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February 2003 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Mission to Mars (A)

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Jay Wynn

This case is set in spring 2000, several months after two successive, failed missions to the planet Mars. Students are asked to evaluate the reasons for these failures in the context of NASA's "Faster, Better, Cheaper" program, which was initiated in 1992. They are... View Details

Keywords: Failure; Change Management; Innovation Strategy; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Projects; Management; Risk Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Aerospace Industry; Technology Industry

04 Oct 2022
Blog Post

Climate Stories Episode #10: Amanda Li (MBA 2018): Speeding Climate Change Solutions Through Project Finance Efficiencies

improve data management to increase transparency and standardization, which lowers risk and increases liquidity by opening opportunities into secondary markets and ATS. These foundational elements of Banyan... View Details

February 1995 (Revised April 1996)
Case

MW Petroleum Corporation (B)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman, Peter Tufano and Barbara Wall

Amoco Corp. is negotiating to sell a wholly-owned subsidiary, MW Petroleum, to Apache Corp. MW owns large reserves of oil and gas comprising many properties at different stages of engineering, development, and production. The proposed acquisition is a large one for... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Mergers and Acquisitions; Risk Management; Financing and Loans; Mining Industry; Energy Industry

01 Feb 1999
News

Short Takes

No Mistake About It: Trust Is Key in Learning It's a real Catch-22: Learning is more critical than ever to firm success, yet the process often requires making mistakes. And many people believe mistakes lead to failure and thus avoid View Details

Keywords: Judith A. Ross

February 1989 (Revised November 1991)
Case

Science Technology Co.--1985

By: Thomas R. Piper

The CEO of a U.S. electronics firm is assessing the financial forecasts and the financing plan prepared by the chief financial officer. Given the cyclicality of the industry and the volatility of the firm's performance, the CEO is unsure as to the usefulness of... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Change Management; Industry Growth; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Strategy; Volatility; Electronics Industry

13 Nov 2000
Research & Ideas

Corporate Venturing: Entrepreneurship on the Inside

"is the extreme form of change that management teams within companies have to go through. The degree to which that change is hard is tied to how well you are doing when you attempt to do something like that within the company.... View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

July 1999 (Revised January 2000)
Case

Yahoo!: Business on Internet Time

By: Jan W. Rivkin and Jay R. Girotto

In the wake of major competitive moves, CEO Tim Koogle and his senior team at Yahoo!, an Internet portal, must decide whether and how to adjust their strategy. Following deals between AOL and Netscape, Excite and @Home, Infoseek and Disney, and Snap and NBS, Yahoo!... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Organizational Structure; Industry Structures; Internet and the Web; Risk Management; Technological Innovation; Business or Company Management; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry

11 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

Book Excerpt: ’The Future of Boards’

from and what those risks are. I don't think they can do the job without becoming more involved." Whereas these directors puzzle over where the line should be drawn between management and the board, others... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Lorsch

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Rapid Response: Inside the Retailing Revolution

to demand uncertainty." To accommodate real-time demand and diminish the risks inherent in "perishable" inventories, retailers depend on timely information gleaned from technologies such as product bar codes, point-of-sale scanners at the... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Consumer Products; Manufacturing; Retail

December 2003 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Blockbuster Inc. & Technological Substitution (B): Confronting New Digital Formats

Investigates how the rise of digital video formats threatens to make videocassette technology obsolete; how this technological substitution might alter the economics and structure of the video rental and retail industries; and how Blockbuster Inc., the industry leader,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Decisions; Technological Innovation; Competition; Change Management; Service Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

04 Nov 2021
News

Using Design Thinking to Improve Worker Safety in Manufacturing

Keywords: Design thinking

01 Jun 2009
News

Author Charley Ellis on Goldman Sachs

company. Most people think that will change the firm, but it won’t. It gives Goldman access to the Fed window which is very useful for liquidity management and, on the other hand, it reduces the amount of leverage they can use in trading... View Details

Keywords: Finance

07 Jul 2009
First Look

First Look: July 7

of forced dismissal for both CEOs and CFOs during the period 1993-2004. These results are obtained after controlling for several proxies for earnings and stock return performance suggesting that boards appear to penalize managers for... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 22, 2007

Working PapersGlobal Currency Hedging Authors:John Y. Campbell, Karine Serfaty-de Medeiros, and Luis M. Viceira Abstract This paper considers the risk management problem of an investor who holds a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Web

Institutions, Macroeconomics, and the Global Economy - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Institutions, Macroeconomics, and the Global Economy Course Number 1180 Professor Vincent Pons Spring; Q3Q4; 3.0 credits 27 Sessions Exam Course Overview This is a course about exploiting the opportunities created by the emergence of a global economy... View Details

08 Jan 2001
Research & Ideas

Can Japan Compete? [Part Two]

new industries in Japan are things like highly skilled specialist personnel; a lack of risk capital because of heavily controlled financial markets; barriers to commercializing university research; and limited incentives for View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace & Hilah Geer

08 Oct 2013
First Look

First Look: October 8

population and per capita consumption growth, the limited nature of resources and sinks, and the responsibility and exposure of firms to ensuing ecological risks and costs. We then discuss how an operations View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2000 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Dell Ventures

By: Paul A. Gompers, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

Describes the rationale behind the strategy and structure of Dell Computer Corp.'s VC arm, Dell Ventures. While Dell Ventures had a phenomenal year one, it faced a number of challenges including dealing with market risks, finding and retaining talent, maintaining... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Talent and Talent Management; Goals and Objectives; Risk Management; Organizational Structure; Interests; Business Strategy; Computer Industry