Publications

2020
Working Paper

Strategic Foresight as Dynamic Capability: A New Lens on Knightian Uncertainty

By: J. Peter Scoblic

This paper proposes to treat strategic foresight as a dynamic capability, providing a new theoretical lens on managerial judgment. Formulating strategy under uncertainty is a central challenge facing the modern firm. Analogy is thought to help managers make sense of... View Details

Keywords: Foresight; Dynamic Capabilities; Managerial Judgment; Risk and Uncertainty; Management; Strategy

Read Now

June 2015 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Epistar and the Global LED Market

By: Willy C. Shih, Chen-Fu Chien and Hung-Kai Wang

It took BJ Lee many years to learn how to navigate the patent minefield that was the global LED industry. When his company was first spun off from the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan, he thought the essence of a good IP strategy was to develop a... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property Management; Patenting; Patent Litigation; Intellectual Property; Patents; Electronics Industry; Semiconductor Industry; Asia; United States; Japan; Taiwan

July 2020 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Vineet Nayar and Sampark Foundation: Frugal Innovation at Scale (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2005, Vineet Nayar, the former CEO and Vice Chairman of HCL Technologies, and his wife, Anupama Nayar, committed $100 million of their personal wealth to found Sampark Foundation — a grant-making philanthropy with a mission to transform learning outcomes for 20... View Details

March 10, 2025
Article

How Gen AI Could Change the Value of Expertise

By: Joseph Fuller, Matt Sigelman and Michael Fenlon

In the near future, gen AI is likely to affect some 50 million jobs, automating away elements of some jobs and augmenting workers’ abilities in others. The extent of those changes will compel companies to reshape their organizational structures and rethink their talent... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Organizational Structure; Talent and Talent Management; Personal Development and Career

Register to Read

August 2023 (Revised January 2025)
Case

The Gift Card Swap

By: David G. Fubini, William Fubini, Patrick Sanguineti and Amy Chambers

In this short vignette on ethics in consulting, Brenda Thompson, a new Associate at a prestigious consulting firm, learns that a fellow Associate is using the firm's meal expense benefits to pocket the difference between the maximum daily allowance and his actual... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Decisions; Consulting Industry

March 2022 (Revised June 2023)
Background Note

Climate Issues on the Ground: Snapshots of Diverse American Cities

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Coelin Scibetta and Ryan Barr

This compilation provides brief snapshots of climate action and its geographic and institutional context in 13 U.S. cities that send diverse participants to the Harvard Business School Young American Leaders Program to learn about cross-sector collaboration to address... View Details

Keywords: Cities; Ecosystems; Cross-sector Collaboration; Green Business; U.S. Competitiveness; Economic Sectors; City; Climate Change; Leadership; Change; Boston; Detroit; Minneapolis; Pittsburgh; San Jose; Seattle

January 2022 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Leonard Bernstein: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the rise of Leonard Bernstein from a middle-class family in Boston to the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The case describes how he studied music intensely as a young man and developed mentors to open doors for him. As his fame grew,... View Details

Keywords: Impact; Personal Development and Career; Music Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

April 2006
Case

Managing a Public Image: Cheri Mack

By: Robin J. Ely and Ingrid Vargas

Cheri Mack, an African-American woman, has just arrived at Harvard Business School after working for three years at a major consulting firm where she learned to adopt the demeanor of her male colleagues in order to fit in. Some of her male classmates are critical of... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Race; Reputation; Personal Development and Career; Leadership Style; Gender; Massachusetts

2012
Article

The Excess Burden of Government Indecision

By: Francisco J. Gomes, Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Luis M. Viceira

Governments are known for procrastinating when it comes to resolving painful policy problems. Whatever the political motives for waiting to decide, procrastination distorts economic decisions relative to what would arise with early policy resolution. In so doing, it... View Details

Keywords: Saving; Risk and Uncertainty; Investment Portfolio; Decision Choices and Conditions; Retirement; Policy; Government and Politics

Find at Harvard

Read Now

11 Dec 2018
Blog Post

Recap of the 4th Annual Women in Investing Summit

entrepreneurial spirit. After graduation, I entered strategy consulting to learn how companies run – from developing pricing strategies to winning customers – then joined a... View Details

28 Apr 2020
News

"What Yesterday’s Leaders Can Teach Us about Today’s Crisis "

September – October 2011
Article

Manage the Culture Cycle

By: James L. Heskett

Organizational culture—the shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that determine "how we do things around here"—can be measured and shaped. In organizations with large numbers of customer-facing employees, it can account for up to half of the difference in operating... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Value; Behavior; Retention; Customer Focus and Relationships; Change Management; Learning; Innovation and Invention; Labor

Rem Koning is the Mary V. and Mark A. Stevens Associate Professor at Harvard Business School. He researches and teaches entrepreneurship, exploring the biases and frictions that shape how founders and markets learn. His current research explores... View Details

Keywords: high technology; software; biotechnology

12 PM – 1 PM EST, 16 Feb 2017
Webinars: Trending@HBS

Grown and Flown: Parenting Through the High School Years

High school is a time of dynamic growth for kids who enter in 9th grade with one foot still in childhood and graduate four years later, well on their way to adulthood. But teens are not the only ones in a family who are changing. Adults, too, must learn to adapt to the... View Details

February 2003 (Revised January 2006)
Case

AIT Group Plc

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

A U.S. venture capital firm has just learned that the deal structure for purchasing an illiquid U.K. software firm is unacceptable to institutional investors. The group must decide if it still wants to go through with the deal. This decision hinges on whether the... View Details

Keywords: Price; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Mergers and Acquisitions; Venture Capital; Financial Condition; Risk and Uncertainty; Decision Making; Financial Services Industry; United States; United Kingdom

14 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 14

and the fluidity of most work structures mean that it's not really about creating effective teams anymore, but instead about leading effective teaming. Teaming shows that organizations learn when the flexible, fluid collaborations they... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

August 2022
Case

The Spreadsheet

By: Zoë B. Cullen and Alexander J. MacKay

Compensation is the largest expenditure of almost every venture. Getting compensation packages right affects talent acquisition, retention, and profitability. In this case, and accompanying negotiation exercise, students learn strategies and tactics for setting... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing