Difficult Conversations - Publications - Faculty & Research

July 2020
Supplement

Instabeat—Crossing the Finish Line

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar

Lebanese entrepreneur Hind Hobeika was just 21 years old when she launched her startup, Instabeat, which had developed the first real-time bio-feedback device for swimmers to monitor and improve their performance. It had been an extremely testing 10-year journey to... View Details

Keywords: Start-up; Wearables; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Strategy; Operations; Management; United States; Lebanon

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May–June 2025
Article

Algorithmic Assortment Curation: An Empirical Study of Buybox in Online Marketplaces

By: Santiago Gallino, Nil Karacaoglu and Antonio Moreno

Most online sales worldwide take place in marketplaces that connect sellers and buyers. The presence of numerous third-party sellers leads to a proliferation of listings for each product, making it difficult for customers to choose between the available options. Online... View Details

Keywords: Algorithms; Marketplaces; Marketplace Matching; E-commerce; Demand and Consumers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Market Participation; Technology Adoption

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23 May 2017
First Look

First Look at New Ideas and Research: May 23, 2017

difficult to understand and implement. We introduce the 4 Minds framework as a practical tool for understanding and applying the science of decision-making in the marketplace. We synthesize previous research on decision-making into four... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

28 Aug 2006
Research & Ideas

Online Match-Making with Virtual Dates

variation of online shopping. Rather than just study the problem, they also came up with a possible solution: Virtual Dates. The researchers began their work by talking to online-dating-site users about their experiences, supplementing these View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Publishing

06 Oct 2023
Book

Yes, You Can Radically Change Your Organization in One Week

solve difficult problems. Denouncing Mark Zuckerberg’s informal Facebook motto, “move fast and break things,” partners Frei and Morriss combine their decades of consulting experience—Frei as the UPS Foundation Professor of Service... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz

14 Dec 2021
Op-Ed

To Change Your Company's Culture, Don't Start by Trying to Change the Culture

something you fix Consider Vince Forlenza’s experience, as former CEO of medical technology maker Becton Dickinson, in developing a more innovative culture to meet the changing competitive landscape. He recently told me, “The barrier that was most View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

24 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

Passion at Work Is a Good Thing—But Only If Bosses Know How to Manage It

the workplace. "We argue that it can be difficult for employers to recognize that their understanding of passion can at times create challenges for employees,” says Jachimowicz, suggesting that this may require a rethinking of the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

03 Oct 2023
Research Event

Build the Life You Want: Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey Share Happiness Tips

coauthor of the new book Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, for an intimate, powerful conversation that touches on: the mistake people make in thinking that money, power, and fame will bring them happiness;... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Staff

17 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

the way to work, gyms, housecleaners—are shuttered or more difficult to access. Masks must be found and worn and cleaned. Simple conversations require managing new technologies and protocols. Even walking... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

16 May 2023
HBS Case

How KKR Got More by Giving Ownership to the Factory Floor: ‘My Kids Are Going to College!’

One thing that stuck with Pete Stavros from the dinner-table conversations of his youth was that capitalism seemed fundamentally broken for his father, who earned an hourly wage working construction. The incentive was not there for... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

29 Jul 2002
Research & Ideas

Time Pressure and Creativity: Why Time is Not on Your Side

employees, and how difficult was that process to manage? A: We wanted to do what few researchers have ever attempted: "trap creativity in the wild" in organizations, by observing it as it was happening within teams who are... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Education; Fine Arts

31 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

Where Can Digital Transformation Take You? Insights from 1,700 Leaders

but also themselves. Everything is changing and technology is a key driver When we asked executives to join our roundtable conversations about “digital leadership,” they warned us that the term was too narrow: “leadership in the digital... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards

30 Sep 2019
Book

6 Steps to Building a Better Workplace for Black Employees

hiring Companies should train managers to root out racial bias from their hiring and recruitment processes. They should also invest in retaining black professionals, in part by reinforcing the message that race will not be a barrier to advancement. "Some of the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

04 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 4

the cloud-storage industry, including an overview of the largest players and their pricing/service models. Further, various freemium-based companies across industries are compared, including user conversion rates and revenue profiles.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthlorne

17 Feb 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

How Entrepreneurs Can Find the Right Problem to Solve

“Our conversion rate from click to sign-up was 50 percent.” “We interviewed a bunch of people and they said they’d use our product if we built it.” These quotes suggest the entrepreneurs may have found an audience interested enough to... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

16 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Advancing Black Talent: From the Flight Ramp to 'Family-Sustaining' Careers at Delta

“birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.” “And only 2 percent of the poorest residents ever managed to get out of poverty,” Hill recalled discussing in her conversations with Delta employees when researching and writing the cases. At the... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Air Transportation

10 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

How to Live Happier in 2023: Diversify Your Social Circle

more difficult to maintain and people might have lost touch with people in their lives. “An important part of the ‘new normal’ might be to seek out and foster connections with different people in your life,” says Collins. “Chat with your... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

09 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Could Clean Hydrogen Become Affordable at Scale by 2030?

Hydrogen is poised to move from the sidelines of global clean energy as the industry learns to produce it more efficiently and at lower cost, according to newly published research led by Gunther Glenk, a climate fellow with Harvard Business School's Institute for the... View Details

Keywords: by Desmond Dodd; Energy; Green Technology

10 May 2021
Research & Ideas

Who Has Potential? For Many White Men, It’s Often Other White Men

assignments that help them learn new skills. With more opportunities to shine, they rise through the ranks faster, preserving the status quo. "Those deemed stars are given the benefit of the doubt, even when they make mistakes." Assessment-oriented cultures are View Details