Lithonia Lighting

Nitin   Nohria

Case | HBS Case Collection | June 1991 (Revised May 1992)

Lithonia Lighting

Abstract

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;

Format: Print

18 pages

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Citation:

Nohria, Nitin. "Lithonia Lighting." Harvard Business School Case 492-003, June 1991. (Revised May 1992.)

In 2006 Harvard Business School’s Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria launched a study tracking how large companies’ CEOs spent their time, 24/7, for 13 weeks: where they were, with whom, what they did, and what they were focusing on. To date, Porter and Nohria have gathered 60,000 hours' worth of data on 27 executives, interviewing them—and hundreds of other CEOs—about their schedules. This article presents the findings, offering insights not only into best time-management practices but into the CEO’s role itself. CEOs need to learn to simultaneously manage the seemingly contradictory dualities of the job: integrating direct decision-making with indirect levers like strategy and culture, balancing internal and external constituencies, proactively pursuing an agenda while reacting to unfolding events, exercising leverage while being mindful of constraints, focusing on the tangible impact of actions while recognizing their symbolic significance and combining formal power with legitimacy.

When we think of human behavior, especially from a moral perspective, we often rely on explanations based on character. We think that good decisions and responsible behavior require people with integrity and strong character and that immoral behavior originates within people with little integrity and weak character. However, important research in recent decades strongly suggests that situational factors often dominate character in ethical decision making—for leaders and for members of their organizations. This note summarizes the recent research, shows its implications for the basic steps in ethical decision making, and provides a basis for in-depth discussion of the character-versus-situation question.

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Lithonia Lighting

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