Focusing On Customers - Publications - Faculty & Research

20 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Gender-Diverse Companies Thrive Only Where Diversity is Embraced

approach you took here and what you hoped to achieve by casting a wider net? Letian Zhang: I decided to explore the relationship between diversity and performance using a cross-national and cross-industrial approach. Existing work on... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

04 Mar 2014
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Managing Innovation

"innovation is everyone's job." Dozens of faculty at Harvard Business School are focused on the subject of managing innovation. Some look at it by examining processes while others view through the lens of... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

16 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

What Football Firings Teach Managers About Staying Relevant

The team was initially very focused on defense and a running-dominated offensive scheme, which they used to win Super Bowls in 2002, 2004, and 2005. Partially in response to New England’s dominant defense,... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht, and Abhijit Naik; Sports

12 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

John Irving’s Lessons for Business

Creativity" is scheduled to appear in the April 2001 issue. Asked by HBS Working Knowledge about her motivation for focusing on John Irving, Amabile replied, "I wanted to counteract a strong... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark & Martha Lagace

30 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Where Could More Regulation Help Small Businesses? Online Lending.

more coordinated regulatory approach to oversight of financial services. Industry should be included and at the table to ensure that they have a consistent mechanism to provide feedback and advice on how any new regulation will hurt or... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills and Brayden McCarthy; Financial Services

03 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why Fierce Competitors Apple and Amazon Became ’Frenemies’ Over eReaders

terms, both companies would like nothing better than to have customers to themselves, wrapped up in their own seamless media universes: iTunes, iPad, and Apple TV on the one... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Information; Publishing; Technology

07 Oct 2024
Research & Ideas

Election 2024: Why Demographics Won't Predict the Next President

These candidates are trying to adjust to what the voters care about.” You Might Also Like: Election 2024: What's at Stake for Business and the Workplace? Do Social Movements Sway Voters? Not Really, Except for One Is It Even Possible to... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

04 Oct 2024
In Practice

Research-Based Advice for the Seasonally Overwhelmed and Schedule Challenged

devices configured to interrupt us make focused work a near impossibility for many. That inflicts a huge time penalty on workers, since start-stop-restart cycles are inefficient. Urgent and important things... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

18 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas, April 18

unit. Because De Beers had historically focused on producing rough diamonds (the "upstream" business), yet the new business unit offered an opportunity to enter and enhance the market for polished diamonds... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

23 Apr 2008
Op-Ed

The Gap in the U.S. Treasury Recommendations

regulatory structure proposed by the Treasury would consist of three key parts. In addition to its role as the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve would act as a market stability regulator, focusing View Details

Keywords: by Dwight Crane; Banking; Construction; Real Estate; Financial Services

28 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: The Good Struggle: Responsible Leadership in an Unforgiving World

markets—a far cry from the buffer zones and spheres of influence surrounding the large twentieth-century hierarchical organizations. They typically didn't know whether their product would work, what it would really cost to make and sell it View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Badaracco

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Bright Ideas: The Creative Power of Groups

have to select as heterogeneous a group as possible, representing different experiences, thinking styles, cultures, and attitudes. Sometimes, groups get a boost from the addition of customers or professionals from outside the company who... View Details

Keywords: by Laurie Joan Aron

25 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Walking Away from a $3 Billion Deal

student in the 1980s, I'm sure the whole class would have said to absolutely take the $4 billion." Yet in a visit to the classroom, Yudkoff emphasized his opposing belief that the best way to prosper over the long haul is to do what is best for investors by View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services

28 Jul 2016
Op-Ed

Where is TripAdvisor for Doctors?

Funding. TripAdvisor recently compromised perceived objectivity by accepting hotel bookings on which it earns commissions. Previously, TripAdvisor revenues depended on travel-related advertising View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch; Health

03 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

The Competitive Advantage of Global Finance

of these firms face various issues—including management of exchange rate risk, how to structure their internal capital markets, how to do capital budgeting worldwide, and how to respond to varying regulatory and tax incentives. The book takes a firm-centric approach,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

20 May 2013
Research & Ideas

The Long-Term Fix to US Competitiveness

Development, acknowledged that government is used to making rules, not partnerships, and that state officials must now learn to "be more collaborators and not order givers." Gerald Chertavian, founder and CEO of Year Up, focused... View Details

Keywords: by Stephanie Schorow & Harvard Gazette

13 May 2002
Op-Ed

A Cure for Enron-Style Audit Failures

general, existing law is adequate. The main problem lies in the failure by boards to follow procedures that would hold managements accountable for company performance. This could be improved by focusing on... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Lorsch; Accounting

05 Dec 2012
What Do You Think?

Should Managers Bother Listening to Predictions?

Summing Up Can Managers Afford to Ignore Predictions in Planning? There is a healthy skepticism when it comes to the reliability of predictions as a basis for planning. Donald Kortalon, commenting on this month's column, cites a number of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

05 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

Are Consumers the Cure for Broken Health Insurance?

patient-protection legislation promising to set off a round of expensive lawsuits, and costly genomic technologies on the horizon, the price of insurance is almost certain to continue its upward spiral in the years ahead. And what do... View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger

11 Jan 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

New Game, New Rules: Developing Managers for a Competitive World

are the first to learn of changing customer needs, first to see competitors' marketing strategies in action, and first to encounter new regulatory initiatives. Top management increasingly relies on the... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

Publications