Publications

01 Mar 2021
Blog Post

Best Practices for Creating a Successful Virtual Internship

In the wake of COVID-19, organizations around the world quickly made changes to how they got work done, including managing summer internships. For many organizations, that meant creating remote internship programs in 2020 that will stay... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

October 2010 (Revised July 2013)
Case

AEP: Carbon Capture and Storage

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

By October 2010, American Electric Power, the largest coal-fired, electric utility in the United States, had been operating a carbon capture and sequestration pilot plant for one year. Using a proprietary, Alstom chilled ammonia technology, AEP was capturing and... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Government Legislation; Technological Innovation; Partners and Partnerships; Projects; Decision Choices and Conditions; Environmental Sustainability; Problems and Challenges; Utilities Industry; United States

24 Apr 2018
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: What Mark Zuckerberg Can Learn About Crisis Leadership from Starbucks

support of founder Howard Schultz and his team in Philadelphia. Zuckerberg did not seem to rely upon the wisdom of Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg or lead board director Susan Desmond-Hellmann. Instead, he trotted out his deputy... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Technology; Food & Beverage

27 Jan 2020
Research & Ideas

Hard Work Isn't Enough: How to Find Your Edge

your circle of competence, then operate inside that perimeter,” Huang advises. 2. Own your constraints and encourage others to see past them In Huang’s freshman year of college, she was shocked to fail a writing assignment. When she asked... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Web

Leadership - Faculty & Research

encountered, it recalibrated, iteratively creating continuity and restoring order. Daini survived the crisis without an explosion or a meltdown. October 2014 Article The Transparency Trap By: Ethan Bernstein To get people to be more creative and productive, View Details

February 2010 (Revised November 2011)
Case

International Agribusiness in China: Charoen Pokphand Group

By: William C. Kirby, Michael Shih-ta Chen, Tracy Manty and Yi Kwan Chu

The world's leading Thai agribusiness corporation and largest agribusiness investor in China, CP Group, is facing another crossroads in China as the country starts to undergo rural reform. The issues at hand for Chairman Dhanin Chearavanont is how CP can balance its... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; SWOT Analysis; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Rural Scope; Agribusiness; Change; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; China

2003
Article

Closing the Loop: Product Take-back Requirements and their Strategic Implications

By: Michael W. Toffel

In Asia, Europe, and North America, regulators are seeking to reduce waste disposal and develop recycling markets by requiring manufacturers to manage the end-of-life disposition of products they produce. Such policies attempt to "close the loop" for products ranging... View Details

Keywords: Wastes and Waste Processing; Energy Conservation; Product Development; Strategy; Policy; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Asia; Europe; North and Central America

Read Now

December 1983 (Revised July 1988)
Case

General Electric--Thermocouple Manufacturing (A)

By: David A. Garvin

GE is considering introducing a "just-in-time" production system to reduce inventory in its thermocouple manufacturing area. The case presents students with a description of the present inventory management system, the production process, and the perspectives of... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Time Management; Production; Supply Chain; Perspective; Energy Industry; Technology Industry

Web

Employee Welfare – The Human Relations Movement – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

to the worker; from the machinery of industry, to the man who made, owns, or operates it. Robert Yerkes, Chairman of the Personnel Research Federation, National Research Council, 1922 Track and Field Events, ca. 1925 Western Electric... View Details

July 1984
Case

Braniff International: The Ethics of Bankruptcy (A)

Intended to advance understanding of corporate responsibility in the context of a bankruptcy decision. The case documents the implementation of a turnaround plan for financially ailing Braniff International. This includes a new marketing and operations strategy,... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Insolvency and Bankruptcy

August 1997
Case

Natural Blends, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen, Ramchandran Jaikumar and Karen Krause

Describes the continuous flow process used to generate orange juice concentrate. Production involves several tightly coupled process steps with varying production rates and setup times. Given production constraints and customer requirements, management choices must be... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Product; Performance Capacity; Performance Productivity

2010
Case

Groupe Ariel, S.A.: Parity Conditions and Cross-Border Valuation: Brief Case.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and James Quinn

Groupe Ariel evaluates a proposal from its Mexican subsidiary to purchase and install cost-saving equipment at a manufacturing facility in Monterrey. The improvements will allow the plant to automate recycling and remanufacturing of toner and printer cartridges, an... View Details

Keywords: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Valuation; Business Subsidiaries; Policy; Cash Flow; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; International Finance; Problems and Challenges; Production; Currency; Manufacturing Industry; Mexico

July 2001
Supplement

Delamere Vineyard

Richard Richardson, owner and manager of Delamere Vineyard in Piper's River, Tasmania, Australia, tours his vineyard and explains the process of making wine. He also describes the feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment that come from producing a fine product. View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Production; Satisfaction; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Australia

Web

Topics - HBS Working Knowledge

Uncertainty (36) SWOT Analysis (5) Safety (13) Salesforce Management (18) Sales (30) Satisfaction (11) Saving (5) Science-Based Business (7) Science (237) Search Technology (22) Segmentation (1) Selection and Staffing (10) Service... View Details

01 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

What to Do When Your Organization Has Dueling Missions

commercial revenue to fund its social mission. As such, hybrids combine typical aspects of both corporations and social organizations. “Hybrids have to simultaneously pursue commercial and social objectives” Managing a hybrid is no easy... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

August 1995 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Stonehaven, Inc.

By: H. Kent Bowen and Ramchandran Jaikumar

Stonehaven is a disguised version of a shoe factory located in Central Europe that must respond quickly to mix and volume changes for the U.S.-based company. Shoemaking involves several distinctly different processes, which must be designed and managed in a way to give... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Business Processes; Performance Capacity; Change Management; Design; Consumer Products Industry; Europe; United States

March 1998 (Revised July 1998)
Case

United Way Community Services

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Describes in detail the fund development and distribution system of United Way Community Services. A key question is how to measure the outcome/impact of the work done by the agencies that receive United Way funding. A follow-on question is how to reinvent the... View Details

Keywords: Capital; Management Systems; Measurement and Metrics; Distribution Channels; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Outcome or Result; Nonprofit Organizations

Find at Harvard

April 1979 (Revised April 1981)
Case

Chaircraft Corp. (B)

Discusses the purchase and installation of automated cutting equipment in a medium-sized furniture factory. The equipment has so far failed to cut costs as expected and the management is attempting to discover what the problems are and what can be done to remedy them. View Details

Keywords: Production; Cost Management; Consumer Products Industry

March 1988 (Revised September 1993)
Case

United Services Automobile Association (USAA)

Under the leadership of Robert F. McDermott, USAA has been transformed from a property and casualty insurance company with $200 million in assets in the late 1960s to a $11 billion financial services empire in 1988. The case illustrates the value of having a CEO drive... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Leadership; Information Technology; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; United States