Exploring ideas in strategy, management and how organizations really work.
Rent the shelves At some point almost everyone has been an unwitting participant in the anthropological experiment that is the modern grocery store. From bountiful displays of fresh produce at the entrance that entice with healthy greenery, to staples like…
Things fall apart By the late 2000s the New York law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf had established itself as one of the largest and most prominent in its profession.1 With roots stretching back to the early 20th century, it…
Get it started It’s a safe bet that if you can read this sentence you partly owe that ability to the large quantities of hemoglobin that are being continuously synthesized in your blood. Without this essential molecule your red cells…
Finding what matters The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is a group of scientists and physicians given the formidable responsibility of sorting through the wide array of tests available for major diseases and deciding which should be part of the…
Only one shot The magazine National Geographic was a pioneer in the use of photographs as a way of capturing and presenting the essence of a subject to new audiences. Its contributors would spread out to obscure locations equipped with an array…
Rise and shine At the turn of the twentieth century the new category of ready-to-eat breakfast cereals was blossoming. One of the newer entrants was a product named Grape-Nuts, created by an entrepreneur named C. W. Post and still available…
Costly signals In 1519 explorer Hernando Cortés landed on the eastern coast of present-day Mexico with the mission of continuing the Spanish conquest of the empires covering Central America. The task was daunting given his small crew, the unfamiliar terrain,…
Buckle up By 1974 the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had long known that seat belts were one of the best tools to reduce injuries in automobile accidents, yet many Americans still failed to consistently buckle up when they…
On your marks In the final of the men’s 100-meter dash at the 2008 Beijing Olympics the prohibitive favorite got off to a middling start, with most competitors managing to stay with him through the first half of the race….
In July 2015, the highest-rated restaurant in the United States on review aggregator Yelp wasn’t the newest hotbed of molecular gastronomy, or a bastion of haute cuisine policed by stiff-necked waiters, or the latest concept from a TV-famous chef. No,…