Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(4,884)
- Faculty Publications (1,158)
- March 2003 (Revised January 2006)
- Case
Threshold Sports
By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Todd H Thedinga
Describes the sales, marketing, and operating issues facing Threshold Sports, a small cycling event management company that produces the Pro Cycling Tour. Examines the issues facing the company as it approaches breakeven and attempts to grow the business substantially.... View Details
- March 2003 (Revised April 2006)
- Background Note
Scale and Scope in Professional Service Firms
By: Ashish Nanda
This case discusses why economies (and diseconomies) of scale and scope exist in professional service firms (PSFs) and how they influence the amount and range of services that PSFs offer. It is distributed with a case that focuses on determining the optimal scale/scope... View Details
- February 2003 (Revised March 2003)
- Case
Large Scale Change at The WSSC
By: Amy C. Edmondson and Corey B. Hajim
Describes the organizational transformation occurring at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), a public utility. Faced with the possibility of privatization after decades of providing service in the absence of competition or performance pressures, the... View Details
- February 2003 (Revised May 2003)
- Case
Mobile Energy Services Company
By: Benjamin C. Esty and Aldo Sesia
When Al "Chainsaw" Dunlap became CEO of the Scott Paper Co., the company owned a large, vertically integrated production facility in Mobile, Alabama. Dunlap sold part of the production facility, a cogeneration power plant (later known as Mobile Energy Services Co.), to... View Details
- January 2003 (Revised September 2004)
- Case
Consulting by Auditors (B): The Compromise and its Fallout
By: Ashish Nanda
This case tracks the evolution from October 2000 to July 2001 of public debate, regulatory decisions, and firm perspectives on the subject of consulting by accounting firms. View Details
- January 2003 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
Zipcar: Refining the Business Model
By: Myra M. Hart, Michael J. Roberts and Julia Stevens
Zipcar is a start-up organized around the idea of "sharing" car usage via a membership organization. This case describes several iterations of the Zipcar business model and financial plan. These iterations include a very early version and a version developed just prior... View Details
- December 2002 (Revised October 2006)
- Case
Commerce Bank
By: Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim
Commerce Bank has become one of the fastest growing banks in the country, despite having defied conventional wisdom about how to grow deposits. Banks historically have grown either by competing on deposit rates or through acquisitions that expand their deposit base.... View Details
- 2002
- Other Unpublished Work
Legal Management: The Case for a Managed Model for the Delivery of Legal Services
This essay takes a brief look at the innovations in the delivery of legal services made due to the expansion of the pre-paid sector and uses those changes in the power dynamics of the industry to make a compelling case for a more widespread, managed model. The managed... View Details
- November 2002 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
ApproTEC Kenya: Technologies to Fight Poverty and Create Wealth
ApproTEC markets a range of technologies to improve the income of subsistence farmers and other small-scale entrepreneurs in East Africa. Having achieved considerable success in its first eight years, the two founders/entrepreneurs are seeking ways to scale the impact... View Details
- November 2002 (Revised May 2003)
- Case
ConAgra Foods
By: Ray A. Goldberg and Ingrid Vargas
In 2002, ConAgra Foods CEO Bruce Rohde was deliberating the next steps in the process of transforming the company from an agribusiness giant to a value-added food processor. ConAgra had become the second largest food company and number one food service supplier in the... View Details
- November 2002 (Revised August 2003)
- Case
MedSource Technologies
Considers the issues facing Richard Effress, MedSource's chairman and CEO, as the firm approaches the Precision Cut project--the first test of MedSource's capabilities as an integrated, contract manufacturer in the medical device industry. MedSource Technologies was... View Details
- October 2002 (Revised December 2003)
- Case
eShip-4U
By: Roy D. Shapiro and Timothy M. Laseter
eShip is a small Israeli start-up with a potentially exciting new concept for the residential package-delivery value chain--the Automatic Delivery Machine (ADM). Much like today's ubiquitous ATMs, ADMs would allow consumers to have parcels delivered to a nearby ADM... View Details
- October 2002 (Revised April 2007)
- Case
Dell Computers (A): Field Service for Corporate Clients
By: Frances X. Frei, Amy C. Edmondson and Corey B. Hajim
Explores the highly successful PC and low-end server manufacturer's entry into the large-scale server market in the United States. A key difference of this new market is the intense service element required to support the larger hardware. Specifically, the industry... View Details
- September 2002 (Revised November 2002)
- Case
Transformation at the IRS
By: Amy C. Edmondson, Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim
Describes the service transformation occurring at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Plagued by a history of poor service, enormous complexity, and an insular employee base, the 100,000-person organization grapples with a turnaround process that attempts to change... View Details
- September 2002 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Corporate Inversions: Stanley Works and the Lure of Tax Havens
By: Mihir A. Desai, James R. Hines, Jr and Mark Veblen
In response to Stanley Work's announcement that it is moving to Bermuda--and the associated jump in market value--a major competitor sets out to determine how the market is valuing the consequences of moving to a tax haven and whether his company should invert to a tax... View Details
- September 2002 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Bank of America (A)
By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade
Describes how Bank of America is creating a system for product and service innovation in its retail banking business. Emphasis is placed on the role of experimentation in some two-dozen real-life "laboratories" that serve as fully operating banking branches and as... View Details
- September 2002 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Bank of America (B)
By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade
Supplements the (A) case. View Details
- September 2002 (Revised January 2013)
- Case
MedCath Corporation (A)
By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Pete Stavros
MedCath is a horizontally integrated chain of heart hospitals that partners with local cardiologists. It claims that its focus leads to better and cheaper results than those of an everything-for-everybody general hospital. Community hospitals generally vehemently... View Details
- September 2002 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Orient-Express Hotels
By: Frances X. Frei and Corey B. Hajim
Describes how a hotel and leisure company provides high-end service through its distinctive hotels and trains. Provides an opportunity to learn about the company's unusual quality practices and puts into doubt the unquestioned use of well-known practices, such as... View Details
- September 2002 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Oklahoma VISION Project
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Susan Saltrick
Describes the two-year-old pilot phase of a public/private initiative in Oklahoma called the Virtual Internet School in Oklahoma Network (VISION) project. VISION was a first-of-its-kind, standards-based, vendor-neutral technology infrastructure developed to enable... View Details