Publications

22 Oct 2018
News

New Health Options for Small-Business Employees

How Leaders Kill Meaning at Work

In this article, authors Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer seek to help C-suite managers understand the traps that can impair the productivity of their workforce. By identifying the issues that regularly challenge the efficiency and creativity of employees, the... View Details

January 2007 (Revised December 2008)
Case

Mercy Corps: Positioning the Organization to Reach New Heights

By: Allen S. Grossman and Caroline Joan King

Mercy Corps, the world's 5th largest international relief and development agency, is at a turning point. The nonprofit's opportunities to grow and serve a larger number of beneficiaries are unprecedented. By looking at the unique relationship between headquarters and... View Details

Keywords: Business Offices; Business Headquarters; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Nonprofit Organizations

March 2021
Case

The U.S. Home Improvement Sector in 2020

By: José Alvarez and David Lane

Provides an overview of the U.S. home improvement sector in 2020, reviewing sources of growth in the decade ending in 2020, with special attention to the impact of COVID-19 on market leaders Home Depot and Lowe’s and the spike in online revenues for both. Also noted... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Trends; Leading Change; Operations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance; Technology; Construction Industry; United States

2003
Case

Corning Microarray Technologies

By: Vijay Govindarajan, Chris Trimble and Gautam Bellur

In mid-2000, the scientific community reached a momentous milestone—the complete mapping of the human genome. Researchers in the field of genomics were anxious to dig into a tremendous array of newly possible scientific inquiries, and needed efficient experimental... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Genetics; Manufacturing Industry; Industrial Products Industry

March 1995
Case

Procter & Gamble: Improving Consumer Value Through Process Redesign

The evolution of Procter & Gamble's development of efficient consumer response (ECR) involved a series of trials, a resolve to distribute diapers on the basis of product movement, a conscious effort to move to a new means of distribution across all lines, a first cut... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Consumer Products Industry

21 Feb 2020
News

“Businesses Should Use Technology To Disrupt Their Core Competencies”

Article

Weak Corporate Insolvency Rules: The Missing Driver of Zombie Lending

By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina

"Zombie lending"—lending to less-productive firms at subsidized rates—can help banks with misaligned incentives in the short run, but it prolongs economic downturns. We propose that inefficient resolution of insolvency is a significant contributor to this problem. We... View Details

Keywords: Zombie Credit; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financing and Loans; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation

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October 2019
Supplement

Airbus vs. Boeing (L): Discontinuing the A380 (February 2019)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes Airbus’ February 2019 announcement that it was ending production of the A380, with the last delivery scheduled for 2021. The announcement followed an order cancellation by Emirates, a major customer of the A380. The A380 had faced significant... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Air Transportation; Projects; Competition; Air Transportation Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; Europe

August 1974 (Revised March 1986)
Case

Architects Collaborative, Inc.

Although internationally recognized for quality design, the collaborative's billings have been on a plateau for four years and they are losing jobs to architects with sophisticated marketing practices. The main issue is how marketing can be integrated into a design... View Details

Keywords: Design; Marketing Strategy; Creativity; Service Industry

18 May 2012
News

Surf's up

05 Sep 2016
News

3 Reasons Why Trump Needs to Start an Advertising Blitz

March 2022
Case

Unilever: Remote Work in Manufacturing

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Susie L. Ma

In December 2021, Unilever—one of the world’s largest producers of consumer goods—was in the midst of a pilot project to digitize its manufacturing facilities and enable remote work for factory employees. This was possible because of an earlier project to retrofit a... View Details

Keywords: Change; Globalization; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Human Resources; Jobs and Positions; Operations; Education; Training; Manufacturing Industry

24 Jan 2017
Blog Post

A Journey From HBS to Human Resources

as the Head of North American Private Equity HR and Talent Development, she uses her HBS skill sets to think strategically about their human capital. Gain insights into how her experience at HBS helped her become more efficient at talent... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Health Care; Manufacturing

July 2021 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?

By: Eva Ascarza and Emilie Billaud

This case explores the tradeoffs between product personalization and simplicity as companies grow. The case presents an opportunity to understand whether and how each of these approaches enables and/or limits companies’ abilities to provide customer satisfaction while... View Details

Keywords: Simplicity; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customization and Personalization; Customer Satisfaction; Performance Efficiency; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Europe; Germany

January 2016
Case

TransDigm Inc.

By: Eric Van den Steen, Kavita Mathews and Alon Galor

Transdigm had been very successful with a PE-like business model: it acquired smaller producers of aircraft components and improved their profits, mainly by increasing efficiency and applying value pricing. By 2014, Transdigm had completed almost 50 acquisitions. Its... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Price; Competitive Strategy; Air Transportation Industry

2000
Other Unpublished Work

Career Concerns and Staged Investment: Evidence from the Venture Capital Industry

By: Malcolm Baker

I develop a model in which career concerns lead to inefficient reinvestment decisions. Managers have incentives to inflate interim returns by continuing bad projects and delaying write-offs. In the venture capital industry, the syndication of follow-on investments can... View Details

Keywords: Performance Efficiency; Valuation; Venture Capital; Investment; Decisions; Motivation and Incentives; Quality

Read Now

In July 2019, Graphic Packaging CEO Michael Doss was proposing a $600 million investment in a new machine to produce coated recycled board (CRB), a type of paper packaging used for consumer products (cups, cereal boxes, beverage boxes, etc.) that utilized recycled... View Details

August 2016 (Revised November 2019)
Case

Baskits Inc.

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Soon after Robin Kovitz (MBA 2007) acquired Baskits Inc., the largest gift basket company in Canada, she became convinced that the business needed to make significant operational improvements. In her first year as CEO, she introduced an ERP system to help with sales... View Details

Keywords: Production; Supply Chain; Performance Improvement; Consumer Products Industry; Canada