Improving Productivity - Publications - Faculty & Research - Harvard Business School

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07 Sep 2017
Cold Call Podcast

Faber-Castell Doubles Down on the Pencil

Keywords: Re: Ryan L. Raffaelli; Information Technology; Manufacturing

31 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

From SpinPop to SpinBrush: Entrepreneurial Lessons from John Osher

Dr. John's, basing the idea for the SpinBrush on the proven design of the SpinPop, getting an early product on the shelves, and then improving it from there. The first iteration of the View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Consumer Products

January 2002 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Aqualisa Quartz: Simply a Better Shower

By: Youngme E. Moon and Kerry Herman

Harry Rawlinson is managing director of Aqualisa, a major U.K. manufacturer of showers. He has just launched the most significant shower innovation in recent history: the Quartz shower. The shower provides significant improvements in terms of quality, cost, and ease of... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Product Launch; Consumer Behavior; Product Positioning; Technological Innovation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Sales; Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United Kingdom

March 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Global Sourcing at Nike

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Michael W. Toffel and Olivia Hull

This case explores the evolution of Nike’s global product sourcing strategy, in particular ongoing efforts to improve working conditions at its suppliers’ factories. When the case opens in July 2018, Vice President of Sourcing Amanda Tucker and her colleagues in Nike’s... View Details

June 1977 (Revised September 1992)
Case

Sorenson Research Co. (Abridged)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Presents the issues facing a high volume, high margin (but lightweight) medical products business. The company is trying to improve its inventory control to reduce inventory investment and improve service. The present multi-site inventory system is described and major... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Investment; Volume; Service Delivery; Supply Chain; Performance Improvement; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

February 2000 (Revised April 2003)
Case

InSite Marketing Technology (A)

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Genevieve J.S. Feraud and Sheila L Marcelo

Introduces students to products and services that improve customers' online shopping experience. Also discusses the challenges of marketing new product concepts and finding funding for start-up ventures. View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Financing and Loans; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Service Delivery; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Service Industry; Web Services Industry

2024
Working Paper

Using LLMs for Market Research

By: James Brand, Ayelet Israeli and Donald Ngwe

Large language models (LLMs) have rapidly gained popularity as labor-augmenting tools for programming, writing, and many other processes that benefit from quick text generation. In this paper we explore the uses and benefits of LLMs for researchers and practitioners... View Details

Keywords: Large Language Model; Research; AI and Machine Learning; Analysis; Customers; Consumer Behavior; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry

September 2005 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Teradyne Corporation: The Jaguar Project

By: Francesca Gino and Gary P. Pisano

Teradyne, a leading manufacturer of semiconductor test equipment, embarked on a multiyear effort to improve its product development capabilities and to implement more formalized project management approaches. Examines the development of a new-generation tester that... View Details

Keywords: Projects; Management; Product Development; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Groups and Teams; Business or Company Management; Research and Development; Problems and Challenges; Semiconductor Industry; United States

November 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Zara: Managing Stores for Fast Fashion

By: Zeynep Ton, Elena Corsi and Vincent Marie Dessain

Pablo Isla, the CEO of Zara, wanted to improve operational efficiencies in managing its store network. In particular, he wanted to improve labor productivity at the stores. He considered outsourcing certain store operations to third parties, changing the way store... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Managerial Roles; Service Operations; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Efficiency; Performance Productivity; Retail Industry

September–October 2020
Article

Global Supply Chains in a Post-Pandemic World: Companies Need to Make Their Networks More Resilient. Here's How.

By: Willy C. Shih

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities in the production strategies and supply chains of firms everywhere. Coupled with a rise in economic nationalism, manufacturers everywhere are going to be under pressure to rethink their sourcing and logistics... View Details

Keywords: Resilience; Pandemic; Operations Management; Health Pandemics; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Manufacturing Industry; United States; Asia; Europe

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August 2012
Case

Polar Sports, Inc.

By: W. Carl Kester and Wei Wang

Polar Sports, Inc. is a fashion skiwear manufacturing company in Littleton, Colorado. The company has a unique design for skiwear using a special synthetic material that improves insulation and durability. The ski apparel industry is highly competitive and the best way... View Details

Keywords: Production; Decision Choices and Conditions; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Finance; Manufacturing Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry; Colorado

March 2018
Case

Sachem Head's Activism at Autodesk

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

In 2015, activist hedge fund Sachem Head Capital, led by founder Scott Ferguson, launched an activist campaign at computer aided design (CAD) software maker Autodesk. The activist campaign, waged mainly in private, was over Autodesk's lackluster financial performance,... View Details

Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Investing; Activist Investing; Technology; CEO Turnover; Hedge Fund Activism; Benchmarking; Corporate Governance; Information Technology; Investment Activism; Performance Improvement; Management Succession; United States

February 2018
Case

Vodafone: Managing Advanced Technologies and Artificial Intelligence

By: William R. Kerr and Emer Moloney

Vodafone was operating in the fast-moving telecommunications market where innovation and scale were key. Faced with an onslaught of technological advances—big data, automation, and artificial intelligence—CEO Vittorio Colao reflected on how he should change the... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Opportunities; Telecommunications Industry

April 1999 (Revised March 2000)
Background Note

Discovering What Has Already Been Discovered: Why Did Your Customers Hire Your Product?

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Describes a methodology for identifying markets for new technologies and for defining the highest value attributes of new products or services. It helps innovators escape the trap of incremental improvements to established product concepts by asking a straightforward... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Markets; Product; Technology Adoption; Value

27 Jul 2014
News

Are We Seeing A Manufacturing Renaissance?

June 2004
Case

AT&T's Transmission Systems Business Unit (A)

By: Rogelio Oliva, Elizabeth Keating and James Quinn

The newly appointed director of the project dedicated to reducing product development time for AT&T's Transmission Systems Business Unit (TSBU) is trying to decide how best to sustain the momentum of its Achieving Process Excellence (APEX) teams. During the past three... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Groups and Teams; Performance Improvement; Business Processes; Product Development; Telecommunications Industry

24 Sep 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The Impact of Regulation on Strategic Positioning: Self-Regulation in the RTE Cereal Industry

Keywords: by Young Hou and Dennis Yao; Food & Beverage

14 Feb 2011
Research & Ideas

Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing

fast-food restaurant chain that wanted to improve its milkshake sales. The company started by segmenting its market both by product (milkshakes) and by demographics (a marketer's profile of a typical... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

March 2016
Case

N12 Technologies: Building an Organization and Building a Business

By: David A. Garvin and Aldo Sesia

N12 Technologies was a startup founded in 2010 that employed nanotechnology to manufacture a patented material to improve the performance of carbon fiber composites, which were used in a wide variety of products, ranging from bicycles to automobiles to aircraft parts.... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Organizational Structure; Nanotechnology; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Management Systems; Commercialization; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

February 1985
Case

General Electric--Thermocouple Manufacturing (B)

By: David A. Garvin

Describes what has happened since the introduction of just-in-time production techniques were developed to reduce inventory. Reviews the progress to date in such areas as process rationalization; set-up reduction; quality improvement and leveling the scheduling; and... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain; Logistics; Production; Business Processes; Technological Innovation; Quality; Performance Improvement; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Manufacturing Industry

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