Publications

September 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Chai Point: Disrupting Chai

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Ramana Nanda and Rachna Tahilyani

Chai Point is India’s largest organized chai retailer. It has missed its target for retail store openings by approximately 25%, goals that are very important to its investors who are also board members. However, it has developed an exciting new internet-based tea... View Details

Web

2024 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

Mediatrician’s Guide. Shared Value: Improving Outcomes for Frontline Workers Professor Ethan Rouen + More Info - Slides – Less Info - Slides This session will highlight various programs and experiments that have sought to increase View Details

29 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Work 3.0: Redefining Jobs and Companies in the Uber Age

category of worker, the independent contractor. While rules vary by state, with the IRS providing its own guidelines as well, the key factor distinguishing employees from independent contractors is the company’s level of control over... View Details

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu; Transportation; Web Services

01 Sep 2008
News

Faculty Books

implementing successful transformations. In this book he examines the crucial first step in his framework: creating a sense of urgency by getting people to actually see and feel the need for change. Why focus on urgency? Without it, any change effort is doomed. The... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Real Estate

25 Nov 2013
Research & Ideas

Hiding From Managers Can Increase Your Productivity

after testing and perfecting them. "There was a pride in ownership leading to the desire to share," Bernstein says. "And so they did. But only after they had data to support their new approach." Hence, the transparency... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Manufacturing

Sumner M. Redstone

culture through its ownership of MTV, VH-1 and Nickelodeon. In 1994, he successfully completed a $10 billion merger with Paramount Communications and acquired Blockbuster Entertainment. Since 1994 the company has increased from 7,000... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment & Broadcast Media

December 1999 (Revised August 2000)
Case

Prime Designs

By: Paul W. Marshall

A student takes the role of the father who is the CEO of a family business. A non-family manager has asked for a meeting. Agenda topics are: your son's latest proposal and managers' desire to own equity. View Details

Keywords: Labor and Management Relations; Family Ownership; Employee Stock Ownership Plan

Find at Harvard

06 Jan 2020
News

Home Grown

Granite Equity, a nontraditional private investment and holding company in St. Cloud, Minnesota, aims to find and support local, family businesses and grow them right where they are. The firm looks for companies that value employee... View Details

Keywords: Finance

01 Mar 2019
News

3-Minute Briefing: Richard Edelman (MBA 1978)

Chicago in 1952. His biggest risk was putting me in charge of the New York office in 1981, when I was 27 years old. In five or six years, that office grew from 12 employees to 100. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Part of what keeps me... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services; Professional Services

26 Mar 2025
Blog Post

How to Approach Your Equity Compensation

Equity compensation can be an exciting ownership opportunity — but also one that can feel enormously complicated and confusing. When new hires receive equity grants as part of their compensation package, they often find themselves feeling... View Details

January 1996
Case

Transportation Displays Incorporated (C): The Case for a Preemptive Restructuring

By: Stuart C. Gilson, Joel T. Schwartz, Steve Silver and David Stemerman

A company nears the end of a long multiyear turnaround and now must consider how to "cash out" so its management can realize a financial return on investment. The privately held company has several options, including a leveraged ESOP and a leveraged recapitalization. View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Capital; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Private Ownership

10 Nov 2008
What Do You Think?

How Much Can You Ask of Your Customers?

contributed benefits other users (as, for example, when a network is enlarged) as well the organization itself (providing lower costs, greater resources at little cost, better customer service, more effective marketing, increased employee... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

19 Aug 2015
Research & Ideas

Codeacademy’s Delicate Work of Adding Monetization Without Crushing Mission

help families save money for college. That experience convinced me of the power of for-profit, mission-driven companies as a force for change. Because they are for-profit, they can attract amazing talent and command huge resources. Because they are mission-driven, they... View Details

Keywords: Re: Jeffrey J. Bussgang; Technology

06 Dec 2021
News

Truth Be Told

things, they can resolve it internally more quickly and in a more efficient way than if it goes to regulators. Although we don’t study this I think it could also empower employees to feel ownership of the... View Details

Keywords: April White; Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices; Management

March 2023
Case

Interior Collab

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn

After venture capital-funded online interior design agency Homepolish collapsed, its former freelance designers met to discuss next steps. The bitter experience led some of them to create a workers’ collaborative called Interior Collab. The founding members needed to... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Human Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Cooperative Ownership; Employee Ownership; Trust; Service Industry; Technology Industry; United States; New York (city, NY)

01 Sep 2003
News

An Electrifying Tale

into an operation that now boasts 135 employees and anticipated 2003 revenues of $45 million. As Boston’s Big Dig, a prime revenue source, winds down, City Lights is expanding to other parts of the country. The company has also launched a... View Details

Keywords: Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Utilities

23 Jul 2018
Blog Post

Summer Snapshot: Interning at a Robotics Start-Up

early stage and stealth mode robotics start-up in the agriculture space as a Business Analysis & Operations Intern. I am the fourth and the only non-technical employee of the company. After working as a management consultant at Bain... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Technology

December 1998
Case

Australian Wheat Board Limited.: Becoming a Grower-owned Corporation

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

In July 1999, the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), a statutory national and international grain marketing organization, would become grower-owned. As a private corporation, the AWB would no longer receive government borrowing guarantees and would have to rely on its own... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Capital Structure; Globalized Markets and Industries; Monopoly; Employee Ownership; Competition

March 2000 (Revised May 2000)
Case

U.S. Gas Transportation, Inc.

By: John A. Davis, Myra M. Hart and Sharon Peyus

Presents a career dilemma for a husband/wife owner-manager team. Nanci and Len Mackenzie have received an offer for their highly successful entrepreneurial business, U.S. Gas Transportation, Inc. The Mackenzies are concerned about what the sale might do to their... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Family Ownership; Family Business; Personal Development and Career; Organizational Culture; Employees; Business Exit or Shutdown; Planning; Transportation Industry