Publications

31 Aug 2021
News

Impact of Returning to Offices on Employee, Manager Morale and Productivity

June 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Scientific Glass Incorporated: Inventory Management

By: Steven C. Wheelwright and William Schmidt

Scientific Glassware is a fast-growing, privately held company that provides specialized glassware for laboratory and research facilities. Excess inventory is tying up extra capital needed to fund the company's expansion plans. The newly hired Manager of Inventory... View Details

Keywords: Inventory Control; Inventory Management; Materials Management; Order Processing; Warehousing; Salesforce Management; Logistics; Operations; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Finance; Consumer Products Industry; Technology Industry

Article

How Much Is a Reduction of Your Customers' Wait Worth? An Empirical Study of the Fast-Food Drive-Thru Industry Based on Structural Estimation Methods

In many service industries, companies compete with each other on the basis of the waiting time their customers experience, along with other strategic instruments such as the price they charge for their service. The objective of this paper is to conduct an empirical... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Price; Service Delivery; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry

Find at Harvard

June 2008 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Yataro Iwasaki: Founding Mitsubishi (A)

By: Geoffrey Jones, Masako Egawa and Mayuka Yamazaki

Considers the entrepreneurial career of the founder of Mitsubishi, Yataro Iwasaki, who built a large shipping company against the opposition of powerful Western incumbents. Although sometimes supported by the Japanese government, and often times opposed, the case... View Details

Keywords: History; Leadership; Business History; Organizational Structure; Entrepreneurship; Business and Government Relations; Japan

01 May 2013
News

The Performance Frontier: Innovating for a Sustainable Strategy

15 Oct 2014
News

Thumbs up, down for mobile manicures

31 Jul 2021
News

Is a Four-Day Week the Future of Work?

31 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Japan Disaster Shakes Up Supply-Chain Strategies

causing many companies to rethink their supply chain strategies, which suddenly seem extremely fragile. When a natural disaster hits, relief organizations such as the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders swing into action with... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Auto; Technology; Computer; Electronics

November 2004 (Revised July 2006)
Case

Patrimonio Hoy

By: Arthur I Segel, Michael Chu and Gustavo Herrero

Patrimonio Hoy is a program targeting the housing needs of the low-income population by CEMEX, a major Mexican company and a leading global cement producer. Originally conceived as a project to understand the customers in the self-construction segment better, a major... View Details

Keywords: Housing; Construction; Product Design; Globalized Firms and Management; Microfinance; Income; Market Entry and Exit; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Construction Industry; Mexico

January 2021 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Snapp: Scaling Under Sanctions in Iran (A)

By: Meg Rithmire and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in November 2019 as Eyad Alkassar and Mahmoud Fouz, co-founders of Iran’s first and leading ride-hailing platform, Snapp, find out about Apple’s and Google’s decisions to remove all Iranian apps from their respective application stores.
The case... View Details

Keywords: Sanctions; Change Management; Disruption; Volatility; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Government and Politics; International Relations; National Security; Risk Management; Crisis Management; Transportation Industry; Iran; Middle East

July 2016
Case

Product Portfolio Management at Genentech

By: Kevin Schulman and Jamie Gresh

Genentech, long the darling of the biotechnology industry, was acquired by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche in 2009. The combined company retains the name Genentech in the US, but must now move to achieve the promises made at the time of this merger—to build from... View Details

Keywords: Portfolio Management; Drug Development; Postmerger Integration; Marketing Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

January 2015
Case

Sergio Marchionne at Chrysler

By: Rob Kaplan and Bernardo Bertoldi

Chrysler recently exited from the bankruptcy process, with U.S. government support and with Sergio Marchionne as CEO. Now was the time to work out how to create synergies with FIAT, how to improve the current manufacturing, product, and distribution-network... View Details

Keywords: Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Auto Industry; North America; Italy

17 Jul 2019
News

Leading with Trust

29 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 29

spraying, rapid diagnostic tests, and artemisinin-based combination therapy. We discuss the timing and regional coverage of the program and critically review the available health and program rollout data. To estimate the health benefits... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

10 Jan 2024
Research & Ideas

Technology and COVID Upended Tipping Norms. Will Consumers Keep Paying?

of services. "Some of these are point-of-sale situations where we didn’t traditionally think about tipping 15 percent." “In many establishments, we’re now moving to digital payment systems such as Toast that ask you each time you purchase... View Details

Keywords: by Anna Lamb, Harvard Gazette

August 31, 2017
Article

CEOs Should Get Personally Involved in Talent Development

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Jay Galeota and Michael Wong

Estimates indicate that, globally, human capital has a value about 2.3 times that of physical capital. This difference is likely to widen in increasingly service-driven economies. Yet, most companies maintain their equipment better than their people. The issue is not... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Employees; Training

Read Now

15 Apr 2016
Working Paper Summaries

Big History, Global Corporations, Virtual Capitalism

Keywords: by Richard L. Nolan

March 2020 (Revised May 2020)
Case

Board Director Dilemmas—Family Affairs

By: David G. Fubini, Suraj Srinivasan and Amram Migdal

This case focuses on a new director who must help resolve a disagreement between two generations of leaders in a family business. The case raises questions of the proper role and approach for a director trying to manage a legitimate disagreement between shareholders... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Family Business

July 2019
Case

LaCroix Sparkling Water (Abridged)

By: Tomomichi Amano, Das Narayandas and Kerry Herman

Launched in 1981 as an “all occasion” sparkling water brand, LaCroix Sparkling Water has had a number of ups and downs as a brand. After being purchased by National Beverage in 1996, the brand was repositioned as a new, colorful, fun alternative to the other sparkling... View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Industry Structures; Food and Beverage Industry