Publications

March 2003
Background Note

Customer Migration and Customer Types

By: Das Narayandas

Describes the evolution of customer relationships using the price vs. cost-to-serve matrix. View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Cost; Price; Service Operations

01 Dec 2013
News

Faculty Q&A: Playing the Hits

dollars to spend in a given year, you're better off making 100 movies that each cost $10 million, or 20 that each cost $50 million. But it turns out that it's much safer to make a handful View Details

Keywords: Patrick Kirchner; Arts, Entertainment; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

October 2006
Case

Clearwire Corporation

By: Richard S. Ruback

Explores Clearwire's decision to fund its substantial capital investments through an initial public offering (IPO) or through private equity. Clearwire is developing and deploying a broadband wireless network using WiMAX technology. It had filed a registered statement... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Technological Innovation; Initial Public Offering; Investment Portfolio; Telecommunications Industry

24 Apr 2012
First Look

First Look: April 24

minds of those responsible for governance. When a business is profitable and paying healthy dividends to its stockholders, fraudulent activities and accounting irregularities can go unnoticed. However, when revenue and cash flow decline,... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

August 1994
Case

Higashimaru Shoyu Company, Ltd. (A): Price Control System

Illustrates how Japanese firms use profit pressures to increase efficiency. In particular, explores how pseudo profit centers create pressure on workers to increase revenues and reduce costs, and the use of semiautonomous teams in a traditional Japanese workforce. View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Groups and Teams; Organizational Structure; Performance Efficiency; Management Systems; Japan

24 Feb 2023
News

Dean Datar Meets with Alumni in Palm Beach

Society (BiGS), which he described as an interdisciplinary research enterprise that will position HBS as an intellectual hub for examining the most critical issues and opportunities of our times—from climate change and environmental... View Details

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Porter’s Perspective: Competing in the Global Economy

disperse their activities to capture the opportunities and cost advantages of doing business around the world. Yet sourcing the low-cost inputs and building assembly plants in low-wage nations do not make a... View Details

Keywords: Re: Michael E. Porter

29 May 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, May 29, 2018

(BRFSS) data on 2.3 million U.S. respondents, and Eurobarometer data that cover multiple business cycles over four decades. This research provides a new perspective on the welfare cost of business cycles,... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

September 1991 (Revised March 2005)
Case

WPP Group and Its Acquisitions

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

WPP Group acquired J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather, paying high premiums in relation to earnings. In each acquisition the goodwill acquired was immediately charged off against owners' equity. Then, WPP Group established a value for the brand names of the two... View Details

Keywords: Goodwill Accounting; Accounting; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Market Transactions; Equity; Private Equity; Relationships; Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Style; Consumer Products Industry; United States; United Kingdom

Research Summary

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

By: Sandra J. Sucher

In this research I develop cases and articles that provide thought-provoking, real-world examples of the ways in which social identity differences emerge and are managed in the workplace, and the skills needed to constructively engage with differences to create and... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Equity; Social Issues

January 2009 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Pitney Bowes: Employer Health Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter and Jennifer F Baron

Pitney Bowes, a Fortune 500 mail and document management firm, offered its first health plans in the years following World War II. Over the ensuing decades, Pitney Bowes adapted its approach to employee health amid rising health care costs, shifting employer attitudes... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Insurance; Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Corporate Strategy

November 1999 (Revised February 2000)
Case

Granny's Goodies, Inc.

By: Das Narayandas and Katherine B. Korman

The young entrepreneurs of Granny's Goodies, Inc., a corporate gift package specialist, face the challenge of finding ways to create consistent revenue streams and reduce sales costs. Outside of a few long-term contracts, the two founders have had to work very hard for... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Relationship Management; Entrepreneurship; Cost Management; Marketing Strategy; Product Design; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Segmentation; Service Industry

January 1985
Case

Business Research Corp. (A)

By: William A. Sahlman

Contains a description of a decision confronting an entrepreneur: which of two investment proposals should he accept to fund the creation and marketing of a database that comprises the full text of research reports produced by Wall Street investment banking firms? The... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Cost vs Benefits; Valuation; Investment Banking; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Deal; Financing and Loans; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Service Industry

Find at Harvard

March 1989 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Daniel Dobbins Distillery, Inc.

A distiller increases whiskey production and income declines because of accounting methods in use. Questions are raised regarding the treatment of expenditures which can be classified as production, inventory, or period costs. The necessary aging process raises added... View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Financing and Loans; Cost; Accounting; Food and Beverage Industry

January 2019
Case

Data.gov (Abridged)

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Robert D. Austin and Yumi Yi

This case presents the logic and execution underlying the launch of Data.gov, an instantiation of President Obama's initiative for transparency and open government. The process used by Vivek Kundra, the federal CIO, and his team to rapidly develop the website and to... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Rights; Analytics and Data Science; Internet and the Web; Ethics; Cost vs Benefits; Innovation and Management; Information Management; Public Administration Industry; Information Industry; United States

28 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

It’s India Above China in New World Order

insolvent. The banking problem is one of the biggest costs of the delay associated with developing a vibrant, domestic private sector. Here are our concerns for India. How will... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

17 Dec 2020
Blog Post

9 Ways to Have a Better 2021

Yes, we know it shouldn’t be too difficult to improve on 2020. But just to be sure, we drew on the knowledge, experience, and expertise of HBS faculty and alumni to gather nine strategies to put you over the top, whatever the year ahead... View Details

December 2012
Article

On the Efficiency-Fairness Trade-Off

By: Dimitris Bertsimas, Vivek F. Farias and Nikolaos Trichakis

This paper deals with a basic issue: How does one approach the problem of designing the "right" objective for a given resource allocation problem? The notion of what is right can be fairly nebulous; we consider two issues that we see as key: efficiency and fairness. We... View Details

Keywords: Decision Support; Cost vs Benefits; Fairness; Resource Allocation; Performance Efficiency; Air Transportation Industry