Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(4,836)
- Faculty Publications (1,143)
- October 22, 2015
- Article
The Mayo Clinic Model for Running a Value-Improvement Program
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Derek A. Haas, Richard A. Helmers, March Rucci and Meredith Brady
Applying time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) in health care cannot be delegated to the finance function. The most successful implementations have had strong executive support, exceptional clinical leaders, and dedicated, multi-disciplinary project teams. The... View Details
- 2017
- Working Paper
Discretionary Task Ordering: Queue Management in Radiological Services
By: Maria Ibanez, Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats
Work scheduling research typically prescribes task sequences implemented by managers. Yet employees often have discretion to deviate from their prescribed sequence. Using data from 2.4 million radiological diagnoses, we find that doctors prioritize similar tasks... View Details
Keywords: Discretion; Scheduling; Queue; Healthcare; Learning; Experience; Decentralization; Delegation; Behavioral Operations; Operations; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Performance; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement; Performance Productivity; Decisions; Time Management; Cost vs Benefits; Health Industry
- October 2015 (Revised February 2020)
- Teaching Note
Trouble at Tessei
By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan Buell
In 2005, Teruo Yabe is asked to revive Tessei, the 669-person JR-East subsidiary responsible for cleaning its Shinkansen ("bullet") trains. Operational mistakes, customer complaints, safety issues, and employee turnover are at or near all-time highs, even as the... View Details
Keywords: Service Management; Employee Engagement; Employee Motivation; Leadership And Managing People; Quality Improvement; Efficiency; Japan; Operational Transparency; Employee Coordination; Transparency; Leadership; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Employees; Quality; Transportation Industry; Japan
- October 2015
- Article
How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Companies
By: Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann
The evolution of products into intelligent, connected devices is revolutionizing business. In a November 2014 article, "How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition," Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter and PTC president and CEO James... View Details
- 2016
- Working Paper
Cohort Turnover and Operational Performance: The July Phenomenon in Teaching Hospitals
By: Hummy Song, Robert S. Huckman and Jason R. Barro
We consider the impact of cohort turnover—the planned simultaneous exit of a large number of experienced employees and a similarly sized entry of new workers—on operational performance in the context of teaching hospitals. Specifically, we examine the impact of the... View Details
- September 2015 (Revised March 2016)
- Case
Intuit: Turbo Tax PersonalPro - A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs
By: Shikhar Ghosh, Joseph Fuller and Michael Roberts
The case provides a vehicle for teaching about both corporate intrapreneurship and the use of lean startup methods. It tells the story of a product manager within Intuit who develops an idea for a new product that spans two of the company's existing business... View Details
- September 2015 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
MOD Pizza: A Winning Recipe?
By: Boris Groysberg, John D. Vaughan and Matthew Preble
Scott and Ally Svenson, the founders of MOD Pizza, had to make a number of decisions in planning how to scale their small company. They wanted to grow MOD from 45 stores as of May 2015 to 200 stores by the end of 2016, and while the two believed that MOD could manage... View Details
- September 2015
- Case
GovDelivery
By: Mitchell Weiss
Is government the biggest, worst customer in the world? And is that a reason for venture investors to back companies that sell to government or to stay away? It had been seven years since Scott Burns joined his friend Zach Stabenow to get a company called GovDocs off... View Details
- August 2015 (Revised December 2016)
- Case
Apple Pay
By: Sunil Gupta, Shelle Santana and Margaret L. Rodriguez
On September 9, 2014, in front of a packed audience in Cupertino, CA, Tim Cook, the chief executive officer of Apple, announced the much anticipated launch of Apple Pay. "Our vision is to replace this [wallet] and we are going to start with payments." Cook then invited... View Details
Keywords: Technology; Digital Services And Strategy; Launch; Mobile; Mobile Payments; Apple; Payments; Smartphone; Apple Pay; Eddy Cue; Jennifer Bailey; iOS; Iphone; Marketing; Product; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Product Launch; Finance; Credit Cards; Technology Industry; Banking Industry; United States; United Kingdom
- August 2015 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility (A): Developing a New Model
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Daniel Fox
Bridj, a Boston startup that provides Big Data-powered, "pop-up" bus routes that respond to transportation demand, has been in operation for a little over a year and has recently launched service in Washington, D.C., its second market. Despite media acclaim and... View Details
