Publications

March 2014 (Revised January 2015)
Case

Ghurka

By: Jose B. Alvarez, Walter J. Salmon and Christine Snively

Ghurka was a 38-year-old luxury leather goods brand that specialized in leather and twill luggage, handbags, and accessories. Brightwork Brand Holdings Corp. acquired it as an asset purchase in 2011. Ghurka, under CEO John Reuter, worked to re-launch the brand with a... View Details

Keywords: Retailing; Luxury

January 2019
Case

First Aid Beauty

By: Karen Mills and Annie Dang

In 2008, Lilli Gordon, an experienced financial and skincare entrepreneur, founded First Aid Beauty (FAB). She had discovered a white space in the prestige beauty market: high-end skin solutions that were suitable for sensitive skin. After initial success through... View Details

Keywords: Prestige Beauty; Skincare; Preferred Shares; Common Stock; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Decision Choices and Conditions; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

18 Dec 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Concentration Levels in the U.S. Advertising and Marketing Services Industry: Myth vs. Reality

Keywords: by Alvin J. Silk & Charles King III; Advertising

September 2011 (Revised November 2011)
Case

CP Group: Balancing the Needs of a Family Business with the Needs of a Family of Businesses

By: William C. Kirby and Tracy Yuen Manty

As a second generation business leader, Chairman Dhanin Chearavanont took over the family agribusiness company and built it to become a major diversified conglomerate in Thailand and expanded the business in SE Asia and China. While growing the business, he and his... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Family Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Conglomerates; Family Ownership; Growth and Development; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Thailand; China; Southeast Asia

10 Nov 2015
First Look

November 10, 2015

multivariate time series model to investigate the interaction between paid search and display ads and calibrate the model using data from a large commercial bank that uses online ads to acquire new checking account customers. We find that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2011
Article

The New M&A Playbook

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Richard Alton, Curtis Rising and Andrew Waldeck

Companies spend more than $2 trillion on acquisitions every year, yet the M&A failure rate is between 70% and 90%. Executives can dramatically increase their odds of success, the authors argue, if they understand how to select targets, how much to pay for them, and... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Disruptive Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Integration

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April 2021
Case

Transforming BlackBerry: From Smartphones to Software

By: Ranjay Gulati and Nicole Tempest Keller

On the verge of failure, BlackBerry brought in John Chen as CEO in 2013 to orchestrate a bold turnaround of the company. Once an iconic leader in the smartphone market, BlackBerry was best known for its tactile QWERTY keyboard, strong security, and a focus on business... View Details

Keywords: Pivot; Managing Change; Turnaround; Smartphone; Change Management; Leading Change; Transformation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Digital Platforms; Change; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Competitive Strategy; Cybersecurity; Technology Industry; Transportation Industry; Canada

2012
Book

Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business

By: Frances Frei and Anne Morriss

Most companies treat service as a low-priority business operation, keeping it out of the spotlight until a customer complains. Then service gets to make a brief appearance—for as long as it takes to calm the customer down and fix whatever foul-up jeopardized the... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Business Ventures

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December 1986 (Revised August 1988)
Case

LifeSpan Inc.: Abbott Northwestern Hospital

Raises the powerful issues of measuring marketing performance in a not-for-profit services setting. Also raises several interesting ethical issues. LifeSpan Inc., a Minneapolis based not-for-profit organization is the parent holding company of three hospitals and... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Ethics; Marketing Communications; Health Care and Treatment; Service Industry; Health Industry; Minneapolis

Research Summary

Corruption

By: Paul M. Healy

World Bank estimates indicate that as much as $1 trillion is paid in bribes throughout the world in a given year. Corruption has been shown to slow economic development. My research focuses on how corruption affects multinational companies. It discusses differences... View Details

Keywords: Corruption; Internal Governance

August 1986 (Revised May 2005)
Case

Mike Finkelstein (B)

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin, Charles Bryan and Ken Leet

Following his successful turnaround of WTXX, Waterbury, Mike Finkelstein joined Odyssey Partners with a mandate to build a communications company. From 1982-1985, he acquired three more stations, financing each as an independent partnership. However, increasing... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Cash; Business or Company Management; Bonds; Cost vs Benefits; SWOT Analysis; Alignment; Acquisition; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Communications Industry

11 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: Dec. 11

information about address value and assuring allocative efficiency. Download the paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=41297 Vulnerable Banks Authors:Greenwood, Robin, Augustin Landier, and David Thesmar Abstract When a View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jan 2007
Op-Ed

Learning from Private-Equity Boards

to $3 billion revenue range, and $500,000 to $1 million in personal holdings for directors of large companies with more than $3 billion in revenues. The directors of professionally sponsored buyouts... View Details

Keywords: by Malcolm Salter; Financial Services

June 2022 (Revised October 2022)
Case

Can Goodr Fight Food Insecurity at Scale?

By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr

Jasmine Crowe founded Goodr to redirect food waste to people in need. Now a profitable enterprise, she’s searching for Series A funding and encountering pushback. Scaling and contract concerns are also at the forefront of her mind, but so are her values. Feeding... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Investor Demand; Food; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Values and Beliefs; Social Issues; Race; Opportunities; Contracts; Mission and Purpose; Financing and Loans

February 2021 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Board Director Dilemmas—Back the SPAC?

By: Suraj Srinivasan, David G. Fubini and Amram Migdal

This case focuses on a board director of a diversified holding company. The firm’s longtime CEO had always exhibited a cautious, methodical approach to growth. Now, the CEO is raising the idea of joining with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to spin off... View Details

Keywords: Board Director; Strategy; Change Management; Decision Making

24 Jan 2024
Op-Ed

Why Boeing’s Problems with the 737 MAX Began More Than 25 Years Ago

pressure to fix the MAX fuselage panel and win back market share. However, his real task must be to restore Boeing’s culture of aviation excellence—a long-term project that is the only real solution to restore this once iconic company to... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Air Transportation; Transportation; Aerospace

August 2013 (Revised November 2013)
Case

Gordon Brothers: Collateralizing Corporate Loans by Brands

By: Paul Healy and Maria Loumioti

The case explores the collateralization of intellectual property in a loan agreement between a highly leveraged apparel company and a large US bank. Leveraging intangibles in the credit market is a new practice that has significantly grown over the past few years.... View Details

Keywords: Intangible Assets; Accounting; Valuation; Finance; Restructuring; United States

February 1993 (Revised October 1993)
Case

Brent Walker Group PLC,The

The Brent Walker Group completed the largest out-of-court restructuring in the United Kingdom. After overexpansion in the 1980s, the company pursued a large acquisition financed with debt and then encountered falling asset prices. With the assistance of the Bank of... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; United Kingdom