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The Case of the Downsizing Decision
Decision making and problem solving Magazine ArticleAndrew Jordan sat at his desk, absentmindedly watching a barge chug slowly upstream on the Thames. The dinner meeting he had scheduled with a select group of senior managers at Universal Products Company, Ltd. would begin in an hour. For three years, it had seemed enough to focus on the business problems of UPC’s Connectors […] -
The Gentleman's "Three" (Commentary for HBR Case Study)
Leadership & Managing People Magazine ArticleHow do you reduce headcount when almost everyone gets the same scores on performance reviews? HR vice president Nils Ekdahl confronts that question at... -
Why My Former Employees Still Work for Me
Motivating people Magazine ArticleRather than just cut jobs, Ricardo Semler set up workers as private entrepreneurs—in his own factories. -
Halting the Exodus After a Layoff
Downsizing Magazine ArticleThe gut-wrenching decision to downsize is usually made a little easier by the belief that at least there’s a purpose to it all: The company will save money and might even improve performance. But a new study indicates that layoffs often prompt demoralized survivors to quit. The resulting unexpected staff shortage can hinder efficiency, and […] -
Keeping Your Team Motivated When the Company Is Struggling
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleDon't pretend you have all the answers. Do be prepared to deal with the messy emotions people may be experiencing. -
Downsizing Lost Its Bad Rap
Downsizing Magazine ArticleBig companies formerly took a reputational hit when they laid off massive numbers of workers. But according to E. Geoffrey Love and Matthew Kraatz, of the University of Illinois, U.S. business culture norms gradually changed from 1985 to 1994 as new ideas about boosting shareholder value took hold in executive suites and boardrooms. At the […] -
Gilded and Gelded: Hard-Won Lessons from the PR Wars
Business communication Magazine ArticleA wounded-but-wiser AT&T veteran recounts how one of the world’s biggest and best-known companies became one of its most battered—and explains how others can avoid that fate. -
Moving Upward in a Downturn
Strategy & Execution Magazine ArticleDrawing on extensive research of Fortune 500 companies that have lived through industry downturns and economic recessions over the past two decades, Darrell... -
When Lean Isn't Mean
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleThe trend is to downsize corporate headquarters--but sometimes a bigger HQ is better. -
How to Protect Your Job in a Recession
Leadership & Managing People Magazine ArticleAs the economy softens, corporate downsizing appears almost inevitable. Don't panic yet, though. While layoff decisions might seem beyond your control,... -
What Can CEOs Do for Displaced Workers?
Human resource management Magazine ArticleIn 1978, before restructuring was a common boardroom term, Jewel sold its Turn-Style discount department store business to the May Department Store Company. Because May could not immediately use many of the Turn-Style stores outside metropolitan Chicago, Jewel closed them. This meant that almost 3,000 full-and part-time employees were no longer needed. We in Jewel’s […] -
The Layoff (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleAstrigo is in trouble. The home improvement chain has missed its earnings forecast badly and sales are falling. A 10% reduction in staff looks like the... -
Hard Work of Being a Soft Manager (HBR Classic)
Leadership & Managing People Magazine ArticleSoft management does not mean weak management, says William Peace in this 1991 article. It means candor, openness, and vulnerability, but it also means... -
After the Layoffs, What Next? (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleHarry Denton, the CEO in this fictional case study, has been caught off guard. As the head of Delarks, a venerable department-store chain in the Midwest,... -
Unemployment Insurance: Time for Reform
Labor Magazine ArticleRestructuring of current program would eliminate adverse effects and strengthen protection offered to vast majority of workers -
Cutting Costs Without Drawing Blood
Finance & Accounting Magazine ArticleWhen looking for ways to cut costs, most managers reach for the head-count hatchet, and the markets usually roar with approval. But a company can almost... -
The Layoff (Commentary for HBR Case Study)
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleAstrigo is in trouble. The home improvement chain has missed its earnings forecast badly and sales are falling. A 10% reduction in staff looks like the... -
How's Your Return on People?
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleManagers pay lip service to employees as "valuable assets." But when numbers are down, staffers are often seen merely as costs to be cut. Treating employees... -
What Companies Still Get Wrong About Layoffs
Organizational Development Digital ArticleMany cling to the idea that reducing staff is the fastest, easiest way to cut costs. But there are smarter, more humane approaches. -
How to Stay Grounded Through Organizational Chaos
Organizational change Digital ArticleSix strategies to help you navigate layoffs, reorgs, and economic instability.
