Service →
- 16 May 2012
- Research & Ideas
Can Decades of Military Overspending be Fixed?
Costs tend to rise in all organizations unless managers and their staffs have the motivation and skill to control them. Professor emeritus J. Ronald Fox analyzes this phenomenon during 50 years of US military overspending. Key concepts include: Costs tend to rise in all organizations unless managers and their staffs are skilled in industrial management and strongly motivated to control and reduce costs. In the US military, weapon programs can take 10 or more years to design, develop, produce, and deploy, with cost increases of 20 to 40 percent occurring frequently. More than 20 reform initiatives have been offered over the decades, but cultural barriers to change have worked against change. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 23 Jan 2012
- Research & Ideas
Break Your Addiction to Service Heroes
In their new book, Uncommon Service, coauthors Frances Frei and Anne Morriss show it is possible for organizations to reduce costs while dramatically enhancing customer service. The key? Don't try to be good at everything. Interview and book excerpt from HBS Alumni Bulletin. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Dec 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
Charitable Giving When Altruism and Similarity Are Linked
Harvard Business School professor Julio J. Rotemberg looks at what makes people decide to contribute to a charity. He focuses on two psychological factors: that people feel better about themselves when other people agree with them, and that people tend to be more charitable to other like-minded people. Key concepts include: The aforementioned psychological factors largely determine when and why people decide to donate to certain charities. The fact that donations are often based on perceived camaraderie helps to explain why people continue to donate to a certain charity even when they know that the charity has been largely subsidized by the government or another organization that makes large donations. This paper suggests that charitable organizations that differentiate themselves from other organizations with similar objectives by seeking funds from distinct donor groups may succeed in their competition with less focused competitors. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 14 Feb 2011
- Research & Ideas
Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing
Many new products fail because their creators use an ineffective market segmentation mechanism, according to HBS professor Clayton Christensen. It's time for companies to look at products the way customers do: as a way to get a job done. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 Aug 2007
- Research & Ideas
The Dark Side of Trust
It has been well documented that strong trust between a buyer and supplier provides many advantages, such as increased productivity. But according to new research coauthored by HBS professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee, trusting relationships can also have a negative side that managers must take into account. Key concepts include: Many scholars agree that trust between suppliers and buyers generates significant benefits including motivating better performance and reducing negotiation time. Breaking apart a trusted buyer-supplier relationship can be a significant barrier to entry for competitors. The negative side of trust is that it can blind you to opportunities that arise outside established relationships. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 Jan 2007
- HBS Case
The Challenge of Managing National Security
What can we learn from mistakes made in managing national intelligence before 9/11? Professor Jan Rivkin discusses the difficulties of integrating a highly differentiated organization, and the dangers of overcentralizing decision making. From HBS Alumni Bulletin. Key concepts include: The issues around managing national security provide an extreme example of the challenges faced by organizations that break into specialized parts yet must get the parts to work together. While private sector organizations can roll out complex changes over time, the intelligence community must change quickly—it must be patient and impatient at the same time. In the highly turbulent field of national security, a single "intelligence czar" could be quickly overwhelmed by informational burdens, and oversight groups can bury talented individuals under bureaucracy. The Director of National Intelligence should serve as a centralized provider of leadership and infrastructure that allows both decentralized and coordinated action. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 18 Oct 2006
- Working Paper Summaries
Racial Diversity Initiatives in Professional Service Firms: What Factors Differentiate Successful from Unsuccessful Initiatives?
