Familiarity - Publications - Faculty & Research

15 Aug 2016
Blog Post

Writing a Case as a Student at HBS

second year, many students decide to try their hand at writing a case themselves. Why write a case with a professor? In case you aren’t yet familiar with HBS cases, they are the 10-30 page packets upon which almost every class discussion... View Details

12 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

When Experts Play It Too Safe: Innovation Lessons from a NASA Experiment

because they’ve memorized positions on the board in “chunks” of four- to five-piece configurations. But the chess master’s memory advantage disappears when pieces are randomly placed on the board, rather than in established patterns. When it comes to robotics designs,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Aerospace

17 Jun 2011
HBS Case

KFC’s Explosive Growth in China

deserves single-minded attention." That attitude extends from the boardroom of Yum! Brands to the menus in KFC restaurants. A small number of items would be familiar to Western visitors—mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, fried bone-in... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Food & Beverage

01 Feb 1999
News

Too Much of a Good Thing?

While conceding that songwriters and poets can make a strong case for "I love you," economists know that the three little words that really make the world go around are "supply and demand." This familiar marketplace mantra - its symmetry... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons

02 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

Negotiating in Three Dimensions

experienced negotiators make mistakes in all three dimensions. Let us start with the least familiar kind of mistake. Flaws in our third dimension, the set-up of a negotiation, can take many forms: wrong parties, wrong issues, wrong... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

University, where senior and retired executives learn to develop leadership skills in the service of solving large social problems. Many of the examples in the book come from her experience leading that program. Sean Silverthorne: We’re all View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Sep 2023
News

Case Study: The Home Team

Illustration by Jon Krause Illustration by Jon Krause Brendan Kennealey (MBA 2006) wasn’t even searching for a business idea. A couple of years ago, the Wilmington, Delaware, native met up with an old friend who’d bought a new house. Over dinner this friend enumerated... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Real Estate

Portrait Project

Wabantu Hlophe

Growing up in Eswatini, I was familiar with helplessness. The pleas of my mother as she endured my father's abuse were a haunting soundtrack to a childhood. In a country where life expectancy was 42 when I was 11, the sense of dread was... View Details

04 Mar 2019
What Do You Think?

What’s the Antidote to Surveillance Capitalism?

natural world in the nineteenth and twentieth,” and “an expropriation of human rights.” The book is both a cri de coeur and a call to arms in the context of a rich, well-documented history of the development of capitalism. We know who you are Surveillance capitalists... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Advertising; Consumer Products

27 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

IPO or M&A? How Venture Capital Shapes a Startup's Future

company to a larger one. In contrast, startups funded by a VC syndicate with less familiar co-investors are most likely to exit through a potentially splashy IPO that could let founders retain more control, says Harvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

22 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Bringing ‘Lean’ Principles to Service Industries

the more familiar lean technique of value stream mapping (VSM) to identify and decrease wasted time and effort throughout the software development process. Improving From The Bottom Up While most organizations struggle with implementing a... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Computer

31 Jul 2023
News

Striving for Imperfection

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Since he left HBS in 1990, Charles Conn (MBA 1990) has built a full and varied portfolio career. Early on, he was a partner at McKinsey and then a tech executive, founding Ticketmaster-Citysearch. Today,... View Details

Keywords: Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

Research Summary

3D Negotiaton

By: James K. Sebenius

In articles and books, often with David Lax, I have been developing a broad approach to effective negotiation that encompasses three "dimensions." In this "3D" approach, our first dimension — "tactics"-- is the most familiar territory. Tactics are the persuasive... View Details

Web

Leadership - Health Care

commitment to the healthcare sector. Her familiarity with the city's healthcare institutions is a testament to her knowledge and engagement in the industry. Outside of work, Lanika is a devoted volunteer, seizing opportunities to... View Details

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

1980s was that it lacked familiarity and networks within that country. Finally, and most important, Unilever had distinctive strengths in management. Unilever invested heavily in its management. It recruited some of the best available... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

Web

From C-Suite to CEO - Alumni

to build your skills. It’s also critical to assess the market. Get to know your industry or sector of interest broadly and deeply, familiarize yourself with the competitive landscape, and develop a point of view outside of your company.... View Details

24 Sep 2019
Blog Post

Launching a Career in Clean Energy

that drove me in my career. I was working on spreadsheets at 2 a.m. just helping make a random billion-dollar company a bigger profit, which wasn’t as rewarding as refueling a tank battalion at 2 a.m. How can students best familiarize... View Details

25 Jan 2010
Research & Ideas

A Macroeconomic View of the Current Economy

a lot of information out there—particularly in the business press. If these aren't familiar terms, and if one doesn't have a way of putting it all together, then you can't process all of this information as effectively as possible. I... View Details