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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,413)
- News (226)
- Research (1,061)
- Events (4)
- Multimedia (2)
- Faculty Publications (525)
- TeachingInterests
Financial Reporting and Control
By: Paul M. Healy
Throughout their careers, business leaders are required to measure and evaluate their organization's economic performance, improve resource allocation and strategy implementation within their organizations, and build accountability for performance through effective... View Details
- TeachingInterests
Financial Reporting and Control
Throughout their careers, business leaders are required to measure and evaluate their organization's economic performance, improve resource allocation and strategy implementation within their organizations, and build accountability for performance through effective... View Details
- December 1999 (Revised September 2004)
- Case
Hermes Systems
By: Michael L. Tushman and Daniel Radov
Covers the history of Hermes, a large telecommunications and network equipment company, as it grows from a single business firm to a diversified firm from 1980-95. Examines the use of entrepreneurial subsidiaries for product development and fast growth. Other issues... View Details
Keywords: History; Leadership; Business Subsidiaries; Diversification; Growth Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Divisions; Problems and Challenges; Product Development; Technology Industry
Tushman, Michael L., and Daniel Radov. "Hermes Systems." Harvard Business School Case 400-056, December 1999. (Revised September 2004.)
- September 2006
- Tutorial
Internal Control Process - Online Tutorial
By: David F. Hawkins
Introduces the Internal Control Process by detailing its five components: 1) the internal control environment, 2) risk assessment, 3) internal control activities, 4) information and communications, and 5) monitoring. Includes multiple review exercises throughout the... View Details
- November 1992 (Revised January 2002)
- Case
Process Control at Polaroid (A)
By: H. Kent Bowen and Steven C. Wheelwright
Describes the initial efforts at a film production plant to shift from a traditional QC inspection mentality to a worker-based process control mentality. Students can prepare SPC charts, propose actions needed, and combine steps into an overall action plan. View Details
Keywords: Management Systems; Operations; Quality; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Business Processes; Change Management; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry
Bowen, H. Kent, and Steven C. Wheelwright. "Process Control at Polaroid (A)." Harvard Business School Case 693-047, November 1992. (Revised January 2002.)
- June 2012
- Article
The Transparency Paradox: A Role for Privacy in Organizational Learning and Operational Control
Using data from embedded participant-observers and a field experiment at the second largest mobile phone factory in the world, located in China, I theorize and test the implications of transparent organizational design on workers' productivity and organizational... View Details
Keywords: Transparency; Privacy; Organizational Learning; Operational Control; Organizational Performance; Chinese Manufacturing; Field Experiment; Rights; Interpersonal Communication; Management Practices and Processes; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Performance Productivity; Boundaries; Organizations; Social and Collaborative Networks; Labor and Management Relations; Power and Influence; Manufacturing Industry; China
Bernstein, Ethan S. "The Transparency Paradox: A Role for Privacy in Organizational Learning and Operational Control." Administrative Science Quarterly 57, no. 2 (June 2012): 181–216.
- 2008
- Other Unpublished Work
Accounting, Risk Management and the Aftermath of a Control Debacle
By: Anette Mikes
Despite the widespread adoption of risk management systems in the financial services industry, recent control debacles highlight the apparent lack of top managerial attention to risk controls. Yet in order to understand the workings and uses of risk controls (or any... View Details
- September 2006
- Tutorial
Management Control Process - Online Tutorial
By: David F. Hawkins
Introduces the Management Control Process by detailing its six components: 1) the management control environment, 2) organizational structure and responsibilities, 3) information and communication, 4) management control systems, 5) incentives, and 6) monitoring.... View Details
- June 2005 (Revised March 2017)
- Teaching Note
Siebel Systems: Organizing for the Customer
By: Robert Simons
Teaching Note to (103-014). The Siebel Systems case describes the unusual accountability and organizing choices made by managers of a successful, rapidly growing software development company. The case is set in 2002, but details the critical decisions made by founder... View Details
- November 1983 (Revised June 1994)
- Case
Controls at the Sands Hotel and Casino
Describes the controls used in the casino over the blackjack game and cash stocks, and movements of cash. Also describes the results measures available in the casino and their limitations for control purposes. View Details
Merchant, Kenneth A. "Controls at the Sands Hotel and Casino." Harvard Business School Case 184-048, November 1983. (Revised June 1994.)
- Research Summary
Overview
My research broadly examines design choices of management control systems, with a special focus on organizational culture as an informal control mechanism and how it interacts with other formal control system View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 16 Capturing Value by Controlling Bottlenecks in Open Platform Systems
The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the means by which firms capture value in open platform systems. I begin by arguing that the surplus value created by complementarities within a technical system will be split among the owners of the unique and essential... View Details
Keywords: Open Platforms; Bottlenecks; Flow Production; Value Capture; Disintermediation; Production; Management; Digital Platforms
Baldwin, Carliss Y. "Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 16 Capturing Value by Controlling Bottlenecks in Open Platform Systems." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-054, November 2019.
