Publications

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05 Mar 2008
What Do You Think?

Where Will Management Innovation Take Us?

extraordinary amount of information at all levels and devote a great deal of resources to making sure that all employees are connected. All "herald a future in which the work of managers is performed... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

December 2006
Article

Internet Companies' Growth Strategies: Determinants of Investment Intensity and Long-Term Performance

By: T. R. Eisenmann

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Performance; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry

fall 1988
Article

Unobservable Outcomes and Multiattribute Preferences in the Evaluation of Managerial Performance

By: S. Datar, R. Banker and A. Maindiratta

Keywords: Outcome or Result; Management; Performance

26 Mar 2006
Research & Ideas

The Office of Strategy Management

its own initiative—responsibilities that were formerly not performed by any person or unit in the organization. So, early on the BSC team fills a gap in the management of the organization. While many of our... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

09 Jul 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Performance Pressure as a Double-Edged Sword: Enhancing Team Motivation While Undermining the Use of Team Knowledge

Keywords: by Heidi K. Gardner

02 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Casino Payoff: Hands-Off Management Works Best

ensure that the casinos' best customers return to play another day. “It's not absolute freedom—it's freedom within a framework" —Francisco de Asís Martinez-Jerez And it turns out that casino hosts are ideal subjects to gain insight into an ongoing question debated for... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Entertainment & Recreation

2008
Book

Becoming a New Manager

By: Linda A. Hill

You've just been promoted to a managerial position for the first time—congratulations! But beware: the managerial role differs markedly from the individual contributor role. Go into the job with mistaken assumptions about what to expect, and you just may be blindsided... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Management Skills; Management Style; Managerial Roles; Performance Improvement; Groups and Teams

November 2016 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Blake Sports Apparel and Switch Activewear: Bringing the Executive Team Together

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden

Cameron (Cam) Barker, founder and CEO of Blake Sports Apparel and Switch Activewear, manufacturers and distributers of sports apparel and accessories, was facing a challenge with his executive team. Their inability to work together on seemingly simple issues was a... View Details

Keywords: Team Dynamics; Team Management; Team Effectiveness; Team Performance; Executive Leadership; Groups and Teams; Leadership; Performance Effectiveness; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United Kingdom

Educators

November 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Zara: Managing Stores for Fast Fashion

By: Zeynep Ton, Elena Corsi and Vincent Marie Dessain

Pablo Isla, the CEO of Zara, wanted to improve operational efficiencies in managing its store network. In particular, he wanted to improve labor productivity at the stores. He considered outsourcing certain store operations to third parties, changing the way store... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Managerial Roles; Service Operations; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Efficiency; Performance Productivity; Retail Industry

Educators

06 Jun 2008
What Do You Think?

Why Don’t Managers Think Deeply?

of the responses to this month's question about why managers don't think deeply. The list of causes was much longer than the list of proposed responses. But in the process, some other questions were posed. Ben Kirk kicked off the list of... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

Program

Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management

nonprofit management course is presented jointly with the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative. Key Benefits This program delivers the strategic perspectives, practical frameworks, and leadership skills you need to drive high View Details

March 2021
Article

The Customer May Not Always Be Right: Customer Compatibility and Service Performance

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

This paper investigates the impact of customer compatibility – the degree of fit between the needs of customers and the capabilities of the operations serving them – on customer experiences and firm performance. We use a variance decomposition analysis to quantify the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Compatibility; Satisfaction; Profitability; Service Operations; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Performance

April–May 2012
Article

Resources or Power? Implications of Social Networks on Compensation and Firm Performance

By: Joanne Horton, Yuval Millo and George Serafeim

Using a sample of 4,278 listed UK firms, we construct a social network of directorship-interlocks that comprises 31,495 directors. We use social capital theory and techniques developed in social network analysis to measure a director's connectedness and investigate... View Details

Keywords: Power and Influence; Social and Collaborative Networks; Compensation and Benefits; Performance; Relationships; Resource Allocation; United Kingdom

2010
Book

The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics Are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance

By: Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman

Retailers today are drowning in data but lacking in insight: They have huge volumes of information at their disposal. But they're unsure of how to sort through it and use it to make smart decisions. The result? They're struggling with profit-sapping supply chain... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Logistics; Supply Chain Management; Mathematical Methods; Retail Industry

October 2020
Article

Task Selection and Workload: A Focus on Completing Easy Tasks Hurts Long-Term Performance

By: Diwas S. KC, Bradley R. Staats, Maryam Kouchaki and Francesca Gino

How individuals manage, organize, and complete their tasks is central to operations management. Recent research in operations focuses on how under conditions of increasing workload individuals can decrease their service time, up to a point, in order to complete work... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Knowledge Work; Discretion; Workload; Employees; Health Care and Treatment; Decision Making; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Productivity

January 2011
Supplement

Matrix Capital Management (B)

By: Malcolm P. Baker and David Lane

Ben Balbale, a partner at hedge fund Matrix Capital, must decide whether to exit their investment in Rovi Corporation, a company with a diverse portfolio of patents used primarily for digital interactive guides. Rovi's shares are up over 50% from the time Balbale... View Details

Keywords: Public Ownership; Cash Flow; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Valuation; Partners and Partnerships; Markets; Performance Efficiency; Patents; Stock Shares; Decisions; Financial Services Industry

January 2011
Teaching Note

AIC Netbooks: Optimizing Product Assembly (Brief Case)

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Sunru Yong

Teaching Note for 4245. View Details

Keywords: Performance Management; Quantitative Analysis; Manufacturing; Production Planning; Production Management; Production; Mathematical Methods; Performance Evaluation; Planning; Manufacturing Industry