Executive Ability - Publications - Faculty & Research

15 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprisingly Successful Marriages of Multinationals and Social Brands

attractive strategy for the "mice"? A: A carefully executed acquisition—through a well-designed agreement—can have many advantages over other ways of going to scale. Compared to organic, self-funded growth, it can allow much... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

09 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: ’Fortune Tellers’

economic data that it collected and published. He made it a priority of government to study the nature of business cycles and to bring business executives to Washington, D.C., to improve their ability to... View Details

Keywords: by Walter A. Friedman

08 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 8

detailed panel dataset on supply relationships in the mobile telecommunications industry, we address the following questions: What factors contribute to a firm's ability to learn by supplying, and build technological and market... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

18 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Breaking Through a Growth Stall

Starting a successful business is often considered the hardest thing entrepreneurs do—but growing an existing venture may be even more difficult. Many companies get stuck on a plateau that inhibits their ability to grow: a scale stopper.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

03 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 3, 2009

Lehman Brothers Harvard Business School Case 409-042 Explores how two senior Wall St. executives created a successful commercial opportunity for Lehman Brothers that focused on building relationships with minority- and women-owned... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

23 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

How Corporate Responsibility is Changing in Asia

a permanent reality in corporate boardrooms—whether or not executives have a deep-seated passion for the social issues involved. Expectations are changing, agreed panelists. Oil corporations, for example, are well versed in the standard... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

05 Jul 2017
Research & Ideas

Are Stockbrokers Illegally Leaking Confidential Information to Favored Clients?

investors, which in turn is acquired thanks to the brokers’ ability to observe order flow before the rest of the market.” Stockbrokers are intermediaries who buy and sell stocks for retail and institutional clients, either for a fee or... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

26 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

A Clear Eye for Innovation

The Roman god Janus had two sets of eyes—one pair focusing on what lay behind, the other on what lay ahead. General managers and corporate executives should be able to relate. They, too, must constantly look backward, attending to the... View Details

Keywords: by Charles A. O'Reilly III & Michael L. Tushman

18 Jun 2001
Research & Ideas

Tech Investment the Wise Way

Press, 2001. This excerpt is taken with permission from a contributed essay in Taking Technical Risks: How Innovators, Executives And Investors Manage High-Tech Risks, edited by Lewis M. Branscomb and Phillip E. Auerswald. Chesbrough and... View Details

Keywords: by Henry Chesbrough & Richard S. Rosenbloom

09 May 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 9

Sadun Abstract—Many senior executives struggle to describe how they make strategic decisions. That’s a serious problem since the process for making strategic decisions can shape the strategy itself. To understand better how companies... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: May 2, 2017

showing a passenger being dragged from a plane. Of all the U.S. air carriers, United should have known the power of social media and public outrage. It had learned years earlier in a prominent case about how fast viral content spreads and the View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

26 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 26

PublicationsManagement Accounting: Information for Decision Making and Strategy Execution Authors:Anthony A. Atkinson, Robert S. Kaplan, Ella Mae Matsumura, and S. Mark Young Publication:. Pearson Education, Inc., 2011 Abstract An... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Power of Leadership Groups for Staying on Track

intelligence, believes that "EQ competencies are not innate talents, but rather learned capabilities that can be developed to achieve outstanding performance." He continues, "High levels of cognitive ability (i.e., measured IQ of 120 or... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

02 Feb 2004
What Do You Think?

Leadership: A Matter of Sustaining or Eliminating Groupthink?

views as possible ... and then get the buy in for the execution process." Anshu Vats expressed this view a bit differently when he said, "Groupthink is heavily discouraged in the companies where the leaders lead from behind. ...... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

22 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

When Protestors Knock at Your Door

As globalization trends increase, so does the ability of non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace, Oxfam International, and the World Wildlife Fund to shape public and corporate policy on everything from human rights to labor... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

19 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Wrapping Your Alliances In a World Wide Web

costs, and enabled businesses to form mutually beneficial alliances.Once two or more companies agree to do business with each other on activities beyond simple procurement, they again face a challenge in executing many joint processes as... View Details

Keywords: by Andrew McAfee

05 Apr 2016
First Look

April 5, 2016

start-up seem too risky? There is a radical third path open to you: you can buy a small business and run it as CEO. Purchasing a small company offers significant financial rewards—as well as personal and professional fulfillment. Leading a firm means you can be your... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthlorne

05 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 5, 2019

whose members have many prior ties interact less frequently with proximate peers, and thus their performance is unaffected by nearby teams. Our findings highlight how prior social connections, which are often a source of knowledge and influence, can limit new... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

04 Mar 2014
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Managing Innovation

Should managers lead innovation or get out of the way? It's not an either/or decision. Executives of some great innovative companies—Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg—are active participants in creation, getting their hands... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

14 May 2020
Research & Ideas

What Leaders Can Do to Fight the COVID Fog

have the resources, ideas, and ability to quickly pivot the deployment our sales strategy in a new format? How are we going to differentiate when our new mode of communication is the same as everyone else?” Skills needed now: Making... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

Publications