Business School faculty in July 1988, Dean Nohria received his Ph.D. in Management from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (which honored him as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2007). He was a visiting faculty member at the London Business School in 1996.
He and his wife live in the Boston area with their two daughters.
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Book
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2010
Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice
Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana
The study of leadership suffers intellectual neglect and has yet to be considered a serious academic discipline. And though the mission statements of most business schools profess to "develop leaders who make a difference in the world," these same schools produce hardly any serious scholarship or research to advance our understanding of leadership. To fill this void, Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana have invited leading scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds to take stock of what we know about leadership and to set an agenda for future research. Based on a Harvard Business School Centennial Colloquium, this edited volume brings together the most important scholars from fields as diverse as psychology, sociology, economics, and history to shape the academic discipline of leadership.
Keywords: Business Education;
Interdisciplinary Studies;
Leadership;
Practice;
Research;
Theory;
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Book
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2009
Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders: What the Airline Industry Can Teach Us About Leadership
Anthony J. Mayo, Nitin Nohria and Mark Rennella
'Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders' examines the role that business leaders play in shaping industries and how the evolving context of industries shapes leaders in turn. This co-evolutionary process of leadership and industry development is told through the story of the American airline industry across the 20th century. Entrepreneurs, who explored a variety of different airline concepts in search of a viable business model, dominate the industry's early history. As the industry evolved, a new breed of managers emerged who built a dominant business model that enables their companies to grow dramatically. Later, after the industry matured, leaders took center-stage as agents of change to rebuild and revitalize the industry. The lessons of entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders from the airlines can be applied to understanding any industry's evolution.
Keywords: Business Model;
Entrepreneurship;
Leadership Development;
Managerial Roles;
Supply and Industry;
Industry Growth;
Air Transportation Industry;
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Article
| Harvard Business Review
Celebrate Innovation, No Matter Where It Occurs
Nitin Nohria
The author offers opinions on technological innovations and innovations in business. It is argued that the country of origin of a technological innovation is less economically important than the ability of a society to capitalize on that innovation and convert it into profitable business opportunities. Corporations with superior marketing and distribution abilities are seen as best able to exploit technological innovations.
Keywords: Technological Innovation;
Profit;
Commercialization;
Marketing;
Distribution;
Citation: Nohria, Nitin. "Celebrate Innovation, No Matter Where It Occurs." Harvard Business Review 90, no. 4 (April 2012). View Details
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Article
| Financial Analysts Journal
What Factors Drive Analyst Forecasts?
Boris Groysberg, Paul Healy, Nitin Nohria and George Serafeim
A firm's competitive environment, its strategic choices, and its internal capabilities are considered important determinants of its future performance. Yet there is little evidence on whether analysts' forecasts of firm performance actually reflect any of these factors and which are considered most important. We use survey data from 967 analysts ranking 837 companies to judge how their forecasts are related to evaluations of firms' industry competitiveness, strategic choices, and internal capabilities. Forecasts are generally associated with many of the factors that money managers rate as important in their assessments of analyst contributions, including industry growth and competitiveness, low-price strategy, strategy execution, top management quality, innovation, and performance-driven culture. We also find wide variation across variables for ratings consistency among analysts covering the same firm. On average, consistency is higher for sell-side than buy-side analysts, consistent with sell-side analysts facing greater incentives to herd.
Keywords: Competition;
Forecasting and Prediction;
Industry Growth;
Judgments;
Performance;
Valuation;
Price;
Quality;
Innovation and Invention;
Organizational Culture;
Competency and Skills;
Surveys;
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Article
| Harvard Business Review
The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad
Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, Boris Groysberg and Nitin Nohria
This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. Few companies are thinking about hiring right now, but that's a mistake. If history is any guide, staffing will become a front-burner issue once the economic upheaval eases. Even now, companies are running into staffing problems in emerging markets, and many will have to find talented replacements for baby-boom retirees. Will they be able to meet their needs? Not likely, say Fernández-Aráoz of Egon Zehnder and Harvard Business School professors Groysberg and Nohria. Their research, conducted with scores of CEOs, HR executives, and recruiters, found current hiring practices to be haphazard at best and inept at worst. And no wonder. Ignorant of their staffing needs, most companies treat hiring top-level executives as an emergency. That leaves them little choice. One study found that nearly a quarter of the time, the executive selected was the only candidate considered. Far too few companies conduct reference checks; far too many rely on gut reactions when judging qualifications and cultural fit. Hardly anyone considers whether candidates will be good team players. And, shockingly, only half of the top managers recruited by the companies studied were interviewed by anyone in the C-suite. The result: About a third of promising new hires depart within three years of being recruited. As a remedy, the authors offer their best thinking about state-of-the-art hiring practices for the top levels of the organization. Their recommendations cover the entire hiring cycle in seven steps: anticipating the need for new hires, specifying the job, developing a pool of candidates, assessing the candidates, closing the deal, integrating the newcomer, and reviewing hire-process effectiveness. Whatever the future brings, firms that follow these practices successfully will have a distinct advantage over their shortsighted competitors.
