Publications

July 1999 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Shanghai Volkswagen: Facing a New Era

Explores the development of the Chinese auto industry and of Shanghai Volkswagen (SVW), a successful joint venture in China. Established in 1984, SVW is a joint venture between Volkswagen of Germany and the Shanghai Automobile Industry Corp. (SAIC). One key element of... View Details

Keywords: Partners and Partnerships; Joint Ventures; Supply Chain; Auto Industry; Shanghai; Germany

01 Jun 2009
News

Big Bailouts, Little Debate

Congress for the authority to take them over, it was granted without much debate. I’ve spoken to almost every lawmaker, regulator, and executive who might have influenced that decision, and none indicated they lost much sleep over the choice. Yet the View Details

Keywords: Charles Duhigg; Finance; Finance; Finance

01 May 2020
In Practice

COVID-19’s Hard Lessons Might Prepare Business for Climate Change

The coronavirus pandemic caught the business world by surprise, but the catastrophe might force companies to face a crisis that has been unfolding in plain sight: climate change. We asked faculty members affiliated with the Business and Environment Initiative at... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

August 2017 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Flex Hungary: Launching Production (A)

By: Willy Shih

This case examines design choices in the construction of flow lines. Flow lines are a popular way of arranging production because they are simple and inherently efficient. Equipment or workstations are arranged according to the sequence of steps in which a product is... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing; Line-balancing; Flow Line; Conveyor-paced Line; Consumer Goods; Consumer Products; Production Management; Production Planning; Production Scheduling; Operations; Production; Management; Supply Chain; Design; Analysis; Goods and Commodities; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; European Union

01 Mar 2012
News

Balanced Scorecard and Beer Game Go High-Tech

current iteration, the game still teaches supply chain costs, lead time, and inventory management, but now students order kegs on beloved tablets and other devices. For students, simulations bring material... View Details

Keywords: Professor V.G. Narayanan; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Mar 2014
News

The Solution to the Global Food Crisis Just Might Come from Nigeria

children under five are undernourished, even as broken supply chains mean that up to a third of produce is wasted. The World Bank estimates that some 22 percent of the nation's 175 million people are... View Details

Keywords: Francis Storrs; John H. Davis; Michael Halse; Crop Production; Agriculture; Administration of Economic Programs; Government; Food Manufacturing; Manufacturing

June 2023
Supplement

Graphic Packaging: Project Cowboy (D)

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Scott Mayfield and Philipp Chvanov

Analyzes the company's decision on Project Cowboy following the events described in the C Case View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Growth Management; Demand and Consumers; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Expansion; Value Creation; Supply and Industry; Pulp and Paper Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States; North America

December 2001 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Nestle S.A.

By: Ray A. Goldberg and Hal Hogan

Peter Brabeck wants to focus Nestle as a wellness company in the global food system and do so in a way that provides both growth in sales and margins in both developed and developing countries. View Details

Keywords: Brands and Branding; Product Development; Supply Chain Management; Food; Multinational Firms and Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Sales; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Switzerland

Web

Alumni Career Journey: Margot Zuckerman (MBA 2024) – Integrating Climate into Business (and Government) Priorities - Blog - Business & Environment

a crash course in negotiation, stakeholder management, and project management. I also led a few internal sustainability initiatives, like building a supply chain risk visibility tool and scouting for... View Details

22 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 22, 2019

experimentation that is required for the initial commercialization and diffusion of technologies. A New Categorization of the U.S. Economy: The Role of Supply Chain Industries in Innovation and Economic... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

01 Jun 2016
News

Case Study: On the Table

(PMD 58, 1989) Gaia Design should use an already established logistics company such as UPS, FedEx, or DHL. Although the e-commerce infrastructure as a whole is not good in Mexico, these organizations are large enough to drive world-class View Details

September 2023
Supplement

CMA CGM: Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Container Shipping

By: Willy Shih

Marine transport is the most cost-effective way to move large volumes over long distances, and container shipping is the backbone of international trade in goods. Yet shipping contributed 3% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, and the deep-sea segment, which... View Details

Keywords: Container Shipping; Decarbonization; Energy Efficiency; Logistics; Supply Chain; Trade; Environmental Regulation; Governance Compliance; Ship Transportation; Transportation Industry; Shipping Industry; Europe; Asia; North America

01 Dec 2007
News

Where Are the Innovators in Health Care?

brilliant, effective innovators have forced sluggish U.S. industries to become more productive. Sam Walton’s exquisitely detailed supply chain management, coupled with his daring decision to locate Wal-Marts... View Details

Keywords: Regina E. Herzlinger; Health, Social Assistance; Management

01 Apr 2020
News

What My Time in Vietnam Taught Me About Dealing with Shortages

uniforms, and other urgently needed items. The actions we took enabled us to avoid the worst of most of the problems we faced. Perhaps they have some relevance to today’s worries. First, timely and accurate information was needed to manage critical View Details

07 Aug 2000
Research & Ideas

Rocket Science Retailing

forecasting; supply chain speed; inventory planning; and gathering accurate, available data. The following excerpt from their report in the Harvard Business Review shows how some of these companies are... View Details

Keywords: by Marshall L. Fisher, Ananth Raman & Anna Sheen McClelland; Retail

October 2016 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Indigo Agriculture

By: Marco Iansiti, Michael W. Toffel and Christine Snively

Indigo Agriculture had successfully developed and launched its first commercial product, microbe-enhanced cotton seeds, on an accelerated product development timeline. In late 2016, as the company was about to launch its second product, winter wheat, the management... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Agribusiness; Science-Based Business; Operations; Management; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Technology Industry

19 Jun 2009
Research Event

Business Summit: The Evolution of Agribusiness

future challenges based on their unique vantage points. Through the study of agribusiness at Harvard Business School, the notion of the value-added food chain was born. Both the study and practice of agribusiness have evolved... View Details

Keywords: Re: David E. Bell & Ray A. Goldberg; Agriculture & Agribusiness

February 2008
Article

Where Do Transactions Come From? Modularity, Transactions, and the Boundaries of Firms

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin

This article constructs a theory of the location of transactions and the boundaries of firms in a productive system. It proposes that systems of production can be viewed as networks, in which tasks-cum-agents are the nodes and transfers—of material, energy and... View Details

Keywords: Boundaries; Production; Market Transactions; Supply Chain; Management; Cost; Theory; Performance Productivity; Information Management; Complexity