Publications

November 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar: A Rural Business Initiative

By: David E. Bell, Nitin Sanghavi, Virginia Fuller and Mary L. Shelman

In rural India, farmers historically had limited access to quality input items for both their fields and homes. Indian conglomerate DSCL has undertaken a Rural Business Initiative to address this issue, establishing a chain of retail outlets throughout rural India... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Conglomerates; Agribusiness; Rural Scope; Customer Relationship Management; Business Strategy; Service Operations; Networks; Alliances; Retail Industry; India

January 1989 (Revised February 1993)
Case

Warner Cable (A)

The new general manager of Warner Cable's Medford, Massachusetts complex faces a number of turnaround challenges in 1985, including service deficiencies, customer complaints, high turnover, and low employee morale. By 1988 he has turned the situation around, but some... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Style; Human Resources; Telecommunications Industry; Massachusetts

October 2024
Case

Ranger Energy Services: Bridging Public & Private Markets

By: Joseph Pacelli, Ravi Ramniklal Gondalia and James Weber

In August of 2017, CSL Capital, a private equity fund founded and operated by Charlie Leykum (HBS ’04), was deciding to take one of its portfolio companies, Ranger Energy Services, public. Founded in 2014, Ranger Energy was an oilfield service company providing... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Initial Public Offering; Financial Strategy; Valuation; Private Equity; Business Strategy; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return; Financial Services Industry; Energy Industry; United States

17 Aug 2021
Research & Ideas

Can Autonomous Vehicles Drive with Common Sense?

Julian De Freitas. “We expect that they will make roads truly much safer.” In fact, De Freitas and colleagues recently argued in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that adopting driverless vehicles on a broad scale could View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Auto

13 Nov 2008
Working Paper Summaries

The Effect of Labor on Profitability: The Role of Quality

Keywords: by Zeynep Ton

January 2016
Teaching Note

Groom Energy Solutions: Selling Efficiency

By: Michael W. Toffel, Kira Fabrizio and Stephanie van Sice

This case examines a start-up service provider that helps clients improve the energy efficiency of their factories, warehouses, and commercial and office spaces by integrating and installing lighting, heating, and cooling technologies. The company seeks to double... View Details

Keywords: Energy Efficiency; Energy Efficiency Paradox; Environment; Environmental Strategy; Growth; Energy; Energy Conservation; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry

31 May 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Organizational Designs and Innovation Streams

Keywords: by Michael Tushman, Wendy K. Smith, Robert Chapman Wood, George Westerman & Charles O'Reilly

13 Jun 2011
HBS Case

Mobile Banking for the Unbanked

In many developing countries it's common for a person to have a mobile phone but not a bank account. In fact, more than 1 billion people fit this description, and the number is only likely to increase. To that end, many companies are considering how to give residents... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Communications; Telecommunications

February 2013 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Agero: Enhancing Capabilities for Customers

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This case illustrates the importance of choosing a primary customer as the basis for organization design. Cross Country Group managers adjusted resource allocation, organization design and performance measures over time to transform Cross Country Group from an... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Entrepreneurial Gap; Entrepreneurship; Auto Industry; Insurance; Performance Management; Performance Measurement; Performance Measures; Performance Pressure; Decisions; Family Business; Resource Allocation; Organizational Design; Customer Focus and Relationships; Performance Evaluation; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry

Forthcoming
Article

Mitigating the Negative Effects of Customer Anxiety Through Access to Human Contact

By: Michelle A. Kinch and Ryan W. Buell

Prior research in social psychology has shown that when people feel anxious, they seek advice from others. However, companies that operate in high-anxiety settings (like financial services, health care, and education) are increasingly deploying self-service... View Details

Keywords: Anxiety; Self-service; Empirical Operations; Behavioral Operations; Communication Technology; Behavior; Customer Focus and Relationships; Trust; Satisfaction; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

December 2012
Case

Delwarca Software Remote Support Unit

By: Roy D. Shapiro and Paul E. Morrison

Delwarca Software provides business software to large corporate clients around the world. The firm serves customers who prefer to assemble corporate solutions using a combination of software programs from various suppliers rather than implementing a single enterprise... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Service Delivery; Mathematical Methods; Applications and Software; Problems and Challenges; Customer Satisfaction; Information Technology Industry

May 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Teaching Note

BrightStar Care: The Evolution of a Leadership Team

By: Boris Groysberg, Colleen Ammerman and Olivia Hull

Teaching Note for HBS No. 417-020. View Details

Keywords: Health Care Services; Entrepreneurs; Board Of Directors; Boards Of Directors; Health Care Industry; Growth Strategy; Organizational Change; Brand Positioning; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Entrepreneurial Management; Franchising; Family-owned Business; Home Health Care; Managing Growth; Management Styles; Organizational Development; Talent Management; Women Executives; Women And Leadership; Business Startups; Family Business; Small Business; Talent And Talent Management; Governing And Advisory Boards; Health Care And Treatment; Human Capital; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Business Or Company Management; Growth And Development Strategy; Management Analysis, Tools, And Techniques; Management Skills; Management Style; Management Succession; Management Systems; Management Teams; Brands And Branding; Marketing Strategy; Strategy; Health Industry

2015
Working Paper

Discretion in Hiring

By: Mitchell Hoffman, Lisa B. Kahn and Danielle Li

Who should make hiring decisions? We propose an empirical test for assessing whether firms should rely on hard metrics such as job test scores or grant managers discretion in making hiring decisions. We implement our test in the context of the introduction of a... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Management Practices and Processes

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October 2013 (Revised April 2016)
Case

StriveTogether: Reinventing the Local Education Ecosystem

By: Allen Grossman, Ann Lombard and Noah Fisher

StriveTogether aimed to improve education outcomes by coordinating the actions of diverse community stakeholders—nonprofit service providers, school districts, government, parents, businesses and others. StriveTogether had an intense focus on collective impact—"the... View Details

Keywords: Education Reform; Not For Profit; Communities; Collaboration; Collective Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Education; Business and Community Relations; Education Industry; United States

Michael Porter is an economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker and teacher. Throughout his career at Harvard Business School, he has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems facing corporations, economies... View Details

Keywords: service industry; service industry; service industry; service industry; service industry; service industry; service industry; service industry; service industry

2015
Working Paper

How Should We Pay for Health Care?

By: Michael E. Porter and Robert S. Kaplan

Improving the way we pay for health care must be a central component in health care reform. Payment reform must link provider reimbursement and accountability to improving patient value: better health outcomes delivered at lower cost. Today’s deeply flawed... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Value; Health Industry

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2009
Working Paper

Fluid Tasks and Fluid Teams: The Impact of Diversity in Experience and Team Familiarity on Team Performance

By: Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

In this paper, we consider how the structures of tasks and teams interact to affect team performance. We study the effects of diversity in experience on a team's ability to respond to task changes, by separately examining interpersonal team diversity (i.e., differences... View Details

Keywords: Familiarity; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Groups and Teams; Projects; Experience and Expertise; Diversity; India

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September 2011 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Telemonitoring at Visiting Nurse Health System

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil and Mala Kaul

The Telemonitoring at Visiting Nurse Health System case presents one home healthcare organization's efforts to use telemonitoring to improve the quality of care provided to at-risk patients who were discharged from hospitals and needed home care. After two years of... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Cost vs Benefits; Risk Management; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; Technology Industry