Keywords: Talent and Talent Management;
Economic Slowdown and Stagnation;
Recruitment;
Selection and Staffing;
Management Practices and Processes;
Managerial Roles;
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Article
| Harvard Business Review
From Regional Star to Global Leader
Nitin Nohria
Yang Jianguo was recently promoted from country manager for China to global head of product development at a staid French perfume maker. He was chosen for his technical smarts and his knowledge of emerging markets—a critical avenue for growth, given that sales in the company's core markets have stalled. Eager to succeed in his new role in Paris, Jianguo has lots of fresh ideas, but they seem to be falling on deaf ears. Members of the executive team, for their part, find Jianguo to be largely indifferent to their input. Can Jianguo adjust to this new culture? And can he succeed without sacrificing his identity? Three experts comment on this fictional case study in R0901A and R0901Z. Katherine Tsang, the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai, explains the cultural differences between China and France and recommends that Jianguo push his thinking beyond the Chinese market. She also suggests that the company give all its executive team members multicultural training so they have the tools to understand one another and work together effectively. Mansour Javidan, the dean of research and a professor at Thunderbird School of Global Management, acknowledges that Jianguo's transition would be easier if he had the full support of the CEO, Alain Deronde. But since that isn't forthcoming, he advises Jianguo to work with Alain to develop targets for growth in emerging and traditional markets and a plan for building an infrastructure to achieve those goals. James Champy, the chairman of consulting for Perot Systems, is surprised that a family business would choose an "outsider" for this important post, but he recognizes it as a wise strategic move. He says that Jianguo needs a coach and should focus on learning the home market first, before trying to make inroads further afield.
Keywords: Communication Strategy;
Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;
Globalized Firms and Management;
Leadership Development;
Management Teams;
Emerging Markets;
Product Development;
Beauty and Cosmetics Industry;
China;
Paris;
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Article
| Harvard Business Review
It's Time to Make Management a True Profession
Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana
In the face of the recent institutional breakdown of trust in business, managers are losing legitimacy. To regain public trust, management needs to become a true profession in much the way medicine and law have, argue Khurana and Nohria of Harvard Business School. True professions have codes, and the meaning and consequences of those codes are taught as part of the formal education required of their members. Through these codes, professional institutions forge an implicit social contract with society: Trust us to control and exercise jurisdiction over an important occupational category, and, in return, we will ensure that the members of our profession are worthy of your trust - that they will not only be competent to perform the tasks entrusted to them, but that they will also conduct themselves with high standards and great integrity. The authors believe that enforcing educational standards and a code of ethics is unlikely to choke entrepreneurial creativity. Indeed, if the field of medicine is any indication, a code may even stimulate creativity. The main challenge in writing a code lies in reaching a broad consensus on the aims and social purpose of management. There are two deeply divided schools of thought. One school argues that management's aim should simply be to maximize shareholder wealth; the other argues that management's purpose is to balance the claims of all the firm's stakeholders. Any code will have to steer a middle course in order to accommodate both the value-creating impetus of the shareholder value concept and the accountability inherent in the stakeholder approach.
Keywords: Competency and Skills;
Education;
Ethics;
Corporate Accountability;
Management;
Trust;
Value Creation;
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Chapter
| The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being
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2012
Teaching Leadership: Advancing the Field
Scott Snook, Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana
Keywords: Leadership Development;
Teaching;
Citation: Snook, Scott, Nitin Nohria, and Rakesh Khurana. "Teaching Leadership: Advancing the Field." Chap. 1 in The Handbook for Teaching Leadership: Knowing, Doing, and Being, edited by Scott Snook, Nitin Nohria, and Rakesh Khurana. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2011. View Details
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Chapter
| Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice
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2010
When Does Leadership Matter? A Contingent Opportunities View of CEO Leadership
Noam Wasserman, Nitin Nohria and Bharat Anand
There is by now a long-standing debate on the impact that CEOs have on company performance. Studies of leadership describe how CEOs can significantly impact company performance, while the "constraints" perspective argues that leaders are sufficiently constrained by their environments, and that their ability to impact performance is limited. This paper seeks to alter the framing of this debate by asking, instead, "When does leadership matter?" We develop a "contingent opportunities" theory of leadership and empirically examine our predictions on a dataset of 531 companies from 42 industries from 1979 to 1997. We show that CEO impact differs markedly by industry, and that CEOs have the most significant impact where opportunities are scarce or where CEOs have slack resources.
Keywords: Business Ventures;
Leadership;
Performance Improvement;
Research;
Opportunities;
Citation: Wasserman, Noam, Nitin Nohria, and Bharat Anand. "When Does Leadership Matter? A Contingent Opportunities View of CEO Leadership." Chap. 2 in Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, edited by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana. Harvard Business Press, 2010. View Details
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Chapter
| Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice
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2010
What Is Leadership: The CEO's Role in Large, Complex Organizations
Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria
What is the role of the CEO in a large, complex enterprise? What makes a CEO effective? At first blush, these questions seem easy to answer. A CEO is the epitome of leadership. He or she exercises ultimate power and is responsible for making the most critical choices facing an organization. However, these questions get far more complicated as one contemplates the realities of large organizations. Actually, the CEO cannot make most decisions, or even review them. The CEO is powerful, but multiple constituencies can exercise power as well, starting with the board. The shortening CEO tenure reveals that many leaders misunderstand the role and how to play it effectively.
Keywords: Decision Making;
Leadership;
Managerial Roles;
Power and Influence;
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Chapter
| Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice
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2010
Advancing Leadership Theory and Practice
Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria
More than a means of getting ahead and gaining power, leadership must be understood as a serious professional and personal responsibility. In this introductory chapter, editors Nitin Nohria, the dean of Harvard Business School, and Rakesh Khurana, a professor of leadership development at HBS, point out that while many university graduate programs in business, law, education, and public policy claim that their mission is to educate leaders who will advance the well-being of society, the reality is that scholarly research on leadership is, at best, at the periphery of these same universities. In fact, the increasing demand for insights about leadership has largely been met by popular writers--consultants, journalists, or "iconic" business leaders. The papers that comprise this book--originally presented at the Harvard Business School Centennial Colloquium, "Leadership: Advancing an Intellectual Discipline"--are a starting point. Nohria and Khurana define five dualities that they believe are at the heart of research on leadership--for example, the duality between the leader's role in producing superior results and the leader's role in creating meaning. The chapter concludes with a brief summary of each of the book's 25 subsequent chapters.
