Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(3,851)
- Faculty Publications (513)
- 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
- September 1991 (Revised February 1993)
- Case
Burroughs Wellcome and AZT (A)
Burroughs Wellcome Co., developer of AZT, the first drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), finds itself under siege in September 1989 by AIDS activists and various segments of the U.S.... View Details
- February 1991
- Case
Burlington Northern: The ARES Decision (A)
By: Julie H. Hertenstein and Robert S. Kaplan
Burlington Northern's decision whether to invest in ARES, an automated train control system, is a ($350 million) strategic investment in information technology. Although set in a service industry (railroad) the issues around this decision arise in many organizations... View Details
- February 1991 (Revised July 1993)
- Case
Cultural Change at Nissan Motors
By: John P. Kotter
Depicts the reformation of Nissan Motor Co.'s corporate culture and the company's subsequent turnaround in market share and profits. In 1985, Yutaka Kume became president of Nissan and thereafter, he continually emphasized the need for internal change throughout the... View Details
- November 1990 (Revised May 1994)
- Case
Microsoft Corp.: Office Business Unit
By: Marco Iansiti
Describes the development of a new word processing software package, Word for Windows. The major focus is how the development process should be improved to reduce schedule slips and cost overruns. Some of the issues raised are: the use of schedules in managing... View Details
- March 1990 (Revised October 1999)
- Case
Turner Construction Company: Project Management Control Systems
By: Robert L. Simons and Hilary Weston
After providing a brief overview of Turner Construction Co.'s structure and project work, the case gives a detailed description of its project management control system, the IOR system. In addition to explaining the mechanics of the IOR system, the case identifies the... View Details
- 1990
- Chapter
Analysis of Cost Variances for Management Control in Hospitals
By: S. Datar, R. Banker and S. Das
- January 1990 (Revised March 1991)
- Case
American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region
By: Robert L. Simons
Recounts the financial difficulties and management changes experienced by American Red Cross Blood Services: Northeast Region (NER) during the 1980s. After summarizing industry-wide changes in the collection, testing, and distribution of blood and blood products, the... View Details
Keywords: Change Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Management; Restructuring; Health; SWOT Analysis; Social Enterprise; Marketplace Matching; Management Style; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; North and Central America
- April 1989
- Case
Norton Auto Supply
Describes a multiechelon distribution system for the distribution of automobile spare parts. An analyst has been hired by the Norton Auto Supply Co. to improve the company's inventory planning and control techniques. Includes demand, cost, weight, and supplier lead... View Details
- March 1989 (Revised March 1999)
- Case
Metabo GmbH & Co. KG
By: Robert S. Kaplan
A privately owned German power tool company was dissatisfied with its existing cost system. The system could not produce timely accurate reports on cost center operations, and newly purchased automated machines were attracting large overhead costs. A new, highly... View Details
- November 1988 (Revised July 1997)
- Case
Technology Transfer at a Defense Contractor
By: Linda A. Hill
At a time of great changes in the corporate environment, Larry Yoshino, a design lab manager at Parsons Controls Corp., faces a delay in a costly defense project due to the inability of one of his subordinates to gain the cooperation of engineers at Parsons'... View Details
- August 1988 (Revised November 1988)
- Case
Texas Instruments: Cost of Quality (A)
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Texas Instruments implements a Cost of Quality (COQ) system as part of a company-wide "Total Quality Thrust." After several years of operation, group management questions whether or not the COQ system should be updated to make it more useful in identifying areas for... View Details
- April 1988 (Revised September 1992)
- Case
Frito-Lay, Inc.: The Backhaul Decision
Prior to the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, companies with private trucking fleets were generally prohibited from selling transportation services to other companies. The deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980 allowed private carriers to offer for-hire transportation... View Details
- April 1987 (Revised April 1987)
- Case
Tiberg Co.
By: Michael Beer and Daniel J. Isenberg
Describes the efforts of a vice president of purchasing to coordinate and centralize purchasing procedures in a multinational company. He encounters a lack of active cooperation. A rewritten version of an earlier case by G. Lombard. View Details
- January 1987 (Revised January 2002)
- Case
Baker Precision Instruments, Inc.
By: Ramchandran Jaikumar, Roy Shapiro, Donald Rosenfield and Kathryn E. Stecke
A rapidly growing machine parts manufacturer is trying to decide whether to acquire an advanced Flexible Manufacturing System or Systems. The selection decisions must address the impact of new technology, the effect of setup times on production planning and capacity,... View Details
- November 1985 (Revised November 1987)
- Case
R&R
Outlines alternative mechanisms for getting into business. Shows the means by which an experienced entrepreneur can gain control over the necessary resources in order to lower the fixed costs of business entry. Provides a mechanism for discussing the role of... View Details
- March 1985 (Revised November 1985)
- Case
Wilmington Tap and Die
By: Robert S. Kaplan
The general manager of a division manufacturing taps and dies must decide whether to continue a major capital investment program. The program was designed to replace aging mechanical machines with modern, electronically controlled equipment. A post-audit, after an... View Details
- 1985
- Working Paper
Sequential Innovation and Market Structure
By: Jerry R. Green and Jean-Jacques Laffont
This paper concerns the introduction of a sequence of new, higher-quality durable products in a market in which there already exists a lower-quality substitute. The product has the further attribute that a real resource cost is incurred at the time a higher-quality... View Details
- winter 1985
- Article
The Nonpecuniary Costs of Automobile Emissions Standards
By: Timothy F. Bresnahan and Dennis Yao
An important component of the costs of automotive air-pollution control has been nonpecuniary: a decline in vehicle performance characteristics. This regulatory impact on what the auto industry calls "drivability" has never been quantified, although there is... View Details
- December 1984
- Case
Expense Tracking System at Tiger Creek
By: Shoshana Zuboff
Mill manager Carl Adelman learns that a group of senior managers is soon to visit the Tiger Creek mill to learn more about the success of the newly implemented Expense Tracking System. The System had been installed on two paper machines to give workers real time cost... View Details