Publications

March 2016
Case

Tenet Healthcare and Conifer Health Solutions

By: Robert F. Higgins and Jeet Guram

This case explores the relationship between Tenet Healthcare, the third largest for-profit hospital chain, and its subsidiary Conifer Health Solutions, a health services company. Conifer's IT programs help healthcare providers with revenue cycle management and... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Health Solutions; Business Subsidiaries; Growth Management; Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology Industry; Health Industry; Texas

August 1989 (Revised May 1991)
Case

Grosvenor Park

By: William J. Poorvu and Katherine Sweetman

Dick Dublin believes he has designed a townhouse development which will appeal to mobile young professionals. Dublin has removed some market risk by locking in a forward commitment for low interest rate loans for future purchasers at Grosvenor Park. The pricing... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Projects; Financing and Loans; Property; Financial Strategy; Price; Strategic Planning; Business and Government Relations; Real Estate Industry; Maryland

June 1992 (Revised March 1993)
Case

Fleetwood Enterprises, Inc. 1990

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

The CFO of Fleetwood Enterprises is considering whether to recommend a large share repurchase to the board of directors. Fleetwood's core businesses, manufactured housing and recreational vehicles, are very sensitive to business cycles and oil prices. Following Iraq's... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Capital Structure; Stock Shares; Price; Crisis Management; Production; Manufacturing Industry; Iraq; Kuwait

12 Aug 2011
Working Paper Summaries

From Counting Risk to Making Risk Count: Boundary-Work in Risk Management

Keywords: by Anette Mikes

Debora L. Spar

Debora Spar is the Jaime and Josefina Chua Tiampo Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and Senior Associate Dean for Business and Global Society. Her current research focuses on issues of gender and technology, and the interplay between... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; broadcasting; communications; entertainment; federal government; health care; information; internet; music; pharmaceuticals

March 27, 2025
Article

How One Company Used AI to Broaden Its Customer Base

By: Sunil Gupta and Frank V. Cespedes

The software company SAP successfully leveraged AI tools to begin selling to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) market, which had previously been uneconomical for its in-person sales approach. By mapping the customer journey and deploying over 40 AI tools, SAP... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Sales; Business Strategy; Market Entry and Exit

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TeachingInterests

Scaling Ventures, HBS Online

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

This course is for startup founders and senior leaders who have achieved product-market fit and now need to successfully guide their company through cycles of rapid growth and organizational change. Topics include optimal growth rate, recruiting and motivating... View Details

October 2010
Article

The Emerging Capital Market for Nonprofits

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Allen S. Grossman

Many of our largest and most successful companies today did not exist 50 years ago. During this same time interval, companies that ranked among top in the 1960s have disappeared, been merged out of existence, or become much smaller presences in the U.S. industrial... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Corporate Accountability; Management Practices and Processes; Infrastructure; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance Effectiveness; Nonprofit Organizations

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March 1994 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.: Target Costing System

Describes Nissan's sophisticated target costing system in the context of new product introduction. On the basis of consumer analysis and a life cycle contribution study, Nissan conducts an exhaustive analysis of component costs to determine whether a new model can be... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Japan

30 Jul 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Networks and the Macroeconomy: An Empirical Exploration

Keywords: by Daron Acemoglu, Ufuk Akcigit & William Kerr

2012
Working Paper

An Outside-Inside Evolution in Gender and Professional Work

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Kathleen McGinn and Deborah Kolb

We study the process by which a professional service firm reshaped its activities and beliefs over nearly two decades as it adapted to shifts in the social discourse regarding gender and work. Analyzing archival data from the firm over eighteen years and... View Details

Keywords: Professional Service Firms; Social Institutions; Organizational Learning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Employment; Gender; Society; Service Industry

SSRN

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2011
Case

How Fast and Flexible Do You Want Your Information, Really?

By: Thomas H. Davenport and Jim Snabe

Almost all executives want more and faster information, and almost all companies are racing to provide it. What many of them are overlooking is that the real aim should not be faster information but faster decision making, and those aren't the same things. Executives... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Information; Service Delivery; Decision Making; Crisis Management

December 16, 2021
Article

Avoid a One-Size-Fits-All Approach to Sales Coaching

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Coaching sales reps is about clarifying relevant behaviors and whether the issue is motivation or ability. Some reps may work hard, but lack certain capabilities while others demonstrate capability but seemingly lack motivation or effort. Good coaching helps to clarify... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Training; Competency and Skills; Motivation and Incentives

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February 2022
Case

Agora (A)

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn

Agora was a civic technology (civic tech) startup founded by Elsa Sze, who wanted to enhance the connection between political officials and their constituents by facilitating virtual “town halls,” making underrepresented voices heard and benefiting elected and... View Details

Keywords: Civic Technology; Government Administration; Conferences; Business Startups; Business Strategy

February 2008 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Digital Music: From MP3 to Streaming

By: Willy Shih

The emergence of the MP3 file-based music format not only disrupted the market for portable audio players, it also impacted the business models of major record labels. Modularity, and the commoditization spillover enabled by modularity in the personal computer... View Details

Keywords: Recording; Digital Devices; Digital Media; Digital Music; Digital; Digital Economics; Consumer Electronics; Customer Value and Value Chain; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Music Industry; Technology Industry; Electronics Industry; United States

March 2002
Background Note

Virtuous Cycles: Improving Service and Lowering Costs in E-Commerce

Illustrates how various elements in a customer's encounter with Internet services relying on physical service (labor-intensive customer support and/or logistics) affect one another. Presents a framework that suggests: 1) that improving service quality in specific... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Performance Efficiency; Performance Effectiveness; Service Industry

16 Jun 2009
First Look

First Look: June 16

on these teams. As non-native English speakers attempted to counter the apprehension they felt when having to speak English, and native English speakers fought against feeling excluded and devalued, a cycle of negative emotion ensued and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 1990 (Revised January 2008)
Case

Regency Plaza

By: William J. Poorvu and Richard E Crum

Designed to examine the process of project management during the development cycle of a luxury condominium building, exploring the issue of how the design, development strategy, project organization, and project personnel are interrelated. More specifically, looks at... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Design; Construction; Housing; Management Practices and Processes; Projects; Luxury; Real Estate Industry