Publications

March 2011
Supplement

Countrywide plc (CW)

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

One of the world's leading investors in distressed companies, Oaktree Capital Management is contemplating a "loan to own" investment in the debt f Countrywide plc, a financially troubled residential real estate agent based in the U.K. Only sixteen months earlier,... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Assets; Borrowing and Debt; Private Equity; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Investment Portfolio; Crisis Management; Strategy; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; United Kingdom

26 Feb 2013
First Look

First Look: Feb. 26

IFRS as well. The EU-the IASB's main backer-is embroiled in a debt crisis that divides it; Britain-the strongest voice for IFRS in the EU-flirts with an EU exit. And China remains silent. Adding to these issues are longstanding concerns... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

How the U.S. Army Develops Leaders

peacekeeper?" We take thousands of young recruits every month and train them to operate some of the most sophisticated equipment in the world under some of the most challenging conditions imaginable.— Scott A. Snook Such an identity View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2021
Supplement

Snapp: Scaling Under Sanctions in Iran (B)

By: Meg Rithmire and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in November 2020 as Eyad Alkassar and Mahmoud Fouz, co-founders of Iran’s first and leading ride-hailing platform, Snapp, eagerly await the results of the U.S. presidential elections.
The case takes us through the challenging times between... View Details

Keywords: Sanctions; Change Management; Disruption; Volatility; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Government and Politics; International Relations; National Security; Crisis Management; Risk Management; Health Pandemics; Transportation Industry; Middle East; Iran

December 1998 (Revised June 1999)
Case

STT Aerospace

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Jeremy Dann

Experienced entrepreneur Charles Damon conducted a "roll-up" from 1987-1994 within the commercial airliner interior products industry. Damon's company, STT Aerospace, took advantage of an industry-wide recession in the early 1990s by buying when asset prices were low.... View Details

Keywords: Retention; Business Strategy; Selection and Staffing; Entrepreneurship; Financial Crisis; Growth and Development Strategy; Compensation and Benefits; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Acquisition; Product Development; Aerospace Industry

Find at Harvard

21 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 21

(MultiBank), focusing on its insurance division (EurInsurance), which suffered large losses in the European insurance crisis of 2002-2003. At MultiBank, the insurance crisis opened up a field of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2014 (Revised March 2016)
Case

Thomas Cook Group on the Brink (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty, Stuart C. Gilson and Aldo Sesia

Harriett Green, the newly appointed CEO of Thomas Cook Group, faces a daunting set of business and financial challenges at the 171-year old UK travel services company. The company has lost almost £600 million in the last three quarters; has seen its stock price fall... View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Corporate Restructuring; Change Leadership; Female Ceo; Change Management; Communication Strategy; Borrowing and Debt; Cash Flow; Cost Management; Financial Liquidity; Financial Management; Executive Compensation; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Value Creation; Travel Industry; United Kingdom

July 2010 (Revised August 2021)
Supplement

Vereinigung Hamburger Schiffsmakler und Schiffsagenten e.V. (VHSS): Valuing Ships (CW)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Albert W. Sheen

After booming for more than five years, the global shipping (maritime) industry experienced a dramatic crash in late 2008 as the global financial system froze and the global economy slid into recession. Ship charter rates (revenue) fell by as much as 90% causing prices... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Capital Markets; Cash Flow; Financial Liquidity; Banks and Banking; Price; Price Bubble; Contracts; Crisis Management; Market Transactions; Valuation; Shipping Industry

21 Jul 2015
First Look

First Look: July 21, 2015

https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/product/715457-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 415-052 Abby Falik at Global Citizen Year Abby Falik, founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year (GCY), quickly read through the most recent news updates regarding the Ebola View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2010 (Revised January 2012)
Case

BP's Macondo: Spill and Response

By: Julio J. Rotemberg

This case starts by reporting various factors that may have contributed to the massive Macondo oil spill, noting that BP, its partners and the government all made decisions that helped cause the accident. It then discusses the response to this spill by BP and the... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Metals and Minerals; Crisis Management; Infrastructure; Trade; Pollutants; Risk and Uncertainty; Business and Government Relations; Finance; Multinational Firms and Management; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry; Mining Industry; United Kingdom; United States

03 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on Supreme Court Health Care Ruling

experts in the health care field, to provide their views on various facets of one of this country's most important and complex problems. Bill George Professor of Management Practice, former chair and CEO of Medtronic, and author of 7 Lessons for Leading in View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Health

20 Feb 2013
Research & Ideas

Big Deal: Reflections on the Megamerger of American and US Airways

Business Administration and author of Creating Value through Corporate Restructuring: Case Studies in Bankruptcies, Buyouts, and Breakups As United States equity markets and corporate balance sheets continue their remarkable comeback from the financial View Details

Keywords: Re: Rosabeth M. Kanter & Stuart C. Gilson; Air Transportation

30 Oct 2007
First Look

First Look: October 30, 2007

Harvard Business School Case 707-519 In response to a huge crisis in 2000, the new CEO of Procter & Gamble has to decide whether to continue with an unusual organizational design or to revert to the old matrix organization. Describes... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

07 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 7, 2009

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=209113 The Home Depot: Leadership in Crisis Management Harvard Business School Case 309-055 Examines the challenges The Home Depot faced in the aftermath of natural disasters... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2025
Case

Luca de Meo at Renault Group (A) (Abridged)

By: Emily Truelove, Linda A. Hill and Lydia Begag

When Luca de Meo became CEO of Renault Group in 2020, the 122-year-old French automaker faced financial challenges and the double technological disruption of the automotive industry: the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and the rise of software-defined vehicles (SDVs).... View Details

January 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

Ocado Group: Ready for the Future

By: José B. Alvarez, Damien McLoughlin and Natalie Kindred

July 2020
Technical Note

Digital Natives Growing Without a Sales Force

By: Das Narayandas, Michael Norris and Amram Migdal

This brief case describes the rise of so-called digital natives (also called born-in-digital) in the 2000s and 2010s that successfully grew without a sales force. The case highlights the emergence of business-to-business Internet and cloud-based companies and their... View Details

June 2020 (Revised January 2024)
Case

TraceTogether

By: Mitchell B. Weiss and Sarah Mehta

By April 7, 2020, over 1.4 million people worldwide had contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Governments raced to curb the spread of COVID-19 by scaling up testing, quarantining those infected, and tracing their possible contacts. It had taken Singapore’s... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Contact Tracing; Government Administration; Crisis Management; Health; Health Pandemics; Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Adoption; Health Industry; Public Administration Industry; Singapore