Publications

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08 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Knowledge Transfer: You Can't Learn Surgery By Watching

mock class to a lecture hall full of their colleagues, who play the roles of students and mentors in providing feedback after the fact.) Interactive learning through office norms Less formally, however, managers can create more interactive vicarious learning through... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

13 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

The Tricky Business of Nonprofit Brands

decent wages. Even strictly humanitarian organizations are now calling for changes in the underlying structures of the societies in which they operate. This complicates things somewhat for nonprofit organizations since being an effective... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

May 2016
Case

Seaside Organics

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Alisa Zalosh

This case follows Sara Norton, a soccer player-turned-serial entrepreneur, as she transforms Seaside Organics from a fledgling startup into an $89 million company. Informed by the successes and failures of her first organics venture, WellBar, Norton tries to balance... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Organizational Structure; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Conflict and Resolution; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

October 2018
Case

Accomplice: Scaling Early Stage Finance

By: Ramana Nanda, Raffaella Sadun and Olivia Hull

Accomplice, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Boston, is raising its second fund in November 2017. Since 2009, the firm has followed a seed-led investment model, investing in tech companies at the earliest stages, often when products and business models are... View Details

Keywords: Early Stage Finance; Seed Finance; Scouts; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Private Equity; Investment Portfolio; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Networks; Adaptation; Corporate Strategy; Technology; Financial Services Industry; Massachusetts; Boston; Cambridge; United States

10 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Taking Advantage of Life’s (Few and Far Between) Inflection Points

inflection point," he said. "In Michelle's case, it's coming at a moment in time when the structures are removed and the rules are suspended. A moment in which she can reflect in¬wardly about what she wants, and then act to redefine the... View Details

Keywords: Re: Howard H. Stevenson

01 Mar 2004
News

Derek Ferguson

structure in place so these ventures can be financed,” he explains. Sean John Clothing has quickly grown to sales of $200 million and one hundred employees since it was launched five years ago. “It’s our most profitable area,” says... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries; Arts, Entertainment

December 2022
Case

To Feed the Planet: Juan Luciano at ADM

By: Joshua D. Margolis, David E. Bell, Damien McLoughlin, Stacy Straaberg and James Weber

In December 2022, Juan Luciano, Chairman and CEO of agribusiness and nutrition giant ADM, considered the next phase of the historic company’s future. Beginning in 2011 when he joined as COO and moving into his tenure as CEO in 2015, Luciano led a transformation of ADM... View Details

Web

Teaching Quantitative Material - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

Arrive at answers pertinent to a problem or situation embedded in the case Structuring quantitative segments with these goals in mind can help the class avoid falling into “numbers for numbers’ sake.” Don’t underestimate the importance of... View Details

September 1988 (Revised September 1993)
Case

Mrs. Fields Cookies

By: James I. Cash Jr.

Mrs. Fields Cookies is a small company selling freshly baked goods through privately owned specialty stores (each store sells only Mrs. Fields products). The company has about 8,000 employees worldwide and less than 150 information systems people for a unique leverage... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Information Management; Organizational Structure; Customer Relationship Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Networks; Internet and the Web; Food and Beverage Industry; Information Technology Industry

Research Summary

THEME #1: BUILDING CAPABILITIES THROUGH TEAM FAMILIARITY

Are organizational capabilities simply the aggregation of individual skills and experience, or do they also depend on particular connections between individuals developed through prior work experience? Since a capability consists of the accumulated... View Details

March–April 2021
Article

Network-biased Technical Change: How Information Management Tools Overcome Some Biases but Exacerbate Others.

By: Gerald C. Kane and Lynn Wu

Organizations have long sought to improve employee performance by managing knowledge more effectively. In this paper, we test whether the adoption of digital tools for expertise search and access within an organization, often referred to as a support to an... View Details

Keywords: Digital Tools; Social Media; Social Networks; Transactive Memory Systems; Augmented Intelligence; Artificial Intelligence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Gender; Equality and Inequality; Technology Adoption; Knowledge Management; Performance Improvement; Power and Influence; Organizational Change and Adaptation

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July–August 2017
Article

Why Outlet Stores Exist: Averting Cannibalization in Product Line Extensions

By: Donald Ngwe

Outlet stores are a large and growing component of many firms' retailing strategies, particularly in the fashion industry. Outlet stores offer attractive prices in locations far from central shopping districts. The main perspectives on why outlet stores exist can be... View Details

Keywords: Fashion; Industrial Organization; Outlet Stores; Price Discrimination; Retail; Channel Management; Luxury; Product Marketing; Price; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry

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Read Now

In industry after industry, data, analytics, and AI-driven processes are transforming the nature of work. While we often still treat AI as the domain of a specific skill, business function, or sector, we have entered a new era in which AI is challenging the very... View Details

18 Feb 2019
Book

What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology

that this three-part structure allows them to distinguish clearly between the novel and non-novel aspects of their business idea. It also forces the more intuitive thinkers to articulate, test, and validate their assumptions, rather than... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Beauty & Cosmetics; Insurance; Service; Retail

22 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

The Hard Work of Failure Analysis

outside facilitators, can help keep the process productive. Next, skills for managing a group process of analyzing a failure with a spirit of inquiry and sufficient understanding of the scientific method are essential inputs to learning from failure as an organization.... View Details

Keywords: by Amy Edmondson & Mark D. Cannon

October 2022
Case

An Heir with No Spare: The Deitch Family Office

By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger

Joe and Matt Deitch, father and son, knew it was time to start their own family office. Matthew had recently joined his father at the family’s three enterprises, and they both realized that their family’s needs had grown increasingly complex over the years. In search... View Details

June 2009
Case

Midland Energy Resources, Inc.: Cost of Capital

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Joel L. Heilprin

The senior vice president of project finance for a global oil and gas company must determine the weighted average cost of capital for the company as a whole and each of its divisions as part of the annual capital budgeting process. The case uses comparable companies to... View Details

Keywords: Risk Assessment; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Cost of Capital; Cash Flow; Capital Structure; Valuation; Capital Budgeting; Energy Industry