Publications

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1986
Chapter

Firm and Market Interfaces of Profit Center Control

By: Robert G. Eccles Jr. and Harrison C. White

Keywords: Profit; Markets

2011
Case

Xinxing Ductile Iron Pipes: Transforming the Management Control System in Time of Crisis

By: Ning Jia, F. Warren McFarlan and Xiaohui Li

Xinxing Ductile Iron Pipes Co. is a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) that manufactures cast pipe products and steel products. The company had grown to become a dominant player in the ductile iron pipe industry, holding more than 40% domestic market share and nearly... View Details

Keywords: Control Systems; Cost Centers; Manufacturing; Profit Centers; China

February 1993 (Revised May 1993)
Background Note

Responsibility Centers and Performance Measurement

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Introduces the concepts of responsibility centers and performance measurement. Expense centers, financial responsibilities such as profit centers, and investment centers are introduced, defined, and illustrated with simple examples. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Management Systems

19 Oct 2010
Conference Presentation

Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Organization to Realize Profitable Growth

By: Ranjay Gulati

Keywords: Customers; Organizations; Growth and Development; Profit

13 May 2010
Conference Presentation

Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Organization to Realize Profitable Growth

By: Ranjay Gulati

Keywords: Customers; Organizations; Growth and Development; Profit

01 Mar 2013
News

A Healthy Profit

an unsatisfactory outpatient experience at a government-run facility, she also received ineffective treatments from an untrained local practitioner. She is feeling increasing physical discomfort, general weakness, and growing alarm about her situation. The scene is the... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Health, Social Assistance

October 2006 (Revised August 2007)
Case

Calloway Laboratory: Pee for Profit

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and David Kiron

Describes the formation and rapid growth of a drug-testing company. The company needs to decide whether to enter the painkiller testing market, in addition to growing its drug treatment center business. View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Health Care and Treatment; Health Testing and Trials; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Health Industry

2011
Teaching Note

Xinxing Ductile Iron Pipes: Transforming the Management Control System in Time of Crisis (TN)

By: Ning Jia, F. Warren McFarlan and Xiaohui Li

Xinxing Ductile Iron Pipes Co. is a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) that manufactures cast pipe products and steel products. The company had grown to become a dominant player in the ductile iron pipe industry, holding more than 40% domestic market share and nearly... View Details

Keywords: Control Systems; Cost Centers; Manufacturing; Profit Centers; China; Iron ＆ Steel; China

August 2016
Case

VMD Medical Imaging Center

By: Susanna Gallani and Eva Labro

VMD Medical Imaging Center, a local independent provider of medical imaging services, is facing some important challenges. Despite efficiency improvements and cost cutting initiatives carried out over the past few years, their profitability is shrinking; their prices... View Details

Keywords: Costing; Death Spiral; Transfer Pricing; Activity Based Costing and Management; Competitive Strategy; Medical Specialties; Health Industry

September 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Emergia: Driving Profitability on Help Desk Contracts

Emergia wants to keep its customer happy with its contact center service, but the margins on the help desk contract are dangerously low. Can Miguel Neira, the COO, increase margins while preserving the customer relationship? View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Profit; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Service Operations; Performance Capacity; Performance Evaluation; Mathematical Methods; Service Industry

28 Jun 2022
Book

The Moral Enterprise: How Two Companies Profit with Purpose

How can government and business work together in this fractious political moment, when finding solutions to pressing problems like inequality and climate change are more urgent than ever? Rebecca Henderson, Harvard University’s John and Natty McArthur University... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

July 1988
Article

Price and Authority in Inter-Profit Center Transactions

By: Robert G. Eccles Jr. and Harrison C. White

Keywords: Price; Profit

Find at Harvard

2009
Book

Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Organization

By: Ranjay Gulati

In an era of raging commoditization and eroding profit margins, survival depends on resilience: staying one step ahead of your customers. Sure, most companies say they're "customer focused," but they don't deliver solutions to customers' thorniest problems. Why?... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Customer Focus and Relationships; Profit; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Cooperation

Find at Harvard

22 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Profits and Prophets: The Role of Values in Investment

Domini, who runs a fund specializing in socially responsible investments, was posed a similar, although theoretical, problem. Would she invest in a company doing great works for society, but whose board was all male? Hayes and Domini took View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

Web

Leadership Transitions | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

BusinessWeek , July 6, 2001, featuring Lehman Brothers Inc. CEO Richard S. Fuld Jr. Lehman Brothers Records, Baker Library, Harvard Business School. Used with permission of Bloomberg L.P. Copyright ©2017. All rights reserved. Lower Manhattan skyline featuring World... View Details

Web

U.S. Steel | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Depression to the war years to the post-war boom, photography served as a persuasive tool in PR campaigns focused on promoting goodwill and a favorable attitude about policies concerning the corporation’s size, labor practices, and profit... View Details

2021
Working Paper

Elusive Safety: The New Geography of Capital Flows and Risk

By: Laura Alfaro, Ester Faia, Ruth Judson and Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr

A confidential dataset with industry-level disaggregation of U.S. cross-border claims and liabilities, shows U.S. securities to be increasingly intermediated by tax-haven-financial-centers (THFC) and less regulated funds. These securities are risky, in... View Details

Keywords: Tax Havens; Financial Centers; Geography Of Flows; Profit Shifting; Tax Avoidance; Risk; Safe Assets; Hetergeneous Firms; Endogenous Entry; Endogenous Monitoring; Regulatory Arbitrage; Assets; Safety; Risk and Uncertainty; Capital; Global Range