Best Practices - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

The Big Influence of Small Countries in the United Nations Secretariat

operations—including the UN's response to the Ebola outbreak. There is keen competition and string pulling among nations to win those upper level staff appointments. While those members, in theory, are supposed to check their national allegiances at the door, in View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

15 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

This Workplace Certification Made Already Safe Companies Even Safer

according to the working paper Do Management System Standards Indicate Superior Performance? Evidence from the OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Standard. To earn the voluntary certification, workplaces need to demonstrate that their processes adhere to the... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

06 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

The Innovator’s Battle Plan

naturally choose to bring all innovations—sustaining and disruptive—to their core markets where their best customers reside.9 For example, had Western Union purchased Bell's patents, we would predict that it would not have commercialized... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony & Erik A. Roth

13 Mar 2005
Research & Ideas

The Tricky Business of Nonprofit Brands

Harvard Business School; Laidler-Kylander (HBS MBA '92) is a PhD candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Manda Salls: Any organization—profit or nonprofit— faces challenges when it goes global. What are some of the unique challenges... View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

19 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Isn't Business Research More Relevant to Business Practitioners?

the Practical Relevance of Research, forthcoming in Production and Operations Management. “This is my soapbox message to academics: be more relevant,” says Toffel, the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management and faculty... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education

10 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Retailing Revolution: Category Killers on the Brink

"Category killers," those highly focused retailers that specialize in a category of goods including Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, and Staples, were once the bane of mass-market retailers' existence. Their wide assortment, aggressive... View Details

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Jose B. Alvarez; Retail

02 Mar 2021
HBS Case

The Tulsa Massacre: Is Racial Justice Possible 100 Years Later?

residents whose ancestors didn’t even live in the state at the time of the offense. “They say potentially paying for it will only exacerbate the racial tensions we live with every day, and the best thing we can do is look forward and not... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

30 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Are You Supporting Your B Players?

managers, but an "inclusion" issue. People start to feel that they're no longer "in the club." Herb Kelleher, chairman of Southwest, decided to create a club of 114,000 employees, said DeLong. They don't espouse one theory and embrace its opposite.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

30 Nov 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do Leaders Manage the Tension Between Pride and Arrogance?

recommended) being attentive to the changes in the external environment communicating with middle managers and leading by example, motivating employees to speak, listening to customers.” Several asked whether the phenomenon in question is View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

19 Aug 2021
Op-Ed

Don't Ignore Your Employees' Misery—TAKE Control

popular sentiment could prove disastrous for employers trying to retain professional and highly skilled talent. And while speed is required, leaders also need a long-term view. They need to envision the practices that will be common View Details

Keywords: by Hise O. Gibson and MaShon Wilson

06 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 6

now a dynamic and growing business that attracts the best and the brightest. It is tempting to declare the industry a roaring success. But its purpose is to serve the needs of U.S. households and firms, and by this standard its... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Feb 2010
HBS Case

Looking Behind Google’s Stand in China

downside consequences are more certain. Google has some 700 employees in China, the best of whom are already finding alternative employment. So de facto, Google is going to be a much smaller entity in China. It seems unlikely to me that... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

01 Mar 2021
What Do You Think?

What Does Remote Work Mean for Middle Managers?

consciously working with your superior to obtain the best possible results for you, your boss, and the company.” However, it didn’t trigger the amount of follow-on research that the subject deserved after early interest in the topic died... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

02 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

A Rare Find in Health Care: A Simple Solution to Racial Inequity

higher concentrations of Black patients, such as the South. However, over time, those geographical variances faded as more hospitals, especially those in cities with large Black communities, embraced best View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

26 Nov 2001
Op-Ed

Why Corporate Budgeting Needs To Be Fixed

truth. It turns business decisions into elaborate exercises in gaming. It sets colleague against colleague, creating distrust and ill will. And it distorts incentives, motivating people to act in ways that run counter to the best... View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

03 Jul 2008
What Do You Think?

Are Followers About to Get Their Due?

in large organizations. Participants work hard either in support of or against the policies and practices of their leaders. As Kellerman puts it, "they care enough to try to have an impact." Clearly it's in the View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

13 Apr 2021
Book

How Inclusive Managers Create Glass-Shattering Organizations

call,” says Ammerman, “that's perceived very differently than when your male colleague’s child runs in during his Zoom call. I think it just produces an enormous amount of stress.” Steps toward gender equality In Glass Half-Broken, Ammerman and Groysberg recommend a... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

15 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Remembering Alfred Chandler

linkages he saw and analyzed. “Al Chandler had one of the best darn smiles this side of the Continental Divide." —Nancy F. Koehn Second, he wrote about the past but this work was always anchored by his own eye on the present. Al... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

05 Nov 2021
Op-Ed

Is the Business World Finally Ready for the Wisdom of Shibusawa?

over long-term goals. When we asked about how he went on to manage the different stakeholders of Mizuho later as the CEO, he asserted that in Shibusawa’s spirit he considered what was best for the society in the long run. “Rather than... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones and Rei Morimoto; Financial Services; Retail

30 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 30

chlorine tablets to purify their drinking water? Behavioral economics has shown us that we don't always act in our own best interests. This is as true of health decisions as it is of economic ones. An array of biases, limits on cognition,... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

Publications