Product Creativity - Publications - Faculty & Research

24 Jul 2019
Blog Post

Growing the Seeds of an Early-Stage Startup

personally blending and packaging the pilot batch. The chasm between small batch and bulk production is very real, and we have to be creative to optimize investment until we get to sufficient scale. I have... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail; Consumer Products / Retail

Web

Podcast - Business & Environment

episode of Climate Rising from Harvard Business School, Karen Pflug, Chief Sustainability Officer of Ingka Group (IKEA), shares how IKEA is embedding circularity throughout its business model. She discusses how IKEA is redesigning iconic View Details

08 Mar 2019
Blog Post

“There’s no quick shortcut to success:” Zorpads takes off

in New York City working as a healthcare consultant, and Wiegele, who spends his days working in product marketing for Hot Wheels in Los Angeles, credit their partnerships for allowing them the freedom to explore the View Details

29 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 29

to everyday transactions like selling a house, buying a car, or landing a new contract. Wheeler also draws lessons on agility and creativity from fields like jazz, sports, theater, and even military science. Publisher's link: View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2007 (Revised April 2016)
Case

Octone Records

By: Anita Elberse and Elie Ofek

In February 2007, Octone Records founders James Diener, Ben Berkman, and David Boxenbaum had been highly successful with the first two bands they had signed, Maroon 5 and Flyleaf. Known for its grassroots marketing campaigns, Octone operated through a unique... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Joint Ventures; Investment Return; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Product Development; Outcome or Result; Creativity; Music Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

02 Sep 2015
What Do You Think?

What's Wrong With Amazon’s Low-Retention HR Strategy?

restrictions on the reporter’s movements and contacts within the company. But let’s assume for the moment that the article was even-handed and accurate. It portrayed an organization with a “churn and burn” personnel strategy offering exciting jobs, View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

Rosabeth M. Kanter

Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, specializing in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. Her strategic and practical insights guide leaders worldwide through teaching, writing, and direct... View Details

18 Jul 2023
News

The First Five Years: Brooke Biederman (MBA 2019)

eye-opening glimpse under the hood of an industry I love. Coupled with my time on movie sets and in production offices, I saw the industry’s huge potential for innovation. During business school, I also noted that some entertainment had a... View Details

Keywords: Robert Bochnak

16 Nov 2016
Research & Ideas

Turning One Thousand Customers into One Million

photographers to take inviting photos of hosts’ apartments). Following those guidelines, they were able to gradually improve their products and identify what made them resonate most with customers and suppliers. Only after that was... View Details

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira and Michael Blanding; Retail; Transportation; Accommodations

16 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Does Competition Make Us More Creative?

Competition can bring out the best in salespeople, athletes, and participants in hot dog eating contests—but can it make employees more creative? A recent working paper by Daniel P. Gross finds that competition can motivate creative types... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

07 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Digital Transformation: A New Roadmap for Success

encourages the psychological safety necessary for cultivating a growth mindset among employees. To nurture that sense of shared purpose, as well as customer-centric thinking, participants described how they sent cross-functional or cross-level teams to observe... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

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Leadership Initiative - Leadership

named by Business Insider as one of “The 20 Best Business Books” and received the Gold Medal for the Leadership Axiom Business Book Award. Hill’s TED talk on how to manage for collective creativity has more than 2.9 million views. In... View Details

Web

California - Global

marketing software with a 40-year legacy of innovation and successful adaptation, recognized GenAI as both an opportunity and a threat to its core business. Many creative professionals, a critical Adobe customer segment, expressed deep... View Details

18 Mar 2013
HBS Case

HBS Cases: LEGO

age 12. The LEGO brick played with by kids and adults around the globe came into being during Godtfred's tenure. He considered it a unique, sturdy, simple product—a system—that offered endless opportunities for creative fun, and drew up a... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Entertainment & Recreation

14 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Amazon vs. Whole Foods: When Cultures Collide

co-written with James Barnett and Christine Snively. A tale of two cultures From the very start, Amazon made its name on being fast, cheap, and efficient—using data to drive its product mix and enforcing strict employee discipline to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

14 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: February 14

commercial product. Wanberg and his team narrowed down the relevant market to three main segments: creative professionals, working professionals, and students. However, these segments were seemingly at odds with each other in terms of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The Outside-In Approach to Customer Service

customers is just the starting point. From here, firms have to make a creative leap to discover the unique combination of products and services that may address those needs. No customer gave Steve Jobs and... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products

01 Dec 2023
News

The Imposter Among Us

Edited by Jen McFarland Flint; Illustrations by Peter Arkle It was their rst day at Harvard and like the rest of his cohort, Edgar Wallner (PMD 22, 1971) will never forget meeting Robert Gaines-Cooper. Frankly, it would have been difficult to miss the Englishman, who... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

motivated, to find meaning at work during this crisis. Research by Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria and colleagues suggests that people are guided by four basic emotional needs, or drives, that are the product of our common... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

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Technology & Innovation - Faculty & Research

analysis, and more. However, their role in creative ideation—a cornerstone of consumer research—remains underexplored. Drawing on the human creativity literature, we propose that ideation with LLMs is... View Details

Publications