January 2016
Social Impact
How Hateful Rhetoric Can Create a Vicious Cycle of Dehumanization
The way we feel perceived can have dangerous consequences.
December 2015
Leadership
Podcast: Get the Most from Your Newest Team Members
Onboarding advice for organizations big and small.
Social Impact
The Danger of Dehumanizing Others
People who think other groups are less evolved are more likely to support retaliation against them.
Data Analytics
Blinded by Statistical Significance
Putting too much stock in an arbitrary threshold may lead to bad decisions.
Who Else Is Affected by Activist Investors?
Debtholders are bystanders with a lot on the line.
Operations
A Gentle Nudge Can Increase Participation in MOOCs
Reminders to collaborate benefit students in massive open online courses.
Marketing
How We Shop Differently on Our Phones
What’s in your cart? Depends on the device you are using.
Marketing
You Can Taste the Benevolence
If your customers know you donate to charity, will they like your products more?
Social Impact
Design Thinking Isn’t Always the Answer
The most durable solutions for social change come from within communities.
Leadership
How to Master Situational Leadership
A military perspective on building trust up and down the ladder.
Innovation
Does Your Company Need a “MacGyver”?
A scrappy insider might be the best innovator for your business.
November 2015
Careers
A DIY Guide to Career Growth
Eight ways to develop your potential—instead of waiting for your manager to take the lead.
Strategy
To Grow Your Company, Create Products from Services
For service-based businesses, scaling requires a strategy shift.
Marketing
When Retail Prices Cross the Line
Manufacturers should be strategic in enforcing minimum advertised price policies.
Strategy
Scaling Tips for Business Growth
A focus on your company’s unique capabilities can lead to sustainable growth.
Social Impact
Communities Are Partners, Not Beneficiaries
Advice for getting global health projects off the ground.
Finance & Accounting
Do High-Frequency Traders Deserve Their Bad Rap?
Though suspicions abound, HFTs generally help markets function and grow.
Leadership
How to Succeed as a Chief Growth Officer
Five ways leaders can challenge the status quo to encourage growth.
Does Creativity Breed Entitlement?
Companies that put creative employees on a pedestal encourage bad behavior.
Entrepreneurship
Growing a Company from Startup to Sale
A three-part podcast details how Enjoy Life Foods thrives in a market it helped create.
October 2015
Data Analytics
5 Ways to Attract and Retain Data Scientists
How directly contributing to the business can help analytics talent thrive.
Leadership
Podcast: The Power of Persuasive Storytelling
Stories hook your business audience and get them to take action.
Organizations
Poach Our Employees, Please
How hiring an employee from a related company can directly benefit both the poacher and the poached.
Marketing
What Do Customers Pay When Wholesale Prices Change?
Increases and decreases are not passed through the same way.
Entrepreneurship
When to Pass the Hat
Strategic timing can help startups get the most from their fundraising.
I (Don’t) Feel Your Pain
Having been there does not always increase empathy.
Social Impact
When Higher Pay Attracts the Wrong Job Candidates
Labeling jobs as lucrative can backfire for socially minded organizations.
September 2015
What Chinese Consumers Want
Western Companies doing business in China need to ask the right questions.
No Contract? No Problem
How the Kenyan flower industry thrives in the absence of formal contracts.
Companies, Choose Your Name Wisely
The right name can signal that you are a safe bet.
Operations
Why Power Companies Love Smart Meters
Smart meters provide richer data, enabling smarter pricing strategies and a smoother electricity supply chain.
Entrepreneurship
A Crowdfunding App that Pays the Bills
A startup in Kenya captures an underserved market.
Leadership
Podcast: How to Rid Your Company of Toxic Employees
Tips for how to avoid hiring them, manage their improvement, or decide when to let them go.
Four Ways Cuba Can Become More Business-Friendly
What will it take to make the country attractive to investors?
Organizations
Hire a Superstar or Dump a Toxic Worker?
Difficult employees are a bigger drag on your company than you think.
Finance & Accounting
Credit Where Credit Is Due
New ways of assessing credit worthiness could open up access to the global banking system.
August 2015
Marketing
Philip Kotler on Marketing’s Higher Purpose
How social marketing can be a force for good.
Innovation
Creating Urgency around Corporate Innovation
What intrapreneurs in established firms must do to succeed.
Economics
Two Distinct Motivations Drive Violence against Americans in the Middle East
Lessons about cultural dominance have implications for the business world.
Organizations
How a Restaurant Chain Keeps Its Independent Spirit
At Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, growth begins with a learning mindset.
Finance & Accounting
Did Irrational Exuberance Cause Vegas’ Housing Bubble?
Why a city surrounded by open land saw prices spike.
Finance & Accounting
What Went Wrong at AIG?
Unpacking the insurance giant’s collapse during the 2008 financial crisis.
July 2015
Innovation
How to Tango With Startups
Kellogg’s BrandVoice partnership with Forbes looks at how venture thinking can spur innovation in corporate settings
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.
