Publications

23 Mar 2017
Cold Call Podcast

Cost-cutting Leads to Turbulence in the Airline Industry

Keywords: Re: Susanna Gallani; Air Transportation; Travel

October 1991 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Becton Dickinson & Company: VACUTAINER Systems Division (Condensed)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Frank V. Cespedes

Becton Dickinson, a phenomenally successful company with an 80% market share in the blood collection needles and syringes market faces a change in the customer buying environment (cost containment pressures at hospitals). This forces a reevaluation of the company's... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Customer Satisfaction; Demand and Consumers; Market Participation; Distribution Channels; Success; Corporate Strategy; Value Creation; Health Industry

11 Jan 2000
Research & Ideas

Calling All Managers: How to Build a Better Call Center

call centers, with their attendant voice response units (VRUs—also known as automated voice response systems), need not be so inefficient. When a company manages its call center well, effectively linking a triad of service, information technology and internal... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Service; Financial Services

May 2012
Background Note

Innovation Magic

By: Stefan Thomke and Jason Randal

Why do certain product and service experiences seem like magic, making them all but destined for success, while other items languish on store shelves? For a better understanding of that, perhaps there's no better place to turn to than the world of magic. Consider that... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Product Differentiation; Experimentation; Personal Strategy ＆ Style; Innovation and Invention; Creativity; Service Operations; Product; Customer Satisfaction

08 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

Thinking Twice About Supply-Chain Layoffs

inventory to distribution centers. "I call these people supply-chain foot soldiers." Having items in storage areas but not on the selling floor didn't count at all in their evaluations, but it counts a lot in customer View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

March 2005 (Revised August 2007)
Case

Brocade: Launching the Multiprotocol Router

By: Elie Ofek and Mamoon Hamid

Brocade management is preparing for the launch of a new technology for data storage. The multiprotocol router improves on existing technology and has the potential to change the way firms design their data storage networks. Students must determine the target market for... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Price; Product Launch; Partners and Partnerships; Segmentation; Information Infrastructure; Technology Adoption; Information Technology Industry

October 1993 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A)

By: Roy D. Shapiro and Michael D. Watkins

AT&T's Universal Card Services (UCS) has been extremely successful during its short lifetime. Dedicated to improving service quality and customer satisfaction, chief quality officer Rob Davis and his quality team have designed and put into place an unusual measurement... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Policy; Compensation and Benefits; Performance Evaluation; Quality; System; Telecommunications Industry

January 1999 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Finale

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Michael J. Roberts and Matthew C. Lieb

Designed for use with "Room for Dessert" to show the changes between creating the initial business plans and starting to serve customers. Conforti and Moore have to both manage the business and deliver service to customers on a day-to-day basis in the initial location... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Business Plan; Entrepreneurship; Customer Satisfaction

Article

How Much Is a Reduction of Your Customers' Wait Worth? An Empirical Study of the Fast-Food Drive-Thru Industry Based on Structural Estimation Methods

In many service industries, companies compete with each other on the basis of the waiting time their customers experience, along with other strategic instruments such as the price they charge for their service. The objective of this paper is to conduct an empirical... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Price; Service Delivery; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry

Article

Are You Really Innovating Around Your Customers' Needs?

By: Sunil Gupta

Every company believes it is customer-centric. However, most of them are product- and service-centric first, focusing on how to enhance their offerings rather than putting themselves in their customers’ shoes. To come up with truly innovative customer-centric ideas,... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Innovation and Management

Register to Read

January 2011
Case

Aardvark

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Alison Berkley Wagonfeld and Lauren Barley

Aardvark is an online social search service that allows users to pose questions and receive answers from other users in their extended social network. The case explores the process that Aardvark's founders used to design and develop their product based on intensive... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Entrepreneurship; Product Design; Product Development; Social and Collaborative Networks; Internet and the Web

18 Jun 2013
First Look

First Look: June 18

mid-2012 Lit Motors had created both engineering and design prototypes and conducted initial customer tests on less than $750,000 of investment. Lit Motors' founder, Daniel Kim, had started the company to design and manufacture an... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

Gerald Zaltman

*Joined Harvard Faculty: 1991
Prior Faculty Appointments: Northwestern University, 1968-75;
University of Pittsburgh, 1975-91

*Doctoral Degree in Sociology Received from: The John Hopkins University;
MBA Degree Received from: The University of... View Details

Keywords: advertising; apparel; automotive; beverage; biotechnology; consumer products; entertainment; financial services; food; health care; marketing industry; pharmaceuticals; retailing; sports; telecommunications

February 1996 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Wainwright Industries (A): Beyond the Baldrige

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Norman Klein

Traces the growth of Wainwright, a small automotive supply company, focusing on its commitment to quality in 1981 and the evolution of its quality culture. Breakthrough programs that stress "trust and belief" in the workforce and commitment to customers result in... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Relationship Management; Ethics; Business or Company Management; Standards; Machinery and Machining; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Auto Industry; Missouri

December 2018
Case

Choosy

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2017, Choosy is a data-driven fashion startup that uses algorithms to identify styles trending on social media. After manufacturing similar items using a China-based supply chain, Choosy sells them to consumers through its website and social media pages.... View Details

February 2021
Case

Drizly: Managing Supply and Demand through Disruption

By: Kris Ferreira

It was April 6th, 2020, and the management team at Drizly—an online alcohol marketplace where consumers could browse and purchase alcohol from local liquor retail stores via Drizly’s app for immediate home delivery—were thrilled to see record-breaking sales from the... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Demand and Consumers; Growth and Development; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Satisfaction; Goals and Objectives; Supply Chain Management

November 1997 (Revised February 1998)
Case

WESCO Distribution, Inc.

By: Das Narayandas

In 1996, WESCO, a national distributor of electrical equipment and supplies, charted out a growth of 6 to 8 percent in sales, and 12 to 16 percent in profitability over the next five years. The centerpiece of this growth strategy is the National Accounts (NA) program... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Customer Satisfaction; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Distribution; Sales; Balance and Stability; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry

July 1990
Case

Ceramics Process Systems Corp. (B)

By: Kim B. Clark and Brent D. Barnett

Ceramics Process Systems (CPS) is an advanced ceramics company facing problems with lead time in product/process development, and late delivery of prototype parts to its customers. Engineering is confronted with difficult technical problems and multiple objectives... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Business Processes; Management Practices and Processes; Supply Chain Management; Machinery and Machining; Goals and Objectives; Resource Allocation; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Manufacturing Industry

August 2019
Article

When and How to Diversify—A Multicategory Utility Model for Personalized Content Recommendation

By: Yicheng Song, Nachiketa Sahoo and Elie Ofek

Sometimes we desire change, a break from the same or an opportunity to fulfill different aspects of our needs. Noting that consumers seek variety, several approaches have been developed to diversify items recommended by personalized recommender systems. However,... View Details

Keywords: Recommender Systems; Personalization; Recommendation Diversity; Variety Seeking; Collaborative Filtering; Consumer Utility Models; Digital Media; Clickstream Analysis; Learning-to-rank; Consumer Behavior; Media; Customization and Personalization; Strategy; Mathematical Methods