Publications

2020
Book

Fit to Compete: Why Honest Conversations About Your Company's Capabilities Are the Key to a Winning Strategy

By: Michael Beer

Is Silence Killing Your Strategy?
In his thirty years of working in corporations, Harvard Business School professor Michael Beer has witnessed firsthand how organizational silence derails strategic objectives. When employees can't speak truth to power, senior... View Details

Keywords: Honesty; Communication; Organizational Culture; Trust; Strategy; Performance Effectiveness

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Much of what we believe about the best ways to compensate and motivate the sales force is based on theory and lab experiments. But in the past decade, researchers have been moving out of the lab and into the field, analyzing companies' sales and pay data, and... View Details

02 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Four VCs on Evaluating Opportunities

fund a company, we need to believe that the existing CEO could bring the company to a successful outcome. We found proprietary technology is important but doesn't make much of a difference as a unique... View Details

Keywords: by Lauren Barley

Web

For Alumni - Health Care

the Health Care Initiative There are a number of opportunities to engage in exciting health care activities at HBS. Volunteer to mentor a student Alumni working in health care are needed to mentor students... View Details

Article

How to Really Motivate Salespeople

By: Doug J. Chung

Much of what we believe about the best ways to compensate and motivate the sales force is based on theory and lab experiments. But in the past decade, researchers have been moving out of the lab and into the field, analyzing companies' sales and pay data, and... View Details

Keywords: Compensation; Motivating People; Motivation and Incentives; Compensation and Benefits; Sales

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May 2006
Case

A123Systems

By: H. Kent Bowen, Kenneth P Morse and Douglass Cannon

A 123Systems was a young company that was founded on basic materials science research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A co-founder of the company, Yet-Ming Chiang, was a full professor at MIT and served as scientific adviser. Intellectual property based... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Business Startups; Research and Development; Commercialization; Technological Innovation; Science-Based Business; Product Development; Battery Industry; Electronics Industry; Massachusetts

22 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

Why Salespeople Struggle at Leading

new ability to collect and store an incredible amount of data. And that has made sales management a more complex job, requiring a level of analytical and business acumen that wasn’t View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

06 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Motivate Your High Performers to Share Their Knowledge

Sometimes a little push like that is all employees need to get out of a rut. About the Author Michael Blanding is a writer based in Boston. [Image: Mark Kostich] Related Reading Ignore This Advice at Your... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

01 Mar 2024
News

Counter Intelligence

When Pano Christou (AMP 195, 2018) was hired at Pret A Manger in 2000, the idea that he would one day run the entire company could not have been further from his mind. At the chain’s Carnaby Street shop, in London’s Soho district, the 22-year-old had enough work just... View Details

Keywords: Amy Crawford

08 Jun 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Poverty, Social Divisions and Conflict in Nepal

Keywords: by Quy-Toan Do & Lakshmi Iyer

Mastering the VC Game

Entrepreneurs who dream of building the next Amazon, Facebook or Google have the opportunity to take advantage of one of the most powerful economic engines the world has ever known: venture capital. To do so, you need to woo, impress, and persuade venture... View Details

Web

Getting Started - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

offers advice for establishing a strong rapport with students. Transcript Qualities of Effective Teachers Tom Piper Professor Piper describes the most important qualities a teacher needs to be effective as a... View Details

January 2012 (Revised September 2015)
Case

Tough Decisions at Marks and Spencer

By: George Serafeim

In 2007, under the leadership of CEO Stuart Rose, the iconic British retailer Marks and Spencer, with great fanfare, announced its "Plan A" initiative. Based on the five essential pillars of climate change, waste, sustainable materials, fair partnership, and health,... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry

April 2004 (Revised November 2004)
Background Note

Why Complex Systems Fail

Operationally excellent organizations create competitive opportunities for themselves that are not available to their peers. One view of the manager's competitive dilemma is to pick the right position for his organization, differentiating it, for example, as a... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Complexity

2020
Working Paper

Nonprofit Boards: It Is time to Lift Your Gaze and See the System

By: Shamal Dass, Kristy Muir and V. Kasturi Rangan

Nonprofits the world over have faced significant crises in 2020, leaving them and their constituents in precarious positions. Responses to these crises have demonstrated incredible agility. However, they have also demonstrated that the first two levels of governance... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Governing and Advisory Boards; Health Pandemics; Governance; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; System; Framework

SSRN

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November 2011
Article

Social Strategies That Work

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

Although most companies have collected lots of friends and followers on social platforms such as Facebook, few have succeeded in generating profits there. That's because they merely port their digital strategies into social environments by broadcasting their commercial... View Details

Keywords: Social Platforms; Social Strategies; Social and Collaborative Networks; Customers; Relationships; Business Strategy; Profit

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02 Mar 2016
News

David Moss is Rewriting History

there a constitutional basis for the legal doctrine of separation of church and state?—in an effort to craft a list of the people, places, and events students View Details

Keywords: April White

December 2021
Case

Danish Crown: Feeding the Future

By: David E. Bell, Damien P. McLoughlin, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej

Danish Crown, one of the world’s largest exporters of pork meat and one of Europe’s top five producers of beef, faced increasing headwinds in 2021, making CEO Jais Valeur feel like the core of the meat business was under attack. As a cooperative and prominent player in... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Food; Environmental Management; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Nutrition; Cooperative Ownership; Change Management; Transition; Leadership; Leading Change; Marketing; Product Marketing; Corporate Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Europe; Denmark