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Case Study: An Office Romance Gone Wrong

Harvard Business Review

Editor's Note This fictionalized case study will appear in a forthcoming issue of Harvard Business Review, along with commentary from experts and readers. He led the finance team. He led the finance team. She reported to the head of sales, who reported to the COO, and she and Brad rarely interacted at work.

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Case Study: Play it Safe at Home, or Take a Risk Abroad?

Harvard Business Review

Editors' Note: This fictionalized case study will appear in a forthcoming issue of Harvard Business Review, along with commentary from experts and readers. Stan had led a successful expansion into Canada in the 1990s when he was the COO, and Coe's had over 100 stores there now. We've been considering Mexico, and Europe."

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How to Bounce Back After a Failed Negotiation

Harvard Business Review

Case Study #1: Acknowledge your missteps. Sebastian Dupéré, the head of a Montreal-based steam cleaner company with sales in six countries, knew that his COO was one of his most valuable employees. ” When the COO walked, it was a wake-up call. . ” When the COO walked, it was a wake-up call.

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Shadow IT Is Out of the Closet

Harvard Business Review

An impatient marketing or finance manager would, on the sly, secure some extra budget money and hire a contractor to build a little database that tracked mailing addresses or top-line financials. Case studies on companies that have failed to invest in IT innovations, and the resulting business impacts--usually disastrous--abound.

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How Twitter’s Leadership Drama Explains its Success

Harvard Business Review

Sure enough, the company’s growth soon warranted yet another shift, and the board put COO Dick Costolo in the CEO role. The venture’s finances become more complex, and the CEO needs to depend on finance executives and accountants. These shifts are the stuff of truly riveting journalism, but aren’t surprising.

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How to Really Listen to Your Employees

Harvard Business Review

Case Study #1: Create an environment conducive to listening. Case Study #2: Don ’t let personality traits get in the way. Their VP of Finance kept warning them not to spend in a few key ways. Overlook nonverbal cues — they often reveal what a person is really thinking. was headed. The problem?

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