Publications

06 Mar 2013
What Do You Think?

Who Should Manage Our Work Time?

Summing Up Who Will Save Us From Our Work Habits? We have a problem in the workplace. Some of it is being forced upon us by forces in society. Some of it is of our own making. But we face increasing challenges in managing our work time... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

27 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

These Management Practices, Like Certain Technologies, Boost Company Performance

What’s the best way to run a company? The question has bedeviled economists as long as companies have existed. How, after all, do you measure something as soft as management style across the range of different types and sizes of companies... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

March 2006
Module Note

Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World: Module 4: Sensing Opportunity

By: Alan D. MacCormack

Describes the fourth module of the 30-session Harvard Business School elective course Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World. The course helps students understand the challenges that uncertainty implies for innovation and how to overcome them. The course emphasizes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Problems and Challenges; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Projects; Opportunities; Risk and Uncertainty; Perspective; Value Creation; Networks; Alignment

October 2007
Article

Methodological Fit in Management Field Research

By: A. C. Edmondson and S. E. McManus

Methodological fit, an implicitly valued attribute of high-quality field research in organizations, has received little attention in the management literature. Fit refers to internal consistency among elements of a research project--research question, prior work,... View Details

Keywords: Education; Framework; Projects; Quality; Research

Find at Harvard

Web

Online Management Course | HBS Online

and shape organizational processes to your advantage Influence the context and environment in which decisions get made Implement strategies, plans, and projects on time, on budget, and at the highest quality Spearhead learning initiatives... View Details

11 Jul 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Managing Proprietary and Shared Platforms: A Life-Cycle View

Keywords: by Thomas R. Eisenmann; Technology

26 Nov 2018
HBS Seminar

Emily Truelove, MIT Sloan School of Management

30 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Measuring the Efficacy of the World’s Managers

organizational management practices all over the world. The project was borne of a widely perceived gap in economic research. In business academia, there is an optimistic tendency to assume that View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Research Summary

The role of the manager in cross-sector interactions

My second stream of research takes the individual manager as the unit of analysis in examining cross-sector interactions. Two papers explore processes and mechanisms that allow managers to cross sectoral boundaries more effectively.

The first paper... View Details

September 2012 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Digital Microscopy at Carl Zeiss: Managing Disruption

By: Willy Shih

Ulrich Simon, the head of the Microscopy business group at Carl Zeiss AG knew that his unit was facing a disruptive threat, so he chartered a special team to tackle the industrial segment. Given a high degree of autonomy, the project team developed an understanding of... View Details

Keywords: Modularity; High Technology Products; Emergent Strategy; Product Lines; Corporate Strategy; Digital Platforms; Disruptive Innovation; Technology Industry; Germany

13 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

How to Pick Managers for Disruptive Growth

We suspect that the mistakes happen when firms choose managers at any level—from CEO to business unit head to project manager—based on what we call "right stuff" thinking, borrowing the term from... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Raynor

24 Jul 2017
Blog Post

Transitioning to Product Management at HBS

project 15% yoy growth in excel’ kind of way). In researching a role that might be best fit for me, I more or less stumbled upon product management, and once I had a rudimentary understanding of how multi-faceted the role can be, I was... View Details

May 2013
Case

Launching Krispy Natural: Cracking the Product Management Code

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Heather Beckham

Pemberton Products is a U.S. market leader in the cookie and bakery snacks segment of the sweet snack market. Looking to expand into the salty snack market, the company acquires Krispy Inc., a maker of salty snack crackers located in the southeastern U.S. To compete... View Details

Keywords: Analytics and Data Science; Competition; Organizational Culture; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Expansion; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Acquisition; Food and Beverage Industry; Ohio; United States

April 2006
Background Note

Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World: Module 1: Innovation and Uncertainty

By: Alan D. MacCormack

Describes the first module of a Harvard Business School 30-session elective course called Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World. The course helps students understand the challenges that uncertainty implies for innovation and how to overcome these challenges. The... View Details

Keywords: Design; Curriculum and Courses; Innovation and Management; Projects; Opportunities; Perspective

20 Feb 2014
News

Managing the World’s Trouble Spots

was a systems thinker, GMP gave me new ways to think about how to align incentives and manage an ecosystem,” he says. “It had me sit back in an environment that’s challenging, asking, Am I following the right strategy?” The GMP program... View Details

Keywords: Jill Radsken

July 2012
Case

Johannes Linden: Managing the Global Executive Committee

By: Linda A. Hill and Mark Rennella

Johannes Linden is the Director of the Washer and Dryer division of Fluss, a large Swiss appliance manufacturer. Soon after the company completes its revenue projections and bonus targets for the upcoming year, Linden shares some good news with his leadership team, the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Style; Groups and Teams; Organizational Culture; Management Style; Motivation and Incentives; Power and Influence; Multinational Firms and Management; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Switzerland

June 2005 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Equator Principles, The: An Industry Approach to Managing Environmental and Social Risks

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Aldo Sesia

In June 2003, 10 leading international banks adopted new voluntary guidelines, called the Equator Principles, to promote sustainable development in project finance. In recent years, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) had raised issues about the lenders'... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Competition; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Policy; Project Finance; Standards; Projects; Commercial Banking; Non-Governmental Organizations

Research Summary

Organisational Learning in Software Requirements Engineering and Management

The current research project addresses the continuing low success rate of software development projects, which has been frequently reported in empirical studies. For example, the 2004 Chaos Report by the Standish Group found that only 29% of 9,236 application... View Details

2007
Chapter

The Complete Business of Serving the Poor: Insights from Unilever's Project Shakti in India

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Dalip Sehgal and Rohithari Rajan

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Entrepreneurship; Poverty; Developing Countries and Economies; India