Publications

February 2003 (Revised November 2003)
Exercise

McDonald's: Super-Sized Troubles (B)

This case is the second of two cases that describe the situation and poor performance at McDonald's Corp. in early 2003. This exercise directs students to employ a structured problem-solving process to evaluate the McDonald's strategy. View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Decision Making; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

February 2003 (Revised February 2003)
Exercise

McDonald's: Super-Sized Troubles (A)

This case is one of two cases that describe the situation and poor performance at McDonald's Corp. in early 2003. This exercise instructs students to employ an unstructured brainstorming process to develop strategic options for McDonald's. View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Decision Making; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry

June 2023
Case

Barton Malow: Building From the Top-Down

By: Hise O. Gibson and Alicia Dadlani

In 2023, Detroit-based Barton Malow completed the first high-rise building in the U.S. built from the top-down using LIFTbuild, a patented methodology that aimed to make construction safer and more efficient. By completing building work at ground level and then... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Construction Industry

December 2004 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Innovation Corrupted: The Rise and Fall of Enron (B)

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Presents a brief historical overview of Enron's rise, its strategic successes and failures, the evolution of its business model, and the organizational processes relied upon by Enron's management to drive and monitor the business. A rewritten version of an earlier... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Risk Management; Management Practices and Processes; Success; Business Model; Strategy; Business History; Governance Controls; Innovation and Management; Failure; Business Processes; Energy Industry; United States

2021
Book

Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World That Never Stops Changing

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Selling is changing, but the impact on sales of megatrends like ecommerce, big data, and AI is often misunderstood and not supported by empirical data. Managers who fail to separate fact from hype will make decisions based on bad assumptions and, in a competitive... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Strategy; Salesforce Management; Change; Adaptation

December 2004 (Revised October 2005)
Case

Innovation Corrupted: The Rise and Fall of Enron (A)

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Presents a brief historical overview of Enron's rise, its strategic successes and failures, the evolution of its business model, and the organizational processes relied upon by Enron's management to drive and monitor the business. A rewritten version of an earlier... View Details

Keywords: Adaptation; Success; Business Model; Business History; Growth Management; Governance Controls; Innovation and Management; Failure; Business Processes; Energy Industry; United States

November 2019
Article

Procedural Justice and the Risks of Consumer Voting

By: Tami Kim, Leslie John, Todd Rogers and Michael I. Norton

Firms are increasingly giving consumers the vote. Eight studies demonstrate that when firms empower consumers to vote, consumers infer a series of implicit promises—even in the absence of explicit promises. We identify three implicit promises to which consumers react... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Empowerment; Procedural Justice; Promises; Customer Relationship Management; Voting; Perception; Fairness; Risk Management

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Article

Optimizing Organic Waste to Energy Operations

By: Baris Ata, Deishin Lee and Mustafa H. Tongarlak

A waste-to-energy firm that recycles organic waste with energy recovery performs two environmentally beneficial functions: it diverts waste from landfill and it produces renewable energy. At the same time, the waste-to-energy firm serves and collects revenue from two... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Revenue; Customers; Strategy; Corporate Governance; Wastes and Waste Processing; Environmental Sustainability; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Cost Management; Urban Scope

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21 Nov 2014
Working Paper Summaries

The Decoupling Effect of Digital Disruptors

Keywords: by Thales S. Teixeira & Peter Jamieson

07 Mar 2018
Research & Ideas

Electronic Health Records Were Supposed to Cut Medical Costs. They Haven't.

twice the administrative overhead found in Canada and is significantly higher than most other high-resource countries. Adoption of certified EHR systems was seen as a potential antidote. By digitizing patient records and adding billing workflows around them, the... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland; Health

August 2009
Case

Intuit

By: Frank V. Cespedes

This case study provides an overview of Intuit's growth and, in particular, the sales and service initiatives that historically fueled the company's growth from start-up to a corporation. It also outlines certain processes and cultural values, as well as specific... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Product; Service Delivery; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Sales; Business Strategy

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

What Really Drives Your Strategy?

process itself can actually shape the realized strategy of the firm. This can include internal reporting structures and incentive systems, but it can also reflect external factors such as capital markets and... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

April 2021 (Revised June 2021)
Case

IBM: Design Thinking

By: Srikant M. Datar, Amram Migdal and Paul Hamilton

This case describes the 2012-2020 effort at IBM to implement design thinking throughout the company and hire thousands of designers to serve on every product team alongside technical engineers and developers and product managers. IBM’s design transformation is told... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Divisions; Business Units; Business Organization; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Competency and Skills; Talent and Talent Management; Design; Human Resources; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Invention; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Leading Change; Management; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Operations; Product; Product Design; Product Development; Organizations; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Strategy; Adaptation; Adoption; Technological Innovation; Information Infrastructure; Information Technology; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

05 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: January 5

Involvement in Process Improvement Author:Anita L. Tucker Abstract Managers play a critical role in process improvement. However, research has found that many improvement efforts fail due to insufficient... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2022
Working Paper

Control and Fairness: What Determines Elected Local Leaders’ Support for Hosting Refugees in Their Community?

By: Kristin Fabbe, Eleni Kyrkopoulou, Konstantinos Matakos and Aslı Unan

When it comes to successful refugee reception the local level matters. Research overwhelmingly examines host communities' attitudes, but endorsement from local politicians is equally important to resolving conflicts and facilitating harmonious interaction. Yet, the... View Details

Keywords: Values; Control; Refugee Resettlement; Local Elites; Contact; Fair-share; Conjoint Experiment; Refugees; Integration; Local Range; Leadership; Attitudes; Fairness

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March 2022
Module Note

Navigating Nascent Industries and Product Categories

By: Rory McDonald

This Note introduces a module of cases used at Harvard Business School to teach fundamental concepts about navigating nascent industries and product categories. It elaborates a set of ‘innovation tensions’ that managers must address in these domains. In connecting the... View Details

Keywords: Nascent Industries; Product; Innovation and Management; Strategy

March 2023
Background Note

A Primer on OKRs

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan (Jason) Ni

The OKR framework is a popular goal-setting and strategy execution tool that uses goal setting through “Objectives” and measuring performance using “Key Results” on a periodic basis to measure and drive performance. The OKR framework has been adopted and practiced at... View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Talent and Talent Management; Framework; Corporate Governance; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Practices and Processes; Management Skills; Management Systems; Measurement and Metrics; Outcome or Result; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Evaluation; Performance Expectations; Performance Productivity; Performance Efficiency