Cost-cutting - Publications - Faculty & Research

Repositioning and Cost-Cutting: The Impact of Competition on Platform Strategies

We study how platform firms use repositioning and cost-cutting in response to competition, elucidate external and internal factors that constrain or enable these responses, and examine how the firms’ responses affect their performance. Our empirical context is... View Details

March 2019 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Fetchr: A New Way of Last Mile Delivery

By: V.G. Narayanan and Eren Kuzucu

By mid-2016, five years of aggressive growth had transformed Fetchr from a small logistics startup to a 1,000-employee, full-fledged last-mile delivery company operating across four countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Already beneficiaries of the... View Details

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24 Jan 2024
Op-Ed

Why Boeing’s Problems with the 737 MAX Began More Than 25 Years Ago

Boeing’s culture. The first was acquiring archrival McDonnell Douglas in 1997, a leader in military aviation with its fighter jets and Boeing’s major competitor in commercial aviation. In contrast to Boeing’s culture of engineering excellence, McDonnell Douglas focused... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Air Transportation; Transportation; Aerospace

05 May 2022
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Raise Their Prices: Because They Can

cost-cutting plan” to slash $3.6 billion in expenses by 2019. In 2021, well into the economic disruption caused by the pandemic, P&G management announced price increases for a range of products, from adult diapers and baby care... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

26 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

Why Japanese Businesses Are So Good at Surviving Crises

says Harvard Business School professor Hirotaka Takeuchi, was their dedication to responding to the needs of employees and the community first, all with the moral purpose of serving the common good. Less important for these companies, he says, was pursuing layoffs and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

08 Oct 2020
Research & Ideas

Keep Your Weary Workers Engaged and Motivated

complicated them: Cost-cutting and remote work mean that both the acquisition and bonding drives are harder to meet via traditional means such as raises and team outings. Uncertainty around the pandemic itself, and its effect on... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

04 Nov 2010
What Do You Think?

Why Do We Chase Stars?

organization to another. Several discussants maintained that portability is high for certain leadership talents. C. J. Cullinane stated, "The manager who is experienced in cost-cutting and turn-arounds can use this talent in many... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

Steven A. Burd

Burd implemented an extensive cost-cutting plan, which included deep cuts in capital expenditure, enabling the company to lower the shelf prices in its stores and to boost revenue. Once costs were under control, Burd began expanding the... View Details

Keywords: Retail

Henry Ford

In 1908, Ford introduced to the market the Model T automobile. Through cost-cutting production methods, Ford was eventually able to reduce the price of the Model T to $260, making it affordable for the mass market. Establishing the... View Details

Keywords: Automotive & Aerospace

07 Feb 2018
News

Athenahealth Taps Former GE CEO Jeff Immelt as Chairman

August. The search for a new chairman was prompted in mid-2017 after activist investing firm Elliott Management bought a 9 percent share of the company. That move also triggered about $100 million in cost-cutting changes, including 400... View Details

Keywords: Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services; Information

15 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Growing Pains: Prescriptions for U.S. Health Care

realize the potential threat posed by these new technologies, they invariably enter a downward spiral of cost-cutting and consolidation in a futile effort to become competitive again at the market's low end. Ironically, this 'thumbscrew... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Health

07 Oct 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

How Companies Can Make Up with (Very) Unhappy Customers

Switch Habits Juul vaping products have become a cigarette alternative for adult smokers and a growing concern among parents of teens. What the company did initially to head off concerns. Cost-cutting Leads to Turbulence in the Airline... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Air Transportation

Web

The Campus Emerges - A Concrete Symbol: The Building of Harvard Business School 1908-1927 – Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Historical Collections

remaining facilities concluded the following year. The campus emerged rapidly from the formerly marshy area over a two year period. In order to keep within the budget some cost-cutting measures proved necessary, such as reducing the... View Details

01 Oct 1996
News

New Releases

an eight-step process to help firms achieve the lasting organizational transformations essential for success in the coming decades. The Balanced Scorecard by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton (Harvard Business School Press) After years of View Details

01 Apr 1998
News

Snapshot: Gary DiCamillo, Polaroid's CEO

marketing specialist with an engineering background, DiCamillo immediately set about restructuring Polaroid, filling key positions with new people, "refreshing the brand," as he puts it, and instituting cost-cutting measures to stem a... View Details

Keywords: Nancy O. Perry

26 May 2009
Research & Ideas

Improving Market Research in a Recession

the do-it-yourself approach rather than outsourcing to a market research firm is attractive in a cost-cutting era, but you risk getting no more than what you pay for. The opinions of convenience sample of an enthusiastic online brand... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

28 Feb 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, February 28

Strategies By: Seamans, Robert, and Feng Zhu Abstract—Organizational structures are increasingly complex. In particular, more firms today operate as multi-sided platforms. In this paper, we study how platform firms use repositioning and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jul 2017
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: As America Recedes from Global Leadership, Its CEOs are Stepping Up

As America recedes from global leadership under President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies, a new generation of business statesmen is stepping up to take on global issues of monumental importance: global trade, climate change, job creation, and healthy living.... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

02 Apr 2010
What Do You Think?

Why Are Fewer and Fewer U.S. Employees Satisfied With Their Jobs?

are, at the same time, exercising cost-cutting efforts (such as low wages, poor benefits, no health insurance for many employees in the case of Wal-Mart, fines for safety violations in the case of BP) in dealing with their employees.... View Details