Publications

03 Mar 2016
News

3-Minute Briefing: Pamela Meyer (MBA 1986)

the uncomfortable moments. The ability to have a difficult conversation is a necessary social skill that mature leaders have to develop. Knowing someone is deceptive is quite different from knowing the truth. It’s important to recognize that difference. We don’t have a... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

10 Oct 2018
Research & Ideas

The Legacy of Boaty McBoatface: Beware of Customers Who Vote

stevanovicigor In 2016, the National Environmental Research Council (NERC), a quasi-governmental agency in the United Kingdom, decided it would be fun to let the public vote online to name the country’s newest research vessel. The agency was less pleased when it saw... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

15 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Find Your Pragmatic Path through Radical Uncertainty

the future. Process planning and scenario planning make more sense than fixed projections because they focus on answerable questions. What is required to remain solvent per month? What startup costs will be required to return to “normal?”... View Details

Keywords: by Howard Stevenson, Eugene B. Kogan, and Shirley Spence

09 Aug 2017
Sharpening Your Skills

Productivity Tips You Probably Haven't Considered Before

Source: rawpixel Hit a wall trying to increase your productivity? Recent research by Harvard Business School professors might help. The following articles address some basic questions: Should we deal with easy tasks first? Do employees know better than View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

16 Jul 2024
Op-Ed

Corporate Boards Are Failing in Their No. 1 Duty

important responsibility—hiring the appropriate leader for the job: Companies are not grooming successors within the company. Many boards focus primarily on emergency succession in case something happens to the CEO, rather than keeping... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

16 May 2011
Research & Ideas

What Loyalty? High-End Customers are First to Flee

customers who are more valuable over time. "One prescription from all of this is that managers should avoid service complacency—or the tendency to rely on preexisting service advantages—and invest more in proactively increasing... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

01 Dec 2009
News

Broad Range of Interests Among Nine New Faculty

entrepreneurial management and strategy. Anette Mikes came to HBS in 2007 as a postdoctoral fellow after earning her Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. She’s now an assistant professor in the Accounting & View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

October 1995
Teaching Note

Procter & Gamble: Improving Consumer Value Through Process Design TN

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Teaching Note for (9-195-126). View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Focus and Relationships; Distribution Channels; Information Technology; Value Creation; Logistics; Management Practices and Processes; Consumer Products Industry

01 Dec 2008
News

Business at the Summit

more than three-dozen breakout sessions served to sharpen participants’ focus on the summit’s agenda: profound and fundamental questions regarding leadership, globalization, and market capitalism. The future of market capitalism was very... View Details

Keywords: leadership; alumni events; Centennial; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

15 Nov 2020
News

Exploring China’s Belt & Road Initiative

Cizik Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration, the course was designed to help students understand the BRI from both an operations and a political-economy perspective. “China’s global efforts, especially its overseas... View Details

Web

Doctoral Affiliates - Business & Environment

Ashley Palmarozzo is a doctoral student in the Technology and Operations Management (TOM) unit at Harvard Business School. Kala Viswanathan Doctoral student Kala Viswanathan is a doctoral student in the Technology and Operations View Details

March 2011
Background Note

Customer Loyalty Schemes in the Retail Sector

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Aldo Sesia

Customer loyalty schemes (or programs) are explicit efforts by retailers to gain long-term patronage from customers. Loyalty schemes are developed for a variety of reasons: to reward loyal customers, to generate more robust information about customer behavior, to... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Consumer Behavior; Business Strategy; Retail Industry; United Kingdom; United States

April 1998 (Revised February 2001)
Case

CBS Evening News

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

The CBS Evening News looks for options for growth of the franchise. This case discusses CBS's main competitors and their positioning in the evening news market, as well as the history and operations of the CBS Evening News. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Competition; Business Growth and Maturation; Media; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

January 2000
Case

Talbots - A Classic

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

This case traces why the $1 billion women's clothing retailer decided to attract younger customers, what went wrong, and the actions taken to recover. By the end of 1999, the company has reestablished itself and faces several growth opportunities and must decide on the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Crisis Management; Product Positioning; Problems and Challenges; Segmentation; Fashion Industry

01 Jun 2022
News

Blissful Thinking

these three prompts: I will let go of I am grateful for And I will focus on Thinking about letting go helps crystallize and eject a swirling anxiety. Narrowing our focus helps cut through fogs of cognitive... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell; illustration by Dan Winters

03 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Why Fierce Competitors Apple and Amazon Became ’Frenemies’ Over eReaders

Technology and Operations Management unit at Harvard Business School. And why would Apple ever allow a Kindle app in its App Store in the first place? "We all know historically Apple often says no to apps that directly compete with... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Information; Publishing; Technology

Web

Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise - Intensive - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise - Intensive Course Number 1507 Baker Foundation Professor of Management Practice Willy Shih Spring; Q3; 1.5 credits 14 sessions Paper This short version of BSSE will View Details

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

Read Now

November 1989 (Revised February 1992)
Case

Ford Motor Co.: Dealer Sales and Service

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger

Since Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Co., Ford vehicles have been sold and serviced the same way. By the late 1980s Ford began to consider making changes in its sales and service process. Two developments forced Ford to reconsider these processes. First, Ford found... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Distribution Channels; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Industry; Auto Industry; Retail Industry; United States