School Specialty - Publications - Faculty & Research

School Specialty Inc. (HBS Case #214084)

(With Kristin Mugford) Set in 2013, School Specialty was a financially troubled supplier of educational products to primary and secondary schools in the United States. The company planned to file Chapter 11 in order to address its excessive debt load, but needed to... View Details

February 2014 (Revised March 2022)
Case

School Specialty, Inc.

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Kristin Mugford

Set in 2013, School Specialty was a financially troubled supplier of educational products to primary and secondary schools in the United States. The company planned to file Chapter 11 in order to address its excessive debt load, but needed to arrange... View Details

Keywords: School Specialty; Bankruptcy; Section 363; Financing; Chapter 11; Capital Structure; Financing and Loans; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Distribution Industry; Education Industry; United States

Citation

Educators

Purchase

08 Nov 2018
News

Harvard Medical School Advances Research with $200 Million Gift

Web

“It’s like a pie-eating contest” | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

stimulated his interest in finance; a second two years at Yale “taught me the importance of liberal arts,” says Josh, “and I started to ponder bigger questions. What could I do that was important?” On his first day of business school... View Details

18 Nov 2015
News

Robert and Myra Kraft Family Foundation Establish $20 Million Endowment at Harvard Business School

Keywords: Scientific Research and Development Services

04 Nov 2016
News

New war on drugs: Pharma becoming 'uninvestable'?

Gary P. Pisano

Gary Pisano is the Harry E. Figgie, Jr. Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School where he has been on the faculty since 1988. From 2018-2023, Pisano was Harvard Business School’s Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Promotion and... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; electronics; health care; manufacturing; pharmaceuticals

16 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business

With COVID-19 cases growing worldwide, business leaders are scrambling to deal with a wide variety of problems, from slumping sales and stalling supply chains to keeping employees healthy and making sure they can continue working. We asked professors of Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

1950s, Unilever manufactured convenience foods, such as frozen foods and soup, ice cream, meat products, and tea and other drinks. It manufactured personal care products, including toothpaste, shampoo, hairsprays, and deodorants. The oils and fats business also led... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

June 2016
Article

When Doctors Go to Business School: Career Choices of Physician-MBAs

By: Damir Ljuboja, Brian W. Powers, Benjamin Robbins, Robert S. Huckman, Krishna Yeshwant and Sachin Jain

There has been substantial growth in the number of physicians pursuing Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees over the past decade, but there is continuing debate over the utility of these programs and the career outcomes of their graduates. The authors... View Details

Keywords: Medical Education; MD; MBA; Physicians; Executive Education; Training; Personal Development and Career; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; United States

Citation

Read Now

19 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

Why Isn't Business Research More Relevant to Business Practitioners?

often a disconnect between practitioners and academics,” he says. Source: CMO Council Neale-May illustrates a pervasive paradox in academia: Research conducted at business schools often offers no obvious value to people who actually work... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education

27 Feb 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

How Following Best Business Practices Can Improve Health Care

Harvard Business School spends a significant amount of research funds each year on the health care industry, answering questions such as: How can the business of health care be made more efficient? What can a business do to motivate... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Health; Medical Devices & Supplies

Web

VBHCD Intensive Seminars - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

five day, full-time course offered at Harvard Business School and is taught by Profs. Kaplan, Gallani, Dr. Witkowski, Dr. Bernstein and a team of faculty and health care industry leaders. Through a mix of case study discussions, case... View Details

01 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 1, 2008

http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-024.pdf Cases & Course MaterialsThe Center for Creative Leadership Harvard Business School Case 308-013 The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) was founded in 1970 on the notion that leadership... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

06 May 2002
Research & Ideas

A Toolkit for Customer Innovation

variety of industries use this approach. Bush Boake Allen (BBA), a global supplier of specialty flavors to companies like Nestlé, has built a tool kit that enables its customers to develop their own flavors, which BBA then manufactures.... View Details

Keywords: by Stefan Thomke & Eric Von Hippel

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Historically Speaking: A Roundtable at HBS

Business History at HBS traces its roots back to 1927 when it was part of a course in business policy. But the golden age for this area of study at the School began with the arrival of Professor Alfred Chandler in 1970. Universally... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner

28 Apr 2020
Blog Post

A Crash Course in Saving a Family Business

Jiyoon Han (MBA 2021) is getting a taste of what it’s like to be a case protagonist—learning how to pivot while measuring unforeseen challenges against new opportunities. When news broke in March about how COVID-19 would affect the Harvard Business View Details

16 Aug 2016
First Look

August 16, 2016

activities of a large cohort of physician-MBAs by gathering information on 206 physician graduates from the Harvard Business School MBA program who obtained their degrees between 1941 and 2014. Key outcome measures that were examined... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

08 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at Research and Ideas, August 8, 2017

Harvard Business School Case 415-049 Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp: Redefining Success in the U.S. (B) This (B) case describes the actions André Wyss, president of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, took in early 2012 to transform the... View Details