Publications

November 2009 (Revised December 2009)
Case

RL Wolfe: Implementing Self-Directed Teams

By: David A. Garvin and Elizabeth Collins

Key topics include team design, team management, job design, employee empowerment, implementing change, and high performance workforces. In 2004, John Amasi, the director of production for a manufacturer of plastic pipe, introduced the concept of self-directed teams... View Details

Keywords: Work Force Management; Employee Empowerment; Motivation; Motivation and Incentives; Leading Change; Employee Relationship Management; Performance Productivity; Groups and Teams; Labor Unions; Labor and Management Relations; Manufacturing Industry; Texas

05 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

How Hormones Foretell Whether People Will Cheat

Harvard Business School; Ellie Shuo Jin and Leslie K. Rice, doctoral students at The University of Texas at Austin; and Robert A. Josephs, professor and head of the Clinical Neuroendocrinology Laboratory at UT Austin. Employers may be... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

03 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

Transforming Manufacturing Waste into Profit

It's been said that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." HBS Assistant Professor Deishin Lee, however, has taken that old adage a step further in her recent working paper Turning Waste into By-Product by showing how it's possible for companies to turn... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Manufacturing

14 Sep 2018
Blog Post

10 Things I Learned During My First Month in the MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences Program

After receiving my degree in Mechanical Engineering at Boston University, I lived in Austin, Texas for 2 years while working at Amazon. I held a role as an engineering project manager launching new transportation warehouses. As an... View Details

Web

McCollum Center | About

“The self interest in business is best served when the public interest is paramount.” His own philanthropy included extensive involvement in health-related organizations. He served for 14 years as chairman of the Baylor College of Medicine in his home state of View Details

01 Oct 1997
News

L.E. Simmons

The corporate offices of Houston-based L.E. Simmons & Associates, Inc. (the general partner to SCF Partners, L.P.), are located on the 66th floor of the Texas Commerce Tower, the tallest building in the United States outside New York and... View Details

Keywords: Deborah E. Blagg

January 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

OhmConnect: Energizing the Future

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Jennifer Fonstad and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded in 2013, OhmConnect was a free consumer web app that alerted customers about peak hours of electricity demand, and paid them to lower their energy use at home during these periods. The company sold the aggregated reductions generated by thousands of households... View Details

Keywords: App Development; Renewable Energy; Electricity Usage; Regulations; VC; Technology; Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC); Scalability; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Business Model; Venture Capital; Energy Industry; United States; California; Texas; Europe

Web

Cash House | About

Emeritus. Cash has been described throughout his career with words reserved for the most special of individuals: pioneer, trailblazer, legendary, game-changer. After receiving his BS in Mathematics from Texas Christian University,... View Details

01 Oct 2021
News

Furthering the Legacy of Whitney Bowman (MBA 2006)

was a great experience for him. He loved every second of it.” The couple met in high school in Texas and moved back there in 2011. “Whitney’s life was cut way too short. I'm so grateful that he got to accomplish so many of his goals,”... View Details

October 2012
Case

Hill Country Snack Foods Co.

By: W. Carl Kester and Craig Stephenson

Hill Country Snack Foods, located in Austin, Texas, manufactures, markets, and distributes snack foods and frozen treats. The CEO is passionate about maximizing shareholder value and believes in keeping tight control over costs and operating the business as efficiently... View Details

Keywords: United States; Financial Strategy; Debt Management; Retail Trade; Risk Management; Food; Capital Structure; Corporate Finance; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Texas

31 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

American Idle: Workers Spend Too Much Time Waiting for Something to Do

former HBS doctoral student who is now an assistant professor at McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Despite such pitfalls of idle time, however, the phenomenon has been understudied. “There is much more focus... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

September 2023 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Honest Jobs: A Path to Redemption

By: Paul A. Gompers and Jeffrey Barkas

Founded by a formerly incarcerated job seeker, Honest Jobs' mission is to be the hub where people with criminal records come to build careers and employers come to find great talent. Honest Jobs faced early challenges as a two-sided platform for justice-involved job... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Recruitment; Entrepreneurial Finance; Selection and Staffing; Digital Platforms; Job Search; Mission and Purpose; Expansion; Employment Industry; United States; Colorado; Ohio; Texas

27 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

When Rights of First Refusal Are a Bad Deal

incumbent advantage. But did it really? As Harvard Business School professor Alvin E. Roth and Texas A&M professor Brit Grosskopf demonstrate in recent research, the devil is in the details. And the devil gave Paramount, not NBC, the... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Construction; Real Estate; Entertainment & Recreation

June 2013 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Bonnie Road

By: Arthur I Segel, John H. Vogel, Jr. and Lisa Strope

Victor Alexander was intrigued by the packet of papers that lay in front of him. The papers comprised a brochure that Garden State Bank had put together in an effort to sell the Bonnie Road Distribution Center in Somerset, New Jersey, for $9.7 million. It was April... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Investment; Acquisition; Buildings and Facilities; Property; Partners and Partnerships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Distribution Industry; Real Estate Industry; Texas