Publications

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October 2008 (Revised June 2011)
Case

JetBlue Airways: Managing Growth

By: Robert S. Huckman and Gary P. Pisano

Considers the situation facing David Barger, President and CEO of JetBlue Airways, in May 2007 as he addresses the airline's need to slow its growth rate in the response to increasing fuel costs and the effects of major operational crisis for the airline in February... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Operations; Performance Capacity; Performance Efficiency; Competitive Strategy; Air Transportation Industry

March 2001 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Wilkerson Company

The president of Wilkerson, faced with declining profits, is struggling to understand why the company is encountering severe price competition on one product line while able to raise prices without competitive response on another product line. The controller proposes... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Competition; Profit; Product; Consumer Products Industry

Web

HBS Alumni Conference: Accelerating Climate Solutions - Alumni

that could enable finance to fulfill its potential in both stabilizing the atmosphere and making society more resilient. Measuring and Reducing Corporate Carbon Emissions Faculty Presenters: Robert S. View Details

January–February 2018
Article

Inclusive Growth: Profitable Strategies for Tackling Poverty and Inequality

By: Robert S. Kaplan, George Serafeim and Eduardo Tugendhat

More than a billion people in the developing world remain in extreme poverty and outside the formal economy. Traditional CSR programs have done little to alleviate the situation and rarely produce transformative change.
Instead of trying to fix local problems,... View Details

Keywords: Inclusive Growth; Sustainability; Social Impact; Business Strategy; Shared Value; Impact Investing; Inequality; Corporate Governance; Balanced Scorecard; Strategy Execution; Economic Growth; Developing Countries and Economies; Poverty; Equality and Inequality; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Strategy; Investment

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Team - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

School, Harvard Law School, Dell Medical School, and the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement. Harvard Business School Michael E. Porter M.B.A., Ph.D., Bishop William Lawrence University Professor Robert View Details

July–August 2024
Article

Disclosing Downstream Emissions

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna

An increasing number of companies are using the E-liability carbon-accounting method as an important tool for tracking progress toward reducing global emissions in their supply chains. The system does not require formal accounting for downstream emissions—those... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Emissions; Environmental Accounting; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Disclosure; Environmental Sustainability

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General Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time (PublicAffairs, 2020) was selected as a 2020 getAbstract International Book Award Winner. Lynn S. Paine : Received the 2020 Robert F. Greenhill... View Details

August 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Nicole Tempest

Describes how the Balanced Scorecard built by the Online Financial Services (OFS) group is used to select the highest-priority initiatives for the organization. Currently, initiatives arise continually throughout the organization, and management spends considerable... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Finance; Change; Situation or Environment; Measurement and Metrics; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry

October 1991 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Maxwell Appliance Controls

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

Article

Reimagining the Balanced Scorecard for the ESG Era

By: Robert S. Kaplan and David McMillan

Companies are increasingly aware that their customers and society in general expect businesses to adopt and work towards social and environmental objectives as well as the traditional financial ones. This involves not only re-evaluating firms’ models but re-imagining... View Details

Keywords: ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Performance; Business Ecosystems; Balanced Scorecard; Adaptation; Business Model; Business and Stakeholder Relations

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May 1995 (Revised April 1998)
Case

AT&T Paradyne

A company making data communication devices has adopted a Total Quality philosophy for working with suppliers, employees, and customers. The finance group finds its existing cost system has become obsolete because of a shift from manual to automatic production... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Product; Corporate Accountability; Activity Based Costing and Management; System; Performance Efficiency; Financial Reporting; Operations; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry

Web

HBR Classics - Alumni

William Torbert Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership , Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis Persuasive Presentations Harnessing the Science of Persuasion , Robert B. Cialdini HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations , View Details

1998
Book

Advanced Management Accounting

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Anthony A. Atkinson

Keywords: Management; Cost Accounting

Web

Accounting & Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

and Richard S. Ruback. 2000 Robert Simons : Winner of the 2000 Notable Contribution to Management Accounting Literature Award from the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association for... View Details

Web

Impact Stories - Impact Stories

Robert S. Huckman 09 Apr 2025 VN Express Vietnamese Student Wins $75,000 Harvard Startup Prize for AI Medical Translation App Play Making better decisions when it comes to your health Leslie John Going... View Details

Article

Using the Balanced Scorecard for Successful Health Care M&A Integration

The failure of merged organizations to achieve stated goals is commonplace. In health care, the challenge is exacerbated by the industry’s third-party payer system and multiple stakeholders, especially the physicians in the merging entities. This article describes how... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Balanced Scorecard

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September 1993
Background Note

The Private Label Movement

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Ray A. Goldberg

Private labels, previously weak in the U.S. market, are making inroads in the United States and Canada. Reasons for this include a weak economy, better quality of private label goods, and a desire by retailers to increase profitability. View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Retail Industry; United States; Canada

August 2011 (Revised August 2012)
Case

JetBlue Airways: Deicing at Logan Airport

By: Douglas Fearing and Robert S. Huckman

The case explores a deicing capacity expansion decision made by JetBlue at Boston Logan International Airport in the summer of 2010. The need for capacity expansion was driven by significant challenges faced during the previous winter combined with substantial... View Details

Keywords: Operational Disruptions; Strategic Planning; Disruption; Cost vs Benefits; Air Transportation; Service Operations; Logistics; Operations; Air Transportation Industry; Boston