Publications

March 1983 (Revised January 1984)
Teaching Note

Corning Glass: Information Systems Planning, Teaching Note

By: F. Warren McFarlan

Keywords: Information Technology; Planning; Manufacturing Industry

April 2011
Module Note

Information and Control Systems for Customer-Centric Organizations

By: Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Information Technology

April 2006
Background Note

Informing Service Management with Customer Data

By: Frances X. Frei and Dennis Campbell

Taught as the third module in a Harvard Business School course on Managing Service Operations. Explores the role of data analysis in ongoing service management. Describes how to realize the maximum amount of value from analyses and use this information in... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Design; Analytics and Data Science; Service Operations; Mathematical Methods; Value

Article

Formal Measures in Informal Management: Can a Balanced Scorecard Change a Culture?

By: Robert Gibbons and Robert S. Kaplan

Agency theorists, historically, have analyzed what kinds of performance measures should be used in formal incentive contracts. For example, after Kaplan-Norton proposed a balanced scorecard of both financial and non-financial measures, some envisioned its role only in... View Details

Keywords: Relational Contracts; Performance Measurement; Informal Management; Balanced Scorecard; Economics; Mathematical Methods

Read Now

August 1994
Case

Kyocera Corporation: The Amoeba Management System

Describes Kyocera's unusual approach to profit centers. The firm's basic units of operation are profit centers called "amoebas," which are sales or manufacturing units with full responsibility for their planning, decision making, and administration. Amoebas are... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Organizational Structure; Profit; Management Systems; Manufacturing Industry

January 1989
Background Note

Managing Information Technology: Organization and Leadership

By: James I. Cash Jr. and Thomas H. Davenport

Describes the organizational components of the typical IT organization in a large corporation. Points out common problems and issues for each component of the organization. Also addresses the leadership issues for the IT function, and focuses specifically on the Chief... View Details

Keywords: Information Management; Organizational Design; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Information Technology; Problems and Challenges; Information Technology Industry

July 1987 (Revised December 1987)
Case

Batterymarch Financial Management: Information Systems and Technology

September 2016 (Revised March 2017)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 3: Using Information for Performance Measurement and Control

By: Robert Simons

This module reading explains how managers use information to control critical business processes and outcomes. The analysis begins by illustrating how managers use information to communicate goals and track performance. Then the focus turns to the choices that managers... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Organization Process; Feedback Model; Innovation; Uses Of Information; Big Data; Benchmarking; Decision Making; Information; Performance Evaluation; Analytics and Data Science

March 1999
Article

Practices for Managing Information Flows Within Organizations

By: Joel Demski, Tracy Lewis, Dennis Yao and Huseyin Yildirim

Firm organization determines how coworkers communicate and how information flows within the firm. Banking, accounting, consulting, and legal firms process proprietary information which their clients wish to protect. The firm's ability to safeguard and manage... View Details

Keywords: Information Management; Management Practices and Processes; Safety; Governance Controls; Customer Focus and Relationships

2020
Book

Management Accounting: Information for Decision Making

By: Anthony A. Atkinson, Robert S. Kaplan, Ella Mae Matsumura and S. Mark Young

An approach to management accounting from the perspective of a business manager. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Cost Accounting; Managerial Roles; Decision Making

Article

The Impact of Project Portfolio Management on Information Technology Projects

By: Bert De Reyck, Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Martin Lockett, Sergio Ricardo Calderini, Marcio Moura and Andrew Sloper

The ever-increasing penetration of projects as a way to organise work in many organisations necessitates effective management of multiple projects. This has resulted in a greater interest in the processes of project portfolio management (PPM), with more and more... View Details

Keywords: Project Portfolio Management; Information Technology; Projects; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Improvement