Problems and Challenges - Publications - Faculty & Research

15 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Remembering Alfred Chandler

of organizational capabilities, technological innovation through R&D, problem solving, knowledge, and continuous learning—investment in human capital and technology that... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

2025
Chapter

Leapfrog Leaders: Accelerating Systems Leadership Skills

By: Laura Cabrera, Derek Cabrera and Hise O. Gibson

We need leaders who can execute at the Strategic, Operational, and Tactical (SOT) levels. But, research shows it takes time for skills to develop at all three levels—too much time. Why does it take too much time? First, because expertise is borne of experience. An... View Details

Keywords: DSRP; VCML; Strategy; Operations; Leadership Development; Decision Making; Organizational Structure

Citation

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For the past 20 years, the theory of disruptive innovation has been enormously influential in business circles and a powerful tool for predicting which industry entrants will succeed. Unfortunately, the theory has also been widely misunderstood, and the "disruptive"... View Details

24 Jun 2021
Blog Post

Celebrating the Past, Crafting the Future Part 2: The First HBS/HKS Class

of the challenges and opportunities facing his company. “The last year has been filled with national and international crises in which the role of government View Details

Web

Participation - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

to ensure that their calling patterns are not biased with respect to certain demographic groups or individual students. When calling on students, case instructors should endeavor to be simultaneously challenging View Details

Teaching Interest

Managing Global Health: Applying Behavioral Economics to Create Impact (MBA)

Health, and development more broadly, is not something we give to people: it is something they produce themselves, interacting with supply-side and institutional factors. This course trains students to see through the lens of the end-user and to use the levers of... View Details

28 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Supply Chain Risk: Deal With It

capacity, shelf life, and customer demand. Such risks aren't new. In fact, "the underpinnings of problems today started two decades ago," says Craig Holmes, director of business continuity planning... View Details

Keywords: by David Stauffer

12 Feb 2021
News

How Dunkin’ Donuts Took Over the World

about what to do and whether or not my ideas and hunches that I had in business school might well in fact apply, decided that the problem with the business really lay with... View Details

Keywords: brands; leadership; management; strategy; operations; career; Food and Beverage Stores; Food and Beverage Stores

17 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Why Business Should Support Employees Who Are Caregivers

framework for balancing a career and life. The linear career paths common at law, accounting, and professional services firms rarely take into account the personal milestones View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Health

February 2017 (Revised December 2018)
Case

From Start-Up to Grown-Up Nation: The Future of the Israeli Innovation Ecosystem (Abridged)

By: Elie Ofek and Margot Eiran

In June 2016, Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, wrestled with how to sustain Israel’s strong innovation track record and the country’s reputation as the “start-up nation.” Despite the economic miracle the country had wrought since its founding, he... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Government and Politics; Economy; Equality and Inequality; Israel

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25 Sep 2019
Research & Ideas

The Economic Cost of Physician Burnout

researchers focused on one aspect of the problem they could measure: lost income due to reduced hours and turnover. To do so, they used a 2014 survey of some 7,000 doctors that asked questions about burnout... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

25 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Who is to Blame for 'The Great Training Robbery'?

Mass.-based management consulting firm TruePoint Partners, which Beer co-founded and on which he now serves as a director. Most training programs focus on developing and changing behavior of individuals... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Education

01 Dec 2019
News

Bridging the Gap

investment in the city’s human capital, requiring work that is much more subtle, nuanced, and difficult to see. This is Chattanooga’s, and the nation’s, toughest challenge to... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; illustration by Josh Cochran; photographed by Melissa Golden; cross sector collaboration; local government; nonprofits; education; leadership; Administration of Economic Programs; Government

16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

The Simple Economics of Open Source

really tell who did what. Open source is different. As Lerner and Tirole write, "Outsiders are able to see not only what the contribution of each individual was and whether that component 'worked,' but... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Technology

10 Dec 2018
HBS Seminar

Julianna Pillemer, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania

Teaching AI to Handle Exceptions: Supervised Fine-Tuning with Human-Aligned Judgment

Large language models (LLMs), initially developed for generative AI, are now evolving into agentic AI systems, which make decisions in complex, real-world contexts. Unfortunately, while their generative capabilities are well-documented, their decision-making... View Details

25 Mar 2015
HBS Case

Tate’s Digital Makeover Transforms the Traditional Museum

natural, conversational manner." One of the biggest challenges Stack and Burton faced was training Tate's hundreds of employees to produce digital content. They started with a dedicated digital crew,... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Education

03 Dec 2014
What Do You Think?

Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively?

Summing Up Can the Brilliance of the "Jerk" Be Tapped? The best business problem cases are those that divide a class into groups making two or more persuasive arguments. The questions of whether or not View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Dec 2011
What Do You Think?

Thinking Slow: An Argument for Bureaucracy?

Summing Up Summarizing responses to questions about a topic as complex as thinking slow requires that one think slow. So I wrote this column, slept on it, rewrote it, and still have problems with it. But... View Details