Publications

Article

How a Fast-Growing Startup Built Its Sales Team for Long-Term Success

By: Frank V. Cespedes and David Mattson

It’s common for leaders of sales teams to focus almost exclusively on short-term tactics and current operations while failing to think and act in a way that supports the longer-term needs of their businesses—and it’s hard to fault them. The biggest problem with a... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Salesforce Management; Management Practices and Processes

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2017
Book

Entering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right Job

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang

Many professionals aspire to work for startups. Executives from large companies view them as models to help them adapt to today's dynamic innovation economy, while freshly minted MBAs see magic in founding something new. Yes, startups look magical, but they can also be... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Managerial Roles; Job Search

February 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Mattermark

By: Jeffrey Bussgang and Annelena Lobb

Mattermark, a software-as-a-service company that sold software allowing companies to access financial information about privately-held companies and startups, was at a turning point. CEO Danielle Morrill had to allocate investment funding from a Series A round. She... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Marketing; Strategy; Technology Industry; United States

January 1999
Exercise

Seneca Systems (A): General and Confidential Instructions for C. Stevens, Vice President, Assembly Division

Seneca is a three-party negotiation-mediation simulation. The context is a product failure crisis in a manufacturing company with highly autonomous units. The heads of two divisions are in a dispute over who has responsibility for failures in a key product. The head of... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Participants; Business Divisions; Power and Influence; Manufacturing Industry

Article

How Mission-Driven Companies Create Long-Term Shareholder Value

By: William W. George

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Business Ventures; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value

19 Oct 1997 - 20 Oct 1997
Conference Presentation

Challenges Facing Family Companies in the Gulf Region

By: J. A. Davis, E. Pitts and K. Cormier

Keywords: Family Business; Local Range; Problems and Challenges; Mexico, Gulf of

November 1978 (Revised January 1983)
Case

Vick International Division: Tom McGuire

Explores the ways in which International Division management uses formal management systems in carrying out its roles in the management processes of one division of a diversified drug company. View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Business Divisions; Management Systems; Pharmaceutical Industry

Fast Answer

Incubators

Research Parks: Research parks are generally set up to commercialize research. Lists of members are available on the site. Small Business Innovation Research Program- Accelerators and Incubators: Overseen by the Small View Details

Georges F. Doriot

Doriot founded the first and one of the most successful publicly traded venture capital corporations in the United States. While American R&D funded numerous business entities, Doriot’s big success came... View Details

Keywords: Finance

Web

In the News - Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, Venture Capital Advisors, and Lawyers-in-Residence 10 Sep 2024 HBS Working Knowledge What Happens When Business Owners Turn to ChatBots for Advice Re: Rembrand (Rem) Koning 04 Sep... View Details

November 2017
Case

BeiGene

By: Willy Shih and Jimmy Zhang

BeiGene was a biopharmaceutical company founded on exploiting a temporal regulatory policy discontinuity. Because of regulatory challenges in China, most innovative new drugs launched there four to six years after their initial U.S. launches. This gave BeiGene a window... View Details

Keywords: Biotechnology; Pharmaceutical Company; Pharmaceuticals; China; Regulatory Environment; Business Strategy; Business Startups; Innovation Strategy; Situation or Environment; Pharmaceutical Industry; China

January 2011
Supplement

Shar Matin (C)

By: David A. Thomas and Elisa Farri

The head of the subsidiary of a US company faced the decision to present an aggressive growth plan despite his CFO's lack of support. View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Decisions; Growth and Development Strategy; Planning

January 2008 (Revised March 2008)
Supplement

Uría Menéndez (C)

By: Robert G. Eccles

The Uria Menendez C case describes the passing of the firm's founder, Rodrigo Uria, its continued success (including being one of the Top 10 MNA law firms in the world) and its decision to open an office in Warsaw. View Details

Keywords: Business Offices; Decisions; Success; Expansion; Legal Services Industry; Iberian Peninsula; Poland

May 1993 (Revised June 2004)
Case

PepsiCo Bottling in Mexico

By: Kenneth A. Froot

This case describes Pepsico's program to restructure its Mexican bottling network. It wants to work with existing bottlers and find an organizational arrangement that will allow the bottlers to grow and change with the Mexican soft drink industry. View Details

Keywords: Bottling; Mergers and Acquisitions; Joint Ventures; Multinational Firms and Management; International Finance; Valuation; Programs; Organizational Design; Food and Beverage Industry; Mexico

Profile

Phil Strazzulla

Why was earning your MBA at HBS important to you? When I was working in venture capital, I ran into so many CEOs that had gone to HBS. When I was accepted into the program, every single one said, "I'm jealous, you're about to have... View Details

Keywords: Technology

March 1989 (Revised October 1994)
Case

Philip Morris Companies and Kraft, Inc.

By: Richard S. Ruback

Gives students the opportunity to explore the effect of substantial free cash flow on corporate acquisition and operating strategies. Students are also given the opportunity to extract information from the common stock prices of the participating firms. A variety of... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Strategic Planning; Acquisition; Strategy; Restructuring; Valuation; Stocks

February 2010 (Revised January 2014)
Supplement

CommonAngels (B)

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Kaitlyn Simpson

This case discusses changes in CommonAngels' investment model and organization between 2005 and 2009. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Organizational Structure; Social and Collaborative Networks; Financial Services Industry

01 Dec 1997
News

Making Real Progress in the Middle East: The Bottom-Up, Economic Solution

than 35 Israeli-Jordanian and Israeli- Egyptian joint ventures are already up and running. Why are top Middle Eastern business leaders now seeking out strategic alliances with their neighbors? What benefits... View Details

Keywords: Michael Porter, Yagil Weinberg, and Noreena Hertz

December 2011
Article

How Do Acquirers Retain Successful Target CEOs? The Role of Governance

By: Julie Wulf and Harbir Singh

The resource-based view argues that acquisitions can build competitive advantage partially through retention of valuable human capital of the target firm. However, making commitments to retain and motivate successful top managers is a challenge when contracts are not... View Details

Keywords: Capital; Mergers and Acquisitions; Acquisition; Equity; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Contracts; Performance; Governance; Legal Services Industry