Publications

23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

How One Center of Innovation Lost its Spark

preceding decades. Similarly, the assumption that tires was a growth industry was enacted through the capital budgeting process that resulted in a steady stream of new factories being built to meet rising demand. When faced with the... View Details

Keywords: by Donald Sull; Manufacturing; Transportation; Auto

February 1991 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Tennessee Controls: The Strategic Ranking Problem

By: Robert L. Simons and Dale Geiger

Tennessee Controls has instituted a new formal asset acquisition process to rank competing proposals. Judy Starnes, the new division manager, is asked to rank three proposals by using techniques to quantify economic returns, risk, as well as the credibility of the... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Governance Controls; Management Systems; Strategic Planning; Mathematical Methods; Electronics Industry

10 Feb 2003
Research & Ideas

Women at Work

By Even with such diverse stories, the panelists had surprisingly similar advice for balancing their lives: Outsource. Outsource as much as you can afford. Time together with your family is more important than doing errands. "Think about what you don't want anyone... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild

September 2011 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Telemonitoring at Visiting Nurse Health System

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Mark Keil and Mala Kaul

The Telemonitoring at Visiting Nurse Health System case presents one home healthcare organization's efforts to use telemonitoring to improve the quality of care provided to at-risk patients who were discharged from hospitals and needed home care. After two years of... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Cost vs Benefits; Risk Management; Technology Adoption; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; Technology Industry

24 Jun 2015
HBS Case

Upgrading School with a Startup Mentality

school systems typically devote up to 85 percent of their budgets to personnel. This creates heavy managerial burdens and difficulties in aligning staffing to meet the needs of students and parents. AltSchool's microschool strategy... View Details

Keywords: Re: John Jong-Hyun Kim; Education

16 Dec 2014
First Look

First Look: December 16

the severity of pension plan underfunding, state budget deficits, and the use of high discount rates. Further we find opposing states are subject to more stringent balanced budget requirements and greater... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Aug 2016
First Look

August 2, 2016

Russia’s car services industry positioned them well to truly understand their customers and ultimately expand to other major cities. But with limited budgets to acquire talented and expensive platform developers, Fasten needed to ensure... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 1

organization induced teachers to volunteer their knowledge and preferences, which otherwise would have been difficult to elicit. Although governance was a struggle, none of the cases in our sample suffered a "tragedy of the commons" in terms of View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

25 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Who Wants to Be an Entrepreneur? [Part II]

company could hope to offer any customer. Beyond the daunting technology, Bronner's notion also depended on persuading national partners to direct their marketing budgets toward this kind of unproven customer reward. And meeting both... View Details

Keywords: by John S. Rosenberg

25 Mar 2014
First Look

First Look: March 25

School Case 514-079 Dumb Ways to Die: Advertising Train Safety (A) The case series focuses on Melbourne Trains' viral advertising campaign to improve safe behaviors around trains among young people. This iconic, low budget campaign swept... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

14 Jan 2014
First Look

First Look: January 14

chemical company, is in the midst of the first use of a new zero-base budgeting system. The general manager of the division leading the process is experiencing disagreement and conflict among the members of the senior management team.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 May 2020
In Practice

Nonprofits Hurt by COVID-19 Must Hoard Cash to Hold On

funds and budgets ready, should deploy these early to their portfolios of mission-driven organizations, especially those that may be providing critical care to those in need. High quality, well-run social impact organizations are critical... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

21 Nov 2006
First Look

First Look: November 21, 2006

exhibits. Purchase this case: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=607019 Wendy Kopp and Teach for America (A) Harvard Business School Case 406-125 In 1995, Wendy Kopp, founder and president of Teach for America, faces a worsening View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 1994
Case

VideoGuide, Inc. (A)

By: William A. Sahlman and Jason Green

VideoGuide is emerging from a development stage start-up and requires a significant capital infusion to commercialize its product. Various financing options are considered including going public, venture capital, private placement, or a strategic partner. Given the... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Capital; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Initial Public Offering; Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Growth and Development Strategy; Going Public

January 2001 (Revised May 2010)
Case

BP Amoco (B): Financing Development of the Caspian Oil Fields

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Michael Kane

British Petroleum and Amoco were the two largest members of the Azerbaijan International Oil Consortium (AIOC), an 11-firm consortium that was spending $10 billion to develop oil fields in the Caspian Sea. As of March 1999, AIOC had completed a $1.9 billion development... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Policy; Capital Budgeting; Project Finance; Emerging Markets; Mergers and Acquisitions; Financing and Loans; Financial Strategy; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; United Kingdom; Europe

June 2003
Case

Peabody Simpson at the Crossroads

By: Rajiv Lal, Nitin Nohria and Leslie Freeman

Three managing directors at Peabody Simpson had just returned from a firm-wide recruiting event at Columbia University, which they had covered together, as all were alumni. They were commiserating about having to submit revised forecasts to their division heads by the... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Capital Budgeting; Recruitment; Reports; Organizational Design