The UPS Foundation Professor of Service Management in Harvard Business School's Technology and Operations Management Department, and the recently appointed Chair of the MBA Required Curriculum, Frances Frei focuses her research and teaching on guiding leaders to compete on excellence by designing, managing, and scaling exceptional service firms. Professor Frei's ideas have influenced the minds of the global economy's future corporate stars and have shaped the strategies of the world's most competitive companies.
A legend in Harvard Business School MBA and Executive Education classrooms, Professor Frei is widely recognized for her remarkably dynamic teaching style. She developed and teaches the Managing Service Operations elective, which is among the most popular courses in Harvard Business School's history. She has received the Excellence in Teaching and 1984 Awards from the Wharton School of Business and has been honored with the prestigious HBS Student Association Faculty Award for teaching excellence several times.
Professor Frei has published innumerable groundbreaking articles and book chapters on Service Management topics in Harvard Business Review, Management Science, and top-tier business journals, including the classic article, The Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right, HBR, April 2008 and Stop Holding Yourself Back, HBR, February 2011. In addition, she has published dozens of case studies across a variety of industries, including financial services, government, retail, software, telecommunications, and travel & leisure. Her eagerly awaited book, Uncommon Service, How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business, is scheduled for publication by Harvard Business Press in February 2012.
Frances Frei is famous for providing students and business leaders students with tools and frameworks to analyze service models from the perspective of customers, employees, and owners. When speaking and consulting for global corporate clients, she invariably receives the highest evaluation scores with audience members often asking if they can give her a score of “500” or even “5 million” on a scale of 1-5. Recent audience comments include: “This was truly THE BEST learning experience I EVER had!” and “You are a genius!”
Professor Frei received her Ph.D. in Operations and Information Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds an M.E. in Industrial Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania. Learn more about Frances Frei's research interests and publications at her Harvard Business School website.
