Quality Improvement - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Mar 2010
Op-Ed

A Golden Opportunity for Ford and GM

recalled almost 9 million vehicles—more than the entire number it sold the past three years. The irony is that Toyota gained significant market share in the past decade at the expense of its American competitors by offering superior View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Auto

05 Mar 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, March 5, 2019

lack prior ties to others at the bootcamp experience peer effects that influence the quality of their product prototypes. A one-standard-deviation increase in the performance of proximate teams is related to a two-thirds... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

23 Jun 2023
HBS Case

This Company Lets Employees Take Charge—Even with Life and Death Decisions

care teams after experiencing firsthand as a nurse, and then a decade as a senior leader of two large health care organizations, how the health care system managed quality and productivity in ways that required counterproductive layers of... View Details

Keywords: by Annelena Lobb; Health

21 Nov 2023
Op-Ed

The Beauty Industry: Products for a Healthy Glow or a Compact for Harm?

In my recently published book Deeply Responsible Business, I write about business leaders since the 19th century who have acted responsibly, often by putting the welfare of their communities above the idea of maximizing profits. I make a sharp distinction between... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Beauty & Cosmetics

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Technology & Operations Management - Faculty & Research

management, and improvement of operating systems and processes . As we seek to understand the challenges confronting firms competing in today's demanding environment, the focus of our work has broadened to include the multiple activities... View Details

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Business, Government & the International Economy - Faculty & Research

Giacomo Magistretti In this paper, we study the effects of economic integration with democratic partners on democracy. We assemble a large country-level panel dataset from 1960 to 2015, and exploit improvements in air, relative to sea,... View Details

23 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Corporate Sustainability Reporting: It’s Effective

improve how workers are treated or betters the environment. But new research from Harvard Business School and London Business School demonstrates the first real evidence that mandatory CSR reporting works, and could give policymakers and... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

21 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: Feb. 21

multinational, dispersed shareholder, and private-equity owned firms are typically well managed. Stronger product market competition and higher worker skills are associated with better management practices. Less regulated labor markets are associated with View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

28 May 2024
In Practice

Job Search Advice for a Tough Market: Think Broadly and Stay Flexible

need to get to breakeven and to deal with unreasonable valuation expectations of the last several years. That being said, my research and research by others has shown that venture capital and startup market slowdowns are opportune times to enter the industry.... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

03 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

Marketing Your Way Through a Recession

advertising. It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times. Uncertain... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

2010
Working Paper

A New Model of Integrity: The Missing Factor Of Production (PDF file of Keynote and PowerPoint Slides)

By: Michael C. Jensen, Kari L. Granger and Werner Erhard

An Actionable Pathway To Dramatic Increases In Individual And Organizational Performance.

Full Day Executive Program Seminar taught at Olin Business School, Washington University, St. Louis, MO.

Workshop Objectives:

To provide you and your... View Details

Keywords: Performance Improvement; Programs; Trust; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Washington (state, US)

Citation

SSRN

30 Oct 2012
First Look

First Look: October 30

Michael W. Toffel Publication:Organization Science (forthcoming) Abstract Governments and other organizations often outsource activities to achieve cost savings from market competition. Yet such benefits are often accompanied by poor View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 1991 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Maxwell Appliance Controls

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A profitable manufacturing division of a large company is looking for new ways to identify sources of productivity improvements. Led by its senior finance officer, an activity-based cost system is developed to identify activities performed for its highly varied product... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Management Teams; Quality; Performance Improvement; Organizational Culture; Problems and Challenges; Production; Manufacturing Industry

Citation

Find at Harvard

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Podcast - Business & Environment

Harvard Business School’s Cold Call podcast, featuring HBS professor Mike Toffel and Duncan van Bergen, Co-Founder of Calyx Global. The discussion focuses on Mike’s recent HBS case study, Calyx Global: Rating Carbon Credits, which explores how the company is helping... View Details

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Measure Outcomes & Cost for Every Patient - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

health care agenda. Health care invests billions of dollars in quality measurement programs and complex cost accounting systems yet these systems currently fail to collect outcomes that matter to patients and the costs to acheive them.... View Details

Research Summary

THEME #2: BUILDING CAPABILITIES THROUGH VARIATION

Prior work has yet to establish definitively the role that variation (e.g. in individuals' activities or organizational processes) plays in the development of capabilities. Variation is usually either not considered (e.g., the learning curve examines... View Details

01 Apr 2024
In Practice

Navigating the Mood of Customers Weary of Price Hikes

products. Developing new products. The development of new products can take several years. Anticipating the trends in consumer price sensitivity can provide producers with a significant edge in determining whether a new product is successful. It can help shift... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Retail; Consumer Products

20 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Creating a Positive Professional Image

story of managing your professional image, says Roberts. You also belong to a social identity group—African American male, working mother—that brings its own stereotyping from the people you work with, especially in today's diverse workplaces. You can put on a suit and... View Details

Keywords: by Mallory Stark

12 Apr 2010
Research & Ideas

One Report: Better Strategy through Integrated Reporting

a moment in time of its financial position. In buying a share on any stock exchange, the purchaser makes an assessment of the economic value of a company. The assessment considers the value of matters not accounted for, such as future earnings, brand, goodwill, the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

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Drivers of Competitiveness - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

efficiency and prosperity. Key Concepts Productivity Competitivenss is determined by the productivity with which a location uses its human, capital, and natural endowments to create value. Microeconomic Foundations Productivity ultimately depends on View Details

Publications