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The Balanced Scorecard—Measures that Drive Performance
Balanced scorecard Magazine ArticleWhat you measure is what you get. Senior executives understand that their organization’s measurement system strongly affects the behavior of managers and employees. Executives also understand that traditional financial accounting measures like return-on-investment and earnings-per-share can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation—activities today’s competitive environment demands. The traditional financial performance measures worked well […] -
What Is Strategy?
Strategy Magazine ArticleFor starters, it’s not the same as operational effectiveness. -
A More Sustainable Supply Chain
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleIncreasingly, multinational corporations (MNCs) are pledging to procure the materials and services they need from companies committed to fair labor practices... -
Global Supply Chains in a Post-Pandemic World
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleThe U.S.-China trade war and the supply and demand shocks brought on by the Covid-19 crisis are forcing manufacturers everywhere to reassess their supply... -
Collaborative Intelligence: Humans and AI Are Joining Forces
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleArtificial intelligence is transforming all sectors of the economy, but there's no reason to fear that robots will replace all human employees. In fact,... -
Building a Transparent Supply Chain
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleOne of the most promising applications of emerging blockchain technology is supply chain management. Blockchain--the digital record-keeping system developed... -
Quality Is More Than Making a Good Product
Customer service Magazine ArticleCorporate executives and consumers have in recent years adopted divergent views of product quality. Several recent surveys indicate how wide the quality perception gap is: Three out of five chief executives of the country’s largest 1,300 companies said in a 1981 survey that quality is improving; only 13% said it is declining.1 Yet 49% of […] -
Overselling Sustainability Reporting
Communication Magazine ArticleFor two decades progressive thinkers have argued that a more sustainable form of capitalism would arise if companies regularly measured and reported on... -
No-Nonsense Guide to Measuring Productivity
Operations strategy Magazine ArticleA few years ago, a major manufacturing-based conglomerate asked a gifted mathematician to join its corporate staff. One of his first assignments was to design a system that senior managers could use to evaluate the operating efficiency of the company’s various divisions. He devoted many months to the assignment and also tapped the knowledge of […] -
The 4 Tiers of Digital Transformation
Disruptive innovation Digital ArticleA framework to ensure your digital investments are driven by strategic objectives. -
Customer Intimacy and Other Value Disciplines
Sales & Marketing Magazine ArticleTo today's customers, value can mean any number of things, from convenience of purchase to after-sale service and dependability. But that doesn't mean... -
Clusters and the New Economics of Competition
Government policy and regulation Magazine ArticleParadoxically, the enduring competitive advantages in a global economy lie increasingly in local things—knowledge, relationships, and motivation that distant rivals cannot match. -
Why Corporate Functions Stumble
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleA survey of 761 of the largest corporations in North America and Europe showed that the number of corporate functions had increased at about a third from... -
How Loyalty Programs Are Saving Airlines
Customer service Digital ArticleThe pandemic has cast a spotlight on a historically undervalued asset. -
The CEO of Anglo American on Getting Serious About Safety
Operations strategy Magazine ArticlePhotography: Getty Images The Idea: Mining involves risk, and some executives believe fatalities are inevitable. But after nearly 200 on-the-job deaths in the five years prior to her arrival, Carroll decided to take a public stand to create safer working conditions. When I became the CEO of Anglo American, in 2007, I encountered plenty of […] -
New Ways to Collaborate for Process Improvement
Technology & Operations Digital ArticleThis post is part of the HBR Insight Center Making Collaboration Work. To make big improvements in productivity and customer service, people in an organization... -
Operational Transparency
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleConventional wisdom holds that the more contact an operation has with its customers, the less efficiently it will run. But when customers are partitioned... -
Strategic Sourcing: To Make or Not to Make
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleOut of a sense of corporate responsibility, many of today's manufacturers are making commodity-like components to preserve jobs. This single-minded focus... -
Tug-of-War (HBR Case Study and Commentary)
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleJack Emmons, the CEO of Voici Brands, knew his apparel company needed a supply chain overhaul. Over the past couple of years, sales had dropped because... -
Coupling Strategy to Operating Plans
Operations strategy Magazine ArticleIn recent years a growing number of companies have expended considerable amounts of time and money to develop strategic planning skills in their profit centers and at higher organizational levels. We applaud this effort, but as we stand back and observe large and small companies alike apply this new talent and expertise, we are struck […]
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Globalization of CEMEX
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details CEMEX is a Mexican company that has become a major international competitor in cement while maintaining a higher level of profitability than other, longer-established... -
Rohner Textil AG (A)
Global Business Case Study8.95View Details This series of cases (see also the B [UVA-E-0108], C [UVA-E-0109], D [UVA-E-0110], and E [UVA-E-0147] cases) takes students through five design-and-manufacturing... -
Adani Agri Logistics Limited: Blocking the Grain Drain
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details Adani Agri Logistics Limited (AALL) was established to execute a national project for the bulk handling of food grains through a public-private partnership... -
Rich-Con Steel
Technology & Operations Case Study6.95View Details One month after "going live" with a new information system, Rich-Con Steel is in crisis. The new system was intended to give the company basic visibility... -
VIRGINIA-Class Submarine: Two for Four in 2012 (A)
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details The VIRGINIA-class submarine was one of the largest naval-acquisition projects in history, involving the construction of 30 submarines at an acquisition... -
Optimizing Flu Vaccine Planning at NorthShore University HealthSystem
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study8.95View Details Stan Kent, vice president of pharmacy at NorthShore University HealthSystem, is faced with the challenge of seasonal planning for the influenza vaccine.... -
Pricing in a Digital World (2015)
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details This case presents media reports for five instances of interesting pricing strategies, each enabled by digital technologies. Students are asked to assess... -
Han Solar and the Green Supply Chain
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details This case study focuses on a sustainability corporate initiative that aims to strengthen a photovoltaic business and to understand consumer preferences.... -
FIJI Water: Carbon Negative?
