Publications

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

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

May 2014 (Revised June 2014)
Case

Intellectual Property Strategy at North Technology Group—Sailing Downwind

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and William W. Fisher III

North Sails is the world's leading sailmaker. The company commands a global market share of more than 50% and is largely responsible for the rapid technological progress in the sailmaking industry over the past 30 years. CEO Tom Whidden needs to consider how to best... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Information Technology; Competitive Advantage; Intellectual Property

26 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 26

workforce is not a quick fix to control costs or improve the quality of care. A poorly planned redesign can even result in increased costs and decreased quality. Changes in skill mix and role definitions should be preceded by a detailed... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

15 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 15

Retail Inventory: Managing the Canary in the Coal Mine! By: Gaur, Vishal, Saravanan Kesavan, and Ananth Raman Abstract—Retail inventory is a statistic that is closely watched by retailers as well as their investors, lenders, and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2019 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Blackstone Alternative Asset Management in 2018

By: Emil Siriwardane, Luis M. Viceira and Shawn O'Brien

In early 2018, Blackstone announced that John McCormick would succeed Tom Hill as President and Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM), the largest fund-of-hedge funds in the world by a sizeable margin. As new CEO, McCormick must... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Expansion; Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry

July 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Making Room for the Baby Boom: Senior Living

By: Charles F. Wu, Joseph Beyer and Arthur I. Segel

Tom Alperin's National Development has purchased a building site in affluent Wellesley, MA, and is in the process of deciding whether to build apartments, a combination of independent living and assisted living units for seniors, or perhaps even higher acuity... View Details

Keywords: Senior Living; Assisted Living; Independent Living; Property; Finance; Real Estate Industry; Boston; Massachusetts; United States

November 2011 (Revised August 2012)
Case

Healthymagination at GE Healthcare Systems

By: Vineet Kumar and V. Kasturi Rangan

Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE, introduced a new innovation strategy named "healthymagination" in 2009. With cost, quality, and access as its three pillars, healthymagination ensures a strong focus for new product introduction efforts all around GE. But will this focus... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Product Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry

February 2010 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Digital Media Group: The Shanghai Bid

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

In December 2008, Thomas G. Tsao, acting CEO of Digital Media Group (DMG), a venture-backed provider of technology and media used primarily in subways, must decide how to structure the company's bid for the advertising concession in Shanghai's 13 existing and planned... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Corporate Accountability; Business or Company Management; Bids and Bidding; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Competitive Strategy; Advertising Industry; Technology Industry; Shanghai

21 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 21

well-established organizations to act in new ways is never easy. This book is designed to support business leaders and organizational scholars who are grappling with this challenge by pulling together leading-edge insights from some of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

NFL Black Monday: How Much Do Coaches Really Matter?

important question: Can able managers create value for their organizations by applying the resources at their disposal, and are they thus a source of competitive advantage? In general, NFL head coaches are responsible for player... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg & Abhijit Naik; Sports

13 Jun 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, June 13

May 2017 American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings Immigration and the Rise of American Ingenuity By: Akcigit, Ufuk, John Grigsby, and Tom Nicholas Abstract—We build on the analysis in Akcigit, Grigsby, and Nicholas (2017) View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 17, 2007

to platform leadership change that does not rely on Schumpeterian creative destruction: platform envelopment. By leveraging common components and shared user relationships, one platform provider can move into another's market, combining... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 2014 (Revised March 2018)
Case

John D. Rockefeller: The Richest Man in the World

By: Tom Nicholas and Vasiliki Fouka

By the late nineteenth century scale and managerial hierarchies had extended to several major industrial sectors of the U.S. economy. Although the precise mechanisms often varied, this process mainly involved horizontal integration, some form of legal or administrative... View Details

Keywords: Horizontal Integration; Wealth; Business History; Vertical Integration; Consolidation; Personal Development and Career; Energy Industry; United States

16 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

What Football Firings Teach Managers About Staying Relevant

Six National Football League head coaches were fired on December 31, or “Black Monday,” as it’s known in the sport. The infamous tradition begins immediately after the conclusion of each NFL regular season and represents efforts by... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Evan M.S. Hecht, and Abhijit Naik; Sports

24 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 24

responsibility. Working PapersInducement Prizes and Innovation Authors:Liam Brunt, Josh Lerner, and Tom Nicholas Abstract We examine the effect of prizes on innovation using data on awards for technological development offered View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 25, 2018

Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century By: Akcigit, Ufuk, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas, and Stefanie Stantcheva Abstract—This paper studies the effect of corporate and personal taxes on innovation in the United States over the 20th... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

29 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 29

revealed that the last words of death-row inmates were more positive and less negative than the simulated last words of noninmates—and also that these last words were less negative than poetry written by death-row inmates. Together, these... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Summer 2013
Article

Real Estate Prices During the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

By: Tom Nicholas and Anna Scherbina

Using new data on market-based transactions we construct real estate price indexes for Manhattan between 1920 and 1939. During the 1920s prices reached their highest level in the third quarter of 1929 before falling by 67% at the end of 1932 and hovering around that... View Details

Keywords: Property; Market Transactions; Price; Value; Financial Crisis; Investment; Real Estate Industry; New York (state, US)