Sandra Brown Goes Digital

Rosabeth Moss Kanter; Jonathan  Cohen

Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | June 2018

Sandra Brown Goes Digital

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

Abstract

As a middle manager at a biotechnology company, Sandra Brown harnessed digital tools and social media to engage others and build campaigns for change in the company. This Teaching Note presents strategies for teaching the Sandra Brown case series, which follows Brown's career at NIN Biotech, and describes the challenges she faced as a change agent, working to promote gender equality and improve quality within the company, and build a movement around a new drug developed to fight cancer externally.

Keywords: change leadership; change management; digital; engagement; stakeholder engagement; grassroots movement; Organizational Change and Adaptation; quality; health care industry; management; career path; innovation; Leading Change; Management; Innovation and Management; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Quality;

Language: English

Format: Print

21 pages

Citation:

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, and Jonathan Cohen. "Sandra Brown Goes Digital." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 318-156, June 2018.

In 2018, CEO Lowell McAdam led efforts to transform Verizon through digital innovation, media acquisitions and integration, and changes to the company culture. He sought to manage change at the company as growth in traditional areas slowed, and position it as a leader in a 5G world. This Teaching Note assists classroom instructors in the teaching of Verizon 2018, a Harvard Business School case about the company's transformation.

Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2018 (Revised June 2018)

City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact

Rosabeth Moss Kanter and James Weber

In 2018, City Year was a 30 year old nonprofit that recruited and organized teams of young-adult “volunteers” (corps teams) to provide a year of citizen service. It had 3,100 corps members serving in 327 schools located in 28 U.S. cities. In its early decades, City Year provided a variety of services to a variety of organizations in need. Over its most recent decade, City Year had pivoted to having all corps members serve in low-income public schools to keep students on track to graduation in an effort to reduce the nation’s high school dropout rate. City Year also worked with partners to help schools transform themselves to better meet the needs of low-income students, and worked with policy makers and elected officials to promote the value of national citizen service. In 2012, City Year launched a Long Term Impact strategy (LTI) aimed at making a substantial improvement in high school graduation rates. The LTI required City Year to transform itself over time to create an organization capable of delivering its ambitious impact strategy. The case explores City Year’s history and its efforts to align its organization with its strategy. In March 2018, City Year CEO Michael Brown must examine the state of his organization and its strategy to determine next steps to achieving its LTI goals.

Keywords: Education; Service Operations; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth and Development Strategy; Performance Efficiency; Resource Allocation; Change Management; Social Entrepreneurship; Middle School Education; Secondary Education; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Human Capital; Growth Management; Service Delivery; Organizational Design; Social Enterprise; Poverty; United States;

Citation:

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, and James Weber. "City Year at 30: Toward Long-Term Impact." Harvard Business School Case 318-089, March 2018. (Revised June 2018.) View Details

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