Publications

August 1976
Case

Norman Machinery Products, Inc. (C)

Presents the estate plan worked out by the son to deal with an estate planning issue. The plan involves the use of deferred compensation employment contract with the family business, a key-man life insurance policy, and a split-dollar life insurance policy. View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Family Business; Personal Finance; Corporate Finance; Manufacturing Industry

October 2007 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Offering the Right Service in the Right Place: Growing Orthopedics at the Brigham and Women's/Faulkner (BW/F) Hospitals

By: V.G. Narayanan, Michael G. Wilson and Rachel Gordon

After the merger of two local hospitals, hospital leaders much decide how to reorganize services to take advantage of newly created efficiencies. Focuses on the Orthopedics department at one of the hospitals. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Mergers and Acquisitions; Cost vs Benefits; Service Operations; Organizational Structure; Performance Efficiency; Competitive Advantage; Health Industry

1998
Working Paper

Some Evidence on the Optimal Welfare State Based on Subjective Data

By: Rafael Di Tella and Robert MacCulloch

It is often difficult to evaluate all the costs and benefits of the welfare state. This paper suggests an alternative approach based on surveys of citizen satisfaction with welfare programs. In the first part of the paper we estimate the level of unemployment benefits... View Details

Keywords: Personal Characteristics; Employment; Surveys; Programs; Government and Politics; Age; Income; Residency; Welfare; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Cost vs Benefits; Satisfaction; United Kingdom

Mar 2016
Video

Video: Realizing America's Unconventional Energy Opportunity

Professor Michael E. Porter discusses the economic benefits from North America's unconventional oil and gas energy resources. Professor Porter discusses the unconstructive debate around these resources,... View Details

February 2009 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Jieliang Phone Home! (A)

By: Willy Shih, Ethan Bernstein and Nina Bilimoria

At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators—bright and capable young men and (mostly) women like Jieliang Hao—are motivated to improve line productivity through small innovations for faster assembly and have... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Job Design and Levels; Business Processes; Behavior; Motivation and Incentives; Manufacturing Industry; China

16 Jul 2024
Blog Post

Advancing Health Equity: Social Enterprise Summer Fellow Simona Stancov (MBA 2025)

Consulting Group's healthcare and social impact practice areas. Along the way, I learned some important lessons: Progress is not always linear or transformational. Systems have been shaped by misaligned incentives. Solutions cannot View Details

14 Jul 2021
News

Job-Hopping Toward Equity

06 Mar 2012
News

Why finance heads shouldn't be judged by the market

February 2008
Case

EFI, Inc. (A)

By: David B. Godes and Lauren Barley

EFI has a unique sales compensation challenge. They cannot allocate sales credit for their core product to individual salespeople. So, they've historically paid the sales force as a team. This has worked out fine, since they've been a near-monopoly seller of a single... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Compensation and Benefits; Performance Evaluation; Groups and Teams; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives

25 Jul 2016
Research & Ideas

Who is to Blame for 'The Great Training Robbery'?

About $162 billion was spent in 2012 in the United States on corporate training—in what Harvard Business School Professor Michael Beer calls the “the great training robbery.” Beer, the Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, says money pumped into... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Education

30 Apr 2012
News

Executive Salaries: How Much Is Too Much?

Web

Classroom and Field Work - Business Education For Women At Harvard University | Harvard Business School

country offered apprenticeships, including Sylvania Electric Products, General Electric, Bloomingdales, American Optical Co., American Broadcasting Co., Metropolitan Life Insurance, and R. H. Macy. Sponsoring companies also View Details

Article

How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition

By: Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann

Information technology is revolutionizing products. Once composed solely of mechanical and electrical parts, products have become complex systems that combine hardware, sensors, data storage, microprocessors, software, and connectivity in myriad ways. These "smart,... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Transformation; Information Technology Industry

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21 Sep 2015
News

How Companies Can Help Rebuild America’s Common Resources

November 2013 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Infection Control at Massachusetts General Hospital

By: Robert S. Huckman and Nikolaos Trichakis

The case explores the challenges facing Massachusetts General Hospital concerning the adoption of a new infection control policy, which promises to improve operational performance, patient safety, and profitability. The new policy requires coordination between... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Integration; Health Care and Treatment; Policy; Health Industry; Boston

February 2008 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Olympia Machine Company, Inc.

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Benson P. Shapiro

The management team of an industrial equipment supplier is debating the company's method of compensating salespeople. Different executives have offered different alternatives to the current method of straight salary plus expenses. Each option has different implications... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Compensation and Benefits; Mission and Purpose; Salesforce Management; Motivation and Incentives; Business Strategy; Industrial Products Industry

Rajiv Lal, is the Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing at Harvard Business School. He is currently teaching an elective MBA course on the Business of Smart Connected Products/IOT. He has been responsible for the retailing curriculum and has served as the course... View Details

Research Summary

Optimal Contracting with Reciprocal Agents

(with Florian Englmaier) (Job Market Paper)

Abstract: Empirically, compensation systems often seem to generate substantial effort despite weak incentives. We consider reciprocal motivations as a source of incentives. We solve for the optimal... View Details

June 1999
Case

Matching Dell (A)

By: Jan W. Rivkin, Michael E. Porter, Charles E. Bruin, Markus Chappel, Thomas M Galizia and Laila J Worrell

After years of success with its vaunted "Direct Model" for computer manufacturing, marketing, and distribution, Dell Computer Corp. faces efforts by competitors to match its strategy. This case describes the evolution of the personal computer industry, Dell's strategy,... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Competitive Strategy; Industry Structures; Adoption; Computer Industry