by William Kerr - Publications - Faculty & Research

30 Sep 2002
What Do You Think?

Are Business Schools Really Important “Crucibles of Leadership?”

second birth), requiring, as Zaleznik described it to me in a recent e-mail, "a turning into one's self ... following which one emerges with a deepened sense of self, and relatively free of dependency on the social structure." Zaleznik in turn was influenced... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

03 Jan 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

5 Career-Related New Year’s Resolutions (and 5 Tips for Keeping Them)

but success. To that end, we’re sharing some well-researched tips from Harvard Business School faculty to help you keep your career-related resolutions this year. 1. Resolution: To gain more respect at the office. Tip: Wear weird sneakers to work. Research View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

08 Sep 2011
What Do You Think?

What’s Apple’s Biggest Challenge: Replacing Steve or Wall Street?

Summing Up The first impression I get from respondents to this month's column is that Steve Jobs can't be replaced as CEO of Apple by just one person. Rather the succession must include at least a head of design (according to Yadeed Lobo)... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Computer

10 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty Views on Debt Crisis

ironic, given that in 2008 and 2009, they were given a hard time for issuing excessively positive ratings of structured products based on home mortgages that turned sour. Whatever they do, someone gets mad. That said, the mistakes on structured products were a historic... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

01 Dec 2003
What Do You Think?

Is This the Twilight Era for the Managed Mutual Fund?

coverage of mutual fund management misdeeds. And part may be in the general ignorance about how funds are managed and investors charged for the services. Whatever the cause, according to William Donoghue, "The financial McCarthyism... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

22 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Social Capital Markets: Creating Value in the Nonprofit World

hiscoauthoring a groundbreaking 1997 Harvard Business Review article "Virtuous Capital: What Foundations Can Learn from Venture Capitalists." In the article Grossman and coauthors Christine Lettsand William Ryan suggest that... View Details

Keywords: by Anne Kavanagh

23 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Businesses Need a 'Catalyst' to Make CSR Practices Stick

responsibility programs are basically funded by an internal tax within the company,” says Robert Kaplan, Senior Fellow and Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus at Harvard Business School. “The good that such... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

21 May 2018
HBS Case

How Would You Price One of the World's Great Watches?

produce, full of innovation, and where only a relative few might be manufactured? “When you think about capturing value from innovations, pricing is quite possibly the most important decision that you’ll ever make,” says Thomke, the View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Fashion

25 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

New Learning at American Home Products

pharmaceutical companies in 1984, American Home Products ranked first in sales and twenty-eighth in R&D expenditures as a percentage of sales.23 As the historian Williams Haynes noted, by the end of the... View Details

Keywords: by Alfred D. Chandler Jr.; Chemical; Health; Manufacturing; Pharmaceutical

23 Jul 2024
In Practice

The New Rules of Trade with China: Navigating Tariffs, Turmoil, and Opportunities

cases escalate, tariffs placed on Chinese exports by former President Trump. This move is emblematic of a global turn toward protectionism and trade restrictions in the last decade. Businesses have taken diverse approaches in adapting to... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Manufacturing; Retail; Fashion; Industrial Products; Consumer Products; Steel; Transportation; Telecommunications

07 Jan 2009
What Do You Think?

Is the World Really Flat?

effects" (Alex Evans). "It really doesn't matter whether the world is flat or not. Most value is added by the exploiters, not the creators, and that works in both (flat and non-flat) environments" (Gerald Nanninga). These... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

21 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

How to Sink a Startup

Tim Westergren of Pandora and Evan Williams of Twitter. YouTube cofounder and former CEO Chad Hurley has called the book "an invaluable alternative to real-world trial and error." A past recipient of the HBS student-voted award for... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

09 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Around the World of Entrepreneurial Ventures

be examined, he said. International entrepreneurial finance, or IEF for short, is like 3-D chess compared to the two-dimensional chess of entrepreneurial finance, quipped HBS professor William Sahlman, who offered introductory remarks at... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

04 May 2007
What Do You Think?

How Do Managers Think?

in which it is carried out. Joe Schmid observed that "both medical doctors and organizational managers work in cultures that are historically problem definition poor and solution rich. Their individual rewards systems are both driven View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

30 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Vanguard, Trian And The Problem With 'Passive' Index Funds

management in long-term strategic planning. Vanguard Corporate Governance Principles Source: Letter by F. William McNabb II to the independent leaders of the boards of directors, February 27, 2015,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

07 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

The Case for Combating Climate Change with Nuclear Power and Fracking

discuss the core challenges of fighting global carbon dioxide emissions in a shortsighted, ideologically polarized environment. To his mind, both in Europe and in the United States, government efforts to regulate carbon emissions have been costly and ineffective so... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities

25 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

China’s Economic System has Difficult Road Overcoming its Political System

overcome the limits placed upon it by the Party. Or, as the authors call it, "Party, Inc." It's not spoiling anything to say that the book answers its own question with, if not an outright no, then at least a highly qualified maybe. Click... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

09 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

The Entrepreneurs Who Invented Economic Forecasting

economic future? How have forecasting methods changed over time? What makes one forecaster more popular than another? I chose to research these questions by focusing on the first generation of economic forecasters—those who founded their... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

08 Nov 2024
HBS Case

What Wartime Service Taught These Historic Leaders

“[These leaders] learned a tremendous amount from the mission focus and discipline that came from the military,” says Simons, a Baker Foundation Professor and Charles M. Williams Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus. “There is a... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Entertainment & Recreation

12 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

What Great American Leaders Teach Us

products accessible, installing checkout counters, and expanding product selection by tapping into national branding. Saunders, in essence, built the prototype of today's supermarket long before it became commonplace. At the other end of... View Details