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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(2,131)
- People (2)
- News (371)
- Research (1,501)
- Events (18)
- Multimedia (2)
- Faculty Publications (707)
- November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
- Module Note
Strategy Execution Module 14: Managing Strategic Risk
By: Robert Simons
This module reading provides an overview of the business conduct boundaries, strategic boundaries, and internal control systems used to manage risk. Boundary systems—linked to clear, enforceable sanctions—are essential whenever demanding performance goals are set and... View Details
Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Strategy Execution; Boundary Systems; Innovation; Internal Controls; Fraud; Human Behavior; Staff Experts; Strategy; Risk Management; Behavior; Governance Controls; Management Practices and Processes; Boundaries; Employees; Business Strategy; Innovation and Invention
Simons, Robert. "Strategy Execution Module 14: Managing Strategic Risk." Harvard Business School Module Note 117-114, November 2016. (Revised December 2016.)
- February 2020
- Case
Fake News at DER SPIEGEL (A)
By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and Tonia Labruyere
The case discusses the strategy of DER SPIEGEL, the leading news magazine in Germany, in the aftermath of the discovery of a fake reporting scandal. It had come to light that one of DER SPIEGEL’s own reporters had falsified and made up entire articles for years,... View Details
Keywords: Scandal; Management Control Systems; Corporate Governance; Crisis Management; Communication Strategy; Journalism and News Industry; Germany
Dey, Aiyesha, Jonas Heese, and Tonia Labruyere. "Fake News at DER SPIEGEL (A)." Harvard Business School Case 120-001, February 2020.
- May 1992 (Revised January 2000)
- Case
Asea Brown Boveri: The ABACUS System
By: Robert L. Simons
Describes the computer-based information system (ABACUS) used to monitor and control business operations in a complex, global company. Describes the technical attributes of the database system, financial reporting requirements, target setting and profit calculations on... View Details
Keywords: Financial Reporting; Profit; Business Growth and Maturation; Analytics and Data Science; Design; Accounting Audits; Growth and Development; Globalized Firms and Management; Complexity; Technology Industry
Simons, Robert L. "Asea Brown Boveri: The ABACUS System." Harvard Business School Case 192-140, May 1992. (Revised January 2000.)
- September 1994
- Case
American Airlines: Object Oriented Flight Dispatching Systems
By: F. Warren McFarlan and Espen Andersen
American Airlines Describes has organized and developed their Systems Operation Control (SOC) center in Dallas, from which the day-to-day running of the airline takes place. This case details the decision support system used by the flight dispatchers, and the... View Details
Keywords: Technological Innovation; Product Development; Programs; Complexity; Technology Adoption; Air Transportation; Air Transportation Industry; United States
McFarlan, F. Warren, and Espen Andersen. "American Airlines: Object Oriented Flight Dispatching Systems." Harvard Business School Case 195-046, September 1994.
- April 1998 (Revised May 2000)
- Case
Guidant Corporation: Shaping Culture Through Systems
By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila
Guidant is a successful IPO start-up selling pacemakers and defibrillators. The case describes how managers install systems to balance innovation and control. Three parts of a shareholder value strategy are described. Controls include incentive systems, beliefs... View Details
Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Planning; Risk Management; Management Systems; Business Strategy; Value Creation; System; Service Industry; Financial Services Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry
Simons, Robert L., and Antonio Davila. "Guidant Corporation: Shaping Culture Through Systems." Harvard Business School Case 198-076, April 1998. (Revised May 2000.)
- 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
Keywords: Product Development; Business Processes; Management Practices and Processes; Supply Chain Management; Machinery and Machining; Goals and Objectives; Resource Allocation; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Manufacturing Industry
Clark, Kim B., and Brent D. Barnett. "Ceramics Process Systems Corp. (B)." Harvard Business School Case 691-006, July 1990.
- March 2014
- Article
Choosing the Right Customer
By: Robert Simons
Companies that win in competitive markets identify a primary customer and dedicate maximum resources to meeting that customer's needs. This article will show you how to identify the best primary customer for your business by analyzing perspective, capabilities, and... View Details
Keywords: Strategy Execution; Customer Focus; Organization Design; Accountability; Management Control Systems; Customer Relationship Management; Organizational Design
Simons, Robert. "Choosing the Right Customer." Harvard Business Review 92, no. 3 (March 2014): 48–55.
- March 2005 (Revised July 2007)
- Case
Capital Controls in Chile in the 1990s (A)
By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel
In 1991, Chile adopted a framework of capital controls focused on reducing the massive flows of foreign investment coming into the country as international interest rates remained low. Capital inflows threatened the Central Bank's ability to manage the exchange rate... View Details
Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Capital; Governance Controls; Business and Government Relations; Chile
Alfaro, Laura, Rafael M. Di Tella, and Ingrid Vogel. "Capital Controls in Chile in the 1990s (A)." Harvard Business School Case 705-031, March 2005. (Revised July 2007.)
- February 1990 (Revised July 1990)
- Case
Internal Revenue Service: Automated Collection System
By: Nitin Nohria
Describes how the IRS's collection operations changed from a largely manual system (COF) to an automated system (ACS). A central aspect of ACS was the electronic scheduling and maintaining of work. While with ACS the IRS accomplished significant improvements in the... View Details
Keywords: Sovereign Finance; Revenue; Information Technology; Taxation; Change Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Human Resources; Public Administration Industry; United States
Nohria, Nitin. "Internal Revenue Service: Automated Collection System." Harvard Business School Case 490-042, February 1990. (Revised July 1990.)
