- 23 Jul 2018
- Working Paper Summaries
The Creative Consulting Company
Management theories cannot be tested in laboratories; they must be applied, tested, and extended in real organizations. For this reason the most creative consulting companies balance conflicting demands between short‐term business development and long‐term knowledge creation.
- 15 Apr 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Big History, Global Corporations, Virtual Capitalism
The hundred-year history of the Boeing Company takes us through the phases of the modern corporation, from its entrepreneurial founding to the transition to professional management and managerial capitalism during the first half of the twentieth century, and the subsequent transition to virtual capitalism during the last half of the twentieth century into the twenty-first century. Virtual capitalism, enabled by modern IT technologies of real time networks, allows today’s global organizations to overcome many constraints, particularly the physical limitations faced in the past.
- 25 Oct 2013
- Working Paper Summaries
Management: Theory and Practice, and Cases
The author reflects upon his diverse experiences throughout his career with the benefits and challenges of case method teaching and case writing. The case method is undergoing tremendous innovation as students in the twenty-first century engage in learning about corporations, management, and board oversight. In particular, the creative and analytical process of writing the novelAdventures of an IT Leader is examined. The book's "hero's journey" foundation continued in a second Harvard Business Press book, Harder Than I Thought: Adventures of a Twenty-First Century Leader, focusing on CEO leadership in the global economy and the fast-changing IT-enabled pace of business. A third novel is in preparation: It concerns corporate leadership challenges into reinventing boards of directors for the twenty-first century. Key concepts include: A novel-based series of books is incorporating the "hero's journey" classic story structure along with the creation of associated fictional case characters designed to engage readers in the dimensions of human behavior, decision making, and judgments in carrying out the work of the modern corporation. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 04 Dec 2012
- Research & Ideas
Book Excerpt: Harder Than I Thought
Harder Than I Thought: Adventures of a Twenty-First Century Leader invites readers to critique the fictional journey of Jim Barton, the new CEO of a west coast aerospace firm. The book was written by business scholars Robert Austin, Richard Nolan, and Shannon O'Donnell. Open for comment; 3 Comment(s) posted.
- 11 May 2009
- Research & Ideas
The IT Leader’s Hero Quest
Think you could be CIO? Jim Barton is a savvy manager but an IT newbie when he's promoted into the hot seat as chief information officer in The Adventures of an IT Leader, a novel by HBS professors Robert D. Austin and Richard L. Nolan and coauthor Shannon O'Donnell. Can Barton navigate his strange new world quickly enough? Q&A with the authors, and book excerpt. Key concepts include: The role of CIO is one of the most volatile, high-turnover jobs in business. Why? The driving cause is more than rapid change in IT. Rather, IT is at the crossroads of major organizational change. Barton soon realizes that IT-specific knowledge is not a key to success. Instead, he must take care to collaborate equally with the senior management team and his own staff. Like Barton, today's senior executives are continuously confronted with situations with multiple uncertainties, needing collaboration and input from experts who may know more than they do about the specifics. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 24 Oct 2005
- Research & Ideas
Building an IT Governance Committee
Boards need to take more accountability for IT, argue professors Richard Nolan and Warren McFarlan. In this excerpt from their recent Harvard Business Review article, the authors detail what an IT governance committee should look like. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 25 Aug 2003
- Research & Ideas
Why IT Does Matter
HBS professors F. Warren McFarlan and Richard L. Nolan respond to the much-discussed assertion by Nicholas Carr that company investments in IT are less and less likely to produce competitive advantage. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 30 Mar 2003
- Research & Ideas
The Future of IT Consulting
A new Harvard Business School working paper traces the evolution of IT management consulting and trends for the future. Read our e-mail interview with professor Richard Nolan and HBS Interactive Senior Vice President Larry Bennigson. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 19 Aug 2002
- Research & Ideas
Here Comes Internet2—Time to Shed Dot Vertigo
Managers who believe the Internet is dead and gone do so at their own peril, says HBS professor Richard L. Nolan, who's studied computer use in organizations for many years. Watch out for a new kind of Internet, he says: Internet2. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 30 Apr 2001
- Research & Ideas
New Paths to Success in Asia
The HBS Asia-Pacific Research Center in Hong Kong is helping HBS faculty identify opportunities for researching Asian businesses. This local base of operations opens doors to faculty that would have otherwise remained closed or undiscovered. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 10 Jul 2000
- Research & Ideas
The State of the Markets
Technology is bringing about vast changes in worldwide financial markets, generating improvements in efficiency, speed and economies of scale. But as technological change continues to occur, attention must also be paid to changes in the role that regulation plays, said industry leaders in a panel on "Technology and the Future of the Financial Markets." Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 15 Feb 2000
- Lessons from the Classroom
Delivering Information Services: A 30-Year Perspective
When the HBS Executive Education course Delivering Information Services (DIS) began nearly three decades ago, the focus was on the management of mainframe computers. HBS Professor Richard L. Nolan discusses how the program and the way it's taught have kept pace with change in the Internet Age. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
Performance Hacking: The Contagious Business Practice that Corrodes Corporate Culture, Undermines Core Values, and Damages Great Companies
Performance hacking (or p-hacking for short) means overzealous advocacy of positive interpretations to the point of detachment from actuals. In business as in research there are strong incentives to p-hack. If p-hacking behaviours are not checked, a crash becomes inevitable.