Readings | Operations Strategy | Sloan School of Management

The following readings are required for the class and have assigned questions for discussion. Assigned cases are also listed, and questions to guide the case write-ups are also available. The following texts are required readings for the course:

[B&R] = Beckman, Sara, and Donald Rosenfield. Operations Strategy: Competing in the 21st Century. McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2007. ISBN: 9780072500783.

[Fine] = Fine, Charles H. Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage. Basic Books, 1999. ISBN: 9780738201535.

In addition, the professors have recommended a list of optional readings for further study of the subject.

Course readings.
SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
Part I: Basic Concepts of Operations Strategy
1	Course introduction; Innovation and operations discipline	Arndt, Michael. "McDonald's 24/7." Business Week, February 5, 2007. Case Upton, David M. "McDonald's Corporation (Abridged)." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-603-041, Rev. June 16, 2005.
2	Frameworks for strategy and the decision category approach	"Business Strategy Context for Operations Strategy." Chapter 1 in [B&R]. Case Fraiman, Nelson M., Medini R. Singh, Carolyn Paris, and Linda Arrington. "Zara." Columbia Business School Case. Case: 267-279, 2002.
3	Developing an operations strategy; Application of decision category approach and the capabilities approaches	Case Huckman, Robert S., and Alan D. MacCormack. "BYD Company, Ltd." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-606-139, Rev. July 23, 2007.
4	Value chain dynamics and operations decisions	"The Genetics of Business: Learning from the Fruit Flies." Chapters 1-4 in [Fine], pp. 1-68.
5	Value chain dynamics: Lessons from the auto industry	Womack, James P., Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos. Chapters 1-3 in The Machine that Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production. Harper Collins, 1991. ISBN: 9780060974176. Rabinowitz, Gavin. "Tata Reveals World's Cheapest Car." Boston Globe, January 10, 2008. Giridharadas, Anand. "Four Wheels for the Masses: The $2,500 Car." New York Times, January 8, 2008. Darukhanawala, Adil Jal. "Engineering the Nano." Times of India, January 11, 2008. Gertner, Jon. "From 0 to 60 to World Domination." New York Times, February 18, 2007.
6	Enterprise architecture and operations strategy	Case Heskett, James L., and Early Sasser, Jr. "Southwest Airlines: In a Different World." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-910-419, Rev. June 15, 2010.
Part II: Key Elements and Decision Categories in an Operations Strategy
7	Vertical integration and outsourcing	"Vertical Integration." Chapter 2 in [B&R]. Case Boeing (case information unavailable)
8	Business processes	"Business Process Focused Strategies and Organizational Design." Chapter 7 in [B&R]. Case McAfee, Andrew. "Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS (A)." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-606-015, Rev. October 20, 2006.
9	Process technology decisions and multiple plants	"Process Technology." Chapter 3 in [B&R]. Case Pisano, Gary P., and Sharon Rossi. "ITT Automotive: Global Manufacturing Strategy." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-695-002, Rev. May 21, 2001.
10	Capacity strategy: How to make decisions on capacity and capacity expansion	"Capacity Strategy." Chapter 4 in [B&R]. Case Snow, Daniel C., Steven C. Wheelwright, and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld. "Genentech – Capacity Building." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-606-052, Rev. March 7, 2006.
11	Facilities strategies and globalization; Comparisons of plant productivity	"Facilities Strategy and Globalization." Chapter 5 in [B&R], pp. 166-172, and 186-190. Case Flaherty, Marie-Therese. "Applichem (A)." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-685-051, July 1, 1986.
12	Summary lecture on facilities strategy and globalization	"Facilities Strategy and Globalization." Chapter 5 in [B&R].
13	Sourcing and supplier management	"Sourcing." Chapter 6 in [B&R]. Case Toyota (case information unavailable)
14	Information systems and the impacts of the electronic economy	"Information Technology." Chapter 9 in [B&R]. Case Huckman, Robert S., Gary P. Pisano, and Liz Kind. "Amazon Web Services." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-609-048, October 20, 2008.
15	Logistics systems and the fulfillment supply chain	"Coordinating the Supply Chain." Chapter 8 in [B&R]. Case "Dell Inc: Improving the Performance of the Desktop PC Supply Chain." (case information unavailable)
Part III: Capabilities and Different Approaches to Operations Strategy
16	Competing on quality: Sources of quality and different measures of quality	"Cross-Cutting Capabilities: Lean Operations, Quality, and Flexibility." Chapter 10 in [B&R], pp. 359-363, and 375-381. Case West, Jonathan. "Delamere Vineyard." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-698-051, Rev. June 8, 2000.
17	Competing on cost versus competing on availability	"Cross-Cutting Capabilities: Lean Operations, Quality, and Flexibility." Chapter 10 in [B&R]. Case Bowen, H. Kent, Robert S. Huckman, and Carin-Isabel Knoop. "New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-606-094, Rev. June 30, 2008.
18	Competing on cost versus competing on features and innovativeness	"Strategy Development and Practice." Chapter 11 of [B&R]. Vogelstein, Fred. "The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry." Wired Magazine, January 9, 2008. Case Pisano, Gary. "BMW: The 7-Series Project (A)." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-692-083, Rev. January 3, 2002.
19	Competition in the housing industry: Improving cost, quality and availability	Leinberger, Christopher B. "The Next Slum?" The Atlantic, March 2008. Corkery, Michael. "Mortgage Mess Hits Home For Nation's Small Builders." Wall Street Journal, March 21, 2008. Case Fine, Charles H. "House-Building Disrupted: Supply Chain Re-Engineering During an Epic Disaster." MIT Sloan School of Management Case, September 2009.
Part IV: Globalization, Outsourcing and Other Critical Issues in Operations Strategy and Policy in the 21st Century
20	Models for gaining advantage in a global environment; How to position within a value	Magretta, Joan. "Fast, Global, and Entrepreneurial: Supply Chain Management, Hong Kong Style." Harvard Business Review Magazine, September-October 1998. Eisenmann, Thomas, Geoffrey Parker, and Marshall W. Van Alstyne. "Strategies for Two-Sided Markets." Harvard Business Review Magazine, October 2006. Skim: McFarlan, F. Warren, and Fred Young. "Li and Fung: Internet Issues (A)." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-301-009. Ko, Stephen, and Grace Loo. "Li and Fung: Growth for a Supply Chain Specialist." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: HKU-849, September 30, 2009.
21	Globalization, joint ventures, sourcing overseas, and macroeconomic effects of off-shoring	"Time to Change the Act." The Economist, February 19, 2009. Von Drehle, David. "Yes, We'll Still Make Stuff." Time Magazine, May 14, 2009. Grove, Andy. "How to Make an American Job Before It's Too Late." Bloomberg, July 1, 2010. Wadhwa, Vivek. "Why Andy Grove is Wrong About Job Growth." Bloomberg Businessweek, July 9, 2010.
22	Supplier power and overseas sourcing: Moving up the value chain in outsourcing	Case West, Jonathan. "Chiang-Sho Ltd." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-602-100, Rev. December 2, 2004.
23	Student presentations	Case Huckman, Robert S., and Gary P. Pisano. "Flextronics International, Ltd." Harvard Business School Case. Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-604-063, Rev. May 17, 2004.
24	Student presentations and course wrap-up	"Strategy Development and Practice." Chapter 11 in [B&R].

