Creativity - Publications - Faculty & Research

19 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Funding Innovation: Is Your Firm Doing it Wrong?

urgent needs of the future. Start-ups, on the other hand, are intensely focused on innovation but are also beholden to the impatience and boom-and-bust cycles of the venture capital industry. In his new book, The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

14 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Right Fit for Software Testing

services. IT managers typically find themselves with diverse talents. People in IT are idiosyncratically talented. This case is about putting talent where it is most effective." Companies with in-house talent tend to focus on the more View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Video Game; Web Services; Computer

June 2009 (Revised April 2019)
Case

Crosley

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

In October 1941, a top secret envoy from the U.S. military was sent to Crosley Corporation in Cincinnati, Ohio to request their assistance to construct a weapon that would drastically strengthen the defenses of U.S. troops: the proximity fuze. Such a fuze would allow... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; History; Production; National Security; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Research and Development; Product Development; Business and Government Relations; Creativity; Innovation and Invention; Ohio

Citation

Educators

Purchase

26 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 26, 2008

purpose, of what makes the organization truly distinctive. Purpose, Montgomery says, serves as both a constraint on activity and a guide to behavior. Creativity and insight are key to forging a compelling organizational purpose; analysis... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

18 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Advertisers Get Serious About Playing With Their Brands

3. Rule out the rules: Play can generate quite a bit of charm, even when the message is not straightforward. Brands should be creative and flexible—and as long as the marketing episode does not involve trickery, the public will likely... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Advertising

28 May 2013
Research & Ideas

Can LEGO Snap Together a Future in Asia?

uncertainty in global markets and a diminishing control in their environments generally. For companies to "break through the illusion of certainty," she says, they must embrace imaginative, creative thinking to better prepare... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

23 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

Bringing the Environment Down to Earth

considerations of social responsibility are important, executives who frame environmental problems solely in those terms may overlook the business opportunities and risks that come with such problems. Treating environmental issues like other business issues can lead to... View Details

Keywords: by Forest Reinhardt

25 Nov 2014
First Look

First Look: November 25

shape when and how public agencies implement policies effectively on behalf of marginalized citizens. November 2014 Antitrust Law Journal Are Patents Creative or Destructive? By: Nicholas, Tom Abstract—Current debate over patent... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

15 May 2013
Research & Ideas

From McRibs to Maseratis: The Power of Scarcity Marketing

creative and downright crafty ways in which scarcity has been used to move product. Although Cialdini admits to a "grudging admiration for the practitioners who made this simple device work in a multitude of ways," he urges... View Details

Keywords: Re: Michael I. Norton

19 Dec 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 19, 2017

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/618024-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 517-115 Predicting Consumer Tastes with Big Data at Gap CEO Art Peck was eliminating his creative directors for The Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

16 Aug 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

HBS Introduces Marketing Analysis Tools for Managers

marketing has undergone immense changes over the past decade, and those changes are driving an increasing need for data analysis. Marketing today combines both art and science: Managers must combine creative thinking with rigorous... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

20 Feb 2001
Research & Ideas

What’s Next for Japan

Vogel pointed to technical sectors, such as electronic games, as a sign that "Japan is a lot more creative than it is given credit for." It was impossible to discuss the role of business in Japan's recovery without discussing... View Details

Keywords: by Hilah Geer

19 May 2009
First Look

First Look: May 19, 2009

risk and uncertainty. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-127.pdf It Is Okay for Artists to Make Money...No, Really, It's Okay Authors:Robert D. Austin and Lee Devin Abstract In this paper, we examine the apparent conflict between artistic and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

21 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

What Health Care Managers Need to Know--and How to Teach Them

Innovating in Health Care have shown that necessity was not only the mother of invention, but innovation as well. "If you live in India and you can spend $50 per person per year on health care—as opposed to $8,000 for us—you think View Details

Keywords: by Paul Guttry; Health; Education

01 Sep 2003
What Do You Think?

To Whom Should Boards be Accountable?

those of employees, customers, or the public, as opposed to a substantially lower bid from a company whose interests are more closely aligned with the seller's and its various constituencies? Some of you opted to sell to the high bidder; some did not. Ian Taylor had... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

Greed, Fear, and The System Hinder Corporate Reform

are entire industries that have been created to help avoid paying taxes and find creative ways around compensating people, he said. "There's a lot of aiding and abetting that goes on in this kind of environment and I think it's... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Crowdfunding a Poor Investment?

through the crowd to lesser-known microfinance borrowers in developing countries. Nanda puts most current crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo in the equivalent of the donation or lending category. Kickstarter began as a way for View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

17 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance

(knowledge work) and manufacturing all about brawn (physical work). Innovation requires highly skilled, highly paid workers, and manufacturing requires low-skilled, low-paid workers; innovation is a high-valued-added specialty, and manufacturing is a low-value-added... View Details

Keywords: by Gary P. Pisano & Willy C. Shih; Manufacturing

18 Apr 2005
Research & Ideas

Selling Luxury to Everyone

shifting," she said. Panelist Rory Tahari, creative director and brand designer for Elie Tahari, Ltd.—and wife of designer Elie Tahari—said she saw a clear trend toward higher expectations from consumers in the fashion industry.... View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette; Consumer Products

03 Nov 2003
What Do You Think?

Can Investors Have Too Much Accounting Transparency?

who wrote, "... legislative and regulatory response treats the symptoms (means) rather than the disease (motivation). Transparency is only as successful as the least creative obscurantist." He recommends, among other things,... View Details