Publications

September 2016 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Springfield Hospital

By: Susanna Gallani and Robert Kaplan

One of the key roles of costing systems is to support the evaluation of performance and facilitate appropriate resource allocations. Through participation in a comparative cost study, management at Springfield Hospital, known for its heavy focus on operational... View Details

Keywords: Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Variance Analysis; Activity Based Costing and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

January 2017 (Revised April 2018)
Background Note

Introduction to Incentive-based Sales Compensation Systems

By: Willy Shih

This background note explains the structure of incentive-based sales compensation systems. View Details

Keywords: Sales Compensation; Sales Force Compensation; Sales Force Management; Sales; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Industrial Products Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; United States

October 2004 (Revised March 2006)
Background Note

Compensation in Professional Service Firms

By: Ashish Nanda

Discusses the compensation of professionals--partners and nonpartners--in a professional services firm. Discusses the considerations that determine the choice of compensation systems and the interrelationship between compensation and other human resources management... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Service Industry

March 1990 (Revised September 1993)
Case

People Express Airlines: Rise and Decline

By: Michael Beer

Describes the innovative approach to organizing and managing employees by People Express and describes the company's eventual demise. This material can be used to inform about leading edge human resource management practices and to raise questions about what went... View Details

Keywords: Employee Relationship Management; Human Resources; Air Transportation Industry

September 2019 (Revised December 2019)
Case

Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?

By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

In late 2018, evidence emerged that many of Google’s temporary help agency workers, vendors, and independent contractors (“TVCs”) were unhappy with the company. TVCs, who reportedly made up 49.95% of Google’s 170,000-person global workforce, had raised concerns of... View Details

11 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

Adding Time to Activity-Based Costing

create, produce, and deliver on the company's strategic plan. TDABC's ability to measure and manage the costs of a company's capacity resources can be tightly linked to fulfillment of the company's strategy,... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert

2007
Book

A Concise Guide to Macroeconomics: What Managers, Executives, and Students Need to Know

By: David A. Moss

Now more than ever before, executives and managers need to understand their larger economic context. In The Concise Guide to Macroeconomics, David Moss leverages his many years of teaching experience at Harvard Business School to lay out important macroeconomic... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Money; Investment; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

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November 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Cisco Systems: In Search of the Next CEO

By: Boris Groysberg, Sarah L. Abbott, Olivia Hull and J. Yo-Jud Cheng

It’s August 2014 and John Chambers is expected to announce his retirement after 17 years as CEO of global technology giant Cisco Systems. Under Chambers’s leadership, Cisco has grown from $2.2 billion in annual revenues and under 4,000 employees to revenues of $46... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Succession Planning; CEO Succession; Managing Change; Person-organization Fit; Management Succession; Transition; Talent and Talent Management; Change Management; Retirement; Innovation Leadership; Recruitment; Corporate Governance; Experience and Expertise; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; San Jose; California

February 2011
Case

Jamie Turner at MLI, Inc.

By: John J. Gabarro and Colleen Kaftan

The case describes the evolution of an interpersonal mismatch between a previously successful manager, Jamie Turner, and his new boss, Pat Cardullo. Turner, a 32-year-old MBA graduate, has been recruited by Cardullo to be vice president of marketing and sales at Modern... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Interpersonal Relations; Superior ＆ Subordinate; Micro Organizational Behavior; Performance Management; Personal Strategy ＆ Style; Management Style; Conflict Management; Interpersonal Communication; Employee Relationship Management; Rank and Position; Performance; Communication Strategy; Personal Development and Career; Acquisition; Distribution Industry; Consumer Products Industry; San Diego; Chicago

2020
Working Paper

How ESG Issues Become Financially Material to Corporations and Their Investors

By: George Serafeim

Management and disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have received substantial interest over the last decade. In this paper, we outline a framework of how ESG issues become financially material, affecting corporate profitability and valuation.... View Details

SSRN

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March 2016
Supplement

Trouble at Tessei

By: Ethan Bernstein and Ryan W. Buell

In 2005, Teruo Yabe is asked to revive Tessei, the 669-person JR-East subsidiary responsible for cleaning its Shinkansen ("bullet") trains. Operational mistakes, customer complaints, safety issues, and employee turnover are at or near all-time highs, even as the... View Details

Keywords: Service Management; Employee Engagement; Employee Motivation; Leadership And Managing People; Quality Improvement; Efficiency; Japan; Operational Transparency; Employee Coordination; Transparency; Leadership; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Employees; Quality; Transportation Industry; Japan

August 1980 (Revised August 1985)
Case

Teradyne, Inc.--1979: Semiconductor Test Division (A)

By: Benson P. Shapiro

In 1979, the management of Teradyne's Semiconductor Test Division had to make important decisions regarding the allocation of engineering resources in the face of increased competition. They had to choose between upgrading an existing product and developing a new one. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Resource Allocation; Product; Product Development; Competition; Semiconductor Industry

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January 2003 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Merloni Elettrodomestici: The New Century Begins

By: Joseph L. Bower

Merloni Elettrodomestici was founded in 1975. This case traces the evolution of the company's strategy, organization, and management as it becomes the #3 player in Europe (the #1 in Eastern Europe). Issues involve questions of geographic expansion, resource allocation,... View Details

Keywords: Management; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Expansion

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December 1999 (Revised May 2000)
Case

Morgan Stanley: Becoming a "One-Firm Firm"

By: M. Diane Burton, Thomas J. DeLong and Katherine Lawrence

John Mack, the newly appointed president of Morgan Stanley, feels strongly that the firm needs to change in order to compete in a changing investment banking environment. Mack and his senior team undertake initiatives in order to transform the culture and working style... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Goals and Objectives; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Competitive Strategy

June 2017
Teaching Note

Organizing for Performance: Four Vignettes

By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard

Teaching Note for HBS No. 117-062. View Details

Keywords: Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Organization; Span Of Control; Resource Allocation