Publications

23 Jul 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Balanced Scorecard in Action

adds a metric that summarizes customer profitability. The ability to measure profitability at the individual customer level allows companies to consider new customer profitability metrics such as "percentage... View Details

06 Mar 2007
First Look

First Look: March 6, 2007

perform their jobs more safely and effectively. The latter required that workers engage in mutual expressions of vulnerability: they acknowledged their physical limitations, learned from their mistakes, and attended to their own and... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2014
Teaching Note

Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (A), (B) and (C)

By: Nava Ashraf and Kristin Johnson

Keywords: Saving; Innovation and Invention; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Success; Performance Evaluation; Philippines

February 2014
Supplement

Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (C)

By: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin and Marc Shotland

Keywords: Saving; Innovation and Invention; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Success; Performance Evaluation; Banking Industry; Philippines

February 2014
Supplement

Evaluating Microsavings Programs: Green Bank of the Philippines (B)

By: Nava Ashraf, Dean Karlan, Wesley Yin and Marc Shotland

Keywords: Microfinance; Saving; Innovation and Invention; Measurement and Metrics; Product Design; Success; Performance Evaluation; Banking Industry; Philippines

February 2002 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Battery Ventures

By: Josh Lerner, G. Felda Hardymon, Ann Leamon, Nitin Gupta and Sameer Bharadwaj

Todd Dagres, general partner of Battery Ventures, reflects on his firm's organization and its effectiveness in one particular deal. One of the perennial challenges of venture capital is the scaling of the firm. Usually regarded as a craft industry, venture firms tend... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Measurement and Metrics; Performance Effectiveness; Organizational Structure; Financial Services Industry

06 May 2019
Research & Ideas

Consumers Blame Business for Global Health Problems. Can Business Become the Solution?

representing more than 200 of the world’s largest companies, has recently launched investor forums dedicated to the culture of health, often featuring prominent CEOs like Paul Polman of Unilever and Alex Gorsky of Johnson & Johnson. In 2015, Harvard Business Review... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Health

October 1983
Article

Measuring Manufacturing Performance: A New Challenge for Management Accounting Research

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Problems and Challenges; Accounting; Research; Performance

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fall 1995
Article

Standard Setting Consortia, Antitrust, and High-Technology Industries

By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao

Examines the antitrust treatment of private-sector standard setting in the U.S. Applicability of law and decision-making issues in high technology industries; Examination of cost-based facilitating theory; Approach to evaluate the reasonableness of a standard. View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Information Technology; Law; Decision Making; Cost; Theory; Performance Evaluation; Standards; United States

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October 2009 (Revised January 2014)
Teaching Note

Sustainability at Millipore (TN)

By: Michael W. Toffel

Teaching Note for [610012]. View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Organizational Structure; Investment; Projects; Performance Improvement; Framework; Measurement and Metrics; Corporate Disclosure; Biotechnology Industry

December 2004
Teaching Note

Yield Curves and Bond Ratings Tutorial (TN)

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

Teaching Note to (9-204-712). View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Education; Debt Securities; Service Operations; Measurement and Metrics; Performance Evaluation; Education Industry

January 2023
Case

Year Up: Measuring and Scaling Impact

By: Natalia Rigol, Benjamin N. Roth, Brian Trelstad and Sarah Mehta

Year Up, a non-profit that provides training and practical work experience to low-income young people, has for years prioritized impact measurement. By 2022, it had built a robust body of evidence demonstrating that its program yields higher earnings for participants.... View Details

Keywords: Demographics; Education; Jobs and Positions; Measurement and Metrics; Performance; Research; Social Enterprise; Growth Management; Education Industry; United States; Massachusetts; Boston

18 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 18, 2008

(DSMs), which allows us to visualize the architectures of different software products and to calculate metrics to compare their levels of modularity. We use DSMs to analyze a number of matched-pair products-products that fulfill the same... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 1996
Case

Watermill Ventures

By: David A. Garvin and Artemis March

Watermill Ventures acquires and turns around an underperforming business. The case describes the criteria the company uses to identify acquisition candidates, its screening and selection process, and the way it introduces strategic thinking at the business it acquires.... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Transformation; Standards; Performance Improvement; Business Strategy; Web Sites

Article

Values, Purpose, Meaning, and Expectations: Why Culture and Context Matter

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

The "rational person" standard, based on assumptions of economic self-interest, has long prevailed in legal reasoning. But understanding of decision making, behavioral choices, and possibilities for action must be enlarged to include a variety of factors that give... View Details

Keywords: Standards; Interests; Decision Making; Behavior; Value; Groups and Teams; Performance Expectations; Organizational Culture; Leadership; Business Cycles; Forecasting and Prediction; Motivation and Incentives

Find at Harvard

20 Mar 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, March 20, 2018

initiatives more closely to specific objectives: preventing misconduct, detecting it, or aligning policies with laws and regulations. Then, using careful model design and some creativity, firms can develop better metrics to measure what’s... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 1996 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Mobil USM&R (B): New England Sales and Distribution

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The general manager of a local gasoline/distillate sales and distribution business unit must communicate a new strategy to the unit's 300 employees. An initial strategic planning exercise identified a high-priority list of opportunities that blended the parent... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Adoption; Strategic Planning; Customization and Personalization; Management Practices and Processes; Growth and Development Strategy; Measurement and Metrics; Motivation and Incentives; Performance Evaluation; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United States

August 2009 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Indian Railways: Building a Permanent Legacy?

By: Tarun Khanna, Aldo Musacchio and Rachna Tahilyani

Keywords: Government and Politics; Managerial Roles; Size; State Ownership; Performance; Transportation Industry; India

September 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

The Productivity Decline: Demographics, Robots, or Globalization?

By: Laura Alfaro, Hayley Pallan and Sarah Jeong

In the early 21st century, there was a noticeable trend of declining productivity growth. Despite the persistent decline in productivity growth, a consensus on its explanation had not been reached. Some of the debate focused on the technicalities of productivity... View Details

Keywords: Productivity; Performance Productivity; Measurement and Metrics; Technological Innovation; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Globalization; Business and Government Relations