Publications

11 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 11

capital shortages, distributed urban territory to assuage losers of reform and promote economic growth. The findings suggest that 1) growth strategies, and the territorial politics they produce, are products of the post-Mao urban... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Four VCs on Evaluating Opportunities

usually an engineering challenge that is tough enough to give the company an edge, resulting in several years lead or longer, if we're lucky. We look for a tough problem that hasn't been solved before. The solution can't be so... View Details

Keywords: by Lauren Barley

09 Aug 2010
Research & Ideas

How to Speed Up Energy Innovation

Is there a special sauce for stimulating innovation in the energy sector, a concoction to spur cost-effective developments toward solving the climate change problem? HBS professor Rebecca Henderson doesn't claim to know all the ingredients for that special sauce. But... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Energy; Utilities

September 2011
Supplement

TopCoder (B)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Eric Lonstein and Stephanie Pokrywa

Metrology plays a key role in the manufacture of mechanical components. Traditionally it is used extensively in a pre-process stage where a manufacturer does process planning, design, and ramp-up, and in post-process off-line inspection to establish proof of quality.... View Details

Keywords: Industry Growth; Forecasting and Prediction; Change Management; Production; Machinery and Machining; Planning; Quality; Competition; Diversification; Technology Adoption; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Manufacturing Industry

21 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 21, 2018

future at the same time. It is like changing the engine of a plane while it is flying. Based on almost ten years of research, this book provides a framework for companies to reimagine their business. Using rich case studies and rigorous... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

04 Apr 2023
What Do You Think?

How Does Remote Work Affect Innovation?

team weren’t even on the ads team It was the culture that attracted . These five engineers . To the company in the first place. How would this story play out if Google had relied heavily on remote work at the time? Would Jeff Dean and his... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Can AI Predict Whether Shoppers Would Pick Crest or Colgate?

of randomness. They then crafted prompts—the questions users ask an AI tool—about specific products like toothpaste and laptops, seeking hundreds of responses about whether the “customer” would choose to purchase View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

20 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

The 5 Strategy Rules of Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs

the most highly valued companies in the world. But how were they able to steer their companies through the volatile ups and downs of decades of changing technologies? What did they have in common? And what can we learn from them about successful strategy? “The notion... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Computer

12 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities

way or if it's time to part ways–the company has outgrown them. I once had a talented engineer on my team who was a great prototyper but not strong writing production-level code. Each time he tried to follow a project from the... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

08 Sep 2014
Research & Ideas

The Strategic Way To Hire a Sales Team

Google and Groupon, for instance, a higher percentage of employees work in sales than engineering or data mining. And at Facebook the salesforce's ability to translate 'likes' into advertisers will make or break that company's valuation... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

18 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 18

Second, pay disparity between managers located in different states decreases relative to that of co-located managers. Third, division productivity falls in dispersed firms, with the effect driven by managers at the low end of the wage... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

July 2011 (Revised September 2012)
Case

Industrial Metrology: Getting In-Line? (A)

By: Willy Shih

Metrology plays a key role in the manufacture of mechanical components. Traditionally it is used extensively in a pre-process stage where a manufacturer does process planning, design, and ramp-up, and in post-process off-line inspection to establish proof of quality.... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Machinery and Machining; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Planning; Quality; Opportunities; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Segmentation; Technology Adoption; Theory; Manufacturing Industry

10 Jan 2023
Op-Ed

Time to Move On? Career Advice for Entrepreneurs Preparing for the Next Stage

roles do you know you definitely don’t want? This could be a level of responsibility (e.g., a founding CEO may know they never want to be a CEO again) or within a function of an organization. (e.g., an engineer who became a View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

March 2015
Case

BOLT: Seed Venture Capital Firm

By: William A. Sahlman and Robert F. White

BOLT is a different kind of seed venture capital firm built to serve the needs of early-stage startups at the intersection of hardware and software.

In the past decade, the cost of entrepreneurial experimentation has dropped dramatically, particularly in web... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Accelerator; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Venture Capital; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Strategy

December 2005 (Revised March 2010)
Case

William Levitt, Levittown and the Creation of American Suburbia

By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson

Demand for low-cost housing after World War II far exceeded supply. Was this a profitable new market? New York developer William Levitt had to decide. During World War II, Levitt was eager to build basic housing for the working class—otherwise, Levitt & Sons would have... View Details

Keywords: Demographics; Construction; Business History; Housing; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Business and Government Relations; Construction Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States; New York (state, US)