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HBS Working Knowledge is a free, weekly Web publication by Harvard Business School. Visit http://hbswk.hbs.edu to subscribe to the free weekly newsletter.
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SIIA has signed an affiliate agreement with HBS Working Knowledge, the newsletter of the Harvard Business School, to link to articles we deem to be of particular interest to management in software and information companies. These articles will be refreshed monthly as new material is released by Harvard. We hope that find these insights useful.
- Sorting out the Patent Craze
Some companies patent anything that moves to block innovation by competitors. But what does this mean for standard setting organizations? Professor Josh Lerner explains the challenges facing SSOs in this HBS Working Knowledge Q&A.
- VC Conference: The Art of the Deal in an Ever-Changing World
The expanding role of private equity in hedge funds and the investment potential in India and China were two highlights from the recent Venture Capital and Private Equity Conference at Harvard Business School. Check out our coverage.
- Unlocking Your Investment Capital
By reassessing risk exposure, many companies can create more equity capacity to fund investments, says Harvard Business School professor Robert C. Merton. Just don't leave it up to the Finance Department.
- Jim Heskett: The China Dilemma for U.S. Firms: Comply, Resist, or Leave?
If you were an advisor to the senior managements of these companies doing business in China, what would you propose that they do?
- How Can Start Ups Grow?
For new ventures a lack of resources makes growth difficult to come by—just ask those nine out of ten fledgling firms that fail. Professor Mukti Khaire says the key may be in acquiring intangible resources such as legitimacy, status, and reputation.
- Jonathan Byrnes: Learning to Manage Complexity
Complexity causes businesses to change in fundamental ways. Entrepreneurs who aren't prepared won't know what hit them, says Jonathan Byrnes.
- Stever Robbins: Give Your Organization Serious Traction
Your new vision statement sounds nice, but what's next? Here are useful definitions to help you decide if you've set a direction that can truly get traction.
- Should You Outsource Your Marketing?
Few companies own all the marketing expertise they need, especially of the left-brain, analytic variety. Professor Gail McGovern outlines the pros and cons of turning over your marketing activities to outsiders.
- Byrnes: Manage Paradigmatic Change
Managers who rise to run a company choose to maximize the long-run health of the company by managing fundamental, paradigmatic change, says Jonathan Byrnes.
- From Turf Wars to Learning Curves: How Hospitals Adopt New Technology
Turf wars and learning curves influence how new technology is adopted in hospitals. HBS professors Gary Pisano and Robert Huckman discuss the implications of their research for your organization.
- Jonathan Byrnes and the Bottom Line: New CIO Role: Change Warrior
Today's CIO has opportunities far beyond the hopes and dreams of twenty years ago, says Jonathan Byrnes. More than ever before, the CIO's effectiveness will determine the destiny of the company.
- Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?
Using formal economic modelling, professors Pankaj Ghemawat and Ramon Casadesus-Masanell consider the competitive dynamics of the software wars between Microsoft and open source. Read our interview.
- The Leadership Workshop with Stever Robbins: The Path to Critical Thinking
Few of us are effective critical thinkers. Who has time? The good news, says Stever Robbins, is that this skill can be learned.
- Confronting the Reality of Web Services
Web services have made huge strides, but two hurdles remain, one technical, the other organizational, says HBS professor Andrew P. McAfee. "It is in fact getting easier to integrate applications, but it's never going to be easy."
- Four VCs on Evaluating Opportunities
Venture capitalists explain to Harvard Business School professor Mike Roberts and senior research associate Lauren Barley how they evaluate potential investments.
- Managing at the Right Level
In many organizations, managers manage at one level too low, says Jonathan Byrnes. And that makes it difficult to create paradigmatic change.
- The Knowledge Economy: Is the United States Losing its Competitive Edge?
How industry and the academy see it.
- Creativity--How Can I Get Some?
Creativity is the lifeblood of innovation and marketing, but where does it come from and how should a company nurture this elusive trait? How does one explore creativity on the job and use it to one's advantage?
- David or Goliath--Who Markets Better?
In the battle to create, market, and sell the most innovative, irresistible product, is it better to be a David or a Goliath?
- Should You Ignore Your Customers?
When should you listen to your customers, and when should you just go with your gut? The topic was part of a lively discussion at the 2005 HBS Marketing Conference.
