Publications

July 2011
Background Note

Just an MOU or a Real Deal?

By: Lena G. Goldberg and Mary Beth Findlay

Notwithstanding the professed intention of a party to an MOU, a "preliminary" agreement can have binding effect. This note explores the circumstances under which MOUs may give rise to binding and enforceable agreements. View Details

Keywords: Curriculum and Courses; Contracts; Legal Liability; Management; Risk Management

17 Apr 2017
HBS Case

This Turkish Debt Collector Is Customer-friendly

consortium of asset management companies (AMCs) that included the Turkish branch of Lehman Brothers. When Lehman went bankrupt, Turkasset acquired a $200 million portfolio of non-performing loans (NPLs). After that, it continued to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

02 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

Disruptors Sell What Customers Want and Let Competitors Sell What They Don’t

develop their own infrastructure first. "We used to say that auto companies, telecoms, and big retailers weren't at risk of disruption within their industries, because there were such high barriers to entry; you could never compete with... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

10 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty Views on Debt Crisis

United States is no exception. So rather than focus on whether S&P called the downgrade a little too soon, let's focus more on figuring out how to get the US fiscal house in order. robert Steven Kaplan, Professor Of Management... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

March 2008
Article

What Have We Learned from Market Design?

By: Alvin E. Roth

This essay discusses some things we have learned about markets, in the process of designing marketplaces to fix market failures. To work well, marketplaces have to provide thickness, i.e. they need to attract a large enough proportion of the potential participants in... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Market Design; Market Participation; Market Transactions; Failure; Safety

Find at Harvard

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

09 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

The Matchmaker of the Modern Economy

outcome. In addition, war transformed the capital markets. The extraordinary results of wartime technology "prepared many individual investors and institutional fund managers to take greater risks in... View Details

Keywords: by Spencer E. Ante

23 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

New Challenges for Long-Term Investors

individual's portfolio to his or her age (young investors should take more risk with stocks) and attitudes toward risk (conservative investors should hold more cash). Research done by Harvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen

February 2018
Supplement

Robert K. Steel at Wachovia (B)

By: Gautam Mukunda, Nien-hê Hsieh and David Lane

In September 2008, Robert Steel presided over the sale of Wachovia, a top U.S. bank, less than three months after becoming its CEO. Wachovia’s exposure to risky home loans led depositors and creditors to flee the bank on Friday, September 26, after the FDIC seized and... View Details

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

05 Dec 2005
What Do You Think?

Is Growth Good?

growth targeted. In fact, many kinds of growth offer great returns while requiring little or none of the world’s resources, therefore having seemingly few limits. Fran Henry makes the case for economic growth when she says, "According to the World Health... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

01 Dec 2005
News

Faculty Books

Smarter Risks in Business by Eileen C. Shapiro and Howard H. Stevenson (Portfolio/Penguin Putnam) Professor Stevenson and Shapiro (MBA ’81) show how to increase the odds on the business and life bets you choose to take, using a quick... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

January 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Innovation at the Treasury: Treasury Inflation-Protection Securities (A)

By: Kenneth A. Froot, Peter A. Hecht and Christopher Edward James Payton

In 1997, the U.S. Treasury was deciding whether to proceed with a proposal to issue inflation-indexed bonds. This case explores the challenges facing innovation in the financial markets as the Treasury tries to determine whether to introduce Treasury... View Details

Keywords: Inflation; Innovation; Federal Government; Securities; Debt Securities; Risk Management; Bonds; Investment Portfolio; Capital Markets; Inflation and Deflation; Government and Politics; Innovation and Invention; United States

April 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Teaching Note

Silicon Valley Bank: Gone in 36 Hours

By: Jung Koo Kang, Krishna G. Palepu and Charles C.Y. Wang

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 124-001. View Details

Keywords: Accounting Standards; Bank Runs; Financial Accounting; Financial Reporting; Social Media; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Investment Portfolio; Interest Rates; Debt Securities; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Statements; Risk Management; Financial Services Industry; United States

February 2004
Case

The Making of Verizon

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Douglas A Raymond and Ryan Raffaelli

Through a series of mergers, Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon chairman and CEO, successfully shared the co-CEO title twice while building the largest telecom company in the United States. The strong and complementary cultures of the companies that Seidenberg and a key group of... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Change Management; Transition; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Risk Management; Telecommunications Industry; United States

June 2025
Case

Vail Resorts: Responding to Activist Pressure (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

On January 27, 2025, the head of a relatively small hedge fund named Late Apex Partners sent a highly critical letter to the board of directors of Vail Resorts, the world’s largest ski resort operator. In his letter, and the 88-slide presentation that accompanied his... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Capital Budgeting; Corporate Governance; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Leading Change; Valuation; Investment Activism; Climate Change; Management Succession; Financial Management; Risk Management; Sports Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Travel Industry; United States; Australia; Canada