Publications

April 2005 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Furman Selz LLC (A): A Tale of Two Acquisitions

By: Nancy D. Beaulieu, Boris Groysberg and Kyle Doherty

Profiles a firm that was reacquired by two companies with different degrees of success. Highlights integration challenges present in acquisition deals when the primary assets of the target are human capital. Focuses on Furman Selz's acquisition by Xerox in 1987; its... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Transition; Valuation; Human Capital; Compensation and Benefits; Integration; Organizational Culture; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

March 1998 (Revised June 1999)
Case

DigitalThink: Building a Sales Force

By: Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Christina L. Darwall

A broad set of issues faces a young company in the Internet-based training business as it begins to sell its product to corporate customers. Issues include: profile of attractive candidates, compensation, definition of territory, definition of quotas, and role of... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Salesforce Management; Business Startups; Service Industry

August 1974 (Revised April 1983)
Case

Peter Olafson (A)

By: John J. Gabarro

Describes the problems facing a recent MBA graduate in his job as general manager of a cable television company owned by a parent corporation. Raises issues of corporate divisional relationships and the difficulties facing an inexperienced manager who seems to be... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Television Entertainment; Managerial Roles; Organizational Design; Problems and Challenges

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January 2010 (Revised May 2012)
Case

TopCoder (A): Developing Software through Crowdsourcing

By: Karim R. Lakhani, David A. Garvin and Eric Lonstein

TopCoder's crowdsourcing-based business model, in which software is developed through online tournaments, is presented. The case highlights how TopCoder has created a unique two-sided innovation platform consisting of a global community of over 225,000 developers who... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Innovation and Invention; Two-Sided Platforms; Motivation and Incentives; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Software; Technology Industry

October 2004
Case

Continuing Transformation of Asahi Glass, The: Implementing EVA

By: Mihir A. Desai, Masako Egawa and Yanjun Wang

This case explores the use of EVA--economic value added--methodology at Asahi Glass. EVA is among the changes initiated by the CEO aimed at transforming Asahi Glass from a traditional Japanese company to a global firm. Other changes included a corporate reorganization... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Change Management; Global Strategy; Corporate Governance; Recruitment; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Performance Evaluation

April 2011
Article

Local Dividend Clienteles

We exploit demographic variation to identify the effect of dividend demand on corporate payout policy. Retail investors tend to hold local stocks, and older investors prefer dividend-paying stocks. Together, these tendencies generate geographically varying demand for... View Details

Keywords: Business Headquarters; Demographics; Investment; Geographic Location; Policy; Business and Shareholder Relations

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November 2020
Case

Valuing Celgene's CVR

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

When Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) acquired Celgene Corporation in November 2019, Celgene shareholders received cash, BMS stock, and a contingent value right (CVRs) that would pay $9 if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved three of Celgene’s late stage... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Value; Valuation; Judgments; Decision Making; Cash Flow; Financial Instruments; Cognition and Thinking; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry; United States

2010
Working Paper

Does Diversification Create Value in the Presence of External Financing Constraints? Evidence from the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis

We show that the value of corporate diversification increased during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Diversification gave firms both financing and investment advantages. First, conglomerates became significantly more leveraged relative to comparable focused firms.... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Financial Crisis; Resource Allocation; Investment; Financing and Loans; Business Conglomerates; Capital Markets

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February 2016 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Dinr: My First Start-up (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Kristina Maslauskaite

In May 2012, a young employee at Google's London office, Markus Berger, was thinking whether he should quit his job and go after his dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Berger's idea was to create Dinr, a company that would offer an upscale food ingredient delivery... View Details

Keywords: Exit Strategy; Startup; Start-up; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Food

Program

Leading Professional Service Firms

frameworks you need to develop and retain talent, deliver outstanding client service, and build a flexible corporate culture that can exploit disruptive innovation and market trends. Key Benefits In this intensive program led by... View Details

Keywords: Professional Services; Professional Services

Career Coach

Phillip Andrews

Phillip (MPA, New Hampshire ’06; JD, Suffolk Law ’09) is a Corporate Relations Director in HBS Career & Professional Development responsible for employer relations in Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as the... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital

March 2011
Exercise

Customer Intelligence Advantage: Module 2 Assignment

By: F. Asis Martinez Jerez

This exercise directs students to analyze a customer-centric firm by first understanding the elements that characterize a customer-centric organization, then by capturing and comparing this firm's approach to customer-centricity. Students interview three levels in the... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Employees; Knowledge Sharing; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership; Competitive Advantage

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December 1986 (Revised January 1988)
Case

Hewlett-Packard: Manufacturing Productivity Division (C)

By: Benson P. Shapiro and Lawrence B. Levine

Focuses on the development of a "market driven" culture at Hewlett-Packard (HP); the conflict between autonomous, well integrated divisions making products responsive to their own markets and a greater degree of systems integration at the corporate level; and the... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Production; Organizational Culture; Research and Development; Sales; Integration; Manufacturing Industry

March 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Fleet Financial Group Sponsorship of Monet in the 20th Century

By: Stephen A. Greyser and David Crockett

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Fleet Financial Group's sponsored the Monet in the 20th Century exhibition, the world's largest, in 1998. The case chronicles the solicitation of a large corporate sponsor, as well as the growth and development of their... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Finance; Product Development; For-Profit Firms; Partners and Partnerships; Arts; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention; Fine Arts Industry; Financial Services Industry; Massachusetts

June 2013
Teaching Plan

Citigroup-Wachovia-Wells Fargo

By: Guhan Subramanian and Charlotte Krontiris

This case follows the events of a crucial week in the 2008 financial crisis, when the federal government orchestrated the sale of Wachovia Bank first to Citigroup and then, in a surprise move, to Wells Fargo. We examine the extraordinary relations between government... View Details

Keywords: Citigroup; Wachovia; Wells Fargo; FDIC; Acquisition; Financial Crisis; Banks and Banking; Business and Government Relations; Banking Industry; United States

April 2022 (Revised May 2022)
Case

Mastercard Labs (A) (Abridged)

By: Linda A. Hill, Sunil Gupta, Emily Tedards and Julia Kelley

When Ajaypal (Ajay) Banga became the CEO of Mastercard in 2010, he shifted the company’s competitive focus from card networks to cash itself. Mastercard’s new vision of a “World Beyond Cash” distilled into a three-pronged framework: Grow the core business, Diversify... View Details

October 2002 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Collabrys, Inc. (A)-The Evolution of a Startup

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Brian DeLacey

The CEO of a two-year-old start-up must now decide whether to become a technology provider or a service agency. In a time of enormous uncertainty about the viability of various business models for Internet-delivered services and products, Collabrys has survived the... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Technological Innovation; Cost vs Benefits; Partners and Partnerships; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; United States

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