Publications

April 1999 (Revised February 2001)
Case

Davis Boatworks

By: Howard H. Stevenson, Michael J. Roberts and Matthew C. Lieb

A successful entrepreneur is considering his need for growth financing and his desire to achieve some personal liquidity. He has arguably the most successful sportfishing boat made, but sees the need both to grow further and to reduce his personal exposure to a... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Personal Finance; Entrepreneurship; Manufacturing Industry

May 2018 (Revised February 2019)
Teaching Note

Greg Mazur and the Purchase of Great Eastern Premium Pet Foods

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld

Teaching Note for HBS No. 211-085. Greg Mazur (HBS 1997) identified a small firm, Great Eastern Premium Pet Food, in December of 1998 that fit his search criteria and decided to offer the seller a cash price of $1.2 million plus an earn-out equal to 1% of revenue over... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Negotiation Deal; Strategic Planning; Valuation; Analysis

March 1997
Case

Sensormatic Electronics Corporation-1995

By: Krishna G. Palepu and James Chang

Sensormatic is a leading provider of security systems to the retail industry. The company relies on customer financing as a key component of its strategy. The company's growth strategy and accountingis attacked by short-sellers and the financial press. View Details

Keywords: Analysis; Valuation; Financial Reporting; Financing and Loans; Financial Statements; Business Strategy

15 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprisingly Successful Marriages of Multinationals and Social Brands

What happens when giant multinational corporations acquire relatively small companies that enjoy iconic status as socially progressive brands? According to recent research out of Harvard Business School,... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage

November 2010
Article

Which of These People Is Your Future CEO?

By: Boris Groysberg, Andrew Hill and Toby Johnson

Americans have long believed that U.S. military officers-trained for high-stakes positions, resilience, and mental agility-make excellent CEOs. That belief is sound, but the authors' analysis of the performance of 45 companies led by CEOs with military experience... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Training; Leadership Style; Managerial Roles; Situation or Environment; United States

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February 1999 (Revised June 1999)
Case

Hotmail

Sabeer Bhatia, cofounder and CEO of Hotmail, is making efforts to finance and grow this business, which is based on free Web-based e-mail. Describes early, successful efforts at raising several rounds of venture capital and presents choices around a next stage of... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Internet; Financing and Loans; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Web Services Industry

Research Summary

Experiments in Financial Democracy: Corporate Governance and Financial Development in Brazil, 1882-1950 (BOOK)

In my first book manuscript, Experiments in Financial Democracy, I challenge the idea that it was colonial institutions that sent Brazil, a civil law country, down a particular path of corporate governance and finance. Detailed archival research reveals... View Details

2008
Working Paper

Can the Virtuous Mouse and the Wealthy Elephant Live Happily Ever After?

By: James E. Austin and Herman B. Leonard

What happens when small iconic socially-oriented businesses are acquired by large corporations? Such mergers create significant opportunities for creating both business value and substantially expanded social value, but also pose unusually difficult challenges because... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Management Style; Agreements and Arrangements; Social Enterprise; Social Issues

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David G. Fubini is a Senior Lecturer in the Organizational Behavior Unit and leader of the Leading Professional Services Firm and Mergers & Acquisitions Programs for Harvard Business School’s Executive Education. His MBA teaching has concentrated on teaching the... View Details

April 2007 (Revised March 2018)
Case

M-TRONICS (A)

By: Joseph L. Bower and Lynda M. Applegate

The new CEO of a small manufacturing firm pursues growth through the launch of Entrepreneurial Subsidiaries. While the firm grows revenues from $600 million to over $2 billion in 10 years, problems surface as the subsidiaries are integrated into the established... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Model; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Integration

November 2016 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Mark43

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Mitch Weiss and Halah AlQahtani

The founders of Mark43, an early-stage startup that provides software for law enforcement agencies, must decide whether to bid on a request for proposals (RFP) from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). On the one hand, LAPD would be a second large and influential... View Details

Keywords: Start-up; Software Applications; Government Markets; Rapid Growth Stage; Public Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Business Startups; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; United States; New York (city, NY)

Josh Lerner is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor at Harvard Business School and Co-Director of the HBS Private Capital Project. Much of his research focuses on venture capital and private equity organizations and innovation policy. He has been recently recognized as... View Details

Keywords: biotechnology; high technology; venture capital industry

January 2003 (Revised February 2004)
Case

The Credit Suisse Group

By: Ashish Nanda and Kelley Elizabeth Morrell

On September 19, 2002, Lukas Muhlemann announced that he would step down as chairman and CEO of the Credit Suisse Group, effective January 1, 2003. The bank had progressed from a small Swiss start-up 150 years ago to a global banking powerhouse. Over the past 5 years,... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Management Succession; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Switzerland

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Keywords: Financial Services

29 Oct 2019
News

Karen Mills: «La pyme en España no tiene una voz líder en tecnología que le represente»

February 2021 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Shopify: The Conquest for Chinese E-Commerce

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Avani Patel, Samantha Lin and Ariel Yang

In mid-2020, Tobias Lütke, CEO of Shopify, faced a critical decision on how to time potential expansion into the China market. Over the prior 15 years, his Canadian software-as-a-service company had grown from a small e-commerce solutions provider to a full service... View Details

June 17, 2016
Comment

Companies Need to Start Marketing Security to Customers

By: John A. Quelch

Recent events in Orlando underscore an important marketing truth: consumer safety and security are mission critical. A popular nightclub, Pulse, known as a safe place for the LGBT community, is put out of business at least temporarily by a terrorist act. Not far away... View Details