Publications

August 2020 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations (A)

By: Antonio Moreno and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in November 2019 as Ozgur Tort and Mustafa Bartin, CEO and chief large-format and online retail officer of Migros Ticaret A.S. (Migros), Turkey’s oldest and one of its largest supermarket chains, are contemplating what the best fulfillment format and... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Grocery; Business Model; Emerging Markets; For-Profit Firms; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Globalization; Competition; Expansion; Logistics; Profit; Resource Allocation; Corporate Strategy; Turkey

September 1976 (Revised July 1995)
Case

Texas Instruments: Time Products Division

By: Steven C. Wheelwright

Outlines the components of Texas Instruments' low-cost digital watch. Focus is on getting the assembly line running smoothly and efficiently in order to meet production cost and delivery requirements. View Details

Keywords: Cost; Production; Service Delivery; Performance Efficiency; Electronics Industry; Technology Industry

August 2006 (Revised March 2008)
Case

iPod vs. Cell Phone: A Mobile Music Revolution?

By: David B. Yoffie, Travis D. Merrill and Michael Slind

In 2006, a nascent market for music-enabled mobile phones was emerging to challenge Apple Computer's dominant position in the digital music industry. Through its iPod line of portable digital music devices and its iTunes Music Store, Apple controlled more than half of... View Details

Keywords: Music Entertainment; Emerging Markets; Brands and Branding; Sales; Opportunities; Price; Business Model; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Digital Platforms; Service Delivery; Communications Industry; Music Industry

2020
Working Paper

The Impact of CEOs in the Public Sector: Evidence from the English NHS

By: Katharina Janke, Carol Propper and Raffaella Sadun

Abstract Governments worldwide have sought to reform the delivery of public services by mimicking private sector governance models that grant CEOs greater autonomy and give them responsibility for meeting key government targets. We examine the effectiveness of this... View Details

Keywords: CEOs; Management; Performance; Public Sector; Measurement and Metrics; Health Industry

Read Now

October 2013
Article

The Strategy That Will Fix Health Care

By: Michael E. Porter and Thomas H. Lee

In health care, the days of business as usual are over. Around the world, every health care system is struggling with rising costs and uneven quality, despite the hard work of well-intentioned, well-trained clinicians. Health care leaders and policy makers have tried... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Value; Customer Focus and Relationships; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

August 1994 (Revised May 1995)
Case

Engineering Inspection & Insurance Company

By: Robert H. Hayes

Engineering Inspection & Insurance Co. (EIIC) is a small but highly successful company that offers machinery and boiler inspection and insurance services. After years of above-average growth and profits, both are retreating toward the industry average, policy delivery... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Business Strategy; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Insurance; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Insurance Industry; United States

October 1995 (Revised March 1996)
Case

Booz.Allen & Hamilton: Vision 2000

In 1993, Booz.Allen & Hamilton forsook its previous, highly local organizational structure. It was motivated by a desire to serve multinational clients more effectively and to provide greater value to clients with more localized business by collecting best practices... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Organizational Structure; Global Strategy; Service Industry

June 2014 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Relating to Peapod

By: Susan Fournier and Jill Avery

Explores the relationships formed between consumers and the Peapod consumer-direct grocery delivery service, as revealed through an ethnographic study of Boston-area Peapod shoppers conducted between the Summer of 1997 and the Fall of 1999. Three representative case... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Customer Relationship Management; Marketing Strategy; Service Industry; Boston

October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Fantuan

By: Feng Zhu and David Lane

In 2023, CEO Randy Wu was considering the optimal growth strategy for Fantuan, a restaurant food delivery platform that had expanded from its 2014 founding in Vancouver, Canada to serve the Chinese demand for Asian cuisine in urban markets across Australia, Canada, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Diasporas; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Growth Management; Business Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry; Service Industry; United States; Canada; United Kingdom; Australia

February 1991
Case

Burlington Northern: The ARES Decision (A)

By: Julie H. Hertenstein and Robert S. Kaplan

Burlington Northern's decision whether to invest in ARES, an automated train control system, is a ($350 million) strategic investment in information technology. Although set in a service industry (railroad) the issues around this decision arise in many organizations... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Rail Transportation; Information Technology; Competitive Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Performance Effectiveness; Cost vs Benefits; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Customers; Quality; Rail Industry

February 2000 (Revised April 2003)
Case

InSite Marketing Technology (B)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Genevieve J.S. Feraud

Provides students an example of partnerships/acquisitions that allow delivery of packaged solutions to customers in the electronic commerce space. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Entrepreneurship; Partners and Partnerships; Strategy; Business Strategy; Web Services Industry

October 1995 (Revised June 1996)
Case

Li & Fung (Trading) Ltd.

Li & Fung, one of the largest export trading companies in Asia, works primarily as an agent to connect U.S. and European manufacturers and retailers of nondurable, mass-market consumer goods with suppliers located all over East Asia who manufacture products according... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Marketplace Matching; Supply Chain Management; Trade; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Asia; United States; Europe

December 2014 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Compass Group: The Ascension Health Decision

By: Ryan W. Buell

In 2012, Compass Group (Compass) was on the verge of closing a $2 billion deal with Ascension Health (Ascension), one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. Under the deal, Compass would provide foodservice management and cleaning services for 86 of... View Details

Keywords: Operations Strategy; Sectorization; Operational Focus; Customer Compatibility; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Operations; Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Industry; Service Industry; United States

July 2024
Case

“In That Crucible, You Find Innovation”: Public Safety Transformation in Albuquerque

By: Hise O. Gibson and Antonio Manuel Oftelie

“In That Crucible, You Find Innovation”: Public Safety Transformation in Albuquerque" centers on Mayor Tim Keller’s leadership during the social justice protests in 2020 and his efforts to reinvent Albuquerque’s public safety model. Faced with both a federal consent... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Government Administration; Leading Change; Safety; Social Issues; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Ethics; Public Administration Industry; New Mexico

September 2011
Article

The Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value

By: Ryan W. Buell and Michael I. Norton

A ubiquitous feature of even the fastest self-service technology transactions is the wait. Conventional wisdom and operations theory suggests that the longer people wait, the less satisfied they become; we demonstrate that due to what we term the labor illusion, when... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Perception; Valuation; Service Delivery; Consumer Behavior; Performance Effectiveness; Customer Satisfaction; Service Industry

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Why E-commerce Didn’t Die With the Fall of Webvan

Times were hard for Webvan this year. Like other online grocers and delivery services that hit the screen in 2001—among them, Homegrocer, Kozmo, and Streamline—Webvan finally called it quits in July after... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Consumer Products; Retail

June 2007 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Information Technology and Clinical Operations at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, F. Warren McFarlan and Julia Rose Adler-Milstein

Describes the history of clinical computing at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital and the development, since the 1996 merger to form the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, of an information system designed to support the delivery of patient care. The hospitals' CIO, John... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Product Design; Service Delivery; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Health Industry; Boston

May 2016
Article

Transformation of Health Care—Perspectives of Opinion Leaders

By: Joanne Disch, Thomas W. Feeley, Diana J. Mason, Richard L. Schilsky, Ellen L. Stovall and Shelley Fuld Nasso

"What Health System Transformations Do You Believe Are Necessary for the Future of Health Care?" We need to transform to a true value-based health care delivery system. That means organizing care around medical conditions, not simply around hospitals and doctors. We... View Details

Keywords: Perspective; Health Disorders; Performance Improvement; Health Care and Treatment; Transformation; Health Industry