Faculty & Research

General Management

General Management

Overview Faculty Curriculum Awards & Honors

About the Unit

The General Management Unit is concerned with the leadership and management of the enterprise as a whole. This concern encompasses:

  • the personal values and qualities of effective general managers and enterprise leaders;
  • the philosophies, values, and strategies that inform successful enterprises; and
  • the relation of enterprise to the broader community and other external constituencies.

The Unit's work is conceived and carried out principally in four interest groups, each of which has its own leadership, research agenda, and teaching programs:

  • Management Policy and Process
  • Management Information Systems
  • Society and Enterprise
  • Leadership, Values, and Corporate Responsibility

Recent Publications

How to Build a Life: The Best Friends Can Do Nothing for You

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • April 8, 2021 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Related

Ten Year Sunset Rule for Healthcare Regulation Is a Nonstarter and Discouragement to Post-COVID-19 Investment

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Eugene Schneller
  • Spring 2021 |
  • Article |
  • Journal of Health Care Finance
U.S. healthcare delivery has not benefitted from the same productivity growth as many other service industries, such as bricks and mortar retailing, a loss that has gravely diminished cost control and access. Regulatory capture, which creates barriers to venture capital (VC) investment, has curtailed VC investment in the new entrants that can increase productivity. The important delivery innovations that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate what can happen with concurrent review of regulations. The new Health and Human Services’ ten-year period for review of regulations, which is longer than the VCs’ 5-6-year investment cycle, will deter their investment by permitting potentially obstructive regulations to remain in place.
Keywords: Health Care; Covid-19; Regulation; Health Care and Treatment; Health Pandemics; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Investment
Related

How to Build a Life: The Hidden Toll of Remote Work

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • April 1, 2021 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Related

Tales of Life-changing Innovations: Too Simple to be Safe? | Note on the Development of Fecal Transplants

By: Amar Bhidé and Srikant M. Datar
  • March 2021 |
  • Technical Note |
  • Faculty Research
Related

Phillips 66 and the Washington State Carbon Tax

By: Rebecca Henderson, Mariana Oseguera and Christopher Musser
  • March 2021 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
Related

How to Build a Life: Are You Dreaming Too Big?

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • March 25, 2021 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Related

Aligning Mission and Margin at Southern Bancorp

By: Rebecca M. Henderson, Brian Trelstad and Eren Kuzucu
  • March 2021 |
  • Case |
  • Faculty Research
In October 2020, after spending almost a decade to turnaround Southern Bancorp, an Arkansan bank founded with the mission to provide financial services to rural, underserved communities, CEO Darrin Williams is wondering how Southern Bancorp should continue to grow. Since taking the helm of the bank, Williams has worked with his team to revamp the bank’s finances, provide liquidity to its investors, raise new capital, and prove that the bank’s operations (dubbed “the margin”) reinforced its mission to provide financial services to underserved communities. Williams has several questions to consider in preparing Southern Bancorp’s next phase of growth: Should he continue Southern Bancorp’s efforts to grow in preparation for a traditional public offering? Or should he take advantage of the increasing public and private capital dedicated to racial equity to deepen the bank’s mission and become a central player in the effort to close racial wealth gap? Would listing Southern Bancorp in public markets disrupt the delicate balance between the mission and the margin? Was Southern Bancorp attractive enough to receive the dedicated capital flooding to close the racial wealth gap?
Keywords: Banks and Banking; Growth and Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Going Public; Investment Return; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States; Arkansas
Related

How to Build a Life: Here's 10,000 Hours. Don't Spend It All in One Place.

By: Arthur C. Brooks
  • March 18, 2021 |
  • Article |
  • The Atlantic
Related
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Contact Information

General Management Unit
Harvard Business School
Morgan Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163