Publications

24 Jan 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Activity-Based Costing

the plant, he decided to maintain the capacity for a large contract he expected to win later that year, for which he otherwise would have created new capacity. Updating the model. Managers can easily update their time-driven ABC models to... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & Steven R. Anderson

August 2011 (Revised October 2011)
Case

PureTech Ventures in 2011

By: Andrei Hagiu, Cesar Castro and Sarah Murphy

In early May 2011, Daphne Zohar, founder and managing partner of PureTech Ventures, a life science venture creation company in Boston, MA, was reviewing a term sheet she had just received from a venture capital (VC) firm for one of PureTech's portfolio companies. The... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Investment; Innovation and Invention; Negotiation; Partners and Partnerships; Science-Based Business; Opportunities; Boston

Web

Financial Accounting Online Course | HBS Online

understand financial statements and communicate financial results. My job is project-based, and I'm currently leading the operational functions of a system-wide IT implementation, a project that affects the daily work of a few thousand... View Details

06 Jul 2023
News

Lessons from Major League Baseball's Game-Changing Innovations

Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Spotify More Skydeck episodes Hi, this is Dan Morrell, host of Skydeck. Back in 2014, When Chris Marinak (MBA 2008) was in the process of rolling out the instant replay system as a Senior Vice President at Major League Baseball, he... View Details

21 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

Faculty Research Looks to Latin America

non-stars. "In the second part of this study, we focus on the point of view of the firms. How do different firms recruit, attract, and retain stars? Learning To Compete Professor Rogelio Oliva teaches the Technology and Operations... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

January 1998 (Revised September 2000)
Case

Neiman Marcus (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

The management of Neiman Marcus, a highly successful luxury goods retailer, is considering ways to grow the business and continue to return in excess of 15% on capital. Among the options on the table is a jewelry store concept called The Galleries. View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Investment; Investment Return; Operations; Luxury; Retail Industry

October 1991 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Maxwell Appliance Controls

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A profitable manufacturing division of a large company is looking for new ways to identify sources of productivity improvements. Led by its senior finance officer, an activity-based cost system is developed to identify activities performed for its highly varied product... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Management Teams; Quality; Performance Improvement; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Production; Manufacturing Industry

Find at Harvard

Web

Faculty & Research | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

practice and train business leaders. Nonprofit Strategy & Governance Expanding its early focus on helping nonprofits operate more efficiently to the emerging space of social enterprises and the challenges of measuring social impact, the... View Details

April 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

PayPal Merchant Services

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lauren Barley

In early 2006, PayPal management is deciding how to respond to Google's entry into online payments. PayPal, owned by eBay, has targeted online merchants outside eBay's auction community for its next wave of expansion. Google represents a potential threat to PayPal's... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Competition; Expansion; Service Operations; Auctions; Web Services Industry; Service Industry

26 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 26, 2008

process conformance—the extent to which managers aim to reduce variation in store operations in accordance with a set of prescribed standards for task performance. At high-process-conformance stores, View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

15 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

Five Imperatives for Improving Health Care

Business Administration at HBS and a member of the Forum's faculty steering committee. Other committee members include William W. Chin, Executive Dean for Research at HMS; Richard G. Hamermesh, MBA Class of 1961 Professor of Management... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Health

February 2023
Case

Kapor Capital

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Lindsay N. Hyde and Julia Kelley

Kapor Capital, a leading impact investment venture capital (VC) firm, is on the cusp of a generational transition. The two rising managing directors are about to take over the firm from the VC’s eponymous founders. How should they think about strategy, brand, and... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Operations; Business Startups; Financial Services Industry; United States

November 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Precision Agriculture at AGCO

By: Rajiv Lal, Alicia Dadlani and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

In 2024, AGCO, a leading agricultural equipment manufacturer, sought to improve its customers net farm income by 20% over five years by becoming a comprehensive one-stop precision agriculture solutions provider and strengthening its dual channel sales approach—retrofit... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Relationship Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Organizational Culture; Sales; Alignment; Integration; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Manufacturing Industry

06 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

Cut Salaries or Cut People? The Best Way to Survive a Downturn

literature in economics on why firms tend not to cut people’s pay,” says Stanton, an applied economist who is an assistant professor in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at HBS. “We can actually measure the consequences.” A ‘natural... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

March 2013
Teaching Note

Automating the Paris Subway (TN) (A) & (B)

By: Michel Anteby and Ayn Cavicchi

In 2001, the head of the Paris Subway reflected on how to transform Line 1 into a driverless line without triggering a social conflict. After the shock of the 2000 Notre Dame de Lorette subway accident, in which a train derailed and caused 25 injuries in a Paris subway... View Details

Keywords: Labor Relations; Unions; Organizational Behavior; Change; Information Technology; Rail Transportation; Labor Unions; Infrastructure; Change Management; Employment; Organizations; Labor and Management Relations; Transportation Industry; Rail Industry; Paris

Web

Human Behavior & Decision-Making - Faculty & Research

that controversial choice. It traces the company’s scaling efforts, major fundraising rounds, acquisitions, and ultimate expansion to general access by 2023. Keywords: Purpose ; Identity ; Cultural Branding ; Impression Management ;... View Details

05 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 5, 2006

can increase creativity within a firm, they also aid in the diffusion of creative knowledge to other firms through personnel and knowledge transfer. Firms that operate within small worlds such as in Silicon Valley long ago learned to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 1989
Background Note

Industrial Distribution Systems

A comprehensive description of industrial distribution systems. Written from the perspective of industrial products manufacturers, concerned about building and managing channels systems for taking products from point of manufacture to point of use. Covers: 1) channels... View Details

Keywords: Distribution Channels; Manufacturing Industry; Industrial Products Industry