General Management

- November 2025
- Case
Destination: Home and Scaling for National Impact

By: Brian Trelstad and Michelle Kraemer

In 2025, Jennifer Loving, CEO of Destination: Home, led a small Silicon Valley nonprofit with a mission to end local homelessness through systems-level coordination and prevention. As the backbone organization for Santa Clara County’s collective impact effort, Destination: Home partnered with government agencies, nonprofits, and corporations like Cisco. Its Homelessness Prevention System, supported by research showing strong cost-effectiveness, helped thousands of at-risk households avoid homelessness. With its local model proven, Loving and her team launched Right at Home, an initiative to replicate their prevention playbook in ten U.S. communities while advocating for federal policy and funding for prevention. The case explores the challenges of scaling a place-based model, sustaining private-sector engagement, and influencing national policy to address a growing homelessness crisis.
- November 2025
- Case
Destination: Home and Scaling for National Impact

By: Brian Trelstad and Michelle Kraemer

In 2025, Jennifer Loving, CEO of Destination: Home, led a small Silicon Valley nonprofit with a mission to end local homelessness through systems-level coordination and prevention. As the backbone organization for Santa Clara County’s collective impact effort, Destination: Home partnered with government agencies, nonprofits, and corporations like...
- October 30, 2025
- Other Article
What NZBA's Demise Tells Us About the Usefulness of Climate Alliances

By: Peter Tufano and Matteo Gasparini
- October 30, 2025
- Other Article
What NZBA's Demise Tells Us About the Usefulness of Climate Alliances

By: Peter Tufano and Matteo Gasparini
- 2025
- Working Paper
Multinational Enterprises and Corruption Past and Present

By: Geoffrey Jones

This working paper argues that the use of bribery and corruption has historically been a well-established multinational strategy. It examines multiple cases of grand corruption by blue chip corporations in different time periods and geographies, although there is no means of confirming whether these prominent case studies were tips of an iceberg or outliers. The level of engagement in petty corruption cannot be established. The industrial distribution of multinational corruption has been especially skewed towards armaments and commodities. Its use was particularly prevalent in Africa, where it was frequently condoned by the home governments of the multinationals involved. Grand corruption was especially prominent when business involved large contracts with governments. Bribery was fueled by the pervasiveness of corruption in the host economies in which the multinationals operated, but the multinationals were active agents in facilitating further corruption. Although bribery and corruption are often associated in the public mind with rogue individuals, it has historically been more often the product of miscreant corporate cultures. The corruption that was extensive in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and elsewhere did not originate with multinationals, but the actions of some large corporations confirmed rather than countered it, putting large sums of money into the system, and providing means for corrupt profits to be recycled elsewhere. This happened in the context of weak and poorly enforced international regulation. Bribery and corruption might have reduced transaction costs in specific circumstances, but the use of corruption by multinationals in countries with fragile institutional structures, especially in Africa, was totally unproductive.
- 2025
- Working Paper
Multinational Enterprises and Corruption Past and Present

By: Geoffrey Jones

This working paper argues that the use of bribery and corruption has historically been a well-established multinational strategy. It examines multiple cases of grand corruption by blue chip corporations in different time periods and geographies, although there is no means of confirming whether these prominent case studies were tips of an iceberg...

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

Destination: Home and Scaling for National Impact

By: Brian Trelstad and Michelle Kraemer

November 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

In 2025, Jennifer Loving, CEO of Destination: Home, led a small Silicon Valley nonprofit with a mission to end local homelessness through systems-level coordination and prevention. As the backbone organization for Santa Clara County’s collective impact effort, Destination: Home partnered with government agencies, nonprofits, and corporations like Cisco. Its Homelessness Prevention System, supported by research showing strong cost-effectiveness, helped thousands of at-risk households avoid homelessness. With its local model proven, Loving and her team launched Right at Home, an initiative to replicate their prevention playbook in ten U.S. communities while advocating for federal policy and funding for prevention. The case explores the challenges of scaling a place-based model, sustaining private-sector engagement, and influencing national policy to address a growing homelessness crisis.

