Publications

January 2011
Case

William Jeffrey Departs from Bay Colony Mutual

By: Lena G. Goldberg

A board's decision-making and process in investigating and terminating a company's CEO are explored and the company's policies and contractual obligations considered. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Policy; Resignation and Termination; Contracts; Leadership

The purpose of this blog is to provide transparency into the venture capital process and to give entrepreneurs advice on company building. View Details

October 2004 (Revised June 2006)
Background Note

A Note on Analyzing and Choosing a Job Offer

Provides insights and observations into the process of analyzing and choosing a job offer. Teaching Purpose: To assist in career planning. View Details

Keywords: Job Offer; Personal Development and Career

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February 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Background Note

Note on New Drug Development in the United States

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

An overview of the new drug development process in the United States, using the migraine drug Imitrex as an illustrative example. View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Research and Development; Health; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

Article

Know Your Customers' 'Jobs to Be Done'

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan

Firms have never known more about their customers, but their innovation processes remain hit-or-miss. Why? According to Christensen and his coauthors, product developers focus too much on building customer profiles and looking for correlations in data. To create... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management

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April 2000 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Destiny WebSolutions, Inc.

Describes Destiny's use of "pattern language" concepts to structure its business activities. The innovative approach contrasts with a process approach and helps the company balance its needs for scalability with retained agility. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Business Processes

October 1996 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Vandelay Industries, Inc.

An ICS consultant considers issues at the start of a full-scale implementation of SAP software for a large client. The enterprise resource planning (ERP) software will integrate previously fragmented business processes and so must be supported by the entire client... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Software; Business Processes; Information Technology Industry

December 2004 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Executive Decision Making at General Motors

By: David A. Garvin and Lynne Levesque

Describes the evolution of General Motors' strategy, organizational structure, and management processes from its founding to the present day. Focuses on the role of GM's management committee—the senior-decision-making body at the company, now called the Automotive... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Decision Making; Management Teams; Auto Industry

Iavor Bojinov is an Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is the co-PI of the AI and Data Science Operations Lab and a faculty affiliate in the Department of Statistics at Harvard University and the Harvard Data Science... View Details

2018
Working Paper

What Is Your Problem? The Importance of ‘Problem Storming’ for Crossing Knowledge Boundaries

By: Hila Lifshitz - Assaf

In this study, I focus on the emergent processes and practices enacted when using crowdsourcing to solve R&D problems that experts are challenged with. While the literature on crowdsourcing focuses on the online process, this study looks at the full process that takes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Nasa; Problem Solving; Problem Formulation; Knowledge Boundaries; Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Problems and Challenges

2019
Working Paper

Using Technology to Augment Professionals, Instead of Replacing Them, for Innovative Problem Solving

By: Hila Lifshitz - Assaf, Felicia Ng, Aniket Kittur and Robert Kraut

While in some technological and scientific areas innovation is flourishing, in others it is stalling, leaving important problems unsolved for decades. One explanation is professionals’ limitations as problem solvers, as accumulating depth of knowledge enhances one’s... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Expertise; Future Of Work; Crowdsourcing; Artificial Intelligence; Problem Solving; Professionalism; Experience and Expertise; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Problems and Challenges; Research and Development

June 1987 (Revised May 1990)
Case

John Deere Component Works (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Having installed an activity-based system, the division is now exploring the insight provided by that system. In particular, it is studying the economics of lot-size process planning and product mix management. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Production; Business or Company Management; Planning; Cost Accounting; Cost Management; Product Marketing; Management Practices and Processes; Consumer Products Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

April 1987
Case

Bob Galvin and Motorola, Inc. (C)

Describes the implementation of the "organization effectiveness" process which was designed to make major changes in two major divisions at Motorola. The reactions and actions of each division are described in some detail, as well as the initial results. View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Business Processes; Manufacturing Industry; Electronics Industry

18 Aug 2020
News

Vaccines Use Bizarre Stuff. We Need a Supply Chain Now.

09 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

The Unconscious Executive

unconscious thought as a goal-dependent, deliberative process in the absence of conscious attention. Most people attribute a lot of their actions to a conscious process, but there are scores of processes... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 1999 (Revised December 2001)
Background Note

Analyzing Consumer Preferences

By: Robert J. Dolan

Presents a non-traditional description of the conjoint analysis methodology. Discusses the process by which a study is done and cites areas of application. View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Mathematical Methods; Product Marketing

04 Feb 2015
Video

Financial Aid International Students

2024
Working Paper

Using LLMs for Market Research

By: James Brand, Ayelet Israeli and Donald Ngwe

Large language models (LLMs) have rapidly gained popularity as labor-augmenting tools for programming, writing, and many other processes that benefit from quick text generation. In this paper we explore the uses and benefits of LLMs for researchers and practitioners... View Details

Keywords: Large Language Model; Research; AI and Machine Learning; Analysis; Customers; Consumer Behavior; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

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2009
Working Paper

Assess, Don't Assume, Part I: Etiquette and National Culture in Negotiation

By: James K. Sebenius

When facing a cross-border negotiation, the standard preparatory assessments -- of the parties, their interests, their no-deal options, opportunities for and barriers to creating and claiming value, the most promising sequence and process design, etc. -- should be... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Negotiation Process; Societal Protocols; Competitive Advantage; Cooperation