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• Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2019

  Predictive Index

  Lynda M. Applegate and James Weber

  Mike Zani and Daniel Muzquiz needed to decide next steps to create a new category in the human resources consulting industry and scale their company. Zani and Muzquiz, serial entrepreneurs, acquired Predictive Index in 2014. Previously, as clients of the 65-year-old Predictive Index, they had used its behavioral assessment tool to help them hire staff and build teams and they strongly believed in its value. They also believed, however, that Predictive Index had the potential to be something more. After acquiring the company, they invested in technology and people to modernize the business, and Predictive Index earned recognition as a “best place to work.” In 2018, they developed a Talent Optimization platform, an offering that had the potential to transform the industry by helping companies align their business strategies with their human capital and leadership development strategies. In late 2019, as they prepared a broad rollout of Talent Optimization, and planned to scale their business by an order of magnitude, the pair wondered what hurdles they might face along the way and what other steps they should take to reach their goals.

  Keywords: Human Resources; Selection and Staffing; Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Change Management; Disruptive Innovation; Market Platforms; Consulting Industry; Service Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Applegate, Lynda M., and James Weber. "Predictive Index." Harvard Business School Case 820-034, October 2019.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2019 (Revised October 2019)

  Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?

  William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

  In late 2018, evidence emerged that many of Google’s temporary help agency workers, vendors, and independent contractors (“TVCs”) were unhappy with the company. TVCs, who reportedly made up 49.95% of Google’s 170,000 person global workforce, had raised concerns of mistreatment, citing instances of pay inequity, social exclusion, and physical endangerment. “Flexible” workers, such as TVCs, were often seen as a key cog for Silicon Valley’s IT companies: they made workforces scalable, they helped firms get access to specialized knowledge for temporary projects, and they boosted innovation by creating “knowledge spillovers” between firms. But, at the same time, many onlookers worried that flexible work arrangements were aggravating social inequality and making more jobs precarious. Google employees, major media outlets, and politicians demanded that the company change its policies on TVCs. One suggestion was that Google convert all of its TVCs to full-time status by early 2020. As tensions reportedly escalated between Google’s workforce and its management team, some began to wonder if Google was still an employer of choice.

  Keywords: workforce; independent contractors; labor; talent management; Silicon Valley; google; employee attitude; Employee compensation; employee engagement; future of work; innovation; Innovation and Management; innovation and strategy; inequality; talent acquisition; Labor; Talent and Talent Management; Technological Innovation; Employees; Innovation and Management; Human Resources; Information Technology Industry; United States; San Francisco;

  Citation:

  Kerr, William R., and Carl Kreitzberg. "Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?" Harvard Business School Case 820-048, September 2019. (Revised October 2019.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2018 (Revised October 2019)

  Managing the Future of Work

  William R. Kerr, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

  By 2019, leaders from the public and private sector had become increasingly anxious about how advanced technologies and aging global populations could affect labor markets, workplaces, and workers’ lives. Some analysts forecasted that hundreds of millions of workers would have their jobs threatened by automation. Questions about how relevant stakeholders (e.g., workers, firms, NGOs) should respond to those threats created a new field of study called the “Future of Work.” Comparing current forecasts to historical episodes of workers getting automated, many commentators wondered “will this time be different?” Despite so much uncertainty on the topic, many leaders concluded that they would need to collaborate across sectors to address many different challenges, such as rapid technological changes and evolving labor markets.

  Keywords: Employment; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Problems and Challenges; Opportunities;

  Citation:

  Kerr, William R., Allison Ciechanover, and Jeff Huizinga. "Managing the Future of Work." Harvard Business School Case 818-128, May 2018. (Revised October 2019.)  View Details

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