IESE Insight - Service and Operations Management

Keys to confronting crises, from a hospital fighting COVID-19

IESE Insight Anticipating problems, protecting your people, and working in close cooperation with your stakeholders: these are some of the lessons the University of Navarra Clinic takes from its fight against COVID-19 in Spain.

Big data to help predict social exclusion

Victor Martínez de Albéniz; Cynthia Echave Martínez Just as businesses can use big data to anticipate consumer behavior and optimize profits, social enterprises and governments can use it to predict social vulnerability and fight poverty. But the disruptive impact of COVID-19 may require retraining the models.

Hurry! Only 3 left in stock! When scarcity signals are most powerful

Eduard Calvo; Ruomeng Cui; Laura Wagner Many retailers disclose product availability to get customers to buy, but does it really boost sales and profits? By studying this effect in online retail, we identify the contexts where scarcity signals are most powerful.

5 steps to get a handle on operations in times of crisis

IESE Insight Steering your company to recovery, with resilience, may depend on forward-thinking operations management. Professor Jaume Ribera breaks down the key considerations in each stage of the life cycle of a crisis.

Coping with the coronavirus crisis: A guide for business leaders

IESE Insight How can executives keep calm and lead during the COVID-19 outbreak? Six experts discuss resilient strategies, clear crisis communications, reducing anxiety, increasing health security and more to help leaders respond to the pandemic as proactively as possible.

Axel Lambert: How to handle crises

IESE Insight Axel Lambert advises organizations, companies and professionals on how to prepare for, react to and prevent health emergencies. After years of working with epidemics such as SARS, influenza and Ebola, Lambert is conscious of one thing: "You're never fully prepared."

Ebola: managing to save lives

IESE Insight Two experts on Ebola, Peter Piot and José Félix Hoyo, discuss the importance of preparedness, rapid response, coordination and community engagement in the management of an epidemic.

Gaby-Luise Wüst: "It's important to have a purpose that you're able to communicate clearly"

Marc Sachon The President of Audi China discusses the evolution of the auto market in Asia, and why she believes it is an exciting time for the industry. In this interview with IESE's Marc Sachon, Wüst reveals the four pillars of her management philosophy.

Designing the optimal supply base: how many suppliers?

Victor Martínez de Albéniz; Jiao Wang Designing an optimal supply base is challenging, especially for fashion apparel retailers and other companies with many innovative products. New research proposes a modeling framework that can help determine the optimal supply-base size depending on certain circumstances.

Big spenders? Public infrastructure doesn't have to be a resource drain

Eduard Calvo; Ruomeng Cui; Juan Camilo Serpa Public infrastructure projects are notorious for going over their allotted time and budget. IESE's Eduard Calvo describes how this can best be avoided.