Publications

May 2017
Supplement

ATH Technologies (D)

By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard

Supplements the (A) case. Designed as an on-class handout. View Details

Keywords: Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Performance Management; Balancing Innovation And Control; Health Industry

December 1984
Case

Expense Tracking System at Tiger Creek

By: Shoshana Zuboff

Mill manager Carl Adelman learns that a group of senior managers is soon to visit the Tiger Creek mill to learn more about the success of the newly implemented Expense Tracking System. The System had been installed on two paper machines to give workers real time cost... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Success; Cost Management; Technology; Pulp and Paper Industry

20 Apr 2021
Working Paper Summaries

The Emergence of Mafia-like Business Systems in China

Keywords: by Meg Rithmire and Hao Chen

March 1999 (Revised April 2017)
Teaching Note

Citibank: Performance Evaluation

By: Robert Simons and Antonio Dávila

Teaching Note for (9-198-048). View Details

Keywords: Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Performance Measures; Performance Evaluation; Balanced Scorecard; Banking Industry

Research Summary

Flexibility in Manufacturing Systems

David M. Upton has examined the management of flexibility in manufacturing systems. Although flexibility has become an issue of critical competitive importance in a growing number of industries, it remains an ill-understood concept. The broad use of the term and its... View Details

January 1989 (Revised June 1993)
Case

General Electric: Compliance Systems

By: Robert L. Simons

After General Electric (GE) is indicted in 1985 for defrauding the Department of Defense, Chairman John F. Welch takes dramatic steps to prevent a recurrence. This case documents the new systems and procedures that are put in place to ensure that all GE employees are... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Contracts; Business or Company Management; Communication; Business History; Behavior; Boundaries; Management Style; Cost Management; Electronics Industry

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June 2018
Supplement

Amil and the Health Care System in Brazil (B)

By: Regina Herzlinger, Ana Maria Malik, Ruth Costas and Priscilla Zogbi

Brazilian Managed Care Organization Amil faces a series of challenges while trying to redefine the terms of its relationship with hospitals and clinics and to implement a new health care model based on primary care and family medicine. View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Brazil; Managed Care; Innovation; Health Care Industry; Health Care and Treatment; Health; Cost Management; Innovation and Invention; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; Insurance Industry; Brazil

November 2018
Case

Swissgrid: Enterprise Risk Management in a Digital Age

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes

Kurt Meyer, chief risk officer of Swissgrid, the Swiss national electricity transmission system operator, reflects on the risk management system he installed after the deregulation and liberalization of the European energy market. With 41 connections to other European... View Details

Keywords: Enterprise Risk Management; Energy Transmission; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Energy; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry; Switzerland

November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Danone: Changing the Food System

By: David E. Bell, Federica Gabrieli and Daniela Beyersdorfer

Emmanuel Faber, Chairman and CEO of the food and beverage company Danone, believed that humankind had only ten years to bend the curve on climate change and restore the biodiversity that the global food and agricultural ecosystem was critically dependent on. Upon... View Details

Keywords: Animal-Based Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Food; Nutrition; Quality; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Climate Change; Business Model; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; France

March 2024
Article

Do Safety Management System Standards Indicate Safer Operations? Evidence from the OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Standard

By: Kala Viswanathan, Matthew S. Johnson and Michael W. Toffel

Problem definition: Given the enormous disruptions and costs of occupational injuries, companies and buyers are increasingly looking to voluntary occupational health and safety standards to improve worker safety. Yet because these standards only require... View Details

Keywords: Occupational Health; Occupational Safety; Program Evaluation; Safety Performance; Injuries; OHSAS 18001; ISO 45001; Working Conditions; Safety; Standards

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September 2011 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Telemonitoring at Visiting Nurse Health System

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil and Mala Kaul

The Telemonitoring at Visiting Nurse Health System case presents one home healthcare organization's efforts to use telemonitoring to improve the quality of care provided to at-risk patients who were discharged from hospitals and needed home care. After two years of... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Cost vs Benefits; Risk Management; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; Technology Industry

March 2020
Article

Synergistic Value in Vertically Integrated Power-to-Gas Energy Systems

By: Gunther Glenk and Stefan Reichelstein

In vertically integrated energy systems, integration frequently entails operational gains that must be traded off against the requisite cost of capacity investments. In the context of the model analyzed in this study, the operational gains are subject to inherent... View Details

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19 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

A Brand Manager’s Guide to Losing Control

Thanks (or no thanks) to social media, brand managers have lost the power to control the perception of their products through carefully orchestrated advertising campaigns.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

August 2008 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Consumer Payment Systems — Japan

By: Benjamin Edelman and Andrei Hagiu

In 2008, the Japanese consumer payments landscape featured ongoing widespread use of cash, limited use of credit cards and rapid rise of e-money systems based on contactless technology embedded in cards and especially mobile phones. The case details the alliances that... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Digital Platforms; Alliances; Competitive Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Japan

Article

Moving Forward from COVID-19: Organizational Dimensions of Effective Hospital Emergency Management

By: Mariam Krikorian Atkinson, Nicholas Cagliuso, John Hick, Sara Singer, Elizabeth Bambury, Tuna Cem Hayirli, Masha Kuznetsova and Paul Biddinger

Federal investment in emergency preparedness has increased notably since the 9/11 attacks, yet it is unclear if and how U.S. hospital readiness has changed in the 20 years since then. In particular, understanding effective aspects of hospital emergency management... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Hospital Preparedness/response; Urban/rural Hospitals; Emergency Management; National Strategy; Health Pandemics; Crisis Management; Performance Effectiveness; Governance; Policy; United States

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June 2001 (Revised February 2005)
Background Note

Creative Destruction of Industrial Age Management Principles and Creative Construction of Information Age Management Principles

By: Richard L. Nolan

Traces the creative destruction of industrial age management principles and creative construction of new management principles more appropriate for the information age. Includes self-administered questionnaire to permit managers to assess the status of the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Disruptive Innovation; Goals and Objectives; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Personal Development and Career; System; Information Technology

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1999
Other Unpublished Work

Executive Ownership and Control in Newly Public Firms: The Role of Venture Capitalists

By: Malcolm Baker and Paul Gompers

We study the implications of CEO equity ownership for incentives and control in a sample of 1,011 newly public firms. Before an initial public offering, equity investments by venture capitalists reduce CEO ownership by about half, from an average of 35 percent to 19... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Ownership; Motivation and Incentives; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Venture Capital; Managerial Roles; Cost Management; Governance Controls; Executive Compensation

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October 1989 (Revised November 2006)
Background Note

Channel Management

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Written as an introduction to a module concerning channel management for the second-year MBA elective in Marketing Implementation. Discusses: 1) reasons for the growth of multichannel systems in marketing efforts, 2) key components and choices in channel management, 3)... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Channels

August 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 2: Building a Successful Strategy

By: Robert Simons

This module reading describes the basics of building a successful strategy. Topics in this module include a discussion of the distinction between corporate and business strategy; how to conduct a SWOT analysis of market dynamics and internal capabilities; the use of... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Business Strategy; Five Forces; Distinctive Capabilities; Emergent Strategy; Mission Statements; Strategy; SWOT Analysis; Competitive Advantage