Publications

Research Summary

Building Capabilities in Professional Service Firms

One of the most distinctive aspects of professional service firms is that the vast majority of the people who work in them are directly involved in serving clients. Long-term success in a professional service firm requires obtaining and developing the right... View Details

October 2004 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Staffing in Professional Service Firms

By: Ashish Nanda

This case discusses the problem of balancing demand and supply of professionals over time using a fictional scenario. View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Service Industry

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

April 1996 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Lex Service PLC-- Cost of Capital

By: W. Carl Kester and Kendall Backstrand

Lex Service company has grown into a large multidivisional company with a substantial capital budget. In 1993, the board was reviewing its capital budgeting procedures. Specifically, it sought to determine the company's cost of capital and whether it should use... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Cost of Capital; Equity; Capital Budgeting

Article

Market Heterogeneity and Local Capacity Decisions in Services

By: Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

We empirically document factors that influence how local operating managers use discretion to balance the tradeoff between service capacity costs and customer sensitivity to service time. Our findings, using data from one of the largest financial services providers in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Cost; Standards; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Performance Capacity; Performance Productivity; Financial Services Industry; United States

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16 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Confronting the Reality of Web Services

cheap, fast, and "easy," don't you think Cisco would have used them? Q: What are the characteristics of successful Web service implementations today? What kinds of companies can benefit most? Are... View Details

Keywords: by Sara Grant

August 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Nicole Tempest

Describes how the Balanced Scorecard built by the Online Financial Services (OFS) group is used to select the highest-priority initiatives for the organization. Currently, initiatives arise continually throughout the organization, and management spends considerable... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Finance; Change; Situation or Environment; Measurement and Metrics; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry

February 2003 (Revised April 2003)
Background Note

Note on Staffing in Professional Service Firms

By: Ashish Nanda

This case discusses the problem of balancing demand and supply of professionals within a professional services firm (PSF). It emphasizes how human resources management policies impact supply conditions and how market opportunities determine demand conditions. The case... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Balance and Stability; Supply and Industry; Employees; Service Industry

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14 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Rewriting the Rules of Service Competition

coordinating with others, working in teams, or being denied “star” status. These leaders know that the best uses of technology and other support systems create frontline service heroes and heroines. They... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett, W. Earl Sasser & Leonard A. Schlesinger; Retail

October 2022
Case

Volt Lines: Leading a B2B Service Provider through a Crisis (A)

By: Navid Mojir and Gamze Yucaoglu

Volt Lines was a next-generation transportation service in Istanbul, Turkey. The company was trying to disrupt the traditional corporate transportation market by developing software that allowed it to offer subscription-based transportation. Under the subscription... View Details

Keywords: Business To Business Marketing; B2B Marketing; B2B Pricing; Subscription Model; Crisis Marketing; Startup; Service Management; Information Technology; Transportation; COVID-19 Pandemic; Disruptive Innovation; Digital Platforms; Business Model; Price; Crisis Management; Opportunities; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry; Turkey

Web

Baker Library Services - Alumni

Finding industry overviews and company profiles Gathering articles on trends on a specific industry, topic or subject Identifying biographical information to support networking Remote Services HBS alumni have remote access to select... View Details

Web

Delimiters - Research Computing Services

we export this data to a text file, it would appear as: Line 1: Column_1 DELIMITER Column_2 DELIMITER Column_3 Line 2: 25 DELIMITER Harvard Way DELIMITER Boston, MA Often, the comma is used as the field delimiter. In this example, View Details

Web

News - Research Computing Services

questions/comments, please email us at research@hbs.edu . Close HBSGrid Maintenance 6/2: Full Shutdown 29 MAY 2025 This is a reminder that our next maintenance is scheduled for Monday, June 2, 8 am–12 pm ET . This will be a full shutdown... View Details

30 Sep 2015
News

The Power of Service

While studying at HBS, Jennifer Eplett Reilly (MBA 1990) was also working on the opening chapter of a remarkable social enterprise success story. “Our idea was to call upon diverse young people to give a year of service addressing the... View Details

May 1993
Case

Patient Transfusion Services Lab of Central Blood Bank

By: James L. Heskett

The vice president of the Lab and Clinical Services at Central Blood Bank is faced with the challenge of convincing a hospital to use economical shared patient transfusion testing services. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Quality; Service Operations; Mathematical Methods; Customer Satisfaction; Health Industry