Publications

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February 2007 (Revised April 2010)
Teaching Note

Drexel Burnham Lambert (A): "The Smartest People on Wall Street Can Be Had" (TN)

By: Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

Keywords: Stocks

April 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Drexel Burnham Lambert (A): "The Smartest People on Wall Street Can be Had"

By: Boris Groysberg, Anahita Hashemi and Brendan Reed

In February 1990, Drexel Burnham Lambert declared bankruptcy amid a slew of scandals. Equities chief Arthur Kirsch hoped to keep his high-performing 600-person team intact. Could he find a company that would take on such a massive group hire? Competitors were already... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Decision Choices and Conditions; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Selection and Staffing; Leadership; Negotiation; Groups and Teams; Power and Influence; Society

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January 1998
Case

From Wall Street to Main Street: Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Discover & Co.

By: James K. Sebenius and David T. Kotchen

Designed as a follow-up to Morgan Stanley and S.G. Warburg: Investment Bank of the Future (A). View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Valuation; Investment Banking; Mergers and Acquisitions; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

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December 2007 (Revised September 2009)
Case

Wall Street's First Panic (A)

By: David A. Moss and Cole Bolton

In the early 1790s, a flood of newly issued public and private securities sparked an investment boom in the nascent United States. In New York, the bustling commercial district along Wall Street emerged as the center of the city's securities trade. One of the many... View Details

Keywords: History; Financial Instruments; Auctions; Financial Crisis; Business and Government Relations; Financial Services Industry

June 2014
Article

The Price of Wall Street's Power

By: Gautam Mukunda

Over and over again, executives make decisions that aren't in their companies' best interests, in response to pressure from Wall Street. Though many believe this happens because firms have a "fiduciary duty" to maximize shareholder returns, U.S. executives do not, as a... View Details

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September 2018 (Revised January 2022)
Teaching Note

Hank and Nancy: The Subprime Crisis, the Run on Lehman and the Shadow Banks, and the Decision to Bailout Wall Street

By: Alberto Cavallo and Rafael Di Tella

Teaching Note for HBS No. 718-022. View Details

October 2017 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Hank and Nancy: The Subprime Crisis, the Run on Lehman and the Shadow Banks, and the Decision to Bail Out Wall Street

By: Rafael Di Tella, Alberto Cavallo and Aldo Sesia

13 May 2010
Working Paper Summaries

Just Say No to Wall Street: Putting A Stop to the Earnings Game

Keywords: by Joseph Fuller & Michael C. Jensen; Financial Services

08 Sep 2011
What Do You Think?

What’s Apple’s Biggest Challenge: Replacing Steve or Wall Street?

will be a tough task." A second line of thought is, as Khurt Williams commented, "Apple's biggest threat is Wall Street fickleness and incessant focus on growth." Others felt that it is... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Computer

14 May 2018
Research & Ideas

Amazon vs. Whole Foods: When Cultures Collide

critics referred to the store as “Whole Paycheck.” The acquisition was initially met positively by Wall Street, amid hopes that Amazon’s data-driven mindset might be just the thing to enable Whole Foods to scale up and add more stores... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Food & Beverage

02 Dec 2013
Research & Ideas

Companies Choreograph Earnings Calls to Hide Bad News

The quarterly earnings conference call is a traditional way for public companies to disclose information regarding performance and strategy from the prior quarter. Wall Street analysts and other company... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services

2010
Other Unpublished Work

Top Executive Background and Corporate M&A: The Case of Former Investment Bankers

By: Francois Brochet and Kyle Welch

We study the M&A activity of firms with top executives whose employment history includes experience in a Wall Street firm, especially those with investment banking background ("IB executives"). In terms of strategy, controlling for firm-level effects, we document that... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Reputation; Investment Banking; Financial Reporting; Mergers and Acquisitions; Social and Collaborative Networks; Goodwill Accounting; Power and Influence; Banking Industry

November 2010 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Google and Earnings Guidance

By: Francois Brochet and David Kiron

The case explores Google's communication strategy with Wall Street analysts. In particular, the case focuses on Google's commitment to a no-guidance policy and provides an overview of guidance practice among major U.S. companies. View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Communication Strategy; Capital Markets; Corporate Disclosure; Corporate Governance; Business and Shareholder Relations; United States

November 1999
Supplement

"ACT UP": Peter Staley, An Interview with Professor Willis Emmons, November 17, 1995

By: Willis M. Emmons III

Provides excerpts from an interview with Peter Staley of Act Up reflecting on the Wall Street protest against Burroughs Wellcome in the fall of 1989 and on the role and impact of AIDS advocacy and activism in general. View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Social Issues; Public Opinion; Pharmaceutical Industry

June 2023
Case

Block: Creating an Ecosystem of Ecosystems

By: Lauren Cohen, Richard Ryffel, Grace Headinger and Ruoshi Qi

At Investor Day 2022, Block announced a new vision for its businesses: creating an ecosystem of ecosystems. Outside the norm for many public growth companies, Block had recently acquired a variety of new business streams in the creator economy and Bitcoin despite a... View Details

July 2023 (Revised November 2023)
Supplement

Equity Restructuring at Dell Technologies: Buy Out, Buy Up, Buy In (B)

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

Following Dell’s return to the public market in 2018, the company’s stock underperformed. In June 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that Dell was exploring various options with respect to its majority stake in the virtualization software company VMware. View Details

Keywords: Recapitalization; Reverse Merger; Spin Off; Public Ownership; Restructuring; Technology Industry; United States

February 1985
Case

Business Research Corp. (B)

By: William A. Sahlman

Contains a description of a set of related decisions confronting the management and directors of Business Research Corp. (BRC) in April of 1984. BRC needs more capital to finance continued development of the market for a full-text database comprised of Wall Street... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Finance; Capital Structure; Capital; Goals and Objectives; Conflict of Interests; Business Plan; Financing and Loans; Ethics

February 2014
Case

The Fall of the 'Fabulous Fab'

By: Eugene F. Soltes and Nanette Byrnes

Fabrice Tourre, a mid-level trader at Goldman Sachs, seeks to understand how he was one of the only executives of any Wall Street firm held accountable in the aftermath of the financial crises. The case includes commentary from Tourre and jurors that found him guilty... View Details

Keywords: Management; Corporate Accountability; Ethics; Financial Crisis; Finance; Financial Services Industry; United States

January 2006 (Revised June 2008)
Case

Lehman Brothers (A): Rise of the Equity Research Department

By: Ashish Nanda, Boris Groysberg and Lauren Prusiner

Under Jack Rivkin's leadership, Shearson Lehman's research department rose from relative obscurity to the highest ranking research department on Wall Street within three years. When Rivkin is promoted to head of equity, he wonders how to succeed in his new position. A... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Leadership; Service Operations; Organizational Culture; Research; Alignment