by Richard Bierck - Publications - Faculty & Research

07 Nov 2005
What Do You Think?

Is Less Becoming More?

the cause. F. Chircu helped frame the discussion by writing that "When producers want to differentiate themselves, up to a point the safest and quickest way . . . is to add features or increase product complexity. . . . Choice... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Consumer Products

01 Feb 2008
What Do You Think?

How Sustainable Is Sustainability in a For-Profit Organization?

may not lead us to the greatest common good ... without government action(s).... These might take the form of incentives." Richard Eckel expanded on this idea, saying that "To suggest that for-profits embody any form of moral... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

02 Aug 2004
What Do You Think?

For Greater Transparency, Is Section 404 an Effective Response?

Summing Up Responses to this month's column raise questions about whether Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, requiring that senior managers certify the integrity of the processes by which their companies' financial reports are... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

10 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

American Auto’s Troubled Road

consumers and by the financial markets." HBS professor Richard Tedlow sees a broad fallout should the U.S. auto industry slide into permanent second-class status. "There's a dilemma when you see... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Manufacturing; Transportation; Auto

June 2004 (Revised November 2004)
Case

Restoring Trust at WorldCom

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Ashley Robertson

Examines the changes in corporate governance at WorldCom/MCI as proposed by the company's court-appointed corporate monitor, Richard Breeden. Following the largest bankruptcy ever and the downfall of the company, Breeden wrote "Restoring Trust," a report comprised of... View Details

Keywords: Change; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business and Government Relations; Trust

Citation

Educators

Purchase

01 May 2009
What Do You Think?

Do Innovation and Entrepreneurship Have to Be Incompatible with Organization Size?

energy to priority areas for innovation." Amy Sauers added findings that suggest that large firms succeed that "attempted to 'get small' (through the vehicle of) 'lean, mean, heavyweight teams.'" Another ingredient suggested View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

02 Jan 2008
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Stories 2007

Here are the 20 most popular stories from 2007. How Much of Leadership Is About Control, Delegation, or Theater? Summing up the many responses, Jim Heskett says that the mix of control, delegation, and theater employed by successful... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

02 Mar 2017
What Do You Think?

Is China About to Overtake the US for World Trade Leadership?

from an alumnus to the president of The Ohio State University at the time, demanding a reprimand or worse. How times change. Of course, a few years later, president Richard Nixon embarked on his momentous trip that literally changed the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

20 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

How CEOs Sustain Higher-Ambition Goals

At a recent Harvard Business School conference, dozens of CEOs committed to the idea of working toward "higher-ambition" goals that go beyond just short-term shareholder value. Inspired by the book Higher Ambition: How Great Leaders... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

09 Aug 2010
News

How to Speed Up Energy Innovation

09 Sep 2024
HBS Case

McDonald’s and the Post #MeToo Rules of Sex in the Workplace

It was a brief dalliance, just a few weeks in length, over text and video only. The end of the affair was nonetheless just the beginning for Stephen Easterbrook, the McDonald’s CEO who went from being hailed as the company’s “savior” by... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Food & Beverage

03 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Everyone Knows Innovation is Essential to Business Success—Except Board Directors

three on their list of concerns. That’s the surprising finding in a new survey of boards of directors conducted by Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg and doctoral student Yo-Jud Cheng. “The concerns that ranked at the top... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

19 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Public Education Goes to School

also demonstrated a base of support in their cities for system-wide change. We discussed the program in this e-mail Q &A with Childress and Allen Grossman, who is the HBS faculty chair for the program. Childress, Grossman, and coauthor View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark; Education

09 Sep 2013
Lessons from the Classroom

Teaching Climate Change to Skeptics

are often shaped more by the political climate than by the actual climate. "The issue has become totally intertwined with political ideology," says Richard H.K. Vietor, the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

07 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Negotiation and All That Jazz

directly to negotiations," says Wheeler, whose own background is in law and policy analysis. "I'm not speaking metaphorically. By emulating what jazz masters do, we all can become better negotiators." Indeed, the late diplomat View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

19 Jan 2021
In Practice

Leadership Advice for Biden: Restore a Sense of Calm

unemployed, and demands for police reform and racial justice. But in the wake of one of the most tumultuous presidential elections in US history—marked by outgoing President Donald Trump claiming the election was stolen, deadly violence... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

16 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Marketing Wine to the World

Australia, South Africa, Chile, etc.). Q: What do you see as the major differences between Old World and New World winemakers? A: The Old World market continues to be highly fragmented. The competitive landscape is filled with many small, privately held wineries, owned... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage

21 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

What Health Care Managers Need to Know--and How to Teach Them

digital platform, and the increased fiscal pressures created by the worldwide economic crisis. Unfortunately, the educational programs for future health care leaders fail to provide many of the needed skills, according to a survey of CEOs... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry; Health; Education

16 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

in the United States, in the 1980s. They started exerting direct pressure on the boards to remove the management of under-performing companies. By the early 1990s, we saw a further rise in institutional investor power and their... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

XTV: Xerox’s Attempted Recovery From “Fumbling the Future”

By the end of the second spin-off regime, Xerox's position in the copier market had begun to improve. While its share of the market would never return to 80 percent levels, Xerox was able to regain more than ten market share points,... View Details

Keywords: by Henry Chesbrough

Publications