Keywords: Silicon Valley; Cisco; Homelessness; Nonprofit; Scaling And Growth; Affordable Housing; Social Entrepreneurship; Housing; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Nonprofit Organizations; United States; California; San Jose

Citation

Educators

Talent Beyond Boundaries: Expanding Labor Pathways for Skilled Refugees

By: Brian Trelstad and Mary C. Sauer

November 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

Citation

Educators

What NZBA's Demise Tells Us About the Usefulness of Climate Alliances

By: Peter Tufano and Matteo Gasparini

October 30, 2025 |
Other Article |
Reuters.com

Keywords: Climate Change; Corporate Accountability; Alliances

Citation

Read Now

Connection to Country, Communities and Carpets: Interface Engaging Aboriginal Peoples

By: Harry Hummels and Brian Trelstad

October 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

Citation

Educators

Multinational Enterprises and Corruption Past and Present

By: Geoffrey Jones

2025 |
Working Paper |
Faculty Research

This working paper argues that the use of bribery and corruption has historically been a well-established multinational strategy. It examines multiple cases of grand corruption by blue chip corporations in different time periods and geographies, although there is no means of confirming whether these prominent case studies were tips of an iceberg or outliers. The level of engagement in petty corruption cannot be established. The industrial distribution of multinational corruption has been especially skewed towards armaments and commodities. Its use was particularly prevalent in Africa, where it was frequently condoned by the home governments of the multinationals involved. Grand corruption was especially prominent when business involved large contracts with governments. Bribery was fueled by the pervasiveness of corruption in the host economies in which the multinationals operated, but the multinationals were active agents in facilitating further corruption. Although bribery and corruption are often associated in the public mind with rogue individuals, it has historically been more often the product of miscreant corporate cultures. The corruption that was extensive in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and elsewhere did not originate with multinationals, but the actions of some large corporations confirmed rather than countered it, putting large sums of money into the system, and providing means for corrupt profits to be recycled elsewhere. This happened in the context of weak and poorly enforced international regulation. Bribery and corruption might have reduced transaction costs in specific circumstances, but the use of corruption by multinationals in countries with fragile institutional structures, especially in Africa, was totally unproductive.

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Multinational Firms and Management; Business and Government Relations; Africa

Citation

Read Now

Good for the Seller, Good for the Buyer and Good for Society: Sampo-yoshi, Sustainability and Trust at ITOCHU

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Tom Quinn

October 2025 (Revised October 2025) |
Teaching Note |
Faculty Research

Teaching Note for HBS Case 325-053.

Citation

Purchase

Walmart's Ten-Year Investment in the Frontline

By: Hubert Joly, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Alexis Lefort

October 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

This case traces Walmart’s decade-long transformation following CEO Doug McMillon’s 2015 decision to invest $2.7 billion in raising frontline wages and strengthening associate development. Initially met with investor skepticism and a sharp stock decline, the strategy reflected a deliberate shift toward a people-first model in the face of slowing sales, rising reputational pressures, and intensifying competition from Amazon and other retailers. Over the next ten years, Walmart expanded its commitment to associates through initiatives in training, education, health benefits, and career mobility, while simultaneously modernizing its business model with technology, automation, and e-commerce investments. The company integrated its physical and digital operations, pursued acquisitions and partnerships to bolster online capabilities, and diversified into higher-margin businesses such as advertising, membership, and financial services. By 2025, Walmart had redefined itself as a “people-led, tech-powered omnichannel retailer,” improving customer satisfaction, associate engagement, and financial performance. The case invites discussion on the role of long-term workforce investment in driving organizational transformation, the tradeoffs between short-term profitability and strategic renewal, and how Walmart should continue adapting its people strategy amid accelerating advances in AI and automation.