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- Article
Agility Hacks
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Ranjay Gulati
In the past 20 years, the agile approach to improving products, services, and processes has swept the business world. Rooted in software development, agile has spread to many other functions, and some companies have turned much of their organization, including the...
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- Article
Drive Innovation with Better Decision-Making
By: Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards and Taran Swan
Despite their embrace of agile methods, many firms striving to innovate are struggling to produce breakthrough ideas. A key culprit, according to the authors, is an outdated, inefficient approach to decision-making. Today’s discovery-driven innovation processes involve...
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- October 2021 (Revised January 2022)
- Supplement
Michael Ku and Global Clinical Supply at Pfizer Inc.: Bringing Hope to Patients (C)
By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards
This case is the third installment in a series about the 10-year cultural and digital transformation of Pfizer’s Global Clinical Supply organization. In 2011, Michael Ku became Pfizer’s Vice President of Global Clinical Supply (GCS) after the company had undergone...
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Keywords:
Digital Transformation;
Clinical Supply Chain;
COVID-19;
Vaccine;
Agile;
Innovation and Invention;
Change Management;
Organizational Culture;
Transformation;
Leadership;
Corporate Strategy;
Health Pandemics;
Crisis Management;
Mission and Purpose;
Health Care and Treatment;
Supply Chain Management
- 2021
- Working Paper
Multiple Team Membership, Turnover, and On-Time Delivery: Evidence from Construction Services
By: Hise O. Gibson, Bradely R. Staats and Ananth Raman
Firms who want to compete in dynamic markets are finding that they must build more agile operations to ensure success. One way for a firm to increase organizational agility is to allocate employees to multiple project teams, simultaneously—a practice known as multiple...
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- June 2021
- Case
Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani at avatarin (A)
By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards
In 2016, Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani, aeronautical engineers at All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., began to wonder why, in a world of accelerating globalization and digital connectivity, those who lived in far-remote villages or impoverished urban areas could not...
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Keywords:
Agility;
Ecosystem;
Innovation Ecosystems;
Crowdsourcing;
Open Innovation;
Partnership;
Government;
Collaboration;
Co-creation;
Purpose;
Impact;
Social Impact;
Movement;
Organizational Behavior;
Organizational Ambidexterity;
Ambidexterity;
Culture;
Culture Change;
Global Teams;
Experimentation;
Space;
Airline Industry;
Start-up;
Platform Business;
Platform Strategy;
Platform;
Digital;
Robotics;
Robots;
Mobility;
Strategy;
COVID-19;
Intrapreneurship;
Public-private Partnership;
XPRIZE;
Space Industry;
Avatar;
Telepresence;
Innovation Lab;
Innovation and Invention;
Technological Innovation;
Partners and Partnerships;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Alignment;
Leadership;
Leading Change;
Diversity;
Organizational Culture;
Change Management;
Entrepreneurship;
Transportation Industry;
Aerospace Industry;
Japan
- June 2021
- Case
Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani at avatarin (A) (Abridged)
By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards
In 2016, Akira Fukabori and Kevin Kajitani, aeronautical engineers at All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., began to wonder why, in a world of accelerating globalization and digital connectivity, those who lived in far-remote villages or impoverished urban areas could not...
View Details
Keywords:
Agility;
Ecosystem;
Innovation Ecosystems;
Innovation;
Crowdsourcing;
XPRIZE;
Open Innovation;
Partnership;
Government;
Collaboration;
Co-creation;
Purpose;
Impact;
Social Impact;
Movement;
Organizational Behavior;
Organizational Ambidexterity;
Ambidexterity;
Culture;
Culture Change;
Global Teams;
Experimentation;
Space;
Space Industry;
Airline Industry;
Start-up;
Platform Business;
Platform Strategy;
Platform;
Digital;
Robotics;
Robots;
Avatar;
Telepresence;
Innovation Lab;
Mobility;
COVID-19;
Intrapreneurship;
Public-private Partnership;
Innovation and Invention;
Technological Innovation;
Partners and Partnerships;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Alignment;
Leadership;
Leading Change;
Diversity;
Organizational Culture;
Change Management;
Strategy;
Entrepreneurship;
Transportation Industry;
Aerospace Industry;
Japan
- April 2021
- Case
Transforming BlackBerry: From Smartphones to Software
By: Ranjay Gulati and Nicole Tempest Keller
On the verge of failure, BlackBerry brought in John Chen as CEO in 2013 to orchestrate a bold turnaround of the company. Once an iconic leader in the smartphone market, BlackBerry was best known for its tactile QWERTY keyboard, strong security, and a focus on business...
