Publications

08 Oct 2015
Research & Ideas

Four Questions Fundraisers Must be Prepared to Answer

stewardship is that isn’t generic and makes a donor very proud.” Finally, a relationship with a donor should be just as satisfying for the fundraiser and the institution. Gifts can be the beginning of an ongoing partnership. If the answer... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

19 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Your Customers: Use Them or Lose Them

her course for Harvard MBA students, Managing Service Operations, which explores interactions between firms and customers. Defy Conventional Wisdom Commerce Bank entered a mature industry where the overall level of customer satisfaction... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

September 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Emergia: Driving Profitability on Help Desk Contracts

Emergia wants to keep its customer happy with its contact center service, but the margins on the help desk contract are dangerously low. Can Miguel Neira, the COO, increase margins while preserving the customer relationship? View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Profit; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Service Operations; Performance Capacity; Performance Evaluation; Mathematical Methods; Service Industry

16 Jul 2024
Blog Post

Driving Positive Impact on Community and Climate with Ben Schutzman (MBA 2016)

to supporting municipalities through the life of their assets and relationship with Highland. It’s a complex job, but immensely rewarding job to balance the cost control at the backend, while still delivering an exceptional service to our... View Details

December 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Wyndham International: Fostering High-Touch with High-Tech

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Gabriele Piccoli

Examines a hotel chain's attempt to use information technology to achieve market dominance and build customer loyalty during a period of global industry decline. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Competitive Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Accommodations Industry

18 Jun 2024
Blog Post

Alumni Career Journey: Ben Schutzman (MBA 2016) - Driving Positive Impact on Community and Climate

to supporting municipalities through the life of their assets and relationship with Highland. It’s a complex job, but immensely rewarding job to balance the cost control at the backend, while still delivering an exceptional service to our... View Details

25 Aug 2022
News

Case Study: Sound Check

provide good information. Sites have to provide robust online experiences if they want to create strong bonds and real relationships with their customers, he adds. The Question: So far LS has signed on mid-size businesses that generate... View Details

Keywords: Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

March 2011
Exercise

Customer Intelligence Advantage: Module 2 Assignment

By: F. Asis Martinez Jerez

This exercise directs students to analyze a customer-centric firm by first understanding the elements that characterize a customer-centric organization, then by capturing and comparing this firm's approach to customer-centricity. Students interview three levels in the... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Employees; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Competitive Advantage

Find at Harvard

26 Jan 2004
Research & Ideas

What Developing-World Companies Teach Us About Innovation

the psychological satisfaction of creating patrimonio, something of enduring value to be passed on to the next generation. The insight that buildings represented more than simple utility helped CEMEX position a program aimed at these... View Details

Keywords: by Donald N. Sull, Alejandro Ruelas-Gossi & Martin Escobari

06 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

Who Will Give You the Best Professional Guidance?

frequency of promotions, employee satisfaction surveys, and external recognition as leaders and contributors. Learn more about how internal coaching and talent and development is evolving inside organizations. Therapist What used to be... View Details

Keywords: by Julia B. Austin

07 Nov 2005
What Do You Think?

Is Less Becoming More?

niches. They report that "nearly 70 percent of managers admit that excessive complexity is raising their costs and hindering their profit growth." In other words, there is a trade-off between innovation and complexity on the one hand and profitable View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Consumer Products

05 Sep 2012
What Do You Think?

Will Business Management Save US Health Care?

for-profit health care organization led to better patient outcomes at the same time that "provider engagement and feeling of satisfaction have increased, our costs have fallen and our net profit has increased." One of the basic... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett; Health

September 1999 (Revised September 1999)
Case

Convergys Corporation

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Kelley Porter

Focuses on the important issue of capturing the synergies between the two sides of the business, Information Management Group (IMG) and Customer Management Group (CMG). In addition, the case also addresses strategic issues from each of the individual businesses. For... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Information Industry; Service Industry

13 Jul 2016
News

From Money to Ministry

He handled lending for the airline and aerospace industry during deregulation and many reorganizations. “I learned about relationship banking, as opposed to now, where it’s all about the deal, all quite transactional, to my dismay.”... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

15 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

High Ambition Leadership

and physical assets, not creating social value." Higher-ambition leaders, as the authors call them, also make decisions about long-term relationships with all their stakeholders in mind. "Consider United Stationers' strategy of 'enabling... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

February 2021
Case

Drizly: Managing Supply and Demand through Disruption

By: Kris Ferreira

It was April 6th, 2020, and the management team at Drizly—an online alcohol marketplace where consumers could browse and purchase alcohol from local liquor retail stores via Drizly’s app for immediate home delivery—were thrilled to see record-breaking sales from the... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Demand and Consumers; Growth and Development; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Satisfaction; Goals and Objectives; Supply Chain Management

January 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Comcast New England: A Journey of Organizational Transformation

By: Michael Beer and Anita Arun

This case describes how Kevin Casey, Comcast's New England Region general manager, transformed a low commitment and performance organization. When he took charge of this Comcast region he inherited an organization that was bureaucratic, had low customer satisfaction,... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Interpersonal Communication; Customer Satisfaction; Employee Relationship Management; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Performance Improvement; Telecommunications Industry; New England