Sorting - Publications - Faculty & Research

21 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

The Parable of the Bungled Baggage And the Unhappy Customer

said, "Would Professor Sasser meet the special service agent?"... I was feeling a little uncomfortable because I was going to talk about customer service and customer focus and these folks were really sort of showing me stuff... View Details

Keywords: by W. Earl Sasser

28 Apr 2008
HBS Case

Negotiating with Wal-Mart

while improving their own margins. "Two sides in this sort of negotiation will always differ on price," Sebenius observes. "However, if that conflict is the centerpiece of their interaction, then it's a bad situation. If... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

04 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Is Your Org Chart Stuck in a Rut? Try a Scientific Experiment

But with few exceptions, organizational structure has failed to keep up with other market-fueled technological innovation. As a result, a lot of companies are stuck in a structure rut, and aren’t operating as smoothly as they could be. “We have this View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

19 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

The Regional Slice of Your Global Strategy

regions. At the very least, this sort of mapping sparks creativity. Facing The Organizational Challenge Regional strategies, as I've noted, can take a long time to implement. One deep-seated reason for this is that an organization's... View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat

26 Sep 2005
Research & Ideas

What Perceived Power Brings to Negotiations

Emerson, sort of the grandfather of power research, and looked at the way he conceptualized it initially. He didn't use exactly these terms, but he conceptualized power as relative and perceived. So, while we've brought it into the... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

24 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

Building an IT Governance Committee

Unfortunately, skilled, business-oriented technology strategists are in short supply. In the absence of such a person within a company, an IT consultant who can help sort out technology issues can fit the bill, as might a divisional CEO... View Details

Keywords: by Richard Nolan & Warren McFarlan

17 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

The Business of Babies

other ten or fifteen percent have to pay anywhere from $25,000 to $60,000 and up. You don't see that kind of inequity often." Inconsistent standards of payment. Only ten U.S. states have some sort of mandate regarding insurance... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

02 Sep 2002
What Do You Think?

What Can Business Schools Do to Avoid Bad Apples?

Summing Up This month's column resulted in a number of suggestions for sorting out the "bad apples" among applicants to MBA programs across the country. But just as many respondents questioned the underlying assumptions of the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

26 Jan 2021
Research & Ideas

A New Way to Cut Credit Card Debt: Pay Off One Purchase at a Time

says. They can also sort their credit card bills by retailer, focusing on those expensive coffees or take-out orders to rein in spending. “Whatever your weakness is for a retailer, you could look and say, ‘I'm going to pay off that... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Financial Services

04 Nov 2002
Research & Ideas

From Lone Star to Team Player

managers of companies is a quick poll to identify what sorts of collaborative obstacles they may face in their organization and then we provide them with customized feedback. View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

24 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

These Coronavirus Heroes Show Us How Crisis Leadership Works

in Galway, Ireland. He has publicly committed to double production from 5,000 to 10,000 units per month, but that is just the start. Next come the challenges of getting supplies from all over the world, hiring and training new employees, and finally, View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Health

08 Sep 2011
What Do You Think?

What’s Apple’s Biggest Challenge: Replacing Steve or Wall Street?

will be a tough task." A second line of thought is, as Khurt Williams commented, "Apple's biggest threat is Wall Street fickleness and incessant focus on growth." Others felt that it is impossible to sort out whether the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Computer

09 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

How Business Leaders Can Strengthen American Schools

the GE Foundation sponsors Developing Futures, a program that partners with seven school districts where GE has major operations to upgrade management talent and processes at the district level. Obstacles To Overcome So what's the likelihood that these View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

08 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

The Startling Percentage of Financial Advisors with Misconduct Records

however, a catch: they tended to move from firms with lower rates of misconduct to firms with higher rates. “It seems like there is some sorting going on, with some firms more tolerant of misconduct than others.” In other words, while... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

21 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

Gender and Competition: What Companies Need to Know

percent of board members are women. They teamed with Fletcher, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in organizational behavior, to answer questions on gender, competition, and cooperation that have not been addressed in previous research: Do men and women react... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

16 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 16

discontinuity. This might suggest that financing is not a central input of angel groups. Read the paper: http://www.people.hbs.edu/wkerr/KLS-Angels-June2011.pdf Incentive Schemes, Sorting and Behavioral Biases of Employees: Experimental... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Aug 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: After Charlottesville, Where Does a CEO's Responsibility Lie?

up for the costs imposed by being unable to get exactly the sort of employees critical to success in today’s economy. The obligations faced by corporate leaders CEOs have responsibilities to their companies, their employees, their... View Details

Keywords: by Gautam Mukunda

06 Nov 2012
Op-Ed

Stop Talking About the Weather and Do Something: Three Ways to Finance Sustainable Cities

The wrath of Hurricane Sandy has illuminated a fundamental question: How do we ensure that our cities are resilient in the face of inevitable future disasters? A destroyed city is not a sustainable city. I'm making the case that it's time to stop complaining about... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Construction; Real Estate; Energy; Utilities

28 Nov 2012
What Do You Think?

Should Pay-for-Performance Compensation be Replaced?

incentives involve delays in compensation that may make a job much less attractive to managers with shorter-term needs or interests. On the other hand, it may serve as a way of sorting out managers with a longer-term view of the job. What... View Details