Sesame Workshop: Bringing Big Bird Back to Health (Abridged)

Rosabeth Moss Kanter; Ryan  Raffaelli; Ai-Ling Jamila Malone; Jonathan  Cohen

Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | April 2017

Sesame Workshop: Bringing Big Bird Back to Health (Abridged)

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ryan Raffaelli, Ai-Ling Jamila Malone and Jonathan Cohen

Abstract

Sesame Workshop was in the middle of a turnaround in 2016. CEO Jeff Dunn had reorganized and shifted the iconic institution to respond to digital disruption and a consensus culture. This Teaching Note helps instructors teach the abridged and full-length versions of “Sesame Workshop: Bringing Big Bird Back to Health.” The cases examine Dunn's efforts to turn Sesame around. Teaching Note for HBS No. 317-094.

Keywords: turnaround; NGO; non-profit; transformation; organization alignment; identity; managing change; philanthropy; media; television; reorganization; Talent; innovation; risk aversion; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Restructuring; Identity; Transformation; Education Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry;

Language: English

Format: Print

23 pages

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Citation:

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, Ryan Raffaelli, Ai-Ling Jamila Malone, and Jonathan Cohen. "Sesame Workshop: Bringing Big Bird Back to Health (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 317-118, April 2017.

Why do incumbent firms frequently reject nonincremental innovations? Beyond technical, structural, or economic factors, we propose an additional factor: the degree of the top management team's (TMT) frame flexibility, i.e., their capability to cognitively expand an innovation's categorical boundaries and to cast the innovation as emotionally resonant with the organization's identity, competencies, and competitive boundaries. We argue that inertial forces generally constrict how TMTs perceive innovations but that frame flexibility can overcome these constraints, increasing the likelihood of adoption and broadening the organization's innovation practices. We advance a theoretical model that relaxes the assumption that cognitive frames are static, showing how they become flexible via categorical positioning, and introduce a role for emotional frames that appeals to organizational members' sentiments and aspirations in innovation adoption.

Describes the founding and growth challenges facing Moleskine, an Italian-based consumer products company known for its oilcloth-covered notebooks once used by Ernest Hemingway and Vincent van Gogh. CEO Arrigo Berni and co-founder Maria Sebregondi aim to transform the company from a founder-led company to a professionally managed firm by expanding into new geographies, product categories, and distribution channels. They have also recently developed several strategic partnerships with Silicon Valley firms to expand into an array of digital products. However, after going public, stock prices continue to fluctuate below analysts' expectations, raising concerns about whether the company has grown too quickly. The leaders must now decide how to expand the firm's capabilities while continuing to preserve its organizational identity and creative culture.

Chinese appliance company Haier's 2016 acquisition of iconic GE Appliances ushered in strategic and structural changes to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship at the U.S. company, and to help it grow. Haier, which had a model designed to bring the company closer to users of its products, wanted GEA to adopt a version of the model that suited the U.S. market, U.S. consumers, and GEA's employees. This case describes GEA's efforts to do that as a member of the Haier Group. Teaching Note for HBS No. 319-044.

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Sesame Workshop: Bringing Big Bird Back to Health (Abridged)

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