Publications

November 2011
Case

Lowell General Physician Hospital Organization

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Natalie Kindred

This case focuses on the Alternative Quality Contract (AQC), a novel payment program designed to incentivize providers to deliver less costly, high quality health care. Under the AQC, offered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, providers received a fixed-dollar... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Service Delivery; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Massachusetts

01 Jun 2020
News

Post-Office

what Prashanth said: the ability to manage time, the ability to manage your workplace, to have a better connection with your family. The second thing, especially in a work-from-anywhere model, is that people... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; Remote work; COVID-19; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises

September 2003 (Revised February 2007)
Case

PolyMedica Corporation (A)

By: David F. Hawkins and Jacob Cohen

The Securities and Exchange Commission and investors question PolyMedica Corp.'s practice of capitalizing rather than expensing of direct-response advertising. View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Business Earnings; Advertising; Private Sector; Budgets and Budgeting; Cost Management; Capital Markets; Marketing; Private Equity; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

March 2021
Article

Targeted Price Controls on Supermarket Products

By: Alberto Cavallo and Diego Aparicio

We study the impact of targeted price controls for supermarket products in Argentina from 2007 to 2015. Using web scraping, we collected daily prices for controlled and non-controlled goods and measured the differential effects on inflation, product availability, and... View Details

Keywords: Prices; Controls; Price Dispersion; Economics; Price; Cost Management; Goods and Commodities; Retail Industry; Argentina

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June 30, 2020
Article

Bipartisan Tax-Free Solution to Health Care Financing: Coupling HRAs With a Public Option

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Richard Boxer and James Wallace

A combination of health insurance initiatives by the presumptive 2020 Democratic and Republican presidential nominees could expand health care coverage and significantly reduce costs, without raising taxes. Along the way, the combination could revitalize private... View Details

Keywords: Health Care Financing; Public Option; Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA); Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Cost Management

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September 2011 (Revised August 2014)
Background Note

Note on Bundled Payment in Health Care

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Charles C. Huang

The note explains how bundled health care payment differs from fee-for-service payment, provides examples of the difference between the two, describes early innovators in bundling and their results, provides guidance on how to make it happen, and elucidates the legal... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Price; Cost Management; Health Industry

01 Jun 2020
News

Inside Out

was created and popularized by the global facilities management company JLL [Jones Lang Lasalle]. It’s intended to show a company’s relative per-square-foot costs across three... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices; Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices

June 1987 (Revised August 1988)
Case

American Bank

By: Robert S. Kaplan

American Bank is developing a new system to compute product costs. The deregulated, more competitive environment for commercial banks has created both problems and opportunities for banking operations. In order to price existing products and assess the desirability of... View Details

Keywords: System; Consolidation; Commercial Banking; SWOT Analysis; Fair Value Accounting; Cost Management; Price; Banking Industry; North and Central America; United States

01 Jun 2008
News

Alumni Books

implicit in the book’s title, the authors interviewed more than forty CEOs from both industry and the nonprofit sector, studied what successful managers do right, and drew on... View Details

Keywords: Management

26 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Yes, You Can Raise Prices in a Downturn

to manage in the zone. Customer Relationship Management systems often supply the relevant data, but are they used? Activity-based costing... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Consumer Products

01 Dec 2013
News

Curing Health Care

activity-based costing (TDABC), a model that identifies the time of people and equipment used to perform a service and their cost. TDABC relies... View Details

Keywords: Management; Management; Management; Management; Management

February 1996
Case

Indianopolis: Implementing Competition in City Services

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Roger Atherton

Mayor Stephen Goldsmith of Indianapolis introduces competition to provide city services and implementation of new bidding procedures and work practices in the Department of Transportation. Exhibits show how work methods changed and work control procedures control work... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Business Strategy; Welfare; Transportation; Change; Cost Management; Service Industry

February 2008 (Revised August 2014)
Case

MedVal Ventures

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Is medical travel a viable business opportunity? A group of MBA students consider the pros and cons of starting a business that would send people from the U.S. to India for elective non-emergency surgeries. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Cost Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Travel Industry; India; United States

29 Jun 2015
HBS Case

Consumer-centered Health Care Depends on Accessible Medical Records

can be used in powerful ways, ideally leading to better patient care, lower health care costs and, ultimately, healthier patients. “Trust on the part of both the consumer and doctor is hugely important in... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Health; Technology

Article

Adding Value by Talking More

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Derek A. Haas and Jonathan Warsh

The prevailing fee-for-service payment model has led health care administrators and physician practices to impose severe constraints on the time physicians spend talking, for which they are reimbursed poorly or not at all. New value-based reimbursement models, however,... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Cost Management; Health Care and Treatment; Customer Focus and Relationships; Health Industry

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March 1999 (Revised August 1999)
Case

Coop, The: Market Research

By: Ruth Bolton and Youngme E. Moon

Daryl Buckmeister, CEO of The Chicken Coop, must decide whether to invest in market research, how much money to spend, and which programs to fund. His two vice presidents (of quality and marketing) have presented very different proposals. View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Cost; Research; Markets; Quality; Decisions; Management Teams; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

16 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 16

learns that the most profitable 1% of the division's customers generate 100% of profits, and that two of the division's largest customers lose 50% of profits. The division has just finished a project to install a time-driven View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2000 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Loewen Group Inc., The

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jose Camacho

A publiclytraded funeral home and cemetery consolidator faces imminent financial distress. The company has aggressively grown through use of debt. Restructuring the debt is potentially very costly to creditors, shareholders, suppliers, and other corporate stakeholders.... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Cost of Capital; Debt Securities; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Crisis Management; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Service Industry

November 1988 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Roy Rogers Restaurants

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

Roy Rogers Restaurants is a subsidiary of Marriott Corp. which sells franchises to own and operate standardized fast food restaurants. Many franchise owners operate more than one restaurant. One of these, presently operating 16 restaurants and committed to develop 30... View Details

Keywords: Franchise Ownership; Business Model; Cost Management; Quality; Transformation; Food and Beverage Industry