Publications

December 2016
Article

Deal Process Design in Management Buyouts

By: Guhan Subramanian

Management buyouts (MBOs) are an economically and legally significant class of transaction: not only do they account for more than $10 billion in deal volume per year, on average, but they also play an important role in defining the relationship between inside and... View Details

Keywords: Management Buyout; Deal Structuring; Acquisition; Design; Fairness

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October 1994 (Revised April 1995)
Case

Visionary Design Systems: Are Incentives Enough?

By: George P. Baker III and Karin B Monsler

A compensation case about Visionary Design Systems (VDS), a small, high-tech full service systems integration firm based in Silicon Valley with eleven offices throughout the country. All employees, including engineers, administrators, and receptionists, received a... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Compensation and Benefits; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; San Francisco

10 Aug 2022
News

Operations Service Management: Transforming Campus Through Digital Workflows

January 1989 (Revised March 1991)
Case

General Electric Canada: Designing a New Organization

By: Lynda M. Applegate and James I. Cash Jr.

General Electric Canada used sociotechnical design techniques to restructure its financial, administrative, facilities, and information technology service from a decentralized, hierarchical organization to a centralized organization composed of self-managing,... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Design; Information Technology; Groups and Teams; Change; Communication; Information; Industrial Products Industry; Canada

Program

Designing and Executing Corporate Revitalization

that specialize in corporate revitalization Senior strategy consultants who advise companies on strategic options, turnarounds, and corporate transformations Senior leaders in financial services firms, law... View Details

September 2013
Exercise

An Exercise in Designing a Travel Coffee Mug

By: Elie Ofek and Michael Norris

In recent years design has emerged as a critical factor in the success of many new products. This case exercise provides a hands-on way to experience the design process and offers a structured approach for incorporating key considerations that can aid in effective... View Details

Keywords: New Product Development; Innovation; Market Research; Competitive Positioning; Design; Product Development; Consumer Products Industry

15 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

Funding the Design of Livable Cities

reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sophisticated design and engineering that cuts energy use by maximizing natural light and reducing the need for heating and air conditioning services is far more effective.... View Details

Keywords: by Lisa Chase; Construction; Real Estate; Energy; Utilities

Web

Teach with Special Collections | Baker Library

Teach with Special Collections Serving as a key teaching and learning resource for the Harvard University community, Special Collections & Archives provides a range of course View Details

20 Dec 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

How to Design a Better Customer Experience

Click HereHarvard Business School Professor Stefan Thomke describes how his Executive Education students use LEGO blocks to design customer experiences. (Video by Executive Education) Why do some product or View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Health; Entertainment & Recreation

Program

Leading Professional Service Firms

Summary As entry barriers rapidly disappear, competition is accelerating and reshaping the business landscape for professional service firms. Navigating this continual change successfully requires extraordinary leadership abilities. This... View Details

Keywords: Professional Services; Professional Services

April 2006 (Revised April 2008)
Course Overview Note

Managing Service Operations: Understanding the Customer Operating Role

By: Frances X. Frei

Describes Managing Service Operations: Understanding the Customer Operating Role, a second-year MBA course that consists of three modules. The first module, Conceptualizing the Customer Operating, explores the operational challenges and opportunites of managing... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations

November 2005 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Strategic Planning at United Parcel Service

By: David A. Garvin and Lynne Levesque

In March 2005, CEO Michael Eskew has asked the Corporate Strategy Group to recommend changes to the strategic process to ensure it allows United Parcel Service (UPS) to continue to transform itself over the next several years. Describes the evolution of UPS's strategic... View Details

Keywords: Change; Decisions; Globalization; Growth and Development Strategy; Managerial Roles; Strategic Planning; Creativity; Corporate Strategy

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Rob Markey

Managing Service Operations - MBA Elective Curriculum

World-class service organizations deeply understand the needs and behaviors of their customers, and design, manage, and improve their operating models accordingly. This course... View Details

Keywords: Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Centric Initiative; Customer Engagement; Service Management; Service Profit Chain; Service Design; Service Models; Service Excellence; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Service Delivery; Service Operations

July 1999 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Quickturn Design Systems, Inc. (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Katharina Pick

Quickturn Design Systems, Inc. faces a hostile takeover bid from its competitor, Mentor Graphics. Mentor makes the bid at a moment when Quickturn's stock price is depressed and the company is defending against a patent suit filed by Mentor. The two companies have a... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Governing and Advisory Boards; Behavior; Lawsuits and Litigation; Organizations; Acquisition; Corporate Governance; Service Industry

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June 2004 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Procter & Gamble: Global Business Services

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Warren Brackin, Alex Cabanas, Phil Shellhammer and David L. Ager

Dave Walker, vice-president of business service opportunities and chairman of the governance team at Procter & Gamble, must decide what to do with P&G's 5,700 employee Global Business Services (GBS) group. GBS brought together internal services such as finance,... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Change Management; Decision Making; Globalized Firms and Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Organizational Design

31 Mar 2022
Op-Ed

Navigating the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ in Professional Services

profitability to its partners. There are several other similar examples. But there are very few instances of successful mid-sized professional service firms. Some professional service firms excel as small,... View Details

Keywords: by Ashish Nanda

01 Feb 2000
News

Financial Services 24/7

provides one-stop shopping for financial services. Its user-friendly interface is designed so that customers only need to fill out one application for all the products it offers. The services that... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

October 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Customer-Centric Design with Artificial Intelligence: Commonwealth Bank

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Jin Hyun Paik and Steven Randazzo

As Commonwealth Bank (CommBank) CEO Matt Comyn delivered the full financial year results in August 2021 over videoconference, it took less than two minutes for him to make his first mention of the organization's Customer Engagement Engine (CEE), the AI-driven customer... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Customer-centricity; Banks and Banking; Customer Focus and Relationships; Technological Innovation; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance; AI and Machine Learning; Financial Services Industry; Australia