Publications

January 1980 (Revised April 1994)
Case

New Balance Athletic Shoes

By: Kim B. Clark

Faced with growth exceeding 100% per year, James Davis, president of New Balance, must decide how to meet the need for additional capacity. Several factors contribute to a climate of extreme uncertainty. Several options are considered, ranging from a second shift to... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Strategy; Information; Growth Management; Organizational Design; Performance Capacity; Risk and Uncertainty; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Republic of Ireland

21 May 2001
Research & Ideas

From Tigers to Kaleidoscopes: Thinking About Future Leadership

differences as well as their collective identity and goals, she advises. Encourage mutual support as well as confrontation within the group. Focus on the performance at hand in addition to opportunities for... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

18 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

Identify Emerging Market Opportunities

Companies are increasingly looking to emerging markets like China as a vital source of growth. The problem is these companies often lack an effective strategy for identifying which countries to do business with. In a June Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: by Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu & Jayant Sinha

May 2018
Case

Kaiser Permanente Colorado: Primary Care Plus

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Mahek A. Shah

A geriatrician in Kaiser Permanente’s Colorado region is concerned with the high and growing cost of treating the elderly population. She introduces a new care model, Primary Care Plus, using an interdisciplinary team of a primary care doctor, palliative care... View Details

Keywords: Primary Health Care; Elderly Patients; Integrated Practice Unit; Interdisciplinary Care; Health Care and Treatment; Age; Cost Management; Performance Improvement; Health Industry; United States; Colorado

May 1994 (Revised January 1995)
Case

Warner Cable (A) and (B) (Condensed)

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; Change Management; Performance Improvement; Telecommunications Industry; Massachusetts

12 Nov 2001
Research & Ideas

Facing the New World Order

to the study, Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter and Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for International Development at Harvard University. In the edited remarks below, they discuss the findings and implications of... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

12 Jun 2019
Research & Ideas

Investors Have More Than Money to Offer Entrepreneurs

first-time CEO, or other member of the C-suite. I’ve seen investors coach leaders on everything from how to lead their teams and handle challenging employees to how to run a great board meeting. I’ve also seen investors support and sometimes even View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

May 2017
Case

Vicki Fuller: Chief Investment Officer of New York State's $150+ Billion Employee Pension Fund

By: Steven Rogers and Valerie Mosley

Vicki Fuller traveled from a four-room tenement bordering Chicago’s infamous Cabrini-Green housing projects to speaking at conferences around the world and typically holding court wherever she went. As a teenager, she helped raise her siblings. As a Wall Street... View Details

18 Oct 2017
Blog Post

4 Advantages of the MS/MBA: Engineering Sciences Program

Originally from Bulgaria, I was one of the last children born under Communism. With the 50-year regime collapsing a month after I was born, my parents sought out the American dream for our family by immigrating to the U.S. to finish their... View Details

Forthcoming
Article

Should Human Capital Development Programs Be Voluntary or Mandatory? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton

In a field experiment, we find large differences in productivity treatment effects between voluntary and mandatory workplace mentorship programs. A significant portion of this difference is due to the best employees opting into the program when it is voluntary and... View Details

Keywords: Mentoring; Mentorship Programs; Randomized Controlled Trial; Performance Productivity; Employees; Talent and Talent Management; Programs

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Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

Professor Bernstein currently teaches a second-year MBA course in Managing Human Capital (MHC). He is also the faculty chair for the Harvard Business School Online Developing Yourself as a Leader course and teaches in a variety of executive education... View Details

Article

Operational Efficiency and Effective Management in the Catheterization Laboratory

By: Grant W. Reed, Michael L. Tushman and Samir R. Kapadia

Operational efficiency is a core business principle in which organizations strive to deliver high-quality goods or services in a cost-effective manner. This concept has become increasingly relevant to cardiac catheterization laboratories, as insurers move away from... View Details

Keywords: Cath Lab; Catheterization Laboratory; Health Care and Treatment; Performance Efficiency; Management; Performance Productivity; Cost Management; Health Industry

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23 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Management’s Role in Reforming Health Care

continues. "We ought to think about the optimal way of caring for a particular type of patient and then how to pay for that optimal way rather than say, 'Here's the... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

February 2012
Article

Americans Do IT Better: US Multinationals and the Productivity Miracle

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

US productivity growth accelerated after 1995 (unlike Europe's), particularly in sectors that intensively use information technologies (IT). Using two new micro panel datasets we show that US multinationals operating in Europe also experienced a "productivity miracle."... View Details

Keywords: IT Productivity; American IT Productivity; Information Technology; Performance Productivity; Multinational Firms and Management; Management Practices and Processes; United States; Europe

20 Sep 2004
Research & Ideas

How Consumers Value Global Brands

forgiven Shell for what they [did] with that oil rig." An Australian argued: "McDonald's pays back locally, but it is their duty. They are making so much money, they should be giving back."... View Details

Keywords: by Douglas B. Holt, John A. Quelch & Earl L. Taylor

March 2021
Case

The U.S. Home Improvement Sector in 2020

By: José Alvarez and David Lane

Provides an overview of the U.S. home improvement sector in 2020, reviewing sources of growth in the decade ending in 2020, with special attention to the impact of COVID-19 on market leaders Home Depot and Lowe’s and the spike in online revenues for both. Also noted... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Trends; Leading Change; Operations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance; Technology; Construction Industry; United States