Design thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

08 Oct 2010
What Do You Think?

Will Transparency in CEO Compensation Have Unintended Consequences?

constant reminder of the enormity of the leak that it hastened actions that would otherwise have taken longer and been much less effective in stopping the leak and dealing with the cleanup. Now comes a little-publicized provision of the Dodd-Frank legislation View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

01 Mar 2004
Lessons from the Classroom

Mission to Mars: It Really Is Rocket Science

more effectively design and measure complex projects and organizations. Sean Silverthorne: What drew you to the NASA/JPL Mars program as potential case material? Alan MacCormack: First, it was an ideal context in which to explore one of... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Sep 2016
News

Clay Christensen on Competing Against Luck

outlines—the “theory of jobs to be done”—and how that concept might play out in the auto industry. —Dan Morrell Your theory essentially reframes how managers think about their products or services—as a sort of job that the customer is... View Details

30 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Germany’s Pioneering Corporate Managers

When you think about which countries have produced the greatest management innovations, the United States and Japan are likely to top your list. But it was Germany in the late 1800s and early 1900s that was a cauldron of innovative and... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Oct 2001
News

New Economy Notables: Scott D. Cook

could choose what type of company we would work for. He encouraged us to pick a company whose values we'd be proud of. Where the new economy is going I don't think there is a new economy — it's the same economy, the same consumers, the... View Details

Keywords: Young, Susan; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services

09 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Got a New Strategy? Now Make it Happen

years ago we launched a research program to develop a process that leaders could use to engage their people in an honest conversation. The "strategic fitness process" was designed in partnership with senior executives to enhance... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer & Russell A. Eisenstat

01 Dec 2018
News

Competencies and Credentials

that companies should think more broadly about nurturing talent through paid apprenticeships, work-based learning opportunities, or co-op programs. In doing so, companies can help shift the way middle-skills workers enter the workforce.... View Details

15 Nov 2018
News

Don’t Be Afraid of AI

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on SoundCloud More Skydeck episodes Terminator 3 clip: Warner Bros. Pictures © 2003. Dan Morrell: I think one of the biggest mainstream crossovers that artificial intelligence has had on the modern era is the... View Details

Keywords: Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Computer Systems Design and Related Services

06 Nov 2013
What Do You Think?

Is Top-Down Resource Allocation on the Rise?

organization is still important for the best results. A number of factors were cited in determining the mix of inputs, responsibilities, and decisions associated with an RAP designed to maintain organizational agility over its life cycle.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

10 Jan 2007
HBS Case

The Challenge of Managing National Security

the challenge of differentiating and integrating an organization—that is, breaking it into specialized parts yet getting the parts to work together. Cases about extreme circumstances force students to think outside their usual domains.... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Service

26 Feb 2009
News

Last Look - March 2009

think we volunteered. It was probably the most interesting class I recall taking at HBS.” Merrill identified the first model (closest to McNair) as Cheryl Wellock (HRPBA ’60) and added, “Most HRPBA classes were held in Longfellow Hall on... View Details

Keywords: Keith Larson; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services; Apparel Manufacturing; Manufacturing

01 Jun 2015
News

3-Minute Briefing: Rehito “Ray” Hatoyama (MBA 2008)

think Hello Kitty is just for kids, but it’s for all ages. For example, a lady might want a Hello Kitty golf bag or jewelry for herself. We also have a licensing partnership with the hard rock band KISS. We don’t believe this is a... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Hello Kitty; Special Design Services; Special Design Services; Special Design Services

23 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ‘Talk, Inc.’

Editor's note: As traditional hierarchical organizations flatten, new ways of thinking about internal communications must be developed—news no longer flows just from top to bottom. In Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to... View Details

Keywords: Re: Boris Groysberg

14 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Growing CEOs from the Inside

who somehow have maintained enough detachment from the local traditions, ideologies, and shibboleths that they have retained the objectivity of an outsider," Bower writes. Think Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox, who started out as a sales... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Employment

29 Mar 2010
Research & Ideas

Ruthlessly Realistic: How CEOs Must Overcome Denial

Reviewing a spectacular business failure, we often wonder why the CEO didn't see trouble coming. It was so obvious. Why didn't Digital Equipment Corp. CEO Kenneth Olsen see the PC as a threat to minicomputers? Did Coca-Cola's Roberto Goizueta really View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Auto; Retail; Technology

12 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Rocket Science Retailing: A Practical Guide

Whether you sell widgets, designer fashions, or life-saving drugs, mastering the art and science of better analytics can set you ahead of your competitors, according to HBS professor Ananth Raman and Wharton professor Marshall Fisher.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Retail; Auto

12 Aug 2013
Research & Ideas

‘Hybrid’ Organizations a Difficult Bet for Entrepreneurs

Consider two organizations with the same noble purpose: to solve the problem of poor eyesight in developing countries. The first, the Centre for Vision in the Developing World, follows a traditional nonprofit model, soliciting donations that fund the creation and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

30 Sep 2016
News

Competing Against Luck

innovation. In this episode of Skydeck, I talk to Professor Christensen about the theory at the heart of his new book, and how it has affected not only how he thinks about business, but how he thinks about... View Details

10 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt--‘Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World’

make a distinction in meaning, it is usually in reference to levels in a hierarchy. People at the very top provide "leadership"—whatever that is—or at least they are supposed to. People in the middle do the "management," again with little clarity about what that means.... View Details

Keywords: Re: John P. Kotter

04 Nov 2002
What Do You Think?

What’s Best for the Corporate Brain?

edge"—is stimulating ways of thinking about these questions. As Stewart and others have concluded, intellectual capital comprises a "hierarchy of knowledge"—data, information, knowledge, and wisdom—making up both explicit... View Details