Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(2,090)
- Faculty Publications (360)
- March 2002 (Revised March 2004)
- Case
Metalcraft Supplier Scorecard
By: Susan L. Kulp, V.G. Narayanan and Ronald L. Verkleeren
An automotive components company uses a supplier scorecard to make sourcing decisions and review its supplier performance. View Details
- January 2002 (Revised April 2004)
- Case
Chapter Enrichment Program Teams at the American Red Cross (A)
By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Anita Williams Woolley
The American Red Cross has a system for structuring, staffing, and leading teams to review its local chapters. Mirroring professional services firms that use teams to serve clients, this system provides detailed guidelines to increase individual team member's... View Details
- December 2001 (Revised November 2002)
- Case
John Smithers
By: Nitin Nohria and Todd Jick
Describes an ill-fated effort to institute a total quality program. Using the vantage point of one of the managers selected to be a quality instructor, the case traces the rise and fall of the quality effort during its very brief existence over the course of six... View Details
- December 2001 (Revised April 2002)
- Case
Synthes
Synthes is the recognized leader in the U.S. orthopedic implant market, with a 50% market share in the metallic plates, rods, and screws used to fix severe bone fractures. Synthes' marketplace strength lies in the strength of its sales force and in the quality and... View Details
- February 2001 (Revised September 2005)
- Case
Howard Schultz and Starbucks Coffee Company
By: Nancy F. Koehn
Investigates the entrepreneur's strategic initiatives to develop a mass market for specialty coffee in the 1980s and 1990s. These initiatives included the development of premium products, rapid expansion of company-owned stores--each with attractive retail environments... View Details
- December 2000 (Revised February 2007)
- Case
Achieving Customer Satisfaction at Pizza Hut (A)
By: V.G. Narayanan and Preeti Choudhary
Describes how Pizza Hut measures and monitors customer satisfaction, customer complaints, and the quality of its retail locations. View Details
- December 2000
- Case
Friona Industries, L.P.
By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis
As the food industry becomes more sophisticated, and as genomics and other factors provide for quality control from the producers to the consumers in the food chain, the beef industry has been one of the last commodity systems to organize the vertical systems to... View Details
- 2000
- Other Unpublished Work
Career Concerns and Staged Investment: Evidence from the Venture Capital Industry
By: Malcolm Baker
I develop a model in which career concerns lead to inefficient reinvestment decisions. Managers have incentives to inflate interim returns by continuing bad projects and delaying write-offs. In the venture capital industry, the syndication of follow-on investments can... View Details
- October 1999 (Revised February 2000)
- Case
Steinway & Sons: Buying a Legend (A)
It is 1995 and Steinway & Sons has just been purchased by two young entrepreneurs. For 140 years, Steinway has held the reputation for making the finest quality grand pianos in the world. The past 25 years have proven to be a challenge, however. First, the company has... View Details
- April 1999 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
GE's Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch's Leadership
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Meg Wozny
GE is faced with Jack Welch's impending retirement and whether anyone can sustain the blistering pace of change and growth characteristic of the Welch era. After briefly describing GE's heritage and Welch's transformation of the company's business portfolio of the... View Details
- March 1999 (Revised August 1999)
- Case
Coop, The: Market Research
By: Ruth Bolton and Youngme E. Moon
Daryl Buckmeister, CEO of The Chicken Coop, must decide whether to invest in market research, how much money to spend, and which programs to fund. His two vice presidents (of quality and marketing) have presented very different proposals. View Details
Keywords: Marketing; Cost; Research; Markets; Quality; Decisions; Management Teams; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry
- February 1999
- Case
Volant Skis
By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Matt Verlinden
Volant brought innovation to the ski equipment industry in 1989 by developing a stainless steel ski. He claimed the skis could turn more easily, could hold an edge in icy conditions, and were more stable than aluminum or fiberglass skis. The company's "soft-flex"... View Details
- January 1999 (Revised February 2000)
- Case
GE...We bring good things to life. (A)
By: James L. Heskett
Jack Welch and the Corporate Executive Council of General Electric are faced with a decision about whether and how to implement a six-sigma quality-improvement effort in the context of many other initiatives already undertaken at GE in recent years. View Details
- July 1998
- Teaching Note
Hawthorne Plastics, Inc. TN
By: Paul W. Marshall, John S. Hammond and William L Berry
Teaching Note for (9-171-004). View Details
- January 1998
- Article
The Adam Smith Address: Location, Clusters, and the 'New' Microeconomics of Competition
The new microeconomics of competition is contained in frameworks that structure the complexity of competition and inform managers of the choices they must make. The role of location has shifted from factor endowments and size to productivity growth; factor inputs are... View Details
Keywords: Economics
- December 1997 (Revised October 1999)
- Case
Citibank: Performance Evaluation
By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila
Citibank has introduced a new, comprehensive performance-scorecard system. A regional president struggles with a tough decision: how to evaluate an outstanding branch manager who has scored poorly on an important customer satisfaction measure. This case provides a... View Details
- 1997
- Book
Finding Time: How Corporations, Individuals, and Families Can Benefit from New Work Practices
By: Leslie Perlow
Why do Americans work so hard? Are the long hours spent at work really necessary to increase organizational productivity? Perlow documents the work life of employees who assume that for their own success and the success of their organization they must put in extended... View Details
- April 1997
- Case
Peoria Engine Plant (A): (Abridged)
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Amy P. Hutton
Describes the cost control system used at an automobile engine plant for labor and overhead costs. The finance staff prepares daily, weekly, and monthly variance reports against budgets. Department supervisors, finance staff, and the plant manager discuss the use and... View Details
- April 1997
- Case
Romeo Engine Plant (Abridged)
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Amy P. Hutton
A newly reopened automobile engine plant has been organized along total quality and teamwork principles. Employees now solve problems and ensure quality, rather than watch parts being produced. New operating and financial systems have been installed to promote... View Details
- January 1997 (Revised June 1997)
- Case
Southwire: Beyond 2000
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Melissa Dailey
Southwire, based in Carrollton, GA, was the leading producer of aluminum and copper rod, wire, and cable for the transmission and distribution of electricity. In one decade, CEO Roy Richards, Jr. grew annual sales from $500 million in 1985 to $1.9 billion in 1995, an... View Details