Disruption - Publications - Faculty & Research

January 2008
Article

Innovation Killers: How Financial Tools Destroy Your Capacity to Do New Things

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Stephen P. Kaufman and Willy C. Shih

Most companies aren't half as innovative as their senior executives want them to be (or as their marketing claims suggest they are). What's stifling innovation? There are plenty of usual suspects, but the authors finger three financial tools as key accomplices.... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Prejudice and Bias; Value Creation

Citation

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16 May 2000
Research & Ideas

Getting the Message: How the Internet is Changing Advertising

In 1994, the World Wide Web was not yet a household name. A new company called Yahoo! had just developed a way to look for sites on the Internet—the search engine. HotWired debuted as the first online magazine to carry advertisements. When the site published the first... View Details

Keywords: by Susan Young

Web

Confronting Climate Change - Business & Environment

about 14% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and about half of global oil consumption. Transportation infrastructure is particularly at risk of disruption from climate change. Finance & Investing Identifying Risk & Opportunity... View Details

Blog

What Can You Do to Foster Gender Equity?

outside work is important too. By disrupting stereotypical expectations, you can help shift your company culture to a more equitable one for everybody. Get to the root of the problem. If your group or department has few women, or too many... View Details

01 Dec 2023
News

In My Humble Opinion: Plugged In

In a career spent investing in innovative startups at Intel, leading National Grid’s innovation and investment operations, and founding a nonpro t dedicated to advancing women and minorities to positions of top corporate leadership, Lisa Lambert (MBA 1997) always has... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

implement the layoffs quickly—in less than a year—to minimize workplace disruptions and gain credibility with the capital market. For some companies, however, strategic and business factors could warrant a more gradual approach to... View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

27 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

How the FBI Reinvented Itself After 9/11

identity. There are numerous historical and current examples of companies forced to face the external shocks of disruptive innovators or shifts in consumer demand. Raffaelli mentions that many Swiss mechanical watch companies had to... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

28 Jan 2020
Book

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

Sometimes, thinking outside the box isn’t ambitious enough to get real innovation flowing. In her new book, Rosabeth Moss Kanter encourages organization leaders to think much more broadly at what restricts creativity and how to overcome it. Think Outside the Building:... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

07 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

4+2 = Sustained Business Success

agile company turns out innovative products and services and anticipates disruptive events in an industry rather than reacting when it may already be too late. Relentlessly pursue disruptive technologies to... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria, William Joyce & Bruce Roberson

May 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Headspace vs. Calm: A Mindful Competition

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne Wilson

By 2021, the mindfulness app wars reached their apex. Over 2,000 meditation apps were available to consumers, but two apps, Headspace and Calm, dominated the space, jointly holding about 70% of the total market. Headspace had established itself as the approachable... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Communication; Integrated Strategy; Brand; Brand ＆ Product Management; Brand Communication; Brand Differentiation; Brand Building; Brand Management; E-Commerce Strategy; Ecommerce; App; App Development; Applications; COVID; COVID-19; Pandemic; Pricing; Pricing Strategy; Subscription Model; Subscription; Partnerships; Strategic Partnerships; B2B Vs. B2C; B2B; Health ＆ Wellness; Wellbeing; Digitization; Commoditization; Mobile App; Mobile App Industry; Mobile Healthcare; Mobile Marketing; Digital Brand; Digital Health; Consumer Health; Apps; Online Business; Online Competition; Online Community; Online Entertainment; Entertainment And Leisure; Meditation; Marketing; Marketing Communications; Brands and Branding; Price; Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Partners and Partnerships; Health; Well-being; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Communication; Communication Strategy; Disruption; Consumer Behavior; Digital Marketing; E-commerce; Applications and Software; Health Industry; Technology Industry; Communications Industry; United States; North America; United Kingdom

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Blog

Recent Insights from HBS Podcasts

cons of approaches companies can take to decarbonize electricity. Reimagining Financial Advice for the Modern World In this episode of The Disruptive Voice, Anders Jones, co-founder of Facet, offers a great example of View Details

Web

People - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

economics at Columbia Business School. Professor Di Maggio’s current research focuses on financial intermediation with a particular focus on how new technologies have disrupted financial markets and its effects on firms and individuals.... View Details

07 Nov 2022
News

Victoria’s Secret Buys Alumni-Founded Adore Me

garment industry in France, so I frequently heard friends and family complain about the options for buying lingerie in the United States,” he said in a 2014 article from the “First Five Years” HBS alumni profile series. “I found that there was a huge opportunity to... View Details

Keywords: Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Retail Trade

Web

Building Iconic Brands and Brighter Futures: Interview with Glossier CEO, Kyle Leahy - Recruiting

brand to new heights. Since its founding in 2014, Glossier had disrupted the beauty industry, created a powerful community-driven brand, and was looking to build the business that would unlock its growth and potential. With diverse... View Details

Web

Entrepreneurial Management Curriculum - Faculty & Research

Decarbonizing - India’s Path to Net Zero (also listed under General Management) Vikram Gandhi January 2026 J 3.0 IFC: Silicon Valley; Disrupting Silicon Valley with AI Mark Roberge January 2026 J 3.0 Launch Lab/Capstone 1 Alan MacCormack... View Details

03 Apr 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Clear and Present Danger: Planning and New Venture Survival Amid Political and Civil Violence

Keywords: by Shon Hiatt & Wesley Sine

March 2015 (Revised December 2016)
Case

American Well: The DTC Decision

By: Elie Ofek and Natalie Kindred

In late 2013, telehealth company American Well, which developed a digital platform that allowed patients to conduct online medical consultations with physicians, is considering pursuing a direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategy. Founded in 2006, American Well had, to date,... View Details

Citation

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28 Feb 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

Master the Team Meeting

have guests come at the start or end so as not to disrupt the meeting. My personal preference is guests at the start. Then we get into our regular routine. Most important, don’t set it and forget it. If you do change things up, be clear... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin