Publications

Research Summary

3. Emergence and Early Growth of a New Venture in an Unfriendly Environment: The Role of a Business Group

Abstract: How can an established organization ease the emergence and early growth of a new venture in an unfriendly environment? To answer this question, I describe and analyze the foundation and early life of two biotechnology start-ups at the... View Details

Winter 2022
Article

Distributing a Billion Vaccines: COVAX Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities

By: Eric Budish, Hannah Kettler, Scott Duke Kominers, Erik Osland, Canice Prendergast and Andrew A. Torkelson

By January 2022, the COVAX international vaccine collaboration had allocated over a billion vaccines to over 140 countries. We describe and review the allocation process chosen, which reflected both an objective of equitably distributing vaccines across the world and... View Details

Keywords: Vaccines; Pandemics; Health Care and Treatment; Health Pandemics; Distribution; Supply Chain; Equality and Inequality

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April 29, 2020
Article

The Case for AI Insurance

By: Ram Shankar Siva Kumar and Frank Nagle

When organizations place machine learning systems at the center of their businesses, they introduce the risk of failures that could lead to a data breach, brand damage, property damage, business interruption, and in some cases, bodily harm. Even when companies are... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Internet and the Web; Safety; Insurance; AI and Machine Learning; Cybersecurity

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January 2014 (Revised March 2014)
Case

SAP 2014: Reaching for the Cloud

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Noah Fisher

In May 2014, Bill McDermott will become the sole CEO of SAP AG, the world leader in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) field. The case occurs in January 2014 at SAP's investors meeting, at a time when the company's stock is near record high. A 2010 strategy... View Details

Keywords: Cloud Computing; Platform; Strategy And Execution; Strategy And Leadership; Enterprise Resource Planning; Software; Information Technology; Digital Platforms; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry; Germany

March 2005 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Teach For America 2005

On November 17, 2004, as Teach for America's (TFA) national board meeting adjourned, Chief Operating Officer Jerry Hauser considered the opportunity before the organization. The board had just given the go ahead to move forward with development of a new strategic plan... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Education; Education Industry; United States

November 2004 (Revised June 2005)
Background Note

Designing Products and Processes: Aligning Hierarchical Problem Levels with Problem-Solving Team Forms

All complex systems have four distinct hierarchical design levels: system objectives, architecture, interfaces, and components. Each level has a distinct design question associated with it. Distinguishing among these levels and understanding the questions associated... View Details

Keywords: Design; Complexity

Web

Research Areas - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

nations, regions and cities; and solutions to social problems. Our mission is to help leaders in business, government and nonprofit organizations make measurable, lasting improvements based on Harvard professor and Institute director... View Details

14 Nov 2007
First Look

First Look: November 14, 2007

retailers, as well as satellite, cable, and telecom operators. The Group had just met its financial targets for 2006 and had achieved organic growth of 6% in the first half of 2007. Yet even as he reflected on these successes, CEO Frank... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

26 Nov 2019
News

The Ritual Effect

Source: Norton Source: Norton Professor Michael Norton studies the ways in which rituals can influence human behavior. In his research, he has found that people establish rituals to enhance their enjoyment of something or to improve their success and don’t like to... View Details

Keywords: rituals

27 Jan 2023
Op-Ed

Have We Lost Sight of Integrity?

the willingness to speak up, even when the truth paints you in a bad light. History has continually shown that a lack of integrity can lead to dire consequences. Not infrequently, entire organizations get caught up in their inability to... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

October 2013 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American (A)

By: Gautam Mukunda, Lisa Mazzanti and Aldo Sesia

In 2007, Cynthia Carroll, the newly-appointed chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, was considering shutting down mines in South Africa for safety reasons, namely worker fatalities. No company had ever done so before. Carroll felt that operating a company... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Leadership; Gender; Safety; Working Conditions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Mining; Mining Industry; South Africa

May 2022
Case

Timnit Gebru: 'SILENCED No More' on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models

By: Tsedal Neeley and Stefani Ruper

Dr. Timnit Gebru—a leading artificial intelligence (AI) computer scientist and co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team—was messaging with one of her colleagues when she saw the words: “Did you resign?? Megan sent an email saying that she accepted your resignation.” Heart... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Employment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Technological Innovation