What organizational factors are needed for racial diversity initiatives to succeed? While diversity continues to grow in importance in organizations, very little research has focused on the processes that underlie diversity management. Modupe Akinola and David A. Thomas propose a study intended to explore management initiatives that focus on racial diversity in professional service firms. Given that such firms rely on the high level of skills, expertise, and diverse perspectives offered by their professional staff, these firms may be ideal laboratories for examining diversity initiatives. Key concepts include: The success of diversity initiatives in professional service firms is driven by five criteria: a well articulated and widely bought-into diversity strategy, leadership support, an engaged employee base, innovative approaches to recruiting and retaining minorities, and management practices that are integrated and aligned with the initiative. Firms that achieve sustained success in their diversity initiatives should show evidence of more of these success criteria relative to their peers in the same industries. Organizations with a strong understanding of the factors that influence the success of diversity initiatives may begin to better recruit and retain minorities. Such insights may even extend to organizational practices unrelated to diversity. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 29 May 2006
- What Do You Think?
How Important Is the “Service Sector Effect” on Productivity?
In the cost-driven U.S. service economy, are worker benefits being sacrificed in the name of lower-cost services to customers? Are these social costs more than offset by the benefits of job creation, the consumption stimulus that spurs job creation, and lower unemployment? Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 09 Jan 2006
- Research & Ideas
When Benchmarks Don’t Work
Benchmarks have their virtues, but professor Robert S. Kaplan argues they should be saved for surveys of commoditized processes or services. From Balanced Scorecard Report. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 31 Jan 2005
- Research & Ideas
Rethinking Marketing’s Conventional Wisdom
Making advertising hard to find is just one way companies are rewriting conventional marketing strategies, says Harvard Business School professor Youngme Moon. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 03 Feb 2003
- Research & Ideas
Web Services
Web services are being touted as the latest, greatest technologies. So late, in fact, they aren't even on most of the general public's radar yet. And so great that they just may jumpstart the sluggish tech market. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 03 Feb 2003
- Research & Ideas
Homeland Security: A Ready-made Market
The Department for Homeland Security has a budget of $38 billion, and companies are lining up to help the government spend it. What are the needs of this market and who is best positioned to serve it? Harvard Business School professor Scott Snook lead this discussion with industry players. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 May 2000
- Research & Ideas
Leading Professional Service Firms
Firms in the $80 billion professional services industry all face the same fundamental challenge: aligning their most valuable assets—the talents of their employees—with the strategy and organization of the firm. In this interview, HBS Professor Jay Lorsch, chair of the Executive Education program Leading Professional Service Firms, discusses the role these firms play in the world's economy and the keys to their success. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 11 Jan 2000
- Research & Ideas
Calling All Managers: How to Build a Better Call Center
Once viewed simply as low-cost channels for resolving customer concerns, call centers are increasingly seen as powerful service delivery mechanisms and even as generators of revenue. Research by HBS Professor Frances X. Frei and her colleagues Ann Evenson and Patrick T. Harker of the Wharton School points toward new ways of making them work. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
The Dirty Laundry of Employee Award Programs: Evidence from the Field
Many scholars and practitioners in human resource management have recently argued that awards and other forms of on-the-job recognition provide a "free" way to motivate employees. But are there unintended, negative effects of such awards? In this paper, the authors simultaneously examine the costs and benefits of an attendance award program that was implemented in an industrial laundry plant. The award used in the study was effective in that it reduced the average rate of tardiness among employees. However, it also led to a host of potential spillover effects that the plant manager readily admits were not considered when designing the program, and that reduced overall plant productivity. Overall, findings demonstrate that an award program that appears to be effective may also induce unintended consequences severely reducing the net value of the program. These results highlight the impact such a program can have on the overall performance of the firm and suggest caution when designing and implementing such programs. Key concepts include: Even simple awards programs can have much broader and complex implications for employee behavior. In the study, two highly valued employee groups - the most productive workers and the most consistently punctual workers - suffered a 6-8% decrease in productivity after the award was instituted. This finding is remarkable because it suggests that awards for one type of behavior have the potential to "crowd out" positive behavior in a completely different realm. This research suggests that non-monetary but extrinsic rewards such as corporate awards act more like monetary rewards than they do intrinsic motivators such as love for the job or empowerment through autonomy. Award programs with a low likelihood of winning may be ineffective because employees do not habituate good behavior, and instead lead to a highly strategic response from employees. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.