Bottom Up Attention - Publications - Faculty & Research

27 May 2009
First Look

First Look: May 27, 2009

significant challenges. The case pays particular attention to the four men's evolving identities as musical artists and to the tradeoffs that have accompanied their fame and larger social commitments. The case takes View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 28

issues of econometric and scientific uncertainty. As a result, the basis for the broader legitimacy of the WTO is shifting from questions of representation that have long drawn attention to epistemic issues, especially concerning the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

The Paradoxical Quest to Make Food Look 'Natural' With Artificial Dyes

A few years ago, a food blog reported that Starbucks’ popular Strawberry and Crème Frappuccino got its pink color not from strawberries, but from a dye made of crushed-up cochineal insects. Vegan consumers cried foul, and mainstream media outlets picked View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

07 Dec 2016
HBS Case

Why Millennials Flock to Fintech for Personal Investing

Millennials are disruptive bunch. The first generation to grow up with the internet, consumers born after 1980 are used to relying on technology and engineering to do almost everything—including shopping (Amazon), listening to music... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

07 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

What Leaders Need to Do To Restore Investor Confidence

insufficient institutional checks and balances. At Enron at the end of 1999, the options that were vested were worth $2.4 billion. That is too much temptation to put in front of people—temptation to sell out secretly, "cooking the books" as necessary to hold... View Details

Keywords: by Harvard Management Update

11 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Calling All Managers: How to Build a Better Call Center

Almost everyone has dialed a simple phone number—be it to order a pair of socks or reserve a flight to New York—only to end up navigating a seemingly endless labyrinth of options, all because a mechanical voice continually invites them to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Service; Financial Services

23 Jul 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Innovation Is Magic. Really

create such a spellbinding experience: a world-class magician. Thomke, the William Barclay Harding Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, has paired up with magician Jason Randal to teach innovation to business... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Consumer Products

15 Sep 2003
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Cases: Developing the Courage to Act

decisions, often in the face of considerable uncertainty. In keeping with the then-prevailing philosophy of pragmatism, cases should describe real problems and students should be able to practice sizing up situations and deciding on... View Details

Keywords: by David A. Garvin

16 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Surveying the VC Landscape

and the Impact on Innovation, you explore the implications of the recent collapse in venture activity on innovation. Given recent cuts in corporate support for R&D, do you feel this is cause for concern to the innovation process? Or do you feel private equity... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

11 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Building a Better Board

catch-up-with-the-buddies lunch, meetings now span a day and a half and they happen up to six times a year. While reviewing relevant materials used to mean flipping through the annual report on the plane ride to the annual meeting, it now... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

25 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

An Organization Your Customers Understand

Imagine an organization made up of a variety of three-dimensional shapes. Rectangular blocks represent the functions: manufacturing, R&D, and sales and marketing. The spheres are regional offices. Pyramids represent product groups—one... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

24 Oct 2017
Research & Ideas

Tax Reform is on the Front Burner Again. Here’s Why You Should Care

held up because of its interpretation as a tax. If you think about the environment, you think about provisions that are associated with oil and gas, drilling, natural resource extraction. If you think about the M&A market, it's... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

03 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Making Money Making Movies

ensuring a movie's success overseas is to ensure its success in the U.S. Even though foreign box office revenues are now often higher than domestic revenues, a movie's performance in the U.S. remains a key driver of what happens overseas. It determines how much View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls; Entertainment & Recreation; Motion Pictures & Video

17 Apr 2013
Research Event

Conference Challenges Gender Conventions

A recent conference at Harvard Business School addressed the on-the-ground reality of women leaders 50 years after the first women were admitted to the School's two-year MBA Program. And the reality is that women leaders are stuck—for example, women make View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

01 Oct 2001
What Do You Think?

Will Information Technology Really Turn Organizations Upside Down This Time?

Summing Up Do not read too much into a possible relationship between the development of information technology and the incidence of "upside-down" management. That's the overwhelming message from responses to the column raising... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

12 Jan 2016
First Look

January 12, 2016

correlation between exposures. We find that more than 120,000 deaths per year and approximately 5%–8% of annual healthcare costs are associated with and may be attributable to how U.S. companies manage their work forces. Our results suggest that more View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

14 Jun 2011
First Look

First Look: June 14

Publication:,em>Harvard Business Review 89, no. 6 (June 2011) Abstract The bottom of the economic pyramid is a risky place for business, but decent profits can be made there if companies link their financial success with their... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Whatever Happened to Caveat Emptor?

Many of us learned at an early age the expression caveat emptor, or let the buyer beware. The phrase conjured up an image of a roiling, rollicking market that consumers best entered equipped for battle and prepared for disappointment—or... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

10 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution

Depot has studied deeply how to best deploy their assets in order to satisfy the customer in a way that allows for an excellent return on invested capital. They have also paid very close attention to what is likely their most profitable... View Details