Disruptive Innovation →

If a Car Can Drive Itself, Can It Make Life-or-Death Decisions?

AI is transforming industries from retail to finance, but what about the moral quandaries posed by thinking machines? Buckle your seatbelts: Joseph Badaracco probes the most consequential questions raised by self-driving cars.

Can AI Match Human Ingenuity in Creative Problem-Solving?

Generative AI handles a variety of business tasks, but can it develop creative solutions to problems? Yes, although some of the best ideas emerge when humans and machines work together, according to research by Jacqueline Ng Lane, Karim Lakhani, Miaomiao Zhang, and colleagues.

Why Competing With Tech Giants Requires Finding Your Own Edge

In the new book Smart Rivals, Feng Zhu and Bonnie Yining Cao show business leaders how to create competitive advantages by uncovering their hidden strengths and leveraging their individual capabilities.

Banned or Not, TikTok Is a Force Companies Can’t Afford to Ignore

It may be tempting to write off TikTok, the highly scrutinized social media app whose cat clips and dance videos propelled it to the mainstream. However, business leaders could learn valuable lessons about engaging consumers from the world's most-used platform, says Shikhar Ghosh in a case study.

How Following Best Business Practices Can Improve Health Care

Why do Harvard Business School scholars spend so much time and money analyzing health care delivery? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores

Independent booksellers in the United States have proven resilient in the face of multiple technological and business model shifts in the bookselling industry. By tapping into a larger social movement that promotes the value of shopping local and a desire to cultivate community, successful booksellers are differentiating themselves from online and big box competitors.

Advanced Leadership Requires More Than Outside-The-Box Thinking

In a new book, Rosabeth Moss Kanter encourages leaders to "think outside the building" to overcome establishment paralysis and generate powerful innovation. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Clayton M. Christensen, Acclaimed Author and Teacher, Dies At 67

The Manager's Guide to Leveraging Disruption

Clayton M. Christensen's seminal book, The Innovator's Dilemma, helped ignite the idea of innovative disruption. His Harvard Business School colleagues have been adding to innovation research ever since. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

If the Key to Business Success Is Focus, Why Does Amazon Work?

Sunil Gupta explores the infiltration of Amazon into dozens of industries including web services, grocery, and movie production. What’s the big plan? Is the company spread too thin? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Would You Live in a Smart City Where Government Controls Privacy?

Toronto is experimenting with smart-city concepts envisioned by Google spinoff Sidewalk Labs. Leslie John and Mitch Weiss discuss the tradeoffs of using technology to improve modern city life. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Rocket-tunity: Can Private Firms Turn a Profit in Space?

Private rocket companies are competing to be the first to send paying tourists into space, perhaps even this year. Matthew Weinzierl lays out the strategic roadmap to the stars. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology

Technology doesn't drive disruption—customers do. In a new book, marketing professor Thales Teixeira argues that successful disruptors are faster to spot and serve emerging customer needs than larger competitors. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Everyone Knows Innovation is Essential to Business Success—Except Board Directors

In a recent survey of 5,000 board members, innovation was not ranked high on their list of priorities. What are they not seeing? ask Boris Groysberg and Yo-Jud Cheng. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Using Fintech to Disrupt Eastern Bank from Within

When Eastern Bank decided to battle a threat from new competitors, it hired a fintech executive to set up Eastern Labs and start innovating. Karen Mills discusses her case study on what happened next. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

On Target: Rethinking the Retail Website

Target is one big-brand retailer that seems to have survived and even thrived in the apocalyptic retail landscape. What's its secret? Srikant Datar discusses the company's relentless focus on online data. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Can Amazon Do What Walmart Couldn’t, Stop the 'Wheel of Retailing'?

SUMMING UP Is Amazon's growing retail power capable of breaking the "wheel of retailing" theory? James Heskett's readers weigh in. Open for comment; 0 Comments.