Technology &amp; Operations Management

FIELD Immersion: Columbus, Ohio

By: Allison Mnookin and Sarah Mehta

March 2025 |
Background Note |
Faculty Research

Resilience Lab

By: Elisabeth Paulson and Tom Quinn

March 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

Calyx Global: Rating Carbon Credits

By: Michael W. Toffel and Adam Chen

March 2025 |
Case |
Faculty Research

This case describes how rating agencies and other organizations are seeking to improve the quality of carbon credits sold in the voluntary carbon market to organizations seeking to use them to supplement their internal decarbonization efforts to meet their net zero commitments. The case profiles one carbon credit rating company, Calyx Global, and describes its business model, its approach to ratings, and its emerging competitive landscape. The case protagonists face a series of dilemmas on how to lead Calyx Global through some challenging times for the industry, including whether changing its business model to tap new revenue streams jeopardize the firm's carefully crafted reputation of avoiding perceptions of conflicts of interest, and whether and how it it should refine its target market clients.

Keywords: Climate Change; Service Design; Certification; Auditing; Auditor Reputation; Carbon Credits; Carbon; Rating Agency Disagreement; Ratings

Barton Malow: Building From the Top-Down

By: Hise O. Gibson

March 2025 |
Teaching Note |
Faculty Research

The Cybernetic Teammate: A Field Experiment on Generative AI Reshaping Teamwork and Expertise

By: Fabrizio Dell'Acqua, Charles Ayoubi, Hila Lifshitz, Raffaella Sadun, Ethan Mollick, Lilach Mollick, Yi Han, Jeff Goldman, Hari Nair, Stew Taub and Karim R. Lakhani

2025 |
Working Paper |
Faculty Research

We examine how artificial intelligence transforms the core pillars of collaboration— performance, expertise sharing, and social engagement—through a pre-registered field experiment with 776 professionals at Procter & Gamble, a global consumer packaged goods company. Working on real product innovation challenges, professionals were randomly assigned to work either with or without AI, and either individually or with another professional in new product development teams. Our findings reveal that AI significantly enhances performance: individuals with AI matched the performance of teams without AI, demonstrating that AI can effectively replicate certain benefits of human collaboration. Moreover, AI breaks down functional silos. Without AI, R&D professionals tended to suggest more technical solutions, while Commercial professionals leaned towards commerciallyoriented proposals. Professionals using AI produced balanced solutions, regardless of their professional background. Finally, AI’s language-based interface prompted more positive selfreported emotional responses among participants, suggesting it can fulfill part of the social and motivational role traditionally offered by human teammates. Our results suggest that AI adoption at scale in knowledge work reshapes not only performance but also how expertise and social connectivity manifest within teams, compelling organizations to rethink the very structure of collaborative work.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Teamwork; Human-machine Interaction; Productivity; Skills; Innovation; Field Experiment; AI and Machine Learning; Groups and Teams; Competency and Skills; Performance Productivity; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Product Development

Deion Sanders: The Prime Effect

By: Hise O. Gibson

March 2025 |
Teaching Plan |
Faculty Research

Leaders Can Move Fast and Fix Things

By: Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss

March 7, 2025 |
Article |
Harvard Business Review (website)

The assumption embedded in Silicon Valley’s famous “move fast and break things” ethos is that we can either make progress or take care of people, one or the other. A certain amount of wreckage is the price we have to pay for creating the future. The authors have spent the last decade helping business leaders clean up that wreckage, and one of their main lessons is that this tradeoff is false. The most successful change leaders solve problems at an accelerated pace while also taking responsibility for the success and wellbeing of their customers, shareholders, and employees: They move fast and fix things. Leaders who tackle big problems don’t need to slow down, they need to take a breath and take a few mission-critical steps before sprinting, including: 1) Make sure you’re solving the right problems; 2) Build more trust as you go; 3) Involve people you don’t know—and who know more than you do; and 4) Tell a better story.

Keywords: Strategy; Leading Change; Performance Efficiency