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• Case | HBS Case Collection | November 1993 (Revised September 2018)

  Rudi Gassner and the Executive Committee of BMG International (A)

  Linda Hill and Katherine Seger Weber

  Explores the roles of CEO Rudi Gassner and the 9-person executive committee in leading BMG International. BMG International is the international music subsidiary of Bertlesmann, a German company that is the second-largest media conglomerate in the world. Describes a 1993 decision that Gassner and the executive committee must make about whether or not to change managers' business plans and bonus targets as a result of a newly negotiate reduced manufacturing cost. Allows for discussion of a number of timely and important issues: 1) the complexities of managing and growing a large global business; 2) the tensions between centralized corporate control and decentralized local management in a global organization; 3) the impact of leadership style on corporate culture and performance; 4) the challenges of leading a senior mangement team; and 5) the final decision by CEO Rudi Gassner and the subsequent actions taken by the members of the executive committee.

  Keywords: Managerial Roles; Management Teams; Decision Making; Business Plan; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Business Subsidiaries; Business Conglomerates; Cost Management; Change Management; Music Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Germany;

  Citation:

  Hill, Linda, and Katherine Seger Weber. "Rudi Gassner and the Executive Committee of BMG International (A)." Harvard Business School Case 494-055, November 1993. (Revised September 2018.)  View Details

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• Book | 2018

  Trust: Creating the Foundation for Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries

  Tarun Khanna

  Entrepreneurs in developing countries who assume they will have the same legal, governmental, and institutional protections as their counterparts in the West will fail. To succeed, they need to build trust within the existing structures—and this book shows how it's done.

  Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Developing Countries and Economies; Trust;

  Citation:

  Khanna, Tarun. Trust: Creating the Foundation for Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2018.  View Details

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• Article | Harvard Business Review | July–August 2018

  When Technology Gets Ahead of Society

  Tarun Khanna

  New technologies can be unsettling for industry incumbents, regulators, and consumers, because norms and institutions for dealing with them don’t yet exist. Interestingly, businesspeople in emerging economies face similar challenges: The rules are unclear and infrastructure is lacking. In this article, the author suggests that tech pioneers would do well to heed a lesson he’s gleaned from his research in the developing world: For long-term success, companies must invest in the surrounding ecosystem.
  The author presents examples of entrepreneurs who have done just that in China, Bangladesh, Africa, and Chile, benefiting the public as well as their own enterprises. He then describes how an Indian health care organization is tackling institutional voids as it expands into medical tourism in the Cayman Islands. An in-depth look at the nascent drone industry follows, with profiles of companies that are helping create the conditions for the industry’s growth by amassing knowledge about best practices, influencing the development of regulations, exploring new uses for drones, developing a professional workforce, and so forth.
  The argument is that when firms launching innovative products or services look beyond their self-interest and work to collectively build the institutional infrastructure, they—and society as a whole—are more likely to prosper.

  Keywords: Technological Innovation; Society; Situation or Environment; Infrastructure; Entrepreneurship; Performance Effectiveness; Cooperation;

  Citation:

  Khanna, Tarun. "When Technology Gets Ahead of Society." Harvard Business Review 96, no. 4 (July–August 2018): 86–95.  View Details

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