by Harvard Management Update - Publications - Faculty & Research

December 2023
Case

Robert McNamara: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the life of Robert McNamara from Harvard Business School to Ford Motor Company to the U.S. Department of Defense. McNamara excelled in every job along the way: becoming the youngest-ever professor at Harvard Business School, the first non-family... View Details

Keywords: Performance Measurement; Military; Leadership Development; Values and Beliefs; Personal Characteristics; Leadership Style; Success; Business and Government Relations; Power and Influence; Business Education; War

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01 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Crowdfunding a Poor Investment?

usually required in a venture capital presentation. “A lot of companies that probably shouldn't get funding will get it” As enticing as crowdfunding is as a concept, it may ultimately have little power to shake up the investing world, even as it fills a valuable niche,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

18 Jan 2021
Book

How Thinking Like a Startup Helps Governments Solve More Problems

Boston’s Experiment with the One Fund,” Harvard Business Review, January 22, 2016. Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review Press. Excerpted from We the Possibility:... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2020
Book

Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments

By: Stefan Thomke

Don’t fly blind. See how the power of experiments works for you. When it comes to improving customer experiences, trying out new business models, or developing new products, even the most experienced managers often get it wrong. They discover that intuition,... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Experiments; Market Research; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Customers; Research

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12 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

Investors Have More Than Money to Offer Entrepreneurs

forces, but patterns over time and how markets move and customers buy. They may not know your specific market details or the intimate buying patterns of your target customer, but as Bob Mason, managing partner of Project11 says, “We often... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

29 Jun 2016
Op-Ed

What Hath the United Kingdom Wrought?

sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the EU’s instituting document. It will be an uneasy celebration. It could be downright disconcerting if, by then, the kind of populism that created this result in the UK will have... View Details

Keywords: by Dante Roscini

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: The Business of Crowdsourcing

Gaining the community's trust is vital to building a successful business with crowdsourcing, agreed business leaders at the Digital Initiative Summit at Harvard Business School on March 30. When Tongal got its start in 2009, some members... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

19 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Funding Innovation: Is Your Firm Doing it Wrong?

common struggle for firms to get innovation investments right, says Josh Lerner, the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School. On one hand, firms large enough to house their own research labs too often... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

22 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

What's the Ideal Frequency for a Sales Quota?

from a Field Experiment, authored by Harvard Business School marketing professors Doug J. Chung and Das Narayandas. “With so many people and resources at stake, the design of the sales force compensation... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

24 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

Do National Security Secrets Hold Back National Innovation?

widespread secrecy is understandably difficult, since by their very nature, secret inventions are hard to find. Recently, a researcher at Harvard Business School found a way to study this issue—by examining... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

10 Apr 2019
HBS Case

How Entrepreneurs Can Turn Lead Into Gold

through narratives and storytelling, or by seeking out members of a common group. One company that has succeeded in this regard, says Wu, is Cotopaxi, a Salt Lake City–based creator of outdoor apparel that Wu explored in a case study for... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

17 Dec 2001
Research & Ideas

Enterprising Women

business leaders, moderated by HBS professor Myra Hart, at the Harvard Business School Entrepreneurship Conference. Robin Chase said that being a woman did not hinder her ability to start Zipcar, a service... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

17 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

A Litmus Test for Entrepreneurs

kill the business—but they are of an entirely different nature. In a corporation, managers are usually making the same sorts of decisions every day and are surrounded by other people making similar choices.... View Details

Keywords: by Walter Kuemmerle

16 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Is MySpace.com Your Space?

Social networking sites such as MySpace.com are some of the most trafficked on the Web—MySpace had 46 million unique users in June and features nearly 100 million personal profiles posted by users, many of whom are in their teens and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Advertising; Information; Publishing

28 Nov 2012
What Do You Think?

Should Pay-for-Performance Compensation be Replaced?

Harvard Business School, has written recently decrying the practice of tying executive compensation to a company's stock price. He equates P4P to "outsourcing" the appraisal of management to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

08 Sep 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

Capitalism Works Better When I Can See What You're Doing

to work in your favor for that next job. And privacy disclosure notices on websites, rather than convincing consumers that their private data is well protected, can make them less likely to make a purchase. Here is recent research on the topic of transparency from... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

02 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Retail Reaches a Tipping Point—Which Stores Will Survive?

everything—was reportedly in conversations to buy some of those storefronts—possibly its first real beach-head in the brick-and-mortar world. As harbingers of the future of retail, these events certainly caught the attention of Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

06 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

Should Entrepreneurs Pitch Products or Ideas for Products?

speculation—and then, hopefully, sell it? “One of the top questions screenwriters talk about in their online communities is whether to pitch or to spec,” says Luo. In her paper published by Management... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Motion Pictures & Video; Entertainment & Recreation; Banking

16 Jul 2021
Op-Ed

For Entrepreneurs, the Benefits of Slowing Down

LinkedIn. Follow Jeffrey Bussgang on LinkedIn to read more of his posts. About the Author Jeffrey J. Bussgang is a senior lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School as... View Details

Keywords: by Jeffrey Bussgang

23 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Creative Entrepreneurship in a Downturn

Whatever the headlines predict these days, there may still be good news for entrepreneurs. Many successful products, services, and pivotal ideas have been launched during an economic lull, according to Bhaskar Chakravorti, a senior lecturer of business administration... View Details