Keywords: Startup; Startup Management; Big Data; Smart Transit; Stakeholder Engagement; Stakeholder Management; Urban Vehicle; Mobility; Mass Transit; Uber; Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Analytics and Data Science; Entrepreneurship; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Transportation; Business Startups; Management; Business and Government Relations; Transportation Industry; Boston; District of Columbia
- August 2015
- Article
Hospital Board and Management Practices Are Strongly Related to Hospital Performance on Clinical Quality Metrics
By: Thomas C Tsai, Ashish K. Jha, Atul A. Gawande, Robert S. Huckman, Nicholas Bloom and Raffaella Sadun
National policies to improve health care quality have largely focused on clinical provider outcomes and, more recently, payment reform. Yet the association between hospital leadership and quality, although crucial to driving quality improvement, has not been explored... View Details
- 2015
- Book
What Great Service Leaders Know and Do: Creating Breakthroughs in Service Firms
Based on decades of collective field experiences, the authors present anecdotal evidence in support of eight things that great service leaders know and do. Great service leaders know that (1) leading a breakthrough service is different, and they take steps to ensure... View Details
- July 2015 (Revised July 2016)
- Case
SF Express: From Delivery to E-Commerce
By: Feng Zhu and David Lane
Shunfeng Express (SF), China's leading express delivery firm, in May 2014 opened the first 500 of several thousand Heike stores, which allowed consumers to buy and try out SF's own e-commerce offerings, in addition to other services. As an example of China's... View Details
Keywords: Shunfeng Express; Heike; Express Delivery; Alibaba; Tencent; JD.com; China; O2O; Logistics; Strategy; Service Delivery; China
- July 2015 (Revised October 2016)
- Case
China Lodging Group (A)
By: Tatiana Sandino, Shelley Xin Li and Nancy Hua Dai
This case study explores the challenges of aligning middle management interests with company goals as a company navigates rapid growth in a dynamic industry. China Lodging Group, a Chinese hotel chain that opened about 2,000 hotels during its first decade in business,... View Details
- June 2015 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Uber and Stakeholders: Managing a New Way of Riding
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Daniel Fox
By 2015, technological innovations—the smartphone and the advanced data connectivity that enabled it—created new opportunities for people to move around cities quickly and conveniently without owning a car, via car-sharing services like Zipcar or new ride-sharing... View Details
Keywords: Uber; Ride-sharing; Sharing Economy; Transportation Network Company; Leadership And Change Management; Stakeholder Management; Managing Change; Leadership; Regulation; Smartphones; Web-enabled Application; Disruptive Technology; Startup Management; Entrepreneurship; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Transportation; Mobile Technology; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry
- June 2015 (Revised November 2015)
- Case
Akbank: Options in Digital Banking
By: Rajiv Lal and Esel Çekin
This case discusses the digitalization strategies of a leading bank in Turkey, Akbank, and how to position its digital banking products going forward. The Turkish banking industry was undergoing a transformation prompted by the demands of the country's digitally savvy,... View Details
Keywords: Marketing; Banking; Emerging Market; Regulations; Channels; Digitization; Information Technology; Competition; Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Emerging Markets; Distribution Channels; Banks and Banking; Digital Transformation; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Turkey
- June 2015 (Revised November 2016)
- Supplement
HealthCare.gov: The Crash and the Fix (B)
By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Paras D. Bhayani
A review of the process utilized by the Obama administration to create the Health Care.gov exchange and the problems that resulted from the implementation effort. This case provides the follow on strategy and processes utilized to get the site up and running after the... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Change; Implementing Strategy; Implementation; Government Innovation; Health Care Industry; Health Care Reform; Service Delivery; Internet and the Web; Health; Government and Politics; Information Technology Industry; Public Administration Industry; Health Industry; United States
- May 2015 (Revised January 2017)
- Case
Bharti Infratel: Unlocking Value in Mobile Infrastructure
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Prashant Salwan, Tanya Bijlani and Rachna Tahilyani
Bharti Infratel, a telecom tower company, provides shared telecom infrastructure to mobile operators in India. It is a spin off from Bharti Airtel, India's largest leading mobile services operator. Bharti Infratel partnered with its rivals, Vodafone and Idea Cellular,... View Details
- May 2015
- Case
Venture Republic, 2011
By: W. Carl Kester and Mayuka Yamazaki
In December 2011, the founders of Venture Republic, a Japanese developer and operator of on-line search engines for shopping and travel, faced a decison about whether or not to take the company private in a management buyout transaction just three years after an... View Details
- May 2015 (Revised September 2015)
- Case
AIP Healthcare Japan: Investing in Japan's Retirement Home Market
By: John A. Quelch and Qing Xia
The CEO of a health care-based REIT is considering alternative nursing home investment strategies. Students must consider macro-industry trends, scale and scope issues and consumer segmentation data in making their recommendations. View Details