Publications

20 Sep 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Updating the Balanced Scorecard for Triple Bottom Line Strategies

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan and David McMillan; Accounting

30 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do

Many of us would prefer to see our philanthropic donations go directly to an organization’s core mission, rather than to administrative expenses. If we give money to Save the Children, for instance, we hope the cash goes directly to those children. “Despite the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

May 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Background Note

Note on Innovation Diffusion: Rogers' Five Factors

By: John T. Gourville

Reviews Everett Rogers' Five Factors of product adoption. These factors help explain why some products diffuse rapidly and some slowly or not at all. View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Innovation and Invention

27 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Can Being the ‘Token’ Give Women and Minorities a Competitive Edge?

Women and Black professionals are more willing to join a team that’s predominantly male or white if it helps them stand out in hyper-competitive situations, despite the potential psychological toll of being a “token,” new research says.... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

30 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

The New Rules for Remote Work: Pandemic Edition

expect someone to be fully present, eight hours a day, when they have a three-year-old with crayons drawing on the wall, or an elderly parent who needs help navigating the stairs.” THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS More Business-Related Pandemic... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

01 Nov 2021
Op-Ed

Team Success Starts with the Individual—and with Love

an unusual but immensely powerful approach to leadership that held promise far beyond the football field. To optimize performance, many leaders take the team or organization as the basic unit of analysis, seeking out processes and practices that will View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati; Sports

January 2014 (Revised October 2014)
Case

Andreessen Horowitz

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Liz Kind

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm launched in 2009, has quickly broken into the VC industry's top ranks, in terms of its ability to invest in Silicon Valley's most promising startups. The case recounts the firm's history; describes its co-founders'... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Venture Capital; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Industry Structures; Financial Services Industry; California

April 2018 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Goldman Sachs: Making an Imprint in Impact Investing

By: Shawn Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers Brumme and Lynn Schenk

Goldman Sachs acquired Imprint Capital Advisors, a small firm that specialized in advising clients on environmental/social/governance (ESG) and impact investments. The founders sold Imprint with the belief that joining a global financial firm would help to scale impact... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; ESG; Investment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Growth and Development Strategy; Acquisition; Integration

September 2006 (Revised August 2008)
Module Note

Assessing Your Organization's Capabilities: Resources, Processes and Priorities

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Stephen P. Kaufman

Summarizes a model that helps managers determine what sorts of initiatives an organization is capable and incapable of managing successfully. The factors that affect what an organizational unit can and cannot accomplish can be grouped as resources, processes, and the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Experience and Expertise; Innovation and Management; Business Processes; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Mathematical Methods

10 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Do You Have Change Fatigue?

hear the arguments for and against the options that were rejected. In addition, they must address employees' fears: "People want to know why you think they can make it through the change," Garvin observes. "They also want to know how you're going to... View Details

Keywords: by Nick Morgan

2023
Book

The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card

By: Christina Wallace

Pouring yourself into a single full-time job is the riskiest move you can make. Your parents’ advice to focus on one career path? It doesn’t work anymore, for reasons ranging from recessions to student loan debt, the gig economy, climate disasters, and a global... View Details

Keywords: Work-Life Balance; Personal Development and Career

January 2018 (Revised January 2020)
Case

People Analytics at McKinsey

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Olivia Hull

A private equity–backed fast food chain has hired McKinsey’s new People Analytics group to help it improve performance. As the final client workshop approaches, Associate Partner Alex DiLeonardo ponders the best way to present the team’s findings, especially those that... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Customer Relationship Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost Management; Human Resources; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Measurement and Metrics; Performance; Performance Capacity; Performance Efficiency; Performance Evaluation; Performance Improvement; Consulting Industry; Service Industry

18 Dec 2019
Book

6 Skills That Wise Companies Harness for World-Changing Innovation

components, one of which is doing things for the common good. The other is the here and now—making judgment calls and taking action here and now.” Based on the authors’ study of more than 20 Japanese companies, the following six practices can View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

10 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

COVID-19 Lessons: Social Media Can Nudge More People to Get Vaccinated

broader social impact of their products and platforms,” says Luca. In his years at HBS, Luca has focused his research on, among other things, ways to tackle discrimination in online platforms, coming up with a series of recommendations for Airbnb; View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Health; Technology

29 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

For Entrepreneurs, Blown Deadlines Can Crush Big Ideas

One might expect first-time entrepreneurs to pick up speed as they churn out more products, but new research finds that nascent firms typically launch second products six weeks later than originally planned. What’s more, with each successive product, delays continue to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

April 2013 (Revised October 2013)
Case

Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

By: David A. Garvin, Alison Berkley Wagonfeld and Liz Kind

Google's Project Oxygen started with a fundamental question raised by executives in the early 2000s: do managers matter? The topic generated a multi-year research project that ultimately led to a comprehensive program, built around eight key management attributes,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Business Policy; General Management; Human Resource Management; Management; Leadership; Human Resources

02 Aug 2021
Research & Ideas

What If Closing the Wage Gap Means Everyone Earns Less?

pay for the same roles in different locations tended to vary. Cullen theorized that proximity helped workers talk to one another about their wages, creating opportunities to re-negotiate based on what they learned. “It’s been a seven-year... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

02 May 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

How To Ask Better Questions

follow-up questions improves your life and increases emotional intelligence. Looking in the Mirror: Questions Every Leader Must Ask Leading a team? These 7 questions can help managers and leaders address almost any challenge. Four... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

March 2001 (Revised July 2007)
Background Note

Power and Influence: Achieving Your Objectives in Organizations

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Elizabeth Long Lingo

Power is the potential to mobilize energy. This rather neutral definition does not address the issues of how to exercise power or to what ends. The answers to these questions determine the ultimate value of an individual's power. This note is written to help readers... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Value