Keywords: Leadership;
Practice;
Research;
Theory;
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Chapter
| Restoring Trust in American Business
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2005
Management as a Profession
Rakesh Khurana, Nitin Nohria and Daniel Penrice
Keywords: Management;
Practice;
Citation: Khurana, Rakesh, Nitin Nohria, and Daniel Penrice. "Management as a Profession." Chap. 3 in Restoring Trust in American Business, edited by Jay W. Lorsch, A. Zelleke, and Leslie Berlowitz. Cambridge: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005. View Details
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Working Paper
| HBS Working Paper Series
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2008
Structural Closure and Exposure: Market Reactions to Announcements of Acquisitions and Divestitures
Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Nitin Nohria
This paper develops an exchange-network perspective on corporate diversification and proposes two measures of corporate scope: structural closure and structural exposure. Structural closure focuses on exchanges of goods and services inside the firm and proxies for the potential costs of undertaking them through the market instead. By considering exchange relations inside the firm, this measure complements the existing indices that focus on asset relatedness. Structural exposure focuses on exchanges of goods and services across the firm boundary and proxies for the current market-exchange costs as compared to undertaking them inside the firm instead. By focusing on exchanges across the firm boundary, the measure extends the existing approaches in that it captures what the firm could integrate, but decided not to. We posit that higher structural closure will increase firm value, while higher structural exposure will reduce it. We test these hypotheses using stock market reactions to acquisitions and divestitures undertaken by Fortune 100 firms between 1979 and 1992. We find that acquisitions that increase firm structural closure increase firm value, but those that increase structural exposure diminish it. We find equivalent results for divestitures.
Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions;
Market Transactions;
Diversification;
Boundaries;
Valuation;
Citation: Piskorski, Mikolaj Jan, and Nitin Nohria. "Structural Closure and Exposure: Market Reactions to Announcements of Acquisitions and Divestitures." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 08-087, April 2008. View Details
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Working Paper
| HBS Working Paper Series
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2005
Moving Higher Education to the Next Stage: A New Set of Societal Challenges, a New Stage of Life, and a Call to Action for Universities
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria
Citation: Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, Rakesh Khurana, and Nitin Nohria. "Moving Higher Education to the Next Stage: A New Set of Societal Challenges, a New Stage of Life, and a Call to Action for Universities." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 06-021, November 2005. View Details
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Working Paper
| HBS Working Paper Series
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1995
The Path-Dependent Evolution of Organizations
Michael C. Moldoveanu, Nitin Nohria and Howard H. Stevenson
Citation: Moldoveanu, Michael C., Nitin Nohria, and Howard H. Stevenson. "The Path-Dependent Evolution of Organizations." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 96-005, August 1995. View Details
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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May 2006
(Revised February 2012)
General Electric's 20th Century CEOs (Abridged)
Nitin Nohria, Anthony J. Mayo and Mark Benson
General Electric thrived in every decade of the 20th century. Since its founding in 1892, GE has placed a high value on picking and training the best people. Staff members worked with other scientists in the company's research lab to design and manufacture new and better products to satisfy the growing American consumer demand for lighting, appliances, and consumer electronics in the 1910s to 1920s as well as in the 1950s and 1960s. GE's top executives have shown a clear understanding of the leadership and managerial styles that were appropriate for the years in which they worked. In the first decade of the 20th century, Charles Coffin demonstrated that he was an adept negotiator who amassed great wealth for GE in building generators and power equipment for local utilities in which GE also had a financial stake through bond issues. In the final decades of the 20th century, Jack Welch emphasized that GE should support only the most profitable businesses in the company's portfolio, a logic that led Welch and GE to phase out GE's consumer electronics division while bolstering the financial position of GE capital. Profiles all of GE's top executives.
Keywords: Business History;
Leadership Style;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Management Style;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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December 2005
(Revised May 2014)
Walt Disney and the 1941 Animators' Strike
Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Bridget Gurtler
Focuses on the leadership lessons drawn from the events precipitating the Animator's Strike of 1941, depicting the growing pains of a company that was as much formed and changed by American culture as American culture was formed and changed by it. The tale of Walt Disney's roller-coaster journey from small-town paperboy to underage ambulance-driving serviceman to amateur animator and thrice-failed businessman to iconic leader is told against the backdrop of swift and seeping change in the beginning of the 20th century. An ambitious creative genius, he masterfully pursued emerging technological advantage and uniquely grasped and personified American social mores, but was reckless and naive about strategic business issues, especially concerning intellectual property and human resources management. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
Keywords: Business History;
Leadership;
Creativity;
Culture;
Business Strategy;
Technology Adoption;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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July 2005
(Revised August 2011)
Jesse Holman Jones and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Bridget Gurtler
Jesse Holman Jones is regarded as one of the most influential men in reviving the American economy from the Great Depression. With only an 8th grade education, he rose to the top of the banking, real estate, and lumber industries, as well as the upper echelons of politics as the head of Reconstruction Finance Corp. (RFC), as secretary of commerce and, during World War I, as director general of military relief for the American Red Cross. He was responsible for the transformation of his adopted city Houston, Texas, into the most important city for international commerce in the South. After Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jones was the single most influential and powerful man in the New Deal by virtue of his control of the billions of dollars RFC held. With this power, he greatly affected many American cities and the way our financial system currently operates. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
Keywords: Financial Crisis;
Financial Strategy;
Business History;
Leading Change;
Managerial Roles;
Business and Government Relations;
Power and Influence;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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December 2005
(Revised April 2011)
General Electric's 20th Century CEOs
Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson
General Electric thrived in every decade of the 20th century. Since its founding in 1892, GE has placed a high value on picking and training the best people. Staff members worked with other scientists in the company's research lab to design and manufacture new and better products to satisfy the growing American consumer demand for lighting, appliances, and consumer electronics in the 1910s to 1920s as well as in the 1950s and 1960s. GE's top executives have shown a clear understanding of the leadership and managerial styles that were appropriate for the years in which they worked. In the first decade of the 20th century, Charles Coffin demonstrated that he was an adept negotiator who amassed great wealth for GE in building generators and power equipment for local utilities in which GE also had a financial stake through bond issues. In the final decades of the 20th century, Jack Welch emphasized that GE should support only the most profitable businesses in the company's portfolio, a logic that led Welch and GE to phase out GE's consumer electronics division while bolstering the financial position of GE capital. Profiles all of GE's top executives.
