Levers Of Control - Publications - Faculty & Research

11 May 2015
Research & Ideas

A Road Map to Fix America’s Transportation Infrastructure

Any highway commuter who has wasted hours stuck in traffic can see the cracks in the United States' transportation system, as can any airline passenger who has been stranded overnight in an airport. Yet while many agree that the need for infrastructure change is... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Transportation

18 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

Open Innovation Contestants Build AI-Based Cancer Tool

Radiation therapy can be lifesaving for lung cancer patients. The first step, though, is having a trained, skilled oncologist who knows how to best segment or mark off the tumor for radiation. This expertise is vital for targeting the tumor and View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

13 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

Negotiating Challenges for Women Leaders

Below, excerpts from an interview. Lagace: What is an example of an experiment you've conducted that looks at differences in how women and men negotiate? McGinn: One of the interesting first pieces View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

30 Jun 2020
Book

Capitalism Is More at Risk Than Ever

long espoused a “doing well by doing good” philosophy going back to founding figure William Lever. In the late nineteenth century, Lever had built a business by making and selling household soap that he hoped would improve hygiene and... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

11 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Politicians Benefited From Using Toxic Loans

Talk of the recent financial crisis often falls into a simplistic narrative of villainous banks, marketing toxic financial products to innocent customers who did not understand their risks. Among the storied... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

04 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Predictions, Prophets, and Restarting Your Business

awareness of cybersecurity issues. Combined with the ability to block ads, the growing costs of acquiring customers online, the experience of “Zoombombing,” and View Details

Keywords: by Frank V. Cespedes

20 Apr 2020
Book

Why COVID-19 Raises the Stakes for Healthy Buildings

occupied, preferably using demand control ventilation. Select the right filter for the location of your building. (Check out the terrific report by Brent Stephens, Terry Brenna, and Lew Harriman, “Selecting... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Real Estate; Health

12 Dec 2019
Research & Ideas

How to Turn Down the Boil on Group Conflict

feel. Lees and Cikara found similar results for other scenarios, involving changes to selection of judges, campaign financing, and renaming of a state highway. (The researchers purposefully stayed away from... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

16 Sep 2013
Research & Ideas

Earnings Calls That Get Lost in Translation

The CEO's key to a successful earnings call with investors? Crystal clear communication. Earnings calls are typically held after the release of quarterly earnings, allowing company executives a chance to brief investors, analysts, and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

21 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Fighting the COVID Blues: Advice from Business Research

risks—including spending hours reading or watching the news. "This is such an impermanent state of affairs that we just have to do as best we can." Rather than ruminating on the virus and replaying possible future outcomes in our minds,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman and Danielle Kost

07 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

Video: Harvard Business School at the Kumbh Mela

restrict the religious groups' acreage and make the roads even wider to control foot traffic—and land disputes-even more? What about expanding the festival site northward, thereby creating the equivalent of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Construction; Real Estate

06 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

Money and Quotas Motivate the Sales Force Best

randomly by branch, interspersed with control weeks. At the beginning of a test week, the company would send a text message to members of the sales force in a given branch,... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Retail

06 May 2002
Research & Ideas

A Toolkit for Customer Innovation

regulatory, and quality control expertise. On average, the client eventually accepts only 15% of all new flavors for full market evaluation, and only 5% to 10% make their way to the marketplace. Meanwhile,... View Details

Keywords: by Stefan Thomke & Eric Von Hippel

02 Jul 2001
What Do You Think?

Built to Last or Bought to Sell?

continuity; discard control systems that limit creativity; discourage too much "convergent" thinking that "thrives on focus"; encourage processes that identify and invest in ideas and organizations... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

04 Dec 2000
What Do You Think?

Have We Overdone Deregulation and Privatization?

Summing Up Let's hear it for deregulation, at least its long-term effects. It's well worth the short-term disruptions and consumer confusion. That's the near-unanimous judgement of those of you responding to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

12 Aug 2008
Op-Ed

Google-Yahoo Ad Deal is Bad for Online Advertising

through an auction, it does not set prices. See, e.g., Larry Page's May 2008 remarks to C|NET: "AdWords is an auction. We're not setting prices. Auctions are determined by supply and demand." 1 I disagree. Google controls a... View Details

Keywords: by Benjamin G. Edelman; Advertising; Publishing

02 May 2012
What Do You Think?

Can the “Leadership Industry” Fulfill Its Promise?

ability to learn from "repeated failure" (Shadreck Saili), "a quest for integrity" (Adriano Pianesi), a combination of ego control and "ambition for the institution" (Bruno... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

02 Jan 2020
Op-Ed

Medicare for All or Public Option: Can Either Heal Health Care?

The United States has serious health care problems: More than 27 million uninsured people, costs that are growing faster than income, and a staggering $37 trillion of unfunded liabilities in the Medicare program. Perhaps most alarming:... View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger and James Wallace; Health; Public Administration

09 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

These Employers Pay Higher Salaries than Necessary

might be implied by average per capita GDP.) After controlling for workers’ job experience, English proficiency, and other factors, first-time employers still paid a premium of 10 percent over experienced... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Employment; Technology; Computer

03 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Business History around the World

control and the growth of professional management seen in the United States. That debate continues. But this book does report compelling research that shows that, historically, family ownership and... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

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