Publications

01 Jan 2010
News

James Dimon, MBA 1982

Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Return to Alumni Achievement Awards main page Earlier Education: B.A., Economics and Psychology, Tufts University, 1978 On Leadership: “Set and meet high standards of integrity, performance, and service. You have to be... View Details

15 Jun 2009
Research & Ideas

GM: What Went Wrong and What’s Next

centers into more nimble operations that can sustain its renewed brands far into the 21st Century. Nancy F. Koehn, James E. Robison Professor Of Business Administration: General Motors was formed in 1908, the same year Henry Ford brought... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Auto

01 Sep 2023
News

End Game

Illustration by James Steinberg In the 1960s and 1970s, as the environmental movement dawned in the United States, a new generation of activist-minded entrepreneurs appeared. Among them were companies like Body Shop, Aveda, Tom’s of Maine, and Whole Foods—all founded... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

2006
Working Paper

Managing Functional Biases in Organizational Forecasts: A Case Study of Consensus Forecasting in Supply Chain Planning

To date, little research has been done on managing the organizational and political dimensions of generating and improving forecasts in corporate settings. We examine the implementation of a supply chain planning process at a consumer electronics company, concentrating... View Details

Keywords: Prejudice and Bias; Business or Company Management; Supply Chain Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Planning; Electronics Industry

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21 Aug 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

Companies Love Big Data But Lack the Strategy To Use It Effectively

Technology and Operations Management Unit. He discussed with students how German soccer team TSG Hoffenheim deploys analytics in scouting and player development. He also noted how New Zealand’s yacht designers and crew prepared for the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

04 Sep 2019
Blog Post

A Guided Experience into the World of Entrepreneurship

people start companies, I knew that this was the best program for me.” Stan had already gained an impressive amount of experience at Microsoft where he worked on operating systems and with online payments technology, responsibilities that... View Details

Apr 12 2017
Interview

The Future of Professional Service Firms

March 2007 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Fabindia Overseas Pvt. Ltd.

By: Mukti Khaire and Prabakar (PK) Kothandaraman

Fabindia is a for-profit Indian retail company with the stated mission of providing employment to weavers and traditional handicraft artisans in rural India. Established in 1960 as an exporter of home furnishings, Fabindia has grown as a consumer-facing retailer of... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Growth and Development Strategy; Supply Chain; Mission and Purpose; Expansion; Retail Industry; India

Web

Documenting the Wartime Effort | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Additionally, U.S. Steel drew upon the work of photographers serving in the company’s engineering corps, who were intimately familiar with the inner workings of the corporation. It also employed the services of local studios operating... View Details

May 1994
Background Note

Designing Channels of Distribution

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

Presents a framework and a method for addressing the new product channel choice decision. Offers a six-step method that involves: 1) disaggregating and prioritizing a distribution channel by customers' channel function requirements; 2) obtaining and combining... View Details

Keywords: Distribution Channels; Framework; Cost; Customers; Cost vs Benefits; Management

10 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

How to Get Companies to Make Investments That Benefit Everyone

Regulators often punish companies for bad behavior—for instance, by fining them if they pollute the environment. But instead of focusing on what business leaders are doing wrong and constantly slapping their hands, government officials should shift to rewarding firms... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

March 1, 2021
Article

Transitioning to Clean Energy Transportation Services: Life-cycle Cost Analysis for Vehicle Fleets

By: Stephen Comello, Gunther Glenk and Stefan Reichelstein

Comprehensive global decarbonization requires that transportation services cease to rely on fossil fuels for power generation. This paper develops a generic, time-driven life-cycle cost model for mobility services to address two closely related questions central to the... View Details

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13 Dec 2021
Research & Ideas

The Unlikely Upside of Mergers: More Diverse Management Teams

equates to roughly 60 percent of the total US workforce. Zhang tracked acquired firms for 10 years, from five years before they were purchased through the five years afterward. He found that companies whose acquirers operated in the same... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

December 2023
Article

What Can Stockouts Tell Us About Inflation? Evidence from Online Micro Data

By: Alberto Cavallo and Oleksiy Kryvtsov

We use a detailed micro dataset on product availability and stockouts to construct a direct high-frequency measure of consumer product shortages during the 2020-2022 pandemic. We document a widespread multi-fold rise in stockouts in nearly all sectors early in the... View Details

Keywords: Prices; Stockouts; Inventories; Supply Disruptions; COVID-19 Pandemic; Supply Chain; Product; Demand and Consumers

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2022
Case

Tesla's Battery Supply Chain: A Growing Concern

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

In October 2021, the fictional vice president of supply chain sustainability at Tesla is working on finding the best way to achieve Tesla's goal of 100% recycling for the batteries in its electric vehicles (EVs) as they reach their end of life. A major challenge in... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Governance Compliance; Metals and Minerals; Auto Industry

October 2023
Case

Hey Jane: Delivering Abortion Pills to the Doorstep

By: Rembrand Koning, Geraldine Pena-Galea and Sarah Mehta

This case tells the story of Hey Jane, a telehealth clinic founded in 2020 that provides virtual medication abortion services to eligible patients in nine U.S. states. By January 2023, the company had served more than 20,000 patients and raised nearly $10 million in... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Business Startups; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; Technology Industry; United States

Web

Poor’s Manual: The Rise of Business Analysts - Railroads and the Transformation of Capitalism | Harvard Business School

maintenance managers to freight and purchasing agents. Accounting operations were centralized through a company treasurer, and daily accounting figures were fed into weekly, monthly, and annual reports. The deepening granularity of data... View Details

September 2016
Case

Hewlett Packard Enterprise: The Dandelion Program

By: Gary P. Pisano and Robert D. Austin

This case describes Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s “Dandelion Program," which has developed a new service offering for the company’s clients by drawing on the special talents of people with autism. The company has deployed “pods” organized around 8 or 9 employees with... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Information Technology; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Talent and Talent Management; Service Operations; Training; Diversity; Innovation and Invention; Technology Industry