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      Cold Call
      A podcast featuring faculty discussing cases they've written and the lessons they impart.
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      • 23 Feb 2021
      • Cold Call Podcast

      Examining Race and Mass Incarceration in the United States

      The late 20th century saw dramatic growth in incarceration rates in the United States. Of the more than 2.3 million people in US prisons, jails, and detention centers in 2020, 60 percent were Black or Latinx. Harvard Business School assistant professor Reshmaan Hussam probes the assumptions underlying the current prison system, with its huge racial disparities, and considers what could be done to address the crisis of the American criminal justice system in her case, “Race and Mass Incarceration in the United States.”  Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

      Read the Transcript

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      Consulting Remove Consulting →

      Page 1 of 15 Results
      • 02 Apr 2019
      • Research Event

      Women Pay a Higher Career Price in Today's Always-On Work Culture

      by Danielle Kost

      In industries that prize overwork, both men and women pay the price of missed time with family. But the career damage is more severe for women, says Robin Ely. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 27 Mar 2019
      • Cold Call Podcast

      Will Startup Fishbowl Become the Social Media App for Your Industry?

      Fishbowl's founders have built a social media platform allowing professionals to connect anonymously and with candor within their companies and industries. Can they grow? Leslie John discusses her case study on the boundaries of social media and personal privacy. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 23 Jul 2018
      • Working Paper Summaries

      The Creative Consulting Company

      by Robert S. Kaplan, Richard Nolan, and David P. Norton

      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.

      • 16 Apr 2018
      • Research & Ideas

      Can Consumers Be Saved From Their Misguided Decisions?

      by Rachel Layne

      Even with a world of information at our fingertips, consumers routinely make bad decisions on everything from investments to health coverage. Can science help? Research by Joshua Schwartzstein and Benjamin Handel. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 09 Mar 2017
      • Cold Call Podcast

      IDEO is Changing the Way Managers Think About Thinking

      IDEO’s human-centered design thinking is a systematic approach used to help create new products and services. Professor Ryan Buell explores this process as a leading movie cinema chain in Peru rethinks the movie-going experience. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 19 Apr 2016
      • Working Paper Summaries

      The Great Training Robbery

      by Michael Beer, Magnus Finnstrom, and Derek Schrader

      There is a widely held assumption in corporate life that well trained, even inspired individuals can change the system. This article explains why training fails and discusses why the “great training robbery” persists. The authors offer a framework for integrating leadership and organization change and development, and discuss implications for the corporate HR function.

      • 18 Nov 2015
      • Research & Ideas

      Who Really Determines CEO Salary Packages?

      by Carmen Nobel

      Every CEO is different, as is every company. So why does one executive compensation package tend to look just like another? The answer lies in the prevalence of interlocking directorates and the use of compensation consultants, according to research by Susanna Gallani. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 06 Jun 2012
      • What Do You Think?

      Is Something Wrong with the Way We Work?

      by James Heskett

      Summing Up Who is to blame for our pressure-packed 24/7 work culture? Technology? Globalization? Increasingly demanding customers? Jim Heskett's readers say it's best to first look in the mirror. Closed for comment; 41 Comment(s) posted.

      • 22 Jan 2008
      • Research & Ideas

      New Challenges in Leading Professional Services

      by Sean Silverthorne

      Professional service firms are being challenged as never before—by clients, associates, and the competition, just for starters. But old-style PSF leaders are not equipped to respond, says Harvard Business School professor Thomas J. DeLong. He discusses his new book When Professionals Have to Lead. Plus: Book excerpt. Key concepts include: Today's leaders of professional service firms are being overwhelmed by demanding clients, human capital challenges, lack of organizing strategies, and perhaps most of all, unrealistic expectations of the task itself. There is also on ongoing trend to focus on the development of only the highfliers and ignore a vast number of very competent professionals who are the heart and soul of the firm. The integrated leadership model is built on 4 specific dimensions: setting direction, gaining commitment to the direction, executing on the direction, and setting a personal example. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

      • 17 Jan 2008
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Competition in Modular Clusters

      by Carliss Y. Baldwin & C. Jason Woodard

      The last 20 years have witnessed the rise of disaggregated "clusters," "networks," or "ecosystems" of firms in a number of industries, including computers, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals. In these clusters, different firms design and produce the various components of a complex artifact (such as the processor, peripherals, and software of a computer system), and different firms specialize in the various stages of a complex production process. This paper considers the pricing behavior and profitability of these so-called modular clusters. Baldwin and Woodard isolate the offsetting price effects in a model, and show how they might operate in large as well as in small clusters. Key concepts include: Clusters operating under open, public standards may have higher prices and profits than those operating under closed, proprietary standards. Cluster forms of industrial organization may not be conducive to all kinds of innovation. In particular, innovations that add new layers of functionality to the system, and thus increase total demand, will not be adequately rewarded relative to the value they create. It is important to learn how cluster configurations affect incentives to supply different forms of innovation, and how firms respond to these cross-layer dependencies in formulating their long-term strategies. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

      • 05 Jul 2006
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Effects of Task Difficulty on Use of Advice

      by Francesca Gino & Don A. Moore

      We make most of our choices by weighing other people's advice counter to our own opinions. People generally underweight advice from others, though the practice is not universal. In two studies, it is determined that people overweight advice on difficult tasks but underweight it on the easy ones. Key concepts include: Understand built-in biases when weighing advice, especially on difficult tasks. Don't automatically give more credence to the opinions of advisers or consultants over your own experience. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

      • 05 Jul 2006
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Do We Listen to Advice Just Because We Paid for It? The Impact of Cost of Advice on Its Use

      by Francesca Gino

      People make decisions every day by weighing their own opinions with advice from other sources. But do we know whether people use advice in a way that is helpful to them? In two experiments performed under controlled, laboratory conditions, Gino found that all else being equal, people weigh advice differently according to the amount of money they pay for it. Also, the cost of advice affects the degree to which people use it. Key concepts include: Decision makers may rely on costly advice more heavily than free advice. The cost of advice did not affect the value gained by following the advice. Cost-of-advice research results might interest the consulting and medical professions. We need to better understand decision makers' sensitivity to the cost they pay to gain advice. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

      • 30 Mar 2003
      • Research & Ideas

      The Future of IT Consulting

      by Sarah Jane Johnston

      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.

      • 02 May 2000
      • Research & Ideas

      Leading Professional Service Firms

      Firms in the $80 billion professional services industry all face the same fundamental challenge: aligning their most valuable assets—the talents of their employees—with the strategy and organization of the firm. In this interview, HBS Professor Jay Lorsch, chair of the Executive Education program Leading Professional Service Firms, discusses the role these firms play in the world's economy and the keys to their success. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

      • 23 Nov 1999
      • Research & Ideas

      What’s Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?

      by Morten T. Hansen, Nitin Nohria & Thomas Tierney

      Knowledge management as a conscious practice is so new that there are few successful models for executives to use as guides. In this excerpt from their article in the Harvard Business Review, HBS Professors Morten T. Hansen and Nitin Nohria and colleague Thomas Tierney of Bain & Company reveal two key KM strategies — codification and personalization — and their use among consulting firms. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

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