by John Macomber - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Mar 2013
Video

HBS at the Kumbh Mela

01 Nov 2021
What Do You Think?

How Long Does It Take to Improve an Organization’s Culture?

than the attention span of the organization—so long that other high priority initiatives by necessity will distract the organization from completing the effort. As venture capitalist John Doerr has said,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 Jun 2022
HBS Case

Peloton Changed the Exercise Game. Can the Company Push Through the Pain?

demand, which led to shipment delays, followed by pricing confusion and a series of public relations bungles—just as the pandemic eased and people began returning to gyms. Peloton scrambled by recalling... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Media & Broadcasting; Health; Bicycle

04 Apr 2011
HBS Case

Reinventing the National Geographic Society

from foreign countries, raise their hand. "What do you associate with it?" The yellow border, answers one. Others note the stunning photography, detailed maps, and magazines piled up all around the house. A few minutes later National Geographic CEO View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Publishing

08 May 2023
Research & Ideas

How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Crushed Crowdfunding for Minority Entrepreneurs

bastions, as well as in more conservative-leaning locales. “When there is the greatest anxiety, we see this funding shortfall,” says Kerr, the D’Arbeloff Professor of Business Administration. He cowrote the paper with John (Jianqui) Bai,... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

10 Jul 2023
In Practice

The Harvard Business School Faculty Summer Reader 2023

Book of Living and Dying. In my own Catholic tradition, I am finally reading Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross, a 16th century Spanish mystic. It is a poem that comments on how our spirits are... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

01 May 2024
What Do You Think?

Have You Had Enough?

(Illustration created using image generated by Midjourney, an artificial intelligence tool.) Last month, I posted a column in HBS Working Knowledge titled, “What’s Enough to Make Us Happy?” Over the last few months, I’ve been asking... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

21 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Do TV Debates Sway Voters?

pinpoint exactly when a voter decided on a candidate—before or after a debate—without having to rely on voters’ memories. They found: A large fraction of voters change their minds during the campaign. The percentage of voters who had settled on a candidate rose View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

19 Jul 2017
News

Why Government 'Nudges' Motivate Good Citizen Behavior

29 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

How Much More Would Holiday Shoppers Pay to Wear Something Rare?

fashionistas? And if companies focus more on these consumers, how is the broader consumer pool impacted? Farronato studies these questions in a working paper recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Written along... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Retail

01 Jun 2005
News

The Nature of Change

history, but it’s also about today. And it gives me the opportunity to ask the students questions about an institution — HBS — that they’re quite familiar with by that point.” The data on the Class of 1949 is drawn from a survey View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; The Class the Dollars Fell On; case; capstone course; John Shad (MBA 1949); class of 49; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

25 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Chasing Stars: Why the Mighty Red Sox Struck Out

Anaheim Angels starting pitcher John Lackey, signed in December 2009 to a five-year $85 million deal; San Diego Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, lured in 2011 by a seven-year deal at $154 million; and... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Sports; Banking

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

What It Takes: Minorities in the Executive Suite

companies? In their recent book, Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America (Harvard Business School Press), two HBS faculty members, Associate Professor David Thomas and Professor John Gabarro, explain that... View Details

Keywords: by Judith A. Ross

06 Aug 2021
Book

Steve Jobs and the Rise of the Celebrity CEO

successively by John Sculley, who was kicked out in 1993, Michael Spindler, fired in 1996, and Gil Amelio, a member of the board who took over from Spindler and was fired five hundred days later, the company... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

01 May 2013
What Do You Think?

Why Isn’t ‘Servant Leadership’ More Prevalent?

Summing Up Is the Term "Servant Leadership" an Oxymoron? Servant leadership (SL) is a concept that triggers a great deal of interest, judging by my e-mail inbox and the number of responses to this month's column. Many comments... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

06 Jun 2011
Research & Ideas

Why Leaders Lose Their Way

forced to resign for trading in Lubrizol stock prior to recommending that Berkshire Hathaway purchase the company. Examples abound of other recent failures: Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd resigned for submitting false expense reports concerning his relationship with a... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

24 Jul 2017
Research & Ideas

People Have an Irrational Need to Complete 'Sets' of Things

Credit: Martin Barraud Here’s a tip for persuading people to finish more tasks, buy more products, or donate more money: Simply present assignments, requests, or items as arbitrary sets, rather than as individual units. New research reveals that people are... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

01 Sep 2020
News

Is Staying In Staying Safe?

25 Jan 2021
Book

In a Nutshell, Why American Capitalism Succeeded

How did the United States become the world’s center of business growth following its founding in 1776? Surely a number of nations had powerful natural resources, stable financial and legal institutions, and dynamic entrepreneurs over that same span. Why was American... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Manufacturing

04 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

Introverts: The Best Leaders for Proactive Employees

relatively passive but the managers were extraverted. On the other hand, when employees were proactive, the stores led by introverted managers earned high profits. Meanwhile, profits were lower in stores where extraverted managers led... View Details