efficiency - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2023
Background Note

A Primer on OKRs

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan (Jason) Ni

The OKR framework is a popular goal-setting and strategy execution tool that uses goal setting through “Objectives” and measuring performance using “Key Results” on a periodic basis to measure and drive performance. The OKR framework has been adopted and practiced at... View Details

Keywords: Business Organization; Talent and Talent Management; Framework; Corporate Governance; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Practices and Processes; Management Skills; Management Systems; Measurement and Metrics; Outcome or Result; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Evaluation; Performance Expectations; Performance Productivity; Performance Efficiency

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Blog

Is AI Coming for Your Job?

supply. "ONCE COMPANIES LEARN HOW TO EXPLOIT GENERATIVE AI, WE CAN ANTICIPATE RAPID RESTRUCTURING AT MANY COMPANIES THAT INVOLVE SUBSTANTIAL CUTS IN WHITE-COLLAR STAFF." Historically, companies have asked, "How can this new technology improve the View Details

17 Aug 2021
Op-Ed

Dispensing Justice: The Case for Legalizing Cannabis Nationally

and consumed within its boundaries, regardless of supply, demand, or efficiency considerations. Cannabis cultivated in California, which has five to six outdoor growing seasons, can’t be sold in Massachusetts, which has only two outdoor... View Details

Keywords: by Ashish Nanda and Tabatha Robinson

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CSV in Practice - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

eucalyptus in conjunction with other crops, assisting them with technical training and inputs. Fibria achieves far greater land and water efficiency versus traditional plantation methods while improving the productivity and income of more... View Details

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Nonprofit Strategy & Governance | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Expanding its early focus on helping nonprofits operate more efficiently to the emerging space of social enterprises and the challenges of measuring social impact, our faculty have developed a body of knowledge that encompasses... View Details

28 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

Making the Decision to Franchise (or not)

headquarters maximize an organization's overall revenues by efficiently (and effectively) monitoring the desires of consumers representing a wide range of ethnicities and income levels, large families and singletons? Much has been written... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

09 Jan 2006
Research & Ideas

When Benchmarks Don’t Work

product, or service against the best-known similar activity, so that challenging but attainable goals can be set and a realistic course of action implemented to efficiently become and remain best of the best. In one dramatic benchmarking... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan; Service

31 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

Can a ‘Basic Bundle’ of Health Insurance Cure Coverage Gaps and Spur Innovation?

countries with universal health care have struggled to regulate. If done right, establishing a mechanism for deciding whether a treatment’s benefit-to-cost ratio is high enough to merit inclusion in the basic bundle could provide a carrot for more View Details

Keywords: by Kasandra Brabaw; Insurance; Health

January 2018 (Revised January 2020)
Case

People Analytics at McKinsey

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Olivia Hull

A private equity–backed fast food chain has hired McKinsey’s new People Analytics group to help it improve performance. As the final client workshop approaches, Associate Partner Alex DiLeonardo ponders the best way to present the team’s findings, especially those that... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Customer Relationship Management; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost Management; Human Resources; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Measurement and Metrics; Performance; Performance Capacity; Performance Efficiency; Performance Evaluation; Performance Improvement; Consulting Industry; Service Industry

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17 Jun 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon, Whole Foods Deal a Big Win for Consumers

Source: 400tmax Editor's Note. Online retailing behemoth Amazon announced June 16 that it would acquire upscale grocery chain Whole Foods Market in a deal valued at more than $13 billion. Though the company has dabbled with the idea of a brick-and-mortar footprint in... View Details

Keywords: by Jose Alvarez and Len Schlesinger; Retail

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Research Computing Services - Faculty & Research

upon request, and installations are self-service or can be done by Technology Support Services. Research Infrastructure The RCS research computing environment provides high‐speed, high‐capacity computing resources to help HBS researchers effectively and View Details

01 Jan 2017
News

Improving Health Care Delivery

Health Care Initiative Advisory Board. “Our goal is to make the health care delivery system more efficient and effective,” he adds. “We want to help HBS extend its impact in the field.” View Details

28 Jun 2022
Book

The Moral Enterprise: How Two Companies Profit with Purpose

How can government and business work together in this fractious political moment, when finding solutions to pressing problems like inequality and climate change are more urgent than ever? Rebecca Henderson, Harvard University’s John and Natty McArthur University... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

01 Feb 1999
News

Too Much of a Good Thing?

it's supposed to." Bower continues: "Theoretically, when an industry has excess capacity, prices fall and the least efficient producers can't survive." But, Bower adds, that doesn't always happen. "In many countries, for all sorts of... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons

02 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

The Secret of How Microsoft Stays on Top

the company has built over time, which is largely embedded in its software code libraries. This base is critical to internal innovation, as it makes product development more efficient and powerful. Additionally, it spawns external... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

11 Jul 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Deconstructing 'Customer Experience'

dream come true. But then Amazon's data-driven efficiency met the customer-driven culture at Whole Foods—and the shelves began to empty. How an Order Views Your Company Managers should imagine the customer is watching as their order moves... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail; Service

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Case Studies - Social Impact Collaboratory

financing) poses many challenges to core investing activities such as financial projections, valuation and exit modeling. Family offices doing direct investing have unique capacities to be flexible, long-term partners to companies absent formal capital markets. Root... View Details

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Becoming an Entrepreneur - Alumni

friction from ecommerce shopping, or applying Big Data to achieve supply chain efficiencies Enthusiasm for a particular industry or "space," such as IoT or green energy initiatives For those who recognize themselves as founders, the next... View Details

14 Apr 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Facts and Figuring: An Experimental Investigation of Network Structure and Performance in Information and Solution Spaces

Keywords: by Jesse Shore, Ethan Bernstein & David Lazer

Research Summary

THEME #2: BUILDING CAPABILITIES THROUGH VARIATION

Prior work has yet to establish definitively the role that variation (e.g. in individuals' activities or organizational processes) plays in the development of capabilities. Variation is usually either not considered (e.g., the learning curve examines... View Details

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