Keywords: Business History;
Leadership Style;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Management Style;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
|
December 2005
(Revised April 2011)
C.W. Post
Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson
In 1906, C.W. Post had to move his latest breakfast product--corn flakes--from store shelves into cereal bowls nationwide. Post genuinely believed his corn flakes and other breakfast foods would make people well. Through sampling and other innovative sales and marketing techniques, Post convinced consumers and grocers to buy Postum and Grape-Nuts--which generated millions in profits for the Postum Cereal Co. But not Elijah's Manna--the brand name that Post put on his corn flakes boxes when his company introduced the product in 1904. Two years later, it was clearly not selling. To make matters worse, other cereal companies in the burgeoning Battle Creek area where Post's foods were manufactured were cornering the market, in particular, Kelloggs. How was Post going to convince consumers that his corn flakes were better than the rest?
Keywords: Entrepreneurship;
Innovation and Invention;
Brands and Branding;
Product Marketing;
Sales;
Food and Beverage Industry;
Battle Creek;
Citation: Nohria, Nitin, Anthony Mayo, and Mark Benson. "C.W. Post." Harvard Business School Case 406-063, December 2005. (Revised April 2011.) View Details
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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January 2006
(Revised July 2016)
Gordon Bethune at Continental Airlines
Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson
A $385 million loss for the final months of fiscal year 1994 signaled Continental might go bankrupt. Could new CEO Gordon Bethune turn Continental around? Continental was in dire straits because the deregulation of the commercial airline industry in 1978 ushered in a new era focused on mergers and acquisitions and bitter employee-management relations. Venerable airline brands with a commitment to quality, like Continental, were prime takeover targets. After Texas Air Chairman Frank Lorenzo (HBS 1963) secured Continental in his hostile takeover bid, tensions escalated between Lorenzo and the old guard--especially when Lorenzo declared Continental bankrupt in the fall of 1983 and then fired and replaced half his staff with cheaper nonunion labor. In October 1994, five months after Continental exited its second bankruptcy, Bethune was elevated to CEO and created a Go Forward Plan to return Continental to profitability. Two years after unveiling the Go Forward Plan, Continental was at the top of the industry in a number of important performance metrics.
Keywords: Transformation;
Insolvency and Bankruptcy;
Profit;
Leading Change;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Performance Improvement;
Labor and Management Relations;
Air Transportation Industry;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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September 2010
Freddie Mac: Managing in Conservatorship
Robert Steven Kaplan, Nitin Nohria and Ben Creo
Ed Haldeman has recently become CEO of Freddie Mac, one of three major government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) charged with supporting U.S. residential mortgage finance. The company was placed into conservatorship by the U.S. treasury on September 7, 2008. Conservatorship places various restrictions on Haldeman and the organization in terms of management. Haldeman's challenge is to lead Freddie Mac, build its culture, upgrade its operations, and generally prepare the organization for re-emerging from conservatorship. In the background, housing prices continue to deteriorate, and the company continues to lose money. In addition, political views continue to shift regarding the future regulatory and equity ownership frameworks for Freddie Mac as it emerges from this difficult period.
Keywords: Change Management;
Financial Crisis;
Mortgages;
Leadership;
Organizational Culture;
Business and Government Relations;
Financial Services Industry;
United States;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
|
February 2010
(Revised August 2010)
Sheikh Mohammed and the Making of 'Dubai, Inc.'
Anthony Mayo, Nitin Nohria, Umaimah Mendhro and Johnathan Cromwell
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has converted Dubai from a sleepy little coastal village into a world-class city, famous for its ambition, drive, and economic promise. He is the founder, part-owner, and visionary behind companies such as Emirates Airlines, a UAE-based airline serving over 100 destinations; Nakheel, the property developer that built a trilogy of man-made islands; and DP World, a leader in international marine terminal operations. Despite being surrounded by political instability in the Middle East, Sheikh Mohammed pursued capitalism and embraced Western culture while maintaining safety for millions of annual tourists. By 2010, Dubai had the world's tallest building, the most expensive hotel, and the largest shopping mall. But rapid development did not come without difficulties. While hundreds of thousands immigrated to help build the metropolis, labor conditions suffered and some local Emirati felt like they lost aspects of their cultural identity. Growth was rapid, infrastructure was weak, and the real estate bubble grew as the financial crisis loomed. To produce economic, social, and cultural prosperity for the people of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed had to balance his role as a business leader and a political ruler.
