Balance - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Aug 2014
Research & Ideas

Climbing Down from the Ivory Tower

unfamiliar with standard research rules. It took nearly four years to design the health care worker recruitment experiment, Ashraf notes. "It's challenging to balance the rigor of science and objectivity with the participation of the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education; Health

09 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

A Playbook for Small-Business Job Creation

government can work together to create jobs.” "We've made a lot of progress on the macroeconomic front: deficit reduction, balancing the budget, what the Fed is doing, and tax policy reform," says Mills. "But that doesn't... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Financial Services

18 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Who Controls Water?

Act is an interesting piece of legislation," said Reinhardt. "The federal government has to do everything it can to reduce the probability of extinction. It's explicitly prohibited in the statute from balancing costs and... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Agriculture & Agribusiness

07 Sep 2007
What Do You Think?

Are Elite Business Schools Fostering the Deprofessionalization of Management?

students attending such programs or to the firms hiring their graduates. This raises other interesting questions. To what extent is today's business school contributing to the deprofessionalization of management? Should it foster greater View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

17 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

Lessons from a Nasty Trade Dispute

also issued a ruling against Canadian practices, the balance of its judgment was that the Brazilian government had been doing a great deal more to subsidize Embraer indirectly. Still, one lesson is that shining a spotlight on the... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

07 Oct 2002
Research & Ideas

What Leaders Need to Do To Restore Investor Confidence

They do not punish with sufficient speed and force to eliminate the incentive for misconduct. At a time when the temptation before some managers is orders of magnitude greater than twenty or thirty years ago, the concern is that the external checks and View Details

Keywords: by Harvard Management Update

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Let Customers Call the Shots

service. What kinds of resistance have these companies experienced? Has the resistance surprised you? A: Like many recent newborn companies, the ones we have studied have made bold claims such as: "Let's change the balance of power... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

11 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Calling All Managers: How to Build a Better Call Center

existing customers drop, but also there is a significant cost increase due to attracting new customers. Once these new customers come in, however, the lower service will only serve to drive them away." As for information technology, companies need to be able to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Service; Financial Services

January 2021 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Dwight D. Eisenhower: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case describes the rise of Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower from a small town in Kansas to the pinnacle of power on the world stage. During his life, Eisenhower was leader of the Allied Forces in World War II, president of Columbia University, head of NATO, and president... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Leadership; Values and Beliefs; Personal Characteristics; Leadership Style; Success; Work-Life Balance; Power and Influence

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October 1994 (Revised March 1999)
Case

Ritz-Carlton: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer

By: W. Earl Sasser, Thomas O. Jones and Norman Klein

Explores the interface of an information system that keeps track of guests and their preferences, and the people systems that deliver multiple services at Ritz-Carlton hotels. The luxury hotel chain's unique service credo and commitment to quality principles are... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Customer Satisfaction; Training; Recruitment; Service Delivery; Supply Chain Management; Luxury; Balance and Stability; Information Technology

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11 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

Sexual Harassment: What Employers Should Do Now

joke and saying, ‘Am I being politically correct?’ is also insulting, and someone needs to let that person know. That’s when you start to tilt the balance in the culture.” Place women in powerful positions Sexual harassment is a power... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

10 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 10

such as talent and capital, away from wealth creation and toward wealth distribution. It distorts thinking. Restoring the balance of power is critical to the competitiveness and the health of the rest of the economy. Limits on the size... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

06 Dec 2021
Research & Ideas

The Popular Stock Metric That Can Lead Investors Astray

the balance sheet. Such investments will therefore depress book equity value. "When you know the accounting, you can, and you will, know how to make all this work." “For technology or healthcare companies, market values might look high... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

01 Oct 2020
What Do You Think?

Are CEOs the Wrong Leaders for Stakeholder Capitalism?

short-term moves such as layoffs, interpreted by some as running counter to the Statement’s ideals, were balanced by concern for the long-term survival of the organization so important to other employees able to keep their jobs. In the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

26 Mar 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Disaster!

from the tragedy? For one, small decisions have big consequences. Key concepts include: Words and actions by leadership shape perceptions and beliefs of organization members. Leaders need to hold a delicate balance in nurturing... View Details

04 Aug 2014
Op-Ed

Why Small-Business Lending Is Not Recovering

Assessing creditworthiness of small businesses can be difficult due to information asymmetry. Little, if any, public information exists about the performance of most small businesses because they rarely issue publicly traded equity or debt securities. Many small... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Banking; Financial Services

15 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

Apple Pay’s Technology Adoption Problem

long way to go to knock off the established credit card system, Shih says. "Ecosystems are very delicately balanced, and the current payment system represents a balance that has resulted from 40 years of evolution. There's a lot of... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Technology; Retail

23 Apr 2014
HBS Case

Are Electronic Cigarettes a Public Good or Health Hazard?

consequences, Quelch hopes he can motivate MBA students to think more deeply about the public health impacts of business decisions, as well as getting MPH students to think about the business forces that shape public health. Only then will decisions be made that... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage; Advertising

05 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Can Putin Score Olympic Gold?

however, that may require a delicate balance by the government. "Russia needs to demonstrate it can manage the Games without being overly oppressive." In the end, the branding of the Olympics may be less a referendum on the country than... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Sports; Advertising

26 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 26

and (b) develop a personal involvement in the deployment and interpretation of those tools in important decision-making forums. Based on experts' ability to combine and balance these two processes, we distinguish analytically among four... View Details