Publications

February 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Winnan Metal: Fulfilling the Dream

By: William R. Kerr, Jim Sharpe and James Weber

Neil Kashyap and Neil Lombardo (HBS '08) acquired Winnan Metal, Inc., a metal fabrication shop, after raising a search fund and an 11 month search to fulfill their dreams of becoming business owners. Two weeks after they took control of the company, Winnan's largest... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurial Management; Turnarounds; Bank Loan; Crisis Management; Financial Analysis; Search Funds; Acquisitions; Financial Capital Needed; Management; Operations Management; Sales; Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Change Management; Manufacturing Industry; United States; Indiana

22 Feb 2022
News

New Urban Order

finding the will to start implementing at-scale technologies that are already working,” Carty observes. Here, we take a look at alumni who are pursuing those opportunities, working to make tomorrow’s cities more sustainable across five... View Details

January 2019 (Revised July 2019)
Case

New Balance: Managing Orders and Working Conditions

By: Michael W. Toffel, Eileen McNeely and Matthew Preble

New Balance Athletics, Inc., a major U.S.-based athletic footwear and apparel brand, sources most of its footwear products from independent suppliers whose factories are located in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Monica Gorman, vice president of responsible leadership... View Details

Keywords: Footwear; Athletic Footwear; Manufacturing; CSR; Sustainability; Quality Management; Supply Chains; Operations; Management; Production; Working Conditions; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Labor and Management Relations; Supply Chain Management; Supply Chain; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry

02 Aug 2019
News

Fulfilling Their Promise

worked with 500 young women, many of whom now serve as mentors themselves. “Girls Group,” says Schooner, “is all about accessing emotions and learning to love yourself; and if you love yourself, then you can... View Details

27 Mar 2019
News

Fulfilling Their Promise

problems.” Schooner was floored. As a former high-ranking executive in the automobile industry, she was used to taking a problem and solving it. But the frank discussion about a very complicated View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon; mentoring

01 Mar 2012
News

Robots to the Rescue

process customers’ orders. An MIT-trained mechanical engineer, Mountz first encountered the inefficiencies of traditional order fulfillment in 2000 while working at Webvan, an Internet-based grocery... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; e-commerce; order fulfillment; robotics; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises

September 2004 (Revised January 2005)
Case

IBM: Ordering Midrange Computers in Europe

IBM Europe is trying to expand business-to-business (B2B) efforts with its large distributors of midrange systems. These efforts aim to automate many transactions and business processes, removing the need for human involvement. IBM has completed an initial project with... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Marketing Channels; Distribution Channels; Information Technology Industry; Computer Industry; Germany; United States

November 2008 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Maggie Lena Walker and the Independent Order of St. Luke

By: Anthony Mayo and Shandi Onise Smith

As America struggled to regain its balance in the aftermath of the American Civil War, Maggie Lena Walker did her best to actively effect change by finding solutions to the social and economic problems facing blacks and especially black women. Taking charge of the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leading Change; Ethnicity; Race; Social Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Welfare; Business and Community Relations; Gender; Banks and Banking

20 Dec 2004
Research & Ideas

How an Order Views Your Company

impact stayed. Kash, John, and I worked very hard to capture our findings in a single document. Alan Weber, at the time the Editor of the Harvard Business Review, did a magnificent job of taking our... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston

November 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Computerized Provider Order Entry at Emory Healthcare

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil, Andrew Katz, Michael Morgan and David LaBorde

The Computerized Provider Order Entry at Emory Healthcare case presents one hospital system's efforts to implement computerized provider order entry (CPOE) across all of its hospitals and the challenges they faced in doing so. Issues such as standardization of care,... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Information Management; Management Systems; Standards; Service Delivery; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Projects; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Health Industry

09 Jul 2021
News

“Bad Mergers” and Noncompete Clauses Targeted in Biden Executive Order

22 Jan 2025
Blog Post

Career Risks and Professional Growth: Finding a Fulfilling Career with Paige Arnof-Fenn (MBA 1991)

promotional items—had nothing to do with finance. She told me that what I was describing was marketing. That conversation helped me realize it was time to chart a new course. At HBS, I leaned into marketing, taking courses View Details

22 Jan 2025
Blog Post

Career risks and professional growth: Finding a fulfilling career with Paige Arnof-Fenn (MBA 1991)

conversation helped me realize it was time to chart a new course. At HBS, I leaned into marketing, taking courses and building a resume that showcased my strengths. A summer internship in marketing at... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

02 May 2012
What Do You Think?

Can the “Leadership Industry” Fulfill Its Promise?

industry in general fails in: (1) catering to customer desires for short courses that produce quick results, (2) emphasizing, and training for, ways of gaining self-knowledge, (3) providing laboratories for the application of passively... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

June 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Background Note

Digital Commerce and Delivery: Preparing Food and Retail Value Chains for a 50-50 World

By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor, Paige Boehmcke and Will Ensor

Increasing digitalization of grocery retail and quick commerce reveals insights about managing complex supply chains at scale and shifting revenue streams from product sales to data monetization. How are the roles of retailers changing? What happens if marginal cost... View Details

Keywords: Grocery Delivery; Grocery; Digitalization; Fulfillment; Delivery; Supply Chain; Disruption; Food; Supply Chain Management; Market Design; Trends; Value Creation; Goods and Commodities; Customer Value and Value Chain; Digital Transformation; Food and Beverage Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; China