by Tom Quinn - Publications - Faculty & Research

02 Jul 2010
What Do You Think?

Is Profit as a “Direct Goal” Overrated?

decision-making and even to the future and viability of capitalism. One debate concerned the primacy of profit as a goal. Deaver Brown led this argument by saying, "Profit is the only legitimate goal of a corporation ," pointing... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

02 Jul 2014
What Do You Think?

Are Today’s Business Heroes Challenging Our Ideas About Leadership?

conclude that I understood leadership pretty well, I've begun to wonder. Let's start with the leadership associated with large organizations with relatively long histories. In recent years, we have been educated by concepts such as MBWA... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

03 Apr 2017
What Do You Think?

How About Investing in Human Infrastructure?

institutions seem to get far behind because they identify a need, then take a lot of time to develop curricula, find teachers, etc.” Aim was even more blunt, saying, “By the end of the year most probably skills acquired will be obsolete.” Another kind of institutional... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Construction

01 Feb 2012
What Do You Think?

Is Support for Small Business Misplaced?

Summing Up Do Concerns About Job Creation By Small Businesses Miss The Point? Judging from responses to this month's column, there appears to be a visceral reaction to any suggestion that small business fails to live up to the many... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

04 May 2016
What Do You Think?

What Does Boaty McBoatface Tell Us About Brand Control on the Internet?

vessel.” Siouzie14 asked, “Would anyone believe the name in a mayday call?” Advice was offered up by many. Anticipating the final decision, Athena K praised another respondent for being “spot-on with naming the dingy Boaty McBoatface.”... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Advertising

02 Feb 2004
Research & Ideas

Where Does Apple Go From Here?

and written about Apple for the last decade, generating several case studies. His latest case, Apple Computer 2004, co-written with research associate Debbie Freier, was recently published by Harvard Business School Publishing. Yoffie sat... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

September–October 2024
Article

The Art of Leading Teammates

By: Tom Brady and Nitin Nohria

When our society talks about leaders, we focus on formal roles, such as the CEO. This view undervalues the role of informal leaders—team members who influence outcomes by the tone they set, how they conduct themselves, and how they interact with their peers. Their job... View Details

Keywords: Groups and Teams; Power and Influence; Leadership; Status and Position

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23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Historically Speaking: A Roundtable at HBS

employees used to punch in and out of work. Tabulating machines helped people count and keep track of things, and as such were the predecessors of the computer. When Tom Watson, Sr., became CEO in 1914, tabulating was the smallest part of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

22 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

Balancing the Future Against Today’s Needs

customer needs both today and tomorrow, and the other that is focused on crazy innovation." Leaders who strike the balance well, note O'Reilly and Tushman, do so by mitigating the effects of separation with a structure that... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Michelman

26 Sep 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, September 26, 2017

worked are positively correlated with firm performance, and differences between family and non-family CEOs account for approximately 18% of the performance gap between family and non-family firms. We investigate the sources of the differences in CEO labor supply across... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Video

New Founder Series Lessons from Entrepreneurial Failure

12 Nov 2020
Video

New Founder Series: Lessons from Entrepreneurial Failure

29 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Rich or Royal: What Do Founders Want?

becoming an entrepreneur, and the one on which past entrepreneurial research has focused, going all the way back to Adam Smith, Joseph Schumpeter, Israel Kirzner, and other pillars of economics. In my own research, I also approached entrepreneurs with the assumption... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Financial Services

30 May 2019
What Do You Think?

Is There a Distinctive West Coast Style of Management?

already see that many of the traits you listed for West Coast success are already being copied elsewhere.” Bruce Quinn reminded us that author Tom Wolfe “famously made some East/West comparisons in Esquire... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Education

16 Jul 2020
News

Black Lives Matter and the promise of entrepreneurship

01 Oct 2019
News

Today’s venture capitalists owe something to 19th-century whalers

07 Feb 2017
News

How Immigrants Have Contributed to American Inventiveness

15 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Rethinking E-Leadership

by transforming" the existing business or creating a new one. An effective e-leader, Hargrove continues, must shift from "being a productivity and efficiency junkie to being an opportunity seeker and innovator who quests for... View Details

Keywords: by Melissa Raffoni

June 2005 (Revised March 2017)
Teaching Note

Siebel Systems: Organizing for the Customer

By: Robert Simons

Teaching Note to (103-014). The Siebel Systems case describes the unusual accountability and organizing choices made by managers of a successful, rapidly growing software development company. The case is set in 2002, but details the critical decisions made by founder... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Execution; Organization Design; Structure; Job Design; Diagnostic Control Systems; Customers; Strategy; Organizational Design