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01 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

How Much Time Should CEOs Devote to Customers?

there are two reasons why CEOs should be cautious about overdoing the percentage of time interfacing with customers. First, marketing and selling should be a prime task of the CEO's direct reports, the individual business unit leaders.... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

05 Jan 2016
Working Paper Summaries

The Integrity of Private Third-party Compliance Monitoring

Keywords: by Michael W. Toffel & Jodi L. Short; Manufacturing; Public Administration; Accounting; Service

15 May 2015
Research & Ideas

Kids Benefit From Having a Working Mom

stayed home full time, according to a new study. Men raised by working mothers are more likely to contribute to household chores and spend more time caring for family members. “There are very few things that... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

01 Feb 2023
What Do You Think?

Will Hybrid Work Strategies Pull Down Long-Term Performance?

at prescribed times or days of the week. According to Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom, who has studied remote work for years, totally remote workers constituted 15 percent of the US workforce as of early... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

31 Aug 2021
Book

Feeling Powerless at Work? Time to Agitate, Innovate, and Orchestrate

Although CEOs hold positions of power, many can feel powerless in certain ways—particularly when it comes to influencing the behaviors and performance of their employees. Yet perhaps they aren’t taking the time to understand what drives... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

September 2010 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Assembling Smartphones: Takt Time ≠ Cycle Time?

By: Willy Shih and Ethan Bernstein

The case was prepared to be used as part of a process review in the first year Technology and Operations Management course at HBS. It offers students an opportunity to discuss the context of a manufacturing process choice, and then examine actual production numbers... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Research and Development; Design; Six Sigma; Measurement and Metrics; Production

May 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Managing the Future of Work

By: William R. Kerr, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

By 2019, leaders from the public and private sector had become increasingly anxious about how advanced technologies and aging global populations could affect labor markets, workplaces, and workers’ lives. Some analysts forecasted that hundreds of millions of workers... View Details

Keywords: Labor Markets; Workplace; Employment; Technological Innovation; Demographics; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Problems and Challenges; Opportunities

20 Aug 2008
Op-Ed

The Time is Right for Creative Capitalism

capitalism is "an approach where governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy Koehn

09 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Industry Self-Regulation: What’s Working (and What’s Not)?

level. As Toffel sees it, there are four angles: how the rules are designed, who adopts them, whether and how compliance is monitored, and whether these rules actually achieve what they purport to achieve. Most studies that have examined industry-initiated programs... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

02 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Casino Payoff: Hands-Off Management Works Best

At the gambling meccas that employ them, they are called "casino hosts"—essentially front-line employees with nevertheless big responsibilities. These staffers work to develop one-on-one relationships with high-rollers to make sure they... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Entertainment & Recreation

February 2004 (Revised March 2006)
Case

Pratt & Whitney: Engineering Standard Work

By: H. Kent Bowen and Courtney Purrington

As the engineering of state-of-the-art jet engines becomes more and more complex, Pratt & Whitney leaders face major competitive problems. Product development projects are not meeting the cost, quality, and lead-time targets. The leadership develops a design,... View Details

Keywords: Design; Engineering; Cost; Knowledge Management; Time Management; Product Launch; Standards; Product Development; Problems and Challenges; Quality; Creativity; Competitive Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

09 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization

functions impacted by a single issue, can be used as needed to facilitate rapid decisions. Many companies measure strategy execution with KPIs assessed annually or maybe quarterly. In times of crisis, consider assessing more frequently.... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

05 Oct 2020
Book

Want to Be Happier? Make More Free Time

hesitation, she opted for the higher-paying position in a new city, figuring it would be an adventure with her partner of eight years and lead to more exciting work opportunities down the road. It’s a choice many people face at key View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

April 2023 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Levels: The Remote, Asynchronous, Deep Work Management System

By: Joseph B. Fuller and George Gonzalez

Levels is a highly innovative startup in the health care space. They intend to revolutionize health by linking behavior—eating, exercise, sleeping, etc.—to changes in metabolism. They believe metabolic health can be managed through careful monitoring of changes in... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Business Startups; Organizational Culture; Management Style; Technology Industry; United States

December 2020 (Revised October 2021)
Case

Responsive Working at PepsiCo UK (A): Streamlining a Turnaround

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Nancy Boghossian Staples

Facing a significant decline in revenues in 2016, David Gwilliam, Head of Transformation at PepsiCo UK introduced a new way of working (“Responsive Working”), which encompasses a set of work practices and some new team structures. The work practices comprise a set of 9... View Details

Keywords: SLAM Teams; Turnaround; Groups and Teams; Employees; Training; Decision Making; Planning; Performance Improvement; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United Kingdom; Europe