Publications

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22 Jul 2014
News

Hungry for Change

Editor's note: Rob Zeaske was appointed director of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative in July 2020. Read more. As CEO of Second Harvest Heartland, a hunger-relief organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Rob Zeaske (MBA 2002) has a clear understanding of what he's... View Details

Keywords: Agriculture

28 Feb 2014
News

Investment in Infrastructure Will Help Small Businesses Drive Economic Growth

Keywords: Small business; Competitiveness; Transportation

April 2008 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Ti-Tech (A)

By: Benson P. Shapiro, John T. Gourville and Craig E. Cline

This case concerns the selection and scheduling of orders by a small industrial titanium fabricator that recently has been plagued by poor deliveries and a lack of capacity. At the time of the case, Ti-Tech must decide which of four orders to accept, with capacity... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Metals and Minerals; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Supply Chain Management; Performance Capacity; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry

February 2000 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Owens & Minor, Inc. (B)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

After a manager at Owens & Minor, a national medical and surgical distribution company, proposes and develops a formalized activity-based pricing and activity-based management approach to sales and service provision, this case explore the outcome. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Logistics; Distribution; Price; Supply Chain Management; Sales; Outcome or Result; Management Style; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Distribution Industry

27 Aug 2007
Op-Ed

Mattel: Getting a Toy Recall Right

million toys manufactured in China with lead paint and/or loose, potentially dangerous magnets. Clearly Mattel did not have sufficiently tight quality control procedures in its supply chain to compensate for the extra risks of outsourcing... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Consumer Products

13 May 2020
Blog Post

Crisis Leadership with Nikhil Patel: The Critical Importance of Trust

done.” Effective communication must be accompanied with efficiencies in structure. “We have to operate more like a private company in which different departments have their own authority to act without running every decision up the chain... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government; Social Enterprise

03 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 3

supply chain system. When commodity prices became more volatile in 2007 and 2008, executives at Domino's changed the way they worked with suppliers and franchisees to manage costs and risks and better leverage the assets of the supply... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

01 Oct 2002
News

What's Cookin'

Diego–based chain of more than ninety buffet-style restaurants serving fresh salads, soups, pastas, and breads, CEO Michael Mack has implemented a flexible system that allows hourly employees to change their schedule with as little as one... View Details

Keywords: Hanna, Julia

July–August 2019
Article

Coupling Labor Codes of Conduct and Supplier Labor Practices: The Role of Internal Structural Conditions

By: Yanhua Bird, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Exploitive working conditions have spurred companies to pressure their suppliers to adopt labor codes of conduct and to conform their labor practices to the standards set forth in those codes. Yet little is known about whether organizational structures such as codes... View Details

Keywords: Organization Theory; Economic Sociology; Social Responsibility; Sustainability; Auditing; Process Improvement; Organizational Structure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain; Labor; Working Conditions

Find at Harvard

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30 Nov 2017
News

Happy Meals (Are Here Again)

Above: Chris Kempczinski is one of the alumni working to modernize McDonald’s. Nick Karavites owns 24 McDonald’s restaurants in the Chicago area and the surrounding suburbs, and when he visits them, he always keeps his eye out for a surefire sign of trouble: A customer... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; photographed by Saverio Truglia

2017
Chapter

Marketing Models for the Customer-Centric Firm

By: Eva Ascarza, Peter S. Fader and Bruce G.S. Hardie

A customer-centric firm takes the view that there are three key drivers of (organic) growth and overall profitability: Customer acquisition, customer retention, and customer development (i.e., increasing the value of each existing customer (per unit of time) while they... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Focus and Relationships

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25 Feb 2020
News

In My Humble Opinion: Mr. Coffee

Courtesy Peet’s Courtesy Peet’s Ketchup. Potato chips. Chewing gum. Coffee. “These are products that everyone can relate to, that people understand,” says Casey Keller (MBA 1989), a longtime executive in consumer-packaged goods with stints at Procter & Gamble, HJ... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

01 Jun 2012
News

Inspiration Is Not Enough

animated screen stars for decades of royalty income. IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad developed a rigorous vendor-screening process that, though not sexy, provided the furniture retailer with “an impressive supply chain that is virtually... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

November 2012
Case

New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. (Abridged)

By: H. Kent Bowen, Robert S. Huckman, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Matthew Preble

Considers whether New Balance, one of the world's five largest manufacturers of athletic footwear, should respond to Adidas' planned acquisition of Reebok—a transaction that would join the second- and third-largest companies in the industry. Highlights the unique... View Details

Keywords: Production; Competitive Strategy; Supply Chain; Brands and Branding; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; Retail Industry; Asia; United States

September 2010 (Revised December 2011)
Case

WildChina: Taking the Road Less Traveled

By: Mukti Khaire, Daniel Isenberg, Victoria Song and Shirley Spence

This case deals with supplier difficulties faced by WildChina—a travel service provider in China. WildChina is a classic case of a company that is trying to bring a local, within-country product to a market outside the country (in this case, travelers to China from... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Local Range; Globalized Markets and Industries; Supply Chain Management; Conflict Management; Travel Industry; China

August 2015 (Revised March 2016)
Supplement

Rana Plaza (C): Primark and Victim Compensation

By: John A. Quelch and Margaret L. Rodriguez

Keywords: Labor Relations; Corporate Social Responsibility; Sustainability; International Marketing; Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Marketing; Labor Unions; Environmental Sustainability; Globalized Markets and Industries

July 2022
Supplement

Solution for E-Commerce Analytics for CPG Firms (B): Optimizing Assortment for a New Retailer

By: Ayelet Israeli

July 2022
Teaching Note

eGrocery and the Role of Data and E-Commerce Analytics for CPG Firms

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-077. View Details

Summer 2021
Article

Platform Leadership and Supply Chains: Intel, Centrino, and the Restructuring of Wi-Fi Supply

By: Roberto Fontana and Shane Greenstein

In this paper we examine Intel’s launch of Centrino and interpret it as platform leaders attempt to restructure a supply chain. We provide a narrative of key actions and how they coordinated changes and offer a framework of the predictable consequences for... View Details

Keywords: Mobile and Wireless Technology; Product Launch; Supply Chain; Restructuring; Framework