by Richard Nolan - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 May 2006
What Do You Think?

Who Will Cast a Longer Shadow on the 21st Century: Friedman or Galbraith?

global challenges on their responses. Sudip Bose put it this way: "Venerated works of Milton Friedman have influenced government policies. . . . But, his shadow will be relentlessly chased primarily by global climatic concerns and... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Dec 2011
What Do You Think?

Thinking Slow: An Argument for Bureaucracy?

with the downside of thinking slow. So here is what my gut tells me about what you said this month: Thinking slow, as Daniel Kahneman calls it in his recent book by that name, is important under circumstances of high risk, uncertain... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

07 Nov 2005
What Do You Think?

Is Less Becoming More?

the cause. F. Chircu helped frame the discussion by writing that "When producers want to differentiate themselves, up to a point the safest and quickest way . . . is to add features or increase product complexity. . . . Choice... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Consumer Products

01 Feb 2008
What Do You Think?

How Sustainable Is Sustainability in a For-Profit Organization?

may not lead us to the greatest common good ... without government action(s).... These might take the form of incentives." Richard Eckel expanded on this idea, saying that "To suggest that for-profits embody any form of moral... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

02 Aug 2004
What Do You Think?

For Greater Transparency, Is Section 404 an Effective Response?

Summing Up Responses to this month's column raise questions about whether Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, requiring that senior managers certify the integrity of the processes by which their companies' financial reports are... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

02 Jan 2020
Op-Ed

Medicare for All or Public Option: Can Either Heal Health Care?

pay-as-you-go actuarial basis. The public discourse about Medicare for All is deceptively appealing. The health care program for the nation’s seniors is highly prized by Medicare beneficiaries—85 percent say they’re satisfied. Who can... View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger and James Wallace; Health; Public Administration

02 Jan 2008
Research & Ideas

Most Popular Stories 2007

Here are the 20 most popular stories from 2007. How Much of Leadership Is About Control, Delegation, or Theater? Summing up the many responses, Jim Heskett says that the mix of control, delegation, and theater employed by successful... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 May 2009
What Do You Think?

Do Innovation and Entrepreneurship Have to Be Incompatible with Organization Size?

energy to priority areas for innovation." Amy Sauers added findings that suggest that large firms succeed that "attempted to 'get small' (through the vehicle of) 'lean, mean, heavyweight teams.'" Another ingredient suggested View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

09 Sep 2024
HBS Case

McDonald’s and the Post #MeToo Rules of Sex in the Workplace

It was a brief dalliance, just a few weeks in length, over text and video only. The end of the affair was nonetheless just the beginning for Stephen Easterbrook, the McDonald’s CEO who went from being hailed as the company’s “savior” by... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Food & Beverage

March 2024
Case

Katharine Graham: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the life of Katharine Graham from housewife to publisher of the Washington Post. Born into a family of wealth, Graham described herself as a “doormat wife” after she married Phil Graham and stayed at home to raise their children. His unexpected death... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Power and Influence; Personal Characteristics; Leadership Style; Success; Work-Life Balance; News; Newspapers; Media; Gender; Publishing Industry

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14 May 2020
Research & Ideas

What Leaders Can Do to Fight the COVID Fog

deftly: “How to most effectively communicate with all employees remotely and show empathy, while running around with [my] hair on fire trying to save the current business while at the same time trying to shape the future of the company in a 'new normal' environment.”... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

16 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

in the United States, in the 1980s. They started exerting direct pressure on the boards to remove the management of under-performing companies. By the early 1990s, we saw a further rise in institutional investor power and their... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

03 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 3

PublicationsAddressing the Leadership Gap in Medicine: Residents' Need for Systematic Leadership Development Training Authors:Daniel Mark Blumenthal, Kenneth Richard Lee Bernard, Jordan David Bohnen, and View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

Research Summary

Denial: Why Business Leaders Fail to Look Facts in the Face

By: Richard S. Tedlow

Richard S. Tedlow is currently working on a book concerning historical examples of outstanding businesspeople who faced daunting challenges. The book is divided into two parts: "Getting It Wrong" and "Getting It Right." Many times,... View Details

31 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

When Not to Trust Your Gut

In past issues of this newsletter, we have highlighted a variety of psychological biases that affect negotiators, many of which spring from a reliance on intuition. Of course, negotiators are not always affected by bias; we often think... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman & Deepak Malhotra

April 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Teaching Plan

Nehemiah Mfg. Co.: Providing a Second Chance

By: Brian Trelstad and John Masko

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 320-008. In 2009, Dan Meyer and Richard Palmer, two veterans of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry, founded Nehemiah Manufacturing to build FMCG brands while providing jobs to Cincinnati, Ohio’s beleaguered urban core. Two... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employment; Human Capital; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Social Marketing; Mission and Purpose; Prejudice and Bias; City; Urban Scope; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Ohio; United States

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Research Summary

Managing Financial Reporting and the Effect on Firms' Costs of Capital

Amy P. Hutton's research investigates the impact of capital market forces and firm contracts on financial reporting and disclosure policies. Specifically, her research examines how managers use financial reporting to convey a firm's strategy, and the effect of... View Details

March 2009 (Revised April 2009)
Case

AFSCME vs. Mozilo...and "Say on Pay" for All! (A) (Abridged)

By: Fabrizio Ferri and James Weber

Richard Ferlauto, director of pensions and benefits policy at the AFSCME, the largest public sector workers union in the U.S., was responsible for protecting the pensions of its members. Because pensions were invested for decades, Ferlauto wanted the companies in which... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Investment; Investment Activism; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Ownership Stake; Business and Shareholder Relations; United States

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May 2009
Article

The Empirical Impact of Intellectual Property Rights on Innovation: Puzzles and Clues

By: Josh Lerner

Economists have long seen the patent system as a crucial lever through which policymakers affect the speed and nature of innovation in the economy. It is not surprising, then, that the profound changes which have roiled the global patent system over the past 20 years... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Policy; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Rights; Business and Government Relations

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December 2010 (Revised June 2018)
Case

The Pecora Hearings

By: David Moss, Cole Bolton and Eugene Kintgen

In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, the Senate Banking Committee began a much-publicized investigation of the nation's financial sector. The hearings, which came to be known as the Pecora hearings after the Banking Committee's lead counsel Ferdinand Pecora,... View Details