Publications

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Research Summary

Overview

By: Ryan W. Buell

From creating flight itineraries online, to interacting with tellers to complete complex banking transactions, to engaging with the government to address civic problems, customers are playing an increasingly vital role in the performance of operations in a broadening... View Details

June 2008
Teaching Note

The Treadway Tire Company: Trouble at the Lima Tire Plant (Brief Case)

By: C. Wickham Skinner and Heather Beckham

Teaching Note for (2189) View Details

Keywords: Superior ＆ Subordinate; Labor Relations; Work Force Management; Human Resource Management; Hiring; Job Satisfaction; Leadership; Selection and Staffing; Change Management; Satisfaction; Organizational Culture; Rank and Position; Labor and Management Relations

May 2016
Case

OPET: Precision Marketing in Uncertain Times

By: Rajiv Lal, Esel Çekin and Eren Kuzucu

During Timucin Guler’s decade at OPET, a prominent fuel distributor in Turkey, he transformed the definition of marketing in the company. Under Guler’s lead, OPET, once a local player in the downstream distribution market, became the second largest fuel distributor in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Customer Service; Emerging Market; Focusing On Customers; Competition; Turkey; Loyalty Program; Marketing Strategy; Downstream Distribution; Customer Relationship Management; Energy Industry; Turkey

04 Mar 2024
What Do You Think?

Do People Want to Work Anymore?

(AdobeStock/Halfpoint) Sometimes we experience what Yogi Berra described as “déjà vu all over again.” It happened to me several weeks ago and left me wondering whether it’s déjà vu or whether things really have changed. Years ago, my colleague at Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

November 2015 (Revised February 2016)
Case

Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (A)

By: W. Earl Sasser and Gamze Yucaoglu

At the age of 39, Solmaz Altın took over the helm at Allianz Turkey. Solmaz quickly realized that, although the insurance market was thinly penetrated in Turkey, the company was operating in a very competitive environment with pressure on prices and, hence, cost... View Details

Keywords: Service Excellence; Customer Experience; Customer Service; Emerging Market; Customer Focus; Net Promoter Score; Customer Relationship Management; Competition; Leading Change; Service Operations; Emerging Markets; Customer Satisfaction; Insurance Industry; Turkey

22 May 2014
News

Your Banker Wants To Know If You Are Pregnant

November 2015 (Revised February 2016)
Supplement

Allianz Turkey: Focus on the Customer (B)

By: W. Earl Sasser and Gamze Yucaoglu

At the age of 39, Solmaz Altın took over the helm at Allianz Turkey. Solmaz quickly realized that, although the insurance market was thinly penetrated in Turkey, the company was operating in a very competitive environment with pressure on prices and, hence, cost... View Details

Keywords: Service Excellence; Customer Experience; Customer Service; Emerging Market; Customer Focus; Net Promoter Score; Customer Relationship Management; Competition; Leading Change; Service Operations; Emerging Markets; Customer Satisfaction; Insurance Industry; Turkey

Celia Stafford is a doctoral student in Health Policy (Management). She received a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Emory University in 2017 and an MPH focused in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2020. She is also... View Details

March 2009
Case

Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit

By: Boris Groysberg, Nitin Nohria and Deborah Bell

Barbara Norris struggles to address the many problems facing her as a recently promoted nurse manager in the General Surgery Unit (GSU) at Eastern Massachusetts University Hospital (EMU). She has inherited a unit with the lowest employee satisfaction scores and highest... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Leading Change; Service Delivery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Groups and Teams; Motivation and Incentives; Satisfaction; Health Industry

04 Apr 2017
Blog Post

Why I Love My Job: Jerry Murphy at The Davis Companies

Why I Love My Job is a series of interviews with HBS students and alumni on what drives their satisfaction at work. Current Position: Vice President - Investments, The Davis Companies Current Location: Boston, MA Describe your role at The... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate

19 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 19, 2019

Norton Abstract—Four studies reveal the benefits of relationship rituals: couples with relationship rituals report more positive emotions and greater relationship View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

02 Apr 2010
What Do You Think?

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

covered together during that time, especially several of you who have responded to more than half of the topics (and to C. J. Cullinane who has offered views on nearly every one). This month's column yielded many hypotheses to explain why U.S. employees' job View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

02 Apr 2024
What Do You Think?

What's Enough to Make Us Happy?

(Image created with Midjourney, an artificial intelligence tool) Happiness, an elusive condition we all want to experience, is a popular topic. It’s a complex subject. It may or may not require everything from good health to sufficient wealth to good View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Article

From Wealth to Well-Being? Money Matters, but Less than People Think

By: Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton and Elizabeth W. Dunn

While numerous studies have documented the modest (though reliable) link between household income and well-being, we examined the accuracy of laypeople's intuitions about this relationship by asking people from across the income spectrum to report their own... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Work-Life Balance; Satisfaction; Income; Household

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June 2010 (Revised September 2010)
Case

Atlantis Paradise Island Resort & Casino: Improving Performance with a New Vision and Mission

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Gabriele Piccoli

Atlantis Paradise Island adopted a new vision and mission to provide its guests and employees an enhanced brand experience. The dilemma Atlantis faced was how to integrate the new vision and mission into all the brand touch points in order to improve customer... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Customer Satisfaction; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Employee Relationship Management; Brands and Branding; Service Delivery; Mission and Purpose; Performance Improvement; Accommodations Industry

May 2016 (Revised September 2016)
Case

Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean

By: Rajiv Lal and Gamze Yucaoglu

In 2015, Edip Ilkbahar, HBC’s founder and CEO, was looking over the plans for a new branch in Cyprus. Since the inception of the company by the Alarko Group of companies in 1994, Ilkbahar’s company had enjoyed high occupancy, high guest satisfaction, and high... View Details

October 2016
Case

Turkasset: Bringing Customer-Centricity to Debt Collection

By: Dennis Campbell and Gamze Yucaoglu

In December 2014, in preparation for the year-end board presentation, Hilmi Guvenal (PMD 1993), shareholder and CEO of Turkasset, and Ilker Yoney, COO, sat down to discuss Turkasset’s five- and ten-year strategic plans. Since taking leadership of the company in 2009,... View Details

Das Narayandas is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. His academic credentials include a Bachelor of Technology degree in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB), a Post-Graduate... View Details

Keywords: advertising; beauty products; biotechnology; computer; electrical equipment; electronics; entertainment; federal government; high technology; industrial goods; information technology industry; internet; management consulting; manufacturing; marketing industry; professional services; retailing; telecommunications; transportation

September 2001 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Rapid Rewards at Southwest Airlines

By: Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim

Southwest Airlines is well known as the low-fare airline that has achieved ongoing financial success in one of the most financially troubled industries in the United States. Told from the perspectives of two Southwest customers--a frequent flier and a more typical... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Air Transportation; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Air Transportation Industry