Systems Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

28 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Coronavirus Could Create a 'Bankruptcy Pandemic'

to “flatten the curve” and reduce the number of bankruptcy filings, at least by enough to allow the existing system to function effectively. Massive financial support available to distressed businesses under the CARES Act and various... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

13 Apr 2021
Book

How Inclusive Managers Create Glass-Shattering Organizations

companies, and the gender pay gap persists. While young women are aware of these systemic problems, the more nuanced forms of sexism that persist today often take them by surprise, say Ammerman and co-author Boris Groysberg, the Richard... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

06 Sep 2019
Blog Post

The Business of Medicine: MD/MBA Students Having an Impact

from Harvard Medicine's website. Troy Ameen Troy Ameen has set his sights on becoming a surgical administrator, a profession he thinks will well prepare him to one day run an urban hospital. In such a position, this rising fourth-year... View Details

Blog

What Black Executives Really Want

first, he kept his mouth shut, but they kept asking him questions and he eventually shared what he thought. A week later in his performance review his boss told him, "Peers think you are very aggressive on racial issues." This experience... View Details

03 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Is the Future of MBA Education?

analytical knowledge to more of what we call "doing" (skills) and "being" (a sense of purpose and identity) must occur. Business schools need to think innovatively about how best to use the resources available to them. For example, there... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

Web

2024 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

Weinstein, and the Sackler family. But we rarely think about the many people who supported their unethical or criminal behavior—business partners, employees, investors, news organizations, and others. And whether we’re aware of it or not,... View Details

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

systems of adherence. Case 1: Learn and deploy new information Geographic diversification is often seen by managers as a useful way to tap into new sources of growth. In case of a pandemic, a specific form of geographic... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa

01 Feb 2002
News

It's academic. (Not!)

If your idea of a Ph.D. in business conjures up visions of spectacled scholars toiling in solitude in the library's darkest, dustiest corners, think again. At HBS, students in the School's Doctoral Programs are doing much more than... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Sep 2004
News

Steve Barger (MBA 1974)

what I’m doing today, but the culture at Northwest Cascade really suits me. We are a company that is focused on human waste. Among other things, we install septic systems and sewer lines, lease portable toilets, and manufacture and clean... View Details

Keywords: Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems

01 Dec 2022
News

Case Study: Your Call Is Important to Us

fate we have to accept, Sambvani explains. Better voice technology and AI-based tools already exist, and some large organizations are deploying them in modern, innovative systems that don’t routinely confound their customers. “But most... View Details

Keywords: Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services

01 Oct 2001
News

New Economy Notables: Scott D. Cook

could choose what type of company we would work for. He encouraged us to pick a company whose values we'd be proud of. Where the new economy is going I don't think there is a new economy — it's the same economy, the same consumers, the... View Details

Keywords: Young, Susan; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services

2023
Working Paper

Cognitive Uncertainty in Intertemporal Choice

By: Benjamin Enke and Thomas Graeber

This paper studies the relevance of cognitive uncertainty – subjective uncertainty over one's utility-maximizing action – for understanding and predicting intertemporal choice. The main idea is that when people are cognitively noisy, such as when a decision is complex,... View Details

Keywords: Cognitive Uncertainty; Intertemporal Choice; Cognition and Thinking; Complexity; Decision Choices and Conditions

Citation

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01 Jun 2003
News

Up Against The Firewall

else’s problem — until now. A phone call from the IT department reports that your company’s computer systems have been accessed by an intruder. Troves of business and financial data, your customers’ as well as your own, have been... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Robert Austin; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services

29 Apr 2022
News

Clean Slate

and the corporate sector in is not easy today because there’s far more sexy stuff to work on out there. I think we have to just persist because it is such a critical area for the country, for just healthy living, clean living, and... View Details

Keywords: Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems

04 May 2007
What Do You Think?

How Do Managers Think?

Summing Up Can managers acquire ways of thinking or ways of learning from doctors? Managers can learn from an understanding of how doctors think. But whether the lessons are profound or even totally applicable was a matter of discussion... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

11 Oct 2022
Research & Ideas

Shrinking the Racial Wealth Gap, One Mortgage at a Time

is required,” Sunderam says. That type of “soft” information can make a difference for loans that require human discretion—applications that the automated system sends back for further analysis by a loan officer. Minority loan officers... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

15 Nov 2018
News

Don’t Be Afraid of AI

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on SoundCloud More Skydeck episodes Terminator 3 clip: Warner Bros. Pictures © 2003. Dan Morrell: I think one of the biggest mainstream crossovers that artificial intelligence has had on the modern era is the... View Details

Keywords: Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services

09 Feb 2017
News

Turning Disorder into Opportunity

cyber-security and analytics. “These employees have found errors, faults, and gaps in IT systems that have gone undetected for years,” Fieldhouse says. “This even happened in the first week after their on-boarding.” In a video produced... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers

01 Mar 2009
News

A New Approach to Health-Care Reform

the coming decades, but rather on targeting innovations that will make health care both more affordable and more effective in the future. “Disruptive innovation” is a term you’ve used in your analyses of other industries, but what does it mean in the context of the... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; Health, Social Assistance

01 Sep 2011
News

Water for Life

for reliable, affordable water service. Nearly two of every three gallons of water pumped through the dilapidated distribution system were lost or stolen. Desperate for a remedy, the Philippine government invited the private sector to... View Details

Keywords: Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems

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