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details Seeking to go beyond global best practices in reducing environmental impacts, FIJI Water, a premium artesian bottled water company in the United States,... -
Transport Corporation of India (A): The Cross-selling Conundrum
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details Transport Corporation of India was a logistics company that provided multi-modal transport solutions to its customers. Set up in 1958, TCI had grown from... -
Jieliang Phone Home! (A)
Organizational Development Case Study14.00View Details At Precision Electro-Tek's mobile phone manufacturing facility in southern China, thousands of operators-bright and capable young men and (mostly) women... -
Anwar Aluminum Works
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details The plant manager of an aluminum alloy production plant is faced with capacity constraints and must determine which of two new speciality orders to take... -
BAT Case: Putting Tech Support on the Fast Track
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details Bruce-Alfred Technologies (BAT) has built a successful business selling packaged software. Its marketing has long promised free technical support to all... -
Hewlett-Packard: Singapore (D)
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details Supplements the (A) case. -
Benetton Group
Strategy & Execution Case Study15.05View Details The management of the Benetton Group includes senior executives advocating two different strategies: 1) expanding manufacturing to develop economies in... -
The Accidental Statesman: General Petraeus and the City of Mosul, Iraq: Epilogue
Technology & Operations Case Study5.00View Details This case (1834.0 and related epilogue 1834.1 and abridged case 1834.3) tells the story of Major General David Petraeus and the US Army's 101st Airborne... -
Leading Change in Talent at L'Oreal
Organizational Development Case Study8.95View Details Jean-Claude Le Grand just stepped into a new role as Executive Vice-President for Human Resources at the global cosmetics company, L'Oréal. He is now... -
Disruptive Change at Bossard with SmartFactoryLogistics.com?
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details The case describes how Bossard Group, a Swiss family company, originally active in reselling of fastening products, achieved an effective digital transformation... -
Lemonade: Disrupting Insurance with Instant Everything, Killer Prices, and a Big Heart
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details Launching its first products in the fall of 2016 in New York, insurtech startup Lemonade was on a mission to disrupt the insurance market by using AI...
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The Balanced Scorecard—Measures that Drive Performance
Balanced scorecard Magazine ArticleWhat you measure is what you get. Senior executives understand that their organization’s measurement system strongly affects the behavior of managers and employees. Executives also understand that traditional financial accounting measures like return-on-investment and earnings-per-share can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation—activities today’s competitive environment demands. The traditional financial performance measures worked well […] -
What Is Strategy?
Strategy Magazine ArticleFor starters, it’s not the same as operational effectiveness. -
A More Sustainable Supply Chain
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleIncreasingly, multinational corporations (MNCs) are pledging to procure the materials and services they need from companies committed to fair labor practices... -
Global Supply Chains in a Post-Pandemic World
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleThe U.S.-China trade war and the supply and demand shocks brought on by the Covid-19 crisis are forcing manufacturers everywhere to reassess their supply... -
Collaborative Intelligence: Humans and AI Are Joining Forces
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleArtificial intelligence is transforming all sectors of the economy, but there's no reason to fear that robots will replace all human employees. In fact,... -
Building a Transparent Supply Chain
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleOne of the most promising applications of emerging blockchain technology is supply chain management. Blockchain--the digital record-keeping system developed... -
Quality Is More Than Making a Good Product
Customer service Magazine ArticleCorporate executives and consumers have in recent years adopted divergent views of product quality. Several recent surveys indicate how wide the quality perception gap is: Three out of five chief executives of the country’s largest 1,300 companies said in a 1981 survey that quality is improving; only 13% said it is declining.1 Yet 49% of […] -
Overselling Sustainability Reporting
Communication Magazine ArticleFor two decades progressive thinkers have argued that a more sustainable form of capitalism would arise if companies regularly measured and reported on... -
No-Nonsense Guide to Measuring Productivity
Operations strategy Magazine ArticleA few years ago, a major manufacturing-based conglomerate asked a gifted mathematician to join its corporate staff. One of his first assignments was to design a system that senior managers could use to evaluate the operating efficiency of the company’s various divisions. He devoted many months to the assignment and also tapped the knowledge of […] -
The 4 Tiers of Digital Transformation
Disruptive innovation Digital ArticleA framework to ensure your digital investments are driven by strategic objectives.