Operations →
- 30 Mar 2003
- Research & Ideas
The Future of IT Consulting
A new Harvard Business School working paper traces the evolution of IT management consulting and trends for the future. Read our e-mail interview with professor Richard Nolan and HBS Interactive Senior Vice President Larry Bennigson. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 23 Dec 2002
- Research & Ideas
Partnering and the Balanced Scorecard
Created in 1992, the Balanced Scorecard has become an effective tool for managing strategy. Now authors Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton propose using it to communicate values and vision to employees and partners. The payoff? Better strategic relationships with partners. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 21 Oct 2002
- Research & Ideas
The Parable of the Bungled Baggage And the Unhappy Customer
Sometimes a seemingly harmless corporate decision such as a budget trim can lead to big problems elsewhere. HBS professor W. Earl Sasser tells what happens when budget constraints and customers collide. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 15 Apr 2002
- Research & Ideas
In the Virtual Dressing Room Returns Are A Real Problem
That little red number looked smashing onscreen, but the puce caftan the delivery guy brought is just one more casualty of the online shopping battle. HBS professor Jan Hammond researches what the textile and apparel industries can do to curtail returns. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 26 Nov 2001
- Research & Ideas
How Toyota Turns Workers Into Problem Solvers
Toyota's reputation for sustaining high product quality is legendary. But the company's methods are not secret. So why can't other carmakers match Toyota's track record? HBS professor Steven Spear says it's all about problem solving. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 19 Nov 2001
- Research & Ideas
Wrapping Your Alliances In a World Wide Web
HBS professor Andrew McAfee researches how the Internet affects manufacturing and productivity and how business can team up to get the most out of technology. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 18 Jun 2001
- Research & Ideas
- 30 Apr 2001
- Research & Ideas
Why Evolutionary Software Development Works
What is the best way to develop software? HBS professor Alan MacCormack discusses recent research proving the theory that the best approach is evolutionary. In this article from MIT Sloan Management Review, MacCormack and colleagues Marco Iansiti and Roberto Verganti uncover four practices that lead to successful Internet software development. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Mar 2001
- What Do You Think?
- 22 Jan 2001
- Research & Ideas
Control Your Inventory in a World of Lean Retailing
"Manufacturers of consumer goods are in the hot seat these days," the authors of this Harvard Business Review article remind readers. But there is no need to surrender to escalating costs of inventories. In this excerpt, they describe one new way to help lower inventory costs. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Nov 2000
- Research & Ideas
Moving from Supply Chains to Supply Networks
Dramatic change is taking place in today's supply chain, say HBS professors Ananth Raman and Roy Shapiro, and it's up to the general manager to assemble a team that can implement the new principles and practices the change requires. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 07 Aug 2000
- Research & Ideas
Rocket Science Retailing
Retailers and e-tailers have enormous amounts of data available to them today. But to take advantage of that data they need to move toward a new kind of retailing, one that blends the instinct and intuition of traditional systems with the prowess of information technology. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 29 Feb 2000
- Research & Ideas
Whence IT Value?
Spending on information technology on the part of U.S. manufacturers is finally starting to pay off in increased productivity. Why now? Have IT investments, growing steadily since the 1970s, suddenly crossed a magic threshhold? HBS Professor Andrew McAfee believes the answer lies neither in magic nor in the growing power of computers themselves. Productivity gains, he writes in this article from the online journal Exec, may have more to do with the evolution of computing from PC "islands" to integrated networks that bridge distances and bring people together. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Feb 2000
- Research & Ideas
Building Effective R&D Capabilities Abroad
Planning R&D facilities in the new global economy calls for a complex decision making process, based in part on whether a particular site is intended to tap local knowledge or to support a company's manufacturing and marketing abroad. HBS Professor Walter Kuemmerle offers a look at two contrasting foreign-based R&D decisions in this excerpt from his article in World View: Global Strategies for the New Economy (HBS Press). Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 01 Feb 2000
- Research & Ideas
- 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.
- 12 Oct 1999
- Research & Ideas
- 12 Oct 1999
- Research & Ideas
Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System
How can one production operation be both rigidly scripted and enormously flexible? In this summary of an article from the Harvard Business Review, HBS Professors H. Kent Bowen and Steven Spear disclose the secret to Toyota's production success. The company's operations can be seen as a continuous series of controlled experiments: whenever Toyota defines a specification, it is establishing a hypothesis that is then tested through action. The workers, who have internalized this scientific-method approach, are stimulated to respond to problems as they appear; using data from the strictly defined experiment, they are able to adapt fluidly to changing circumstances. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 12 Oct 1999
- Research & Ideas
Rapid Response: Inside the Retailing Revolution
A simple bar code scan at your local department store today launches a whirlwind of action: data is transmitted about the color, the size, and the style of the item to forecasters and production planners; distributors and suppliers are informed of the demand and the possible need to restock. All in the blink of an electronic eye. It wasn’t always this way, though. HBS Professor Janice Hammond has focused her recent research on the transformation of the apparel and textile industries from the classic, limited model to the new lean inventories and flexible manufacturing capabilities. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
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Should Global Business Initiatives Be Devalued?
Are executives who ask this question overreacting to current events? Or, if the current geopolitical events are merely symptoms of a greater and longer struggle, should we begin to think about devaluing, discounting, or postponing global initiatives in favor of more predictable business investments "closer to home"? Closed for comment; 0 Comments.