Publications

February 2021
Tutorial

What are Agile Teams?

By: Tsedal Neeley

This video explores the elements that constitute agile teams. From its history in the "Agile Manifesto," this philosophy for organizational behavior prioritizes working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and... View Details

Keywords: Agile Practices; Organization Behavior; Priorities; Groups and Teams; Decision Choices and Conditions; Values and Beliefs

2020
Other Unpublished Work

An Operating Model for the Next Normal: Lessons from Agile Organizations in the Crisis

By: Christopher Handscomb, Deepak Mahadevan, Lars Schor, Marcus Sieberer, Euvin Naidoo and Suraj Srinivasan

Companies with agile practices embedded in their operating models have managed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis better than their peers. Here’s what helped them cope. View Details

Keywords: Operating Model; Agile Practices; Health Pandemics; Business Model; Crisis Management

January–February 2021
Other Article

Stand-up Meetings Inhibit Innovation

By: Andy Wu and Dagny Dukach

An interview with Harvard Business School professor Andy Wu is presented. Wu discusses the usefulness of stand-up meetings, their role in agile management practices, and their impact on innovations and creativity by the participants. View Details

Keywords: Agile Practices; Meetings; Management Practices and Processes; Creativity; Innovation and Invention

Teaching Interest

Short Intensive Program (SIP): Agile at Scale: From OKR's and Agile to Execution Excellence

What do you want to get out of your remaining time at HBS, your career and life-plan to make an impact, starting from Day 1 post-HBS? By developing tools to drive your personal success and strategy at HBS, in this interactive immersion, we will dive into how the... View Details

November–December 2024
Article

How to Avoid the Agility Trap

By: Jianwen Liao and Feng Zhu

Agility is all the rage in strategy circles these days. According to conventional wisdom, organizations should rapidly react to technological advances, new market dynamics, and shifting consumer preferences. But in practice this is nearly impossible to pull off,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Advantage; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model

29 Jun 2020
News

An operating model for the next normal: Lessons from agile organizations in the crisis

November–December 2023
Article

Iterative Coordination and Innovation: Prioritizing Value over Novelty

By: Sourobh Ghosh and Andy Wu

An innovating organization faces the challenge of how to prioritize distinct goals of novelty and value, both of which underlie innovation. Popular practitioner frameworks like Agile management suggest that organizations can adopt an iterative approach of frequent... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Novelty; Goals; Specialization; Coordination; Field Experiment; Software Development; Agile; Scrum; Iteration; Iterative; Organizations; Innovation and Invention; Value; Goals and Objectives; Integration; Applications and Software

2013
Book

The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World

By: Michael Wheeler

A member of the world-renowned Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School introduces the powerful next-generation approach to negotiation. For many years, two approaches to negotiation have prevailed: the "win-win" method exemplified in Getting to Yes by Roger... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation

01 Feb 2021
News

Stand Up Meetings May Not Have Some of the Benefits You Think They Do

Article

Drive Innovation with Better Decision-Making

By: Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards and Taran Swan

Despite their embrace of agile methods, many firms striving to innovate are struggling to produce breakthrough ideas. A key culprit, according to the authors, is an outdated, inefficient approach to decision-making. Today’s discovery-driven innovation processes involve... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Change and Adaptation

21 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

7 Successful Battle Strategies to Beat COVID-19

Drawing on lessons from the battlefield is common practice for business leaders seeking tested strategies to succeed against adversity. Today, the battle against COVID-19, an invisible enemy, feels to many observers like a military... View Details

Keywords: by Euvin Naidoo

12 PM – 1 PM EST, 03 Feb 2015
Webinars: Trending@HBS

The Art of Negotiation: How to Improvise Agreement in a Chaotic World

Mr. Wheeler presents a fresh and dynamic approach to negotiation, one that challenges the static assumptions of win-win and hard-bargaining models. The simple truth is that negotiation cannot be scripted and people cannot dictate what other parties will say or do any... View Details