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David Dunwood
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study11.95View Details The protagonist,David Dunwood, is a second-time search fund entrepreneur who in mid-2004 purchased Mountain Auto, a leading auto parts retailer in the... -
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing in a Downturn, Expanded Edition (Paperback + Ebook)
Leadership & Managing People Special Offer34.95View Details How do the most resilient companies survive--and even thrive--during a slowdown? If you read nothing else on surviving a tough economy and coming back... -
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing in a Downturn (with bonus article "Reigniting Growth" By Chris Zook and James Allen)
24.95View Details How do the most resilient companies survive--and even thrive--during a slowdown? If you read nothing else on preparing for a tough economy and coming... -
Sun Hydraulics Corp. (B)
Organizational Development Case Study5.00View Details Fifteen years later, the company has achieved widespread recognition in the industry for its innovative designs, its quality products, and its highly... -
AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow
Organizational Development Case Study11.95View Details By the late 2000s, rapid changes in the telecommunications industry forced AT&T's management team to take on a task that CEO Randall Stephenson called... -
FAG Kugelfischer - A German Restructuring
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details A large German manufacturer of ball bearings and precision machinery experiences severe financial difficulty brought on by poor management practices,... -
Bradley Marquez: Reduction in Force (A)
Organizational Development Case Study11.95View Details The Bradley Marquez advertising agency had created a successful niche delivering ethnic markets to their clients, corporate giants like Compaq, Sprint,... -
Note on Managing Workforce Reductions
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details Each individual who enters an organization will, at some point, leave. And yet most future leaders spend significantly more effort learning about recruiting... -
Kurt Landgraf and Du Pont Merck Pharmaceutical Co. (A)
Leadership & Managing People Case Study11.95View Details Kurt Landgraf, newly named CEO of Du Pont Merck Pharmaceutical Co., addresses complaints of discrimination from African-American scientists in R&D during... -
Nick Fiore: Healer or Hitman? (B)
Strategy & Execution Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the (A) case. -
Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (A)
Organizational Development Case Study11.95View Details In June 1998, the senior management team at Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream faced a number of internal and external difficulties that were some of the most challenging... -
Cat Is Out of the Bag: KANA and the Layoff Gone Awry (B)
Organizational Development Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the (A) case. -
Furloughs: An Alternative to Layoffs for Economic Downturns
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details This technical note describes the practice of employee furloughs (also known as work sharing or short time work) including their regulatory frameworks... -
Cat Is Out of the Bag: KANA and the Layoff Gone Awry (A)
Organizational Development Case Study11.95View Details Vicki Amon-Higa, vice president of KANA, a publicly traded, midsize development company, was working with Bryan Kettle, KANA's CFO, to plan a layoff in... -
Global Recession: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review
22.95View Details Roar Out of the Covid-19 Recession. You've weathered the shock, the lockdowns, and the slow crawl back. But with a new normal come new risks--and new... -
Laying Off Employees
15.00View Details Every day on the job, you face common challenges. And you need immediate solutions to those challenges. The Pocket Mentor Series can help. Each book in... -
Connect: The Knowledge Network (B)
Leadership & Managing People Case Study5.00View Details Supplementary Material to Product # NA0119 -
AT&T: Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details By the 1930s, AT&T dominated the American phone industry, serving 10 million telephones and employing over 100,000 switchboard operators. But beginning... -
Cambridge Cooling Systems: Global Operations Strategy
Technology & Operations Case Study11.95View Details The chief operating officer (CEO) at Cambridge Cooling Systems (CCS), an industrial cooling system manufacturer, has been asked for his recommendations... -
Levi Strauss & Co. (D)
Organizational Development Case Study5.00View Details "Levi Strauss & Co." explores the decision by the famed jeans maker to close a manufacturing facility in San Antonio, Texas in early 1990. The case follows...
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Bradley Marquez: Reduction in Force (A)
Organizational Development Case Study11.95View Details The Bradley Marquez advertising agency had created a successful niche delivering ethnic markets to their clients, corporate giants like Compaq, Sprint,... -
The Case of the Downsizing Decision
Decision making and problem solving Magazine ArticleAndrew Jordan sat at his desk, absentmindedly watching a barge chug slowly upstream on the Thames. The dinner meeting he had scheduled with a select group of senior managers at Universal Products Company, Ltd. would begin in an hour. For three years, it had seemed enough to focus on the business problems of UPC’s Connectors […] -
Global Recession: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review
22.95View Details Roar Out of the Covid-19 Recession. You've weathered the shock, the lockdowns, and the slow crawl back. But with a new normal come new risks--and new... -
Make Overhead Cuts that Last
Finance & Accounting Magazine ArticleOverhead value analysis identifies structural cuts that will reduce overhead costs by 15% to 30%. Overhead value analysis requires delegating to every... -
Sun Hydraulics Corp. (A)
Organizational Development Case Study11.95View Details Involves the design and creation of a company with no formally-defined hierarchy. Describes the steps the founder takes to avoid the organizational politics... -
Why My Former Employees Still Work for Me
Motivating people Magazine ArticleRather than just cut jobs, Ricardo Semler set up workers as private entrepreneurs—in his own factories. -
Internal Branding at Yahoo!: Crafting the Employee Value Proposition
Organizational Development Case Study11.95View Details In 2001, Libby Sartain, chief people officer, arrived at Yahoo! to find a demoralized Internet company without a well-defined culture, a coordinated method... -
AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow
Organizational Development Case Study11.95View Details By the late 2000s, rapid changes in the telecommunications industry forced AT&T's management team to take on a task that CEO Randall Stephenson called... -
How's Your Return on People?
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleManagers pay lip service to employees as "valuable assets." But when numbers are down, staffers are often seen merely as costs to be cut. Treating employees... -
Halting the Exodus After a Layoff
Downsizing Magazine ArticleThe gut-wrenching decision to downsize is usually made a little easier by the belief that at least there’s a purpose to it all: The company will save money and might even improve performance. But a new study indicates that layoffs often prompt demoralized survivors to quit. The resulting unexpected staff shortage can hinder efficiency, and […]