Filter Results
:
(252)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web (264)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web (264)
Sort by
- 03 Jun 2013
- Research & Ideas
The Power of Rituals in Life, Death, and Business
All over the world, people in pain turn to rituals in the face of loss—no matter if it's the death of a loved one (dressing in black, for example), the end of a relationship (burning old love letters), or the crushing defeat in a Little League baseball game (graciously...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 13 Feb 2012
- Research & Ideas
The Case Against Racial Colorblindness
In trying to prevent discrimination and prejudice, many companies adopt a strategy of "colorblindness"—actively trying to ignore racial differences when enacting policies and making organizational decisions. The logic is simple: if we don't even notice race, then we...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 08 Sep 2014
- Research & Ideas
The Strategic Way To Hire a Sales Team
Too often, there's a huge gap between a company's overall business strategy and the way its salesforce operates in the field. In fact, says Frank V. Cespedes, articles and books about strategy rarely take sales into consideration at all. "Everybody talks about the...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 15 May 2015
- Research & Ideas
Kids Benefit From Having a Working Mom
©iStockphoto Here's some heartening news for working mothers worried about the future of their children. Women whose moms worked outside the home are more likely to have jobs themselves, are more likely to hold supervisory responsibility at those jobs, and earn higher...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 25 Jan 2016
- Research & Ideas
When Negotiating a Price, Never Bid with a Round Number
Here’s an easy tip for anyone negotiating to buy a car, a house, or even a company. When you make an initial offer, don’t bid with a round number like $10,000 or $1 million or $15 per share. Rather, bid with a more precise number, like $9,800 or $1.03 million or $14.80...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 05 Aug 2015
- Research & Ideas
How Hormones Foretell Whether People Will Cheat
There's an old fable in which a scorpion asks a frog for a piggyback ride across a river. The frog fears getting stung along the way, but the scorpion argues that stinging the frog would be fatally stupid; the frog would die and sink and so, too, would the scorpion. So...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 15 Jul 2013
- Research & Ideas
Five Imperatives for Improving Health Care
Innovation in health care treatment seems to far outpace innovation in health care business management. Just ask President Obama—two weeks ago he delayed enactment of a key provision of the new health care law for fear its requirements would swamp small-business...
View Details
- 13 Nov 2013
- Research & Ideas
Should Men’s Products Fear a Woman’s Touch?
Most eight-year-olds are familiar with cooties: an imaginary infectious disease spread through proximity to children of the opposite sex. We eventually outgrow the silly idea. But when it comes to the world of consumer products, fear of associating with the opposite...
View Details
- 17 Sep 2012
- Research & Ideas
Blue Skies, Distractions Arise: How Weather Affects Productivity
Autumn has sprung, and the cold, dreary days of winter are around the corner. But take heart, wistful sun lovers. It turns out that lousy weather is actually good for business operations. A new research paper reports that a decrease in sunny weather is directly related...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 23 Jul 2012
- Research & Ideas
The Power of Conversational Leadership
When a company is small, communication among employees is as simple as rolling a desk chair around the room to talk to the president, the admin, or the chief engineer. But as a company grows, communication becomes more difficult. And strategic direction can suffer as a...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 01 Apr 2013
- Research & Ideas
First Minutes are Critical in New-Employee Orientation
The first few minutes of new employee orientation, if done right, can lead to happier and more productive workers and, ultimately, increased customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, a lot of companies do it wrong. In many firms, employee orientation focuses solely on...
View Details
- 18 Apr 2016
- Research & Ideas
The Cost of Leaning In
Last summer, Christine Exley polled 200 American adults with a simple yes/no question: Do you think women should negotiate their salaries more often? Seventy percent of respondents answered in the affirmative. She wasn’t surprised by the response. Just as there’s a...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 13 Aug 2012
- Research & Ideas
When Good Incentives Lead to Bad Decisions
Among the culprits contributing to the recent financial crisis were bank loan officers who approved mortgage loans that were doomed to fail. Many of these frontline workers were motivated by bonuses and other incentives to approve quantity over quality. Critics decried...
View Details
- 12 Dec 2011
- HBS Case
HBS Cases: Clocky, the Runaway Alarm Clock
In the spring of 2005, media outlets from Gizmodo to Good Morning America were buzzing about Clocky, an alarm clock that jumped off the nightstand and rolled away chirping and beeping, forcing its owner to get out of bed to turn it off and stop the cacophony. The...
View Details
- 30 Nov 2015
- Research & Ideas
Donors Are Turned Off by Overhead Costs. Here’s What Charities Can Do
Many of us would prefer to see our philanthropic donations go directly to an organization’s core mission, rather than to administrative expenses. If we give money to Save the Children, for instance, we hope the cash goes directly to those children. “Despite the...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 18 May 2016
- Research & Ideas
Unethical Amnesia: Why We Tend to Forget Our Own Bad Behavior
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” —George Santayana If you’ve ever tuned into a Congressional testimony or legal deposition, you’ve likely heard a witness respond to a question with the words “I don’t recall.” For example, rapper Lil...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 13 May 2013
- Research & Ideas
How to Spot a Liar
Want to know if someone's lying to you? Telltale signs may include running of the mouth, an excessive use of third-person pronouns, and an increase in profanity. These are among the findings of a recent study that delves into the language of deception, detailed in the...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 18 Jul 2011
- Research & Ideas
Looking in the Mirror: Questions Every Leader Must Ask
When CEOs speak with Rob Kaplan looking for answers, he usually focuses them instead on figuring out and discussing the right questions. "Show me a company, nonprofit, or a government leader that is struggling, and almost invariably you'll see someone who isn't...
View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel