Learning By Thinking - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

How Small Wins Unleash Creativity

of creative productivity. "We found that of all the events that characterized the best inner work life days, by far the most prominent was making progress," Amabile says. "And of all the events that characterized the worst... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

05 May 2022
HBS Case

College Degrees: The Job Requirement Companies Seek, but Don't Really Need

Employers struggling to find workers during the current labor shortage might want to rethink their hiring criteria by taking a new look at job candidates who lack college degrees. American employers have routinely defaulted to requiring... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

10 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

High Note: Managing the Medici String Quartet

A: In business, preparation means thinking something through and establishing a plan. The execution phase is then managing to the plan. That's not remotely how the quartet prepared. Early in their career together they, especially Paul,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Music

09 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

The Manager’s Guide to Communicating with Customers Collection

Are you reaching your customers? The key is knowing who they are and what they want To appeal to retail customers you need to understand what makes them tick. What better way to do that than by studying actual consumer behavior? A great... View Details

Keywords: by Richard Bierck; Retail

05 Dec 2022
Research & Ideas

5 Companies Where Employees Move Up the Ladder Fast

assesses America’s 250 largest public companies as ranked by Fortune magazine. “All employers are not created equal in terms of the type of springboard they provide for advancement and that's something that workers and employment... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

02 Dec 2013
Research & Ideas

Companies Choreograph Earnings Calls to Hide Bad News

executives a question. That's the procedure that HBS Associate Professor Lauren H. Cohen followed to find out more about the odd dealings he'd observed at a company that was the subject of one of his case studies. But he wasn't given the opportunity to ask a question,... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services

October 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Case

UnDosTres: Building the Paytm of Mexico

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui, Max Hancock and Amy Klopfenstein

Arpit Gupta, Naveen Sharma, and Vikram Deswal co-founded the mobile payment app UnDosTres in Mexico City in 2015. In the past, Gupta had worked at Paytm, an India-based payment app valued at over $1 billion. In Mexico, the co-founders hoped to recreate Paytm’s success.... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Advertising; Digital Platforms; Mexico; India

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21 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Artificial Intelligence Isn't a Sure Thing to Increase Productivity

future, 50 percent of all tasks currently done by humans could be done by machine learning and artificial intelligence,” says Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, assistant professor at... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Technology; Information

21 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

Inside the OR: Disrupted Routines and New Technologies

organizations successfully integrate new technologies into their operations. "In an industry context in which individual heroism and skill are assumed to be critical determinants of important outcomes," they write, "this study produces evidence that... View Details

Keywords: by Hilah Geer

22 Nov 2010
Research & Ideas

Seven Strategy Questions: A Simple Approach for Better Execution

your primary customer will allow you to devote all possible resources to meeting their needs and minimize resources devoted to everything else. This is the path to competitive success. It's easy to try to duck the tough choice implied by... View Details

Keywords: by Robert Simons

28 Nov 2018
HBS Case

On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website

been tanking, with shares recently trading at $1.50. And in October, Sears filed for bankruptcy protection, following the dark road paved by Borders, RadioShack, and Toys ‘R’ Us. “Target had to make this big shift from View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail

20 Dec 2022
Op-Ed

Employee Feedback: The Key to Retention During the Great Resignation

understandable and they are humble listeners. Second, these CEOs have institutionalized a governance and learning system, which enables truth to speak to power at the corporate and unit levels through periodic, systematic, well-structured... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

02 Apr 2020
What Do You Think?

What Are Lessons for Leaders from This Black Swan Crisis?

public and private sectors learn from the events of the past few months? In the public realm, Sandeep Yadav concluded, “It is only by sharing resources globally that we can distribute the burden of fighting... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

15 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

Shaky Business: How Handshakes Win Negotiations

see whether handshaking might still help with negotiating deals. “ If your instinct is not to shake, it would be wise to think of sending another signal of cooperation” They found that shaking hands is a powerful gesture that creates a... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

10 Jan 2023
Op-Ed

Time to Move On? Career Advice for Entrepreneurs Preparing for the Next Stage

to individual contributor and in one recent case, a CEO-founder sold their company and is now transitioning to a leader within a very large organization. In each of these cases, these were not overnight changes, but rather they were thoughtful shifts that each managed... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

13 Feb 2020
Book

Open Your Organization to Honest Conversations

The good news is that the honest conversations discussed throughout this book are by now a well-tested means for learning about failures well before the damage is irreversible. Just as important, the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

08 Sep 2022
Book

Gen Xers and Millennials, It’s Time To Lead. Are You Ready?

putting frontline workers on top and all the managers in supporting roles. George says younger leaders are now increasingly turning to what he calls “the I-we journey,” by which they learn how to cultivate a... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

20 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

The Three Types of Leaders Who Create Radical Change

changes that diverge from taken-for-granted norms. “Although history remembers some individual actors as highly influential, single leaders rarely change the course of society on their own.” The Agitator stirs the pot by articulating and... View Details