Michael - Publications - Faculty & Research

30 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Vanguard, Trian And The Problem With 'Passive' Index Funds

On August 31, 2016, many investors celebrated the 40th birthday of one of the world’s most successful financial instruments: the mutual index fund, created by Vanguard founder John C. Bogle. Index funds, which automatically track an index of stocks such as the S&P... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

28 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Challenging the Belief that Liability Laws Kill Medical Device Innovation

Doctors are afraid of getting sued. According to some accounts, 75 percent of them perform more tests and procedures than necessary to avoid potential lawsuits over medical malpractice. The phenomenon of “defensive medicine” has been examined exhaustively by... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Medical Devices & Supplies

19 Oct 2016
Book

Three Critical Mistakes Digital Businesses Make With Content

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail; Music

17 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

Man vs. Machine: Which Makes Better Hires?

Some companies have begun relying more on computer-administered tests than human interviewers to find the best applicants. New research by Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Danielle Li and colleagues suggests that in this case, we may have to score one for... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Employment

29 Feb 2016
HBS Case

Bigbelly's Big Bet on the Digital Trash Can

Q: When is a trash can not a trash can? A: When it’s a Wi-Fi hotspot, air-purity monitor, and advertising billboard—all in one. Bigbelly solar-powered trash cans have been street corner fixtures in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and other cities around the world for... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Energy

17 Feb 2015
HBS Case

HBS Cases: The Battle for San Francisco

San Francisco has always been a beacon for people who want to change the world. From beat poets to hippies to gay activists, each wave of counterculture immigration has put its stamp on the city, creating a unique blend that has set it apart from any other in America.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

17 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Companies Detangle from Legacy Pensions

"Goodbye tension, hello pension!" That used to be the triumphant cry of millions of new retirees. For decades, Americans assumed a good job came with a good pension, guaranteeing them regular monthly payments from their parent company until the day they died.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Aerospace; Financial Services

22 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Not Your Father’s State-Run Capitalism

Once upon a time, there were two kinds of businesses. On the one hand, there were public and privately owned companies such as those that existed in Western-style democracies, which had boards of directors and accountability to shareholders, and competed openly in the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

01 Jan 2008
News

The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy

Keywords: Michael E. Porter

03 Dec 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Creating Leaders: An Ontological Model

Keywords: by Werner Erhard, Michael C. Jensen & Kari L. Granger

15 Sep 2007
News

Michael Porter dice Uribe es "sorprendente" y Colombia es afortunada de tenerlo (Michael Porter says Uribe is "surprising" and Colombia is lucky to have him)

17 Nov 2015
News

Carbon Neutral

Eacho, left, and Minnick (Getty Images) Congress is at a standstill over carbon. One side wants to regulate emissions as a pollutant; the other fears that any move to regulate oil and gas will impede growth and cost jobs. A compromise once pushed by the Obama... View Details

Keywords: Michael Blanding

13 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

Reinforcing Values: A Public Dressing Down

Faced with the need for massive change, most managers respond predictably. They revamp the organization's strategy, then round up the usual set of suspects—people, pay, and processes—shifting around staff, realigning incentives, and rooting out inefficiencies. They... View Details

Keywords: by David A. Garvin & Michael A. Roberto

31 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

The New CEO’s Wrong Message

Bearing full responsibility for a company's success or failure, but being unable to control most of what will determine it. Having more authority than anyone else in the organization, but being unable to wield it without unhappy consequences. Sound like a tough job? It... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Jay W. Lorsch & Nitin Nohria

17 May 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Is a VC Partnership Greater Than the Sum of Its Partners?

Keywords: by Michael Ewens & Matthew Rhodes-Kropf; Financial Services

16 Jul 2008
Op-Ed

What Should Employers Do about Health Care?

In the United States, employers have often treated health benefits as a necessary evil. They have focused on the rising cost of providing health insurance benefits and taken aggressive steps to bring costs down, or at least to slow the rate of increase. In many other... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Elizabeth O. Teisberg & Scott Wallace; Health