- October 2004 (Revised January 2006)
- Tutorial
Introduction to Responsibility Accounting Systems
By: David F. Hawkins, V.G. Narayanan, Jacob Cohen and Michele Jurgens
Responsibility accounting systems generate financial and related nonfinancial information about the actual and planned activities of a company's responsibility centers--organizational units headed by managers responsible for a unit's performance. The principal... View Details
- November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
- Module Note
Strategy Execution Module 14: Managing Strategic Risk
By: Robert Simons
This module reading provides an overview of the business conduct boundaries, strategic boundaries, and internal control systems used to manage risk. Boundary systems—linked to clear, enforceable sanctions—are essential whenever demanding performance goals are set and... View Details
Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Boundary Systems; Innovation; Internal Controls; Fraud; Human Behavior; Staff Experts; Strategy; Risk Management; Behavior; Governance Controls; Management Practices and Processes; Boundaries; Employees; Business Strategy; Innovation and Invention
Simons, Robert. "Strategy Execution Module 14: Managing Strategic Risk." Harvard Business School Module Note 117-114, November 2016. (Revised December 2016.)
- September 1994
- Case
American Airlines: Object Oriented Flight Dispatching Systems
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Espen Andersen
American Airlines Describes has organized and developed their Systems Operation Control (SOC) center in Dallas, from which the day-to-day running of the airline takes place. This case details the decision support system used by the flight dispatchers, and the... View Details
Keywords: Technological Innovation; Product Development; Programs; Complexity; Technology Adoption; Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry; United States
McFarlan, F. Warren, and Espen Andersen. "American Airlines: Object Oriented Flight Dispatching Systems." Harvard Business School Case 195-046, September 1994.
- 2014
- Working Paper
The Effect of Management Control Elements on Coordination
By: Sara Bormann, Jan Bouwens and Christian Hofmann
This study examines how control elements of a firm affect coordination among profit centers. The firm operates a network of 59 profit centers. It uses a transfer-pricing system designed to account for interdependencies between profit centers and to induce coordination.... View Details
Bormann, Sara, Jan Bouwens, and Christian Hofmann. "The Effect of Management Control Elements on Coordination." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 14-092, March 2014.
- May 1992 (Revised January 2000)
- Case
Asea Brown Boveri: The ABACUS System
By: Robert L. Simons
Describes the computer-based information system (ABACUS) used to monitor and control business operations in a complex, global company. Describes the technical attributes of the database system, financial reporting requirements, target setting and profit calculations on... View Details
Keywords: Financial Reporting; Profit; Business Growth and Maturation; Analytics and Data Science; Design; Accounting Audits; Growth and Development; Globalized Firms and Management; Complexity; Technology Industry
Simons, Robert L. "Asea Brown Boveri: The ABACUS System." Harvard Business School Case 192-140, May 1992. (Revised January 2000.)
- April 1998 (Revised May 2000)
- Case
Guidant Corporation: Shaping Culture Through Systems
By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila
Guidant is a successful IPO start-up selling pacemakers and defibrillators. The case describes how managers install systems to balance innovation and control. Three parts of a shareholder value strategy are described. Controls include incentive systems, beliefs... View Details
Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Planning; Risk Management; Management Systems; Business Strategy; Value Creation; System; Service Industry; Financial Services Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry
Simons, Robert L., and Antonio Davila. "Guidant Corporation: Shaping Culture Through Systems." Harvard Business School Case 198-076, April 1998. (Revised May 2000.)
- February 2020
- Case
Fake News at DER SPIEGEL (A)
By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and Tonia Labruyere
The case discusses the strategy of DER SPIEGEL, the leading news magazine in Germany, in the aftermath of the discovery of a fake reporting scandal. It had come to light that one of DER SPIEGEL’s own reporters had falsified and made up entire articles for years,... View Details
Keywords: Scandal; Management Control Systems; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Communication Strategy; Journalism and News Industry; Germany
Dey, Aiyesha, Jonas Heese, and Tonia Labruyere. "Fake News at DER SPIEGEL (A)." Harvard Business School Case 120-001, February 2020.
- May 2017 (Revised June 2017)
- Case
ATH Technologies (A): Making the Numbers
By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard
An exercise that takes students through five stages of growth in an entrepreneurial start-up in the medical devices industry: 1) founding, 2) growth, 3) push to profitability, 4) refocusing process, and 5) takeover by new management. At each stage, students must... View Details
Keywords: Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Balancing Innovation And Control; Performance Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Profit; Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Innovation and Invention; Management Succession; Performance Evaluation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry
Simons, Robert, and Jennifer Packard. "ATH Technologies (A): Making the Numbers." Harvard Business School Case 117-013, May 2017. (Revised June 2017.)