Publications

01 Jun 2024
News

Redefining How Businesses Operate

In her LinkedIn profile, Rebecca Hu (MBA 2023) describes herself as a “biologist-turned-technologist obsessed with building great software products.” A product manager at the language learning app Duolingo, Hu immersed herself in electives and activities centered... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

April 2003 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Operational Execution at Arrow Electronics

By: Ananth Raman and Zeynep Ton

Distribution center operations (from order taking to order fulfillment) and the importance of attending to process details at Arrow Electronics, a large distributor of electronic components and computer products are described. The case also details the actions the... View Details

Keywords: Information; Distribution; Logistics; Strategy; Electronics Industry

Educators

May 1998
Teaching Note

Concept of Operations Strategy,The TN

By: Gary P. Pisano

Teaching Note for instructors in teaching Operations Strategy. View Details

Keywords: Operations; Teaching; Strategy

September–October 2017
Article

Why Do We Undervalue Competent Management?: Neither Great Leadership Nor Brilliant Strategy Matters Without Operational Excellence

By: Raffaella Sadun, Nicholas Bloom and John Van Reenen

A recurring message in business education is that you can’t compete on the basis of management processes because they’re easily copied. Operational effectiveness is table stakes in the competitive universe, it is often assumed, and thus cannot serve as a sustainable... View Details

Keywords: Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Effectiveness

Register to Read

May 2021 (Revised February 2025)
Teaching Note

Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations

By: Antonio Moreno and Anibha Singh

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 621-026, 621-027, and 621-062. As Migros, one of Turkey’s largest grocery chains, forays into online groceries, the company faces operational challenges related to inventory management, fulfillment and last mile delivery and strategics... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Operations; Management; Competitive Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Turkey

Article

Optimizing Organic Waste to Energy Operations

By: Baris Ata, Deishin Lee and Mustafa H. Tongarlak

A waste-to-energy firm that recycles organic waste with energy recovery performs two environmentally beneficial functions: it diverts waste from landfill and it produces renewable energy. At the same time, the waste-to-energy firm serves and collects revenue from two... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Revenue; Customers; Strategy; Corporate Governance; Wastes and Waste Processing; Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Cost Management; Urban Scope

Read Now

August 1986 (Revised April 2007)
Case

Wal-Mart Stores' Discount Operations

Facilitates a discussion of the sources of Wal-Mart Stores' competitive advantage in discount retailing, and the future sustainability of that advantage. Also profiles the company's major diversification move in the early 1980s. View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry; United States

Educators

March 2020 (Revised February 2021)
Module Note

Corporate Strategy

By: Ashish Nanda

As a strategist, you must decide for your firm what products to produce, what customers to serve, what geographies to operate in, and what activities to perform. This note on Corporate Strategy, which introduces the fifth module of the RC Strategy course, offers a... View Details

Keywords: Scope; Corporate Strategy; Horizontal Integration; Vertical Integration

Web

Technology & Operations Management - Doctoral

III Operations management Janice H. Hammond Michael Lingzhi Li Antonio Moreno Elisabeth C. Paulson Ananth Raman Stefan H. Thomke Michael W. Toffel Operations strategy Kris... View Details

April 2010
Module Note

Balancing Specialization and Diversification in Operations

By: Robert S. Huckman

This note describes a module—taught as part of Operations Strategy, a second–year MBA elective at Harvard Business School—that helps students understand and manage the tradeoff between specialization and diversification in operations. The module introduces students to... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Diversification; Organizational Design; Curriculum and Courses

Teaching Interest

Strategy

By: Jan W. Rivkin

The objective of this course is to help students develop the skills for formulating strategy, and provides an understanding of:

A firm's operative environment and how to sustain competitive advantage.
How to generate superior value for... View Details

10 Jan 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Operations Management

resource allocation lead to strategy failures? Can operations become a competitive advantage? Can "lean" Productions Methods Improve Service Industries? Bringing 'Lean' Principles to Service Industries... View Details

Teaching Interest

Technology and Operations Management - MBA Required Curriculum

This course enables students to develop the skills and concepts needed to ensure the ongoing contribution of a firm's operations to its competitive position. It helps them to understand the complex processes underlying the development and manufacture of products as... View Details

August 2020 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Migros Turkey: Scaling Online Operations (A)

By: Antonio Moreno and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in November 2019 as Ozgur Tort and Mustafa Bartin, CEO and chief large-format and online retail officer of Migros Ticaret A.S. (Migros), Turkey’s oldest and one of its largest supermarket chains, are contemplating what the best fulfillment format and... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Grocery; Business Model; Emerging Markets; For-Profit Firms; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Value Creation; Globalization; Competition; Expansion; Logistics; Profit; Resource Allocation; Corporate Strategy; Turkey

Educators

Article

The Operational Framework of the Eurosystem in the Context of the ECB's Monetary Policy Strategy

By: Michele Manna, Huw Pill and Gabriel Quiros

2016
Case

Africa Strategy of China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao, Dayong Yang and Shanshan Cao

Founded in 1983, China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. ("CNMC") is one of the earliest and largest global Chinese nonferrous metal industrial enterprises. It has investments and projects in 27 countries and trade networks in nearly 100 countries with a... View Details

Keywords: Cross-cultural Management; Global Strategy; Globalization; International Business; Strategy Management; Africa; China

Web

Digital Operations - Course Catalog

into operational strategy is increasingly critical. Focusing on the operational enablers and implications of digital transformation, this course examines how companies... View Details

1991
Book

Operations Strategy: Text and Cases

By: David A. Garvin

Keywords: Operations; Strategy; Cases