Publications

April 2008
Module Note

Improvement with Customer-Operators

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Taught as the third module in a Harvard Business School course on Managing Service Operations: Understanding the Customer Operating Role (606-092). Explores how firms can systematically leverage their customer-operators in the organizational improvement process is... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Performance Improvement; Customer Focus and Relationships; Framework; Employees; Business Model; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design

10 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

Key to Doing Your Best at Work? Be Yourself

deeper relationship with your colleagues. And I have research that shows that if you are among a minority and you’re going through an experience where you are feeling excluded, authenticity actually can buffer against that experience.... View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette

February 20, 2014
Article

How to Thrive While Leading a Family Business

By: Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer

This article explores the differences between family business executives who thrive and those who struggle. It discusses how family business environments are inherently complex due to the intertwinement of work and life. Thriving leaders exhibit four key behaviors:... View Details

Keywords: Family and Family Relationships; Work-Life Balance; Family Ownership; Outcome or Result; Leadership Style

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24 Jul 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, July 24, 2018

compared to a market price of $23. Elizabeth Kemp, the portfolio manager of a long-only technology fund at Sand Hill Road Capital, had bought 500,000 shares at the IPO price and had to decide whether to... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

2014
Working Paper

The Nobel Prize: A 'Heritage-based' Brand-oriented Network

By: Mats Urde and Stephen A. Greyser

Purpose — Understanding the Nobel Prize as a 'true' heritage brand in a networked situation and its management challenges, especially regarding identity and reputation.

Methodology — The Nobel Prize serves as an in-depth case study and is analysed within... View Details

Keywords: Nobel Prize; Heritage Brand; Brand Network; Networked Brand; Brand Within A Network; Brand Orientation; Brand Stewardship; Corporate Brand Identity; Reputation; Networks; Organizations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Brands and Branding

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18 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

'Likes' Lead to Nothing—and Other Hard-Learned Lessons of Social Media Marketing

recently, it has allowed companies to reap creative ideas on product improvements directly from their customers (Lay's flavored potato chips). And it has also managed to get brands into trouble (United Breaks Guitars). The smash hit Old... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Advertising; Technology

11 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Adding Time to Activity-Based Costing

generate increased profits. They provide the link between customer satisfaction and improved financial performance. Scorecard measures of the incidence of unprofitable customers and the magnitude of losses from unprofitable relationships... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

November 2022
Case

Arcos Dorados’ Quest for the Digitalization of Last-Mile Delivery in Colombia

By: Jorge Tamayo, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

In 2018, Francisco Staton, Managing Director of Arcos Dorados in Colombia had to decide on the company’s strategy to expand its food ordering and delivery business in the country. Arcos Dorados stood as McDonald’s largest independent franchisee, and Colombia was one of... View Details

Blog

Which HBS Executive Education Program is Right For Me?

process. We're lucky to have a large portfolio of programs-there is a program for every stage of a career ranging from individual contributors transitioning into managers all the way to board members. We're... View Details

Fall 2014
Article

How to Win in an Omnichannel World

By: David R. Bell, Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno

The omnichannel environment presents new challenges and opportunities for both information and product fulfillment. While all retailers need to effectively and efficiently manage fulfillment and information provision, there are important nuances to how this happens,... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; United States

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January 2013
Supplement

The Great East Japan Earthquake (E): Yamato Transport's Response

By: Hirotaka Takeuchi, Leonard Kosinski, Christina Royce, Anna Stetsovskaya and Evgeny Vasilyev

CEO Kikawa of Yamato Transport gave orders to his managers right after the triple disaster hit the Tohoku region of Japan to do whatever it takes to save lives and not to worry about costs. He also felt that he had to confront the government to make donations to the... View Details

Keywords: Japan; Earthquake; Yamato Transport Company; Natural Disasters; Business and Shareholder Relations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Transportation Industry; Japan

September 2000
Case

Intellectual Property Exchange (A), The

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Gavin Clarkson

As the marketplace for intellectual assets explodes, the mechanisms for liquidity and exchange have not kept pace. Bryan Benoit, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), believes that he has a solution. Working initially with a shoestring development budget, he has... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Intellectual Property; Knowledge Management; Brands and Branding; Problems and Challenges; Networks; Internet

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01 Dec 2019
News

Remix

running throughout—you have to page back to an earlier chapter of Dixon’s life, in 2017. That’s when the bottom dropped out. That fall, she was raising money for a tech/beauty startup called EverythingDid, designed to help women and girls of color View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; photographed by Chris Sorensen; #MeToo; DefJam; Arts, Entertainment

Web

4.2 Student/Faculty Ventures - MBA

new ventures. Conflicts of Interest: Financial or business relationships between students and faculty members have the potential to create conflicts of interest. Such conflicts—real or perceived—are most apparent when a faculty member is... View Details

13 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

When Gender Changes the Negotiation

The last few months have been trying for Maureen Park, the managing director of a small portfolio management firm. The firm's parent company, a large financial services... View Details

Keywords: by Dina W. Pradel, Hannah Riley Bowles & Kathleen L. McGinn

Web

After the Opium War: Treaty Ports and Compradors - A Chronicle of the China Trade

end of the hong monopolies. The Chinese comprador, who served as a trading house employee and manager and sometimes as an independent merchant, became the essential go-between for American traders. Although neither party possessed... View Details

November 1998 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Explo Leisure Products

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Tim Trowac and Dave Rahall, two former investment bankers, skillfully execute the leveraged buyout of a golf ball recycling company after working intensely on their due diligence, writing a business and financial plan, and developing the investment memorandum. Six... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Leveraged Buyouts; Business Plan; Performance; Management Teams; Business Strategy; Financial Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Green Technology Industry; Sports Industry

January 1992 (Revised August 1992)
Case

Lexon Corp. (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine

Lexon Corp. lawyers must decide how to respond to two lawsuits challenging the company's interception of electronic mail on privacy grounds. They must also formulate a company policy on e-mail. One suit was filed by an employee dismissed from her job after asking that... View Details

Keywords: Information; Rights; Managerial Roles; Interpersonal Communication; Employee Relationship Management; Ethics; Lawsuits and Litigation; Computer Industry; California

Article

Embeddedness and New Idea Discussion in Professional Networks: The Mediating Role of Affect-Based Trust

By: Roy Y.J. Chua, M.W. Morris and P. Ingram

This article examines how managers' tendency to discuss new ideas with others in their professional networks depends on the density of shared ties surrounding a given relationship. Consistent with prior research which found that embeddedness enhances information flow,... View Details

Keywords: Information; Networks; Trust