Publications

October 2016
Case

The Quiet Ascension of LA Fitness

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In 2016, LA Fitness was the largest chain of non-franchised fitness clubs in North America, operating 676 clubs, serving 4.9 million members, and generating revenues of over $1.9 billion. Founded by Chinyol Yi, Louis Welch, and Paul Norris in 1984, the privately held... View Details

Keywords: LA Fitness; Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Exercise; Personal Training; Retention; Bally Total Fitness; 24 Hour Fitness; Planet Fitness; Buildings and Facilities; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Demographics; Age; Gender; Income; Residency; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; Capital Structure; Cash; Cash Flow; Cost; Private Equity; Financial Condition; Financial Liquidity; Financing and Loans; Investment Return; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Employees; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Contracts; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Operations; Service Operations; Leasing; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Situation or Environment; Opportunities; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Mobile Technology; Technology Platform; Health Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles

2012
Other Book

Redefining German Health Care: Moving to a Value-Based System

By: Michael E. Porter and Clemens Guth

The German health care system is on a collision course with budget realities. Costs are high and rising, and quality problems are becoming ever more apparent. Decades of reforms have produced little change to these troubling trends. Why has Germany failed to solve... View Details

Keywords: Health

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March 2010
Supplement

Deworming Kenya: Translating Research into Action (B)

By: Nava Ashraf, Neil Buddy Shah and Rachel Gordon

Karen Levy and her colleague, Margaret Ndanyi, learn the results of their nation-wide effort to rid Kenyan school children of parasitic worm infection. View Details

Keywords: Programs; Health Care and Treatment; Research; Policy; Outcome or Result; Kenya

Article

Four Ways to Build a Productive Sales Culture

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Steven Maughan

This article distinguishes sales efficiency (SE) initiatives (e.g., CRM, training, and KPI dashboards) from sales optimization (SO) decisions (e.g., aligning sales tasks with business strategy, customer selection, and deployment of sales resources across... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Sales

14 Dec 2021
Op-Ed

To Change Your Company's Culture, Don't Start by Trying to Change the Culture

performance management systems." Pain is part of the cost of successful knee surgery, but that doesn’t mean banging someone on the knee with a hammer is successful knee surgery. View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer

19 May 2003
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Winner Targets India Dropouts

Harvard Business School MBA '03 students Raj De Datta, Arvind Krishnamurthy, and Meghna Modi recently won the Social Enterprise track of the annual HBS Business Plan contest with their View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler; Financial Services

02 Jun 2010
What Do You Think?

How Do You Weigh Strategy, Execution, and Culture in an Organization’s Success?

hope the comments were as helpful and thought-provoking to you as they were to me. Those of you willing to venture to place weights on the determinants of success gave the nod to View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

23 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Management’s Role in Reforming Health Care

as new financing and payment models or health plan contracts, can only provide an incentive for change. Nor is it simply a matter of adopting wholesale a successful management... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

Article

Values, Purpose, Meaning, and Expectations: Why Culture and Context Matter

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

The "rational person" standard, based on assumptions of economic self-interest, has long prevailed in legal reasoning. But understanding of decision making, behavioral choices, and possibilities for action must be enlarged to include a variety of factors that give... View Details

Keywords: Standards; Interests; Decision Making; Behavior; Value; Groups and Teams; Performance Expectations; Organizational Culture; Leadership; Business Cycles; Forecasting and Prediction; Motivation and Incentives

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January 2017 (Revised March 2017)
Case

SIN Capital and the Fullerton Health IPO

By: Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

In early 2016, David Sin, founder of the Singapore-based private equity group SIN Capital and chairman of its primary holding, Fullerton Health, was deeply involved in preparations for taking Fullerton public on the Singapore stock exchange. Three years after SIN... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Asia; IPO; Financing; Singapore; Growth; Health Care and Treatment; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Financing and Loans; Strategy; Value Creation; Growth and Development Strategy; Health Industry; Singapore

January 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Roush Performance: How to Design a Sales Force Compensation Plan

By: Doug J. Chung

Roush Performance manufactured and marketed factory-modified performance vehicles and high-end aftermarket automotive performance parts. Since its inception, Roush Performance had focused on building its engineering technology competency and diversifying its product... View Details

Keywords: Sales Force Management; Motivation; Compensation; Salary; Commissions; Bonuses; Quotas; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives

30 May 2007
Research & Ideas

Health Care Under a Research Microscope

improving health care. But the new Medicare drug plan uses private insurers and health plans to drive down drug costs, and is showing early... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health; Health

January 2020 (Revised July 2020)
Case

BlackRock: Linking Purpose to Profit

By: Aiyesha Dey

The case revolves around the actions that Barbara Novick, co-founder and Vice-Chair of Blackrock, and Michelle Edkins, Global Head of Investment Stewardship, would need to take in response to the controversial CEO letters from Laurence (Larry) Fink, Chairman and CEO of... View Details

June 2014 (Revised September 2014)
Case

Johnson & Johnson: The Promotion of Wellness

By: John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Knoop

To create the world's healthiest workforce, diversified health care giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) mandated participation in its "Culture of Health" program globally, customized by location, culture, and specific health needs to offer prevention-focused education,... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Employee Motivation; Transformation; Ethics; Health; Human Resources; Leadership; Management; Personal Development and Career; Problems and Challenges; Strategy; Health Industry; Health Industry; Health Industry; North and Central America; Middle East; Latin America; Europe; Asia

02 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Health Care Research and Prospects

As is clear to anyone who pays medical insurance premiums or has undergone any kind of medical procedure, the business of health care is an expensive one. The technology is... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild Swearingen; Health

February 2020
Teaching Plan

Health Leads: Reaching for Impact

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Sarah Appleby and Julia Kelley

This teaching plan is designed to be used in conjunction with the case "Health Leads: Reaching for Impact (A)," HBS No. 517-022, and its related products, "Health Leads: Reaching for Impact (B)," HBS No. 517-023, and "Health Leads: Reaching for Impact (Abridged)," HBS... View Details

February 2016 (Revised February 2018)
Case

Weathering the Storm at NYU Langone Medical Center

By: Robert S. Huckman, Raffaella Sadun and Michael Norris

In the fall of 2012, Hurricane Sandy forced a full evacuation of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. The institution, which comprised NYU Medical School and several teaching hospitals, had been on an upward trajectory for several years under the leadership of... View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Technology; Culture; Information Technology; Crisis Management; Health Care and Treatment; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; United States; New York (city, NY)

November 2020
Case

The 1,000-Year Plan: Lee Kum Kee and Sustaining a Family Culture

By: Lauren Cohen, Dawn H. Lau and Billy Chan

The Lee family, whose Hong Kong-based Lee Kum Kee company has established itself as a legend within the Chinese and Asian sauce world, sets out to create a daring new vision of what family legacy means. With the family business having been established in 1888, and by... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Business and Community Relations; Organizational Structure; Strategic Planning