Breaks - Publications - Faculty & Research

13 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Kind of Blue: Pushing Boundaries with Miles Davis

of each, and anyone can hear it. The case is aimed at trying to see how he did it. Martha Lagace: What about the creation of Kind of Blue piqued your curiosity? Rob Austin: A few things. The first is, as I've mentioned, that it was a dramatic View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

14 Jun 2010
Research & Ideas

The Hard Work of Measuring Social Impact

professor Herman "Dutch" Leonard), for nonprofit board members, in November. In two working papers that break down what makes social impact easier or more difficult to measure (one coauthored with HBS professor V. Kasturi Rangan), Ebrahim... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

03 Dec 2020
Research & Ideas

Cut Payroll Costs with Transparency, Fairness, and Compassion

conference call. One laid-off worker turned to Twitter to vent. “Sephora ruined our lives. Lol. Point blank period. Great conference call guys! Thanks for hanging up and not letting anyone speak. Thanks for breaking all our hearts. But... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

02 Apr 2007
Lessons from the Classroom

Making the Move to General Manager

full-fledged case studies for use in the GMP program. "I would love to see 10 to 20 percent of our cases involve graduates of the program," he says. Participants write the case study while on break between on-campus modules,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

17 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

Why a Blended Workforce May Be Key to Lasting Competitive Advantage

In recent years, companies have been anxious about the lack of skilled workers to fill pivotal jobs. But then came COVID-19 and a subsequent recession. The ensuing business turmoil and record-high unemployment may have temporarily distracted companies from their... View Details

Keywords: by Joseph B. Fuller

17 Jun 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Excellence Comes From Saying No

and harder and harder. To break out of that you don't need any more capability, but you do need enormous courage to say, if I am going to be really good at something, I am going to be bad at something else. If I am going to compete on... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

03 Dec 2014
What Do You Think?

Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively?

"brilliant jerk"? What do you think? To Read More: Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), especially pp. 164-174.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

22 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

Pulling Campbell’s Out of the Soup

Douglas Conant is an introvert. But when he took over as president and CEO of struggling Campbell Soup Co., he realized he had to break out of his comfort zone, get in front of his staff, and make some bold declarations from the get-go.... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Food & Beverage

05 Mar 2012
Research & Ideas

Is JC Penney’s Makeover the Future of Retailing?

haircuts?), are scheduled to debut in 2013. Johnson expects the transformation to be complete by 2015. "All department stores either rise or fall on their ability to execute a strategy," Lal says. "These are great ideas, but the ability to execute day in and day out,... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Retail

10 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

The COVID Two-Step for Leaders: Protect and Pivot

fabricated or real crisis is an essential ingredient for effective change management, as an existential threat breaks down many barriers to change. With such an unprecedented crisis, it is stretching and View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Building a Better Buyer-Seller Relationship

managing the relationship. "Rather than going after the entire volume, break up the needs into different parts, and try to initiate a relationship using one component, selling only this one component," he advised. For a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

10 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

The Little Understood Problem Confronting Diverse Workplaces

diverse urban charter school were at first frustrated in their attempts to connect with and socialize students, but learned valuable lessons about asking questions and sharing information about themselves to break down barriers. The paper... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

07 Nov 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Sir Alex Ferguson--Managing Manchester United

to visit him in Manchester twice: in March, to see him in action during the season, and in July during the summer break to allow ourselves more time to speak with him and learn about his approach to managing the club. The access we were... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Sports; Entertainment & Recreation

04 Jun 2012
Research & Ideas

The Business of Life

to break the rules "just this once" when an extenuating circumstance presents itself. "Life is an unending series of extenuating circumstances," he says. For that, he argues it's easier to decide early on that you'll stay true to your... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

10 Sep 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Branding Yoga

the case. "We are basically breaking the rules, improvising, adding music; in our minds, connecting the younger generation. In society, brands that succeed stay relevant." Stiles hasn't patented her classes, but in 2010 she did... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

04 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Is Web Surfing Distracting Your Workers?

employees to send packages to correct addresses. Instead of a blanket policy prohibiting web use, Piovesan suggests employers give workers periodic breaks for personal communications. "We think it would be a good idea to give... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

27 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Build 'Scaffolds' to Improve Performance of Temporary Teams

break down barriers between professional groups, they created new, albeit temporary, affinity groups to some extent, triggering competition between the teams, which the staff referred to as "the pod wars." No one wanted to be... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Health

03 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Desperate for Talent? Consider Advancing Your Own Employees First

Job openings in the United States continue to hover at record high levels, exacerbated by the Great Resignation and a sputtering emergence from the pandemic. Competition remains fierce among companies struggling to find qualified workers. Yet many employers,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

09 Aug 2021
Research & Ideas

OneTen: Creating a New Pathway for Black Talent

therefore, we really do break a cycle,” Rometty, who’s also IBM’s former CEO, said in a recent interview on CBS This Morning. OneTen challenges employers to rethink the notion that it takes a four-year degree to do entry-level work. To... View Details

Keywords: by Rawi E. Abdelal, Katherine Connolly Baden, and Boris Groysberg

13 Nov 2019
Research & Ideas

Don't Turn Your Marketing Function Over to AI Just Yet

the model cannot systematically predict is much larger. In other words, there’s lots of noise in human behavior.” Instead of working to create the virtual market, marketers and marketing researchers are trying to break it down into more... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

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