Design Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

18 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Beyond Heroic Entrepreneurs

traditional nonprofits, what's most important is the social purpose, but hybrids also have economic objectives to generate enough revenue to sustain their operations." Echoing Green Battilana and Lee, who were designing the database... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

28 Jul 2014
Research & Ideas

Eyes Shut: The Consequences of Not Noticing

$1 per can. According to this testimony, Walmart rejected Blitz's design on the basis of the price increase, and Blitz halted its redesign project because it would be difficult to launch a national product that Walmart refused to... View Details

Keywords: by Max H. Bazerman; Retail

29 May 2013
Research & Ideas

Faculty Symposium Showcases Breadth of Research

hosting contests to find solutions to problems ranging from automotive design to cleaning up oil spills. Karim R. Lakhani has spent the past five years working with NASA, Harvard Medical School, and TopCoder to determine the most... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

23 May 2000
Research & Ideas

Minding the Muse: The Impact of Downsizing on Corporate Creativity

Colgate University designed a study to compare the work environments surrounding two distinct sets of projects, one producing a much higher level of creativity than the other. Implementation of the initial research (which was funded by... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

28 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 28, 2009

Encourages readers to think about the impediments to energy efficiency in the buildings sector and the ways in which entrepreneurs can profitably surmount the obstacles. Purchase this case:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

27 Sep 2010
Research & Ideas

Customer Experts Lose Influence When Teams are Pressured

pressure—people switch what knowledge they listen to and what they are willing to think about. The subtle process of general expertise crowding out customer-specific expertise was part of what had escaped me when I'd been in the... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

23 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Strategy for Small Fish

Welcome to the age of business interdependence, say HBS professor Marco Iansiti and collaborator Roy Levien, authors of the new HBSP book The Keystone Advantage: What the New Dynamics of Business Ecosystems Mean for Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability. View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

12 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

What Great American Leaders Teach Us

Leadership Initiative was organized to be a catalyst for research on leaders and leadership, and to design effective leadership development programs that are relevant for the 21st century. The goal of the Initiative is to support Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

27 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Manly Men, Oil Platforms, and Breaking Stereotypes

dangerous, and male-dominated—because these settings have undergone radical operational and cultural changes designed to increase safety and effectiveness. In the particular company we studied, these changes resulted in a decline in the... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

10 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Why We Blab Our Intimate Secrets on Facebook

to fill out a "Web survey about student behaviors," which comprised 15 yes/no questions. Unbeknownst to them, the participants were randomly assigned to one of three user-interface conditions. In some cases, they took an online survey titled "How BAD Are U???"... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

12 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

Competition the Cure for Healthcare

past. Health plans think of themselves as insurance companies because that is what they started out doing. Providers are organized around the old functional structure of specialties, rather than integrated care organizations. It is a lot... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Health

07 Feb 2005
Research & Ideas

How “Career Imprinting” Shapes Leaders

analyze their own companies and how they create next-generation executives. And execs early in their work lives should use this information to think long and hard about the first companies they join. Says Higgins: "Understanding the... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

08 Nov 2024
HBS Case

What Wartime Service Taught These Historic Leaders

think in successful businesses there is both a sense of strategy and how you allocate resources to get the maximum impact.” His humility allowed Eisenhower to play a long game—working under other officers and learning how to bring out the... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Entertainment & Recreation

24 Jun 2015
HBS Case

Upgrading School with a Startup Mentality

in the past year. The designation is an important one for AltSchool, since it credentials their pursuit of both a social mission and real profits. That dual mission, in turn, accounts in large part for how the company was able to raise... View Details

Keywords: Re: John Jong-Hyun Kim; Education

15 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 15

but related through their connection with an underlying, evolving technical system. In the future, I believe the key problem for organization design will be the management of distributed innovation in such dynamic systems. Organization... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

03 Apr 2006
What Do You Think?

Has Globalization Reached Its Peak?

"If we look at all the regional trade barriers, subvention politics, protective measures, and legal and fiscal barriers that exist worldwide, I think one can assume that globalization is far from having reached its peak." Elisio... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

06 Sep 2005
What Do You Think?

What are the Lessons of New Orleans?

In this regard, can lessons learned in the private sector be brought to bear in minimizing the suffering and damage from inevitable future calamities? Many personal experiences come to mind in thinking about this question. The first was... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

12 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 12, 2006

School Case 606-118 A successful young design firm faces a difficult decision: whether to compromise its creative values to win a big job. The client brief is very conservative. The company is pretty sure it can win the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 May 2015
Research & Ideas

A Road Map to Fix America’s Transportation Infrastructure

Any highway commuter who has wasted hours stuck in traffic can see the cracks in the United States' transportation system, as can any airline passenger who has been stranded overnight in an airport. Yet while many agree that the need for infrastructure change is... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Transportation

28 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 28

are deciding whether to refinance their home less than two years after taking out an initial mortgage and a subsequent home equity line of credit. Purchase this case: http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/209043-PDF-ENG How Institutional Investors View Details