Optional Readings

Additional references that may be useful as background:

Hayes, Robert H., Gary P. Pisano, David M. Upton, and Steven C. Wheelwright. Operations, Strategy, and Technology: Pursuing the Competitive Edge. Wiley, 2004. ISBN: 9780471655794.

Slack, Nigel, and Mike Lewis. Operations Strategy. 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, 2007. ISBN: 9780273695196.

Hill, Terry. Manufacturing Strategy: Texts and Cases. 2nd ed. Palgrave Macmillian, 2000. ISBN: 9780333762226.

Van Mieghem, Jan A. Operations Strategy: Principles and Practice. Dynamic Ideas, 2008. ISBN: 9780975914663.

Womack, James P., Daniel T. Jones, and Daniel Roos. The Machine that Changed the World. Free Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780743299794.

Hayes, Robert H., Steven C. Wheelwright, and Kim B. Clark. Dynamic Manufacturing: Creating the Learning Organization. Free Press 1988. ISBN: 9780029142110.

Womack, James P., and Daniel T. Jones. Lean Thinking. 2nd ed. Free Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780743249270.

Lester, Richard K. The Productive Edge. W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. ISBN: 9780393045741.

Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat. Picador, 2007. ISBN: 9780312425074.

Diamond Jared. Collapse. Rev. ed. Penguin 2011. ISBN: 9780143117001.

Other business and operations books that may be of interest to students taking this course:

Hammer, Michael. The Agenda. Crown Business, 2001. ISBN: 9780609609668.

Hammer, Michael, and Steven Stanton. The Reengineering Revolution. Harper Business, 1995. ISBN: 9780887307362.

Klein, Janice A. Revitalizing Manufacturing: Text and Cases. CRC Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780256068092.

Dertouzos, Michael L., Richard K. Lester, and Robert M. Solow. Made In America: Regaining the Productive Edge. MIT Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780262041003.

Cohen, Stephen S., and John Zysman. Manufacturing Matters: The Myth of the Post-Industrial. Basic Books, 1988. ISBN: 9780465043859.

Laseter, Timothy M. Balanced Sourcing: Cooperation and Competition in Supplier Relationships. Jossey-Bass, 1998. ISBN: 9780787944438.

Pine, B. Joseph, and Stan Davis. Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition. Harvard Business School Press, 1999. ISBN: 97808758494611.

Berger, Suzanne. How We Compete: What Companies Around the World Are Doing to Make it in Today's Global Economy. Crown Business, 2005. ISBN: 9780385513593.