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14 Sep 2020
Research & Ideas

You're Right! You Are Working Longer and Attending More Meetings

Probing the productivity and morale toll The anonymized nature of the data made it difficult to discern the quality of the meetings and email communication, and the impact on employees’ well-being. The study also didn’t include the time... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Rapid Response: Inside the Retailing Revolution

years of extensive study, including a comprehensive database compiled under the aegis of the Harvard Center for Textile and Apparel Research (HCTAR). The keys to success in an age of product proliferation, the authors found, are no longer... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

August 2015 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Amazon.com, 2021

By: John R. Wells, Benjamin Weinstock, Gabriel Ellsworth and Galen Danskin

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Analysis; Retail; E-commerce; Amazon; Internet; Amazon.com; AmazonFresh; Jeff Bezos; Cloud Computing; Marketplaces; Streaming; E-reader Market; Digital Media; Mobile App; Online Retail; Shipping; Database; Tablet; Kindle; Kindle Fire; Smartphone; Delivery; Digital Platforms; Competition; Internet and the Web; Corporate Strategy; Digital Marketing; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Organization; For-Profit Firms; Film Entertainment; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Profit; Revenue; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Taxation; Business History; Human Resources; Resignation and Termination; Books; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Media; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Infrastructure; Logistics; Product Development; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Organizational Culture; Public Ownership; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Integration; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Price; Applications and Software; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Working Capital; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Retail Industry; Advertising Industry; Distribution Industry; Electronics Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Information Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; Music Industry; Publishing Industry; Shipping Industry; Technology Industry; Video Game Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Washington (state, US); Seattle

22 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Master the One-on-One Meeting

private, conversation with each other about what’s really going on—professionally and personally. This is a routine opportunity for you, as a manager, to assess the parts (your employees) that lead to the productive whole (your... View Details

Keywords: by Julia B. Austin

Spring 2021
Article

Corporate Resilience and Response During COVID-19

By: Alex Cheema-Fox, Bridget LaPerla, George Serafeim and Hui (Stacie) Wang

The coronavirus pandemic caused a sharp market decline while raising heterogeneous responses across companies related to their employees, supply chain, and repurposing of operations to provide needed products and services. We study whether during the 2020 COVID-19... View Details

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16 Nov 2021
HBS Case

How a Company Made Employees So Miserable, They Killed Themselves

reportedly linked to job-related misery. In a landmark ruling in 2019—the first of its kind—a French court found that a number of executives at France Télécom had fostered an environment of institutional harassment in the ruthless means they used to reduce the View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

July 2018 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Hidrovias do Brasil: Navigating Unchartered Waters

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Since its founding eight years earlier, Hidrovias do Brasil (“Hidrovias”), an integrated logistics provider serving corporate customers exporting products from South America via the Atlantic Ocean, had grown to 900 employees and $253 million in annual revenues.... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Private Equity; Brazil; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Operation Management; General Management; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Growth and Development; Leadership; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Transportation; Human Capital; Strategy; Emerging Markets; Brazil

21 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 21, 2018

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54887 forthcoming Production and Operations Management The Operational Value of Social Media Information By: Cui, Ruomeng, Santiago Gallino, Antonio Moreno, and Dennis J. Zhang... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

03 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 3

authors provide a checklist that managers can use on a daily basis to monitor their progress-enhancing behaviors. Read the article: http://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins/ar/1 The Best Way to Name Your Product 2.0 Authors:Marco... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2019 (Revised July 2019)
Case

New Balance: Managing Orders and Working Conditions

By: Michael W. Toffel, Eileen McNeely and Matthew Preble

New Balance Athletics, Inc., a major U.S.-based athletic footwear and apparel brand, sources most of its footwear products from independent suppliers whose factories are located in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Monica Gorman, vice president of responsible leadership... View Details

Keywords: Footwear; Athletic Footwear; Manufacturing; CSR; Sustainability; Quality Management; Supply Chains; Operations; Management; Production; Working Conditions; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Labor and Management Relations; Supply Chain Management; Supply Chain; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Consumer Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry

26 Apr 2023
In Practice

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

tools that are now being introduced will have a profound impact on the labor market, leading to the eventual elimination of many jobs and the restructuring of many others. The effect will be particularly acute among knowledge... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

27 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

How One Late Employee Can Hurt Your Business: Data from 25 Million Timecards

School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania to focus on retail operations, many considered the topic an "oxymoron." “The right labor needs to be available at the right time and store to match customers with View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Retail

19 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 18

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9390.html Why You Aren't Buying Venezuelan Chocolate Author:Rohit Deshpandé Publication:Harvard Business Review 88, no. 12 (December 2010) Abstract The article discusses the "provenance paradox," wherein consumers are... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 Mar 2012
What Do You Think?

Are Factory Jobs Important to the Economy?

too-commonly used term, not mine) are tradable on international labor markets. They especially follow the migration of manufacturing activity involving jobs requiring lower skills and compensation. Efforts to revive high value-added... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Manufacturing

20 May 2008
First Look

First Look: May 20, 2008

from economics and sociology on intra-household bargaining elucidates how negotiations over the allocation of domestic labor at Level 2 influence labor force participation at Level 1. In conclusion, we... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Sep 2015
What Do You Think?

What's Wrong With Amazon’s Low-Retention HR Strategy?

companies like Amazon where the loyalty of customers is relatively more towards the product & its prices," and less towards its rarely seen employees. The most frequently expressed view was that it is natural to gear a retention... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

May 24, 2016
Article

Build a Culture of Health

By: John A. Quelch

Every company, large and small, has an impact on health. It does so in four ways: first, through the healthfulness and safety of the products and services it sells; second, through its attention to employee health and well-being in its work practices and benefits;... View Details

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23 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 23, 2008

employed marketing and marketing strategies to diffuse products and brands internationally, despite business, economic, and cultural obstacles to globalization. The process was difficult and complex. The globalization of toiletries... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

November 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Case

The Big 3 Roar Back

By: William W. George

The "Big 3"—Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Chrysler—were all headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Born between 1903 and 1928, they dominated the automobile industry in the U.S. for decades until they became complacent. In the 1970s they started losing share to... View Details

Keywords: Production; Labor Unions; Labor and Management Relations; Industry Clusters; Competitive Strategy; Auto Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Michigan