Publications

January 2013 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Hudson Yards—The Other Side of the Tracks?

By: Christopher M. Gordon, John D. Macomber, A. Eugene Kohn and Lisa Strope

Stephan Ross, CEO of Related Companies, is considering an opportunity to invest $1 billion for the air rights over the Hudson Rail Yards in New York City. The investment would allow Related to build a platform over the operating rail tracks and develop this blighted... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Property; Growth and Development Strategy; Urban Development; Real Estate Industry; New York (city, NY)

January 2004
Case

America Latina Logistica

Describes the turnaround of America Latina Logistica, a $200 million revenue, formerly state-owned, railway in Brazil that has been restored to profitability by its CEO, a recent MBA graduate. After successfully transforming the company's operations, finances, and... View Details

Keywords: Rail Transportation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Strategy; Rail Industry; Brazil

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May 1992 (Revised January 2000)
Supplement

ABB: Accountability Times Two (A)

By: Robert L. Simons

Describes the complexity of setting and reconciling performance targets in a global, matrix company. The president of the Finnish industry and rail transport company has received targets from two bosses--his regional superior and his business area superior. Each has... View Details

Keywords: Performance Expectations; Complexity; Multinational Firms and Management; Finland

July 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

India Stack: Digital Public Infrastructure for All

By: Tarun Khanna, Anjali Raina and Rachna Chawla

Amitabh Kant, India Sherpa in the year of India's G20 Presidency, and Nandan Nilekani iconic tech entrepreneur wondered how to share India's model of digital public infrastructure to build social and economic inclusion. 'India Stack', the umbrella term for India's DPI... View Details

Keywords: Digital Transformation; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Asia; South Asia; India

April 2016
Case

Detroit: On the Right Track?

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Manjari Raman

As this case opens in 2012, a cross-sector alliance to bring new rail transport to the Motor City seems about to collapse, and civic leaders have one last chance to save it. The case covers the rise of Detroit, the city’s devastating fall, and the ongoing potential... View Details

Keywords: Urban Development; Rail Transportation; Infrastructure; Transportation Industry; Michigan

January 2020
Case

Sunset Limited or Full Speed Ahead? Amtrak Talks to Congress

By: John D. Macomber

Richard Anderson took the helm of Amtrak in 2017 after leading a successful turnaround at Delta Airlines. Amtrak is a US state owned enterprise with about $3.5 bn in annual revenue (and a large operating loss) that is responsible for substantial segments of passenger... View Details

Keywords: Railroad; Passenger Transportation; Urbanization; Cities; U.S. Congress; Infrastructure; Transition; Transportation; Rail Transportation; Climate Change; Urban Scope; Strategic Planning; Business and Government Relations; Rail Industry; United States

March 2010 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Dubai in Crisis

By: Noel Maurer

On November 25, 2009, the small city-state of Dubai shook financial markets across the world when the Dubai World holding companies announced that it would ask its creditors to standstill its debts. After three decades of phenomenal growth, something had gone off the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Development Economics; Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Business History; Business and Government Relations; Dubai

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August 2019
Case

Kazakhstan Railways: From the Middle of Nowhere to a Center of Trade?

By: Willy Shih and Esel Çekin

This case describes the evolution of Kazakhstan's rail connectivity strategy post-collapse of the Soviet Union and its now central role in China's Belt and Road Initiative. This meant shifting from a north-south orientation towards an east-west one, as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Geopolitics; China’s Infrastructure Exports: The ‘Belt And Road’ Initiative; Logistics; Trade; Economic Growth; Geopolitical Units; Geography; Rail Transportation; Rail Industry; Rail Industry; Central Asia; Kazakhstan; China

January 2008 (Revised February 2008)
Case

South Dakota Wheat Growers

By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman

As a farmer-owned cooperative, South Dakota Wheat Growers (SDWG) serves the needs of its 3,600 active farmer-members by supplying farm inputs and organizing the marketing and transportation of grain produced in the co-op's service territory. For almost 80 years, the... View Details

Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Production; Rail Transportation; Marketing Strategy; Expansion; Economic Growth; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; South Dakota

March 2018
Case

EKOL Logistics: Thinking Outside the Box

By: Willy C. Shih and Esel Çekin

This case describes Ekol, an intermodal transportation and logistics company, and how it manages capacity planning. Its busiest routes linked motor vehicle assemblers in Germany and Turkey with many of their parts suppliers, but it had also developed key links in... View Details

April 1989 (Revised March 1990)
Case

Burlington Northern (B)

By: Janice H. Hammond

Describes the experiences of a seasoned Burlington Northern (BN) sales representative after the introduction of ShipSmart, a decision support system developed by the BN to help its employees and customers analyze logistics problems. After a brief description of a... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Expansion; Rail Transportation; Logistics; Distribution Channels; Truck Transportation; Innovation and Invention; Sales; Rail Industry; United States

01 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 1

case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/712052-PDF-ENG Delhi Metro Rail Corporation V.G. Narayanan and Saloni ChaturvediHarvard Business School Case 112-013 In 2009, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

January 2014 (Revised May 2014)
Case

Rethinking Cities: Chicago on the Move

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

It is impossible to discuss national competitiveness without considering cities and the regions they anchor. Cities are transportation hubs, centers of commercial exchange, and the locus of lives. They thrive by the ways they connect to the world. Demographic changes... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Management; Strategy; Infrastructure; Innovation and Invention; Chicago

2015
Book

MOVE: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Americans are stuck. We live with travel delays on congested roads; shipping delays on clogged railways; and delays on repairs, project approvals, and funding due to gridlocked leadership. These delays affect us all, whether you are a daily commuter, a frequent flyer,... View Details

10 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 10

PublicationsGlobal, Local, and Contagious Investor Sentiment Authors:Malcolm Baker, Jeffrey Wurgler, and Yu Yuan Publication:Journal of Financial Economics (forthcoming) Abstract We construct investor sentiment indices for six major stock markets and decompose them... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2018
Working Paper

Forecasting Airport Transfer Passenger Flow Using Real-Time Data and Machine Learning

By: Xiaojia Guo, Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Bert De Reyck

Problem definition: In collaboration with Heathrow Airport, we develop a predictive system that generates quantile forecasts of transfer passengers’ connection times. Sampling from the distribution of individual passengers’ connection times, the system also produces... View Details

Keywords: Quantile Forecasts; Regression Tree; Copula; Passenger Flow Management; Data-driven Operations; Forecasting and Prediction; Data and Data Sets

SSRN

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Research Summary

Railroads and the Making of Modern China

My current book project is entitled Railroads and the Making of the Modern China and explores China’s economic and socio-political transformation from the last decades of the empire to the present using railroad infrastructure as a focus. Based on a large... View Details

June 2020
Teaching Note

Armarium: Luxury Fashion Brands for Rent

By: Jill Avery and David Fubini

Armarium, a two-sided digital platform that offered consumers the opportunity to rent the most coveted, current season high fashion clothing and accessories from the top global luxury brands, had emerged from its first sales season with two distinct customer segments:... View Details

Keywords: Luxury Brand; Fashion; Sharing Economy; Two-sided Marketplace; Target Market; Customer Selection; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Luxury; Two-Sided Platforms; Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Value and Value Chain; Fashion Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America