Weakness Of Will - Publications - Faculty & Research

13 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Rescuing Products with Stealth Positioning

When firms adopt a reverse or breakaway positioning strategy, there is no pretense about what they're up to. Part of the appeal of their cleverly positioned product offerings comes from explicitly subverting... View Details

Keywords: by Youngme Moon

22 Apr 2002
Lessons from the Classroom

Entrepreneurship: It Can Be Taught

of students and try to anticipate what their entrepreneurial experience is likely to be, will it be different than it has been in the past? PM: I think we'll see the late 1990s as a unique time, for the... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

01 Jul 2019
What Do You Think?

Are Super Stretch Goals Only for the Very Young?

organization defining its role and finding its niche and space in the world will find it easier to communicate and achieve that super stretch goal. They start with a blank piece of paper. They do not have to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

29 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Inventing Products is Less Valuable Than Inventing Ideas

that companies should only look to the past, but follow guidelines like these, says Ahuja, and companies will be in the best position to get the most out of the ideas they invent. "Inventions can be... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology

13 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Can We Get To Where We Need To Go?

those who care about the renewed, continued competitiveness of the United States," he told attendees who gathered recently at the national summit held at HBS, America on the Move: Transportation and Infrastructure for the 21st... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Transportation; Air Transportation; Auto

20 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

Globalization Hasn’t Killed the Manufacturing Cluster

calls "sticky." "A lot of the thinking today on manufacturing is as wages change, manufacturing moves. And you'll get these very optimistic reports about the return of manufacturing to the United States from... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Manufacturing; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Big Messages, Small Screens, Many Choices

live TV, the play might soon reappear on a sports network's Twitter feed. According to Brown, users' attention spans are somewhat proportional to the size of the screens they use. That means they're less View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

How the U.S. Army Develops Leaders

the BE component: Give me a soldier who has that part right, and I can teach her to do anything. Give me a soldier who doesn't, and all the knowledge and skills in the world will not make up for a lack of... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

25 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Planning for Surprises

predictable surprises. Finally, many are more willing to run the risk of incurring a large but small-probability loss in the future rather than accepting a smaller, yet certain loss now. We don't want to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

28 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Six Lessons from Mobile Money Ventures in Developing Countries

Lal says. “But 80 to 90 percent of mobile money operations are failures.” “If you don’t identify the right problem, the rest of it will not go anywhere” His research shows that... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Telecommunications

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

Rebuilding Commercial Real Estate

specialization of capital, the domination by institutions instead of entrepreneurs, all these things have produced lower risks. If you have lower risks, you should not expect to get the same returns you got... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Construction; Real Estate

17 Nov 2011
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Organizational Design

investigates the effects of multicultural networks on individuals' creative performance, identifying when this effect arises, as well as underlying mechanisms. Key concepts include: The more your network includes individuals from... View Details

Keywords: Re: Ranjay Gulati & Raffaella Sadun

18 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

New Hires Lose Psychological Safety After Year One. How to Fix It.

example by ridiculing or harshly disagreeing with the person, the employee will be less likely to open up again, believing it is unsafe to take interpersonal risks. Even a subtle reaction, such as a look of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

15 Feb 2017
Op-Ed

What Africa Can Teach the United States About Funding Infrastructure Projects

the great cities of America. But there will likely be massive arguments about how to raise the money and how to invest it. The solution may lie in finance models that have proven successful in several... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Construction

03 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Forget About Making College Affordable; Make it a Good Investment

about $29,000, or about two years’ worth of the average young college graduate’s wage premium over a high school grad. A course of study and internships that lead to a college-level job usually View Details

Keywords: by Joseph Fuller; Education

16 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

European Private Equity—Still a Teenager?

exit in two or three years, they will probably need to hold investments for a longer period of time, he said. To invest in Europe, you need flexibility above all else, the panelists agreed. For an industry... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

02 Jan 2020
Op-Ed

Medicare for All or Public Option: Can Either Heal Health Care?

The United States has serious health care problems: More than 27 million uninsured people, costs that are growing faster than income, and a staggering $37 trillion of unfunded liabilities in the Medicare program. Perhaps most alarming:... View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger and James Wallace; Health; Public Administration

24 May 2010
Research & Ideas

Stimulus Surprise: Companies Retrench When Government Spends

project will be to ask a similar question of the private sector: Does private-sector economic activity create or crowd out additional private-sector opportunities? Put differently, did Bill Gates's decision... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

03 Feb 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do You Hire an 'Impostor'?

the employment of “imposters,” a term, by the way, that was regarded as objectionable by many, most respondents implicitly rejected the notion. They pointed to the desirable qualities of imposters, people... View Details