Lecture 1: Cachon, Gerard, P., Girotra, K. & Netessine, S. (2020). Interesting, Important, and Impactful Operations Management

Question 1

How to achieve Impact?

Answer 1

Impact = Important x Interesting

Question 2

What is an interesting paper?

Answer 2

Interesting paper = Unexpected answer

Question 3

Explain unexpected answer

Answer 3

Unexpected = Should be judged relative to what is assumed to be true given current literature.

Unexpected = “The journey is not important - We care only about the destination”

Question 4

What is an important paper?

Answer 4

Important = A paper that finds a result of significance, broad generality, applicability, or usefulness.

Question 5

What is an unimportant paper?

Answer 5

Unimportant = An unimportant result is often due to an answered question that is too narrowly defined, or of limited use.

Question 6

What is the “trade-off” concerning interesting, important and impact?

Answer 6

Interesting, important and impact = Often a Trade-off, the most interesting questions cannot be answered without sacrificing the impact, which requires importance for example “Broad generality”.