- 22 Sep 2016
- Cold Call Podcast
Innovation Under Constraint: Constructing a Turnaround at Lego
In this podcast, Jan Rivkin takes us behind Lego's iconic building "bricks" and into the minds of its leaders as they tackle digital disruption, staying true to the brand, and engineering an impressive turnaround. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 15 Sep 2016
- Research & Ideas
Political Dysfunction Makes America Less Competitive
The American economy is “failing the test of competitiveness," according to a new Harvard Business School study written by Michael E. Porter, Jan W. Rivkin, and Mihir A. Desai. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 27 Apr 2016
- Research & Ideas
How the FBI Reinvented Itself After 9/11
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the FBI was ordered to reorganize itself from a law enforcement agency to a national security organization. The transformation and the lessons it imparts are documented in a study by Ranjay Gulati, Ryan L. Raffaelli, and Jan W. Rivkin. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 19 Feb 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
‘Does 'What We Do' Make Us 'Who We Are'? Organizational Design and Identity Change at the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Both the design and identity of the FBI changed greatly in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. This study tracing the co-evolution of the Bureau’s organizational design and identity before the 9/11 attacks and through three subsequent phases finds that successful changes to organizational identity are likely to be delayed after a radical external shock: Management is likely to be constrained, appropriate design is probably unclear, or both.
- 09 Jul 2014
- Research & Ideas
How Business Leaders Can Strengthen American Schools
The declining competitiveness of the United States in world markets is due in part to the country's stagnant education system. Yet partnerships between business and educators have been marked by distrust. Jan Rivkin highlights proposals for a new collaboration. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 12 Feb 2014
- Research & Ideas
Private Sector, Public Good
What role, if any, does business have in creating social good? A new seminar series at Harvard Business School tackles this complex question. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 May 2013
- Research & Ideas
The Long-Term Fix to US Competitiveness
Participants at a Harvard Business School event were urged by professors Michael Porter and Jan Rivkin to chart a new path forward to improve US competitiveness. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 18 Mar 2013
- HBS Case
HBS Cases: LEGO
LEGO toys have captivated children and their parents for 80 years. But managing the enterprise has not always been fun and games. Professor Stefan H. Thomke explains the lessons behind a new case on the company. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Sep 2012
- Research & Ideas
US Competitiveness at Risk
America's declining global competitiveness—it ranks No. 7 this year in one respected survey—began long before the current recession took hold. Harvard Business School Professors Michael E. Porter and Jan W. Rivkin discuss causes and possible solutions. From Harvard magazine. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 01 Dec 2008
- Lessons from the Classroom
How Many U.S. Jobs Are ‘Offshorable’?
Some 900 Harvard Business School students were asked to recreate a study assessing the potential "offshorability" of more than 800 occupations in the United States. Their findings: It might be a larger number than we thought. Key concepts include: Management students are likely tomorrow to face an unprecedented array of options concerning what they can do where. Increasingly, jobs are being viewed as groups of tasks that can be bundled, unbundled, and sent to different places. Offshoring could come to an end just as quickly as it began. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 17 Jul 2008
- Working Paper Summaries
A Replication Study of Alan Blinder’s “How Many U.S. Jobs Might Be Offshorable?”
The movement of business activity from developed economies to developing economies—commonly called offshoring—has become the focus of heated debates. Behind these debates lies a pivotal question of scale: How much business activity and how many jobs are at stake? Official statistics are nearly silent, and private-sector researchers vary widely in their estimates of the number of U.S. jobs that have moved offshore, will move offshore, or could move offshore. In an effort to address this gap in prior literature, Princeton economist Alan Blinder released an innovative working paper in 2007 in which he personally reviewed more than 800 occupations in the United States, assessed the "offshorability" of each, and used the evaluations to estimate the total number of U.S. jobs that might be offshorable. Here, HBS research associate Troy Smith and Professor Jan W. Rivkin describe an online exercise that allowed 152 teams of HBS MBA students, collectively, to recreate Blinder's study and to develop insights about the future of offshoring. Key concepts include: The surge in the number of potentially offshorable jobs in recent decades suggests that fewer business activities are tied to a specific location. More often, the laws of economics drive the geography of business activity. Some of the most creative applications of offshoring have taken jobs, broken them down into component tasks, bundled them in new ways, and relocated each new bundle to the place where its tasks can be completed best or cheapest. This opportunity to rethink the fundamental grouping of tasks, not just to adjust the geographic array of historical "job" bundles, gives businesspeople a broad menu of new options for taking advantage of differences across borders. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 Jan 2007
- HBS Case
The Challenge of Managing National Security
What can we learn from mistakes made in managing national intelligence before 9/11? Professor Jan Rivkin discusses the difficulties of integrating a highly differentiated organization, and the dangers of overcentralizing decision making. From HBS Alumni Bulletin. Key concepts include: The issues around managing national security provide an extreme example of the challenges faced by organizations that break into specialized parts yet must get the parts to work together. While private sector organizations can roll out complex changes over time, the intelligence community must change quickly—it must be patient and impatient at the same time. In the highly turbulent field of national security, a single "intelligence czar" could be quickly overwhelmed by informational burdens, and oversight groups can bury talented individuals under bureaucracy. The Director of National Intelligence should serve as a centralized provider of leadership and infrastructure that allows both decentralized and coordinated action. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
How Do CEOs Make Strategy?
A study of 262 Harvard Business School-educated CEOs traces differences in strategic decision-making across managers. CEOs leading larger, faster-growing firms tend to make highly structured strategic decisions and use more analytical deliberation. Management education has long-lasting effects on decision-making.