Publications

March 2020 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Last Mile Health (A)

By: Brian Trelstad and V. Kasturi Rangan

As the Ebola outbreak threatens the fragile health system of Liberia, Raj Panjabi, the founder of Last Mile Health, faces a dilemma: should he expand beyond the organizaton's core mission to help the country build emergency health care capacity, or should he stick to... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Ebola; Nonprofit Organizations; Health Care and Treatment; Rural Scope; Health Pandemics; Growth and Development; Decisions; Health Industry; Africa

December 2014 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Codecademy: Monetizing a Movement?

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa C. Mazzanti

Codecademy, an open-platform, online community for learning computer programming, launched in 2011. By 2014, the company had raised a total of $12.5 million in funding and was, on many fronts, an overwhelming success. However, there were still no revenues. The founders... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Startup Management; Technology; Computer Programming; Coding; Online Education; Monetization; Online Communities; Marketplaces; Internet and the Web; Education; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; Technology Industry

April 2019 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Western Governors University: 10x Vision

By: William R. Kerr and Susie L. Ma

Western Governors University (WGU) was a nonprofit institution of higher education whose online learning model served more than 100,000 students in 2019 and was scaling rapidly. President Scott Pulsipher wanted to expand WGU’s reach to millions more with a plan called... View Details

Keywords: Online Education; Enrollment; Scaling; Higher Education; Internet and the Web; Business Model; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Education Industry; United States

March 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Brazos Partners and the Tri-Northern Exit

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Nathaniel Burbank

Randall Fojtasek, a partner at the Dallas-based Brazos Private Equity Partners, must decide whether now is the time to sell his firm's investment in Tri-Northern Distribution. Brazos, a middle-market leveraged buyout group, created the company two years earlier through... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Exit; LBO; Leveraged Buyout Transaction; Texas; Security; Brazos; Tri-Northern; Tri-Ed; Northern Video; Private Equity; Partners and Partnerships; Distribution; Leveraged Buyouts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Texas

October 2014
Case

Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference

By: Clayton Rose, Jerome Lenhardt and Daniela Beyersdorfer

For Kai Teckentrup, the owner and co-CEO of the German "Mittelstand" door manufacturer Teckentrup, balancing competitive pressures, demographic realities and values were at the heart of the diversity program that he had started and championed at the company. Beyond... View Details

24 Mar 2015
First Look

First Look: March 24

investigating the workings of both the sell and buy sides of financial analysis, tackles how the U.S. securities industry research adds value in financial markets, and evaluates the business model problems that the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 8

Publications August 2013 The Industrial Policy Revolution I: The Role of Government Beyond Ideology Growth and the Quality of Foreign Direct Investment: Is All FDI Equal By: Alfaro, Laura, and Andrew... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: January 5

become the hubs of the network. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/10-043.pdf Private Equity and Industry Performance Authors:Shai Bernstein, Josh Lerner, Morten Sørensen, and Per Strömberg Abstract The View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

December 1999 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Focuses on Millennium's strategy to grow and revolutionize drug development through the use of new technologies such as genomics. Describes how Millennium Pharmaceuticals--a fast-growing biotechnology firm in Cambridge, MA--has used strategic alliances to finance the... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Financing and Loans; Medical Specialties; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Time Management; Product Development; Problems and Challenges; Alliances; Technology; Biotechnology Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Cambridge

11 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

Is Amazon a Retailer, a Tech Firm, or a Media Company? How AI Can Help Investors Decide

been the attitude toward artificial intelligence within institutional investing? Are investors embracing it? Is there skepticism? Awada: I can tell you from my previous work [as a hedge fund manager] I think... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Consumer Products; Real Estate; Financial Services; Retail

01 Mar 2011
First Look

First Look: March 1

an acquisition is to fundamentally change a company's growth trajectory. In those deals, the acquirer uses the target's business model as a platform for growth. Because the business models with the most transformative potential are often... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty Debate Financial Reform Legislation

therefore, to see how this law will be implemented in practice. In addition, there are likely to be some unintended negative consequences. Will the new derivatives rules pull in various industrial companies that will now have to use... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

14 Mar 2023
In Practice

What Does the Failure of Silicon Valley Bank Say About the State of Finance?

exhaustion after several years of dealing with surprises ranging from shortages and runs on basic goods to the Fed’s limited ability to control or even forecast inflation. Something will also have to be said eventually about the profitable business of inciting runs... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

June 2005 (Revised May 2006)
Case

Vidient (A)

Vidient, a young company, is in the process of being spun out of a much larger, established Japanese business. Vidient is in the business of analyzing the feeds from security cameras and catches security breaches automatically, without human assistance. The parent... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Service Industry; Japan

Find at Harvard

28 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 28, 2009

tax authorities. Download the paper from SSRN ($5): http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=884812 Cases & Course MaterialsAderans Harvard Business School Case 209-090 Steel Partners is a U.S.-based hedge View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, August 8, 2017

intuitions from industrial organization can be reversed: Collusion may become easier as market concentration falls, and market entry may in fact facilitate collusion. In particular, price collusion can be sustained by a strategy in which... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2024
Case

Ashesi University: The Journey from Vision to Reality

By: Ranjay Gulati and Caroline de Lacvivier

In 1997, Patrick Awuah had a dream: to bring liberal arts education to Ghana. Amid the country’s declining economy and pervasive corruption problems, Awuah saw education as an opportunity to reverse its fortunes by investing in the next generation of African leaders.... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Higher Education; Entrepreneurship; Leadership Development; Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Private Ownership; Education Industry; Ghana