by John Kotter - Publications - Faculty & Research

25 Jun 2001
Lessons from the Classroom

Machiavelli, Morals, and You

of one of the keys to leadership: the notion of accountability. Badaracco, the school's John Shad Professor of Business Ethics, uses the novel as part of his course called The Moral Leader, an unusual course for MBA students in which... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

13 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

3 Ways Firms Can Profit From Environmental Investments

In the course of her work, Rebecca Henderson meets business executives who don't address the threat of climate change because they don't believe that it exists. Her recommendation: They should consider investments in environmental sustainability anyway, assuming that... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities

10 Mar 2011
What Do You Think?

To What Degree Does the Job Make the Person?

(people who experience no hormonal change and cannot adapt) leave or are forced out." While ignoring the question of chemical change, dependencies that were posed by several respondents may suggest opportunities for future research.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

13 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Ignore This Advice at Your Own Peril

paper details the results of nine studies showing that advisors not only get offended when their guidance is disregarded, but they may punish those colleagues by denigrating them, distancing themselves—and in some cases, even severing the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

13 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Why Public Companies Underinvest in the Future

Investment Behavior of Public and Private Firms," written by Farre-Mensa with New York University's John Asker and Alexander Ljungqvist, details how and why public and private companies differ when it... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

09 Jan 2014
Research & Ideas

The Entrepreneurs Who Invented Economic Forecasting

instead, that economic activity could be greatly affected by policy gained prestige. Thus, even while Fisher sunk into poverty, his econometric ideas were gaining strength. Of course, the most popular economist of the 1930s became View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

28 Jun 2022
Book

The Moral Enterprise: How Two Companies Profit with Purpose

How can government and business work together in this fractious political moment, when finding solutions to pressing problems like inequality and climate change are more urgent than ever? Rebecca Henderson, Harvard University’s John and Natty McArthur University... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

16 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Peeling Back the Global Brand

Corporate Brands Crossing Borders In the second presentation of the Global Brands session, HBS professor Douglas Holt described a work in progress that he is conducting with HBS professor John Quelch and Earl Taylor of Research... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products; Retail

26 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Corporate Field Researchers Share Tricks of the Trade

smarter trades, according to the findings of a study by Soltes, an assistant professor at HBS, and David Solomon, a professor at the USC Marshall School of Business. To conduct the research, the duo obtained investor meeting records from... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

31 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

Can a ‘Basic Bundle’ of Health Insurance Cure Coverage Gaps and Spur Innovation?

By the early 1980s, several high-income countries—including Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand—had universal health insurance covering 100 percent of the population. Meanwhile, 40 years later, the United... View Details

Keywords: by Kasandra Brabaw; Insurance; Health

24 Jun 2016
News

Why Brexit is a Big Deal

25 Sep 2006
Research & Ideas

How Software Platforms Revolutionize Business

independent developers to build new features. The cell phone has become a lucrative platform for more than handset makers—also in on the party are makers of digital cameras, music services, and organizer software. Not only are existing industries being transformed and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Video Game; Web Services

25 Feb 2002
Research & Ideas

The Country Effect: Does Location Matter?

collaborator John U. Farley have studied the impact of corporate culture and national culture on global marketing strategy. A few years ago they looked at the role played by these key organizational factors... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

26 Apr 2021
News

Apple’s Soon-to-Be Rolled Out iOS 14.5 Puts Facebook in a Spin and Mark Zuckerberg Can Do Nothing About It

June 1990 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Morality and Consequences

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.

Consists mainly of excerpts from Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill. Mill explains what utilitarianism is and gives his rationale for accepting it as a moral philosophy. View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Outcome or Result; Value

Citation

Educators

Purchase

25 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Planning for Surprises

many U.S. airlines, the debt owed to customers in the form of miles is a value significantly larger than the airlines' market capitalization. This is simply not sustainable. Airlines have already reduced the value of miles by making seats... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

04 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Governing the Family-Run Business

The topic of governance is hot. Shareholders, managers, and business advisors are demanding improved governance of (typically public) companies by strengthening their boards of directors and developing more responsive shareholder... View Details

17 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

“Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

18 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ‘Collective Genius’

source of much stress because they almost always have implications that ripple throughout the film and force multiple changes, as we just saw. In that postmortem, one employee recalled that John Lasseter, director of the film and a... View Details

Keywords: by Linda Hill; Entertainment & Recreation

07 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

The Case for Combating Climate Change with Nuclear Power and Fracking

If you ask any given environmentalist to identify the biggest threat to the planet, you may expect to hear about man-made climate change, consumerism, or overpopulation. But if you ask Harvard Business School's Joseph B. Lassiter, he'll toss in another: single-issue... View Details