Monthly Archives: February 2012

A few years ago, while I was a first-year Ph.D. student in the engineering school at Johns Hopkins University, I had a business idea. I had taken two excellent courses on microelectronics, and decided that I could build a business … Continue reading →

When given a choice between getting $1,000 with certainty, or having a 50% chance of getting $2,500, most people will choose the certain $1,000 — even though the expected value (the average value over repeated trials) of the uncertain option … Continue reading →

We all know why leap years exist, right? Our calendars get out of synch with the solar system so we must periodically get our human calendars back on track with the celestial ones. In other words, February 29th is all … Continue reading →

Believe it or not, Pixar was once a scrappy startup. The multi-billion dollar juggernaut with a near-perfect record of churning out hit after hit today was once “a bunch of guys going on their gut” according to Andrew Stanton, a … Continue reading →

While researching our forthcoming book — Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck — my co-authors and I made a fascinating discovery: a surprising number of company founders and business-builders attribute much of their success to luck. Almost 25% of those we … Continue reading →

Between 1945 and 1990, Japan went from rags to riches, entering the ranks of the world’s wealthiest countries and posing a direct challenge to U.S. competitiveness. Today, China seems to be replicating Japan’s economic miracle — with a population 10 … Continue reading →

Imagine that you wanted a new home theater system. But instead of spending hours in Best Buy or on Amazon comparing configurations and assembling the parts you needed, you could signal what you wanted and a company would create it … Continue reading →

The United States desperately needs an energy policy. It is fundamental to our economic growth, environmental sustainability and national security. With five percent of the world’s population and 20 percent of its energy use, the U.S. has an obligation to … Continue reading →

How useful would it be to identify the problem-solvers within your business? They’re called entrepreneurs, and not all of them are created the same. The ability to identify entrepreneurs empowers organizations to effectively manage their workforce. Through research, we’re beginning … Continue reading →

Editor’s Note: This fictionalized case study will appear in a forthcoming issue of Harvard Business Review, along with commentary from experts and readers. If you’d like your comment to be considered for publication, please be sure to include your full … Continue reading →