Keywords: Development Economics;
Leadership Style;
Emerging Markets;
Personal Development and Career;
Business and Community Relations;
Business and Government Relations;
Dubai;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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December 2005
(Revised March 2010)
William Levitt, Levittown and the Creation of American Suburbia
Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson
Demand for low-cost housing after World War II far exceeded supply. Was this a profitable new market? New York developer William Levitt had to decide. During World War II, Levitt was eager to build basic housing for the working class—otherwise, Levitt & Sons would have been idle due to the federal government ban on all nonessential construction, like the luxury homes that Levitt & Sons typically built on Long Island, New York. Under a contract with the U.S. Navy, Levitt & Sons erected 2,000 homes in a year's time, an effort that gave Levitt & Sons the opportunity to perfect rapid home construction techniques. Levitt had to decide if he would apply those techniques to meet the post-war housing demand. Levitt & Sons had the manufacturing know-how. Would sizable profits follow? Levitt needed to understand the implications of the home improvement loans and mortgages the government guaranteed to returning servicemen as part of their veterans benefits. Levitt had the opportunity to parlay his own World War II experience as a Navy Seabee to market these homes by appealing to the sentiments of veterans like himself who were eager to return home and settle down after the fighting stopped. Levitt's decision would have profound social, economic, and political impact on the lives of returning veterans, their spouses, and their children—the Baby Boomers.
Keywords: Demographics;
Construction;
Business History;
Housing;
Leadership;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Product Development;
Business and Government Relations;
Construction Industry;
Real Estate Industry;
United States;
New York (state, US);
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
|
December 2009
(Revised January 2010)
Managing Talent at Bertelsmann AG (A)
Boris Groysberg, Nitin Nohria, Mark Maletz and Kerry Herman
Bertelsmann's EVP HR Immanuel Hermreck and his team were focused on four key HR issues. Three of these were somewhat discreet: improving Bertelsmann's employer brand; managing Bertelsmann talent across the firm's decentralized businesses; and ensuring early identification and appropriate development of Bertelsmann's top 100 high potential managers (hi-pos) to better seed the company's future top management. The fourth issue—recruitment and retention—played an integral role across all three challenges and had to be strengthened and made consistent across the firm, not an easy prospect given Bertelsmann's highly decentralized structure. Hermreck knew navigating these issues would pose significant challenges, but getting them right was critical to Bertelsmann's competitive advantage and survival as a robust media company. He had some good results in from his early efforts, but as he looked forward, what should his action plan set out to do?
Keywords: Talent and Talent Management;
Recruitment;
Retention;
Selection and Staffing;
Leadership Development;
Strategic Planning;
Competitive Advantage;
Media and Broadcasting Industry;
Germany;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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December 2006
(Revised April 2014)
J. R. D. Tata
Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson
J.R.D Tata, Chairman of the Indian conglomerate Tata & Sons, played a significant role in building India's economic infrastructure. Under his guidance, Tata & Sons built locomotives, steel refineries, airlines, chemical plants, and technology-based enterprises. Inheriting his title as Chairman in 1938, at the outbreak of World War II, Tata was able to navigate his family-owned companies through the tumultuous political climate of India. He worked with British colonial officers, and later closely with several Indian leaders under both pro- and anti-business government regimes. Applying his family's values to the workplace, Tata & Sons helped revolutionize business practices in India. From instituting the eight-hour work day and paid leave to providing a retirement gratuity, Tata's policies created a standard to which other companies--and eventually Indian government regulators--measured themselves. Blending humane business practices with political savvy and a pioneering spirit, J.R.D Tata is remembered as one of India's most important and influential business leaders. Tata is an example of a 20th century business leader who applied contextual intelligence to a variety of businesses, dramatically changing the landscape of India's infrastructure.
Keywords: Family Business;
Development Economics;
Working Conditions;
Leadership;
Infrastructure;
Personal Development and Career;
Business and Government Relations;
India;
Citation: Nohria, Nitin, Anthony Mayo, and Mark Benson. "J. R. D. Tata." Harvard Business School Case 407-061, December 2006. (Revised April 2014.) View Details
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Case
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September 2007
(Revised December 2008)
Michael Fernandes at Nicholas Piramal
Michel Anteby and Nitin Nohria
Michael Fernandes, the Director of Custom Manufacturing Operations at the pharmaceutical company Nicholas Piramal India Limited (NPIL), schedules a meeting with three of his reports, whose interpersonal conflicts with one another are causing his business development function to falter. He struggles to know how to handle these conflicts and bring the three into a productive working collaboration. Fernandes is in charge of incorporating NPIL's new acquisitions in Canada and the United Kingdom to market NPIL globally. His three direct reports are each involved in different aspects of NPIL-the Canadian operations, the British operations, and the global business development-and the case explores the team dynamics among them. Unless Fernandes can resolve the conflicts, the integration of the acquisitions is in jeopardy.
Keywords: Interpersonal Communication;
Management Skills;
Groups and Teams;
Conflict Management;
Cooperation;
Pharmaceutical Industry;
India;
United Kingdom;
Canada;
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November 2006
(Revised May 2014)
Li Ka-Shing and the Growth of Cheung Kong
Nitin Nohria, Anthony J. Mayo and Mark Benson
Events in the history of Cheung Kong's growth reveal how Li Ka-Shing applied his skills as a "first-class noticer" to complex political and socioeconomic environments. While Li's determination to succeed is legendary, so are his skills in reading and responding to the policies and norms of the People's Republic of China, British colonial Hong Kong, and the post-World War II international system. Since Li became the taipan of Hutchison Whampoa in the late 1970s, he has adjusted his ownership shares in a vast portfolio of businesses—including ports, energy, real estate, retail, telecommunications, and new media. Illustrates how Li applied his business acumen and his ability as a first-class noticer to decisions about raising or lowering his stake in these businesses, and whether to acquire new ones. After starting Cheung Kong Inc. in 1950, at age 21, Li built upon his knowledge and contacts in the plastics industry to become Hong Kong's King of Plastic Flowers. In the 1960s, amid political turmoil and labor unrest on both the mainland and in colonial Hong Kong, Li purchased rights to properties on Hong Kong island that were selling at distressed rates. Li's successes in industry and real estate continued, and he cultivated contacts and built a strong reputation that set the stage for his purchase of the hong Hutchinson Whampoa, thereby becoming the first Chinese taipan. As taipan, Li reorganized and reallocated his various financial holdings in the 1980s and 1990s as conditions were in flux due to the Westernization of China after Deng Xiaoping succeeded Mao Zedong, and amid concerns about the transfer of Hong Kong from Britain back to China in 1997.
Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions;
Competency and Skills;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Investment Portfolio;
Business History;
Leadership;
Personal Development and Career;
Hong Kong;
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January 2007
(Revised May 2008)
Henry Luce and the American Century
Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Logan Wilcox
Henry Luce, founder of the publishing company which produced Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, created the largest media company in the world by the mid-20th century. Luce's flagship magazine, Time, was able to gross over $20 million in sales during its first decade of publication and over $400 million by the time Luce retired in 1964. Entering the emerging market of magazine journalism early in the 1930s, Luce was able to cover some of the largest political and social events of the 20th century, including Charles Lindbergh's flight, World War II, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War. Combining his unique journalistic ethos and his engaging creative writing style, Luce's magazines often resonated with readers, allowing him to quickly trump competitors such as Newsweek, Forbes, The New Yorker, Esquire, and National Geographic. Yet Luce was also criticized for occasionally using his imaginative style to inject his opinion into stories, going beyond the purview of journalists. Contemporaries complained that Luce was cultivating "middlebrow" cultural tastes instead of striving for journalistic excellence. Nevertheless, Luce's media empire continues to endure into the 21st century, shaping public discourse and influencing public opinion.
Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Startups;
Entrepreneurship;
Business History;
Leadership Style;
Emerging Markets;
Publishing Industry;
United States;
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Supplement
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August 2001
(Revised March 2008)
Malcolm Frank
Nitin Nohria and Alan Price
Supplements NerveWire, Inc.
Citation: Nohria, Nitin, and Alan Price. "Malcolm Frank." Harvard Business School Supplement 402-021, August 2001. (Revised March 2008.) View Details
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August 2001
(Revised March 2008)
NerveWire, Inc.
Nitin Nohria and Anthony Mayo
NerveWire, a management consulting and systems integration provider based in Newton, MA, was closing in on its second anniversary. In the beginning days of NerveWire, the major challenge was recruiting--finding the right people who embodied its values and business mission. Traditional business enterprises were thirsty for a new type of consulting organization, a partner that would help them utilize the Internet not as a marketing tool, but as a tool to re-design their business models, their internal value chains, and their extended industry value chains to drive significant ROI. NerveWire was created for just that purpose. The year 2001 brought some very new and different challenges. In the fall of 2000, the economy in the United States fell off a cliff, and by the beginning of 2001, NerveWire's Fortune 500 clients, by and large, had frozen all spending in major new technology-centric business initiatives. A Day in the Life of Kirk Arnold, Video and A Day in the Life of Malcolm Frank, Video are required with this case.
Keywords: Values and Beliefs;
Leadership;
Mission and Purpose;
Behavior;
Internet;
Newton;
Citation: Nohria, Nitin, and Anthony Mayo. "NerveWire, Inc." Harvard Business School Case 402-022, August 2001. (Revised March 2008.) View Details
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March 2006
(Revised February 2007)
UBS: Towards the Integrated Firm
Rajiv Lal, Nitin Nohria and Carin-Isabel Knoop
In late June 2005, UBS Group CEO Peter Wuffli--anointed "Master of Zurich" by the financial press--was returning to Zurich from the firm's latest three-day Senior Leadership Conference (SLC). Tapping 600 top managers, this SLC featured an outdoor event at a former military site in the Swiss mountains. Under the banner of "Understanding, Commitment, and Trust," teams of 100 executives engaged in a simulation of six worlds--metaphors for the various regions and parts of UBS business. Initial skepticism about the exercise was replaced with enthusiasm for the "mind-boggling" camaraderie that it created. Held above Montreux, Switzerland, home of the International Jazz Festival, the program opened with a taped interview of jazz great Wynton Marsalis asking the audience to equate the dynamics of jazz with the collaboration required to maintain a complex professional services firm. Marsalis contrasted Duke Ellington, who composed for the specific talents of his band members, with John Coltrane, a master of improvisation. "Coltrane played the themes," Wuffli mused. "That's what we do. We've got the vision. We've got all of our different musicians and we're playing to these themes in an integrated way. It does make beautiful music."
Keywords: Integration;
Programs;
Leadership;
Talent and Talent Management;
Trust;
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January 2007
Robert E. Rubin (A)
Nitin Nohria, Robert Steven Kaplan and Nicole Davison
Bob Rubin was a businessman given the task of setting up and running the National Economic Council for the Clinton Administration. Unfamiliar with management in a political climate, Rubin worked hard to design, staff, and position the Council to make better economic and policy decisions. Traces the career of Robert E. Rubin from his practice in law to his work at Goldman Sachs and studies how his work experiences prepared him to establish the National Economic Council.
Keywords: Personal Development and Career;
Government and Politics;
Managerial Roles;
Macroeconomics;
Organizational Design;
Economy;
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December 2006
(Revised January 2007)
Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola and Nigeria's Manufacturing Sector
Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo, Foluke Otudeko and Mark Benson
Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola was an important contributor to Nigeria's manufacturing sector, creating a multimillion-dollar conglomerate including three factories, a retail franchise, a cattle ranch, a 5,000-acre plantation, a sawmill, and an exporting business before the end of British colonial rule in 1960. Seizing business opportunities as he saw demand, Odutola moved between markets at every opportunity, creating companies servicing a diverse variety of needs. Odutola's keen, unwavering interest in improving the infrastructure of Nigeria allowed him to enjoy a successful career in business and politics, despite the vastly fluctuating political landscape of Nigeria. From British rule through civil war and subsequent coups and countercoups, Odutola remained a popular leader for his commitment to promoting Nigerian business ventures. Elevated to Prime Minister of his tribe--the Ijebu-Ode--in 1956, and later selected as the first President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Odutola campaigned for manufacturing interests and consulted with government officials about national fiscal policy. As a statesman and as a business leader, Odutola worked tirelessly to improve the infrastructure of his country.
