Publications

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December 1998
Case

Retail Financial Services in 1998: Charles Schwab

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood

Provides an overview of Charles Schwab's current strategy for retail financial services. Retail Financial Services in 1998 should be given to all students as background material. The class should then be split into groups, with each group receiving one of the following... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Industry Structures; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

December 1998
Case

Retail Financial Services in 1998: First Union

By: Stephen P. Bradley and Takia Mahmood

Provides an overview of First Union's current strategy for retail financial services. Retail Financial Services in 1998 should be given to all students as background material. The class should then be split into groups, with each group receiving one of the following... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Industry Structures; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

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July 2003 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Singapore Airlines: Customer Service Innovation

By: Rohit Deshpande and Hal Hogan

The members of Singapore Airlines' (SIA) management committee needs to decide whether to cancel the implementation of the new lie-flat seats in business class after the effects of the global recession on the travel industry in September 2001. SIA was considered the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Management Teams; Brands and Branding; Air Transportation Industry; Travel Industry; Singapore

September 2018
Case

ProdEng: Services for Oil & Gas Extraction

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Mariana Cal

ProdEng is a venture created as part of a PE fund and provides oil field services in Argentina. In 2016, an industry-wide unforeseen oil and gas demand slump drove ProdEng’s average service rates down by more than 37%, with EBITDA margins falling from 50% to 24% in the... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Entrepreneurship; Sales; Marketing; Price; Strategy; Latin America; Argentina

February 2001 (Revised February 2018)
Case

The iPremier Company (A): Distributed Denial of Service Attack

By: Robert D. Austin, Larry Leibrock and Alan Murray

Describes a new CIO trying to manage a denial of service (DOS) attack against his e-retailing business. The attack and its aftermath provide students an opportunity to discuss the business issues that are interwoven with computer security issues. View Details

Keywords: Safety; Internet and the Web; Applications and Software; Retail Industry

February 1996
Case

Indianopolis: Implementing Competition in City Services

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Roger Atherton

Mayor Stephen Goldsmith of Indianapolis introduces competition to provide city services and implementation of new bidding procedures and work practices in the Department of Transportation. Exhibits show how work methods changed and work control procedures control work... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Business Strategy; Welfare; Transportation; Change; Cost Management; Service Industry

July 2025
Case

Greenwood Online: A Fin-Tech Service for Culture and Community (A)

By: James Riley and Bernal Cortés

In 2020, Ryan Glover and Paul Judge launched Greenwood, a fintech startup designed to counter systemic racial discrimination in the American banking ecosystem by offering accessible financial services tailored to Black and Brown communities, but available to all.... View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Identity; Cultural Branding; Impression Management; Organization Behavior; Strategic Alignment; Start-up; Mission and Purpose; Decisions; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Structure; Banking Industry; United States

February 2003 (Revised April 2003)
Background Note

Note on Staffing in Professional Service Firms

By: Ashish Nanda

This case discusses the problem of balancing demand and supply of professionals within a professional services firm (PSF). It emphasizes how human resources management policies impact supply conditions and how market opportunities determine demand conditions. The case... View Details

Keywords: Demand and Consumers; Balance and Stability; Supply and Industry; Employees; Service Industry

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March 2025
Case

Managing Religion in the Workplace: Abercrombie & Fitch and The United States Postal Service

By: Derek C. M. van Bever, Nien-he Hsieh and Matthew Souba

25 Apr 2014
News

A model of service

a year on a modest budget of $100,000. She continues to volunteer at All Souls, and still manages the schools' component of the program. "My biggest accomplishment is getting younger people to understand that View Details

14 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Rewriting the Rules of Service Competition

Editor's Note: Harvard Business School professors James Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, and Leonard A. Schlesinger literally wrote the book on service industry management with The View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett, W. Earl Sasser & Leonard A. Schlesinger; Retail

Apr 16 2018
Testimonial

Building Community Through Service

March 2002
Background Note

Virtuous Cycles: Improving Service and Lowering Costs in E-Commerce

Illustrates how various elements in a customer's encounter with Internet services relying on physical service (labor-intensive customer support and/or logistics) affect one another. Presents a framework that suggests: 1) that improving service quality in specific... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Service Delivery; Performance Efficiency; Performance Effectiveness; Service Industry

March 2003 (Revised April 2006)
Background Note

Scale and Scope in Professional Service Firms

By: Ashish Nanda

This case discusses why economies (and diseconomies) of scale and scope exist in professional service firms (PSFs) and how they influence the amount and range of services that PSFs offer. It is distributed with a case that focuses on determining the optimal scale/scope... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Operations; Microeconomics; Service Industry

Research Summary

Managing Customer Information

By: Frances X. Frei

After a service offering is implemented, firms routinely collect significant amounts of data, including customer, employee, and firm financial data. However, service firms are not nearly as effective as they could be in taking advantage of these data. This research... View Details

18 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

How New Managers Become Great Managers

Linda Hill's book for the star performer-turned-new-manager, Becoming a Manager: Mastery of a New Identity appeared a decade ago to much acclaim. Much of the original book is still fresh today. But a new edition, Becoming a Manager: How New View Details

Keywords: by Linda Hill

August 1995 (Revised October 1996)
Case

IDS Financial Services (Condensed)

By: John A. Deighton

Highlights the decision that must be made on balancing customer acquisition and retention and de-emphasizing the structural issues involved in administering the independent contractor sales force. View Details

Keywords: Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Corporate Governance; Salesforce Management; Financial Services Industry

April 1993
Supplement

Prodigy Services Company (B)

By: Lynn S. Paine

Describes the actions taken by Prodigy executives. View Details

Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Conflict Management; Status and Position; Equality and Inequality