Product Pivot - Publications - Faculty & Research

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

19 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 19, 2019

hired. The data is consistent with horizontal differentiation of CEO behavioral types and firm-CEO matching frictions. We estimate that 17% of sample CEOs are mismatched and that mismatches are associated with significant productivity... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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Organizational Behavior - Faculty & Research

of passion, which negates the benefits the team provides. We first conducted an experience-sampling study at an engineering company involved in the production and maintenance of critical infrastructure that benefits the greater good, with... View Details

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California - Global

Case Adobe: GenAI Opportunity or Threat? By: Sunil Gupta , Rajiv Lal and Allison Ciechanover In December 2022, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen faced a pivotal strategic decision due to the rapid rise of generative AI image models from OpenAI,... View Details

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Technology & Innovation - Faculty & Research

production workers) are associated with more autonomy and a wider span of control. By contrast, communication technologies (like data networks) decrease autonomy for both workers and plant managers. Treating technology as endogenous using... View Details

16 Nov 2021
HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

low-skilled commercial roles. For some, this meant “going from a position of considerable autonomy and professional status to a situation in which they had to read a script from a headset, sell products over the phone, and ask permission... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

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HBS - The year in Review

pandemic travel restrictions, the program pivoted to focus on US challenges and opportunities, taking more than 1,000 students to one of 15 domestic locations. With a lens on the course’s three modules—contextual intelligence, team... View Details

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Profiles - MBA

necessary to solve tangible problems. In fact, the fund itself was also in its early stage, showing me first-hand how to build a mission-oriented endeavor from the ground up. Professional goals: I want to create products and communities... View Details

08 Mar 2021
In Practice

COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?

A year ago, COVID-19 forced many companies to send employees home—often with a laptop and a prayer. Now, with COVID cases subsiding and vaccinations rising, the prospect of returning to old office routines appears more possible. But will employees want to flock back to... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

01 Sep 2023
News

Money Does Grow on (Family) Trees

For 17 years, Andre Kearns (MBA 1999) has been tracing his family tree. One by one, he has added branches, grounding himself in a long and sometimes complicated lineage. Through family stories, forgotten heirlooms, and vital records, Kearns has traveled back through... View Details

Keywords: April White; Illustrations by Fabio Consoli; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

01 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

Good Leadership Is an Act of Kindness

bloggers are buzzing with guidance about ways to sustain employee engagement and productivity in the chaos of a pandemic. Unfortunately, most Management 101 advice does not recognize that in times like these, the manager's toolkit must... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Susan Seligson

19 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 19, 2019

forthcoming Academy of Management Discoveries Creativity, Artificial Intelligence, and a World of Surprises By: Amabile, Teresa M. Abstract—In recent years, progress has been made toward AI Creativity, which I define as the production of... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

02 Nov 2023
News

Seeding Startups

Shirish Nadkarni (MBA 1987) was the director of product planning for Microsoft’s MSN when he decided he was ready to become an entrepreneur. He had recently led the growing internet portal’s 1997 acquisition of Hotmail, the first free, web-based email solution, and the... View Details

Keywords: April White

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

motivated, to find meaning at work during this crisis. Research by Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria and colleagues suggests that people are guided by four basic emotional needs, or drives, that are the product of our common... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

advice to restaurant owners, staff, investors, and patrons that we offer below. How did it deteriorate so quickly? Restaurants are universally labor intensive—by any productivity metric they rank among the least View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

Profile

Bobby Tuohy

Everyone wants to hang out with him; he’s even played with our section’s basketball team.” For his internship, Bobby has secured a role as an operations product manager with Apple in Cupertino, what he describes as a “50/50 tech and... View Details

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HBS Entrepreneurship Summit - Alumni

Getting to Product Market Fit Hiring Fast and Firing Faster Life as an Entrepreneur Managing Growth vs. Profitability Managing Pivots and Setbacks Negotiating Partnerships Builders - Small Group Discussions:... View Details

19 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

The History of Beauty

the consumer products giant Unilever, published some years ago. This company had a long-established business in soap and other toiletries, but spent decades after World War II striving without great success to expand its business into... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Beauty & Cosmetics

02 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Four VCs on Evaluating Opportunities

Entrepreneurs have to have a clear sense of the opportunity and how to build the business. But the best ones are willing to reexamine their assumptions and are willing to veer left or right or pivot all the way around when the data... View Details

Keywords: by Lauren Barley

16 Dec 2014
First Look

First Look: December 16

technologies compete in production and innovation, in the sense that research can be directed to either clean or dirty technologies. If dirty technologies are more advanced to start with, the potential transition to clean technology can... View Details