- Truth and Trust: They Go Together
Getting others to trust you and your abilities is easy, says Stever Robbins: Simply be trustworthy. If you lose trust, you'll never get it back.
- The VC Quandary: Too Much Money
The VC money "overhang" continues as investors compete to get into a small number of deals each year. How do smart venture firms approach the challenge? A report from the 11th Annual Venture Capital & Private Equity Conference.
- Convergence: What are the Opportunities?
Devices and content are colliding in a big way in the digital world. Harvard Business School's 2005 Cyberposium tackled the topic of convergence, exploring roadblocks, opportunities, and business models.
- The U.S. Patent Game: How to Change It
Innovators and society are paying too high a price in the current patent system, says a new book by Adam B. Jaffe and Harvard Business School’s Josh Lerner. A book excerpt and Q&A with Lerner.
- Research Notebook: Calculating Costs Abroad
The next big opportunity for your career or business may come by expanding to another country. Check out the U.S. Department of State’s Web site for valuable information on the costs of living abroad.
- Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship
by Gary D. Libecap
Elsevier Science & Technology Books, 2004
The evolution of intellectual property-and what it means for innovators.
- The Hidden Cost of Buying Information
New research from Harvard Business School’s Francesca Gino suggests that if we pay for information, we tend to overweigh its actual value. What is a manager to do?
- Caves, Clusters, and Weak Ties: The Six Degrees World of Inventors
Your company's scientists and investors can be antennas that bring great ideas into your company. The key, says HBS professor Lee Fleming, is understanding small-world networks.
- The Challenges of Paradigmatic Change
Paradigmatic change has the potential to create major new value in a business, but is difficult to pull off in the absence of a business crisis, says Jonathan Byrnes.
- Four Ways to Create Lasting Change
Managers and employees often dismiss change initiatives as the new flavor of the month. In this Q&A, Professor Michael A. Roberto and Senior Researcher Lynne C. Levesque discuss new techniques to make change stick.
- The Bias of Wall Street Analysts
Historically, stock analysts’ recommendations have been swayed by business relationships between the analyst’s employer and the target company, says Professor Mark Bradshaw. Have recent SEC reforms helped?
- Trends in Latin American Business
In Buenos Aires, Harvard Business School’s Latin America Research Center has been charting the region’s volatile business conditions for four years--and sees opportunities. Q&A with Executive Director Gustavo A. Herrero.
- Product Companies: Don't Undersell Services
The strategic use of services offers major opportunities for product companies to build real value and customer trust. Jonathan Byrnes tells how.
- The Innovator's Battle Plan
Asymmetries of motivation or skill allow disruptive attackers to enter a market, grow without interference and blunt the dominant player's response when it is finally motivated to counterattack. The result of asymmetric battles often is the seemingly sudden end of a great firm. From the incumbent's perspective, every action it takes is rational. But the outcome is devastating. Disruption is the strategy that creates and capitalizes on asymmetries of motivation and skills.
- Alliance or Acquisition?
Companies that use both alliances and acquisitions--rather than one or the other--may grow faster. Here's how to make the best strategic choice. A Harvard Business Review excerpt. Many companies believe that collaboration decisions are internal matters. They don't take into account external factors before picking strategies—and invariably fall victim to market forces. Companies should consider exogenous factors, like market uncertainty and competition, even if they can't control them.
- Strategy for Small Fish
The art of business today seems to be the ability to influence resources your company doesn't own—resources such as the production scheduling of manufacturing partners, the packaging requirements of distribution partners, and the development of technical standards your products must incorporate.
Think of the business environment as a series of ecosystems, they urge, with "keystone" companies such as Microsoft and Wal-Mart providing for the health of all who do business with them. What are the best strategies for companies living in these ecosystems? This excerpt focuses on strategies for niche players.
- Your Customer: Use Them or Lose Them
Companies can differentiate on service profitably, says HBS professor Frances X. Frei. Here's how a new-thinking bank, insurance provider, and software company are using customer power to win.
- High Turnover: Should You Care?
New research suggests that you focus less on retaining employees and more on re-recruiting your "knowledge nomads." A Q&A with Todd L. Pittinsky.
- Enron's Lessons for Managers
Like the Challenger space shuttle disaster was a learning experience for engineers, so too, is the Enron crash for managers, says Harvard Business School professor Malcolm S. Salter. Yet what have we learned?
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