Publications

Educators

January 1982 (Revised November 1982)
Case

General Foods: Productivity Measurement Program

By: Robert H. Hayes and Kim B. Clark

Keywords: Performance Productivity; Performance Improvement; Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

April 2008
Teaching Note

Exercise: Challenging Operational Assumptions

By: Frances X. Frei and Christine van Keuren

Teaching Note for [608128]. View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Performance Improvement

November 2009 (Revised June 2012)
Supplement

Jody Leleck at Broad Acres (B)

By: Paul W. Marshall and Andrew Goldin

Explores the results of Jody Leleck's efforts to turn around underperforming Broad Acres Middle School. View Details

Keywords: Middle School Education; Performance Improvement; Education Industry

February 1994
Case

Project Ghost Busters (A)

Describes a field study project undertaken by four students, attacking a specific quality problem in an auto assembly plant. How should they approach this problem to reduce its frequency by 50%? How should they manage this team project to get the most out of all... View Details

Keywords: Quality; Production; Performance Improvement; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry

18 Nov 2016
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Making a Fast Start on a New Job

Experience Lacking experience, contract workers find it difficult to advance to a job with expanded responsibilities. But it can be done. Research into the the concept of "stretchwork." Reflecting on Work Improves Job View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

August 2016 (Revised November 2019)
Case

Baskits Inc.

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Soon after Robin Kovitz (MBA 2007) acquired Baskits Inc., the largest gift basket company in Canada, she became convinced that the business needed to make significant operational improvements. In her first year as CEO, she introduced an ERP system to help with sales... View Details

Keywords: Production; Supply Chain; Performance Improvement; Consumer Products Industry; Canada

Educators

Forthcoming
Article

The Anatomy of a Hospital System Merger: The Patient Did Not Respond Well to Treatment

By: Raffaella Sadun, Martin Gaynor, Adam Sacarny, Chad Syverson and Shruthi Venkatesh

Despite the continuing US hospital merger wave, it remains unclear how mergers change, or fail to change, hospital behavior and performance. We open the “black box” of hospital practices through a mega-merger between two for-profit chains. Benchmarking the merger's... View Details

Keywords: Performance Improvement; Mergers and Acquisitions; Health Industry

19 Dec 2012
Research & Ideas

How to be Extremely Productive

HBS senior lecturer Robert Pozen is living proof of the adage "If you want to get something done, ask a busy person." Throughout a distinguished career that has included often-overlapping leadership roles in business, teaching, public service, and the law,... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg

June 2018
Article

Video Content Marketing: The Making of Clips

By: Xuan Liu, Savannah Wei Shi, Thales S. Teixeira and Michel Wedel

Consumers have an increasingly wide variety of options available to entertain themselves. This poses a challenge for content aggregators who want to effectively promote their video content online through original trailers of movies, sitcoms, and video games. Marketers... View Details

Keywords: Film Entertainment; Marketing; Digital Marketing; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Improvement

Keywords: by Rene F. Kizilcec, Justin Reich, Michael Yeomans, Christoph Dann, Emma Brunskill, Glenn Lopez, Selen Turkay, Joseph J. Williams, and Dustin Tingley; Education

01 Jul 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Scaling Up Behavioral Science Interventions in Online Education

May 1994
Case

Laura Ashley (C): Rebuilding and Transforming a Global Brand

By: Richard L. Nolan

Over the course of two years a CEO executes a business transformation strategy and key decisions. View Details

Keywords: Transition; Decisions; Performance Consistency; Performance Improvement; Business Strategy

Educators

1995
Chapter

How to Integrate Work and Deepen Expertise

By: D. A. Leonard, H. K. Bowen, K. B. Clark, C. Holloway and S. C. Wheelwright

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Performance Improvement

11 Oct 2004
Research & Ideas

Four Ways to Create Lasting Change

systems and processes. Moreover, the firm had experienced a slight decline in performance and increasing competition from major rivals prior to his arrival. We were intrigued by the changes taking place at Alpha, particularly as we... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

01 Feb 2002
News

If You're #1, Watch Out

You're the top performer in your market. Your products are of such a high quality that they exceed the requirements of all but the most demanding customers, and you're the only one able to serve them. Clear sailing ahead, right? Wrong,... View Details

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

September 2017
Supplement

Taj Hotels: Leading Change, Driving Profitability (B)

By: Krishna Palepu, Anjali Raina and Rachna Chawla

The Taj Group financial in March 2017 reflects a turnaround in performance. The new branding strategy is described. View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Hospitality Industry; Leading Change; Leadership; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Strategy; Globalization; Performance Improvement; Accommodations Industry; India

11 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Building a Better Board

School who sat on one outside public board during his tenure at Arrow and has since served on four other public boards and five private boards. "There has been a tremendous shift to the better over the past 15 years," he says. "The View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

April 2023
Article

A Field Experiment on Subgoal Framing to Boost Volunteering: The Trade-off Between Goal Granularity and Flexibility

By: Aneesh Rai, Marissa A. Sharif, Edward H. Chang, Katherine L. Milkman and Angela L. Duckworth

Research suggests that breaking overarching goals into more granular subgoals is beneficial for goal progress. However, making goals more granular often involves reducing the flexibility provided to complete them, and recent work shows that flexibility can also be... View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Outcome or Result; Performance Improvement

August 2007
Article

Remedying Education: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments in India

By: A. Banerjee, Shawn A. Cole, E. Duflo and L. Linden

This paper presents the results of two randomized experiments conducted in schools in urban India. A remedial education program hired young women to teach students lagging behind in basic literacy and numeracy skills. It increased average test scores of all children in... View Details

Keywords: Literacy; Teaching; Performance Improvement; Competency and Skills; India