Publications

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March 2000
Case

Heartport, Inc.

By: Gary P. Pisano and Shoshana Dobrow

Heartport, an entrepreneurial medical device maker, has introduced several innovative systems for conducting less-invasive cardiac surgery. Despite initially high expectations, the company has struggled to get its technology adopted by cardiac surgeons. The company's... View Details

Keywords: History; Product Positioning; Knowledge Acquisition; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Technology Adoption; Health Care and Treatment

March 2025
Teaching Note

Kering Eyewear

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Nicole Zelazko

This teaching note provides comprehensive documentation of how to use the Kering Eyewear case (HBS No. 525-027). View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Subsidiaries; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Distribution; Product; Luxury; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; United States

February 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Citigroup: Re-Branding in 2007 (A)

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Carin-Isabel Knoop

With its history of growth through acquisition, Citigroup has a conglomeration of sub-brands that need to be integrated and rationalized. Ajay Banga, CEO of Citi's Global Consumer Group International, chairs a task force to work through the process of re-branding the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Customer Focus and Relationships; Globalization; Growth Management; Brands and Branding; Organizational Culture; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry

November 2007 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

In an activist role, the hedge fund Third Point LLC has three board seats and an ownership stake of 9.5% in Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company. Third Point believed that Ligand had a strong drug portfolio and pipeline but that it was... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Governing and Advisory Boards; Bids and Bidding; Ownership Stake; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

September 2001 (Revised July 2002)
Case

Fraud Prevention at Omni Bank

By: Frances X. Frei and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

Omni Bank is undergoing a merger and has two important decisions ahead. First, should it enforce the use of its model-driven approach to interacting with customers at the recently acquired Friends Savings and Loan branches. Friends has a culture of personal touch with... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Crime and Corruption; Customer Relationship Management; Decisions; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry

02 Jun 2014
Research & Ideas

Excerpt: ‘A Social Strategy’

acquisition costs. These results suggest that eBay's foray into leveraging the social Internet for profit reveals a replicable strategy that benefits both the company and the consumer and can be succinctly summarized as: eBay increases... View Details

01 Sep 2012
News

High Honors

rapidly going global. Recent partnerships include acquisitions or joint ventures in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Indonesia, and the United States. Mikitani, the father of two young children, is often seen as... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young; Finance; Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices; Management; Mining; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

09 Aug 2013
Research & Ideas

Read All About It: Digital CEO Buys Traditional Media!

David Collis Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation Adjunct Professor of Business Administration The joke used to be that you could only make a million dollars in the airline industry if you started with a hundred million dollars. With the View Details

Keywords: by Jim Aisner; Journalism & News; Publishing

26 Jun 2012
First Look

First Look: June 26

the shoes of his long-time predecessor who had created the U.S. telecommunications giant via a series of acquisitions and, before departing, had initiated the company's strategic repositioning. The new CEO reflected on Verizon's recent... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2001
Book

Creating Value through Corporate Restructuring: Case Studies in Bankruptcies, Buyouts, and Breakups

By: Stuart C. Gilson

Keywords: Value; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Acquisition; Restructuring

December 2018
Case

First Utility Ltd.

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

At the end of 2017 First Utility Ltd. was the largest of the middle-tier domestic energy suppliers in the United Kingdom, serving 808,000 of the country’s 27 million households with electricity and gas. In Q1 2017 First Utility captured 3% market share. The company had... View Details

Keywords: Rapid Growth Stage; Power/Energy; Energy Efficiency Standards; Energy; Competition; Diversification; Acquisition; Expansion; Growth Management; Energy Industry; United Kingdom

December 2000
Case

SupplierMarket.com (A)

By: William A. Sahlman and Jared Stone

Describes a decision confronting the cofounders of a B2B Internet firm that focuses on the purchasing process for manufactured direct materials. The company has raised one round of capital from two prominent venture capital firms and must decide if it makes sense to... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Customers; Decisions; Venture Capital; Internet

February 2000 (Revised December 2001)
Case

Kmart Inc. and Builders Square

In 1997, Kmart received an offer from retail buyout specialists Leonard Green & Partners for the purchase of its ailing 162-store home improvement chain, Builders Square. Green's offer included a $10 million cash payment, a warrant to purchase a 28% stake in the new... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Valuation; Leveraged Buyouts; Construction Industry; Retail Industry; United States

December 1998
Supplement

John Trani on Leadership, Video

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

John Trani, President and CEO of The Stanley Works, gives his thoughts on leadership in his first year at Stanley, advice to MBA students, and some of his General Electric experiences. View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Knowledge Acquisition; Leadership Development; Management

September 2010
Supplement

Compass Maritime Services, LLC: Valuing Ships (CW)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Albert W. Sheen

Tom Roberts, a founding partner of Compass Maritime Services, a New Jersey-based shipping research and consulting firm, has been asked by a new potential customer in May 2008 for advice on purchasing a capesize bulk carrier. After identifying a suitable ship with his... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Decisions; Microeconomics; Finance; Price; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Market Transactions; Partners and Partnerships; Mathematical Methods; Valuation; Consulting Industry; New Jersey

March 2010
Case

Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007

By: Jan W. Rivkin, Michael Roberto and Ranjay Gulati

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Robert Mueller, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), sought to transform the storied Bureau. The FBI had long served as both the chief law enforcement agency and the main domestic intelligence wing of the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Government Administration; National Security; Corporate Strategy; Knowledge Acquisition; Law Enforcement; Public Administration Industry; United States

June 2001 (Revised May 2002)
Case

Spir-It, Inc. (A): Building the Business

Early in February 1934, two and a half months after the end of prohibition, Jack Sindler sat with a friend in Boston's Ritz Hotel bar enjoying a drink. Sindler worked for the Converse Rubber Co., and he was always inventing something. He held several patents for rubber... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Production; Market Entry and Exit; Management Succession; Entrepreneurship; Product Launch; Acquisition; Growth and Development; Product Development; Manufacturing Industry; Boston