Publications

26 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

What Companies Want Most in a CEO: A Good Listener

high demand, particularly at large, multinational, and information-intensive organizations, the research suggests. Those companies see social skills in the C-suite as more important than more traditional operational and administrative... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

04 Jun 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Coming Clean and Cleaning Up: Is Voluntary Disclosure a Signal of Effective Self-Policing?

Keywords: by Michael W. Toffel & Jodi L. Short

25 May 2011
HBS Case

QuikTrip’s Investment in Retail Employees Pays Off

Ton says the key is making the right operating decisions. "You can invest in your people and offer low prices," she says. "And guess what? You'll have a service advantage too." For QuikTrip, that advantage is evident... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

July 1994 (Revised August 1994)
Case

Pacific Bell: Centrex Reengineering

Describes the redesign and rollout of the new order-fulfillment process for a flagship product at Pacific Bell. Pacific Bell is one of the Regional Bell Operating Companies comprised of seven regional business units. Rather than implement the new process, roles, and... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Information Technology; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Telecommunications Industry

October 2007 (Revised January 2009)
Case

The Hertz Corporation (A)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Douglas Scott

Examines the leveraged buyout of Hertz in 2005, a complex, high-profile deal and a good example of cutting-edge practice in private equity. The first of a two-part series on the Hertz LBO, adopts the perspective of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the leader of a private... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Private Equity; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Deal; Valuation; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry; United States

Article

Why Hospitals Don't Learn from Failures: Organizational and Psychological Dynamics That Inhibit System Change

By: A. Tucker and A. Edmondson

The importance of hospitals learning from their failures hardly needs to be stated. Not only are matters of life and death at stake on a daily basis, but also an increasing number of U.S. hospitals are operating in the red. This article reports on in-depth qualitative... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

February 2018 (Revised June 2021)
Case

New Constructs: Disrupting Fundamental Analysis with Robo-Analysts

By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Kyle Thomas

This case highlights the business challenges associated with a financial technology firm, New Constructs, that created a technology that can quickly parse complicated public firm financials to paint a clearer economic picture of firms, remove accounting distortions,... View Details

Keywords: Fundamental Analysis; Machine Learning; Robo-analysts; Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Analysis; Information Technology; Accounting Industry; Financial Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; North America; Tennessee

August 2014
Case

Rent the Runway (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch

Two months after a successful launch In November 2009, the cofounders of Rent the Runway (RTR), a website that rented designer dresses, are debating whether to grow their startup at a measured pace and focus on improving operational effectiveness, or raise a new round... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Electronic Commerce; Fashion; Expansion; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Fashion Industry

2009
Article

Placing the Normative Logics of Accountability in 'Thick' Perspective

By: Alnoor Ebrahim

This article provides a critical reflection on the heavily normative nature of current accountability debates. In particular, it explores three streams of normative discourse on nonprofit accountability: improving board governance, improving performance-based... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Accounting; Governance; Performance Evaluation; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Organizational Structure; Relationships; Accounting Industry

Find at Harvard

Article

Surgeons and Administrators Co-Creating Value

By: Michael Nurok, Thoralf Sundt, Robert S. Kaplan and Bruce Gewertz

Most hospitals have arms-length relationships with physicians, viewing them as people they must ‘‘manage,’’ not as potentially valuable strategic partners. But surgeons make clinical decisions every day that have great influence on both patient outcomes and hospital... View Details

Keywords: Value-based Health Care; Collaboration; Healthcare Administration; Health Care and Treatment; Management; Strategy; Value Creation

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11 Aug 2008
Research & Ideas

Strategy Execution and the Balanced Scorecard

execution system valuable? A: One challenge or pitfall is that few companies align their operational improvement activities to strategic priorities. Many companies today are practicing Total Quality... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

October 1991 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Workplace Safety at Alcoa (A)

By: Kim B. Clark and Joshua D. Margolis

Examines the challenge facing the managers of a large aluminum manufacturing plant in its drive to improve workplace safety. The CEO of the company has made safety a top priority. The plant has made good progress in reducing the injury rate, but now confronts the need... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Safety; Problems and Challenges; Change Management; Operations; Resignation and Termination; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Manufacturing Industry; United States

January 1997 (Revised June 1997)
Case

Corporate New Ventures at Procter & Gamble

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Dean Whitney

Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble is faced with an urgent need to revitalize new-product innovation, given its recent focus on incremental product improvements and its aggressive growth goals. As part of this effort, the company's top executives form a small,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Creativity; Working Conditions; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Groups and Teams; Retail Industry; Ohio

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Rob Markey

Managing Service Operations - MBA Elective Curriculum

World-class service organizations deeply understand the needs and behaviors of their customers, and design, manage, and improve their operating models accordingly. This course... View Details

Keywords: Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Centric Initiative; Customer Engagement; Service Management; Service Profit Chain; Service Design; Service Models; Service Excellence; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Service Delivery; Service Operations

March 2019 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Fetchr: A New Way of Last Mile Delivery

By: V.G. Narayanan and Eren Kuzucu

By mid-2016, five years of aggressive growth had transformed Fetchr from a small logistics startup to a 1,000-employee, full-fledged last-mile delivery company operating across four countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Already beneficiaries of the... View Details

January 1995 (Revised June 1995)
Case

Cybertech Project (A), The

Describes the development and exploitation of a radical new computer-integrated technology in the largely manual meat-processing industry. The technology has been developed by the meat industry's research organization over a period of 15 years and is now ready for... View Details

Keywords: Production; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Information Technology; Product Marketing; Manufacturing Industry; Information Technology Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

31 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 31

whether improvements to firm operational efficiency aggravate or alleviate the impact of disruptions. Improved operational efficiency may leave... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

May 2023
Case

CMA CGM: Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Container Shipping

By: Willy C. Shih and Emilie Billaud

Marine transport is the most cost-effective way to move large volumes over long distances, and container shipping is the backbone of international trade in goods. Yet shipping contributed 3% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, and the deep-sea segment, which... View Details

Keywords: Container Shipping; Logistic Regression; Trade Links; Decarbonization; Environmental Strategies; Environmental Impact; Globalization; Trade; Environmental Regulation; Logistics; Supply Chain; Governance Compliance; Shipping Industry; European Union; Asia; North America

Article

The IT Transformation Health Care Needs

By: Nikhil R. Sahni, Robert S. Huckman, Anuraag Chigurupati and David M. Cutler

In recent years, health care organizations have made sizable investments in information technology. They’ve used their IT systems to replace paper records with electronic ones and to improve billing processes, thereby boosting revenue. But so far, IT has been of little... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Performance Improvement; Business Model