Publications

31 Mar 2008
HBS Case

JetBlue’s Valentine’s Day Crisis

from taking off.) That day, only seventeen of JetBlue's 156 scheduled departures left JFK, a fact that caused ripple effects throughout the system and displaced crew and aircraft. In subsequent days, JetBlue management canceled more and... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Air Transportation

November 2008 (Revised November 2024)
Case

The Fall of Enron

By: Paul Healy and Krishna Palepu

The case traces the rise of Enron, covering the company's business innovations, personnel management, and risk management processes. It then examines the company's dramatic fall including the extension of its trading model into questionable new businesses, the... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Management Practices and Processes; Crime and Corruption; Financial Reporting; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards

September 1990 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Merck & Co., Inc. (B)

In late 1986, Merck revised its performance review and pay practices. The most important change was a shift from an absolute rating system to a forced-distribution system in which managers are forced to adhere to a given distribution of performance ratings. Other major... View Details

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Pharmaceutical Industry

28 Jul 2023
Blog Post

How I Landed My Manufacturing Internship at HBS

thereof), I wasn’t sure what industry/sector I wanted to pursue for a summer internship. After some research and reflection, I focused on manufacturing. I was an aerospace systems and standards engineer prior to HBS, and I thought the... View Details

June 1991 (Revised September 1996)
Case

Human Resource Management at American Airlines

American Airlines' strategy calls for continued growth, improvements in customer service, and cost reduction. This case examines the Human Resource Management system at American Airlines and its role in the airline's past and continued success. May be used with... View Details

Keywords: Air Transportation; Management Systems; Human Resources; Business Strategy; Air Transportation Industry; United States

June 1977 (Revised May 1997)
Case

University of Trent

By: Regina E. Herzlinger

Focuses on two issues: 1) technical systems that can be employed in nonprofit organizations for control and motivational purposes. Systems discussed range from payroll monitoring systems to zero-base budgeting and 2) the managerial environment needed for serious... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Motivation and Incentives; Business or Company Management; Nonprofit Organizations; Governance Controls; Education Industry

Brian Trelstad is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School in the General Management Unit and the Faculty Chair of the Advanced Leadership Initiative. He teaches elective courses on Social Entrepreneurship and Systems... View Details

Keywords: education industry; health care; service industry; emerging market private equity; private equity (other); venture capital industry

September 1998 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Cisco Systems, Inc.: Implementing ERP

By: Robert D. Austin, Richard L. Nolan and Mark J. Cotteleer

Reviews Cisco System's approach to implementing Oracle's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software product. This case chronologically reviews the diverse, critical success factors and obstacles facing Cisco during its implementation. Cisco faced the need for... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Complexity; Information Management

Article

How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition

By: Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann

Information technology is revolutionizing products. Once composed solely of mechanical and electrical parts, products have become complex systems that combine hardware, sensors, data storage, microprocessors, software, and connectivity in myriad ways. These "smart,... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Transformation; Information Technology Industry

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Hise Gibson graduated from West Point, where he was a member of the Division-1A Army football team. Following graduation, he commissioned in the US Army as an Aviation Officer in the UH60 Blackhawk Helicopter. He served with distinction in various command and staff... View Details

January 2007 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Farmacias Similares: Private and Public Health Care for the Base of the Pyramid in Mexico

By: Michael Chu and Regina Garcia-Cuellar

Farmacias Similares, serving Mexico's low-income sector, grew to $600 million sales and 3,400 drugstores while deep reforms to help the poor swept the public health system. Adjacent to each store, for $2 per visit, medical clinics provided access to doctors for 2.3... View Details

Keywords: Private Sector; Public Sector; Health Care and Treatment; Growth and Development Strategy; Poverty; Pharmaceutical Industry; Retail Industry; Mexico

Omar Olivarez is a doctoral candidate in the Technology & Operations Management unit. His interests lie at the intersection of automation, labor, innovation, and managerial views of the firm. Omar received his BBA in Management Information Systems from The... View Details

Research Summary

Flexibility, Information Technology and Operations

Upton is now examining the role of Information Systems in determining long-term operational effectiveness. As Corporate Information Systems have become increasingly monolithic, the dangers of long-term inflexibility loom large. In manufacturing/operations, the... View Details

Levers of Control

Based on a ten-year examination of control systems in over 50 U.S. businesses, this book broadens the definition of control and establishes a critical bridge between the disciplines of strategy and accounting and control. In addition to the more traditional diagnostic... View Details

Research Summary

Managers' Use of Information

William J. Bruns, Jr. is studying (with Sharon M. McKinnon of Northeastern University) managers' use of information in day-to-day and long-term management situations. The findings of this research-that managers develop and rely more heavily on personal information... View Details

Peter Tufano

Peter Tufano is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and Senior Advisor to the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. From 2011 to 2021, he served as the Peter Moores Dean at View Details

June 2003
Case

Rise and Fall (?) of Palm Computing in Handheld Operating Systems,The

Describes the evolution of the handheld operating system market. Describes the rise to dominance of Palm's operating system and the significant challenge to that dominance posed by Microsoft's Windows CE. View Details

Keywords: Competition; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Network Effects; Information Technology Industry; Computer Industry

February 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Case

CalPERS Private Equity 2.0

By: Josh Lerner, John D. Dionne and Alys Ferragamo

Yup Kim, the Head of Investments, Private Equity at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), reflected on the pension fund’s private equity strategy. In July of 2022, the fund was in the midst of a multi-year turnaround strategy with the goal to... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment Portfolio; Retirement; Leadership; Strategy; Public Sector