Publications

New Profit, Inc. (NPI) is an innovative venture philanthropy fund. Founded by social entrepreneur Venessa Kirsch, NPI intends to raise large donations from individuals who wish to invest in nonprofit enterprises that could have a significant social impact and the... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Nonprofit Organizations; Venture Capital; Social Entrepreneurship; Corporate Governance; Performance Evaluation; Financial Statements; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Service Industry

December 2022
Article

Collaborative Rooming: An Innovative Pilot Project to Overcome Primary Care Challenges

By: Gagandeep Singh, Jill G. Lenhart, Richard A. Helmers, Michele Renee Eberlee, Heather Costley, Joel B. Roberts and Robert S. Kaplan

Primary care physicians are overburdened with growing complexities and increasing expectations for primary care visits. To meet expectations, primary care physicians must multitask during visits and spend extra hours in the office for charting, billing, and... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Groups and Teams; Job Design and Levels; Health Industry

Read Now

March 1995 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Co-operative Bank, The

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Srikant M. Datar

A British bank with strong roots in the cooperative movement encounters declining profitability in an increasingly competitive and deregulated financial services industry. It attempts to grow by broadening its customer base and increasing the range of products and... View Details

Keywords: Product; Competition; Expansion; Cost Management; Activity Based Costing and Management; Profit; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

October 1990
Case

Manufacturers Hanover Corp.: Customer Profitability Report

Banking company noting declining profitability from its traditional lending activities has started to measure the total profitability of its lending relationships. A loan pricing model estimates the profit and return-on-equity from commercial loans. Additional work was... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Revenue; Commercial Banking; Banks and Banking; Customer Value and Value Chain; Banking Industry

March 2017
Article

Variation in the Cost of Care for Primary Total Knee Arthroplasties

By: Derek A. Haas and Robert S. Kaplan

The study examined the cost variation across 29 high-volume U.S. hospitals for delivering a primary total knee arthroplasty without major complicating conditions. Hospital and physician personnel costs were calculated using time-driven activity-based costing.... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Performance Productivity; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

Read Now

2008
Chapter

Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard

David Norton and I introduced the Balanced Scorecard in a 1992 Harvard Business Review article. The article was based on a multi-company research project that studied performance measurement in companies whose intangible assets played a central role in value... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Management Systems; Measurement and Metrics; Performance Improvement; Strategy

September 1996 (Revised May 1997)
Case

Mobil USM&R (C): Lubricants Business Unit

The general manager of a Lubricants Business Unit in Mobil's U.S. Marketing and Refining division launched a project to develop a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) for his unit. The purpose was to provide focus for all employees of the unit, enabling it to operate on an... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Employees; Customization and Personalization; Performance Evaluation; Measurement and Metrics; Management Teams; Projects; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United States

September 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Elkay Plumbing Products Division

The vice president of sales learns that the most profitable 1% of the division's customers generate 100% of profits, and that two of the division's largest customers lose 50% of profits. The division has just finished a project to install a time-driven activity-based... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Profit; Management Systems; Consumer Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry

June 1997 (Revised May 1998)
Case

Mobil USM&R (A1)

First of a two-part case on the development and use of a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) at Mobil's US Marketing and Refining Division. Split from the original (A) case to give students an opportunity to suggest objectives and measures for the division's initial BSC, without... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Measurement and Metrics; Restructuring; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Marketing Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; United States

31 May 2016
First Look

May 31, 2016

Revealing Hand By: Kaplan, Robert S., and Anette Mikes Abstract—Many believe that the recent emphasis on enterprise risk management function is... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 1990 (Revised October 1997)
Case

Siemens Electric Motor Works (A) (Abridged)

Explores how a cost system can help support a firm's decision to change strategies. In the process, the students are introduced to a simple activity-based cost system. Siemens Electric Motor Works found itself facing an increasingly competitive environment and so made... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Cost Accounting; Cost; Adoption; Cost vs Benefits; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Production; Business Strategy; Electronics Industry; Manufacturing Industry

21 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 21

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=42640 Managing Risks: Towards a Contingency Theory of Enterprise Risk Management By: Mikes, Anette, and Robert Kaplan Abstract—Enterprise... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 29

Managers Become Influential? A Field Study in Two Financial Institutions By: Hall, Matthew, Anette Mikes, and Yuval Millo Abstract—This paper, based on a five-year longitudinal study at two UK-based banks,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 1996 (Revised November 2003)
Case

Indianapolis: Activity-Based Costing of City Services (A)

A new administration in the City of Indianapolis is initially determined to privatize many municipal services. Before taking this action, however, the city managers want to know the current cost of performing these services with the municipal workers. Existing... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Public Sector; Activity Based Costing and Management; Service Delivery; Privatization; City; Indianapolis

06 Apr 2010
First Look

First Look: April 6

accompanies the cases "Medtronic: Patient Management Initiative" (A) and (B), HBS Nos. 302-005 and 309-064. Purchase this note:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/310075-PDF-ENG Jet Propulsion... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2018
Case

Partners In Health: Costing Primary Care in Haiti

By: Robert S. Kaplan and Mahek A. Shah

Partners in Health, a global NGO focused on delivering health care to residents of rural underserved communities, conducts a project on the cost of primary care at five sites in the Central Highlands of Haiti. It devises a simple approach for tracking the resources... View Details

Keywords: Global Health; Public Health; Health Care and Treatment; Activity Based Costing and Management; Cost Accounting; Rural Scope; Health Industry; Haiti