Operations Strategy - Publications - Faculty & Research

September 2021
Case

Worldreader: Helping Readers Build a Better World

By: Marco Bertini, Elie Ofek and Julia Kelley

Founded in 2010, Worldreader was an international nonprofit organization that promoted reading to children around the world. For many years, Worldreader distributed e-readers to under-resourced communities and funded its operations primarily through philanthropic... View Details

Citation

Educators

Purchase

June 2009 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

By: Anita L. Tucker and Amy C. Edmondson

The case describes an organization's use of the science of improvement to transform their process quality from below average to the top 10% in their industry. The case outlines the protagonist's strategy of developing internal experts who are trained in a common... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Experience and Expertise; Leading Change; Measurement and Metrics; Service Delivery; Performance Improvement; Health Industry; Ohio

Citation

Educators

Purchase

07 Dec 1999
Research & Ideas

Henry Heinz and Brand Creation in the Late Nineteenth Century

working to expand a fledgling business operating in a new, as yet largely undefined, market. Heinz and Noble believed that they had no time to lose. To make the most of the opportunity they saw before them, they would have to use their... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy F. Koehn

12 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 12

Cost-Benefit Analysis in Environmental Policy Abstract We conducted an analysis that explores the merits of a low-carbon development strategy for Liberia. This chapter describes both our cost-benefit analysis initiative and a plausible... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

New Wachovia (B), The

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and Jeremy Swinson

On August 3, 2001, after a hotly contested proxy fight, Wachovia Corp.'s shareholders voted to merge with First Union Corp. The managers of the two banks then turned to face the challenges of integrating the two organizations. Their task was to implement a "merger of... View Details

Keywords: Integration; Mergers and Acquisitions; Problems and Challenges; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; North Carolina

Citation

Educators

Purchase

December 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Supplement

Qualcomm Incorporated 2011 Update

By: David B. Yoffie

Qualcomm in 2009 and 2010 experienced both the worst of times and the best of times. During the "great recession" of 2009, smartphones growth stalled, stalling Qualcomm's revenue, but in 2010 growth surged again, and was predicted to continue its upward trajectory in... View Details

Keywords: Television Entertainment; Growth and Development Strategy; Opportunities; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry

Citation

Purchase

October 1997 (Revised May 1998)
Supplement

Asda (B)

By: Michael Beer and James Weber

Describes Archie Norman's efforts over a five-year period to turn around the company by regaining financial control, delivering management, creating experimental projects where individuals felt free to innovate, instituting a back-to-roots strategy that put customers... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Customer Relationship Management; Governance Controls; Innovation and Invention; Management; Service Delivery; Organizational Culture; Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry

Citation

Purchase

22 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 22, 2008

cinema who worked to privatize Odra. There is potential in reinvigorating the former state-owned and operated Odra theater chain and also redeveloping portions of the associated real estate to retail, office, or residential. Purchase this... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 1998 (Revised May 2004)
Case

Becton Dickinson: Ethics and Business Practices (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine

Becton Dickinson's Global One-Company Operations Group must decide on the company's global policy on gifts, gratuities, and business entertainment. A central issue is whether the policy should be established centrally and made uniform worldwide or whether it should be... View Details

Keywords: Policy; Ethics; Law; Organizational Culture; Business Strategy; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Global Strategy; Trade; Business or Company Management

Citation

Educators

Purchase

July 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Background Note

Staging Two-Sided Platforms

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Andrei Hagiu

Firms that aspire to develop two-sided platforms face a formidable challenge. Prospective users on each side will not invest in the platform until they are confident there will be enough users on the other side. Traditional strategies for dealing with this... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Risk Management; Two-Sided Platforms; Supply Chain; Strategy; Retail Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

April 1994 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Mrs. Fields, Inc. (1977 - 1987)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Keri O. Pearlson

Describes a small company selling freshly baked goods through privately owned specialty stores (each store sells only Mrs. Fields products). The company has about 8,000 employees worldwide and less than 150 information systems people for a unique leverage of MIS... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Organizations; Management Systems; Business Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

May 1999 (Revised August 1999)
Case

Victory Supermarkets: Expansion Strategy?

By: David E. Bell and Ann Leamon

Jay DiGeronimo, president of a 16-store supermarket chain, is trying to decide the timing and method for expanding his chain. The family-owned company could continue in a maintenance mode, with each family member running one store. It could expand slowly using a new... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Cost vs Benefits; Trade; Investment; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Private Ownership; Competition; Expansion; Retail Industry

Citation

Find at Harvard

August 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

New Hope Liuhe: Building an Integrated Agri-Food Business

By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Shu Lin, Natalie Kindred and Nancy Hua Dai

In October 2018, LIU Chang (Angela), chairman of Beijing-based New Hope Liuhe (NHL), was considering the strategy of the firm. With $9 billion in sales and a presence in nearly 20 countries, NHL was China’s largest animal feed producer and a major pork and poultry... View Details

Citation

Educators

Purchase

Research Summary

Platform Competition

Technology has challenged the underlying foundations of business, and firms must evaluate and change strategies accordingly. Professor Halaburda studies the interaction of technology and economic theory, and her findings indicate that conventional wisdom and rules... View Details

February 2021 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Brainlab: Imaging a MedTech Future

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Gregory P. Licholai and Federica Gabrieli

Can Brainlab, a privately held firm, compete with giants like Medtronic and Amazon in delivering the Digital Operating Room of the future? The CEO is pondering solutions for secure exchange of medical information, pricing a new robotic imaging device, and reorganizing... View Details

Citation

Educators

Purchase

1991
Article

Job Satisfaction, Service Capability and Customer Satisfaction: An Examination of Linkages and Management Implications

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Jeffrey Zornitsky

Survey data from 1,277 employees and 4,269 customers of a personal lines insurance organization were analyzed with the following results: (a) employee perceptions of service quality are positively related to both job satisfaction and self-perceived service capability;... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Satisfaction; Jobs and Positions; Customer Satisfaction

Citation

Find at Harvard

Career Coach

Anne Marie Checcone

strategy at companies like Meta, Amazon Web Services and Boston Consulting Group, Anne Marie brings a sharp, pragmatic approach to executive coaching, leadership development, and career growth. Anne Marie is a seasoned product management... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Consulting

02 May 2022
News

Spotify, Disney, Ukraine, and Deep Purpose (ft. Ranjay Gulati)

January 1997 (Revised June 1997)
Case

Corporate New Ventures at Procter & Gamble

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Dean Whitney

Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble is faced with an urgent need to revitalize new-product innovation, given its recent focus on incremental product improvements and its aggressive growth goals. As part of this effort, the company's top executives form a small,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Creativity; Working Conditions; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Groups and Teams; Retail Industry; Ohio

Citation

Educators

Purchase

February 2013
Case

New Earth Mining, Inc.

By: William E. Fruhan and Wei Wang

New Earth Mining is one of the largest producers of precious metals in the U.S. While the firm operates mines primarily in the U.S. and Canada, it has also made substantial investments in gold exploration projects in Australia and Chile. New Earth has been very... View Details