Publications

Teaching Interest

Startup Operations

By: Julia B. Austin

Startup Operations is designed to provide hands-on guidance through the early stages of building your business. Students will test assumptions and hypotheses to evolve their product, build their strategic and operating roadmaps, create organizational plans and... View Details

September 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Old Mutual

By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Kirsty O'Neil-Massaro

Designed to explore the demutualization and listing overseas of one of Africa's largest financial institutions, Old Mutual, and the effects that these actions have on South Africa's domestic capital markets. Explores the particular difficulties that arise as a result... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Global Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Capital Markets; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business Education; Financial Strategy; Business or Company Management; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; South Africa

Find at Harvard

Research Summary

Engaging supply chains in climate change and sustainability issues

This research aims to develop a better understanding of the dynamics between supply chain partners in issues regarding climate change and sustainability. I am particularly interested in better understanding factors that motivate suppliers to share climate change... View Details

2013
Article

Local Industrial Structures and Female Entrepreneurship in India

By: Ejaz Ghani, William R. Kerr and Stephen O'Connell

We analyze the spatial determinants of female entrepreneurship in India in the manufacturing and services sectors. We focus on the presence of incumbent female-owned businesses and their role in promoting higher subsequent female entrepreneurship relative to male... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Gender; Manufacturing Industry; Service Industry; India

March 2016 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Lotus F1 Team

By: Stefan Thomke, Nikolaos Trichakis, Jérôme Lenhardt and Daniela Beyersdorfer

Describes the detailed inner workings of a high performance Formula One (F1) racing team. It shows how Lotus F1 Team has been able to battle bigger rivals in a very fast-moving, highly regulated, and ultra-competitive environment, where winning races can come down to... View Details

Keywords: Formula One; Motor Sport; Racing Cars; Car Development; Supply Chain; Logistics; Innovation and Management; Competitive Advantage; Product Design; Research and Development; Auto Industry; Sports Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Program

Investment Management Workshop

risk managers, portfolio managers, investment advisors, wealth managers, and principals Learning and Living at HBS When you participate in an Executive Education program on the HBS campus, you enter an immersive experience where every aspect View Details

November 2023
Case

Open Source Machine Learning at Google

By: Shane Greenstein, Martin Wattenberg, Fernanda B. Viégas, Daniel Yue and James Barnett

Set in early 2023, the case exposes students to the challenges of managing open source software at Google. The case focuses on the challenges for Alex Spinelli, Vice President of Product Management for Core Machine Learning. He must set priorities for Google’s efforts... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Open Source Distribution; Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; United States

December 2021
Case

Slice Labs: Creating a Fraud-free Online Insurance Platform

By: Amit Goldenberg, Max Bazerman and Ruth Page

"Slice Labs: Creating a Fraud-Free Online Insurance Platform" engages students with the challenge of how to influence other parties to not engage in fraud in the context of digital insurance. The case is centered around Slice, a digital insurance company that was... View Details

January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Ureed.com: The Marketplace for Language

By: Ashley V. Whillans

This case explores the growth of Ureed, an online marketplace for translation services that is powered by a workforce consisting of remote freelancers who are based in the United Arab Emirates. Nour Al Hassan, the founder and CEO faced the challenge of how best to... View Details

Keywords: Language Translation; Freelancers; Remote Work; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Management; Motivation and Incentives; Job Design and Levels

March 2006
Module Note

Valuing Cross-Border Investments

By: Mihir A. Desai and Kathleen Luchs

Describes a core module in the International Finance course at Harvard Business School. The module explores how valuation differs in an international context and introduces students to the major issues in cross-border valuations: how to value investments in currencies... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Currency Exchange Rate; Investment; Framework; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Body of Literature; Risk Management; Projects; Valuation

February 1997 (Revised April 1997)
Case

Harrington Financial Group

By: Robert C. Merton and Alberto Moel

In early 1997, Harrington Bank, a small Indiana savings and loan (thrift) wondered what its next move should be. Harrington was acquired in 1988 by the principals of Smith Breeden Associates, a money-management and consulting firm specializing in the application of... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Mergers and Acquisitions; Price; Risk Management; Mortgages; Contracts; Asset Management; Investment; Financial Services Industry

Program

Strategy: Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage

activating them, making advantage durable, outmaneuvering competitors, driving innovation, identifying and tackling needs for strategy change, and leveraging multi-business and global opportunities. Details Design and evolve effective... View Details

TeachingInterests

FIELD 3: Integrative Intelligence

FIELD 3 brings the entire first-year experience together by challenging students to synthesize the knowledge, skills, and tools acquired in the RC within a real microbusiness they must design and launch themselves. Building on HBS's historic strength in the case... View Details

16 Jun 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Search Diversion, Rent Extraction and Competition

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu & Bruno Jullien; Retail

October 2020
Article

Corporate Legal Structure and Bank Loan Spread

By: Anywhere (Siko) Sikochi

This study examines how a corporate legal structure may affect borrowing costs. Corporate legal structure refers to the legal fragmentation of a firm into multiple, separately incorporated entities. This fragmentation is bound to be a factor when lenders determine the... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Legal Structure; Subsidiaries; Bank Loans; Minority Interest; Credit Risk; Organizational Structure; Business Subsidiaries; Financing and Loans

October 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

Editora Abril S.A.

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Perry Fagan

Brazil's media conglomerate Editora Abril S.A. is Latin America's largest publishing and printing company; it publishes books, and comic books, videos, maps, travel guides, music, and textbooks. It also owns Brazil's largest database marketing company, its... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Communications; Market Design; Media; Service Delivery; Private Ownership; Expansion; Web Sites; Publishing Industry; Service Industry; Brazil

Research Summary

Energy Strategy

By: Forest L. Reinhardt

Forest L. Reinhardt is writing cases and other materials on the strategic problems and opportunitites faced by firms in the energy industry. Significant economies of scale and scope, combined with rapid technological change, present firms in the industry with a... View Details

September 2011 (Revised August 2015)
Case

ScoreBig

By: William A. Sahlman, Jeffrey Glass and Evan W. Richardson

The founding team at ScoreBig, an event ticketing company, is on the verge of a public launch of their product. The company has made great progress in negotiating access to tickets, designing its interface, and building a proprietary architecture. For consumers,... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Corporate Finance; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

2003
Article

BMW Group's Sustainability Management System: Preliminary Results, Ongoing Challenges, and the UN Global Compact

By: Michael W. Toffel, Natalie Hill and Kellie McElhaney

This article describes preliminary results and ongoing challenges faced by Designworks/USA, an industrial design subsidiary of BMW Group, in its sustainability management efforts since it implemented the world's first certified Sustainability Management System (SMS).... View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Management Systems; Standards; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Outcome or Result; Auto Industry