Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,577)
- Faculty Publications (128)
- September 2009
- Article
Are You Having Trouble Keeping Your Operations Focused?
As a business broadens over time, it can lose the operational edge that led to its original success. Core strengths atrophy, efficiency or quality suffers, and sharper rivals close in to take advantage of the loss of focus. In his classic article "The Focused Factory"... View Details
- February 2009
- Article
Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting
By: Lisa D. Ordonez, Maurice E. Schweitzer, Adam D. Galinsky and Max H. Bazerman
Goal setting is one of the most replicated and influential paradigms in the management literature. Hundreds of studies conducted in numerous countries and contexts have consistently demonstrated that setting specific, challenging goals can powerfully drive behavior and... View Details
- January 2009
- Supplement
The Tip of the Iceberg: JP Morgan Chase and Bear Stearns (B2)
By: Clayton S. Rose, Daniel Baird Bergstresser and David Lane
Bear Stearns & Co burned through nearly all of its $18 billion in cash reserves during the week of March 10, 2008, and an unprecedented provision of liquidity support from the Federal Reserve on Friday March 13 was insufficient to reverse the decline in Bear's... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting
By: Lisa D. Ordonez, Maurice E. Schweitzer, Adam D. Galinsky and Max H. Bazerman
Goal setting is one of the most replicated and influential paradigms in the management literature. Hundreds of studies conducted in numerous countries and contexts have consistently demonstrated that setting specific, challenging goals can powerfully drive behavior and... View Details
- 2008
- Book
On Competition
By: M. E. Porter
Competition is one of society's most powerful forces for making things better in many fields of human endeavor. The study of competition and the creation of value, in their full richness, have preoccupied me for several decades. Competition is pervasive, whether it... View Details
- June 2008 (Revised July 2009)
- Case
COFCO Xinjiang Tunhe Co., Ltd.
By: David E. Bell and Aldo Sesia
In 2005, COFCO Ltd., one of China's largest and most successful companies, acquired Xinjiang Tunhe, a tomato processing firm, which had been, in recent years, poorly managed. COFCO changed Tunhe's management team and set out to create a culture of professionalism and... View Details
- May 2008
- Case
Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics and a Career in Crisis
By: W. Earl Sasser Jr. and Heather Beckham
The case describes the dilemma of a marketing manager, Thomas Green, who, after being rapidly promoted, is harshly criticized by his boss, Frank Davis. Green and Davis disagree on work styles and market projections. Green believes the sales goals set by Davis are based... View Details
- 2008
- Case
Thomas Green:Power, Office Politics and a Career in Crisis
By: W. Earl Sasser
The case describes the dilemma of a marketing manager, Thomas Green, who, after being rapidly promoted, is harshly criticized by his boss, Frank Davis. Green and Davis disagree on work styles and market projections. Green believes the sales goals set by Davis are based... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised December 2011)
- Case
Inner Mongolia Yili Group: China's Pioneering Dairy Brand
By: Regina M. Abrami, William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan and Tracy Yuen Manty
Setting up the goal to become one of the top 20 enterprises in the world dairy industry by 2010, the Inner Mongolia Yili Group had ambitious plans. As one of China's biggest national dairy companies, its main challenge was competing as a local company against... View Details
- January 2008
- Background Note
Index Options
By: Joshua Coval and Erik Stafford
The goal of this simulation is to understand the patterns in index option prices that are not predicted by the Black-Scholes model. In particular, the simulation focuses on two properties of options prices. First, at-the-money implied volatilities from index options... View Details
Keywords: Volatility; Stock Options; Investment; Price; Profit; Risk Management; Mathematical Methods
- November 2007
- Background Note
Asset Allocation I
By: Joshua D. Coval, Erik Stafford, Rodrigo Osmo, John Jernigan, Zack Page and Paulo Passoni
The goal of these simulations is to understand the mathematics of mean-variance optimization and the equilibrium pricing of risk if all investors use this rule with common information sets. Simulation A focuses on five to 10 years of monthly sector returns that are... View Details
- March 1999 (Revised March 2000)
- Case
Cross Country Group, The: A Piece of the Rock (A)
By: Robert L. Simons and Indra Reinbergs
A new MBA graduate joins a privately held family business and sets ambitious growth goals for the next five years. To enhance motivation, he proposes a new incentive plan that will grant him a share of the wealth he creates. However, the family owners have a more... View Details
- June 1998 (Revised August 2001)
- Case
Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (A)
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Nicole Tempest
Wells Fargo, the industry leader in electronic banking, has implemented a Balanced Scorecard in its online financial services group (OFS) to track and measure performance. The OFS group develops and supports services that allow existing and future banking customers to... View Details
- July 1995
- Background Note
Managerial Duties and Business Law
By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Jerry Useem
Consists of excerpts from Principles of Corporate Governance, a set of legal guidelines that enumerates the principal duties of corporate managers and directors, including fiduciary duty, duty of care, and duty of fair dealing. Also addresses legal obligations relating... View Details
- 1995
- Article
Constraints or Catalysts? Reexamining Goal Setting Within the Context of Negotiation
By: J. Polzer and M. Neale
- September 1994 (Revised September 1994)
- Case
Acer Group, The: Vision for the Year 2000
By: D. Quinn Mills and Richard C. Wei
In the early 1990s, Acer, Inc. set two goals: to be a top-five PC company worldwide in 1995 and to be a global consortium of companies by the year 2000. The company identified potential obstacles concerning capital, image, number of experienced international managers,... View Details
Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Goals and Objectives; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Organizational Structure; Global Strategy; Multinational Firms and Management; Experience and Expertise; Marketing Strategy; Production; Rank and Position; Business Strategy; Capital; Computer Industry; Japan
- April 1993 (Revised May 2009)
- Case
Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, India: In Service for Sight, The
Starting as a modest 20-bed hospital, Aravind had grown into a 1,400-bed hospital complex by 1992. It had by then screened 3.65 million patients and performed 335,000 cataract surgeries, nearly 70% of them free of cost for the poorest of India's blind population.... View Details
- spring 1991
- Article
Breaking the Cycle of Failure in Services
By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and James Heskett
Most managers recognize that good service is a direct result of having effective, productive people in customer contact positions. However, most service companies perpetuate a cycle of failure by tolerating high turnover and expecting employee dissatisfaction. This... View Details
- July 1990
- Case
Ceramics Process Systems Corp. (B)
By: Kim B. Clark and Brent D. Barnett
Ceramics Process Systems (CPS) is an advanced ceramics company facing problems with lead time in product/process development, and late delivery of prototype parts to its customers. Engineering is confronted with difficult technical problems and multiple objectives... View Details
- September 1987 (Revised October 1987)
- Background Note
The Job of the General Manager
By: James L. Heskett
Describes elements of the job of the general manager that are addressed in the Management Policy and Practice course at the Harvard Business School. These include: 1) establishing strategic direction, 2) setting goals and managing standards of performance, 3)... View Details