18 Jan 2021
Book

How Thinking Like a Startup Helps Governments Solve More Problems

adapting the skills and practices of entrepreneurship for the public sector,” he says. Before joining the HBS faculty and creating the MBA course Public Entrepreneurship, Weiss was chief of staff to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. In 2010,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2020
Working Paper

Iterative Coordination and Innovation

By: Sourobh Ghosh and Andy Wu

Agile management practices from the software industry continue to transform the way organizations innovate across industries, yet they remain understudied in the organizations literature. We investigate the widespread Agile practice of iterative coordination: frequent... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Goals; Specialization; Coordination; Field Experiment; Software Development; Organizations; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Goals and Objectives; Integration; Software

2021
Working Paper

Multiple Team Membership, Turnover, and On-Time Delivery: Evidence from Construction Services

By: Hise O. Gibson, Bradely R. Staats and Ananth Raman

Firms who want to compete in dynamic markets are finding that they must build more agile operations to ensure success. One way for a firm to increase organizational agility is to allocate employees to multiple project teams, simultaneously—a practice known as multiple... View Details

Keywords: Multiple Team Membership; Turnover; Fluid Teams; Project Management; Groups and Teams; Projects; Management; Performance

01 Jul 2019
What Do You Think?

Are Super Stretch Goals Only for the Very Young?

further growth, and essentially the loss of control of the company by the board, which was even required to remake its composition. At Volkswagen, eerily similar things happened, this time with engineering practices and goals. This sad... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

March 2017 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World

By: John R. Wells and Carole A. Winkler

In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States in November 2016 had triggered a national storm of protests, and many attributed Trump’s victory to... View Details

Keywords: Facebook; Fake News; Mark Zuckerberg; Donald Trump; Algorithms; Social Networks; Partisanship; Social Media; App Development; Instagram; WhatsApp; Smartphone; Silicon Valley; Office Space; Digital Strategy; Democracy; Entry Barriers; Online Platforms; Controversy; Tencent; Agility; Social Networking; Gaming; Gaming Industry; Computer Games; Mobile Gaming; Messaging; Monetization Strategy; Advertising; Digital Marketing; Business Ventures; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Headquarters; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Trends; Communication; Communication Technology; Forms of Communication; Interactive Communication; Interpersonal Communication; Talent and Talent Management; Crime and Corruption; Voting; Demographics; Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Initial Public Offering; Profit; Revenue; Geography; Geographic Location; Global Range; Local Range; Country; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Government and Politics; International Relations; National Security; Political Elections; Business History; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Information Management; Information Publishing; News; Newspapers; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Knowledge Dissemination; Human Capital; Law; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Management Systems; Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Marketing Channels; Social Marketing; Network Effects; Market Entry and Exit; Digital Platforms; Marketplace Matching; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Monopoly; Media; Product Development; Service Delivery; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Groups and Teams; Networks; Rank and Position; Opportunities; Behavior; Emotions; Identity; Power and Influence; Prejudice and Bias; Reputation; Social and Collaborative Networks; Status and Position; Trust; Society; Civil Society or Community; Culture; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Societal Protocols; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Customization and Personalization; Diversification; Expansion; Horizontal Integration; Segmentation; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Valuation; Advertising Industry; Communications Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Journalism and News Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Video Game Industry; United States; California; Sunnyvale; Russia

Educators

2010
Book

The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics Are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance

By: Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman

Retailers today are drowning in data but lacking in insight: They have huge volumes of information at their disposal. But they're unsure of how to sort through it and use it to make smart decisions. The result? They're struggling with profit-sapping supply chain... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Logistics; Supply Chain Management; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

March 2023
Case

Woven Planet - Designing Software for the Car of the Future

By: Gary P. Pisano and Catherine Piner

Founded in 2021, Woven Planet Holdings—a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation—was developing Arene, an automotive software platform consisting of an operating system, development and simulation tools, and a cloud-based service that could store and analyze vehicle... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Automated Driving; Innovation; Organizational Culture; Applications and Software; Safety; Product Launch; Product; Auto Industry; Technology Industry

Educators