Publications

2016
Book

Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan

The foremost authority on innovation and growth presents a path-breaking book every company needs to transform innovation from a game of chance to one in which they develop products and services that customers want to buy and are willing to purchase at a premium price.... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Consumer Behavior

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July 1998 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Custom Research Inc. (B)

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Susan Harmeling

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Service Industry

13 Oct 2011
News

Potential for Mass Customization

Keywords: News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services

September 2018
Case

ProdEng: Services for Oil & Gas Extraction

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Mariana Cal

ProdEng is a venture created as part of a PE fund and provides oil field services in Argentina. In 2016, an industry-wide unforeseen oil and gas demand slump drove ProdEng’s average service rates down by more than 37%, with EBITDA margins falling from 50% to 24% in the... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Entrepreneurship; Sales; Marketing; Price; Strategy; Latin America; Argentina

January 2024 (Revised February 2024)
Course Overview Note

Managing Customers for Growth: Course Overview for Students

By: Eva Ascarza

Managing Customers for Growth (MCG) is a 14-session elective course for second-year MBA students at Harvard Business School. It is designed for business professionals engaged in roles centered on customer-driven growth activities. The course explores the dynamics of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Making; Analytics and Data Science; Growth Management; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

14 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Rewriting the Rules of Service Competition

buy results and experiences, not services or products. That’s why IKEA’s leaders focus on the few things that produce results and experiences for the right customers. This requires another important piece of knowledge: View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett, W. Earl Sasser & Leonard A. Schlesinger; Retail

August 2001 (Revised September 2005)
Case

eBay (A): The Customer Marketplace

By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

eBay, the popular Internet-based consumer-to-consumer marketplace, has recently become attractive to corporate customers. According to a vocal subset of eBay customers, the company has lost its way and is set to forsake its traditional business. Told from the... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Multi-Sided Platforms; Problems and Challenges; Opportunities; Trust; Internet; Web Services Industry

16 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Confronting the Reality of Web Services

What's next for Web services? In his case summary "Will Web Services Really Transform Collaboration?" published in the Winter 2005 edition of MIT Sloan Management Review, HBS associate professor Andrew P. McAfee argues that the... View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant

October 2011
Case

Raleigh & Rosse: Measures to Motivate Exceptional Service

By: Robert Simons and Michael Mahoney

In January 2010, U.S. luxury goods retailer Raleigh & Rosse is being sued by its employees for encouraging "off the clock" hours. At the center of the class action lawsuit is the famous Raleigh & Rosse performance measurement system previously thought to be the core of... View Details

Keywords: Control Systems; Performance Measurement; Goal Setting; Compensation; Incentives; Motivation; Sales Compensation; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives; Growth Management; Lawsuits and Litigation; Organizational Culture; Management Systems; Customer Focus and Relationships; Employees; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Retail Industry; United States

2012
Book

Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business

By: Frances Frei and Anne Morriss

Most companies treat service as a low-priority business operation, keeping it out of the spotlight until a customer complains. Then service gets to make a brief appearance—for as long as it takes to calm the customer down and fix whatever foul-up jeopardized the... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Business Ventures

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October 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Zappos.com 2009: Clothing, Customer Service, and Company Culture

By: Frances X. Frei, Robin J. Ely and Laura Winig

On July 17, 2009, Zappos.com, a privately held online retailer of shoes, clothing, and other soft line retail categories, learned that Amazon.com, a $19 billion multinational online retailer, had won its board of directors' approval to offer to merge the two companies.... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

16 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Your Customers Have Changed. Here's How to Engage Them Again.

further forced changes to customers and hence firm-based behaviors. The outcome of customers’ health and fears has resulted not in a traditional recession but a “deaccession,” where supply and demand exist, but customer-access to products... View Details

Keywords: by Rohit Deshpandé, Ofer Mintz, and Imran S. Currim; Service; Service

09 Jan 2013
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Understanding Customers

Questions To Be Answered What's the biggest obstacle to excellence in service organizations? Should I do what my customers tell me to do? How can I understand my customers... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty

January 1997
Background Note

Buy Low, Sell High: Creating and Extracting Customer Value by Enhancing Organizational Performance

By: Benson P. Shapiro

Provides an integrated framework for creating customer value and managing the firm profitably. Focuses on the use of product/service line management and effective customer service to achieve customer satisfaction and high profitability. View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Framework; Performance Efficiency; Sales; Business Strategy; Customer Satisfaction; Profit; Product Marketing; Business or Company Management

17 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

Let Customers Call the Shots

technologies could be used to create a captive one-to-one relationship between firms and consumers, so that customers could literally be viewed as assets. We should start to realize that things are not that simple. Ultimately, a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Research Summary

Using IT to Leverage Human Resources in Services

Discussion of the Internet and IT to date concentrates on how they will replace, rather than support, human service providers. While this approach is appropriate for a few firms, it is inadequate for many. The Internet and other information technology... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

By: Rob Markey

Most companies' leaders declare their commitment to delivering value to customers. Many have adopted language such as "customer-centric" or "customer-obsessed." Companies that consistently earn top marks for customer loyalty in their industry deliver total shareholder... View Details

Keywords: Customer Base Analysis; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Experience; Customer Loyalty; Service Profit Chain; Management Accounting; Project Evaluation And Resource Allocation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Satisfaction; Valuation; Customer Focus and Relationships

2015
Working Paper

Customers and Investors: A Framework for Understanding Financial Institutions

By: Robert C. Merton and Robert T. Thakor

Financial institutions have both investors and customers. Investors, such as those who invest in stocks and bonds or private/public-sector guarantors of institutions, expect an appropriate risk-adjusted return in exchange for the financing and risk-bearing that they... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions