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04 May 2007
What Do You Think?

How Do Managers Think?

a scientific method in solving problems . Managers focus on making decisions with little information, not through a rigorous review of the details." According to Gerald Nanninga, "A big difference... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

16 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

The Messy Link Between Slave Owners and Modern Management

management today. “How much more do we need to think about our responsibility to people?” As fascinating as her findings were, Rosenthal had some misgivings about their implications. She didn't want to be perceived as saying something... View Details

Keywords: by Katie Johnston

24 Oct 2007
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Managing Innovation

innovative solutions? Can Innovation And Creativity Be Managed? High Note: Managing the Medici String Quartet Many managers in business experience difficulty dealing with their best creative thinkers. So how... View Details

Research Summary

Clinical Trials as a setting for Health Policy and Management Research

The clinical trial marketplace is in flux. A decade ago, pharmaceutical firms almost exclusively conducted the study of their novel drug compounds within major academic medical centers. But today, industry-sponsored clinical trials are increasingly using community... View Details

July 2013 (Revised November 2021)
Module Note

Exploration vs. Exploitation

By: Willy Shih

This module note introduces James March's concept of exploration and exploitation, and the management challenge of balancing the allocation of resources to the two activities in the firm. The note also touches on the O'Reilly and Tushman paper on the ambidextrous... View Details

29 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Managing Innovation is Like Theater

If you don't know where you're going, any map will do.1 This conventional wisdom sounds right to many managers. It highlights the safety of having a clear objective for your management actions. It implies that all View Details

Keywords: by Rob Austin & Lee Devin

November 2024
Teaching Note

Martine Rothblatt and United Therapeutics: A Series of Implausible Dreams

By: Debora L. Spar and Julia M. Comeau

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 323-039. In 1990, satellite expert and Sirius XM founder Martine Rothblatt was determined to save the life of her seven-year-old daughter, Jenesis, who was diagnosed with a terminal illness called Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH). At... View Details

Keywords: Pharmaceutical Companies; Technological And Scientific Innovation; Organ Donation; Health Care and Treatment; Health Disorders; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Product Development; Pharmaceutical Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States; District of Columbia

06 Oct 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

18 Tips Managers Can Use to Lead Through COVID's Rising Waters

Since March, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge has posted more than 80 stories and research papers on the topic of COVID-19, most targeted at managers and the new challenges they face. That's a lot of information to digest. To... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

March 2021
Article

Increasing the Level of Abstraction as a Strategy for Accelerating the Adoption of Complex Technologies

By: Willy C. Shih

Many new technologies are complex and embody high levels of technical sophistication, and applying them should require significant knowledge and experience. Yet, the rapid adoption and incorporation of these technologies into other innovations seems inconsistent with... View Details

Keywords: Abstraction; Technological And Scientific Innovation; Technological Progress; Diffusion Of Innovation; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Complexity; Information Technology; Strategy

April 2014
Case

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (A)

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Bethany S. Gerstein and Melissa Valentine

In 2006, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals was a fast-growing biotechnology company. Its leadership team was divided over whether to keep R&D organized in functional departments or transition to interdisciplinary teams. As a small company, Merrimack's R&D organization had... View Details

Keywords: Teamwork; Interdisciplinary Collaboration; R＆D; Biotechnology; Complexity; Innovation Management; Organizational Design; Groups and Teams; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

April 2012
Case

Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation

By: Willy Shih and Margaret Pierson

Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation (DNATF), a government agency, invests in public-private partnerships to stimulate commercialization of Danish scientific research within the country's industry. DNATF established a process for evaluating proposals, making... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Commercialization; Management Practices and Processes; Experience and Expertise; Innovation and Invention; Public Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Technology Industry; Denmark

Awards

Science Watch Fast Breaking Paper

By: Julie Battilana

“How Actors Change Institutions: Towards a Theory of Institutional Entrepreneurship” with Bernard Leca and Eva Boxenbaum (Academy of Management Annals, 2009) was named by Science Watch as the August 2011 “Fast Breaking Paper” in Economics and Business. A... View Details

13 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

Science: The Unlikely Frontier for New Business Ideas

through the red tape of academia to negotiate with an institution’s technology licensing department. Knowing where to look for the most interesting scientific advancements and how to filter for reliable studies isn’t every manager’s... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

26 Jan 2024
Blog Post

HBS Alumna Fighting Cancer with a Novel Cell Therapy

Ananya Zutshi (MS/MBA 2021) wanted a career in pharmacology biotech, but wasn’t sure if she wanted to be on the management side or scientific side. She studied biomedical engineering as an undergraduate at... View Details

Francesca Gino

Francesca Gino is an award-winning researcher who focuses on why people make the decisions they do at work, and how leaders and employees have more productive, creative and fulfilling lives. She is the best-selling author, most recently, of “View Details

Keywords: electronics; entertainment; fashion; manufacturing; motorcycles; pharmaceuticals

December 1993 (Revised November 2009)
Case

Manville Corporation Fiber Glass Group (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Sarah Gant

Manville Corp.'s senior managers must decide how to respond to a new scientific study suggesting that fiberglass, the source of 75% of the company's profits, may be another asbestos and must act under conditions of great uncertainty. In particular, when should a... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Ethics; Health Disorders; Risk Management; Marketing Communications; Product; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Safety; Consumer Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry

November 2001 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Evolution of Treatment, The: The Case of Diabetes

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Jeffrey D. Street and Laura Feldman

Scientific knowledge surrounding diabetes mellitus has grown over the last century to include its cause, treatment, and prevention strategies. However, the type and level of care that patients receive is suboptional. This case examines the forces in industry,... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Health Industry

January 1997 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Improving the Product Development Process at Kirkham Instruments Corp.

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Describes the efforts of a manufacturer of scientific instruments to implement new methods of managing new product development, which its executives had learned in a Harvard Business School seminar. The executives left the seminar excited to implement a new way of... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Product Launch; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry; United States