Publications

March 2019
Case

DayTwo: Going to Market with Gut Microbiome

By: Ayelet Israeli and David Lane

DayTwo is a young Israeli startup that applies research on the gut microbiome and machine learning algorithms to deliver personalized nutritional recommendations to its users in order to minimize blood sugar spikes after meals. After a first year of trial rollout in... View Details

01 Aug 1998
News

High Honors

Executive Vice President,The Seagram Company Ltd. During Ellen Marram's distinguished 28-year career in the packaged-goods industry, "growth" has always been the operative word. Whether she has focused on growing profits, expanding... View Details

21 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

What Machine Learning Teaches Us about CEO Leadership Style

Operations Management Unit. “We are now able to work on all these rich new sources of visual data.” In a forthcoming paper in the Strategic Management Journal, Machine Learning Approaches to Facial and Text Analysis: Discovering CEO Oral... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

01 Jan 2013
News

Joanna M. Jacobson, MBA 1987

throughout Jacobson's life. At the University of Pennsylvania, Jacobson studied international relations with a specialization in China. After college, she worked in operations at Greenwich Associates and was soon promoted to run the... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

09 Jun 2024
Blog Post

The EC Formula: MBA Class of 2024 Looks Back

Street Health, an organization focused on value-based primary care for older adults, as a strategy and operations director. Rhea will help Oak Street expand access to care for vulnerable communities across the United States. During your... View Details

October 2017 (Revised September 2022)
Teaching Note

Fuyao Glass America: Sourcing Decision

By: Willy Shih

This case is about globalization: a Chinese company has decided to locate a production facility close to its customers in the U.S., but a recent contract bid means it will lose money, at least initially, by supplying product from that factory. The purpose of this case... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chains; Labor Market; Labor Supply; Arbitrage; Tradable Sector; Supply Chain Management; Supply Chain; Labor; Globalization; Globalized Markets and Industries; Geographic Location; Auto Industry; United States; China

February 2002 (Revised December 2003)
Case

H-E-B Own Brands

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

H-E-B is a $9 billion grocery chain located in Southwest Texas. This case focuses on H-E-B's private label strategy, a product category that accounts for 19% of H-E-B's sales and one that earns gross margins 50% higher than national brands. A leader in its markets,... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Private Ownership; Sales; Strategy; Competitive Strategy

01 Oct 1997
News

Brice Cutrer Jones

people questioned the need for another wine operation in California. I decided - primarily out of fear - to do my best on a single product, focusing exclusively on Chardonnay. I had faith that somebody would always want our best effort."... View Details

Keywords: Judith A. Ross

01 Mar 2024
News

Come Sail Away

When Michael Sard (MBA 2018) arrived at HBS, he owned about 50 Hawaiian shirts. “It was one of the few items in a man’s closet that could have a ritual to it around going out, like a tuxedo does,” he says. Purchase options, however, seemed limited to two extremes:... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; entrepreneurship; manufacturing; career path; Apparel Manufacturing; Manufacturing

Web

Disruptive Innovation Online Course | HBS Online

determine which operations are critical to be done in-house and which you can outsource. Highlights Basis of Competition The Music Industry MediaTek's New Business Model Show Hide Details Concepts Determining the Scope of the Organization... View Details

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

the vehicle, and up to 1,000 meters ahead, in order to drive those long stretches of highway safely, saving the human drivers for shorter distance pickups and deliveries in cities and towns. The company had 70 trucks on the road throughout 2021, with safety View Details

Keywords: Kathleen Fu, Deborah Blagg, Julia Hanna, and Maureen Harmon; illustrations by; energy; environment; sustainability; entrepreneurship; Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation; Transportation; Water, Sewage and Supply Systems; Utilities; Construction of Buildings; Construction; Waste Management and Remediation Services; Corporate Services

2016
Working Paper

The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence and Exceptions

By: Lyra J. Colfer and Carliss Y. Baldwin

The mirroring hypothesis predicts that organizational ties within a project, firm, or group of firms (e.g., communication, collocation, employment) will correspond to the technical patterns of dependency in the work being performed. A thorough understanding of the... View Details

Keywords: Modularity; Innovation; Product And Process Development; Organization Design; Design Structure; Organizational Ties; Mirroring Hypothesis; Industry Architecture; Product Architecture; Complex Technical Systems; Information Technology; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Relationships; Innovation and Invention; Product Development

SSRN

Read Now

15 Jun 2021
News

Leading at State

Secretary's Leadership Seminar. “The State Department has operations in virtually every country in the world, and we have to manage very large enterprises that are subject to the same sort of constraints and rules that any large... View Details

Keywords: leadership; international relations; politics; Executive Education

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