Publications

February 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Cimetrics Technology (A-1)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Jose Royo

Jim Lee, president of Cimetrics (a young, fast growing, software start-up) is reevaluating his small company's geographically dispersed product development model. To take advantage of talented low-cost labor in Russia, the company has relied on two software engineering... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Applications and Software; Business or Company Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Labor and Management Relations; Product Development; Performance Evaluation; Information Technology Industry; Russia; Canada; United States

01 Jun 2005
News

Bringing Hope to a Violent Land

bands of Arab paramilitaries and bandits. Even after destroying hundreds of villages, these janjaweed (armed horseman) continue to prey on those survivors who have fled to refugee camps. For women and girls who venture outside the camps... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; UNICEF; nonprofit; Social Assistance; Health, Social Assistance

01 Jun 2013
News

Lesson Plans

(MBA 1997) Founder and CEO, Central Square Foundation, New Delhi, India A UNIFIED FRONT "Businesses tend to support individual programs or schools. The impact could be much larger if corporations partnered to take collective action on a... View Details

Keywords: Educational Support Services; Educational Services; Elementary and Secondary Schools; Educational Services

January 2025
Case

Negotiating a Legacy at Sustainable Harvest (A)

By: Jillian Jordan, Julian Zlatev, Alicia Dadlani and Martha Hostetter

The specialty coffee importer Sustainable Harvest was the first certified B Corp in the coffee industry due to its investments in building coffee farmers’ capacity and livelihood. But in 2022, after coffee prices plummeted and the company’s bank declined to extend its... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Trust; Ethics; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Volatility; Futures and Commodity Futures; Social Enterprise; Valuation; Business Model; Credit; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Europe

20 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 20

significantly higher for companies with a wider divergence between the corporate insiders' control rights and cash-flow rights, suggesting that companies whose corporate insiders have larger excess control... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

May 2022
Supplement

Maestro Pizza (B): The Competition Awakens

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Fares Khrais

Maestro pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of... View Details

01 Dec 2008
News

A Force for Good

emeritus Tom McCraw, the School’s Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, has made the analogy between McArthur and Dwight Eisenhower — a style of “hidden-hand” leadership that few understand, let alone master. In a book published after McArthur’s retirement in 1996 — The... View Details

Keywords: Jeffrey L. Cruikshank; Construction of Buildings; Construction; Monetary Authorities-Central Bank; Finance; Hospitals; Health, Social Assistance; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information; Wood Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Rail Transportation; Transportation

June 2006
Case

Matthew B. Hunter

By: John A. Davis and Deepak Malhotra

Matthew Hunter, CEO of a second-generation family business, must manage the performance of a key manager in his company. Looks at the impact of family relationships on performance management. View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Performance Evaluation; Crisis Management; Business or Company Management; Conflict Management; Corporate Governance; Family and Family Relationships; Partners and Partnerships; Negotiation Process

October 2019 (Revised November 2019)
Case

C16 Biosciences: Lab-Grown Palm Oil

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull

Synthetic biology start-up C16 Biosciences wants to solve a big problem: replace palm oil, a major contributor to deforestation and climate change, with a lab-grown substitute. CEO Shara Ticku has ambitious plans to supply her lab-grown palm oil to food manufacturers,... View Details

Keywords: Science-Based Business; Environmental Sustainability; Social Entrepreneurship; Product Development; Product Positioning; Venture Capital; Strategy; Decision Making; Food and Beverage Industry; Consumer Products Industry

May 2024
Supplement

DRSi (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

In March of 2019, Jen Ransom Fuller purchased DRSi. DRSi, located in Bellevue, Washington, printed and reproduced architectural plans and drawings. Fuller planned to use her first year of ownership to learn the business and to run it in much the same way as the seller.... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Small Business; Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Business Education; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Business or Company Management; Problems and Challenges; Health Pandemics; Selection and Staffing; Employee Relationship Management; Production; Logistics; Safety; United States; Washington (state, US)

28 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 28, 2007

Describes how Royal DSM NV, an $8 billion dollar global corporation, leveraged information technology to enable a major corporate portfolio transformation between 2000 and 2006. Purchase this case:... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2024
Supplement

Legacy Partners (A)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.

Stephen Holbrook and Austin Pulsipher (both HBS '19) had been leading Nutrishare since acquiring the company six months earlier in mid-2021.... View Details

February 2020
Supplement

Theranos: Who Has Blood on Their Hands? (B)

By: Nien-he Hsieh, Christina R. Wing and John Masko

This supplemental case tracks the results of the Colman and Taubman-Dye class action suit against Theranos as well as Theranos’ other legal challenges and chronicles the final demise of the company in 2019. View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Corporate Accountability; Organizational Culture; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Crime and Corruption; Entrepreneurship; Lawsuits and Litigation; Business Exit or Shutdown; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; California; United States

October 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Supplement

Bally Total Fitness (B): The Fall, 2005–2016

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

By many measures the largest health-club chain in the United States in the early 2000s, Bally Total Fitness sold most of its remaining fitness clubs to 24 Hour Fitness in 2014 and disappeared from the industry top 100 rankings. After Bally was bedeviled by accounting... View Details

June 1997 (Revised May 1998)
Case

Mobil USM&R (A1)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

First of a two-part case on the development and use of a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) at Mobil's US Marketing and Refining Division. Split from the original (A) case to give students an opportunity to suggest objectives and measures for the division's initial BSC, without... View Details

Keywords: Balanced Scorecard; Measurement and Metrics; Restructuring; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Marketing Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; United States

July 2011 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Digital Microscopy Is Making Me Crazy!

By: Willy Shih

For Carl Zeiss Microimaging, modular hardware and software enabled customers to tailor Zeiss's broad range of microscopy systems hardware and software to meet a wide range of needs from basic scientific research in the biological and medical sciences to clinical... View Details

Keywords: Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Corporate Strategy; Disruptive Innovation; Science-Based Business; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Business Conglomerates; Digital Platforms; Opportunities; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Computer Industry

January 2006 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Deutsche Borse and the European Markets

By: Dwight B. Crane and Monika Stachowiak

In December 2004, Deutsche Borse proposed an offer for the London Stock Exchange. Some shareholders opposed the acquisition, leading to the offer's withdrawal and replacement of management, including the CEO and board members. Written from the viewpoint of Deutsche... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Strategy; Governing and Advisory Boards; Capital Structure; Stocks; Valuation; Corporate Governance; Price; Change Management; Commercialization; Financial Services Industry; Europe