Operations Improvement - Publications - Faculty & Research

25 Apr 2014
News

MBAs go down the road less traveled to work with entrepreneurs

entrepreneurs with humility and curiosity, and lending our skills, experience, and energy to the task of improving our communities and our economy," says Singer. The team provided advice on everything from View Details

April 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Supply Chain Management at World Co., Ltd.

By: Ananth Raman, Marshall L. Fisher and Anna Sheen McClelland

Describes a supply chain with very quick (i.e., two week) response times and allows students to explore how such short response times are achieved. Allows students to explore why other supply chains, with much longer response times, might not be able to replicate this... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Supply Chain; Knowledge Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management Practices and Processes; Performance Improvement

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Transforming Health Care Delivery - Course Catalog

fundamental challenge of improving clinical outcomes while controlling costs. Addressing this challenge will require dramatic improvements in the processes by which care is delivered to patients. This, in... View Details

17 Dec 2015
News

Examining Global Workforce Management

they implement their approaches in all the countries in which they operate. The research was sparked by a discussion of layoffs in the required MBA course Leadership and Corporate Accountability. Sucher was initially surprised to discover no clear academic consensus... View Details

James A. Gray, Jr.

Through his advertising efforts, Gray was able to return Camel to its position as the best selling cigarette brand. In 1939, Gray greatly improved R. J. Reynolds’ leaf operations by installing vacuum... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

25 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Has Occupational Licensing Outlived Its Usefulness?

improvement professionals. That’s how I started studying the role of occupational licensing in an online world, and together with my co-authors we found the perfect setting: an online platform for the exchange of home View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Service

01 Jun 2012
News

They Call Him Mr. China

other countries. But by the end of 1996, it was clear that they had failed to master the task of operating Chinese enterprises. So Perkowski moved on to Plan B. He appointed a team of “Old China” managers inherited with the joint-venture... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Manufacturing; Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers; Retail Trade

01 Mar 2007
News

The Joy of Work

AMABILE: A decade of research shows that to be creative, people need to feel good about their work. After thirty years of research, I am still passionate about creativity,” says Teresa M. Amabile, the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration, head of the... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

01 Mar 2017
News

A Healthy Profit

one of four ways that Quelch says companies can affect public health, along with concentrating on the well-being of its employees, its community, and the environment. The principles can help the bottom line, too, offering improvements in... View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

01 Jun 2016
News

Escape from Alcatraz

Illustration by Noah MacMillan Illustration by Noah MacMillan The first challenge of Boda Borg is describing it. The Swedish company—headed by president and CEO David Spigner (MBA 1987) and imported to the United States by Chad Ellis (MBA 1998)—offers indoor... View Details

Keywords: April White

01 Mar 2023
News

Elevator Pitch: Spread the Wealth

Illustration by Drue Wagner Illustration by Drue Wagner Sabine Tejerina (MBA 2009) Cofounder and COO, Upstreet Concept: Launched in 2020, Upstreet makes it easier and more economical for companies to reward employees and customers with shares to View Details

Keywords: entrepreneurship; stock ownership; customer rewards; employee retention; financial literacy; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance

Lewis W. Lehr

In his first year at the helm of 3M, Lehr presided over a major reorganization of the company’s diversified operations into 4 distinct divisions. The new and improved 3M began to focus on quality and... View Details

Keywords: Fabricated Goods

24 Apr 2014
News

Running faster to compete

number of lobsters caught and has improved the lobster trap-making industry. It is used in about 99 percent of the traps fished in New England. Knott also manufactured WireWall, a leading security fencing that rings many American prisons... View Details

25 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

Hiding From Managers Can Increase Your Productivity

together to facilitate visibility. The idea was that watching the workers would help managers improve operations and replicate innovations on one line across others, thus increasing productivity and driving... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

12 Jan 2004
What Do You Think?

How Should We Think About the Exportation of Jobs?

in markets for labor fueled by dramatic improvements in communication. Those with a global, macro economic view tended to regard these developments as long overdue. Those concerned about the psychological and social impact of job... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Mar 2005
News

Online Job Bank Debuts

total. (HBS affiliation is not required for potential employers, and there is no charge for job postings.) Says Sullivan, “We realize that our alumni will experience a number of job shifts, and perhaps even industry changes, over the course of their professional lives.... View Details

Keywords: Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

May 1997
Teaching Note

Product Development Process, Organization and Improvement, Instructor's Note

By: Marco Iansiti

Explores how development projects fit (or do not fit) within a firm's development strategy and its wider competitive goals. Module materials, and this note, focus on two broad approaches to process design (sequential and flexible) that were originally introduced in the... View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Management Practices and Processes; Product Development; Performance Improvement; Competition

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25 Feb 2020
News

In My Humble Opinion: Mr. Coffee

people—owning it together and figuring out how to improve it,” he says. “Working with a team to grow a great brand has always been a joy for me.” “So many people have a passion for and a ritual around coffee.” “So many people have a... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

06 Jun 2005
Research & Ideas

Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

with a duopoly, no operating system ends up exploiting fully its potential because developers' efforts wind up divided between the two systems. However, with a monopoly, the efforts to develop new software and View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

24 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

IPR: Protecting Your Technology Transfers

transferring rents to multinational corporate patent holders headquartered in the world's most advanced countries, especially the United States. IPR advocates countered that improved IPR would spur innovation, and that even if this... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

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