Publications

March 2025
Supplement

Nashton Partners and Its Search Fund Process (B)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Pre-abstract: Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details. View Details

September 2020
Case

Minerva 2010: Turbulent Times

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2010, amid a flurry of new discoveries, Cynthia Bamdad, founder and CEO of Minerva Biotechnologies Corporation (Minerva), raised $6.6 million to test her new cancer drugs in mice. It had been more than 6 years since she had announced that she and her small team at... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Research; Product Development; Commercialization; Strategy

October 2009
Article

Making Time Off Predictable—and Required

By: Leslie Perlow and Jessica L. Porter

People in professional services believe a 24/7 work ethic is essential for getting ahead—and so they work 60-plus hours a week and stay tethered to their BlackBerrys. This perpetuates a vicious cycle: Responsiveness breeds the need for more responsiveness. When people... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Performance Expectations; Performance Productivity; Work-Life Balance; Service Industry

2024
Working Paper

Transforming the Federal Bureau of Investigation: Outcome and Process Framing

By: Ryan Raffaelli, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati and Jan Rivkin

This twelve-year qualitative study examines how Director Robert Mueller and his senior team profoundly transformed the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Drawing on 138 interviews within the FBI and Mueller’s... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Transformation; Government and Politics; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Research Summary

Leadership & Values in Times of Instability

By: Ryan L. Raffaelli

Professor Raffaelli investigates the role of leaders within organizations and across industries during periods of upheaval and ambiguity. His work indicates the key role leaders play in driving and infusing values. He also connects leadership to meaning-making,... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Values And Beliefs; Mission and Purpose

July 1999
Background Note

Comments on Standard Times and the Division of Labor

By: Roy D. Shapiro

A brief note on the origins and uses of standard times in production process flow diagrams and on the benefits and drawbacks of division of labor. A rewritten version of two earlier notes. View Details

Keywords: Labor; Management Practices and Processes; Standards; Production

September 24, 2024
Article

4 Steps That Can Optimize Your Sales Process

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Scott Peterson and Daniel Weinfurter

Sales is a performance art where outcomes matter, so most advice here focuses on closing the sale. But a close is the result of actions and choices that occur earlier in the process: how much time and effort to spend on customer discovery (understanding what and to... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Customer Satisfaction; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Advantage

Read Now

11 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Adding Time to Activity-Based Costing

McKinsey to found Acorn Systems where he developed software to incorporate time equations into ABC. The software modeled how, for example, the time to process a customer order... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

September 2000 (Revised January 2001)
Case

Managing IBM Research in Internet Time

IBM must adapt its research process to the volatility of the Internet market. Issues include incentives, research charter, reward systems, and linkages to business units and customers. View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Research and Development; Information Technology Industry

27 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Building Businesses in Turbulent Times

programs to jump-start the search for those innovative opportunities that will enable them to cut costs and restructure in a way that best positions them to lead their companies as well as their industries out of the crisis. Like IBM, they need to embark on cost... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

Article

Describing Wait Time Bottlenecks for ED Patients Undergoing Head CT

By: Jonathan G. Rogg, Robert S. Huckman, Michael Lev, Ali Raja, Yuchiao Chang and Benjamin White

Study objectives: Facing increased utilization and subsequent capacity and budget constraints, EDs must better understand bottlenecks and their effect on process flow to improve process efficiency. The primary objective of this study was to identify bottlenecks in... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Bottleneck; Health Care and Treatment; Operations; Health Industry; United States

September 2010 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Assembling Smartphones: Takt Time ≠ Cycle Time?

By: Willy Shih and Ethan Bernstein

The case was prepared to be used as part of a process review in the first year Technology and Operations Management course at HBS. It offers students an opportunity to discuss the context of a manufacturing process choice, and then examine actual production numbers... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Research and Development; Design; Six Sigma; Measurement and Metrics; Production

December 2013
Article

Measuring the Value of Process Improvement Initiatives in a Preoperative Assessment Center using Time-driven Activity-based Costing

By: Katy E. French, Heidi W. Albright, John C. Frenzel, James R. Incalcaterra, Augustin C. Rubio, Jessica F. Jones and Thomas W. Feeley

Background: The value and impact of process improvement initiatives are difficult to quantify. We describe the use of time-driven activity-based costing(TDABC)in a clinical setting to quantify the value of process improvements in terms of cost, time and personnel... View Details

Keywords: Quality Improvement; Value Agenda; Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Accounting; Health; Measurement and Metrics; Value; Health Industry; North and Central America

09 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Uncompromising Leadership in Tough Times

Commitment, High Performance: How to Build a Resilient Organization for Sustained Advantage describes organizations that, Beer says, "are diametrically opposite to the firms we saw fail on Wall Street. The book's perspective also leads to answers to the question... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

September 2010
Supplement

Using Regression Analysis to Estimate Time Equations (CW)

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

This note presents a simple way to estimate time equations using regression analysis in Excel. The note quickly outlines regression analysis, then presents a real-life case example from the natural gas industry that students can use to gain experience developing and... View Details

Keywords: History; Management Practices and Processes; Activity Based Costing and Management; Learning; Outcome or Result; Financial Statements; Experience and Expertise; Adoption; Communication Technology; Knowledge Acquisition; Management Skills

10 Nov 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

Research News and Tips: Innovating Across Time Zones

Researchers at Harvard Business School publish hundreds of studies around business management each year, often in collaboration with peers from other institutions. Here are insights collected from papers and journal articles published over the last few months. Overcome... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

1980
Working Paper

Components of Manufacturing Inventories: A Structural Model of the Production Process

By: Alan J. Auerbach and Jerry R. Green

This paper presents a structural model of production and inventory accumulation based on the hypothesis of cost minimization. It differs from previous attempts in several respects. First, it integrates the analysis of input inventories with output inventories, treating... View Details

Read Now

2019
Article

Go-Shops Revisited

By: Guhan Subramanian and Annie Zhao

A go-shop process turns the traditional M&A deal process on its head: rather than a pre-signing market canvass followed by a post-signing “no shop” period, a go-shop deal involves a limited pre-signing market check, followed by a post-signing “go shop” process to find... View Details

Keywords: Go-shop Process; Mergers and Acquisitions; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Deal; Performance Effectiveness; Technological Innovation