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Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,271)
- Faculty Publications (171)
- August 2000 (Revised September 2005)
- Case
Omnitel Pronto Italia
By: Rajiv Lal, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Suma Raju
Describes the situation faced by Omnitel soon after launching its mobile telecommunication services in Italy in December 1995. Competing against the Italian monopoly, TIM, Omnitel had positioned its services to be better on the quality dimension. However, sales were... View Details
- April 1999 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
GE's Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch's Leadership
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Meg Wozny
GE is faced with Jack Welch's impending retirement and whether anyone can sustain the blistering pace of change and growth characteristic of the Welch era. After briefly describing GE's heritage and Welch's transformation of the company's business portfolio of the... View Details
- February 1997 (Revised April 1998)
- Case
first direct (A)
Describes the operations and strategy of the world's largest, fastest growing branchless bank. Using a person-to-person interface over conventional phone lines, First Direct provides standard banking and related financial products to nearly 700,000 customers throughout... View Details
- November 1995 (Revised March 2004)
- Case
Massachusetts General Hospital: CABG Surgery (A)
By: Steven C. Wheelwright and James Weber
A cross-functional team at Massachusetts General Hospital tries to reengineer the service delivery process (the "care path") for heart bypass surgery (CABG) in order to shorten hospital stays (and lower costs) while maintaining/enhancing the quality of care provided. View Details
Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Medical Specialties; Business Processes; Mission and Purpose; Product Positioning; Product Marketing; Management Practices and Processes; Customer Satisfaction; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Fair Value Accounting; Ethics; Pharmaceutical Industry; Health Industry; Massachusetts
- November 1995 (Revised January 1997)
- Teaching Note
Measure of Delight, A: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) TN
By: Robert H. Hayes
Teaching Note for (9-694-047). View Details
Keywords: Telecommunications Industry
- October 1994 (Revised March 1999)
- Case
Ritz-Carlton: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer
By: W. Earl Sasser, Thomas O. Jones and Norman Klein
Explores the interface of an information system that keeps track of guests and their preferences, and the people systems that deliver multiple services at Ritz-Carlton hotels. The luxury hotel chain's unique service credo and commitment to quality principles are... View Details
- March 1994
- Supplement
Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (B)
By: Roy D. Shapiro and Michael D. Watkins
Supplements the (A) case. View Details
Keywords: Telecommunications Industry
- January 1994 (Revised May 1995)
- Case
Xerox: Design for the Environment
In 1990, Xerox undertook an "Environmental Leadership Program" designed to make Xerox an industry leader in non-polluting operations, recycling, and products actually designed for the environment. This effort flowed naturally out of the system of total quality... View Details
- October 1993 (Revised July 1997)
- Case
Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A)
By: Roy D. Shapiro and Michael D. Watkins
AT&T's Universal Card Services (UCS) has been extremely successful during its short lifetime. Dedicated to improving service quality and customer satisfaction, chief quality officer Rob Davis and his quality team have designed and put into place an unusual measurement... View Details
- May 1993
- Case
Patient Transfusion Services Lab of Central Blood Bank
By: James L. Heskett
The vice president of the Lab and Clinical Services at Central Blood Bank is faced with the challenge of convincing a hospital to use economical shared patient transfusion testing services. View Details
- October 1992 (Revised December 1993)
- Case
ServiceMaster Co.: The Quality Services Network
By: James L. Heskett and Roger H. Hallowell
Keywords: Service Industry
- October 1992 (Revised September 1996)
- Case
McDonald's Corporation
By: David M. Upton and Joshua D. Margolis
McDonald's has over many years built an operating strategy based on consistency and quality through a limited product range. Competitive forces have drawn the company into a much wider variety of foods and services in order to maintain growth. Now, new competitors... View Details
- May 1992
- Supplement
Fabtek (B)
By: Rowland T. Moriarty Jr. and Benson P. Shapiro
Presents an urgent order for repair service from an important customer who had purchased an item from a competitor. The item, which TiFab had bid on, went out at a price that TiFab predicted was below the amount necessary to ensure quality manufacture. Now the customer... View Details
- 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
- spring 1991
- Article
Breaking the Cycle of Failure in Services
By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and James Heskett
Most managers recognize that good service is a direct result of having effective, productive people in customer contact positions. However, most service companies perpetuate a cycle of failure by tolerating high turnover and expecting employee dissatisfaction. This... View Details
- February 1991
- Case
Burlington Northern: The ARES Decision (A)
By: Julie H. Hertenstein and Robert S. Kaplan
Burlington Northern's decision whether to invest in ARES, an automated train control system, is a ($350 million) strategic investment in information technology. Although set in a service industry (railroad) the issues around this decision arise in many organizations... View Details
- September–October 1990
- Article
Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services
By: F. Reichheld and W. E. Sasser Jr.
Keywords: Quality
- March 1990
- Case
Lehrer McGovern Bovis, Inc. (Abridged)
Describes the growth of a construction management company and the operating problems it now encounters. Designed to introduce students to the value of competition in the construction industry, to show how the techniques of value analysis can be used to strategic... View Details
- October 1989 (Revised May 1996)
- Case
Xerox Corp.: Leadership Through Quality (A)
By: Todd D. Jick and Leonard A. Schlesinger
Describes the "Leadership Through Quality" effort undertaken by Xerox in the 1980s. Includes the history of Xerox in the 1970s and its need to make major changes in quality by the 1980s. Most of the remainder of the case details the step-by-step process by which Xerox... View Details
- Article
Fly-by-Night Firms and the Market for Product Reviews
By: Gerald R. Faulhaber and Dennis A. Yao
This paper presents a model that permits third-party information provision in a market characterized by information asymmetries and reputation formation. The model is used to examine how the market for information provision affects prices and supply in the primary... View Details