Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(3,668)
- Faculty Publications (938)
- November 1997 (Revised February 1998)
- Case
WESCO Distribution, Inc.
By: Das Narayandas
In 1996, WESCO, a national distributor of electrical equipment and supplies, charted out a growth of 6 to 8 percent in sales, and 12 to 16 percent in profitability over the next five years. The centerpiece of this growth strategy is the National Accounts (NA) program... View Details
- November 1997 (Revised May 1998)
- Teaching Note
Indianapolis: Activity-Based Costing of City Services (A) and (B) TN
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Teaching Note for (9-196-115) and (9-196-117). View Details
- September 1997 (Revised November 1997)
- Teaching Note
Cleveland Turnaround, The: Case and Video TN
By: James E. Austin
Teaching Note for (9-796-151), (9-796-152), (9-796-153), (9-796-154), and (9-797-501). View Details
- July 1997
- Teaching Note
U.S. Bank of Washington (TN)
By: W. Carl Kester
Teaching Note for (9-292-057). View Details
- June 1997 (Revised February 2000)
- Case
Walker and Company: Profit Plan Decisions
By: Robert L. Simons and Ramsey Walker
Ramsey Walker, a second-year MBA student, must decide how to control a family business as an absentee owner. After providing background details on the publishing industry, the case requires the reader to: 1) make a product segmentation decision; 2) prepare a profit... View Details
- June 1997
- Case
Olympic Financial Ltd.
By: Krishna G. Palepu and Sarayu Srinivasan
Olympic Financial is a sub-prime lender in the auto financing industry. Several other financing companies have been wrought with accounting fraud and business mismanagement. Olympic's debt has been downgraded, and its stock has been denigrated although the company is... View Details
- April 1997
- Case
Peoria Engine Plant (A): (Abridged)
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Amy P. Hutton
Describes the cost control system used at an automobile engine plant for labor and overhead costs. The finance staff prepares daily, weekly, and monthly variance reports against budgets. Department supervisors, finance staff, and the plant manager discuss the use and... View Details
- April 1997
- Case
Romeo Engine Plant (Abridged)
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Amy P. Hutton
A newly reopened automobile engine plant has been organized along total quality and teamwork principles. Employees now solve problems and ensure quality, rather than watch parts being produced. New operating and financial systems have been installed to promote... View Details
- April 1997
- Background Note
Using ABC to Manage Customer Mix and Relationships
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Describes applying activity-based costing to manage customer relationships. Links cost-to-serve to net margins earned with individual customers. View Details
- March 1997 (Revised June 1999)
- Background Note
Using Activity-Based Costing with Budgeted Expenses and Practical Capacity
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Describes how activity-based costing (ABC) should be applied with: 1) budgeted, not historical, expenses and 2) assigning the costs of capacity resources. View Details
- March 1997 (Revised March 1997)
- Case
Business Teams at Rubbermaid, Inc.
By: Teresa M. Amabile and Dean Whitney
Rubbermaid, a consumer-products company widely praised for its innovation, has instituted a company-wide experiment to stimulate innovation even further. The experiment consists of creating small cross-functional business teams within each division, with each team... View Details
- February 1997 (Revised July 2001)
- Background Note
Introduction to Activity-Based Costing
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Introduces the fundamental notions of activity-based costing (ABC). Motivates ABC by means of a simple example, a single and a diversified pen factory. Proceeds to show how ABC assigns costs more accurately to products and customers by: 1) identifying the activities... View Details
Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management
- January 1997 (Revised July 1998)
- Case
Dendrite International (Condensed)
By: John A. Deighton
This version has been shortened to concentrate on the issue of managing a long selling process and long post-sale account relationship. The focus on the pharmaceutical industry in the United States, Europe, and Japan is preserved. Broader questions of expansion into... View Details
- December 1996
- Case
Case of the Colored Post-It Notes
By: Carliss Y. Baldwin, Michael C. Jensen and Karen Wruck
An example of how policies about budgeting and resource decisions are commonly misallocated is presented. View Details
- July 1996
- Case
Bayside Controls, Inc.
By: H. Kent Bowen, Jennifer Kochman and Sylvie Ryckebusch
Two recent MBA graduates acquire a small and ailing metal-machining company that had manufactured small aerospace components. Through clever application of state-of-the-art manufacturing, engineering, and marketing/sales concepts, they turned the company into a growing... View Details
- July 1996 (Revised December 2001)
- Case
Becton Dickinson--Designing the New Strategic, Operational, and Financial Planning Process
By: Robert L. Simons, Antonio Davila and Afroze A Mohammed
Describes management's attempts to design and install a sophisticated planning and control system in an international company as it changes its strategy. Issues of strategy implementation, accountability, and performance measurement are at the core of the analysis, as... View Details
- May 1996
- Case
First Capital Holdings Corp.
By: Stuart C. Gilson, Harry DeAngelo and Linda DeAngelo
The manager of a money-management firm considers whether to invest in the securities of a large, financially troubled, California-based life insurance holding company that holds 40% of its assets in high-yield junk bonds. Over the past year, the value of its portfolio... View Details
- May 1996 (Revised May 1997)
- Case
Colliers International Property Consultants, Inc.: Managing a Virtual Organization
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Carin-Isabel Knoop
In less than 20 years, the real estate firm Colliers International expanded into a federation of 180 offices with close to 4,500 professionals in over 30 countries. Because Colliers expanded by signing up existing firms strong in their local markets, its leaders had to... View Details
- April 1996 (Revised November 1996)
- Case
BAE Automated Systems (A): Denver International Airport Baggage-Handling System
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Ramiro Montealegre, Carin-Isabel Knoop and H. James Nelson
Describes the events surrounding the construction of the BAE baggage-handling system at the Denver International Airport. It looks specifically at project management, including decisions regarding budget, scheduling, and the overall management structure. Also examines... View Details
- April 1996 (Revised April 1996)
- Case
Activity-Based Management at Stream International
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Norman Klein
Stream International's Crawfordsville, Indiana facilities undertake the design and implementation of an activity-based costing project. After analyzing the costs assigned to 161 work activities, Crawfordsville managers present five proposals for change based on ABM... View Details