Publications

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November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 13: Identifying Strategic Risk

By: Robert Simons

This module reading begins by describing the three sources of strategic risk—operations risk, asset impairment risk, and competitive risk—and demonstrates how these risks can undermine an entire business. To assist in the identification of these risks, the risk... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Risk Assessment; Operational Control; Asset Impairment; Franchise Risk; Fraud; Strategy; Information Management

2007
Article

Convictions, Conventions and the Operational Risk Maze—The Cases of Three Financial Services Institutions

By: Anette Mikes

Making sense of operational risk practices in the financial services sector is a challenge. There is a temptation to explain the wide variety of approaches as a characteristic of the early stage of development in which the genre resides.
Based on the evidence of... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Risk Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Conflict and Resolution; Organizations; Financial Services Industry

March 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Background Note

Physical Climate Risk

By: Michael W. Toffel, Spencer Glendon and Alison Smart

This note describes how managers can identify and manage their company’s physical climate risks, which can increase their operations and supply chain costs and risks, and affect demand for their goods and services. Can be paired with the video “Preparing business... View Details

Keywords: Resilience; Maps; Climate Risk; Climate Impact; Modeling And Analysis; Climate Change; Risk Management; Demand and Consumers; Supply Chain; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Disruption

Fall 2013
Article

Sustainable Operations Management: An Enduring Stream or a Passing Fancy?

By: David Drake and Stefan Spinler

Paul Kleindorfer was among the first to weigh in on and nurture the stream of Sustainable Operations Management. The thoughts laid out here are based on conversations we had with Paul relating to the drivers underlying sustainability as a management issue: population... View Details

Keywords: Sustainable Operations; Sustainability; Environment; Paul Kleindorfer; Management; Environmental Sustainability

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Article

Business, Governments and Political Risk in South Asia and Latin America since 1970

By: G. Jones and Rachael Comunale

This article contributes to the literature on political risk in business and economic history by examining both new perspectives (risk encountered by companies domestically, rather than risk for foreign investors) and new settings (emerging markets economies in Latin... View Details

Keywords: Political Risk; Emerging Market; Bribery; Business ＆ Government Relations; Turbulence; Violence; Risk and Uncertainty; Emerging Markets; Crime and Corruption; Business and Government Relations; Business History; India; Latin America

Teaching Interest

Understanding and Influencing Operations as an Investor

This course is designed to impart to students who plan to become investors an understanding of firms' operations, and to students, including entrepreneurs, planning to operate companies an understanding of how to interface with investors. The course also... View Details

March 1999 (Revised April 1999)
Case

Environmental Risk Management at Chevron Corporation

By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Monica M Mandelli and Jennifer Burns

Chevron Corp., headquartered in San Francisco, manages a worldwide, vertically integrated value chain from the oil well to the gasoline station. Mishandling of oil at any stage of production can damage the natural environment, human health, corporate profitability, or... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Generation; Supply Chain Management; Metals and Minerals; Management Systems; Management Teams; Trade; Vertical Integration; Energy Industry; Mining Industry

January 2014
Other Article

The Answer is 9,142: Understanding the Influence of Disruption Risk on Inventory Decision Making

By: Mark Cotteleer, Maria Ibanez and Geri Gibbons

The question was how many units of inventory a manager should order when faced with a possible disruption in supply. The correct answer is not guesswork, but based on 150 years of theory and practice. We examine individual choices made in this critical situation—and... View Details

Keywords: Behavioral; Behavioral Operations; Inventory; Bias; Operations Management; Operations

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June 2017
Article

Is Operating Flexibility Harmful under Debt?

By: Nikolaos Trichakis, Dan A. Iancu and Gerry Tsoukalas

We study the inefficiencies stemming from a firm's operating flexibility under debt. We find that flexibility in replenishing or liquidating inventory, by providing risk-shifting incentives, could lead to borrowing costs that erase more than a third of the firm's... View Details

Keywords: Covenants; Risk-shifting; Inventory; Agency Costs; Debt Financing; Risk Management; Borrowing and Debt

Article

MIT Roundtable on Corporate Risk Management

By: Robert C. Merton

Against the backdrop of financial crisis, a distinguished group of academics and practitioners discusses the contribution of financial management and innovation to corporate growth and value, along with the pitfalls and unintended consequences of such innovation.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Market Participation; Finance; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; Value; Distribution; Capital Structure; Risk Management; Business Ventures; Business Model; Strategy

15 Aug 2024
Op-Ed

Post-CrowdStrike, Six Questions to Test Your Company's Operational Resilience

the trial runs. Technology: Use necessary technological tools to support assigned roles in crisis management, ensuring seamless operation and coordination, such as different modes of communication and documentation on and off the primary... View Details

Keywords: by Hise Gibson and Anita Lynch

April 2024
Case

Managing AI Risks in Consumer Banking

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Satish Tadikonda, Paul Dongha, Manoj Saxena and Radhika Kak

In early 2024, Ruth Jones, head of digital banking at Signa Bank, a (fictitious) European consumer bank, was thinking about how to best incorporate GenAI capabilities to improve efficiencies and create new ways to improve the customer experience. Where were the biggest... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; AI and Machine Learning; Risk Management; Opportunities; Customization and Personalization; Banking Industry; Europe

Other Unpublished Work

Risk Aversion, Risk Premium and the Choice of Capital Projects

By: S. Datar, R. Banker and B. Gopi

Keywords: Risk Management; Cost vs Benefits; Infrastructure

23 Sep 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Operational Failures and Problem Solving: An Empirical Study of Incident Reporting

Keywords: by Julia Adler-Milstein, Sara J. Singer & Michael W. Toffel; Health

15 Aug 2007
Op-Ed

3 Steps to Reduce Financial System Risk

expertise among the spaghetti bowl of supervisory bodies; second, encourage rating agencies to improve their modeling of new and complex derivative products; and third, induce new investors to evaluate the ratings issued by the agencies against improved internal View Details

Keywords: by Mohamed El-Erian; Financial Services; Banking

24 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

Reducing Risk with Online Advertising

the world a somewhat better place. It's a safer world in which to advertise, and a safer world in which to do business if more computers can be trusted to do what their operators want rather than what some unknown third party hopes to... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Video Game; Web Services

January 2004 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Farmington Industries, Inc.: Managing Currency Exposure Risk

By: David F. Hawkins and Jacob Cohen

The December 20, 1994 Mexican devaluation creates U.S. dollar losses for an unprepared U.S. corporation with multiple operations in Mexico. View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Globalized Firms and Management; International Accounting; Currency; United States; Mexico

16 Aug 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Managing Political Risk in Global Business: Beiersdorf 1914-1990

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones & Christina Lubinski; Beauty & Cosmetics

October 2021
Article

Directors' Perceptions of Board Effectiveness and Internal Operations

By: J. Yo-Jud Cheng, Boris Groysberg, Paul M. Healy and Rajesh Vijayaraghavan

We contribute to the growing literature on the effectiveness of corporate boards by examining the effect of two insights that have been largely unexplored in prior studies that use public data. First, since boards’ responsibilities are wide-ranging, more holistic... View Details

Keywords: Boards Of Directors; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Performance Effectiveness; Perception