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- February 2021
- Case
Enterprise Agility at Komerční Banka
By: Euvin Naidoo, Suraj Srinivasan and Sarah Gulick
In 2017, Jan Juchelka, the new CEO of Komerční Banka, identified the need for the bank to start an enterprise wide agile transformation. He started by working to create a sense of urgency to kick-start a process to enable the level of service delivery to customers he...
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- February 2021
- Tutorial
What are Agile Teams?
By: Tsedal Neeley
This video explores the elements that constitute agile teams. From its history in the "Agile Manifesto," this philosophy for organizational behavior prioritizes working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and...
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- January–February 2021
- Other Article
Stand-up Meetings Inhibit Innovation
By: Andy Wu and Dagny Dukach
An interview with Harvard Business School professor Andy Wu is presented. Wu discusses the usefulness of stand-up meetings, their role in agile management practices, and their impact on innovations and creativity by the participants.
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- December 2020
- Article
What Has Changed? The Impact of COVID Pandemic on the Technology and Innovation Management Research Agenda
By: Gerard George, Karim R. Lakhani and Phanish Puranam
Whereas the pandemic has tested the agility and resilience of organizations, it forces a deeper look at the assumptions underlying theoretical frameworks that guide managerial decisions and organizational practices. In this commentary, we explore the impact of the...
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Nonprofit Boards: It Is time to Lift Your Gaze and See the System
By: Shamal Dass, Kristy Muir and V. Kasturi Rangan
Nonprofits the world over have faced significant crises in 2020, leaving them and their constituents in precarious positions. Responses to these crises have demonstrated incredible agility. However, they have also demonstrated that the first two levels of governance...
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- September 2020
- Case
&pizza: Leading an ‘Employee-First’ Company During a Period of Societal Challenges
By: Francesca Gino and Jeffrey Huizinga
&Pizza is a pizza chain that in the spring of 2020 finds its business completely up-ended by the COVID-19 crisis and shut-down. Many companies in the restaurant and hospitality sector responded to the crisis by shutting down their operations and laying off employees....
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- September 2, 2020
- Article
What Really Prevents Companies from Thriving in a Recession
By: Ranjay Gulati and Mark Wiedman
Even in the best of times, many companies fail to fund and staff new opportunities. As decades of research have shown, leaders fear threats to their status and power and so become attached to existing businesses and budgets, regarding them as entitlements and as a...
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- July 2020
- Case
Steve Kerr: Coaching the Golden State Warriors to Joy, Compassion, Competition, and Mindfulness
By: Francesca Gino and Jeffrey Huizinga
Steve Kerr, coach of the 3-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors, reflects on his values-driven leadership style in the wake of a challenging season.
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Keywords:
Coaching;
Values;
Basketball;
Agility;
Leadership;
Values and Beliefs;
Diversity;
Leadership Style;
Sports
- June 2020
- Case
Agile Consumer Product Innovation with Alibaba's Tmall Innovation Center
By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and James Palano
Consumer products companies were beset by changes on all sides during the 2010s. Customers were increasingly turning to ecommerce platforms rather than shopping in-store. Meanwhile, nimble, digitally-savvy competitors were gaining market share by capitalizing on the...
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- June 2020
- Teaching Note
Catalant's Operating System for the Future of Work
By: Christopher Stanton, William R. Kerr, James Palano and Kendall Smith
This case touches on the topics of project-based work, agile methodology, and skill and talent management through Catalant's evolution as a company. Catalant’s journey to becoming a software platform and talent marketplace provides context for students to explore new...
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- 2020
- Other Unpublished Work
An Operating Model for the Next Normal: Lessons from Agile Organizations in the Crisis
By: Christopher Handscomb, Deepak Mahadevan, Lars Schor, Marcus Sieberer, Euvin Naidoo and Suraj Srinivasan
Companies with agile practices embedded in their operating models have managed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis better than their peers. Here’s what helped them cope.
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- 2020
- Working Paper
Iterative Coordination and Innovation
By: Sourobh Ghosh and Andy Wu
Agile management practices from the software industry continue to transform the way organizations innovate across industries, yet they remain understudied in the organizations literature. We investigate the widespread Agile practice of iterative coordination: frequent...
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