Deal Size - Publications - Faculty & Research

19 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

Climbing the Great Wall of Trust

In recent conversations with US executives doing business in China, Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Roy Y.J. Chua heard about a new trend. In an East Asian version of cutting deals on the golf course, Chinese executives often... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

11 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

A Smarter Way to Reduce Customer Defections

targeting efforts. The First Cut Customer attrition is a widespread problem that affects firms in a variety of industries. For example, US credit card providers often deal with annual churn rates of about 20 percent, and mobile phone... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Retail; Service

25 Sep 2015
Blog Post

4 Challenges All Early-Stage Startups Face

with higher frequencies of transactions or larger transaction sizes to be viable. We came up with the idea for cleverlayover when we booked our own flights for the holiday season and realized so many inefficiencies existed in flight... View Details

18 Mar 2014
Blog Post

BaubleBar Brought to Life, and Other Tales of Joining a Start-up

partnerships are key for BaubleBar now, as were the pop up stores the past couple years. Anthropologie now carries BaubleBar pieces, and the partnership is off to a great start given the customer fit. Other deals are in the works, and the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technology; Consumer Products / Retail

02 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

The Dubious Logic of Global Megamergers

actually been marked by steady decreases in concentration since World War II. Executives, they write, "need to break free of the biases that lead them to pursue larger and larger cross-border deals. There are better, more profitable strategies for View Details

Keywords: by Pankaj Ghemawat & Fariborz Ghadar

27 Apr 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Leadership Lessons From Outer Space

that the ISS has been hit by tiny bits of exploded satellites, resulting in dents the size of bb-gun pellets. "The good news is that if it's large, we can maneuver around it, and if it's small, it doesn't really matter. It's the... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Aerospace

01 May 2009
What Do You Think?

Do Innovation and Entrepreneurship Have to Be Incompatible with Organization Size?

Summing Up Where are the leaders that can help elephants avoid a stall? Like a good case study, this month's question divided respondents nearly down the middle on the question of whether or not organizations naturally "stall" because their View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

05 Apr 2004
What Do You Think?

Should We Brace Ourselves for Another Era of M&A Value Destruction?

terms: "Acquisitions are a macho exercise, not an intellectual one. Think World Wrestling Federation, not a chess tournament." Stephen Alexander adds: "Those promoting an acquisition are often dealmakers whose interest in the transaction often stops when... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

24 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Be an Angel Investor

If you want to become good at early-stage investing, you need to learn how to size up the fundamental elements of an opportunity. Many investors use checklists or think of evaluation as a process of judging an entrepreneur, or an idea, or... View Details

Keywords: by David Amis & Howard Stevenson

21 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty Debate Financial Reform Legislation

size and structural issues, the bill relies largely upon the judgment and willingness of regulators and politicians to deal with firms that threaten the "system" and make difficult decisions before... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

01 Jun 1998
News

Long-Term Interest: Bill Crozier, a Banker Pegged to the Customer

BankBoston in January, is impressed not only by the size of the deal but perhaps even more by what it represents: the crossing of industry lines. "With this merger, universal banking - long the style of... View Details

Keywords: Eileen K. McCluskey

29 Jan 2010
News

Back to Glass-Steagall?

President Obama shocked Wall Street recently with his proposal to cut down to size too-big-to-fail banks by imposing new rules to separate commercial and investment activities. Specifically, Obama would prohibit banks that take customers... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance; Government

23 May 2019
News

Michael R. Bloomberg, MBA 1966

Bloomberg during an unparalleled career as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and three-term mayor of New York City. “I’ve always believed a good deal is where both parties walk away thinking that they didn’t get everything they want, but... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

15 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprisingly Successful Marriages of Multinationals and Social Brands

Elephant Live Happily Ever After?" focuses on acquisitions of three social icons: Tom's of Maine acquired by Colgate, Stonyfield Farm Yogurt purchased by Danone, and Ben & Jerry's bought by Unilever. (Similar deals include... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

01 Apr 2002
News

Pamela Thomas Graham on September 11

second office at Manhattan’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza. She’d just finished a breakfast meeting with advertising clients and was preparing to return to CNBC’s Fort Lee, New Jersey, headquarters when the first plane struck the World Trade Center. “In retrospect, none of us... View Details

Keywords: terrorism; leadership; television; news; stock market; decision making; Finance; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

07 Sep 2021
News

Funding His Purpose

concept proved successful—nonprofits and for-profit social or environmental impact companies did benefit from access to loans—but the model did not. SITAWI did not see the necessary volume in deals to be sustainable as a lender. So... View Details

22 Jan 2008
Research & Ideas

New Challenges in Leading Professional Services

New Model for High Performance But lately the challenges for professional service firms (PSFs) have been growing in size and complexity, and the excitement is more the type you need a stomach antacid to control. The dilemma, says HBS... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Consulting; Accounting; Legal Services

13 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 13

analyses of data covering 69 two-digit SIC industries at two points in time, 1991 and 1999. In both years, approximately half of advertisers of all sizes operated an in-house agency. Across industries, we find that the likelihood of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 21

PublicationsThe Size and Composition of Corporate Headquarters in Multinational Companies: Empirical Evidence Authors:David Collis, David Young, and Michael Goold Publication:Journal of International Management 18, no. 3 (September... View Details