Big Business - Publications - Faculty & Research

24 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Distance Still Matters in Business, Despite the Internet

Lalocracio Location has always been a vital resource in business. “Location, location, location,” as they say in real estate. But then along came the internet in the 1980s, and suddenly distance-related business costs collapsed for... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Transportation; Telecommunications; Shipping; Publishing; Technology

Web

HBS Alumni Conference: Accelerating Climate Solutions - Alumni

the money, or the need for more big science.) Solutions involving gray (built) or green (natural) infrastructure rely on the human infrastructure – the infrastructure for collaboration. Business leaders –... View Details

29 May 2014
Research & Ideas

Research Symposium 2014

research going on at Harvard Business School. Held each May on the HBS campus, the event provides the opportunity for a few faculty to share recent work with an audience of doctoral students, HBS staff members, and other professors. This... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Accounting; Health

20 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

New Dean Sets Five Priorities for HBS

piloting up a notch," said Nohria. 2. Intellectual Ambition HBS has a disproportionate share of the big ideas that have shaped the world of business scholarship, education, and practice, said Nohria.... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Education

02 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Casino Payoff: Hands-Off Management Works Best

At the gambling meccas that employ them, they are called "casino hosts"—essentially front-line employees with nevertheless big responsibilities. These staffers work to develop one-on-one relationships with high-rollers to make sure they... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Entertainment & Recreation

01 Sep 2021
Op-Ed

How Women Can Learn from Even Biased Feedback

years, feedback givers urged her to “tone it down” or “slow it down.” As she read through such reports, she decided she could make fast progress if she wrote her own review prior to reading formal ones. After a big project or an important... View Details

Keywords: by Francesca Gino

07 Jan 2015
Research & Ideas

The Quest for Better Layoffs

A few years ago, Sandra J. Sucher received worried emails from two MBA students in her first-year Leadership and Corporate Accountability (LCA) class at Harvard Business School. Elana Green (now Elana Silver) and David Rosales (both HBS... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

04 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

Think of it as Professors in Cars Having Coffee

I’ve heard many ideas for reducing gun violence in the United States, but this was a new one on me. Mihir Desai, a finance professor at Harvard Business School, noted in a recent podcast that stock prices of gun manufacturers are severely... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Education; Entertainment & Recreation

04 Apr 2011
HBS Case

Reinventing the National Geographic Society

behaviors, and values of a legacy organization, changing a business model from paper to digital, capitalizing on huge brand awareness and international presence, and promoting cross-functional and cross-divisional collaboration.... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Publishing

TeachingInterests

Decision Making Under Uncertainty

By: David E. Bell

Many of the decisions we face are made complicated by having uncertain consequences: how should I set my inventory when I don’t know what demand will be, should I refinance my mortgage when rates might go lower, how big a bet shall I make in a new business, and so... View Details

26 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

A Clear Eye for Innovation

excelled at analog photography but hasn't been able to make the leap to digital cameras. Boeing, a longtime leader in commercial aircraft, has experienced difficulties in its defense-contracting businesses and has recently stumbled in the... View Details

Keywords: by Charles A. O'Reilly III & Michael L. Tushman

01 Dec 2023
News

Engaging Students More Deeply

Students at Success Academy stay more focused on the dot rug. Photo courtesy HBS Multimedia Development To tell the compelling stories of a developer working to revitalize Miami Beach, a Maine lobsterman confronting the economic risks of climate change, and a charter... View Details

Keywords: April White

31 Jan 2023
Research & Ideas

It’s Not All About Pay: College Grads Want Jobs That ‘Change the World’

Businesses seeking highly educated talent would do well to appeal to college graduates’ desire to “change the world.” And in doing so, they might change the world a little, too—by offering jobs that come with the unintended effect of... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

September 2014 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Belk: Towards Exceptional Scheduling

By: Ethan Bernstein, Saravanan Kesavan, Bradley Staats and Luke Hassall

With 24,000 staff and over 300 stores, Belk Inc. sought to replace its entirely manual labor scheduling system with an automated software solution from Reflexis. Belk hoped the upgrade would simplify scheduling, reduce time employees spent in non-customer-facing roles,... View Details

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04 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Shackleton: An Entrepreneur of Survival

In recent years, polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton has been celebrated through books, memoirs, several films, and a major museum exhibit. His achievements on the ice have much to teach business students and executives, says Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

19 Jan 2024
News

The Values and Virtues of a Quick Fix

that are going through massive transformations—be it due to crises, or just the result of some really big swings. And the duo started to see some throughlines emerge about what it takes to tackle complex problems quickly and effectively.... View Details

24 Apr 2020
Op-Ed

Lessons from the NFL: Virtual Hiring, Leadership, Building Teams and COVID-19

few months earlier. “If there's the right opportunity out there. ...There's a possible chance that I'd love to reconnect,” Gronkowski recalled telling Brady. “[Brady] was all fired up and juiced up about it.” Business Take Aways NFL teams... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Abbott , Boris Groysberg, Tali Groysberg, and Abhijit Naik; Sports

24 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

Building an IT Governance Committee

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, authors Richard Nolan and Warren McFarlan explored the role of the board of directors in IT governance—and how most "fall into the default mode of applying a set of tacit or explicit rules... View Details

Keywords: by Richard Nolan & Warren McFarlan

30 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Ethical People Become Unethical Negotiators

Fortune article. “We knew it was statistically impossible. As a collective, we always kind of wondered: How the hell does he do it? Every person was curious. But that’s where it stopped. You’d stop yourself from wondering. You’d say, ‘There couldn’t be anything bad.’”... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

22 Sep 2023
News

Capital Connection

Vernon Beckford (MBA 2013) saw the gap almost immediately. From the beginning of his career in commercial real estate finance—first at Credit Suisse and then later at CW Capital and Global Atlantic Financial Group—Beckford observed Wall Street’s obsession with... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Real Estate

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