Publications

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February 1998 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Uganda and the Washington Consensus

By: Huw Pill and Courtenay Sprague

Under the direction of President Museveni, much of the world has heaped praise on Uganda for transforming its economy from devastation to growth and managing the ethnic and racial strife that has divided the country in the past. Following a decade of reforms, Uganda is... View Details

Keywords: Macroeconomics; Economy; Policy; Analysis; Development Economics; Borrowing and Debt; Management; Developing Countries and Economies; Uganda

September 2012 (Revised August 2015)
Case

Shanghai Pharmaceuticals

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Natalie Kindred

Shanghai Pharmaceuticals (SPH), a vertically integrated Chinese pharmaceutical conglomerate, was considering its strategic options in the context of a rapidly evolving industry, policy, and economic environment. The company—essentially a collection of subsidiaries... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Conglomerates; Vertical Integration; Decision Choices and Conditions; Mergers and Acquisitions; Consolidation; Health Care and Treatment; Global Strategy; State Ownership; Health Industry; Health Industry; Shanghai; United States; Europe

October 1986 (Revised November 1989)
Case

Becton Dickinson & Co.: VACUTAINER Systems Division

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Concerns negotiations between managers of Becton Dickinson's (BD) VACUTAINER division (which manufactures and sells blood collection products) and managers of a large hospital buying group. Recent changes in the health care industry are the background for the... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Negotiation Participants; Negotiation Process; Price; Sales; Health Industry; Health Industry; Health Industry; United States

16 Jul 2014
HBS Case

Marketing Obamacare

initial thinking, affordability of health care insurance proved to be the major driver of consumer thinking across all four segments and later became the consistent core of AccessHealth's message... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Health

Article

Undermining Value-Based Purchasing — Lessons from the Pharmaceutical Industry

By: Leemore S. Dafny, Christopher Ody and Matt Schmitt

The analogy between value-based purchasing in pharmaceuticals and the new frontier of alternative payment models for health care providers is relatively straightforward. Insurers are increasingly demanding steep discounts from providers in exchange for inclusion in... View Details

Keywords: Drug Copayment Coupons; Prescription Drug Policy; Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Cost; Policy; Pharmaceutical Industry

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13 Jul 2016
News

The high price of workplace stress

Dec 04 2019
Interview

Good Management Can Save Your Life

Article

A Cost Comparison of Cataract Surgeries in Three Countries—United States, India, and Nepal

By: Jiayin Xue, John Hinkle, Mary-Grace Reeves, Luo Luo Zheng, Vengadesan Natarajan, Shyam Vyas, Radhika Upreti Oli, Matt Oliva, Robert S. Kaplan, Arnold Milstein, Geoff Tabin, Jeffrey L. Goldberg and Kevin Schulman

U.S.-based cataract surgeries are costly compared with those performed in high-quality Indian and Nepalese eye centers. The authors used time-driven activity-based costing to evaluate phacoemulsification surgery across four sites: a U.S.-based academic hospital... View Details

Keywords: Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing; Cost Accounting; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; India; Nepal; United States

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01 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

How Much Time Should CEOs Devote to Customers?

strategy, it's not necessary for the CEO to spend time learning how different clients would prefer customized solutions. The CEO should spearhead the identification of three or four customer health metrics.... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

11 May 2017
News

New Journal Sponsored by Top MBA Programs Tackles Critical Healthcare Management Issues

December 1994 (Revised December 1994)
Case

Physician Sales and Service, Inc. (A): June 1992

A medical products distribution company faces strategic opportunities and challenges in a rapidly changing market. Physician Sales and Service (PSS), founded by Patrick Kelly in 1983, operates in 20 states in the United States and intends to expand to 50 states by... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Distribution Industry

December 2004 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Cutlass Capital, L.P.

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Brian DeLacey

David Hetz and Jon Osgood are forming a new venture capital fund in 2001 to invest in health care start-ups. Describes their fundraising activities at a time when venture capital investing has reached an all-time high. Although their background skills and experiences... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Negotiation Process; Entrepreneurship; Investment Funds; Health Care and Treatment; Business Startups; Health Industry; United States

18 Oct 2010
Lessons from the Classroom

Venture Capital’s Disconnect with Clean Tech

MBA students often fall into one of two categories—those hungry to rush into careers as venture capitalists, and those eager to found a venture-funded start-up. For all of them, Harvard Business School professor Joseph Lassiter has some intriguing advice: Spend a few... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities; Financial Services

Profile

Janet Simpson Benvenuti

Caring for her aging parents led Janet Simpson Benvenuti (MBA 1985) to launch a company that helps other families find resources that are right for their own parents’ needs. View Details

Keywords: Health Care; Health Care; Health Care; Health Care

2014
Article

Unequality: Who Gets What and Why It Matters

By: Michael I. Norton

Who should get what, and what are the consequences? Economic inequality in the United States has been rising for decades, yet only recently have behavioral scientists explored two central questions surrounding the optimal level of inequality. First, what are the... View Details

Keywords: Inequality; Ethics; Productivity; Gambling; Equality and Inequality; Fairness; Income; Performance Productivity; United States

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January 2010 (Revised March 2011)
Case

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Network Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter, Carolyn Daly and Andrew Peter Dervan

In 2009 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) had been recognized as the best children's hospital in the country for six years in a row; but leadership saw CHOP as more than the large main campus in western Philadelphia. Beginning in the 1990s, CHOP had created a... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Health Care and Treatment; Service Delivery; Organizational Structure; Networks; Integration; Health Industry; Philadelphia

September 2001 (Revised August 2005)
Case

Deaconess-Glover Hospital (C)

For nearly three months, John Carter, a vascular surgeon by training, had been studying a variety of clinical processes at Deaconess-Glover Hospital in Needham, Mass. Carter was looking for an opportunity to test the applicability of Toyota Production System... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Health Care and Treatment; Business Processes; Health Industry

October 2005 (Revised October 2008)
Case

Virginia Mason Medical Center

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer and Erika Ferlins

In 2000, Dr. Gary Kaplan became CEO of the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. The hospital was facing significant challenges: It was losing money for the first time in its history, staff morale had plummeted, and area hospitals presented ardent... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Production; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; Quality; Competition; Seattle