Product Pivot - Publications - Faculty & Research

Research Summary

Overview

Dr. Burch’s research focuses on capitalism, work, and gender in the twentieth-century United States. Her work reinterprets the history of direct selling by placing it at the center, rather than on the margins, of narratives about advanced capitalism. Examining the... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Political Economy; Labor History; Gender; Marketing; Sales Force Management; Direct Sales; United States

10 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 10

but also that NEAD chains produced more transplants for highly sensitized and blood type O recipients. Read the paper: http://kuznets.fas.harvard.edu/~aroth/papers/Nonsimultaneous%20Chains%20AJT%202011.pdf Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

12 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 12, 2019

causing them to place a lower value on the product or service being offered. To address this problem, managers should experiment with operational transparency—the deliberate design of windows into and out of the organization's operations... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

19 May 2015
First Look

First Look: May 19

almost all other products and services. This was a match of ambition with capability that can be replicated in other fast growing, semi-informal cities in the developing world. Publisher's link:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Managing the Future of Work

into an AI-enabled expansion into new markets while improving productivity and service delivery? CIO Nitin Tandon explains the global workforce strategy underpinning the effort. Can the shareholder-owned discount brokerage giant parlay... View Details

26 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

Why Great Ideas Get Stuck in Universities

“You’ve been working on this research your whole life and are convinced that it’s awesome. Then you decide to start a company, and while figuring it all out, you discover that it’s not the right technology for the problem. And then View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Biotechnology; Health

Web

Technology & Operations Management - Faculty & Research

Edmondson and Cat Huang May 2025 | Case | Faculty Research In the spring of 2023, Sunao Manabe, CEO of Daiichi Sankyo, reflected on a pivotal decision. A large Western pharmaceutical company had made a bid to partner with Daiichi Sankyo... View Details

09 Jan 2024
In Practice

Harnessing AI: What Businesses Need to Know in ChatGPT’s Second Year

contexts demonstrated that generative AI has the potential to enhance productivity (speed and efficiency of task completion), quality (precision in execution), and creativity (albeit with limitations). Notably, the simulation of synthetic... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Information Technology

23 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Creative Entrepreneurship in a Downturn

Whatever the headlines predict these days, there may still be good news for entrepreneurs. Many successful products, services, and pivotal ideas have been launched during an economic lull, according to Bhaskar Chakravorti, a senior... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

13 Mar 2019
Blog Post

There's No Quick Shortcut to Success: Zorpads Takes Off

It all started with a smell. Taylor Wiegele and Sierra Smith (both MBA 2017) met with a group of classmates for their FIELD III course, trying to come up with a problem to fix. The course, now an elective, tasks first-year students with creating a View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail; Consumer Products / Retail

07 Jul 2022
HBS Case

How a Multimillion-Dollar Ice Cream Startup Melted Down (and Bounced Back)

way. We’ve got to do this.’” They invested their entire life savings—$225,000—into opening the store. The store sold all of its products within four days of opening, forcing it to temporarily close. Earning $1 million in total sales, the... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

31 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 31, 2017

democracy as well as its resilience over time. The book adapts the case method to revitalize conversations about governance and democracy and show how the United States has often thrived on political conflict. Each of the book’s nineteen case studies presents readers... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

19 Apr 2016
Blog Post

First Minutes are Critical in New-Employee Orientation

M. Cable, Francesca Gino, and Bradley R. Staats. The first few minutes of new employee orientation, if done right, can lead to happier and more productive workers and, ultimately, increased customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, a lot of... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

24 Jul 2019
Blog Post

Growing the Seeds of an Early-Stage Startup

It all started with a cold LinkedIn mail to Aaron Gailmor, the founder of Brass Roots, an early-stage startup that I happened upon while tracking Expo West 2019 (World's largest natural, organic and healthy products event) with a... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Products / Retail; Consumer Products / Retail

14 Feb 2022
Research & Ideas

Curiosity, Not Coding: 6 Skills Leaders Need in the Digital Age

learning, pivoting all along the way. Though it won’t be easy, even perfectionist Type-A personalities must open their minds to a more experimental approach. Those who rely on traditional strategic thinking—an approach one roundtable... View Details

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill, Ann Le Cam, Sunand Menon, and Emily Tedards; Technology

08 Mar 2019
Blog Post

“There’s no quick shortcut to success:” Zorpads takes off

It all started with a smell. Taylor Wiegele and Sierra Smith (both MBA 2017) met with a group of classmates for their FIELD III course, trying to come up with a problem to fix. The course, now an elective, tasks first-year students with creating a View Details

Web

The Founding of U.S. Steel and the Power of Public Opinion | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

made, and the finished steel products. In the early twentieth century, steel provided the foundation for the construction of infrastructure and new cities in the West, the increased use of the automobile, and the production of materials... View Details

Web

Podcast - Business & Environment

redesigning iconic products like the Billy bookcase to make them easier to disassemble and repair, how secondhand retail pilot programs at IKEA stores are reaching new customers, and how investments like RetourMatras are developing... View Details

14 Nov 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas: November 14, 2017

applications, such as Snapchat filters, but AR is being applied in far more consequential ways in business. Pioneering organizations are already implementing it in product development, manufacturing, logistics, marketing, service, and... View Details