Publications

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February 2018 (Revised May 2019)
Case

CEWD: Closing the Skills Gap

By: William Kerr, Michael Norris and Manjari Raman

In 2018, Ann Randazzo, executive director of the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD) is assessing the organization’s performance since its 2006 founding. Founded to address an imminent retirement bubble of middle skills workers in the utilities industry,... View Details

Keywords: Workforce Development; Industry Cooperation; Skills Gap; Middle Skills; Training; Strategic Planning; Competency and Skills; Utilities Industry; United States

Educators

June 1979
Background Note

Developing Skill in Listening

By: Arthur N. Turner

Keywords: Interpersonal Communication

October 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Technical Note

A Framework for Interpersonal Skills Development

2016
Working Paper

The Skills Gap and the Near-Far Problem in Executive Education and Leadership Development

By: Mihnea Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas

Executive development programs have entered a period of rapid transformation, driven on one side by the proliferation of a new technological, cultural, and economic landscape commonly referred to as “digital disruption” and on the other by a widening gap between the... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Executive Education; Disruption; Management Skills

03 Oct 2016
Working Paper Summaries

The Skills Gap and the Near-Far Problem in Executive Education and Leadership Development

Keywords: by Das Narayandas and Mihnea Moldoveanu; Education

17 Sep 2014
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpen Your Negotiation Skills

No business skill may be as important to success as negotiation. We negotiate everything: agreements with partners and vendors, in-scope/out-of-scope parameters around important projects, and our own compensation and job responsibilities,... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

April 2025
Article

Skill Dependencies Uncover Nested Human Capital

By: Moh Hosseinioun, Frank Neffke, Letian Zhang and Hyejin Youn

Modern economies require increasingly diverse and specialized skills, many of which depend on the acquisition of other skills first. Here we analyse US survey data to reveal a nested structure within skill portfolios, where the direction of dependency is inferred... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Human Capital; Personal Development and Career; Equality and Inequality; Analytics and Data Science

2025
Chapter

Leapfrog Leaders: Accelerating Systems Leadership Skills

By: Laura Cabrera, Derek Cabrera and Hise O. Gibson

We need leaders who can execute at the Strategic, Operational, and Tactical (SOT) levels. But, research shows it takes time for skills to develop at all three levels—too much time. Why does it take too much time? First, because expertise is borne of experience. An... View Details

Keywords: DSRP; VCML; Strategy; Operations; Leadership Development; Decision Making; Organizational Structure

06 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

Skills and Behaviors that Make Entrepreneurs Successful

financed them—declared such brick-and-mortar businesses were dinosaurs on their way to extinction. The success of Bluemercury proved the critics wrong. “We’ve always had a hard time being able to identify the skills and behaviors of... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Working Knowledge

May 2003
Module Note

Managing Product Development

By: Stefan H. Thomke

Introduces students to the managerial aspects critical to conceiving, designing, and developing innovative products and services. Considers the full range of activities required: learning about customer needs, understanding and managing experimentation and problem... View Details

Keywords: Product Design; Product Development; Service Operations; Business or Company Management; Projects; Management Practices and Processes; Experience and Expertise; Customers; Research; Management Skills; Integration

March–April 2019
Article

The Future of Leadership Development

By: Das Narayandas and Mihnea Moldoveanu

The need for leadership development has never been more urgent. Companies of all sorts realize that to survive in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, they need different leadership skills and organizational capabilities from those that... View Details

Keywords: Talent Management; Executive Education; Leadership Development; Business Education; Management Skills; Learning; Online Technology

2023
Chapter

Organizational Development

By: Min Basadur, Tim Basadur and Goran Calic

Our review of the field of Organizational Development (OD) reveals an extensive range of tools which attempt to help organizations improve performance. We believe that OD should be studied differently: As a continuous process of change-making or innovation. How this... View Details

Keywords: Change; Cognition and Thinking; Creativity; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Innovation and Management

Register to Read

05 May 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Firms and the Economics of Skilled Immigration

Keywords: by Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr & William F. Lincoln; Technology

February 2015 (Revised May 2017)
Case

Delhaize Group: Developing Leaders

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Delhaize Group, the Belgian-based global food retailer, was focused on competing in the food retailing industry by developing leading positions in key markets via localized retailing strategies. Delhaize was committed to offering its customers superior value while... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Organizational Alignment; Talent Management; Leadership Development; Globalized Firms and Management; Human Capital; Talent and Talent Management; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Culture; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Belgium

Educators

2024
Working Paper

The Impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act on the Economic Development of the Western U.S.

By: Joe Long, Carlo Medici, Nancy Qian and Marco Tabellini

This paper investigates the economic consequences of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned immigration from China. The Act reduced the number of Chinese workers of all skill levels living in the United States. It also reduced the labor supply and the quality of... View Details

Keywords: Growth; Productivity; Economic Development; Business History; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Business and Government Relations; Prejudice and Bias; Government Legislation; Immigration; United States

14 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Lessons from COVID-19: The Business Skills Doctors Need

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors faced unprecedented challenges. Vital supplies such as facemasks and cotton swabs were in short supply. New protocols had to be developed to isolate infected patients. Treating patients... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

17 Dec 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Are the 'Best and Brightest' Going into Finance? Skill Development and Career Choice of MIT Graduates

Keywords: by Pian Shu; Education; Financial Services

2021
Book

The Future of Executive Development

By: Mihnea C Moldoveanu and Das Narayandas

Executive development programs have entered a period of rapid transformation, driven by digital disruption and a widening gap between the skills that participants and their organizations demand and those provided by their executive programs. This work delves into the... View Details

Keywords: Executive Education; Leadership Development; Management Skills; Education Industry

June 2019
Teaching Note

CEWD: Closing the Skills Gap

By: William R. Kerr and Ted Smalley Bowen

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-081. The teaching note presents background, case details, and teaching strategies, along with board plans and supporting graphics. View Details