Design thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

As economies reopen after forced shutdowns caused by COVID-19, managers around the world are faced with a dual challenge: keep the workforce safe while preserving business viability in an evolving and volatile market. How should businesses start to View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

25 Jan 2017
HBS Case

How Should Advertisers Respond to Consumer Demand for Whiter Skin?

think of the role of advertising as providing primes that are psychological in nature as a means of persuasion, you can take something that exists in society—a consumer preference for fair skin—and leverage it for good or for bad.”... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Beauty & Cosmetics

30 Mar 2018
What Do You Think?

What Should Mark Zuckerberg Do?

Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, sent the company’s deputy general counsel to the company cafeteria to meet with employees, sharing with them that Facebook had been deceived by the consultant into thinking that the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Web Services; Information Technology

30 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Are You Supporting Your B Players?

they preach. Drawing inspiration from Edgar H. Schein's influential book Career Dynamics, DeLong suggested that managers should think about three levels of human behavior in organizations. The first is technical skills, be they in... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Feb 2010
Research & Ideas

The ‘Luxury Prime’: How Luxury Changes People

executives on Wall Street. According to Chua, their research found that "people who were made to think about luxury prior to a decision-making task have a higher tendency to endorse self-interested decisions that might potentially... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

20 Mar 2000
Research & Ideas

Incubators: The New Venture Capitalists?

kicking off a panel discussion at Cyberposium 2000. "But I think it's fair to characterize the incubator space as rather a sleepy one." Until now, that is. Once largely the domain of universities and public economic development... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

22 Jul 2019
Book

How to Be a Digital Platform Leader

create even within a very traditional, industrial business. We think the basic design of Predix was heading in the right direction, but the challenges in execution have been severe. Lagace: A central concern... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

09 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

How Tennis, Golf, and White Anxiety Block Racial Integration

distribution of residents by race. The results were clear: When given the opportunity to do so, White people preferred to design their environments in ways that maximized their exposure to other White people and minimized their contact... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

16 Dec 2014
First Look

First Look: December 16

money-maximizing evaluation procedure. Our findings are compatible with a behavioral model of information processing and with the System 1/System 2 distinction in behavioral decision research where people have two distinct modes of View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

example, the success of Gilt Groupe and other high-fashion flash sale sites has proven that younger shoppers are willing to buy these categories online. They are also comfortable purchasing high-fashion designer shoes on the web, given... View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

31 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

The Most Powerful Workplace Motivator

financial incentives causes people to work harder," he says. "But my research suggests that in deciding how hard we work and how well we think we're performing, social comparisons matter just as much." The $30,000 Gold Star The power of... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

03 Dec 2014
What Do You Think?

Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively?

for the phenomenon. Munyaradzi Mushato suggested that, "my experience in industry tells me that most jerks are created by the very systems that are designed to improve performance that is, about 70% of the jerks are bred! Most... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

24 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Career Advice for Minorities and Women: Sharing Your Identity Can Open Doors

identity out there, it appears to activate different things psychologically in people’s minds than when people infer your identity from your name.” "They're thinking ... 'If I care about not being prejudiced, I should maybe take a little... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

16 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Luxury Isn’t What It Used to Be

we're doing," says McEvoy. Today, Queen Elizabeth II wears her Burberry trench coat. But so does supermodel Kate Moss. At Waterford Crystal, CEO John G. Foley (HBS ISMP '89) has brought on contemporary designers like Versace and Vera... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Consumer Products

30 Nov 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do Leaders Manage the Tension Between Pride and Arrogance?

designing a “similar survey to be administered to every group of stakeholder outside of the company organization, to get the feedback on ‘how it feels’ doing business with the company.” Lavinia Rasca said “the answer was given by Andrew... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

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

Aug 2013
Conference Presentation

Brokerage Spaces: How Informal Networks Transform Formal Structure In The Pursuit Of Complex Tasks

By: Ranjay Gulati and Luciana Silvestri

Keywords: Ambiguity; Cognition; Collaboration; Networks; Organizational Design; Cognition and Thinking

Citation

01 Mar 2004
Lessons from the Classroom

Mission to Mars: It Really Is Rocket Science

more effectively design and measure complex projects and organizations. Sean Silverthorne: What drew you to the NASA/JPL Mars program as potential case material? Alan MacCormack: First, it was an ideal context in which to explore one of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

10 Jan 2007
HBS Case

The Challenge of Managing National Security

the challenge of differentiating and integrating an organization—that is, breaking it into specialized parts yet getting the parts to work together. Cases about extreme circumstances force students to think outside their usual domains.... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Service

30 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

Tuning Jobs to Fit Your Company

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, professor Robert Simons wrote about how organizations can design jobs for maximum performance. In this excerpt, Simons discusses what he terms the four basic "spans" of a job—control,... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

Publications