July 2015
Innovation
Watson Is Just the Beginning
How machine learning will change education, product development, and decision-making.
Is Your Company Culture Too Strong?
A diversity of viewpoints can help organizations weather disruption.
Entrepreneurship
Building the Right Team to Scale a Startup
Three crucial elements to growing your business.
When Collaboration Takes a Toll on Productivity
A look at the cost of collaboration among highly skilled workers.
Data Analytics
Can Computers Make Us Better Thinkers?
IBM Watson creator David Ferrucci on the thought partnership at the heart of machine learning.
Policy
The Economics of the Illegal Drug Market
An argument for sentencing dealers based on the purity of their product.
Finance & Accounting
Going Beyond “Buy Low, Sell High”
What is risky to short-horizon investors may not be risky to long-term investors.
Data Analytics
Making Data Work Harder for You— Podcast Transcript
A strategic approach to data analytics starts with asking the right questions.
June 2015
Healthcare
Who Bears the Cost of the Uninsured? Nonprofit Hospitals.
When governments do not provide health insurance, hospitals must provide it instead.
Entrepreneurship
Overcoming the “Buzzsaw of Quiet” around Your Startup
Tips for how to optimize the product engine.
The Risks of a Good Reputation
How reputation and trust function in commercial transactions and the sharing economy.
We Trust Reputation. Should We?
The power of reputation might expose us to greater risk.
Can Wikipedia Be Trusted?
Crowdsourced Wikipedia entries are more biased than Encyclopaedia Britannica articles.
It Pays to Be Honest—Even When You’re Selling Junk
Disclosing flaws can drive auction bids up.
Marketing
The Risks of a Good Reputation— Podcast Transcript
How reputation and trust function in commercial transactions and the sharing economy. A transcript of this month’s Insight In Person podcast.
May 2015
Healthcare
Collaborating to Save Lives
For an integrated healthcare organization, culture is the key to operational efficiency.
Data Analytics
Data Visualization: More Than Pretty Pictures
Data visualization techniques are integral to memorable and persuasive messaging.
The Ultimate Data Set
Computational social science aims to discover universal facts.
Data Analytics
A Leader's Guide to Data Analytics
A working knowledge of data science can help you lead with confidence.
April 2015
Marketing
The Superfluousness of Realtors
Homes sold through Realtors do not garner a price premium over ones sold by owners.
Finance & Accounting
What Killed the Economy?
How deal complexity in commercial mortgage-backed securities contributed to the financial crisis.
Finance & Accounting
Let the Buyer Be Aware
A common error naïve homebuyers make helps explain housing boom and bust cycles.
Finance & Accounting
Podcast: Steering Clear of Financial Crises
Research into the causes of boom and bust cycles in real estate can guide investors.
The Downside of Downplaying Pension Costs
Current accounting standards hamper accurate reporting of states’ pension obligations and exacerbate fiscal problems.
Creative Cultures Fuel Growth
Martin Agency CEO Matt Williams shares nine simple rules for keeping corporate cultures creative.
Innovation
What Does Not Kill Your Business Makes It Stronger
New ventures—and established companies—need a “killer experiment” to test their viability.
March 2015
Finance & Accounting
Maximize the Returns, Lower the Risk
Using the right tools to grow savings and improve investment outcomes.
Entrepreneurship
How to Exploit Your Startup’s Constraints
Good entrepreneurs use their lack of resources to their advantage.
Finance & Accounting
Using the Lure of a Lottery to Spur Savings
Now legal in the US, prize-linked savings accounts use the excitement of a jackpot drawing to encourage people to grow savings.
Leadership
How to Keep Employees Motivated in the Absence of Promotions
Other incentives can keep employees happy in flat organizations.
Leadership
A Board’s Eye View of Reputation Management
When bad news surfaces, what is your plan?
Economics
To Bluff or Not to Bluff
Game theory says it’s pure mathematics. But human psychology matters, too.
Marketing
Offering Points and Prizes Can Draw Customers
We overestimate how likely we are to win, making us willing to take a gamble on low-cost purchases.
February 2015
Leadership
See How the Right Diversity of Skills Can Help Your Team
Mix and match NBA lineups with this infographic.
Strategy
Using Data to Call the Shots
Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey talks leadership, decision making, and crunching numbers in the NBA.
Entrepreneurship
Turning Problems into Profit
A transportation entrepreneur shows how to launch and grow a B2B start-up.
Leadership
Podcast: Mining NBA Data for Leadership Lessons
Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey and Kellogg School faculty talk data analytics and team composition.
Leadership
How Diverse Should Your Team Be?
NBA data point to a sweet spot in balancing diversity and similarity of skills.
January 2015
Finance & Accounting
When Uncertainty Lingers, Growth Lags
Companies’ reluctance to act in the wake of a country’s economic shock can inhibit growth as much as the original shock itself.
Finance & Accounting
What Will It Take to Regulate the Stock Markets?
Better data and better cooperation are needed.
How Citibank’s Culture Allowed Corruption to Thrive
Leaders can learn from a whistle-blower’s case against CitiMortgage.