Keywords: History;
Business Conglomerates;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Corporate Entrepreneurship;
Success;
Leadership Style;
Business History;
Market Entry and Exit;
Personal Development and Career;
Business Startups;
Manufacturing Industry;
Nigeria;
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August 2004
(Revised December 2005)
Li Ka-Shing
Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler
From his humble beginnings in China as a teacher's son, a refugee, and later as a salesman, Li provides a lesson in integrity and adaptability. Through hard work, and a reputation for remaining true to his internal moral compass, he was able to build a business empire that includes: banking, construction, real estate, plastics, cellular phones, satellite television, cement production, retail outlets (pharmacies and supermarkets), hotels, domestic transportation (sky train), airports, electric power, steel production, ports, and shipping. Teaching Purpose: To examine leadership.
Keywords: Leadership Development;
Corporate Entrepreneurship;
Leadership Style;
Success;
Business Conglomerates;
Ethics;
Values and Beliefs;
China;
Citation: Nohria, Nitin, and Bridget Gurtler. "Li Ka-Shing." Harvard Business School Case 405-026, August 2004. (Revised December 2005.) View Details
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January 2004
(Revised June 2004)
Malden Mills (B)
Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler
Supplements the (A) case.
Citation: Nohria, Nitin, and Bridget Gurtler. "Malden Mills (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 404-073, January 2004. (Revised June 2004.) View Details
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February 2004
Note on Human Behavior: Reason and Emotion
Nitin Nohria and Bridget Gurtler
Human beings are driven by reasons and emotions. On the one hand, as rational choice theorists assert, human beings are resourceful and evaluative as they strive to maximize their own interests. An individual's interests can converge or diverge from the interests of the organization. Thus, to bring the resourcefulness of individuals to benefit the organization, control systems must be designed to align the interests of the organization and the individual. On the other hand, it has long been recognized (and reinforced by contemporary research on the human brain) that human beings are also driven by emotions. Emotions can be in accord with rational behavior (e.g., when fear evokes caution in the face of danger, or pride motivates greater effort). But emotions can also be at odds with rational behavior (e.g., when pain avoidance leads to an unwillingness to confront difficult decisions, or shame leads to cover-ups, or hubris leads to excessive optimism). Understanding the importance of both reason and emotion is, thus, critical to designing organizations, control systems, and governance structures that promote desired behaviors. Teaching Purpose: Some model of human nature, implicitly if not explicitly, guides any manager's actions. It is useful for students to be aware of these underlying assumptions and attentive to ways reason and emotion shape their own behavior and those of others around them.
Keywords: Behavior;
Cognition and Thinking;
Emotions;
Interests;
Organizations;
Organizational Design;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
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June 2003
Peabody Simpson at the Crossroads
Rajiv Lal, Nitin Nohria and Leslie Freeman
Three managing directors at Peabody Simpson had just returned from a firm-wide recruiting event at Columbia University, which they had covered together, as all were alumni. They were commiserating about having to submit revised forecasts to their division heads by the end of the week. Alec Hastings, head of Global Institutional Securities, wanted an update on year-to-date expense. They sat at their favorite watering hole and discussed the challenge of cutting $600 million out of the operating budget.
Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction;
Capital Budgeting;
Recruitment;
Reports;
Organizational Design;
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February 2001
(Revised March 2003)
ICICI (A)
Bharat N. Anand, Nitin Nohria and John Pegg
ICICI was the first Indian company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. This case is set in 1998, when the company had to decide whether to enter the retail credit segment of the Indian financial market. Although the retail credit sector presents attractive growth opportunities, ICICI lacked many of the capabilities needed to succeed in this space and would have to compete against a host of established domestic and foreign banks. Describes how ICICI, under the visionary leadership of K.V. Kamath, has transformed itself, against all odds, from a development financial institution into a commercially competitive organization.
Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy;
Diversification;
Expansion;
Strategic Planning;
Competition;
Competitive Strategy;
Growth Management;
Markets;
Banking Industry;
Financial Services Industry;
India;
Citation: Anand, Bharat N., Nitin Nohria, and John Pegg. "ICICI (A)." Harvard Business School Case 701-064, February 2001. (Revised March 2003.) View Details
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December 2001
(Revised November 2002)
John Smithers
Nitin Nohria and Todd Jick
Describes an ill-fated effort to institute a total quality program. Using the vantage point of one of the managers selected to be a quality instructor, the case traces the rise and fall of the quality effort during its very brief existence over the course of six months. Allows students to identify many things that can undermine implementation of change: lack of corporate commitment, overly formalized programs, inflated expectations, lack of initial successes, etc. A rewritten version of an earlier case.
Keywords: Quality;
Change Management;
Mission and Purpose;
Organizational Culture;
Failure;
Citation: Nohria, Nitin, and Todd Jick. "John Smithers." Harvard Business School Case 402-041, December 2001. (Revised November 2002.) View Details
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Teaching Note
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August 1996
Ford: Petersen's Turnaround TN
Nitin Nohria and Stephanie L. Woerner
Teaching Note for (9-494-017).
