Publications

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2010
Book

Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

By: Robert L. Simons

To stay ahead of the pack, you must translate your organization's competitive strategy into day-to-day actions that will enable your company to win in the marketplace. This means channeling resources into the right efforts, striking a balance between innovation and... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Innovation and Management; Resource Allocation; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy

01 Dec 2023
News

Wide Horizon

There were three critical events that led John Rodakis (MBA 1997) to form the nonprofit N of One in 2014 and ultimately dedicate his life to surfacing breakthrough autism research. The first occurred on Thanksgiving of 2012. He had driven about four hours with his wife... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; Photos by Sarah Wilson

31 Jan 2022
News

Where Can Digital Transformation Take You? Insights from 1,700 Leaders

Keywords: Digital transformation

08 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

The Death of the Global Manager

assume that all the smart people in the world are born within a 20-mile radius of their headquarters." This last factor—of being able to develop and diffuse innovation rapidly around the world—has... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

10 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 10, 2017

innovation has gained currency among managers even while core concepts remain misunderstood. Likewise, foundational research on disruption has produced extensive citations and provoked vibrant debates, but... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

Is Amazon a Retailer, a Tech Firm, or a Media Company? How AI Can Help Investors Decide

S&P 500? There are trillions and trillions of pension assets in S&P funds. Some things are just sticky because they are the benchmark. You Might Also Like: 8 Strategies to Sustain Business Innovation... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Consumer Products; Real Estate; Financial Services; Retail

March 2019 (Revised October 2020)
Case

GENTERA: Facing the Digital Age

By: Michael Chu and Carla Larangeira

After long dominating Mexican microfinance, Compartamos Banco faces the emergence of fintech, just as for the first time its loan portfolio and clients have declined. Enrique Majós, CEO of GENTERA, the bank´s parent company, is keenly aware of the profound changes... View Details

Keywords: Micro Finance; Base Of The Pyramid; Fintech; Microfinance; Disruption; Innovation and Management; Competitive Strategy; North America; Mexico

September 17, 2020
Article

Protecting Vulnerable Older Patients during the Pandemic

By: Umar Ikram, Susanna Gallani, Jose F. Figueroa and Thomas W. Feeley

Older people (70 years and older) with multiple chronic conditions have the highest risk of being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how a strong primary care system can play an important role in protecting this group of... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; High-risk Patients; Primary Care; Health Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Demographics; Age

Read Now

05 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 5, 2006

and scientists has caused the extended social networks of inventors to become increasingly connected. As a result, invention increasingly occurs within small worlds (or social networks) that straddle firm... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Nov 2007
What Do You Think?

What Is Management’s Role in Innovation?

Summing Up Can creativity and innovation be managed? Judging from responses to questions posed by practitioner panelists at a recent colloquium on "Creativity, Entrepreneurship, View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

29 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

Is There a Method to Musk’s Madness on Twitter?

Prior to the acquisition, Twitter as a company was much weaker than most people realize. They’ve struggled with profitability for many years, and they’ve been quite slow at innovating on new features View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Technology

October 2022 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Ginkgo Bioworks vs. Scorpion Capital: The Debate Over Related-Party Revenues

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese, Suraj Srinivasan and Annelena Lobb

Ginkgo Bioworks, a synthetic biology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, faced divergent views on its revenue possibilities and accounting practices. After a report emerged accusing it of fraudulent accounting and lack of innovation, its share price plunged. But... View Details

Keywords: Fraud Allegations; Revenue; Reports; Accounting Audits; Innovation and Management; Investment; Biotechnology Industry; Boston

September 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

RightHand Robotics: Choosing the First Market

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Stacy Straaberg

In early 2015, RightHand Robotics’s (RHR) leadership faced a set of decisions in commercializing the startup’s robotic picking solution. RHR’s central product was the RightPick integrated robotic picking system which featured a robotic arm, a three-fingered robotic... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Market Entry and Exit; Product; Research and Development; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Information Infrastructure; Technological Innovation; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Massachusetts

April 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

National Instruments

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Keri Pearlson and Natalie Kindred

This case explores the use of social media to support product design, customer support, marketing and HR activities at National Instruments (NI). Based in Austin, Texas, with over $1 billion in 2011 sales, NI designs, produces, and sells software and hardware platforms... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Applications and Software; Organizational Culture; Technological Innovation; Digital Platforms; Innovation and Management; Media; Management Systems; Social and Collaborative Networks; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry; Texas

October 1997 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Oxford Health Plans: Specialty Management (A)

By: James L. Heskett, Jody H. Gittell and James Slayton

Describes an innovative approach to organizing health care proposed by Oxford CEO Steve Wiggins. Wiggins contends that the primary care physician "gatekeeper" model typically used by health maintenance organizations to control access to and coordinate specialist care... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Groups and Teams; Innovation and Management; Medical Specialties; Health Care and Treatment; Cooperation; Management Teams; Health Industry; United States

November 2003 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Richmond Events

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Kristin Lieb

The managers of British business forum planner, Richmond Events, are struggling to expand their conference offerings into new territories. At the same time, they are trying to decide how product managers, who are critical to event success, should be hired, trained,... View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Innovation and Management; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Conflict Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Marketing; Service Industry; United Kingdom; Asia

March 2011
Article

The New M&A Playbook

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Richard Alton, Curtis Rising and Andrew Waldeck

Companies spend more than $2 trillion on acquisitions every year, yet the M&A failure rate is between 70% and 90%. Executives can dramatically increase their odds of success, the authors argue, if they understand how to select targets, how much to pay for them, and... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Disruptive Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Integration

Fall 2012
Article

Enacting Our Field

By: Alnoor Ebrahim

This keynote address, delivered to the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council at its 25-year "benchmark" conference, examines the pedagogical challenges facing the field of nonprofit management in American higher education. It interrogates four binary distinctions commonly... View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Higher Education; Teaching; Social Issues; Innovation and Invention; Programs; Management; Nonprofit Organizations