Leadership
Social Class Affects Why We Lie
The powerful are more likely to lie for their own benefit, and the powerless to help others.
Leadership
Why Bad Bosses Sabotage Their Teams
Bosses who crave power but fear they might lose it can undermine their teams’ productivity.
Transforming Mining into a Development Industry
Can the industry become a responsible, reliable partner for local communities and the environment?
December 2014
Nonprofit Collaborations Can Be Beneficial but Tricky
The complicated business of growing organizational mission.
Finance & Accounting
Understanding How Stock Traders Forage for Profit
Day traders behave like bees when deciding what to buy and sell.
Finance & Accounting
Is Your Household Liquid Enough?
Ample cash reserves aid households when faced with the unexpected.
Marketing
What Donors Need to Hear to Open the Checkbook
Insights from marketing on how charities can grow by appealing to different kinds of donors.
November 2014
Marketing
Marketing Gets Personal
Leading executives explain how technology is changing the field—and who will lead the charge
Leadership
Where the Employees Are the Leaders
Prioritizing employee leadership helps Barry-Wehmiller differentiate in manufacturing
Marketing
It’s Not About You. It’s About Me.
Scarcity can drive us to altruism—when it serves our own interests
Policy
Keeping in Justice’s Good Graces
A discussion with Aviv Nevo on his tenure at the Department of Justice
October 2014
Finance & Accounting
How Malls Die—and How Your Business Could Be Next
When retail-store locations go under, they drag nearby stores down too.
Leadership
For Better or for Work
Insights from intimate relationships could soon find their way into the office
Build a Better Brainstorm
How to capture all the ideas in the room.
Networking Is a Dirty Business
Seeking out professional connections leaves people feeling morally, and physically, dirty.
September 2014
Too Much Good Press?
A Saudi homeware company’s great reputation might just be hampering its growth.
Economics
Is Economic Growth a Question of Culture?
A decade of research shows how culture seeps into economic decisions.
Leadership
When Marketers Step into the C-Suite
Four top executives on building credibility with company leadership
Strategy
Getting the Growth Strategy Right
In industries ripe for supercompetitors, adopting the right growth strategy is key.
August 2014
Leadership
Book Excerpt from Invent, Reinvent, Thrive
Larry Levy reinvented his real estate business as a restaurant business, but his biggest success came when he reinvented again
Leadership
Is Constant Reinvention the Key to Success?
An interview with Lloyd Shefsky about Invent, Reinvent, Thrive.
Economics
Online Brands Show Their Stuff Offline
Building brick-and-mortar showrooms can have big payoffs for online retailers.
Leadership
Pump Up the Jams and Feel Powerful
The right background music can affect how you construe information and your willingness to take initiative.
Policy
The Hidden Benefits of Unemployment Insurance
A pioneering study reveals that the benefits of unemployment insurance include reductions in mortgage defaults and improved access to credit.
July 2014
Leadership
Are Bean Counters More Selfish?
Emphasizing a “calculative mindset” encourages people to act more selfishly and less ethically when making decisions.
Strategy
Finding the Right Justifiers
In B2B sales, suppliers and purchasers can work together to streamline nonstrategic purchasing for the good of both parties.
Marketing
How to Achieve Focused Growth
An interview with Sanjay Khosla and Mohan Sawhney about their new book, Fewer, Bigger, Bolder.
June 2014
Marketing
Parents, Listen Up! (Kids, Never Mind!)
Marketers should tout the health benefits of their food products to parents—but shouldn’t let children get wind of them.
Strategy
Bonus Chapter from Roadside MBA: Profitable Growth in the Heartland
What happens when three economists hit the road in search of strategy insights from small- and medium-sized businesses?
Strategy
An Interview with Mike Mazzeo about Roadside MBA
Backyard lessons for entrepreneurs, executives, and small business owners.
May 2014
Marketing
Excessive Expectations
How trumpeting your product as the absolute best might set you up for a fall.
Politics & Elections
Happy Voters or Happy Outcomes?
In corporations, academia, and the papal conclave, transparent voting and voter privacy interact in surprisingly complex ways.
Total Compensation
An interview about trends in CEO pay.
Marketing
Cookies, Cocktails, and Charitable Giving
Remind potential donors of the luxuries they could purchase instead—and watch donations rise.
Marketing
The Customers You Do Not Want
If these “harbingers of failure” love what you do, you are in trouble
April 2014
Leadership
The All-Star Pitcher’s Advantage
An infographic illustrating the connection between pitcher status and umpire bias.
Innovation
The First Eighteen Months
An interview with Rob Wolcott about surviving as a corporate innovator
Economics
The Sluggish Multitasker
Cognitive demands aside, multitasking can be inefficient and demoralizing
Policy
Red Ink, Red-Eyed Judges, and the High Costs of Crowded Bankruptcy Courts
The timing of a bankruptcy filing shapes the verdict and has consequences for all of us
Leadership
Calling a Strike a Strike
In Major League Baseball, a pitcher’s star status leads to favorable calls
March 2014
Social Impact
Corporate Activism Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
An interview about how social movements continue to shape corporate behavior.
