Argus - Publications - Faculty & Research

2009
Article

September 2018
Case

Verisk: Trailblazing in the Big Data Jungle

By: Andrew Wasynczuk, Francesca Gino and Karim Sameh

This case revolves around Verisk Analytics' initiatives to drive innovation throughout the firm's many business verticals. Verisk, originally named ISO, started life as an insurance rating agency in the early 1970s, acting as an intermediary between insurance companies... View Details

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17 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

Teaming in the Twenty-First Century

Even as academic journals and business sections of bookstores fill up with titles devoted to teams, teamwork, and team players, Harvard Business School Professor Amy C. Edmondson wonders if many might be barking up the wrong tree. "I've begun to think that teams are... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish

03 Oct 2023
What Do You Think?

Do Leaders Learn More From Success or Failure?

(Jay Yuno/iStock) Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson’s recent thought-provoking book, Right Kind of Wrong, makes a strong case for the notion that we often learn a lot from failure—and in some cases, perhaps even more than we learn from success. This idea... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

04 Sep 2013
What Do You Think?

How Relevant is Long-Range Strategic Planning?

analysis." Several argued along with Munyaradzi Mushato, who said, ''the need for a sustainable strategy is actually higher in a volatile market space why deliberately go out to plan to build a short-lived competitive strategy?"... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

30 Apr 2020
Book

Fighting Climate Change Requires a New Capitalism

Rebecca Henderson spent her young adult years living two lives. At work, she preached the risks of resisting change to MBA students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, drawing on lessons she learned while watching factories close as a management consultant.... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Energy

29 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

A Manager’s Moral Obligation to Preserve Capitalism

for instance, might argue that capitalism ignores issues of fairness in outcomes—but they can't say that it doesn't exist. “Our task is not to take immoral people and make them moral. Our task is to add texture to the dominant ethical... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

12 Dec 2005
Research & Ideas

Using the Law to Strategic Advantage

"bridge the communications gap" between lawyers and managers. Sean Silverthorne: You argue that managers shouldn't just view the law as a compliance issue, but rather something that can be used actively to increase the firm's... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Legal Services

10 Dec 2014
Research & Ideas

Minimum Wage Debate Is Really About Social Values

several decades—and it's hard to argue that a mild increase in a low minimum wage would cause a lot of unemployment. Nevertheless, a minimum wage increase is controversial. Why is that? Because the conversation is really about much more... View Details

Keywords: by April White; Retail; Manufacturing

02 Apr 2020
What Do You Think?

What Are Lessons for Leaders from This Black Swan Crisis?

in my condo recently, I took the opportunity to reread Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book, The Black Swan. In it, he defines a Black Swan (always capitalized) as having three characteristics: “rarity, extreme impact, and retrospective (though not prospective)... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

When Benchmarks Don’t Work

rates. That is why Dave Norton and I argue in our book that a low-cost strategy is unsustainable for the support units of most organizations. The Strategic Differentiation Of Support Units We argue instead... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan; Service

30 Apr 2018
Book

How to Be a Rebel Leader

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

18 Feb 2019
Book

What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology

established companies lament the disruption they’re facing at the hand of technologically savvy startups. But Teixeira, the Lumry Family Associate Professor of Business Administration, argues that these newcomers simply spotted and served... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Beauty & Cosmetics; Insurance; Service; Retail

22 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

Use Artificial Intelligence to Set Sales Targets That Motivate

Setting the right sales targets for employees is a difficult balancing act, with long-term consequences on growth and morale. Setting a target too low, making it easily achievable, might cause an an employee to not put in the effort. Setting a target too high can be... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

10 Apr 2014
Research & Ideas

John Kotter’s Plan to Accelerate Your Business

To succeed in today's fast-moving economy, traditional corporate structures are holding back companies, even great companies, from being creative enough and speedy enough to compete effectively. What's needed, argues Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard

17 Feb 2022
Book

When Employees Feel a Sense of Purpose, Companies Succeed

What’s a company’s purpose? Too often it has been hijacked by one extreme or the other claiming it’s either the unbridled pursuit of profit on behalf of shareholders or it’s anything but profit. I also take issue with the idea that purpose is enshrined in a company’s... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

04 Oct 2021
What Do You Think?

How Do We Make Sure the Right People End Up with Power in Organizations?

(iStockphoto/Rawpixel) The subject of power has a certain intoxicating aura about it. Maybe that’s why I studied and wrote about interorganizational power in channels of distribution while teaching courses in marketing too long ago. The subject has come up from time to... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

17 Aug 2021
Research & Ideas

Can Autonomous Vehicles Drive with Common Sense?

Julian De Freitas. “We expect that they will make roads truly much safer.” In fact, De Freitas and colleagues recently argued in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that adopting driverless vehicles on a broad scale could... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Auto

04 Nov 2009
What Do You Think?

What is the Role of Government Vis-à-Vis Capitalism?

Summing Up How broad is government's role in a capitalistic society? The debate this month boiled down to the extent of government's role in relation to capitalism. Those arguing for a relatively narrow role included C. J. Cullinane, who... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

October 1983 (Revised April 2006)
Background Note

A Perspective on Entrepreneurship

By: Howard H. Stevenson

Designed to highlight alternative concepts of good management and the need for entrepreneurship as a response to societal changes. It argues that entrepreneurship can be fostered or destroyed as a function of the administrative setting. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Management Style

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