Publications

May 2008 (Revised April 2018)
Case

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Interdisciplinary Cancer Care

By: Michael E. Porter and Sachin H. Jain

In 2006, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was an internationally leading institution for cancer care, education, and research. Since 1996, it had successfully reorganized itself from a cancer hospital that was physically organized around clinical... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Health Disorders; Organizational Structure; Medical Specialties; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Value Creation; Service Delivery; Research; Health Care and Treatment; Education Industry; Health Industry; Texas

November 2004 (Revised September 2007)
Case

The Mitchell Family and Mitchells/Richards

By: Amy C. Edmondson, John A. Davis, Corey B. Hajim and Kelly Mulderry

Describes a small, luxury retail chain's operational sophistication achieved through the use of technology and "high-touch" customer service. A family-run business, Mitchells has built its success with a customer service strategy known internally as "hugging." The term... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Customer Relationship Management; Knowledge Management; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Expansion; Information Technology; Retail Industry

August 2002
Case

MassEnvelopePlus

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Brooke Bartletta and Michelle Heskett

Describes the challenges Steve Grossman, a fourth-generation owner of a small commercial printing company, must face amid industry consolidation, technological changes, and his own run for public office. View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Family Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Leadership; Change Management; Information Technology; Personal Development and Career; Service Delivery; Service Industry; Massachusetts

November 1997 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Corn Products International, Inc.

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Tom Clay

A firm that started in corn processing and moved up the value-added food chain decides to spin-off the original commodity part of the business. How does the new spin-off survive and how does it develop a strategy? Firms in the food system are separating out their... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Development; Service Delivery; Vertical Integration; Food and Beverage Industry

19 Nov 2013
First Look

First Look: November 19

transparency is customarily trained on elected officials as a means of ethical oversight, our research documents the benefits of increased transparency into the delivery of government services. Download working paper:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 11

had implemented changes to regulated but competitive insurance and provider markets, and the United Kingdom, which had introduced market-style initiatives while keeping insurance and delivery under the National Health Service. Purchase... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

13 Jul 2009
Research & Ideas

Diagnosing the Public Health Care Alternative

from real reform of the health care delivery system. The "cost savings" a public plan might achieve through volume discounts due to its scale are one-time savings and not true ongoing outcome or efficiency improvements. Instead, costs are... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Health

28 Jun 2016
First Look

June 28, 2016

employee at Google's London office, Markus Berger, was thinking whether he should quit his job and go after his dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Berger's idea was to create Dinr, a company that would offer an upscale food ingredient View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Sep 2015
First Look

September 29, 2015

significant changes, but the engineering and economic challenges of the industry made any move into that space a risky bet. Purchase this case: https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/716401-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 616-003 SF Express: From View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Jul 2013
First Look

First Look: July 23

involved a phased process, focusing first on coverage expansion and then turning to delivery system innovation and cost containment. In 2006, the state adopted an individual mandate to obtain health care coverage, which, along with a... View Details

Keywords: Anna Secino

November 2019
Case

DeepMap: Charting the Road Ahead for Autonomous Vehicles

By: Shane Greenstein and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded in 2016, DeepMap developed high definition (HD) mapping software and localization services for Level 4+ autonomous vehicles. Traditional navigational maps were accurate to a few meters, which was sufficient for drivers but not for machine-driven vehicles that... View Details

Keywords: Mapping Software; Autonomous Vehicles; Business Startups; Applications and Software; Technological Innovation; Technology Adoption; Service Delivery; Global Range; Resource Allocation; Strategic Planning; Technology Industry; Auto Industry

Article

Are Self-service Customers Satisfied or Stuck?

By: Ryan W. Buell, Dennis Campbell and Frances X. Frei

This paper investigates the impact of self-service technology (SST) usage on customer satisfaction and retention. Specifically, we disentangle the distinct effects of satisfaction and switching costs as drivers of retention among self-service customers. Our empirical... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Customer Satisfaction; Competition; Cost; Banks and Banking; Behavior; Market Transactions; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques

Find at Harvard

03 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 3

played in improving eating disorder care over time. It ends with a discussion of Schön's innovative bundled reimbursement models and challenges the reader to explore how to develop new pricing and care delivery models that encourage... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

16 Jul 2008
Op-Ed

What Should Employers Do about Health Care?

delivery reveals some powerful, and ultimately optimistic, principles. First, the best way truly to reduce health care cost is to improve its quality—better diagnoses, more timely treatment, less invasive methods, getting the right... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Elizabeth O. Teisberg & Scott Wallace; Health

11 Jul 2006
First Look

First Look: July 11, 2006

King 806-166 Edison Schools, Inc., a pioneer in the for-profit management of public schools, demonstrates the challenges and opportunities related to private-sector involvement in the delivery of a public good. The case follows the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2017
Working Paper

Discretionary Task Ordering: Queue Management in Radiological Services

By: Maria Ibanez, Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

Work scheduling research typically prescribes task sequences implemented by managers. Yet employees often have discretion to deviate from their prescribed sequence. Using data from 2.4 million radiological diagnoses, we find that doctors prioritize similar tasks... View Details

SSRN

14 Feb 2005
Research & Ideas

The World in Your Palm?

desirable, several panelists ventured. "In our lifetime we will not see a single device that will represent all devices for everything we do," said Rich Miner, vice president of Advanced Service Delivery for London-based telecom... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

17 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

A Litmus Test for Entrepreneurs

geographic exclusivity he needed to offer them. On the cost front, he found that to tap cheap student labor, franchisees would have to supply delivery personnel with mopeds, because most Spanish students, unlike their American... View Details

Keywords: by Walter Kuemmerle

June 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Hôpital de Pontoise

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Simon Harrow

In 2010, Andre Razafindranaly, managing director of a large French public hospital, considers which organizational structure will help them adjust to the changing health sector environment. The move from global budget to activity-based funding has led his and many... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Governance Controls; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Health Care and Treatment; Leading Change; Service Delivery; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Health Industry; France