Recalls - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

What We Learned from Reading Jeff Bezos’ Patents

time breaking through the corporate shields that Bezos has erected. (A former analyst recalled to us that on a trip to the company, she saw the World War II slogan “Loose Lips Sink Ships” on a bathroom wall.) So we wondered if there... View Details

Keywords: by Tricia Gregg and Boris Groysberg; Retail

14 Aug 2006
HBS Case

On Managing with Bobby Knight and “Coach K”

players beyond the basketball court. Feelings about Knight also follow generational lines. While younger students often see Knight as little more than a bully, older participants tell stories of doing their best work under a mentor with Coach Knight's tough-love... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Sports

01 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Encouraging Dissent in Decision-Making

McNamara had hired to be comptroller of the Defense Department. "Unfortunately, McNamara himself contributed to the very shortcoming he speaks of—his domineering style led him to shut out other voices," recalls George. It was a... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

17 Jun 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Excellence Comes From Saying No

environment, it's both strange and liberating," says Frei. The atmosphere allowed for an unusual amount of introspection and reflection on the cases they discussed. Schulman recalled robust discussion between HLS and HBS students... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

09 Dec 2013
Research & Ideas

Cultural Disharmony Undermines Workplace Creativity

designers judged the creativity of the ideas, they determined that the least creative ones came from participants who had called to mind acquaintances from different cultural backgrounds with disharmonious relationships. [On average, those who View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

04 Apr 2011
HBS Case

Reinventing the National Geographic Society

recalls the remark about magazine piles. "That has come back to haunt us," Fahey says. "People today don't want clutter." It turns out that many things that made National Geographic one of the world's top brands during... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Publishing

21 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

Are You Sabotaging Your Own Company?

scheduling frequent meetings to seek feedback on projects or by subjecting important decisions to large and diverse groups to reach consensus. Thomke recalls working with a company recently where the working group was so large, it became... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

06 May 2021
HBS Case

How Four Women Made Miami More Equitable for Startups

perpetuates income and wealth disparities. “Not having anyone in our immediate network that could mentor and advise us made it harder and more expensive for us,” Hatcher says in the case, recalling the sale of an earlier venture. When... View Details

Keywords: by Carolyn DiPaolo

09 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

6 Lessons from Donald Trump's Winning Marketing Manual

marketers, says HBS professor John Quelch. Credit: Gage Skidmore Show the past as prologue. Offering consumers the adventure of voting for an uncertain future never works with the majority, especially if your brand is new to the game. Trump, the political neophyte, won... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch

18 Nov 2022
HBS Case

What Does It Take to Safeguard a Legacy in Asset Management?

actually makes you better.” An idea taking root Despite the success of his firm, Brown had not been immune to brushes with bias. Growing up in a small segregated town in Florida after World War II, Brown recalled being awestruck by white... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

30 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Ethical People Become Unethical Negotiators

fraudulent fund, even though many suspected something was strange, since the low-risk fund had defied reality by dramatically outperforming the stock market several years in a row. “We were all aware of this hedge fund that had had great returns for 20 years,” View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

07 Jun 2021
Book

9 Tips from an Expert Fundraiser: Help Donors 'Invest in Their Passion'

regardless of the size of the organization and the asks. The author recalls interviewing the CEO of an organization that had just completed a successful $1.4 billion capital campaign. The CEO confessed he had gotten his fundraising skills... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

11 May 2016
Research & Ideas

Fix This! Why is it so Painful to Buy a New Car?

and its customers. Stories from the trenches Schlesinger recalled accompanying a relative who wanted to buy a car. After a lengthy sharp-elbows negotiation with the salesperson, the hopeful buyers marched out of the showroom when the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Auto

03 Dec 2014
What Do You Think?

Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively?

"make sure he is upsetting things for the wrong reason rather than for the right reason." Joseph Seiler recalled that in growing companies where he worked, "I came across a few of these Type 4 people. What seemed to help... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

27 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

The Dynamics of Standing Still: Firestone Tire & Rubber and the Radial Revolution

rather reveal a pattern of incremental investments approved individually. Although Firestone encountered some production glitches in refining the new process, overall the transition from bias to belted bias tires proceeded smoothly.10 Former Firestone President Lee... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull; Manufacturing; Transportation

06 Mar 2020
Book

A Great Teacher's Lessons for Leading

that their assumptions are being tested, and they must gain new knowledge about themselves. This three-dimensional approach guides me as I prepare and develop classroom materials as well as when I teach. The students expect it, and I expect it of myself. View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

07 Aug 2013
What Do You Think?

Is There Still a Role for Judgment in Decision-Making?

perspective (for example, by asking "What information am I missing?"). I didn't Google the texts of these books, but there is no mention of the word "judgment" in their tables of contents or indexes, and I don't recall... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

14 Apr 2022
Op-Ed

Let’s Move Forward from COVID—Without Forgetting What We’ve Learned

decline, and even the spike created by the delta and omicron variants could not stop corporations from recalling workers to the office. Many companies want to go back to the way things were, but that would be a mistake. “Organizational... View Details

Keywords: by Hise O. Gibson and MaShon Wilson

26 Sep 2011
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Lady Gaga

Searched-For Female," as recorded by Google, and made international headlines for donning a dress made of red meat, which Time Magazine called the top fashion statement of 2010. “Gaga is a marketing phenomenon” So it's almost shocking to View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Entertainment & Recreation; Music

23 May 2023
Research & Ideas

Lessons on Life, Graffiti, and Value: 'It's in That Darkness That You Can Actually Develop and Evolve'

off technically difficult, sometimes dangerous, installations around the city. Their elaborate, thin-stroked graffiti incorporated German-, Gothic-, and Old English-style lettering, and was influenced by the Czech graphic artist and painter Alphonse Mucha, View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette

Publications