Imagination - Publications - Faculty & Research

20 Apr 2020
Book

Why COVID-19 Raises the Stakes for Healthy Buildings

airports. As people begin to internalize the collective nature of public health, sharing of personal health and air quality metrics—using wearables and smartphones—could lead to new applications that provide real-time information about the conditions inside buildings.... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Real Estate; Health

01 Aug 2019
What Do You Think?

Has the Twitter Age Left the Case Method Behind?

was unforgettable—I never forgot where I was when it happened. And I was someone who for years coached others at Harvard and elsewhere in case method teaching. Imagine the task of preparing large numbers of budding discussion leaders to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

12 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Private Sector, Public Good

behavior? Can we imagine firms mutually agreeing not to try and capture their regulators? To support appropriate environmental or social legislation? If a significant faction of the private sector started to act in this way consistently,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

18 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Who Controls Water?

save the species they really wanted to save." "With a completely free market with no restrictions, I can at least imagine an outcome where there is a winner," said another student. However, the losers in such a free market... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Agriculture & Agribusiness

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Let Customers Call the Shots

to take place. Consumers have been put off by these bold claims, and their attitudes betray a great deal of conservatism. After all, even if things can clearly be improved, there is little perceived dissatisfaction with conventional marketing. For instance, even if you... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

28 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Brick-and-Mortar Stores Are Making a Comeback

will not survive are the retailers that are more like a warehouse, or just physical repositories of goods. Real estate is too expensive for that purpose. The opportunity to think about online and offline as complementary channels has opened up possibilities that would... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint; Retail

07 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: ‘The Art of Negotiation’

brittle. If we fixate on all that could go wrong, it's hard to imagine how things could go right. Stephen Nachmanovitch, author of Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art, connects reluctance to experiment to "fear of being thought a... View Details

Keywords: Re: Michael A. Wheeler

20 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

How Consumers Value Global Brands

"globalness." Consumers all over the world associate global brands with three characteristics. Global Myth. Consumers look to global brands as symbols of cultural ideals. They use brands to create an imagined global identity... View Details

Keywords: by Douglas B. Holt, John A. Quelch & Earl L. Taylor

24 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

The FDA: What Will the Next 100 Years Bring?

mayonnaise, a container of mustard, cold cuts, processed cheese spread (I'm from Philly, and we love Whiz), and pickles. Now imagine finding sawdust in the pickles, sand in the mustard, and so on. That quite literally was the situation in... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Biotechnology; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage; Health

04 May 2016
What Do You Think?

What Does Boaty McBoatface Tell Us About Brand Control on the Internet?

million polar research ship. Johnson, the U.K. Government’s Science Minister responsible for, among other things, NERC, sought to get the effort off on the right inspirational foot by saying: “Can you imagine one of the world’s biggest... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Advertising

09 Aug 2013
Research & Ideas

Read All About It: Digital CEO Buys Traditional Media!

asking exactly what role a newspaper can play in a consumer's life? As a physically distributed printed daily paper carrying local classified advertising, probably not much. But imagine a world that lacked a trusted intermediary selecting... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Journalism & News; Publishing

07 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

Video: Harvard Business School at the Kumbh Mela

teaching materials we create will use this extraordinary situation to examine the growth of a greenfield site from the perspective not only of an administrator but an entrepreneur. I always try to tie everything back to what my students can View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Construction; Real Estate

07 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Off and Running: Professors Comment on Olympics

Staging the Olympics is a Herculean task. Years of preparation, including budget-busting financial requirements, a panoply of construction projects, world-class logistical and communications challenges, and event-planning needs that stretch the View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Sports

29 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

The COVID Gender Gap: Why Fewer Women Are Dying

health officials to consider targeting men when communicating recommendations around COVID-19 to attempt to increase compliance with safety regulations—for their own good and the good of society, Pons says. "You can imagine that some men... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Health

24 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 24, 2007

Luce's magazines often resonated with readers, allowing him to quickly trump competitors such as Newsweek, Forbes, The New Yorker, Esquire, and National Geographic. Yet Luce was also criticized for occasionally using his imaginative style... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

13 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

Turning High Potential into Real Reward

solely a product problem. NB: I imagine that doing a good job of picking that mainstream market is a function of the entrepreneur's own experience in an industry and his or her intuition about the future. Lassiter: Certainly in the cases... View Details

Keywords: Re: Joseph B. Lassiter; Consumer Products

10 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Rethink the Value of Joint Ventures

mobilizing capital and tax planning globally and this can come at the expense of the local partner. Imagine the conflicting objectives in trying to put a price on a component purchased by the joint venture from a related party of the... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

30 Jun 2020
Book

Capitalism Is More at Risk Than Ever

local managers’ recognition that a cardiac pacemaker from the US was simply too expensive. They imagined how far cheaper technology could accomplish the task. That was the basis for a decision to invest in such a product that opened up... View Details