Product Quality Upgrading - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 1990 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Analog Devices, Inc.: The Half-Life System

The company has committed to major improvements in quality, cost, and on-time delivery performance. Despite strong senior management support, however, the actual rate of improvement was disappointing until a new measurement philosophy was introduced. The new approach... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Performance Improvement; Earnings Management; Financial Reporting; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Productivity; Business or Company Management; Cost Management; Measurement and Metrics; Management Teams; Semiconductor Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

30 May 2007
Research & Ideas

Health Care Under a Research Microscope

players, poor customer service, and regional variations in quality of care. "By virtually any standard, it's an underperforming industry," says Richard Hamermesh, faculty chair of Harvard Business School's recently formed... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health; Biotechnology

01 Dec 2021
What Do You Think?

How Will the Metaverse Affect Productivity?

productive in it. On the other hand, phenomena that didn’t live up to expectations, at least for many years, were improvements in productivity, to the extent they can be measured. There are many explanations. We had to learn how to use... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Profile

Prita Kumar

studios, subscribers get high quality instruction on demand for as little as $9.99 a month, far less than the cost of a fitness club membership. This is not your 1980s-vintage Jane Fonda workout. Booya is a multi-layered destination... View Details

17 Jun 2002
Research & Ideas

A Litmus Test for Entrepreneurs

marketed its products as family food, targeting its messages to children as well as adults. Expanding slowly also gave Pujals the chance to work out and test his business model. He was able to determine exactly what sort of investments he... View Details

Keywords: by Walter Kuemmerle

14 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Keeping Your Balance With Customers

Industrial Era, product innovation and operations management predominated. Product innovation ensured the continuous flow of new products that would sustain growth or market... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

31 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 31

http://www.hbs.edu/research/facpubs/workingpapers/papers0910.html#wp10-070 When the Name Is the Game Authors:Marco Bertini, John Gourville, and Elie Ofek Publication:Business Strategy Review 22, no. 3 (2011) Abstract In Romeo and Juliet, the fair maiden asks,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne & Carmen Nobel

01 Jun 2019
News

City on a Hill

software. So when a family friend suggested that Marietta use talent from eastern Kentucky instead, he promptly set up a pilot office in Letcher County, just northeast of Harlan, and hired four recent high school graduates who had completed a media View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; photographed by Clay Cook

01 Sep 2018
News

The True Value of a Tweet

So instead of using it to persuade and project your message onto people, Twitter can be a tool to learn about your customers, as another way to get information about what they’re thinking. SG: And also new product ideas: Are people... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint

01 Mar 2006
News

The Little Ice-Cream Company That Could

his position. He threatened to print on the side panel of every container of Dreyer’s ice cream the following message: “Kraft, manufacturer of such quality products as Velveeta, Cheez Whiz, and the like, has... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Food Manufacturing; Manufacturing

13 Jan 2009
First Look

First Look: January 13, 2009

most productive sites prefer to pay CPC, while advertisers with lower quality sites prefer to pay CPA—a result that may be viewed as counterintuitive since low quality sites... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

01 Dec 2006
News

One-on-One with Jeff Hicks

554, with billings for 2006 estimated at $1 billion. The agency’s client list now includes brands such as Volkswagen, Burger King, and Virgin Atlantic, among others. “The business I loved is the business we’re in now — being completely integrated with a client’s View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services; Professional Services

05 Apr 2016
First Look

April 5, 2016

politicians in the years after its publication. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50916 Creativity Under Fire: The Effects of Competition on Creative Production By: Gross, Daniel P. Abstract—Though... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthlorne

21 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

Don’t Get Buried in Customer Data—Use It

reveals the richness of the metaphor elicitation approach. As expected, customers associated GM products with quality and competitive price. But there was more: Customers also linked GM with patriotic... View Details

Keywords: by Jean Ayers

15 Dec 2009
First Look

First Look: Dec. 15, 2009

externalities, two traditionally under-emphasized forces, exert consistently strong effects. Within each macro network, there is a large heterogeneity across subsidiaries. Subsidiaries with greater size and higher productivity attract... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Web

Photograph Albums - Photography Collections - Historical Collections

photographs Photographs and accompanying captions portray detailed views of the production of raw silk in Japan during the 1930s. Images include the raising and feeding of silkworms, the harvesting of cocoons, the reeling of the silk... View Details

Web

Approaching Business with an Artistic Eye - Global Activities 2020

there are distinct characteristics in the way people dress,” says Halwani. “Companies don’t create specific fashions for the region, so women who wear modest clothing struggle to find styles they like and often end up with very bland choices.” Plus, Darza provides... View Details

29 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Shoot for the Stars: What to Know About the Space Economy

attention―manufacturing of launch vehicles and satellites―its growth is in fact quite strong. That’s especially true when you adjust for the quality improvements and price declines in that area; something our research is the first to... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin; Aerospace

01 Jun 2003
News

Student Conferences, at a Glance

percent of the worldwide consumer products output. Over time, ‘Made in China’ will become a very high quality stamp of approval.” — James Root, VP, head of Asia Technology Practice, Bain & Company Conference... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

03 Feb 2016
What Do You Think?

How Do You Hire an 'Impostor'?

the employment of “imposters,” a term, by the way, that was regarded as objectionable by many, most respondents implicitly rejected the notion. They pointed to the desirable qualities of imposters, people who believe that their... View Details