JetBlue Airways: Managing Growth

Robert S. Huckman; Gary P. Pisano

Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2008 (Revised June 2011)

JetBlue Airways: Managing Growth

Abstract

Considers the situation facing David Barger, President and CEO of JetBlue Airways, in May 2007 as he addresses the airline's need to slow its growth rate in the response to increasing fuel costs and the effects of major operational crisis for the airline in February 2007. In 2005, JetBlue-typically viewed as a low-cost carrier (LCC)-made a move that is often considered antithetical to the LCC model. Specifically, JetBlue moved from a single aircraft type (i.e., the Airbus 320, or A320) to a fleet with two types of aircraft by adding the smaller Embraer 190, or E190. Students are initially asked to consider the impact of this decision on JetBlue's operations strategy and business model. They are then asked to consider how the reductions in aircraft capacity growth should be spread across the two plane types. This discussion hinges not only on issues of aircraft efficiency but also on those of operational focus and the ultimate competitive priorities of the airline as a whole.

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Operations; Performance Capacity; Performance Efficiency; Competitive Strategy; Air Transportation Industry;

Format: Print

24 pages

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Citation:

Huckman, Robert S., and Gary P. Pisano. "JetBlue Airways: Managing Growth." Harvard Business School Case 609-046, October 2008. (Revised June 2011.)

The case examines how Marriott should respond to the potential threats from new home-sharing platforms and the rise of online travel agencies. In 2017 Marriott was the largest hotel chain, with more than one million rooms and 7% of worldwide room supply. In the previous decade the growing ubiquity of internet-based commerce had facilitated the rise of technology platforms such as Expedia and Airbnb. The case enables students to explore the forces that might lead to industry transformation and the appropriate response strategies of a large incumbent.

Article | Management Science | September 2018

Discretionary Task Ordering: Queue Management in Radiological Services

Maria Ibanez, Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman and Bradley R. Staats

Work-scheduling research typically prescribes task sequences implemented by managers. Yet employees often have discretion to deviate from their prescribed sequence. Using data from 2.4 million radiological diagnoses, we find that doctors prioritize similar tasks (batching) and those tasks they expect to complete faster (shortest expected processing time). Moreover, they exercise more discretion as they accumulate experience. Exploiting random assignment of tasks to doctors’ queues, instrumental variable models reveal that these deviations erode productivity. This productivity decline lessens as doctors learn from experience. Prioritizing the shortest tasks is particularly detrimental to productivity. Actively grouping similar tasks also reduces productivity, in stark contrast to productivity gains from exogenous grouping, indicating deviation costs outweigh benefits from repetition. By analyzing task completion times, our work highlights the tradeoffs between the time required to exercise discretion and the potential gains from doing so, which has implications for how discretion over scheduling should be delegated.

Keywords: discretion; scheduling; queue; healthcare; learning; experience; Decentralization; operations; service operations; service delivery; Performance; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Efficiency; Performance improvement; Performance Productivity; Decisions; time management; Cost vs Benefits; Health Industry; Operations; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Performance; Performance Effectiveness; Performance Efficiency; Performance Improvement; Performance Productivity; Decisions; Time Management; Cost vs Benefits; Health Industry;

Citation:

Ibanez, Maria, Jonathan R. Clark, Robert S. Huckman, and Bradley R. Staats. "Discretionary Task Ordering: Queue Management in Radiological Services." Management Science 64, no. 9 (September 2018): 4389–4407. (Working paper available here. Winner of the 2017 Best Paper Competition of the POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management. Featured in Forbes, Quartz, and Inc.) View Details

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Over the past two decades, the greater prevalence of global supply chains has had contrasting effects on Western manufacturing clusters. While some of them dwindled, others proved resilient. Contributing to the recent literature on co-located clusters and clusters' linkages, we focus on the impact of lead firms’ strategies on the competitiveness of a pair of “twin” clusters located in Northeast Italy. Our findings suggest that production remains “sticky” when leading firms pursue “process-embedded” innovation by integrating global market and local technical knowledge. We refer to this type of firm as a Knowledge Integrator and discuss how its strategy supports the competitiveness of localized suppliers.

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JetBlue Airways: Managing Growth

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