Systems Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Porter’s Perspective: Competing in the Global Economy

articles. Much of Porter's thinking originally appeared in the pages of the Harvard Business Review. Eleven of those seminal articles are collected in On Competition, a book published by the Harvard Business School Press. In addition,... View Details

Keywords: Re: Michael E. Porter

01 Jun 2013
News

Building a Better Brazil

supporting research within the School's Business and Environment Initiative, which was formed in 2010 to deepen the collective understanding of the environmental challenges confronting business leaders. "This gift will help HBS continue to advance research into the... View Details

Keywords: Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance; Paper Manufacturing; Manufacturing

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

10 Jul 2007
What Do You Think?

How Much of Leadership Is About Control, Delegation, or Theater?

theater and control is required to make people feel comfortable when fundamental operating systems change ." Narendar Singh Raj Purohit adds that " when things are getting out of control someone has to take initiative to give a... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

September 2013 (Revised August 2015)
Background Note

Leadership and Teaming

By: Ethan Bernstein

Small differences in the leadership of teams can have large consequences for the success of their efforts. Many initiatives fail not because of a fatal error in judgment or insufficient ideas, knowledge, motivation, or capabilities to deliver a solution. They fail... View Details

Keywords: Teams; Teaming; Leadership And Managing People; Leadership; Team Effectiveness; Team Performance; Team Design; Team Leadership; Teamwork; Team Process; Team Function; Team Launch; 60/30/10 Rule; Team Boundary; Distribution Of Leadership Authority; Self-Managed Teams; Virtual Teams; Unbounded Teams; Acts Of Leadership; Execution Teams; Decision Making Teams; Creativity Teams; Team Size; Task Design; Team Timeline; Team Roles; Team Representation; Diversity; Team Familiarity; Collective Intelligence; Team Stages Of Development; Team Coaching; Performance Pressure; X-Teams; Team Focus; Interaction; Management Teams; Managerial Roles; Management Systems; Management Style; Management Skills; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Efficiency; Performance Productivity; Groups and Teams; Networks; Social Psychology; Behavior; Conflict and Resolution; Creativity; Social and Collaborative Networks; Satisfaction; Prejudice and Bias; Power and Influence; Personal Characteristics; Familiarity; Cognition and Thinking; Attitudes; Projects; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Knowledge Sharing; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Design; Interpersonal Communication; Accommodations Industry; Accounting Industry; Advertising Industry; Aerospace Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Air Transportation Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Auto Industry; Banking Industry; Battery Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Bicycle Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Communications Industry; Computer Industry; Construction Industry; Consulting Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Distribution Industry; Education Industry; Electronics Industry; Employment Industry; Energy Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Fashion Industry; Financial Services Industry; Fine Arts Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Forest Products Industry; Forestry Industry; Green Technology Industry; Health Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Information Industry; Information Technology Industry; Insurance Industry; Journalism and News Industry; Legal Services Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Mining Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Motorcycle Industry; Music Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Public Administration Industry; Public Relations Industry; Publishing Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Rail Industry; Real Estate Industry; Retail Industry; Rubber Industry; Semiconductor Industry; Service Industry; Shipping Industry; Sports Industry; Steel Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Tourism Industry; Transportation Industry; Travel Industry; Utilities Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; Asia; North and Central America; South America; Atlantic Ocean; Central Asia; Europe; Latin America; Middle East; Oceania; West Indies

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01 Mar 2024
News

The Internet's Next Frontier

While the Crypto, Fintech, and Web3 Lab—one of 13 labs contained within Harvard’s Digital Data Design Institute—might not have the Bunsen burners and test tubes found in science and engineering labs, it does share a philosophical construct: it is a sandbox—an... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

08 Sep 2020
Blog Post

2+2 Where Are They Now Spotlight: Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes (MBA 2017)

management, but also systems and financial management. I have also spent literally years of my life on a drilling rig, so that develops some fun stories for your section mates. What impact has HBS had on your career? The HBS impact on my... View Details

27 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing

individuals in the business, their individual motivation, and their ability to work together harmoniously. Nowhere is the need to work together more important than in the twin customer-facing functions of marketing and sales. Sales and marketing look similar at a... View Details

Keywords: by Benson Shapiro

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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 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

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

Publications