Technology & Operations Management

- October 24, 2023
- Article
10 Beliefs That Get in the Way of Organizational Change

By: Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss

In their new book, Move Fast and Fix Things, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss outline five strategies to help leaders tackle their hardest problems and quickly make change. Their final strategy is to execute your plan with a sense of urgency. They argue that most big organizational problems deserve a more urgent response — a metabolic rate that honors the frustration, mediocrity, and pain of the status quo. To get there you need to strip out distractions, update your assumptions — such as the below 10 beliefs that get in the way of moving fast — and launch yourself over whatever administrative hurdles are in the way of making progress.
- October 24, 2023
- Article
10 Beliefs That Get in the Way of Organizational Change

By: Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss

In their new book, Move Fast and Fix Things, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss outline five strategies to help leaders tackle their hardest problems and quickly make change. Their final strategy is to execute your plan with a sense of urgency. They argue that most big organizational problems deserve a more urgent response — a metabolic rate that...
- October 2024
- Article
Global Mobile Inventors

By: Dany Bahar, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ernest Miguelez and Sara Signorelli

The number of Global Mobile Inventors (GMIs), inventors moving across borders during their career, has increased more than tenfold over the past two decades, and the corridors of mobility have shifted towards a growing presence of emerging markets. We document that GMIs that have patented in a given technology before moving are 70% more likely to be among the pioneering inventors in that technology once they arrive at destination, which we interpret as evidence of knowledge diffusion across borders. Returnees, which are typically inventors from emerging markets that go back after having spent some time in the US and other advanced economies, are twice as likely to file pioneering patents once returned than migrants when arriving abroad. Finally, we find that the more central the GMIs in the network of inventors during the early stages of the technology life-cycle at destination, the faster the technology-specific knowledge is absorbed by local inventors.
- October 2024
- Article
Global Mobile Inventors

By: Dany Bahar, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ernest Miguelez and Sara Signorelli

The number of Global Mobile Inventors (GMIs), inventors moving across borders during their career, has increased more than tenfold over the past two decades, and the corridors of mobility have shifted towards a growing presence of emerging markets. We document that GMIs that have patented in a given technology before moving are 70% more likely to...
- September 2024
- Case
Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (B)

By: Michael W. Toffel, Kenneth P. Pucker and Stacy Straaberg

The Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (B) case encourages students to assess Allbirds’ product development and go-to-market strategies now that Allbirds is a publicly listed company. The (B) case provides a 2024 update on Allbirds including its initial public offering, mounting losses, decreasing share price, and the release of a strategic transformation plan. It also covers co-founders Tim Brown’s and Joey Zwillinger’s transition out of the co-CEO role.
- September 2024
- Case
Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (B)

By: Michael W. Toffel, Kenneth P. Pucker and Stacy Straaberg

The Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (B) case encourages students to assess Allbirds’ product development and go-to-market strategies now that Allbirds is a publicly listed company. The (B) case provides a 2024 update on Allbirds including its initial public offering, mounting losses, decreasing share price, and the release of a strategic...

About the Unit

As the world of operations has changed, so have interests and priorities within the Unit. Historically, the TOM Unit focused on manufacturing and the development of physical products. Over the past several years, we have expanded our research, course development, and course offerings to encompass new issues in information technology, supply chains, and service industries.

The field of TOM is concerned with the design, management, and improvement of operating systems and processes. As we seek to understand the challenges confronting firms competing in today's demanding environment, the focus of our work has broadened to include the multiple activities comprising a firm's "operating core":

the multi-function, multi-firm system that includes basic research, design, engineering, product and process development and production of goods and services within individual operating units;
the networks of information and material flows that tie operating units together and the systems that support these networks;
the distribution and delivery of goods and services to customers.

Recent Publications

10 Beliefs That Get in the Way of Organizational Change

By: Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss

October 24, 2023 |
Article |
Harvard Business Review (website)

In their new book, Move Fast and Fix Things, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss outline five strategies to help leaders tackle their hardest problems and quickly make change. Their final strategy is to execute your plan with a sense of urgency. They argue that most big organizational problems deserve a more urgent response — a metabolic rate that honors the frustration, mediocrity, and pain of the status quo. To get there you need to strip out distractions, update your assumptions — such as the below 10 beliefs that get in the way of moving fast — and launch yourself over whatever administrative hurdles are in the way of making progress.

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business or Company Management

Citation

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Generative AI

By: Michael Parzen and Jo Ellery

October 2024 |
Technical Note |
Faculty Research

Citation

Educators

Prompt Engineering

By: Michael Parzen and Jo Ellery

October 2024 |
Technical Note |
Faculty Research

Citation

Educators

Global Mobile Inventors

By: Dany Bahar, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ernest Miguelez and Sara Signorelli

October 2024 |
Article |
Journal of Development Economics

The number of Global Mobile Inventors (GMIs), inventors moving across borders during their career, has increased more than tenfold over the past two decades, and the corridors of mobility have shifted towards a growing presence of emerging markets. We document that GMIs that have patented in a given technology before moving are 70% more likely to be among the pioneering inventors in that technology once they arrive at destination, which we interpret as evidence of knowledge diffusion across borders. Returnees, which are typically inventors from emerging markets that go back after having spent some time in the US and other advanced economies, are twice as likely to file pioneering patents once returned than migrants when arriving abroad. Finally, we find that the more central the GMIs in the network of inventors during the early stages of the technology life-cycle at destination, the faster the technology-specific knowledge is absorbed by local inventors.

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Immigration; Patents; Knowledge; Technological Innovation

Citation

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Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (B)

By: Michael W. Toffel, Kenneth P. Pucker and Stacy Straaberg

September 2024 |
Case |
Faculty Research

The Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (B) case encourages students to assess Allbirds’ product development and go-to-market strategies now that Allbirds is a publicly listed company. The (B) case provides a 2024 update on Allbirds including its initial public offering, mounting losses, decreasing share price, and the release of a strategic transformation plan. It also covers co-founders Tim Brown’s and Joey Zwillinger’s transition out of the co-CEO role.

Citation

Educators

It’s Time to Unbundle ESG

By: Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel

September 20, 2024 |
Article |
Harvard Business Review (website)

ESG is at an inflection point. It has come to represent a broad and inchoate aspiration for what business should be doing beyond maximizing shareholder value. With ESG advocates on the defensive, business leaders need a new roadmap to determine which factors to incorporate into their business strategies and operations – and their political advocacy – and how they will communicate this to their stakeholders. Leaders should adopt a two-pronged approach: 1) Identify the sustainability issues that have the most potential impact on the bottom line and solve for them; and 2) Identify the most material negative impacts your firm is having on society and solve for them. Both of these require scanning for the biggest opportunities and threats that environmental, social, and governance issues pose to your company’s short- and long-term competitiveness.

Keywords: ESG; ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; ESG Ratings; ESG Reporting; ESG Disclosure; Sustainability; Climate; Climate Finance; Climate Risk; Social Accounting; Investment; Governance; Safety; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Financial Services Industry

Citation

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Leading Culture Change at SEB

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Cat Huang

September 2024 |
Teaching Note |
Faculty Research

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 621-074. The Risk organization at SEB, a leading Nordic financial services group founded in 1856, undertook a culture change program focused on psychological safety, empathic listening, and strategic framing. The program enabled risk organization teams to make progress on strategic challenges and improved decision making processes. Chief Risk Officer Magnus Agustsson believed that the rest of SEB should go through a similar program. But it was not clear how to convince other departments to invest considerable time in developing the soft skills of culture change.

Keywords: Leadership; Risk Management; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Decision Making; Banking Industry; Sweden

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