Citation: Nohria, Nitin, and Stephanie L. Woerner. "Ford: Petersen's Turnaround TN." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 497-023, August 1996. View Details
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Teaching Note
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August 1996
General Motors: Smith's Dilemma TN
Nitin Nohria and Stephanie L. Woerner
Teaching Note for (9-494-020).
Citation: Nohria, Nitin, and Stephanie L. Woerner. "General Motors: Smith's Dilemma TN." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 497-024, August 1996. View Details
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October 1995
DISC (C)
Nitin Nohria and Scott A. Snook
Citation: Nohria, Nitin, and Scott A. Snook. " DISC (C)." Harvard Business School Supplement 496-035, October 1995. View Details
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Background Note
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February 1991
(Revised May 2016)
Note on Organizational Structure
Ethan Bernstein and Nitin Nohria
Provides the reader with a basic understanding of organizational structure. The first section outlines some of the key tools and criteria that must be taken into account in designing organizational structures. In the second section, some archetypal forms of organizational structure and their strengths and weaknesses are described. Finally, some emerging trends in how organizations are structured are discussed in the last section of this note, supplemented by a brief summary, in timeline format, of the evolution of organizational structure in theory and practice.
Keywords: Organizational Structure;
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January 1990
(Revised June 1995)
Colliers International Property Consultants
Nitin Nohria
Describes the origins, organizational structure, management practices, and use of information technology (IT) in Colliers, a real estate network. Colliers provides local firms with a way to maintain local autonomy while gaining national and international coverage. Through the use of the network's IT, brokers are able to share information, provide consulting-type services, and refer brokers to Colliers brokers in other markets. While a network structure has certain benefits, it also poses control issues: How does the organization generate the full commitment of its members, many of whom are accustomed to working independently in their local market and are not accustomed to soliciting certain information from their clients, providing an expanded range of services, and sharing information with other brokers? If they maintain their network structure, in what ways can the organization grow without creating tensions or diluting its quality? How does such an entity resolve conflicts among its constituents? While many members believe this structure is best suited to prosper, others question the survival of Colliers as it is now.
Keywords: Property;
Organizational Structure;
Information Technology;
Management Practices and Processes;
Partners and Partnerships;
Business Model;
Mission and Purpose;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Conflict and Resolution;
Quality;
Real Estate Industry;
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Background Note
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August 1993
(Revised August 1994)
Rhetoric of Change
Nitin Nohria
Describes the ways in which managers communicate the need to change, specifically the way in which they use vision, crisis, and transition as rhetorical strategies to mobilize change. Also discusses strategies used by those trying to resist change, setting up what may be considered a rhetorical contest that determines whether change is embraced or not.
Keywords: Change;
Communication Strategy;
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Teaching Note
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May 1992
Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Inc. Advertising (A) and (B), Teaching Note
Nitin Nohria
Keywords: Advertising Industry;
Citation: Nohria, Nitin. "Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Inc. Advertising (A) and (B), Teaching Note." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 492-040, May 1992. View Details
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Case
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June 1991
(Revised May 1992)
Lithonia Lighting
Nitin Nohria
In early 1991, Lithonia, the U.S.'s largest manufacturer of lighting fixtures, faced a major slump in the construction business that threatened to cause its first decline in revenues after over a decade of strong growth. With financial pressures from its parent company mounting, Lithonia was forced to reconsider its investments in LIGHT*LINK(tm), an ambitious information system that tied the company to agents, distributors, and other players in the lighting business. While Light*Link had clearly enabled much of the company's growth, the new economic climate raised a number of questions about the company's investment in information technology. Teaching objective: Requires students to analyze the structure of an industry and to reflect upon the factors that give competitive benefit to information systems investments within the context of an uncertain environment.
Keywords: Organizational Structure;
Industry Growth;
Decision Making;
Information Technology;
Financial Crisis;
Investment;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Electronics Industry;
United States;
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March 1992
Amgen, Inc.: Planning the Unplannable
Nitin Nohria
By the early 1990s, Amgen--a pharmaceutical company started little over a decade ago as Applied Molecular Genetics--was within range of becoming a billion-dollar company. With two extremely successful biotechnology drugs on the market, Amgen stood as the largest and most powerful independent company of its type in the world. Top executives in the company viewed long-range planning as an important ingredient in the firm's success; many others--including some of the firm's scientists--were less sure. With Amgen's sales expected to continue to grow rapidly, the firm's long-range planning process would be put to the test. Shows the different, sometimes paradoxical perspectives held within a single, dynamically changing company toward the issue of long-range planning. Students are challenged to synthesize these views into a coherent picture of a firm's growth amid great uncertainty.
Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy;
Strategic Planning;
Success;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Pharmaceutical Industry;
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February 1991
(Revised February 1992)
Appex Corp.
Nitin Nohria
1990 Business Week named Appex Corp. the fastest growing high-technology company in the United States. Appex provided management information systems and intercarrier network services to cellular telephone companies. During its rapid growth, the company went through several structural changes. At first, there was essentially no structure and no control systems. The atmosphere at Appex eventually became chaotic. As the new CEO, Shikhar Ghosh realized that Appex needed some structure and bureaucracy. Once control was established, he reasoned, he could begin to break down the structure. Much of the structural change he implemented had advantages and disadvantages in terms of company culture and productivity. In 1991, Appex was acquired by EDS. Appex's challenge now was to work out its own structure in the context of its role as a division of a large, bureaucratic organization.
Keywords: Information Technology;
Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Organizational Design;
Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques;
Organizational Culture;
Wireless Technology;
Performance Productivity;
Problems and Challenges;
Management Practices and Processes;
Business Divisions;
Information Management;
Information Technology Industry;
Telecommunications Industry;
United States;
Citation: Nohria, Nitin. "Appex Corp." Harvard Business School Case 491-082, February 1991. (Revised February 1992.) View Details
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