Practical Wisdom - Publications - Faculty & Research

12 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Using the Law to Strategic Advantage

Moreover, moral and ethical considerations may decisively influence how the law is applied. As a result, purely technical legal advice is often inadequate. CEOs should be looking for lawyers with wisdom and the courage to push back if... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Legal Services

25 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

The Dark Side of Fintech Borrowing

Cream-Skimming?, was written by Marco Di Maggio, the Ogunlesi Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and Vincent Yao, an associate professor from Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson’s School of Business.The findings... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services; Banking

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

conventional wisdom isn’t enough to produce significant innovation; we must go further. Our thinking can too easily get confined by silos and structures that limit us to what is familiar, what we see every day, what the people around us... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

13 Oct 2015
First Look

October 13, 2015

Shiv, and Rebecca M.C. Spencer Abstract—Conventional wisdom and studies of unconscious processing suggest that sleeping on a choice may improve decision making. Though sleep has been shown to benefit several cognitive tasks, including... View Details

22 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Does Spirituality Drive Success?

financially fulfilling (for a while), but Schwartz found he was dissatisfied with his own success. He set out to discover the "primary values" in his life, which he said include humility, service, health, and authenticity. He's since written two books: What... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace, Sean Silverthorne & Wendy Guild

04 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 4

creativity. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for research in workplace diversity and creativity. The Microwork Solution: A New Approach to Outsourcing Can Support Economic Development—and Add to Your Bottom Line... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

04 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 4

firms to make certain enhancements public, creating an incentive for firms to free ride on the contributions of others. This practice raises a number of puzzling issues. First, why should a firm further develop a product if competitors... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

04 Aug 2011
What Do You Think?

How Dangerous Is Common Sense to Managers?

Tharian, for example, said "common sense is quite often related to wisdom (from accumulated experience vs. the knowledge that the younger generation acquires so rapidly through social networks)." Noting that Webster's Dictionary... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 1

structure the background against which business operates. The aim is to develop a plausible framework for managerial decision-making that respects the fact of value pluralism in a global economy and that fosters meaningful criticism of current business View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Aug 2020
What Do You Think?

Is the 'Experimentation Organization' Becoming the Competitive Gold Standard?

seed the concept more broadly.” But Ana Frony reminded us to “never forget that even trainees must have some intuition and poetry to develop a hypotheses and design an experiment.” Nick C raised the question of just how far the practice... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

15 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Remembering Alfred Chandler

kind—of someone who could achieve so much in his career and yet have the strength and wisdom to keep balance in his life, and pursue agendas far beyond explaining "Big Business." Al was a fine human being as well as a superb... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

22 Jul 2019
Book

How to Be a Digital Platform Leader

high bar for the quality of property photography on the Airbnb website. This practice soon became the new norm: Property renters would invest on their own in professional photography to differentiate themselves from other renters. In... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

27 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

Take Responsibility for Rising Stars

have typically fallen into HR's domain. The prevailing wisdom has been that if HR took care of those often intangible "soft" issues, line managers and executives would be free to focus on "hard" business issues and... View Details

Keywords: by Jeffrey M. Cohn, Rakesh Khurana & Laura Reeves

06 Jul 2009
What Do You Think?

Are You Ready to Manage in an Irrational World?

individual receives in relation to what he or she perceives and expects. Because this is highly subjective, the argument goes, generalizations (many of them currently taught in conventional courses) about how to manage are practically... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

27 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Employee-Suggestion Programs That Work

previous research suggests increases such programs' positive impact on culture. The process generated a tick list of approximately 20 items, which was evaluated by the senior and unit leadership together in a debriefing. Is It A Priority? The commonly accepted View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry

04 Apr 2005
What Do You Think?

Can an Organization’s “Deep Smarts” Be Preserved?

the phenomenon in large, publicly-listed business organizations. What are the causes? As Simon Griffiths puts it, "While we continue to focus on the short term, we will lose the benefits of working for the long term. Wisdom is only... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

03 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

The State of Customer Service Leadership

examine the most up-to-date best practices and explain how companies can put a smile on customers’ faces and keep them coming back for more. In a recent interview, they explained some of their findings. Aisner: Why is it so important to... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Retail

13 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

Hiding Products From Customers May Ultimately Boost Sales

on rapid rotations. New research considers the wisdom of frequent assortment rotation in cases in which a retailer has many new varieties of a product to sell—nine different silver necklaces, say, or 17 different toaster ovens. Is it... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Fashion

29 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Managing Innovation is Like Theater

If you don't know where you're going, any map will do.1 This conventional wisdom sounds right to many managers. It highlights the safety of having a clear objective for your management actions. It implies that all management actions are... View Details

Keywords: by Rob Austin & Lee Devin

08 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 8

to compete. Strategists have developed some well-known rules for navigating business environments with network effects. "Move first" is one, and "get big fast" is another. In a study of dozens of companies, however, the authors found that quite... View Details