Systems Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

27 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing

individuals in the business, their individual motivation, and their ability to work together harmoniously. Nowhere is the need to work together more important than in the twin customer-facing functions of marketing and sales. Sales and marketing look similar at a... View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro

13 Apr 2021
Book

How Inclusive Managers Create Glass-Shattering Organizations

companies, and the gender pay gap persists. While young women are aware of these systemic problems, the more nuanced forms of sexism that persist today often take them by surprise, say Ammerman and co-author Boris Groysberg, the Richard... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

06 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Strategic Intelligence: Adapt or Die

our current strategy." Companies think strategic change is this huge process they have to go through. But if you regularly review what you are doing, then that keeps the tasks from getting bigger and bigger to the point where it gets... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

03 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Is the Future of MBA Education?

analytical knowledge to more of what we call "doing" (skills) and "being" (a sense of purpose and identity) must occur. Business schools need to think innovatively about how best to use the resources available to them. For example, there... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

23 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

Product Disasters Can Be Fertile Ground for Innovation

demand shift for additional safety features, prompting CT scanner producers to quickly incorporate, commercialize, and continuously improve alternative technology. Moreover, it was the largest industry incumbents that benefitted most. That, too, runs against... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

20 Jan 2003
Research & Ideas

Fixing Corporate Governance: A Roundtable Discussion at Harvard Business School

inadequate disclosure rules were cracks in the financial infrastructure, options were the rocket fuel that blew the cracks wide open, with some disastrous results. I think all the attention being paid to the current problems—particularly... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

10 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

Celebrating 'The Men and Women of the Corporation' 40 Years Later

Rosabeth Moss Kanter: Because ideas move the world, and I wanted to move the world. I have a PhD in sociology, with a focus on social psychology and organizational behavior. Being a thought leader is a form of leadership, and I'm fortunate to have had many... View Details

Keywords: by Robin J. Ely

02 Jan 2001
Research & Ideas

Can Japan Compete? [Part One]

margin. [Our book] was first and foremost an effort to influence thinking in Japan. Because Japan has such an impact on thinking, we were also very anxious to set the record straight about what actually happened there. The preface... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace & Hilah Geer

17 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Rating Fund Managers by the Company They Keep

Many tools for rating the performance of mutual funds and their managers rely heavily on past performance. But what about the future? Now comes a system devised by Randolph B. Cohen and Joshua D. Coval of Harvard Business School, and... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

25 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

10 Reasons Customers Might Resist Windows 8

Software giant Microsoft is launching the Windows 8 version of its operating system this week, and suffice it to say that it's radically different from Windows 7. The familiar Start button and menu are gone, for example, replaced by a... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Computer; Consumer Products

29 Sep 2011
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Leveraging Intellectual Property

Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions To Be Answered What are the keys to monetizing IP? How should I think about file-sharing... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Who Has the Power in the Music Industry?

music that consumers encounter? Those questions were debated at the "Digital Music: Recreating the Industry" panel on March 30 the at the Digital Initiative Summit at Harvard Business School. "It's interesting to think about the source of... View Details

Keywords: Re: Felix Oberholzer-Gee; Music

27 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

Should I Pay the Bribe?

discusses the case and his own research. Cynthia Churchwell: You have been studying the impact and workings of corruption for several years. What spurred your interest in this area? Rafael Di Tella: I was born in Argentina, need I continue...? I View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia D. Churchwell

14 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Pay-for-Performance Doesn’t Always Pay Off

protection against business exigencies: should the market go south, they don't want to be permanently stuck with new costs. The vast majority of employees, in general, also want pay-for-performance, Beer said. While they may not think... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

20 Dec 2004
Research & Ideas

The U.S. Patent Game: How to Change It

When lawyers fare better than inventors and entrepreneurs where U.S. patents are concerned, you know injustice is being done. The current system makes patents easier to acquire, sure, but renders them less prestigious as well, and less... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

22 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Social Capital Markets: Creating Value in the Nonprofit World

for"outcome-based" funding — a process based on nonprofits achievingcertain goals. "It comes down to people questioning the system inwhich we've invested hundreds of billions of dollars and asking, 'Is itworking in an... View Details

Keywords: by Anne Kavanagh

14 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

The New Measures for Improving Nonprofit Performance

using systems thinking and complexity theory to help us understand the challenges at the ecosystem level. There's also growing attention to using randomized control trials in the social sector, which we tend... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

14 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

New Agenda for Corporate Accountability Reporting

leveraged to test and improve the quality of corporate accountability reporting. Ramanna thinks accounting theory has a lot to contribute, in three particular ways: (1) by giving stakeholders the ability to verify what the corporation... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Accounting; Energy; Utilities

14 Feb 2005
Research & Ideas

Desktop Search and Revenue Streams

panelists where search competitors could gain the most distinct advantage. "I think for us at Yahoo right now, we see an opportunity in helping users manage their personal information," said Bradley Horowitz, director of Yahoo's... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette

28 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Brick-and-Mortar Stores Are Making a Comeback

will not survive are the retailers that are more like a warehouse, or just physical repositories of goods. Real estate is too expensive for that purpose. The opportunity to think about online and offline as complementary channels has... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint; Retail

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