Confidence In Knowledge - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Dec 2011
What Do You Think?

Thinking Slow: An Argument for Bureaucracy?

whatever knowledge we think we have. Among other advantages, it saves us time in situations with similar patterns. But errors of judgment occur when we apply it to complex issues that require more careful... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

13 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

How to Pick Managers for Disruptive Growth

little experience competing for resources and bucking inappropriate processes within a stable, efficiency-oriented operating culture. In order to be confident that managers have developed the skills required... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Raynor

24 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Do We Tax?

height, so we can redistribute income without hurting incentives by using tags. My research with [Harvard economist] Greg Mankiw, which has also been profiled in a Working Knowledge Q&A, develops this... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Legal Services

12 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

Investors Have More Than Money to Offer Entrepreneurs

Conversely, I’ve heard investors say they wish the leaders of their portfolio companies would be more transparent about challenges they are facing and ask for help. As one investor said to me, “They already sold me on the business and have our money. It’s now our... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

05 Dec 2012
What Do You Think?

Should Managers Bother Listening to Predictions?

predictors. Taleb, in The Black Swan, worried that cataclysmic events (Sandy) are next to impossible to predict and too costly to prepare for, given the small probability that they will ever occur. Human beings by and large do not have... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

17 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

The Business Case for Diabetes Disease Management

it. "We have the medical knowledge to do it. And it's not being done. Just under one-half of identified diabetics in this country don't have their blood sugar under control," she said. Diabetes... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

13 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Can AI Save Physicians from Burnout?

Penny for Your Thoughts? For Big-Picture Ideas, the Right Pay Structure Matters How Humans Outshine AI in Adapting to Change Gen AI Marketing: How Some 'Gibberish' Code Can Give Products an Edge Feedback or ideas to share? Email the... View Details

Keywords: by Susanna Gallani, Lidia Moura, and Katie Sonnefeldt; Health

08 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

Tell Me What to Do: When Bad News Is a Big Relief

Imagine you are experiencing pain in your shoulder, and your doctor says you have torn a tendon. If the tear is big, she says, you will need surgery, whereas, if it’s slightly smaller, surgery is optional. Which size tear would you... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

18 Aug 2011
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Contest: 15 Years of Building Better Entrepreneurs

taking risks." Click to watch. Eleven years later, that bet is more than paying off. As chief strategy and knowledge officer, Fenton is part of an executive team that has seen NLNS expand from training 13 aspiring principals View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Education

12 Jul 2020
Book

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2020

What They Are Reading Jeff Bussgang Two of my books during the “summer of COVID” have been a deep case study into perhaps history’s greatest leader in crisis, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

22 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

How Businesses Can Respond to AIDS

Much like how disruptive technologies can threaten established businesses, the growing epidemic of AIDS has the power to blindside and possibly topple companies who choose to ignore the threat, participants concluded at a Harvard Business School conference.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

06 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

of the market, it needs to successfully fight them. First, some developers see software as scientific knowledge to be shared "like the sharing of recipes among cooks." In fact, some describe... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

20 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

When Predicting Other People's Preferences, You're Probably Wrong

The Bachelor is a wildly popular reality dating game show on which 28 women compete for the hand of a single man. Along with flirting and fighting and engaging in feats of derring-do, many of the competitors spend ample time confessing... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Five Questions for Stuart Gilson

Harvard Business School professor Stuart Gilson fielded some questions regarding his new book in an email interview with HBS Working Knowledge editor Sean SilverthorneSilverthorne: When should a company... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

09 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Warring Algorithms Could Be Driving Up Consumer Prices

underlie pricing algorithms require revisiting as conditions change. To ensure that institutional knowledge is embedded in pricing algorithms, managers can also consider hybrid solutions that offer suggested... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Retail

04 Oct 2024
In Practice

Research-Based Advice for the Seasonally Overwhelmed and Schedule Challenged

their urgency (pressing to deferrable). Learning and living by two such seemingly straightforward principles is difficult. One must be willing to say no to colleagues and friends, overcome procrastination, engage in hard tasks, and subdue... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

02 Apr 2014
What Do You Think?

Has the Post-Capitalist Economy Finally Arrived?

Summing Up What Will Capitalism Require of Us in the Future? If one were to sum up the ideas in response to this month's column, it could be: Capitalism as we know it is here to stay; the question is about... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Service

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

What Really Drives Your Strategy?

Strategy, published by Oxford University Press. Contributors to the book include Harvard Business School's Clayton M. Christensen, Walter Kuemmerle, and Thomas R. Eisenmann, as well as nine other scholars. Bower and Gilbert recently sat down with HBS Working View Details