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• Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | August 2020

  Comparing Two Groups: Sampling and t-Testing

  Iavor I Bojinov, Chiara Farronato, Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Willy C. Shih and Michael W. Toffel

  This note describes sampling and t-tests, two fundamental statistical concepts.

  Keywords: statistics; econometric analyses; experimental methods; data analysis; Data Analytics; Data and Data Sets; Analysis; Surveys; Mathematical Methods;

  Citation:

  Bojinov, Iavor I., Chiara Farronato, Yael Grushka-Cockayne, Willy C. Shih, and Michael W. Toffel. "Comparing Two Groups: Sampling and t-Testing." Harvard Business School Technical Note 621-044, August 2020.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | June 2020 (Revised August 2020)

  Vanguard Retail Operations (A)

  Willy C. Shih and Antonio Moreno

  The first two cases in this series are set in the financial services industry, and explore whether it is better for back-office workers to be generalists who provide the flexibility of being able to handle the complete range of transactions that the company faces or specialists who focus on a subset of the overall transaction mix. The objective is to introduce the advantages of demand pooling in reducing the variability associated with the forecasting of highly variable workloads, while also demonstrating the benefits to worker learning and efficiency improvements that can come from specialization.
  
  The case is set at the Retail Investor Group Operations of the Vanguard Group, the mutual funds and ETF giant. Karin Risi, the managing director, is faced with a back-office operation that hasn’t kept up with massive transaction growth, one that is struggling under the weight of mounting client phone call and transaction volumes, client complaints, and buckling employee morale. And worse, the press was taking notice. The (A) case details the complexity in the growing backlog and frames the question of whether they should pursue a specialist model. The (B) case, for distribution in class, details the impact of an initial segmentation of workload into eight categories and poses additional questions for class discussion and analysis.

  Keywords: pooling; generalist model; specialist model; Operations; Service Operations; Management; Financial Services Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Shih, Willy C., and Antonio Moreno. "Vanguard Retail Operations (A)." Harvard Business School Case 620-104, June 2020. (Revised August 2020.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | August 2020

  Beyond Beer: Brewing Innovation at Molson Coors

  Derek C. M. van Bever, Stephen P. Kaufman, James Barnett and Shaye Roseman

  In March 2019, Molson Coors CEO Mark Hunter considered a request to pull forward $65 million CAD in anticipated future funding for Truss Beverages, a Toronto-based cannabis beverage company that Molson Coors created in a joint venture with a Canadian cannabis production company. The request was for the construction of a new production facility for cannabis beverages, a new product in an as-yet-nascent market.

  Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Joint Ventures; Ethics; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Canada; Colorado;

  Citation:

  van Bever, Derek C. M., Stephen P. Kaufman, James Barnett, and Shaye Roseman. "Beyond Beer: Brewing Innovation at Molson Coors." Harvard Business School Case 321-008, August 2020.  View Details

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