Publications

June 2014
Case

Stock Options at Celia-Check

By: Brian Hall, Andrew Wasynczuk and Karen Huang

Describes issues facing three young founders of a high-tech start-up, including hiring an experienced CEO and negotiating with a potential VC investor. Focuses on the incentive and compensation aspects of negotiating with job candidates (e.g., what percentage of the... View Details

Keywords: Stock Options; Venture Capital; Selection and Staffing; Negotiation; Executive Compensation; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Business Startups; Management Teams; Technology Industry; United States

08 Sep 2003
Research & Ideas

A Bold Proposal for Investment Reform

as benefits from liquidity in the capital market. The benefits have been widely discussed—the costs have not. One suggestion we propose is to provide even stronger incentives for long-term investing—namely... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

January 2002 (Revised March 2002)
Case

Virtualis Systems (Condensed)

By: Michael J. Roberts and Jay O. Light

Focuses on a graduating HBS MBA who has been working part-time with a Web-hosting firm in California. Discusses the question of which of several "business models" make the most sense for the company to pursue. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Cost vs Benefits; SWOT Analysis; Management Practices and Processes; Web Services Industry; California

01 Sep 2015
News

The Protagonist Goes Prime Time

Buell sprints from the Skydeck, his gray jacket flapping, to add another student idea to the slowly growing list on the chalkboard. The Managing Health Care Delivery Executive Education class is brainstorming ways to improve the customer... View Details

Keywords: April White

01 Dec 2003
Research & Ideas

Sometimes Success Begins at Failure

In the late 1980s, scientists for New York City-based drug-maker Pfizer began testing what was then known as compound UK-92,480 for the treatment of angina. Although UK-92,480 seemed promising in the lab and in animal tests, the compound showed little View Details

Keywords: by Henry Chesbrough; Health; Pharmaceutical

24 Dec 2014
News

Building a sustainable value chain

Nancy Barry (MBA 1975) believes in doing well by doing good. She founded Enterprise Solutions to Poverty to help companies see the mutual benefits of partnering with lower income populations. (Published December 2014) View Details

March 1992 (Revised June 1992)
Case

AT&T Productos de Consumo de Mexico

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.

Describes in detail the decisions AT&T made in designing and staffing their Mexican telephone answering machine plant. Allows students to evaluate a company's detailed implementation decisions on a plant in a developed country--involving wages, benefits, waste... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Executive Compensation; Selection and Staffing; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Management Systems; Mexico

Find at Harvard

26 Oct 2011
News

On Top, Down Under

Fookes: Leading the way at one of Australia's premier real estate firms. Photo courtesy Mark Fookes Mark Fookes (AMP 178, 2010) is head of investment management at The GPT Group, a Sydney, Australia, firm that View Details

Keywords: Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

05 Aug 2002
Research & Ideas

Are Consumers the Cure for Broken Health Insurance?

control ensures that many consumers' and providers' needs go unmet and that industry inefficiency goes unchecked. In many ways, the current health insurance model resembles the way companies used to manage their employees' retirement... View Details

Keywords: by Regina E. Herzlinger

01 Dec 2017
News

2017 in Finance: Helping Consumers Improve Their Financial Life

same from financial services firms. However, consumers understandably have a different bar when it comes to shopping online for clothes versus picking the financial product that’s best for them. Finances aren’t just personal, they are extremely emotional. So when it... View Details

Keywords: Omer Ismail (MBA 2007), chief commercial officer, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, the firm’s digital consumer financial services business; Finance

01 Feb 2013
News

Growth Strategy Has Double Bottom Line

Hoffer and Hourdequin: Managing Directors at the Lyme Timber Company in Hanover, New Hampshire. Photo courtesy of the Lyme Timber Company LP It can be difficult to craft a business model that enables both investors and society as a whole... View Details

Keywords: Louisa Rigali; Forestry and Logging; Agriculture; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

06 Oct 2003
Research & Ideas

The Growth of the Social Enterprise

same 501(c) (3) as the central organization. Branches are managed and controlled by the central organization, with local staff operating the branch but reporting directly to the central office. Local branches may have their own advisory... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler

March 2001 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Venture Capital Vignettes

By: G. Felda Hardymon

Presents three fictionalized but realistic situations in which a venture capitalist may find himself. One situation requires crisis intervention to quell a dispute between a vice president of sales and a CEO; another poses the problem of working out the composition of... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Crisis Management; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Executive Compensation; Situation or Environment; Employee Relationship Management; Problems and Challenges; Financial Services Industry

19 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Why Innovations Sit on the Shelf

not with him. He then deduced that plenty of managers a few layers below him had insight into the situation, information that he should be hearing. But those conversations were occurring behind closed doors. So any information that might... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer, Russell Eisenstat & Derek Schrader

June 2006 (Revised January 2012)
Case

Teena Lerner: Dividing the Pie at Rx Capital (A)

By: Boris Groysberg, Victoria Winston and Robin Abrahams

Teena Lerner started her own hedge fund firm in 2001 after nearly 20 years as a star biotechnology analyst and hedge fund manager. After the start-up phase, her firm became highly profitable. In 2004, however, one of her four analysts lost a lot of money for the firm.... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Investment Funds; Performance; Business Startups; Compensation and Benefits; Corporate Finance; Financial Services Industry

October 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Perelson Weiner LLP

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Das Narayandas

Perelson Weiner LLP, a successful accounting firm in New York City, is re-evaluating its incentive strategy as it makes plans to grow its business. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Growth and Development; Compensation and Benefits; Management; Planning; Sales; Motivation and Incentives; Corporate Strategy; Accounting Industry; New York (city, NY)

03 Mar 2017
News

Big Blue’s Big Bet

of innovation in fields as diverse as real estate law and songwriting. But it is in the health sector where Watson’s impact is most tangible, where its benefits are literally the difference between life and death. “What I focus on,” says... View Details

Keywords: Paul Kix; illustrations by Dan Page

July 1990 (Revised October 1997)
Case

Siemens Electric Motor Works (A) (Abridged)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Explores how a cost system can help support a firm's decision to change strategies. In the process, the students are introduced to a simple activity-based cost system. Siemens Electric Motor Works found itself facing an increasingly competitive environment and so made... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Cost Accounting; Cost; Adoption; Cost vs Benefits; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Production; Business Strategy; Electronics Industry; Manufacturing Industry

February 2003 (Revised September 2003)
Case

NanoGene Technologies, Inc.

Describes a company during the start-up phase and focuses on the founders' decisions regarding splitting the equity and compensation. Also considers establishing policies and practices that will set the tone for the company as it grows. Discusses a number of specific... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business or Company Management; Compensation and Benefits; Selection and Staffing; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Policy; Technology Industry