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| The centerpiece of the Morgan Hall - a mosaic that was once part of a Roman Bath |
Morgan Hall
Morgan Hall houses the faculty of the Harvard Business School (HBS). It is also the home of the HBS Dean. Quite appropriately it is next to the Bloomberg Library. The centerpiece of Morgan Hall is a mosaic that has been hiding in the vaults of the university until a previous Dean "discovered" and installed it in the center of the building.
Lesson in Class
Operations
- Teams that are organized to innovate allow for failure and learn by doing
- Teams that are organized to execute are less tolerant of mistakes and put a premium on efficiency
- The good old days of a straightforward lateral structure is over, the time for complexity is here
- 4 factors to consider when organizing - functional, line of business, customer segments and geography
- Organization design consequently is always a work in progress
- Industry benchmarking analysis can sometimes be misleading, in the context of a restructuring exercise, especially given that problems can sometimes be industry-wide
- Many companies conduct process re-engineering studies in order to be on top of business processes and costs
- Rare is the CEO / employee who can do both operational and visionary roles with much success, if you find one hang on to them tightly
- Some middle eastern nations have become rentier states
- Over-dependence on oil revenues have made it uncompetitive and unable to diversify and modernize
- Some of their leaders have seen this and have began to manage the progression out of an oil-dependent economy while balancing the strong religious, political and social pressures of their country
- There are two paths to connecting with the consumer - functional and the emotional
- The emergence of non-traditional social media has opened novel communication content and approaches to companies
- However, companies must not forget that people still buy from people they like
- Break even point varies according to weighted average cost of capital, operating margins and unit price
- Be careful of tying executive compensation to the stock price as it may result in short-term thinking that will ultimately affect the company in the long-term
- Financing packages can add value to the organization's financials, hence designing it is very critical
