Filter Results:
(82)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(562)
- News (82)
- Research (410)
- Events (4)
- Multimedia (1)
- Faculty Publications (259)
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(562)
- News (82)
- Research (410)
- Events (4)
- Multimedia (1)
- Faculty Publications (259)
Sort by
- 01 Mar 2018
- News
Every Trick in the Book
bookstores found ways to stay in business. Then came Amazon. The internet giant got its start as a bookseller, taking its first order in July 1995. Its online-only model meant that Amazon’s inventory was essentially limitless, and its... View Details
Keywords: April White
- 01 Mar 2019
- News
Case Study: Off to a Fine Art
all in, purchasing inventory at volume up front to enter the market with an abundance of options? Or should the company continue to take pieces on consignment, offering a limited assortment of plates and bowls to test the demands of the... View Details
Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint
- 01 Apr 2002
- News
Stocking Up Can Build Customer Value
A classic business problem from the 1950s illustrates the tension between inventory costs and missed sales. A newspaper vendor must decide how many papers to buy each day based on typical demand. His profit is optimized, the solution... View Details
- 01 Jun 2002
- News
In VMI Partnerships, the Devil is in the Data
The expression “letting the fox guard the henhouse” comes to mind when you first hear about Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) systems, where a product manufacturer actually places orders for the retailer, determining quantities based upon... View Details
Keywords: Laura Singleton (MBA 1988)
- 10 Jan 2017
- News
Paying It Forward
“People find us because everyone has the same problem,” says Malay Kundu (MBA 2003) of his company, StopLift, which is using software and video technology to stop massive losses in retail profits due to theft and checkout fraud. “Retail View Details
- 19 Dec 2016
- News
Harvard Students Help Mom-and-Pop Shops Get off the Ground
restaurants, and neighborhood bakeries in Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, and Somerville, Mugford told the Boston Globe. And the experience has been eye-opening. “The projects I’ve worked on for boards took months and months,” said Lia Prendergast (MBA 2017), who worked... View Details
Keywords: retail
- 01 Mar 2012
- News
Balanced Scorecard and Beer Game Go High-Tech
current iteration, the game still teaches supply chain costs, lead time, and inventory management, but now students order kegs on beloved tablets and other devices. For students, simulations bring material to life, deepen contextual... View Details
- 27 Oct 2016
- News
Paying It Forward
inventory losses by alerting retailers when items are given free-of-charge to friends and family by purposely not being scanned by a clerk (called “sweethearting”), when barcodes are covered, when items are left in a shopping cart, or... View Details
Keywords: Margie Kelley
- 01 Oct 1998
- News
Short Takes
of deals offered by manufacturers, will not stockpile so much inventory that manufacturers will lose their incentive to offer another deal in the near future. Chun argues that manufacturers lose such inspiration when the market becomes... View Details
Keywords: Eileen K. McCluskey
- 01 Apr 1998
- News
Deals For Sale
often become obsolete in as little as six months, a firm can seldom predict accurately how much of its inventory will actually sell. A company like Compaq, for example, may suddenly find itself with three thousand extra modems on hand.... View Details
Keywords: Judith A. Ross
- 01 Oct 1999
- News
Eight Among Many: Nancy J. Karch
into serious trouble," says Karch, whose father was a retailer. "We helped them look beyond next season's fashions to see the importance of understanding how their economics worked, how their inventory flowed, and where their cost... View Details
Keywords: Susan Young
- 01 Dec 2006
- News
Over 50 and Job Hunting?
inventory their professional skills, attend relevant professional conferences and seminars, and study marketplace trends. “You can’t do anything about getting older,” she notes, “but you can stay in touch with the forces that drive your... View Details
- 01 Mar 2012
- News
Shop Talk, Different Avenues
You launched in 2007, and 2008 was one of the worst years ever for retail, so you had a good deal of unsold inventory to offer customers. How did you adapt as the business environment became healthier and you saw a decrease in what was... View Details
- 01 Apr 2000
- News
The World at a Click
win-win situation," Brier declares. "The buyer can get the price he or she wants, and the suppliers -- the airlines or the hotels -- can sell their excess inventory without jeopardizing their retail prices." Priceline currently meets more... View Details
Keywords: Margie Kelly
- 01 Oct 2000
- News
Timothy G. Brier: The Price is Right
which matches consumer demand with sellers' excess inventory -- one of the Internet's big winners. The inspiration of former marketing consultant Jay Walker, Priceline opened for business a little over two years ago. Previously, in 1995,... View Details
Keywords: James E. Aisner
- 26 Jan 2016
- News
The First Five Years: Jill Applebaum (MBA 2015)
fun. “We have a lot of challenges, but inventory management is one of our biggest. Even though our wipes are simple and small, there are still several materials that need to be sourced to put it all together—and all of these add... View Details
- 01 Apr 1997
- News
HBS Duo Offers Personalized Career Assessment
success. An unusual feature of the book is the inclusion of a diskette containing the Business Career Interest Inventory (BCII), a self-scoring psychometric tool developed by the authors, who are also psychologists and principals in a... View Details
Keywords: Bob Binstock
- 01 Jun 2017
- News
Ask the Expert: On the Fly
(above: photo by Getty Images/Patrick Foto) A mathematics major, Don Carty (MBA 1971) has always seen the airline business as a huge puzzle, with the equation involving inventory and pricing, cruising allocations, weather, and holiday... View Details
Keywords: Julia Hanna
- 01 Mar 2007
- News
Courting the Poor
manner, through virtual showrooms (see photo above) that use computers and sales staff to help customers navigate the store’s inventory and make a purchase. “The company had an amazing influence on customer behavior,” Frei notes. “People... View Details
- 01 Apr 2020
- News
What My Time in Vietnam Taught Me About Dealing with Shortages
given authority to decide whether spare parts should be sent to combat troops or to the evolving production base. By centralizing inventory control in this manner, the optimum use was made of scarce supplies. The US economy can work... View Details