- 2014
- Working Paper
The Effect of Management Control Elements on Coordination
By: Sara Bormann, Jan Bouwens and Christian Hofmann
This study examines how control elements of a firm affect coordination among profit centers. The firm operates a network of 59 profit centers. It uses a transfer-pricing system designed to account for interdependencies between profit centers and to induce coordination.... View Details
Bormann, Sara, Jan Bouwens, and Christian Hofmann. "The Effect of Management Control Elements on Coordination." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 14-092, March 2014.
- May 2017 (Revised June 2017)
- Case
ATH Technologies (A): Making the Numbers
By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard
An exercise that takes students through five stages of growth in an entrepreneurial start-up in the medical devices industry: 1) founding, 2) growth, 3) push to profitability, 4) refocusing process, and 5) takeover by new management. At each stage, students must... View Details
Keywords: Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Balancing Innovation And Control; Performance Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Profit; Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Innovation and Invention; Management Succession; Performance Evaluation; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry
Simons, Robert, and Jennifer Packard. "ATH Technologies (A): Making the Numbers." Harvard Business School Case 117-013, May 2017. (Revised June 2017.)
- 2023
- Working Paper
When Does Gamified Training Improve Performance? The Roles of Office and Leader Engagement
By: Ryan W. Buell, Wei Cai and Tatiana Sandino
Gamified training is a novel management control system in which companies use gamification
techniques to engage and motivate employees to learn. This study empirically examines the
performance consequences of gamified training using data from a natural field... View Details
Keywords: Gamified Training; Management Control Systems; Employee Engagement; Employees; Learning; Training; Motivation and Incentives; Performance
Buell, Ryan W., Wei Cai, and Tatiana Sandino. "When Does Gamified Training Improve Performance? The Roles of Office and Leader Engagement." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-101, March 2019. (Revised October 2023.)
- June 1998
- Article
Using Delegation and Control Systems to Mitigate the Trade-off between the Performance-Evaluation and Belief-Revision Uses of Accounting Standards
By: V.G. Narayanan and A. Davila
Narayanan, V.G., and A. Davila. "Using Delegation and Control Systems to Mitigate the Trade-off between the Performance-Evaluation and Belief-Revision Uses of Accounting Standards." Special Issue on Mastering Finance Series. Journal of Accounting & Economics 25, no. 3 (June 1998).
- September 2016
- Article
The Effect of Target Difficulty on Target Completion: The Case of Reducing Carbon Emissions
By: Ioannis Ioannou, Shelley Xin Li and George Serafeim
Targets are an integral component of management control systems and play a significant role in achieving desirable performance outcomes. We focus on a key environmental performance objective—reduction of carbon emissions—as a setting in which to examine how target... View Details
Keywords: Sustainability; Target-setting; Management Accounting; Management Accounting And Control Systems; Control Systems; Sustainable Development; Environment; Goals and Objectives; Climate Change; Management Systems; Accounting; Environmental Sustainability
Ioannou, Ioannis, Shelley Xin Li, and George Serafeim. "The Effect of Target Difficulty on Target Completion: The Case of Reducing Carbon Emissions." Accounting Review 91, no. 5 (September 2016): 1467–1492.
- 18 Apr 2012
- Research & Ideas
HBS Cases: Who Controls Water?
actual cost. Possible Solutions Reinhardt shifted the conversation to discussing solutions, such as assigning property rights to water. "In a way the history of Europeans and Asians on this continent has been the story of environmental abundance converted to... View Details
- August 2023
- Article
Explaining Machine Learning Models with Interactive Natural Language Conversations Using TalkToModel
By: Dylan Slack, Satyapriya Krishna, Himabindu Lakkaraju and Sameer Singh
Practitioners increasingly use machine learning (ML) models, yet models have become more complex and harder to understand. To understand complex models, researchers have proposed techniques to explain model predictions. However, practitioners struggle to use... View Details
Slack, Dylan, Satyapriya Krishna, Himabindu Lakkaraju, and Sameer Singh. "Explaining Machine Learning Models with Interactive Natural Language Conversations Using TalkToModel." Nature Machine Intelligence 5, no. 8 (August 2023): 873–883.
- March 1999 (Revised March 2017)
- Teaching Note
J Boats, Inc.
By: Robert Simons
Teaching Note for J Boats (197-015) View Details
- July 1987 (Revised October 1995)
- Case
Phillips 66: Controlling a Company Through Crisis
The downstream operations subsidiary of a major U.S. petroleum company is faced with major restructuring decisions and responds by developing an Executive Information System (EIS) which allows for increased responsiveness, wider span of control, and higher levels of... View Details
Keywords: Restructuring; Information Management; Governance Controls; Organizational Design; Crisis Management; Communication; Management Teams; Growth Management; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; United States
Applegate, Lynda M. "Phillips 66: Controlling a Company Through Crisis." Harvard Business School Case 189-006, July 1987. (Revised October 1995.)
- May 2017
- Case
ATH Technologies: Making the Numbers
By: Robert Simons and Jennifer Packard
An exercise that takes students through five stages of growth in an entrepreneurial start-up in the medical devices industry: 1) founding, 2) growth, 3) push to profitability, 4) relocation process, and 5) takeover by new management. At each stage, students must... View Details
Keywords: Balancing Innovation And Control; Performance Evaluation; Strategy And Execution; Management Control Systems; Risk Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Profit; Geographic Location; Governance Controls; Innovation and Invention; Management Succession; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry
Simons, Robert, and Jennifer Packard. "ATH Technologies: Making the Numbers." Harvard Business School Case 117-012, May 2017.
- 25 Mar 2014
- Research & Ideas
China’s Economic System has Difficult Road Overcoming its Political System
at all. In many cases, in fact, the state actually hurts innovation in order to benefit the Party. Take the case of Grace Vineyard, a private winery that makes the best wine in China. "And yet, it has to compete with state-owned enterprises that View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding