Improving Productivity - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Mar 2011
News

Making Their Way

Mequon, Wisconsin, was sitting on three very disparate Rust Belt businesses: an industrial-lighting company, a medical-packaging business, and a welding company. In the middle year of his three-year OPM schedule, Chirchirillo saw the handwriting on the wall. “Overseas... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing; Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing; Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing; Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing; Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing; Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing

03 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 3

in bringing their products to market, yet we know very little about the kinds of strategies they can employ to influence regulatory actor decision making. In this paper, we highlight a firm's strategic use of symbolic signaling in... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

24 Aug 2016
Research & Ideas

Can Obamacare Be Saved?

providers to improve services to Americans. Source: gpointstudio In 2015, there was an average of 6.9 plans to choose from in each state. This fell to 6.5 in 2016, and even before Aetna's decision, the Kaiser Family Foundation projected... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Quelch and Emily Boudreau; Insurance; Health

12 Nov 2018
Research & Ideas

'Always On' Isn't Always Best for Team Decision-Making

Improve Collective Intelligence, written by Ethan Bernstein, the Edward W. Conard Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School; Jesse Shore, assistant professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

17 Feb 2016
Blog Post

Through The Eyes of The Patient: A Recap of The 13th Annual Health Care Conference

their products for conference attendees to try. As this was going on, attendees and speakers alike further discussed many of the prevailing themes of the day as they got to know one another. The day concluded with an optimistic tone, as... View Details

Keywords: Health Care

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Confronting the Challenges that Face Bricks-and-Mortar Stores

that merchandise would no longer carry individual price tags and that shoppers might be overcharged at the register. More recently, customers have expressed concern that electronic shelf labels could be used to raise prices between the time shoppers pick up a View Details

Keywords: by Raymond Burke; Retail

11 May 2021
News

Pitching to Win

the five grand-prize winners. Goble is co-founder of Karivez Bio, a platform for transforming chronic disease treatment through improved drug delivery. Okrah is founder and CEO of Chaku Foods, a fast-moving consumer goods company based in... View Details

Keywords: Educational Support Services; Educational Services

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Building Competitive Advantage Through Operations

It's the set of processes that transforms either materials or information into a product or service. EE: How has this definition evolved over the past decade? Upton: There have been some exciting changes in recent years. First, operations... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

01 Mar 2012
News

Making Finance Personal

inspire, formulate, and drive new and improved product design and development, even without specialized knowledge. With its consumer base, for example, Intuit went from conducting a single experiment with... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management; Computer Systems Design and Related Services; Professional Services

12 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

Operations and the Competitive Edge

required to create and deliver a product or service, from procurement through conversion to distribution." In the following interview, Hayes explains why operations usually gets relegated to a support role and what needs to be done... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Lothar W. Faber

Faber improved the Eberhard-Faber Company’s product line by adding fountain pens, mechanical pencils, and refill leads. Faber also invented the clamp tip type of pencil with a removable, adjustable eraser.... View Details

Keywords: Fabricated Goods

23 Oct 2019
News

Hands-on Simulations Complement the Case Method

prepare materials by cutting and stripping wires, and assemble the circuit boards. They test their products to ensure that the lights blink and the buzzers buzz before delivering finished goods to their customer. Each team then attempts... View Details

Keywords: Educational Innovation

25 Sep 2000
Research & Ideas

More Than the Sum of Its Parts: The Impact of Modularity on the Computer Industry

1960, electronic data processing as well as information storage and retrieval had made a lasting impression in both the private and the public sectors, and discoveries and improvements in areas such as circuit design and solid-state... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Consumer Products; Consumer Products; Consumer Products

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 conditioners, which eliminated the use... View Details

Keywords: Food & Tobacco

25 Aug 2022
News

Case Study: Sound Check

improved long-term retention rates. In the early days, it’s best to optimize for product feedback. If it’s easier to sell to smaller customers (with more volume), stick with this segment and treat the... View Details

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

18 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 18

audit firms can be associated with improved audit and reporting quality in client firms. Specialization and Variety in Repetitive Tasks: Evidence from a Japanese Bank Authors:B. Staats and F. Gino Publication:Management Science... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 2017
News

2017 in Energy: A Future of Lower Energy Prices

States will continue to play the role of swing supplier for years to come. And because improving technology will allow the North American oil and natural gas production sector to respond ever more quickly to... View Details

Keywords: Sarah Wright (MBA 1997), founder, Hull Street Energy

Wilbert L. Smith

After leaving behind the first family company, Smith-Premier Typewriter Company, Wilbert and his brothers formed the entity that later became L.C. Smith Corona. Under Wilbert Smith’s leadership, the company re-engineered their product, capitalizing on View Details