Publications

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April 2021
Supplement

Buy Online, Pickup in Store: Vice President of E-Commerce Supplement

By: Antonio Moreno, Santiago Gallino and Amy Klopfenstein

In April 2019, Sylvarella VP of E-Commerce Charla Limont must review an analysis of her department’s sales data to determine the impact of the company’s Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program. The program implementation created significant problems for the... View Details

Keywords: Operations; Service Delivery; Logistics; Infrastructure; Distribution Channels; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Analysis; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States; Canada

November 2020 (Revised September 2021)
Case

HP Instant Ink: (Self) Disrupting the Consumer Printing Market

By: Elie Ofek, Marco Bertini, Oded Koenigsberg and George Gonzalez

Seeking to disrupt the consumer printing market (before being disrupted by others), and in response to customer pain points, in 2013 HP Inc. launched an ink replenishment service called Instant Ink, where customers pay a monthly subscription fee based on the number of... View Details

Keywords: Printing; Ink; Subscription Model; Customers; Information Infrastructure; Service Delivery; Business Model; Disruption; Growth and Development Strategy

October 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

The Joslin Diabetes Center

By: Michael E. Porter, Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg and Scott Wallace

The Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Massachusetts is a leading center for diabetes care, clinician training, and research. The incidence of diabetes is rising precipitously worldwide, challenging quality of life with its complications and rapidly accelerating health... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Service Delivery; Medical Specialties; Health Care and Treatment; Outcome or Result; Corporate Finance; Health Industry; Boston

February 2004
Teaching Note

Sampa Video, Inc. (TN)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Peter Tufano

Teaching Note to (9-201-094). View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Service Delivery; Projects; Valuation; Financing and Loans; Strategy; Cost of Capital; Service Industry

April 2001
Teaching Note

Microsoft Carpoint

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Steven Silverman and William A. Sahlman

Teaching Note for (9-898-280). For book only - not listed on case. View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Partners and Partnerships; Change; Customers; Web Services Industry

11 Jun 2020
In Practice

Are Digital Organizations Better at Overcoming COVID?

Government leaders rushing to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in March gave companies little time to shift to an all-virtual workforce. Ready or not, many businesses had to become more digital. But true digital transformation takes far more than a Zoom account. Using... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

Spring 2019
Article

Fluid Teams and Knowledge Retrieval: Scaling Service Operations

By: Melissa A. Valentine, Tom Fangyun Tan, Bradley R. Staats and Amy C. Edmondson

To scale service operations requires retrieving knowledge across the organization. However, prior work highlights that individuals on the periphery of organizational knowledge networks may struggle to access useful knowledge at work. A knowledge repository has the... View Details

Keywords: Teaming; Teams; Groups and Teams; Knowledge Management; Service Delivery; Knowledge Use and Leverage

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November 2015
Article

Influence of Experience and the Surgical Learning Curve on Long-term Patient Outcomes in Cardiac Surgery

By: Bryan M. Burt, Andrew W. ElBardissi, Robert S. Huckman, Lawrence H. Cohn, Marisa W. Cevasco, James D. Rawn, Sary F. Aranki and John G. Byrne

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that increased post-graduate surgical experience correlates with improved operative efficiency and long-term survival in standard cardiac surgery procedures.

METHODS: Utilizing a prospectively collected retrospective database,... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Value; Health Care and Treatment; Experience and Expertise; Health Industry

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September 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Discovery Health (B)

By: Samuel S. Chun and Shaun Matisonn

A South African health insurance company grapples with designing a financially viable coverage solution for a new prescription drug treatment for male impotence. View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Service Delivery; Insurance; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance Industry; South Africa

01 Jun 2018
News

Floor It

research ecosystem have delayed the delivery of lifesaving advances. Think of it as a plumbing problem: The third-floor shower in an old house doesn’t have enough water pressure. The problem may be with the third-floor pipe, but it’s far... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; illustration by Mengxin Li

01 Jun 2020
News

Prognosis

Physicians Organization. Slavin and Huckman joined the HBS Alumni Bulletin to discuss the ways in which MGH was able to redeploy resources to meet the surge of patients, and how the delivery of health care might be forever changed as a... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; COVID-19; Hospitals; Health, Social Assistance

January 1999 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Finale

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Michael J. Roberts and Matthew C. Lieb

Designed for use with "Room for Dessert" to show the changes between creating the initial business plans and starting to serve customers. Conforti and Moore have to both manage the business and deliver service to customers on a day-to-day basis in the initial location... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Business Plan; Entrepreneurship; Customer Satisfaction

April 1990 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Lowe's

By: Walter J. Salmon

Lowe's chain of 306 stores was anticipating fierce competition from their major market rival, Home Depot. As they reformulated the size of their new prototype stores and the mix of their merchandise, what would be the ultimate format? What impact would it have on their... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Buildings and Facilities; Markets; Service Delivery; Competition

October 1984
Teaching Note

NIKE (A1), Teaching Note

Teaching Note for (9-385-026). View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Policy; Service Delivery; Decisions; Apparel and Accessories Industry