First Look

Abstract—Operational efficiency is a core business principle in which organizations strive to deliver high-quality goods or services in a cost-effective manner. This concept has become increasingly relevant to cardiac catheterization laboratories, as insurers move away from fee-for-service reimbursement and toward payment determined by quality measures bundled per episode of care. Accordingly, this review provides a framework for optimizing efficiency in the cardiac cath lab. The authors outline a management method based on the Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model, a commonly used business tool by which a company can assess whether its key elements are aligned with its strategy. Standardized metrics of cath lab efficiency are proposed, which can be used in public reports on this topic moving forward. Attention is paid to understanding balance sheets to track the financial health of the cath lab. Specific cost-saving measures are described, and examples of strategies used to save supply expenses are provided.

Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55343

Abstract—We study green bonds, which are bonds whose proceeds are used for environmentally sensitive purposes. After an overview of the U.S. corporate and municipal green bonds markets, we study pricing and ownership patterns using a simple framework that incorporates assets with nonpecuniary utility. As predicted, we find that green municipal bonds are issued at a premium to otherwise similar ordinary bonds. We also confirm that green bonds, particularly small or essentially riskless ones, are more closely held than ordinary bonds. These pricing and ownership effects are strongest for bonds that are externally certified as green.

Abstract—On the 50th anniversary of Garrett Hardin’s “The Tragedy of the Commons,” this article considers the benefits and potential downsides of the digital commons, which emerged well after Hardin wrote his seminal article. Unlike the physical world Hardin wrote about, the digital world is essentially infinitely abundant, which leads to a very different tragedy and many new opportunities.

Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55409

This case follows Bill Booth, marketing manager of a regional wine distributor, as he applies unsupervised learning on data about his customers’ purchases to better understand their preferences. Specifically, he uses the K-means clustering technique to identify groups of customers who have purchased any number of 32 specific “deals” Booth offered over the year, differentiated by the wine varietal as well as its country of origin and a minimum number of bottles to purchase. Insights from this analysis may help him understand themes across the deals that can inform construction of new deals in the future. Topics include unsupervised learning; similarity and proximity; K-means clustering, with measures of Euclidean distance and cosine similarity; Gaussian mixture models; and interpreting clusters.

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This case builds directly on “Chateau Winery (A).” In this case, Bill Booth, marketing manager of a regional wine distributor, shifts to supervised learning techniques to try to predict which deals he should offer to customers based on the purchasing behavior of those customers closest to them. Topics include supervised learning; collaborative filtering; K-nearest neighbor as a modeling technique, collaborative filtering with cosine similarity of customers, collaborative filtering with cosine similarity of products, and comparison of different prediction models.

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This exercise uses the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster to explore the relationship between data visualization, effective communication, and decision-making. Students review and analyze excerpts from the 13 charts engineers presented to NASA executives the night before the launch about past launch temperatures and mechanical failures. They then suggest and draft modifications for more effectively presenting the data and communicating a recommendation.

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This case follows VP of Marketing, Jill Wehunt, and analyst Mark Morse as they tackle a predictive analytics project to increase sales in the Mom & Baby unit of a nationally recognized retailer, PriceMart. Wehunt observed that in the midst of the chaos that surrounded a new baby, parents’ shopping habits became quickly ingrained. She hypothesized that if she could get households expecting a new baby to make PriceMart a part of their routines before becoming parents, she might keep them as customers for the next several years, winning significant additional revenue.

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Supplements the (A) case. In this case, Wehunt and Morse are concerned about the logistic regression model overfitting to the training data, so they explore two methods for reducing the sensitivity of the model to the data by regularizing the coefficients of the logistic regression. Wehunt and Morse then compare the models and select the model most effective at correctly classifying households as expecting. Students explore the relationship between the model’s confusion matrix, which organizes the model’s correct and incorrect classifications, the cutoff point on the curve that matches true positives and true negatives, and the payoff matrix Wehunt and Morse construct. Students can then follow the link directly from their model to their marketing strategy.

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No abstract available.

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In 2013, Navistar was in the midst of a deep crisis, having lost a third of its market share over the previous three years. Bill Kozek, the new president of Navistar North America Truck and Sales division needs to develop his division’s strategy as part of the company’s turnaround. What should his priorities be and where should he focus the company?

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No abstract available.

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In January 2014, Tomas Uribe and Rodrigo Sanchez-Rios of Jaguar Capital S.A.S. (Jaguar or Jaguar Capital), were considering an offer from White Stone, the world’s largest private equity real estate investor. Jaguar Capital needed capital to fund its investment thesis, which was derived from Tomas and Rodrigo’s belief that the rise of Colombia’s middle class signaled an enormous untapped investment opportunity. Jaguar hoped to capitalize on Colombia’s middle class need of safe comfortable places to spend family time by providing retail, housing and entertainment facilities that catered to Colombia’s middle class. While White Stone’s proposal would solve many of Jaguar’s challenges as a start-up real estate development company, the offer would also create a new series of long-term issues for Jaguar. In this case, students examine the favorable and unfavorable attributes of the White Stone offer, especially as it relates to the unique situation of the protagonists. Additionally, the financial terms of the offer are compared to the terms of similar deals. Key questions explored through the case include the following: Would the White Stone proposal truly compensate Tomas and Rodrigo for all their hard work to date? Would they be fairly compensated in the future given the risks that they would bear and the work they have would do? Most importantly, should they take the deal?

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In the spring of 2018, Israel was set to celebrate its 70th anniversary. While there was much to rejoice in reaching this milestone, the country’s brand image internationally was far from ideal. Past efforts to impact perceptions of Israel, spearheaded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as various Jewish organizations, were mainly aimed at “explaining” Israel’s political position and convincing the world that the country was acting in a just manner. However, a series of seminal market research studies revealed that many people in the U.S. and Europe primarily associated Israel with military imagery, held views of the country as steeped in conflict, and believed its people were devoutly religious and unwelcoming. Making matters worse, many expressed an indifferent attitude towards the country and felt that Israelis were dissimilar to them. In an attempt to change the situation, several individuals and entities embarked on various initiatives aimed at branding Israel differently and “broadening the conversation” about the country. These efforts included generating a brand book for Israel that suggested a guiding brand position of “creative energy”; inviting social media influencers to partake in trips focused on lifestyle interests; generating appealing, non-conflict related content linked to Israel and attracting online viewers to the content; appointing a goodwill ambassador to communicate the culture and day-to-day life in Israel; and multiple measures to draw in more tourists (Jewish and non-Jewish) to the country. Taking stock of these efforts revealed a mixed picture at best, and it was unclear whether Israel’s brand image among international audiences was indeed shifting in the intended direction. Several observers were further worried that the younger generation was finding Israel even less relevant and urged for devising a new approach. What should or could Israel’s brand positioning be? Were the recent efforts to change perceptions about Israel and Israelis on the right track and it was just a matter of time and scale before they bore fruit? What else could be done to break the indifference and emerging negative attitudes towards the country?

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Supplements the (A) case.

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No abstract available.

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