Publications

May 1993 (Revised May 1994)
Case

Managing for Integrity: Three Vignettes

By: Lynn S. Paine

Three situations are described. A branch manager for a retail brokerage firm must decide whether to change the branch's cash management techniques to increase interest earnings. An auto mechanic must decide whether to oversell parts and repairs to meet sales and... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Ethics; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Financial Management; Sales; Organizational Change and Adaptation

November 1999 (Revised July 2003)
Case

Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.

By: Paul M. Healy and Jacob Cohen

Pre-Paid Legal Services' business model reveals two key issues--managing the sales force and sales growth and managing claims. Students analyze the economics of the business and consider how to measure firm performance, how to evaluate and reward the sales force, and... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Salesforce Management; Marketing Strategy; Accrual Accounting; Business Cycles; Forecasting and Prediction; Insurance; Business Growth and Maturation; Insurance Industry

26 Sep 2017
Blog Post

A Summer Internship with the International Rescue Committee

prior, arriving here with no contacts and no English, ready to start a new life. Seeing her would have been an emotional experience no matter what, but having been supported through chemo for the prior few months, arriving together on the View Details

05 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 5

School Case 811-064 Aardvark is an online social search service that allows users to pose questions and receive answers from other users in their extended social network. The case explores the process that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 1992 (Revised January 1995)
Case

An Investment Linked to Commodity Futures

By: Kenneth A. Froot, Jay O. Light and Nancy Donohue

Describes a new investment which is linked to an index of commmodity futures prices. Explores how the index is constructed, how commodity futures (as opposed to other futures and spot prices) behave, and what the portfolio impacts of such an investment might be. View Details

Keywords: Commodity Market; Investment Management; Portfolio Management; Financial Markets; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Futures and Commodity Futures

April 2012
Case

Bank of America: Mobile Banking (Abridged)

By: Sunil Gupta and Michael Norris

In January 2010, Bank of America is discussing its future mobile strategy. Should the company add complexity to its app, design multiple apps for business segments, or expand into other mobile channels? View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States

November 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Rebuilding Puerto Rico

By: Laura Alfaro, Laura Phillips Sawyer and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria swept over Puerto Rico, devastating the island’s infrastructure and agriculture. The natural disaster was layered atop years of mounting financial distress. Before the hurricane, Puerto Rico had accumulated $74 billion in debt and... View Details

Keywords: Natural Disasters; Financial Crisis; Infrastructure; Borrowing and Debt; Economy; Strategic Planning; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Puerto Rico

January 2017
Supplement

T. Rowe Price and the Dell Inc. MBO (B)

By: Lena G. Goldberg

After deciding to oppose the Dell MBO, T. Rowe Price, together with other dissident Dell shareholders, sought appraisal of their shares in the Delaware courts. The appraisal process resulted in a significant increase in the price to be paid to dissenting shareholders... View Details

Keywords: Fiduciary Duties; Management Buy-out; Ethics; Valuation; Courts and Trials; Business and Shareholder Relations; Restructuring; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; Delaware

31 Mar 2010
Working Paper Summaries

When Open Architecture Beats Closed: The Entrepreneurial Use of Architectural Knowledge

Keywords: by Carliss Y. Baldwin

Research Summary

Immigrant Policymakers and Entrepreneurs

Since completing his prize-winning biography of Joseph Schumpeter in 2007 and his book, American Business since 1920 in 2009, Professor McCraw has been working on two new books about immigrants who came to the United States and became important policymakers... View Details

2009
Book

Supercorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Opportunity, Profits, Growth, and Social Good

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Supercorp is based on a 3-year study involving more than 350 interviews in 20 countries to identify the leadership practices and operating methods of major companies seeking profitable growth through innovation that benefits society. For example, when the tsunami and... View Details

Keywords: Profit; Leadership; Mission and Purpose; Opportunities; Welfare

Find at Harvard

August 2006 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Medco Energi Internasional

In late 2004, Hilmi Panigoro, CEO of the publicly traded Indonesian oil company Medco Energi Internasional, is striving to regain majority control of the company his brother Arifin founded in 1980. The Asian financial crisis of 1999 led to a major restructuring that... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Family Business; Restructuring; Financing and Loans; Ownership Stake; Business and Shareholder Relations; Indonesia; Singapore

25 Apr 2000
Research & Ideas

Adjusting the Fit for Government

productivity revolution due to the loss of skills in society. "The other key underpinning is education," he continued. "In South Africa in particular, the legacy of apartheid was extremely destructive, and human capital... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

November 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: July 2000

By: Josh Lerner

David Swensen, chief investment officer at Yale University, reviews the $10 billion endowment strategy, that places an unusually heavy emphasis on private equity and other illiquid securities. Changing market conditions in July 2000 cause him to rethink historically... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Strategy; Education Industry

2023
Book

Deeply Responsible Business.: A Global History of Values-Driven Leadership

By: Geoffrey Jones

Corporate social responsibility has entered the mainstream, but what does it take to run a successful purpose-driven business? This book examines leaders who put values alongside profits to showcase the challenges and upside of deeply responsible business. Should... View Details