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Publications
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Quality
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- 2000
- Other Unpublished Work
Does Corporate Quality Matter?
By: R. M. McLauglin, R. S. Ruback and H. Tehranian
- August 2000 (Revised September 2005)
- Case
Omnitel Pronto Italia
By: Rajiv Lal, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Suma Raju
Describes the situation faced by Omnitel soon after launching its mobile telecommunication services in Italy in December 1995. Competing against the Italian monopoly, TIM, Omnitel had positioned its services to be better on the quality dimension. However, sales were... View Details
- 2000
- Other Unpublished Work
Career Concerns and Staged Investment: Evidence from the Venture Capital Industry
By: Malcolm Baker
I develop a model in which career concerns lead to inefficient reinvestment decisions. Managers have incentives to inflate interim returns by continuing bad projects and delaying write-offs. In the venture capital industry, the syndication of follow-on investments can... View Details
- October 1999 (Revised February 2000)
- Case
Steinway & Sons: Buying a Legend (A)
It is 1995 and Steinway & Sons has just been purchased by two young entrepreneurs. For 140 years, Steinway has held the reputation for making the finest quality grand pianos in the world. The past 25 years have proven to be a challenge, however. First, the company has... View Details
- September 1999 (Revised November 1999)
- Case
Explore, Inc.
Documents the creation of a national before and after-school day care program aimed at bridging the gap between school and parents' work schedules. This high-growth, for-profit social enterprise organization operated in what was historically the domain of nonprofit or... View Details
- April 1999 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
GE's Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch's Leadership
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Meg Wozny
GE is faced with Jack Welch's impending retirement and whether anyone can sustain the blistering pace of change and growth characteristic of the Welch era. After briefly describing GE's heritage and Welch's transformation of the company's business portfolio of the... View Details
- March 1999 (Revised August 1999)
- Case
Coop, The: Market Research
By: Ruth Bolton and Youngme E. Moon
Daryl Buckmeister, CEO of The Chicken Coop, must decide whether to invest in market research, how much money to spend, and which programs to fund. His two vice presidents (of quality and marketing) have presented very different proposals. View Details
Keywords: Marketing; Cost; Research; Markets; Quality; Decisions; Management Teams; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry
- February 1999
- Case
Volant Skis
By: Steven C. Wheelwright and Matt Verlinden
Volant brought innovation to the ski equipment industry in 1989 by developing a stainless steel ski. He claimed the skis could turn more easily, could hold an edge in icy conditions, and were more stable than aluminum or fiberglass skis. The company's "soft-flex"... View Details
- January 1999 (Revised February 2000)
- Case
GE...We bring good things to life. (A)
By: James L. Heskett
Jack Welch and the Corporate Executive Council of General Electric are faced with a decision about whether and how to implement a six-sigma quality-improvement effort in the context of many other initiatives already undertaken at GE in recent years. View Details
- October 1998
- Case
"Pathways to Independence": Welfare-to-Work at Marriott International
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ellen Pruyne
In 1991 Marriott International established a program called Pathways to Independence to recruit and train people from the welfare rolls. The program graduated over 1,000 people in eight years and retained about 20% more of its participants than regular hires. Now the... View Details
- July 1998
- Teaching Note
Hawthorne Plastics, Inc. TN
By: Paul W. Marshall, John S. Hammond and William L Berry
Teaching Note for (9-171-004). View Details
- January 1998
- Case
Connecticut Spring and Stamping Corp. (C)
By: H. Kent Bowen, Massimo Russo and Steven J. Spear
Andy Youmans, executive vice president of CSSC, joins a group of U.S. executives on a tour of Japanese factories that practice the TPS. Three of the factories produce products similar to CSSC's, and even though they use similar equipment, they are significantly more... View Details
- January 1998
- Case
Connecticut Spring and Stamping Corporation (B)
By: H. Kent Bowen, Massimo Russo and Steven J. Spear
Connecticut Spring and Stamping Corp. (CSSC), a 50-year-old spring manufacturing and metal stamping firm, is experiencing slow sales growth and feeling the impact of global competition. The company has over 800 customers but little understanding of those customers'... View Details
- 1998
- Article
Alternative Models of Uncertain Commodity Prices for Use with Modern Asset Pricing Methods
By: Malcolm Baker, E. S. Mayfield and John Parsons
This paper provides an introduction to alternative models of uncertain commodity prices. A model of commodity price movements is the engine around which any valuation methodology for commodity production projects is built, whether discounted cash flow (DCF) models or... View Details
Keywords: Asset Pricing; Goods and Commodities; Price; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation; Production; Projects; Cash Flow
- January 1998
- Article
The Adam Smith Address: Location, Clusters, and the 'New' Microeconomics of Competition
The new microeconomics of competition is contained in frameworks that structure the complexity of competition and inform managers of the choices they must make. The role of location has shifted from factor endowments and size to productivity growth; factor inputs are... View Details
Keywords: Economics
- December 1997 (Revised October 1999)
- Case
Citibank: Performance Evaluation
By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila
Citibank has introduced a new, comprehensive performance-scorecard system. A regional president struggles with a tough decision: how to evaluate an outstanding branch manager who has scored poorly on an important customer satisfaction measure. This case provides a... View Details
- 1997
- Book
Finding Time: How Corporations, Individuals, and Families Can Benefit from New Work Practices
By: Leslie Perlow
Why do Americans work so hard? Are the long hours spent at work really necessary to increase organizational productivity? Perlow documents the work life of employees who assume that for their own success and the success of their organization they must put in extended... View Details
- August 1997 (Revised June 2023)
- Case
Fabritek, 1992
Describes a large-volume automotive parts contract in a high-quality machine work company. Quality and delivery problems arise when one of the four men on the job is replaced with a high producer who cannot earn a substantial bonus because of machine interference. View Details
- April 1997
- Case
Peoria Engine Plant (A): (Abridged)
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Amy P. Hutton
Describes the cost control system used at an automobile engine plant for labor and overhead costs. The finance staff prepares daily, weekly, and monthly variance reports against budgets. Department supervisors, finance staff, and the plant manager discuss the use and... View Details