Publications

13 Oct 2015
First Look

October 13, 2015

Performance: The July Phenomenon in Teaching Hospitals By: Song, Hummy, Robert S. Huckman, and Jason R. Barro Abstract—We consider the impact of cohort turnover—the planned simultaneous exit of a large number of experienced employees and... View Details

01 Oct 1999
News

Culture Clash: Exploring Cross Cultural Conflicts in Business

"As different cultural traditions meet in the marketplace and inside organizations, managers face tough choices about the values that they and their organizations will live by," HBS professor Lynn Sharp Paine told participants at an HBS... View Details

Keywords: Judith A. Ross

26 Apr 2011
Op-Ed

HBS Faculty Comment on Environmental Issues for Earth Day

Earth Day focuses the world's attention on the both the dangers and opportunities facing the planet. But sustainability and the intersection between business and the environment are issues that need to be addressed all the time, as cities grow, resources diminish, and... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Energy; Utilities

August 2012 (Revised November 2012)
Case

Colorscope, Inc. (Abridged)

By: V.G. Narayanan

A small company in the graphic design business faces severe price competition. The company must respond by cutting costs and making process improvements. View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Price; Business Processes; Performance Improvement; Competition; Fine Arts Industry

01 Jun 1998
News

Short Takes

positive motivational value, how employees at lower levels viewed the fairness of incentive plans, and whether incentives had an effect on corporate performance. The results were surprising. Most noteworthy: making pay contingent on View Details

Keywords: Orna Feldman and Caroline Chauncey

01 Jun 2011
News

Promising Starts

Eight Class of 2011 MBAs will spend the coming year working in key management positions with nonprofits and public-sector organizations with support from the School’s Leadership Fellows Program. This year’s fellows are (front row) Alisa... View Details

September 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Emergia: Driving Profitability on Help Desk Contracts

Emergia wants to keep its customer happy with its contact center service, but the margins on the help desk contract are dangerously low. Can Miguel Neira, the COO, increase margins while preserving the customer relationship? View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Customer Satisfaction; Profit; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Service Operations; Performance Capacity; Performance Evaluation; Mathematical Methods; Service Industry

25 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 25

18th Airborne Corps Rapid Deployment Force, joined PepsiCo's Leadership Development Program (LDP). For her first assignment with PepsiCo, Johnson accepted a position as a manufacturing manager at a Frito-Lay plant in Williamsport,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 May 2020
In Practice

COVID-19’s Hard Lessons Might Prepare Business for Climate Change

The coronavirus pandemic caught the business world by surprise, but the catastrophe might force companies to face a crisis that has been unfolding in plain sight: climate change. We asked faculty members affiliated with the Business and Environment Initiative at... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

29 Mar 2010
Research & Ideas

Ruthlessly Realistic: How CEOs Must Overcome Denial

bankrupt. Q: Given that a CEO's role is often to keep the company energy high and to stoke optimism among employees, are CEOs by virtue of their position especially prone to denial? How could they better blend optimism and realism? A: Accentuating the positive for... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Auto; Retail; Technology

September 2000
Background Note

Professional Services Module Five: Serving Clients Effectively

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Ashish Nanda and Scot H. Landry

It is imperative for the internal systems and processes to be connected to the external processes of client management, competitive adaptation, and service delivery. View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Customer Relationship Management; Knowledge Acquisition; Service Delivery; Performance Effectiveness; Adaptation; Competitive Strategy

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20 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How Small Businesses Can Survive the Coronavirus Outbreak

from that experience in recent weeks as she helps government officials explore ways to shore up the 30 million small businesses that provide almost half of the country’s jobs. THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS More Business-Related Pandemic Coverage from Around Harvard and Beyond... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Service; Food & Beverage

08 Jul 2024
Research & Ideas

The Critical Computer Science Principles Every Strategic Leader Needs to Know

In an AI-world, leaders who speak technology’s language gain an edge. But that doesn’t mean every manager needs a computer science degree. A handle on a handful of basics goes a long way toward preparing strategic leaders for today’s... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Technology; Information Technology

September–October 2013
Article

The Role of Organizational Scope and Governance in Strengthening Private Monitoring

By: Lamar Pierce and Michael W. Toffel

Governments and other organizations often outsource activities to achieve cost savings from market competition. Yet such benefits are often accompanied by poor quality resulting from moral hazard, which can be particularly onerous when outsourcing the monitoring and... View Details

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Read Now

09 Jul 2024
News

On Balance

Mary Wooldridge (MBA 1994) has encountered gender discrimination in the workplace. “I think it’d be hard to find a woman in any workplace who didn’t have personal experiences of it,” she says. As director of Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Wooldridge, who... View Details

29 Jan 2015
Op-Ed

The Fall of Greece

Not allowing establishment of private educational institutions on equal footing with public institutions. The best educational institutions in the world are private and I am proud to be a faculty in one of them. Rehiring public sector View Details

Keywords: by George Serafeim

May 2008
Supplement

Kenny Kahn at Muzak (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

Supplemental Material for 408-057 View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Geographic Location; Innovation and Invention; Employees; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Design; Music Industry

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May 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Gap, Inc., 2012

By: John R. Wells and Galen Danskin

Between 2000 and 2012, Gap, Inc. (Gap) ceded its world leadership position in specialty fashion retailing to Inditex of Spain and H&M of Sweden. These two companies, each less than a quarter of Gap's size in 2000, were now setting the pace in the global mass fashion... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Change; Fashion; Multinational; Brands; Competition; Multinational Firms and Management; Performance Improvement; Strategy; Brands and Branding; Change Management; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sweden; Spain; United States