Outsourcing - Publications - Faculty & Research

06 Oct 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

18 Tips Managers Can Use to Lead Through COVID's Rising Waters

the hiring and onboarding process, as opposed to outsourcing most of these processes to HR. Once the staffer is hired, the hiring manager should communicate the news to the rest of the organization so their new colleagues can welcome them... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Sep 2003
News

Kumar Mahadeva

Cognizant provides application outsourcing services and 24/7 software project management for a small but intensely loyal client base of large U.S. and European companies. Widely praised in the business press for its innovation and growth,... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

01 Dec 2019
News

Bridging the Gap

relationship, whether it’s a provider, a pharmacy, or a patient, involves data, often mobile data on phones.” BlueCross has had to outsource more than 100 of its IT jobs, he adds—not to save money, but because positions can’t be filled... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; illustration by Josh Cochran; photographed by Melissa Golden; cross sector collaboration; local government; nonprofits; education; leadership; Administration of Economic Programs; Government

26 Jul 2022
Research & Ideas

Burgers with Bugs? What Happens When Restaurants Ignore Online Reviews

all these pieces of digital data as useful in helping them do a better job in two ways: One is doing what they do more efficiently, and two is maybe doing less, because they can outsource certain things to the crowd,” she says.... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Retail

February 2015 (Revised August 2016)
Case

Nokia's Bridge Program: Redesigning Layoffs (A)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Susan J. Winterberg

"Not another Bochum." Nokia Board Chairman Jorma Ollila was clear in the goals he set for the 2011 restructuring that Nokia's new CEO, Stephen Elop, had decided was necessary to address the dramatically changed competitive environment the company faced in smartphones... View Details

Keywords: Layoffs; Plant Closure; Outplacement; Shared Value; Business or Company Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Restructuring; Employee Relationship Management; Telecommunications Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

25 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why IT Does Matter

stifling differentiation, provide a stable platform to build on and offer new ways of differentiating, either by cost, structure, product, or service. Just as literacy stimulated innovation, so do open systems and grids. Outsourcing the... View Details

Keywords: by F. Warren McFarlan & Richard L. Nolan

May–June 2018
Article

Layoffs That Don't Break Your Company: Better Approaches to Workforce Transition

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta

Today layoffs have become companies’ default response to the challenges created by advances in technology and global competition. Yet research shows that job cuts rarely help senior leaders achieve their goals. Too often, they’re done for short-term gain, but the cost... View Details

Keywords: Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Employees; Transition; Strategic Planning

Citation

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01 Jun 2024
News

Competing in the Age of AI

tech and 30 percent organizational when, in fact, it’s going to be the opposite,” he says. “To really take advantage of these tools, you are going to have to change your organization and make learning investments in AI, both personally and professionally,” Lakhani... View Details

Keywords: April White

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

When Benchmarks Don’t Work

for very long. After all, an outsourcer of these services enjoys economies of scale that virtually no internal support unit can hope to match. An outsourcer can shift operations to the lowest-cost regions of... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan; Service

23 Mar 2023
News

Winners Crowned in 2023 Alumni New Venture Competition

US to treat elective procedures and a patient-centric platform with end-to-end support to connect both sides. Aldo Farah Orozco, MBA 2019, Cofounder & Co-CEO Region: International Track The Endowment Project The Endowment Project is an View Details

16 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Has COVID-19 Broken the Global Value Chain?

paradigm behind global value chains, generally a production network, suggests that firms should outsource to the countries with the lowest overall costs. (Firms could potentially source particular intermediate inputs from only one... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

08 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

Creating Value in Your Business Ecosystem

larger than the companies themselves: the success of their respective business ecosystems. These loose networks—of suppliers, distributors, outsourcing firms, makers of related products or services, technology providers, and a host of... View Details

Keywords: by Marco Iansiti & Roy Levien

01 Feb 2021
What Do You Think?

Has the New Economy Finally Arrived?

is at least a lull in globalization. China’s economic development has increased its costs of production and reduced international price competition. Outsourcing may have seen the end of its rapid growth. And workers may belatedly be... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

27 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

How Remote Work Changes What We Think About Onboarding

close contact with the employee throughout the hiring and onboarding process, as opposed to outsourcing most of these processes to HR. Once the staffer is hired, the hiring manager should communicate the news to the rest of the... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg

Web

Introducing One-Step Photography - Edwin H. Land & Polaroid | Harvard Business School

its promising commercial release of instant photography the following year. Polaroid outsourced the manufacture of the negative to Kodak, but would keep the production of the positive in-house. In the ensuing months, Polaroid's legal team... View Details

01 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

A Bank That Takes Parmesan as Collateral: The Cheese Stands a Loan

fresh milk to single-product producers, most of which are limited liability cooperatives of farmers, and most of whom outsource the maturation process to warehouse operators. Before it hits store shelves, cheese is matured for 18, 24, 30,... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Food & Beverage

15 Dec 2003
Research & Ideas

The New Global Business Manager

outsourcing were symptoms of companies undergoing the biggest and most fundamental change in the corporate model, the organizational form, and the role of management in seventy-five years. Globalization is one force driving it, but so too... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

18 Feb 2019
Book

What’s Really Disrupting Business? It’s Not Technology

of Hello Alfred innovated upon the TaskRabbit model by outsourcing the management of TaskRabbit workers to personally assigned butlers, or “Al- freds.” For users, the presence of a butler on the scene allowed for a more trustworthy and... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Beauty & Cosmetics; Insurance; Service; Retail

22 May 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

A Luxury Industry Veteran Teaches the Importance of Aesthetics to Budding Business Leaders

Pauline Brown offers some words of wisdom: You first need to be able to discern what’s beautiful. “Aesthetics cannot be outsourced to the creative department; it has to start with the leader,” says Brown, a senior lecturer at Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Beauty & Cosmetics; Apparel & Accessories; Auto; Tourism

January 2017
Case

Danaher Corporation, 2007–2017

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

On July 2, 2016, Danaher Corporation completed the spinoff of Fortive Corporation. The previous day, Danaher’s stock price had reached an all-time high. In 2015, Danaher had decided to split off its test and measurement, fuel and fleet management, and automation... View Details