Publications

TeachingInterests

Investment Management Workshop

By: Luis M. Viceira

Investing and Strategic Decision-Making for Principals, Portfolio Managers, and Executives of Asset Management Firms

For nearly 50 years, the Investment Management Workshop (IMW) has convened the world's top principals, portfolio managers, and... View Details

Research Summary

Diversity Orientations: Construct, Antecedents, and Consequences

Researchers have identified a number of different methods with which a group can handle its diversity. Some of the methods gaining the most attention mirror popular ideologies around colorblindness, pride in one's own subgroup, or integrative cultural pluralism.... View Details

January 2016 (Revised February 2016)
Course Overview Note

The Sustainable Core: Operations Management

By: Michael W. Toffel and L. Beril Toktay

This note is designed to help faculty embed environmental sustainability content into their core Operations Management course at the MBA or undergraduate level. It can also be used to identify cases with environmental content that can be used in operations electives... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Management; Operations Management; Sustainable Operations; Environmental Regulation; Operations; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Construction Industry; Forest Products Industry; Retail Industry

September 2013
Case

Management Levels at Staples (A): Company and Organization (Abridged)

By: David A. Garvin

Abridged version of one of six cases that describe the roles and responsibilities of managers at each of the hierarchical levels of management within the U.S. Stores business unit of Staples, the world's largest office supply company. Together, the cases form a... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Managerial Roles; Organizational Design; Management Practices and Processes; Job Design and Levels; Business Processes; Consumer Products Industry; United States

March 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Brazos Partners and the Tri-Northern Exit

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Nathaniel Burbank

Randall Fojtasek, a partner at the Dallas-based Brazos Private Equity Partners, must decide whether now is the time to sell his firm's investment in Tri-Northern Distribution. Brazos, a middle-market leveraged buyout group, created the company two years earlier through... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Exit; LBO; Leveraged Buyout Transaction; Texas; Security; Brazos; Tri-Northern; Tri-Ed; Northern Video; Private Equity; Partners and Partnerships; Distribution; Leveraged Buyouts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry; Distribution Industry; Texas

February 2008 (Revised December 2023)
Case

Digital Music: From MP3 to Streaming

By: Willy Shih

The emergence of the MP3 file-based music format not only disrupted the market for portable audio players, it also impacted the business models of major record labels. Modularity, and the commoditization spillover enabled by modularity in the personal computer... View Details

Keywords: Recording; Digital Devices; Digital Media; Digital Music; Digital; Digital Economics; Consumer Electronics; Customer Value and Value Chain; Disruptive Innovation; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Music Industry; Technology Industry; Electronics Industry; United States

Article

A Blueprint for Pharmacy Benefits Managers to Increase Value

By: William Shrank, Michael E. Porter, Sachin H. Jain and Niteesh K. Choudhary

Pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) have a unique opportunity to promote public health and generate value in the healthcare system. However, PBMs are largely evaluated on their ability to control costs rather than improve health. PBMs should be evaluated along three... View Details

Keywords: Opportunities; Health; System; Cost Management; Partners and Partnerships; Motivation and Incentives; Value; Innovation and Invention; Performance Effectiveness; Health Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

Find at Harvard

September – October 2008
Article

Care Platforms: A Basic Building Block for Care Delivery

By: Richard Bohmer and David Lawrence

Without significant operational reform within the nation's health care delivery organizations, new financing models, payment systems, or structures are unlikely to realize their promise. Adapting insights from high-performing companies in other high-risk, high-cost,... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Management Systems; Standards; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Business Processes; Organizational Design; Customization and Personalization; Health Industry

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February 2005 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Hewlett-Packard (A)

By: Rohit Deshpande and Seth Schulman

Since its controversial merger with Compaq, Hewlett-Packard had been under pressure by analysts and some stockholders to divest itself of its low-margin PC business. For CEO Carly Fiorina and others on HP's management team, however, PCs seemed integral to the company's... View Details

Keywords: Problems and Challenges; Customer Focus and Relationships; Mergers and Acquisitions; Information Infrastructure; Business Strategy; Price; Computer Industry

07 Sep 2020
News

Where ESG Ratings Fail: The Case for New Metrics

September 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Collage.com: Scaling a Distributed Organization

By: Christopher Stanton and Shikhar Ghosh

Kevin Borders and Joe Golden, co-founders and co-CEOs of Collage.com, must decide how to grow their custom photo-products startup in the face of fierce competition. From 2011 through 2016, the business evolved from a hobby to a startup with $22 million in revenue and... View Details

Keywords: Remote Work; Internet and the Web; Organizational Structure; Competitive Strategy; Employees; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Service Industry

2021
Working Paper

Saving for a Dry Day: Coal, Dams, and the Energy Transition

By: Michele Fioretti and Jorge Tamayo

Renewable generation creates a tradeoff between current and future energy production as generators produce energy by releasing previously stored resources. Studying the Colombian market, we find that diversified firms strategically substitute fossil fuels for... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Production; Green Technology Industry; Energy Industry; Colombia

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25 Apr 2023
Op-Ed

How SHEIN and Temu Conquered Fast Fashion—and Forged a New Business Model

monitors manufacturer performance as closely as it monitors customer preferences. This tight integration likely helps SHEIN persuade factories that it is better to work exclusively with SHEIN than to leak SHEIN’s insights about hot... View Details

Keywords: by John Deighton; Fashion; Retail; Consumer Products

11 Mar 2010
Working Paper Summaries

The Many Faces of Nonprofit Accountability

Keywords: by Alnoor Ebrahim

October 2015
Teaching Note

Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower... View Details

Value-Based Health Care - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

Measure Outcomes & Cost for Every Patient Outcomes and cost are measured for every patient. Aligning Reimbursement with Value Reimbursement models that reward both better outcomes and efficiency of care, such as bundled payments. Systems View Details

April 2012 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Dovernet

By: Robert Simons and Natalie Kindred

This case illustrates the implications of using stringent performance measurement systems to create performance pressure, motivate employee achievement, and sharpen a firm's competitiveness. It opens by describing the downsides of the ruthlessly competitive culture at... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Information Technology; Competitive Advantage; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Compensation and Benefits; Web Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; Vancouver

August 2017 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Berkshire Partners: Party City

By: Victoria Ivashina and Jeffrey Boyar

In 2005, Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm specializing in growth equity, was one year into their ownership of Amscan, the market leader of designed, manufactured, and distributed decorated party goods and accessories. However, Amscan's primary... View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Fundraising; Cross-fund Investment; Private Equity; Vertical Integration; Governance; Valuation; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; United States