Publications

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November–December 2014
Article

Using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing to Identify Value-Improvement Opportunities in Healthcare

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Mary L. Witkowski, Megan Abbott, Alexis Guzman, Laurence Higgins, John Meara, Erin Padden, Apurva Shah, Peter Waters, Marco Weidemeier, Samuel Wertheimer and Thomas W. Feeley

As healthcare providers cope with pricing pressures and increased accountability for performance, they should be rededicating themselves to improving the value they deliver to their patients: better outcomes and lower costs. Time-driven activity-based costing offers... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States; Europe

Find at Harvard

Routines shape many aspects of day-to-day consumption. While prior work has established the importance of habits in consumer behavior, little work has been done to understand the implications of routines--which we define as repeated behaviors with recurring, temporal... View Details

October 1992 (Revised August 2005)
Background Note

Estate Freeze

By: Henry B. Reiling

The so called estate freeze is a classic estate planning and recapitalization practice. It seeks to reconcile the multiple human and business considerations associated with transferring operating control and the future increases in the value of a family dominated... View Details

Keywords: Personal Finance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Laws and Statutes; Financial Services Industry; United States

January 2018 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Big Apple Circus: Time to Fold the Tent?

By: David G. Fubini and Matthew Wiger

By 2016, the Big Apple Circus has weathered many storms in its 38 seasons as one of the most well-known New York City nonprofits. Will Weiss, the executive director, has witnessed his share of chaos during four years at Big Apple. After a slight resurgence following... View Details

Keywords: Turnarounds; Bankruptcy; ＂Live Entertainment; Art; Crisis Management; Financial Crisis; Organizational Culture; Entertainment; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

May 2024
Case

Mission Veterinary Partners

By: Boris Groysberg, Zeeshan Ali and Annelena Lobb

After five successful years, Mission Veterinary Partners (MVP) had to decide on the best way to scale. MVP owned 300 animal hospitals and competed with other consolidators to buy more small veterinary practices. MVP had to distinguish itself as the buyer of choice but... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy

18 Aug 2017
News

How the U.S. Navy is Responding to Climate Change

March 2015
Case

BOLT: Seed Venture Capital Firm

By: William A. Sahlman and Robert F. White

BOLT is a different kind of seed venture capital firm built to serve the needs of early-stage startups at the intersection of hardware and software.

In the past decade, the cost of entrepreneurial experimentation has dropped dramatically, particularly in web... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Accelerator; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Venture Capital; Applications and Software; Information Infrastructure; Strategy

Research Summary

Mutiny in the Workplace: When Leaders Are Challenged From Within

My dissertation focuses on the rarely studied phenomenon of mutiny in organizations. Based on three recent cases of mutiny in professional organizations, I examine the process by which employee dissatisfaction transforms into collective mobilization... View Details

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

Fighting Corruption at Siemens

On November 15, 2006, German prosecutors raided offices and homes of Siemens AG staff as part of an ongoing investigation into bribery. The subsequent investigations covered business representing 60% of Siemens' revenues and spanned operations in Asia, Africa,... View Details

Louis E. Caldera

Louis Caldera is a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He teaches Leadership and Corporate Accountability, a required first-year course in the MBA program. He has previously taught law school courses on corporate... View Details

July 2005 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Understanding Customer Profitability at Charles Schwab

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

Charles Schwab is transforming into a customer-centric organization. Central to this cultural and organizational change is the utilization of customer profitability at different decision-making levels. Examines several technical aspects of the ABC cost system, as well... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Motivation and Incentives; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Activity Based Costing and Management; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Profit; Performance Evaluation; Budgets and Budgeting

September 2005
Case

Martha Goldberg Aronson: Leadership Decisions at Mid-Career

By: William W. George and Andrew N. McLean

In 2005, Martha Goldberg Aronson must decide whether to accept an overseas posting in a functional role with Medtronic Corp. The move would be a professional stretch, but would entail leaving a position with a plan half completed and moving her young family overseas.... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Work-Life Balance; Personal Development and Career; Motivation and Incentives; Opportunities; Leadership

Web

Browse All Articles, Research, & Case Studies - HBS Working Knowledge

operate more efficiently and grow? In the updated edition of Fintech, Small Business & the American Dream, Karen Mills looks at evolving technology and how it might power this... View Details

Rob Markey

Rob Markey is a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches Managing Service Operations in the MBA elective curriculum. The course focuses on how to effectively design,... View Details

October 1989 (Revised May 1990)
Case

Jaguar plc--1984

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and William Schiano

A vehicle for analyzing the exposure of operating cash flows to exchange rate changes. Considers the value of Jaguar plc at the time of its privatization and share offering in 1984. Jaguar is a major exporter from the United Kingdom and the United States is therefore... View Details

Keywords: Change; Cash Flow; Currency Exchange Rate; Risk Management; Privatization; Valuation; Auto Industry; United Kingdom; United States