Publications

Article

The Error at the Heart of Corporate Leadership

By: Joseph L. Bower and Lynn S. Paine

Agency theory, a new model of governance promulgated by academic economists in the 1970s, is behind the idea that corporate managers should make shareholder value their primary concern and that boards should ensure they do. The theory regards shareholders as owners of... View Details

Keywords: Agency Theory; Business and Shareholder Relations; Leadership; Corporate Governance

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February 2011
Exercise

Pitch Your Project!

By: Thomas Steenburgh

No matter what you do later in your career, you are going to have to learn how to pitch ideas. Perhaps you will want to convince a venture capitalist to invest in your new business idea. Perhaps you will want to convince your company to develop an innovative product.... View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Change; Venture Capital; Governing and Advisory Boards; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Product Development; Interests; Complexity; Chicago; New York (state, US)

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Faculty & Research

Business Review During the past few years, as evidence of climate change and its effects has mounted, many corporate boards have added climate governance to their agendas. But the maturity of boards’ climate-oversight processes and... View Details

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Find Answers - MBA

leadership-focused, business-minded, and growth-oriented. Find out more . In which part of the application may I enter additional information, including special circumstances? Please enter important information that you want the Board to... View Details

August 2020 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Nubank: Democratizing Financial Services

By: Michael Chu, Carla Larangeira and Pedro Levindo

Nubank, a wholly-digital solution created to disrupt Brazilian banking, with 6 million clients and a $4 billion valuation after five years, must decide whether to expand to Mexico. The company was founded in São Paulo in 2013 by Colombian-born David Vélez to seize what... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Financial Inclusion; Digital Banking; Credit Cards; Banks and Banking; Disruption; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Financial Services Industry; South America; Brazil; North America; Mexico

September 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Progress Energy and Duke Energy (A)

By: Guhan Subramanian and Charlotte Krontiris

Just as Duke Energy and Progress Energy announce their merger—forming the largest utility company in the United States, to be led by the current Progress CEO—a nuclear reactor owned by Progress suffers major damage and must be taken offline. While Progress grapples... View Details

Keywords: Duke; Progress; Nuclear Energy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Energy Sources; Energy Industry; United States

October 2012
Supplement

Olympus (B)

By: Jay W. Lorsch, Suraj Srinivasan and Kathleen Durante

This case outlines Michael Woodford's awards and honors, after having been fired from Olympus in October 2011. It discusses the repercussions following an investigation into the fraud and the report that was released thereafter. It also discusses the lawsuit that... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Corporate Governance; Health Industry; Electronics Industry; Japan

March 2009 (Revised July 2009)
Case

KiOR: Catalyzing Clean Energy

By: Ramana Nanda and Toby E. Stuart

Biofuels start-up KiOR was developing a proprietary technology that had the potential to dramatically impact the emerging renewable energy landscape: a process that converted cellulosic biomass into "bio-crude," a hydrocarbon mixture with properties to those of crude... View Details

Keywords: Business Headquarters; Decision Choices and Conditions; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Geographic Location

16 Jul 2021
Blog Post

Staying Under the 1.5°C Threshold: The Role of Government, Business, and Society

On Earth Day 2021, the HBS Business and Environment Initiative and the AMP199 Energy Circle co-hosted a conversation between Joan MacNaughton, Chair of the Climate Group and of the Advisory Board of the New Energy Coalition of Europe, and... View Details

November 2008 (Revised April 2010)
Case

The Bridgespan Group: Chapter 2

By: Allen S. Grossman, Naomi Greckol-Herlich and Cathy Ross

The Bridgespan Group was launched in 2000 by management consulting group Bain & Company as a nonprofit focused on strategy consulting for nonprofits and philanthropists. Over the next eight years, Bridgespan expanded its services to include executive search, knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Operations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Expansion; Consulting Industry

June 2003 (Revised June 2003)
Background Note

M & A Legal Context: Basic Framework for Corporate Governance

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin, Constance E. Bagley and James Quinn

Students are introduced to the basic framework for corporate governance. Begins by describing the complex role of the modern corporation, then proceeds by discussing the fiduciary duties to which a board of trustees is bound (duty of care, duty of loyalty, etc.), and... View Details

Keywords: Framework; Corporate Governance

25 Oct 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Management: Theory and Practice, and Cases

Keywords: by Richard L. Nolan; Education

21 Dec 2020
News

Space Economics: Hunting Stags in Space

8 AM – 5 PM GMT, 10 May 2018
Career Events

HBS MBA Alumni Career Reboot Camp in London

Career Reboot Camp is coming to London! Led by Professor Tim Butler and facilitated by HBS career coaches, participants will work through exercises to reflect on their key career interests, what's important to them in work and life, and create a plan to move forward... View Details

8 AM – 5 PM EDT, 02 Jun 2016

Career Reboot Camp in Boston

Career Reboot Camp is taking place at HBS. Led by Professor Tim Butler and facilitated by HBS career coaches, participants will work through exercises to reflect on their key career interests, what's important to them in work and life, and create a plan to move forward... View Details

8 AM – 5 PM EDT, 28 Apr 2017
Career Events

Career Reboot Camp in Washington, D.C.

Career Reboot Camp is coming to Washington, D.C.! Led by Professor Tim Butler and facilitated by HBS career coaches, participants will work through exercises to reflect on their key career interests, what's important to them in work and life, and create a plan to move... View Details

January 2007 (Revised April 2007)
Case

The Tale of the Lynx (A and B)

By: Noam T. Wasserman

The founders of Lynx Solutions have survived major challenges within their board of directors, the firing of Lynx's founder-CEO and departure of its successor CEO, and a crisis sparked by media allegations that it had been spying on its users. Now that the company is... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Growth and Maturation; Ethics; Decision Choices and Conditions; Management Succession; Conflict and Resolution; Management Teams; Information Technology Industry

October 2021
Case

Financial Reporting at Mattel

By: Aiyesha Dey, Trung Nguyen, Marshal Herrmann and Julia Kelley

In September 2020, Diana Ferguson was nearing her first Audit Committee meeting as the newly appointed Audit Committee chair of Mattel, Inc. Mattel was just recovering from an accounting scandal which had revealed the company’s poor internal controls and weak board... View Details

April 1993 (Revised June 1998)
Case

Time Inc.'s Entry into the Entertainment Industry (A)

Richard Munro, Time Inc.'s chairman and CEO, must respond to a hostile tender offer from Paramount Communications. Paramount conditioned its bid on cancellation of Time's plans to merge with Warner Communications. Several months before the hostile Paramount bid, Time... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Market Entry and Exit; Mergers and Acquisitions; Global Strategy; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States