Publications

January 2010 (Revised March 2010)
Compilation

Firm Strategy Vignettes

By: Josh Lerner, G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

These three vignettes present various issues around the strategy and management of a private equity firm. In one, a senior partner must decide how to manage an over-extended colleague and how to reduce the risk of the firm's portfolio; in the second, a limited partner... View Details

Keywords: Outcome or Result; Business Strategy; Problems and Challenges; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Partners and Partnerships

18 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 18, 2007

Andrew Banks and Royce Yudkoff were considering raising a 5th fund for their media-focused private equity firm, ABRY Partners. ABRY had a strong track record that the co-founders attributed to their group's deep knowledge of the media... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

12 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 12, 2008

provides a rich description of Enterprise Risk Management in action and shows how Hydro One executives arrive at a shared understanding of the risk profile of the company. In the narrative a diverse group of managers (the chief executive, the chief financial officer,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January–February 2013
Article

When the Crowd Fights Corruption

By: Paul M. Healy and Karthik Ramanna

Corruption is the greatest impediment to conducting business in Russia, according to leaders recently surveyed by the World Economic Forum. Indeed, it's a problem in many emerging markets, and businesses have a role to play in combating it, according to Healy and... View Details

Keywords: Corruption; Emerging Economies; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Globalization; Russia; Georgia (nation, Asia); India

Find at Harvard

January 2009 (Revised May 2010)
Case

Altoona State Investment Board: December 2008

By: Josh Lerner

Rod Calhoun, the head of the Altoona State Investment Board's private equity investment program, considered the communication he had just received. It was from Permira, the leading European buyout fund, and concerned its fourth fund, to which Altoona had made a £ 100... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Investment Funds; Partners and Partnerships

Web

Required Curriculum - MBA

and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, hostile takeovers, initial public offerings) Leadership and Corporate Accountability (LCA) In this course, students learn about the complex responsibilities facing business leaders today. Through cases... View Details

December 2019
Case

WeWork Files for an IPO

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

For the board of The We Company—better known as WeWork—August 14, 2019, promised to be a pivotal day. It was then that WeWork’s IPO prospectus, known as an S-1 filing, would be made public, giving potential investors, the media, and the general public a window into the... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Leadership; Management; Private Equity; Valuation; Venture Capital; Real Estate Industry; Technology Industry; United States

Professor Bradley is the William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. In addition to teaching Management and Strategy in the Owner President Management Program and leading an... View Details

Keywords: e-commerce industry; financial services; health care; high technology; internet; pharmaceuticals; telecommunications

13 Nov 2018
Blog Post

Leadership Fellow Henry Tsai: Working with City Leadership to Leverage Technology

Strategically, it made sense to look at public sector service at the city level.” Tactically, San Jose emerged as Henry’s optimal Leadership Fellows opportunity. “It involved tech, and it would bring me back to the Bay Area, where I... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Nonprofit / Government

March 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

The Blackstone Group's IPO

By: Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Steven Schwarzman, Chairman of the Blackstone Group, has just learned that an investment group associated with the government of China wants to buy the majority of Blackstone's leveraged IPO. As he considers how to respond to this offer, Schwarzman reviews the firm's... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Ownership Stake; Business and Stakeholder Relations

05 Dec 2018
Blog Post

Leadership Fellow Henry Tsai: Working With City Leadership To Leverage Technology

government, cities are the closest thing to a business. Strategically, it made sense to look at public sector service at the city level.” Tactically, San Jose emerged as Henry’s optimal Leadership Fellows opportunity. “It involved tech,... View Details

26 Mar 2014
HBS Seminar

Brian Kahin, MIT

Program

Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and Acquisition program is of particular interest to: Senior executives in the C-Suite Directors of public and private companies Board chairs and directors Heads of strategy and corporate development... View Details

October 2001 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Exxel Group, The: March 2001

By: Josh Lerner and Alberto Ballve

The Exxel Group, a leading Latin American buyout fund, faces a challenge when deciding whether and how to exit its largest investment. The capital markets are very weak, precluding an initial public offering. Undertaking a trade sale of the firm, however, proves to be... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Private Equity; Leveraged Buyouts; Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Latin America

Web

Live from Klarman Hall - Alumni

Emerita; Co-chair, Race, Gender, and Equity Initiative Women & Tech 10:30–11:15 a.m. EST Faculty Moderator: Tsedal Neeley , Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration Alumni Speakers: Carolyn Everson (MBA 1999) , Board Director, View Details

18 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, April 18, 2018

U.S. private equity industry over 10 years, we investigate the consequences of the ideological misfit that arises when individuals’ political ideologies diverge substantially from the prevailing ideology of their firms. We hypothesize... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2008
Case

Threadless: The Business of Community

By: Karim R. Lakhani and Zahra Kanji

Threadless.com, the online, Chicago-based t-shirt company, was not your typical fashion apparel company. The company, run by Jake Nickell, Jacob DeHart, and Jeffrey Kalmikoff, turned the fashion business on its head by enabling anyone to submit designs for t-shirts and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Innovation and Invention; Product Design; Partners and Partnerships; Social and Collaborative Networks; Apparel and Accessories Industry

08 Dec 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Are There Too Many Safe Securities? Securitization and the Incentives for Information Production

Keywords: by Samuel G. Hanson & Adi Sunderam; Financial Services

December 2010
Compilation

VCPE Strategy Vignettes I

By: Josh Lerner, G. Felda Hardymon, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, Ann Leamon and Lisa Strope

These three vignettes present various issues around the strategy and management of venture capital and private equity firms. In one, the general partners must decide whether to invest in an intriguing opportunity that lies outside the firm's carefully developed... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Private Equity; Financial Strategy; Projects; Decision Choices and Conditions; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Investment Portfolio; Business or Company Management; China