Publications

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Research Summary

Lead-by-Help with Professor Jeff Polzer

This study examines if and under which conditions "lead-by-help," defined here as the extent to which leaders anticipatorily act to assist subordinates in completing their work, may not be viewed as favorable as would rationally be expected. In both... View Details

February 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Taffi: Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

By: Paul A. Gompers and Fares Khrais

Taffi was a tech-enabled fashion styling startup founded by Shahad Geoffrey in Saudi Arabia in 2020. Within three years of operating, Geoffrey had pivoted the business multiple times. In 2023, Geoffrey was attempting the business’s most ambitious pivot yet, shifting... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Fashion Industry; Technology Industry; Saudi Arabia; Arabian Peninsula

15 Jul 2012
News

Productivity Trick: Hide!

Operational Transparency

Conventional wisdom holds that the more contact an operation has with its customers, the less efficiently it will run. But when customers are partitioned away from the operation, they are less likely to fully understand and appreciate the work going on behind the... View Details

August 2001 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Surface Logix

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Michael J. Roberts and Kim Slack

Describes a start-up in the field of nano technology--very small physical structures measured in the billionths of a meter. The company, Surface Logix, has assembled a portfolio of intellectual property and completed some of the R&D work required to develop actual... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Research and Development; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Product Development; Intellectual Property; Investment Portfolio

04 Jun 2013
News

Corporate sustainability is not sustainable

20 Aug 2012
News

Compensation Practices & Incentives

14 Oct 2019
News

FDA is smashing the status quo for regulatory science

15 Aug 2023
HBS Case

(Virtual) Reality Check: How Long Before We Live in the 'Metaverse'?

Slack Holds Its Own Against Microsoft Teams Feedback or ideas to share? Email the Working Knowledge team at hbswk@hbs.edu. Image designed with the assistance of Microsoft Bing Image Creator. View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald; Technology; Computer; Information Technology

February 1997 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Jim Sharpe: Extrusion Technology, Inc. (B)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Barbara Feinberg

Jim Sharpe, 11 years after receiving his MBA from Harvard and working for others, has finally become his own boss and 100% owner of manufacturer of aluminum extrusions. After 10 months of an unfunded search, he acquires the business in an LBO and prepares to face his... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Business Ventures; Business or Company Management; Competency and Skills; Management Teams; Risk and Uncertainty; Manufacturing Industry; United States

23 Aug 2010
News

"This is our moment in the Sun ... and I am waiting for a revolution in education"

December 2002 (Revised February 2015)
Case

Jim Sharpe: Extrusion Technology, Inc. (Abridged)

By: H. Kent Bowen and Barbara Feinberg

Jim Sharpe, 10 years after receiving his MBA from Harvard and working for others, has finally become his own boss and 100% owner of manufacturer of aluminum extrusions. After 10 months of an unfunded search, he acquires the business in an LBO and prepares to face his... View Details