Systems Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

26 Aug 2020
News

What the Climate Change Movement Can Learn from the Pandemic

power structures and the fact that our economic system doesn't account for the negative externalities of pollution, injustice, etc. And that's why I think it's even more important to emphasize the... View Details

01 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

A Good Thing Happens When Doctors Start Talking to Their Patients

condition—to patients and society—than it should be.” By some estimates, about 10 percent of costs in the health care system are due to diabetes-related procedures. “If you had a diabetes center giving patients a diabetes boot camp and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

01 Jun 2000
News

Books

strategy," notes Mills. To help managers fine-tune these techniques, the book offers guidance on developing global opportunities; changing the local corporate mindset to a global one (and filtering that way of thinking down to employees);... View Details

14 May 2024
Blog Post

Creating Emerging Markets Sustainability Series - How to Build a Culture of Intrapreneurship

differ from one country to another? Existing research across geographies highlights entrepreneurial thinking as the key to meaningful progress. When applied within the confines of an established company, this outlook can be described as... View Details

08 Mar 2017
News

Energy Efficiency as a Common Purpose

electrical systems went all the way back to my childhood. I think I bumped my knee one time, and my grandfather used an ohmmeter as a faux healing tool and said, ‘see when that needle moves, that’s going to... View Details

01 Sep 2016
News

How I Got to Google

end of the day, product managers are judged on execution and the quality of their launch. SS: Any advice for people who want to be a PM but don’t have a technical background? PR: I’m a computer and biomedical engineer by training, and spent two years working as a View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

01 Mar 2012
News

The Accidental Innovator

intuition rather than just learning things by rote. I can also sometimes be a bit eccentric, which I think the students like. The screen image is of a chalkboard, simulated through software, and I “write” on it as the lesson develops.... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Educational Support Services; Educational Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

07 Mar 2005
What Do You Think?

Should Business Management Be Regarded as a Profession?

According to Mok Tuck Sung (who is an MD), "Making certification necessary for managers is to narrow our thinking and take a step backward...resulting in a decline in entrepreneurial spirit." Frederick Bartlett offered his... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

02 Jul 2018
Blog Post

Pursuing A Passion in Health Care

and eventually drafting up the business case (where I get to apply my net present value and weighted average cost of capital skills from first-year finance classes!). I’ve enjoyed the exposure to the Danaher lean processes and kaizen-based View Details

Keywords: Health Care

18 Jul 2019
News

Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins Reflects on the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing

like all of sudden I was lying on my back one night looking up into the night sky and, bingo, next thing you know I was on the moon,” Collins told the magazine. “It was a very long, stair step system of progression.” The interview also... View Details

01 Sep 2004
News

Charlie Williams (MBA 1939, DCS 1952)

aboard the cruiser USS Topeka in 1945 when the ship received President Truman’s announcement of the dropping of the atom bomb. As the ship’s announcer, I read Truman’s words over the PA system to the entire crew. When I finished, there... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; National Security and International Affairs; Government

17 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

The Business of Babies

We prefer to think of babies as cuddly bundles of joy, but they are also products at the center of a multibillion-dollar market in adoptions and scientific conception, a market that few people acknowledge and that functions like no other.... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health

06 Dec 2019
Blog Post

Moving to the States with My Daughter to Pursue an MBA and Switch Careers

It was the summer of 2017, and after working at Mars in R&D for eight years, I started to think about the next step for my career. I enjoyed my role as a product innovation manager in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry because it... View Details

01 Feb 2000
News

HBS Alumni Association Board of Directors: President's Report

The start of a new century is certainly a momentous time. When I think about the last century and what it has meant to HBS, I am struck by how much the School has grown in stature and scale. Our alumni play a pivotal role in reinforcing... View Details

Keywords: Edmund A. Hajim (MBA '64)

04 May 2017
News

Going the Distance

developed a clutch system and mounted our lawnmower engine onto my 3-speed bike. My top speed was 53 mph!” he says. With an engineering degree earned at Brigham Young University, Frey worked in the defense industry during the 1980s. When... View Details

Keywords: Jill Radsken

01 Mar 2010
News

Lords of Strategy

customers, in other words — and its position vis-à-vis competitors. If an enterprise had different lines of business, it might view these in historical terms — “First we got into radio, which led us into television” — or as a capital allocation puzzle. But it wouldn’t... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

25 Feb 2020
News

Alumni and Faculty Books for March 2020

for true disruption, this book outlines what consumers can do themselves and demand from doctors, hospitals, health plans, and policymakers to get more for their health care spending and, in so doing, reshape the health care system into... View Details

05 Apr 2004
What Do You Think?

Should We Brace Ourselves for Another Era of M&A Value Destruction?

Summing Up In the end, M&A is about buying more volume. It is a flawed process, invented by brokers, lawyers, and super-sized, ego-based CEOs." With this comment, Ellis Baxter summed up the thinking of the majority of those... View Details