Publications

2015
Chapter

Leave No Slice of Genius Behind: Selecting and Developing Tomorrow's Leaders of Innovation

By: Linda A. Hill

More than ever, leaders of nearly every kind of organization view their human resources teams as essential to institutional well-being and long-term growth and sustainability. That's the central and animating theme of "The Rise of HR: Wisdom from 73 Thought Leaders," a... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Talent Management; Talent Development And Retention; Innovation Leadership; Human Resources; Talent and Talent Management; Leadership; Leadership Development

March–April 2013
Article

Unlocking Innovation Through Business Experimentation

By: Stefan Thomke

There is a downside to businesses that focus heavily on standardization, optimization, and driving out variability: Such organizations leave themselves vulnerable to underinvesting in experimentation and variation, which are the lifeblood of innovation. Good... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Innovation Management; Learning And Development; Research; Innovation and Management; Business Processes

January 2025
Case

A Winning Strategy (A): Innovation in Olympic Speed Skating

By: Rebecca Karp, Maria Roche, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and Tom Quinn

This case describes two innovators in the Olympic sport of speed skating: the U.S. Men’s team, which devised a new approach to the team pursuit event following their disappointing performance in the 2018 Winter Olympics; and Nils van der Poel, a Swedish skater who... View Details

Keywords: Sports; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Knowledge Sharing; Sports Industry; United States; Sweden; Netherlands; Norway

May–June 2014
Article

The Magic of Innovation

By: Stefan Thomke and Jason Randal

Why do certain product and service experiences seem to have that undeniable "wow" factor, while others disappoint customers? Perhaps there's no better place to turn to than the world of magic. Consider that leading magicians are constantly under pressure to come up... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Management; Innovation and Management

19 Jun 2013
Other Presentation

Strategy and Shared Value: Innovation and Growth in an Era of Constrained Resources

By: Michael E. Porter

The ideas drawn from "Creating Shared Value" (Harvard Business Review, Jan 2011) and "Competing by Saving Lives" (FSG, 2012). View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Netherlands

Research Summary

GLOBALIZATION AND STRATEGY

Pankaj Ghemawat is engaged in a substantial stream of work on globalization and strategy. On the research front, this has involved a particular focus on the levels and dynamics of cross-border market integration, location-specificity and persistent sources of... View Details

August 2021
Article

Humanizing Strategy

By: Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi

In this article, we apply our latest thinking on knowledge to provide insights on how to reconceptualize strategy to cope with a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world, epitomized recently by COVID-19. We demonstrate that business leaders must... View Details

Keywords: Inside-out Approach To Strategy; Practical Wisdom; Future-making; Neuroscience; Sustainability; Strategy; Knowledge; Moral Sensibility

2015
Chapter

Agglomeration and Innovation

By: Gerald Carlino and William R. Kerr

This chapter reviews academic research on the connections between agglomeration and innovation. We first describe the conceptual distinctions between invention and innovation. We then describe how these factors are frequently measured in the data and some resulting... View Details

Keywords: Industry Clusters; City; Innovation and Invention

September 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 3: Using Information for Performance Measurement and Control

By: Robert Simons

This module reading explains how managers use information to control critical business processes and outcomes. The analysis begins by illustrating how managers use information to communicate goals and track performance. Then the focus turns to the choices that managers... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Organization Process; Feedback Model; Innovation; Uses Of Information; Big Data; Benchmarking; Decision Making; Information; Performance Evaluation; Analytics and Data Science

2011
Casebook

Cases about Redefining Global Strategy

By: Pankaj Ghemawat and Jordan I. Siegel

In "Cases about Redefining Global Strategy," Pankaj Ghemawat and Jordan Siegel have assembled 26 full-length case studies as a resource for active learning about the nature of cross-border differences and strategies. As technology innovation globalizes markets and... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; International Business; Cases; Strategy; Globalization

Article

Aligning Strategy and Sales

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Much current opinion asserts that strategy is less important (and may, in fact, be an impediment) in an era of constant change. This publication discusses why claims about business change are often overstated and misunderstood, why strategy is even more important as... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Sales

Teaching Interest

Strategy and Technology

By: Andy Wu

The Strategy and Technology elective course explores the unique aspects of creating effective strategies for technology-intensive businesses.

What strategies win in markets with network effects?
How can technology be... View Details

December 2016
Background Note

Reaching Beyond Your Organization: Empowering Innovation

By: William R. Kerr

Forward-thinking established companies utilize new routes for external innovation with start-ups and crowds. The reading reviews strategic partnerships, strategic investments, strategic acquisitions, and crowd-based collaborations. Case examples include Google, SK... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Corporate Innovation; Collaboration; Partnerships; Innovation and Invention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation Strategy

May 2021
Case

Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham

By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman and Olivia Hull

Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB) Chief Innovation Officer Christopher Coburn had overseen a period of exciting transformation and growth in healthcare innovation at MGB. In November 2019, the health system was the largest recipient of National Institutes of Health... View Details

February 2013
Article

Sustaining Innovation When Outsourcing Components in Multi-technology, Multi-component Systems

By: Ian Mackenzie and Casimer DeCusatis

Firms producing multi-technology, multi-component systems are increasingly outsourcing selected components to achieve both reduced cost and enhanced innovation benefits. Given typical inter-dependence between innovation at the system and component levels, an important... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Alignment; Innovation and Invention; Information Technology Industry

March 2001
Article

Technological Acquisitions and the Innovation Performance of Acquiring Firms: A Longitudinal Study

By: Gautam Ahuja and Riitta Katila

This paper examines the impact of acquisitions on the subsequent innovation performance of acquiring firms in the chemicals industry. We distinguish between technological acquisitions, acquisitions in which technology is a component of the acquired firm's assets, and... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Acquisitions; Knowledge; Strategy; Knowledge Acquisition; Acquisition; Innovation and Invention; Chemical Industry

September 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Teaching Note

Roche: Innovation and Access to Healthcare

By: George Serafeim

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-075. In May 2022, Roche Group, one of the largest healthcare companies in the world, hosted its first investor event focused exclusively on its efforts to impact access to healthcare. While Roche had recently set an ambitious goal to... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Access To Care; Healthcare; Healthcare Access; Innovation; Social Impact; Affordable; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Resource Allocation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Industry