Publications

23 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

The Gulf: It’s a Family Affair

business research changing? A: The field is becoming much more sophisticated in terms of scholarship and consulting. The founders of the field have been around now for almost a generation and in that time... View Details

Keywords: by Wendy Guild & Andrea Schulman

March 2002 (Revised July 2004)
Case

RWE and the Proposal for a German Electricity Regulator

In April 2001, Dietmar Kuhnt, CEO of the German energy giant RWE, had to make a decision that would affect his company's future. Profits in the electricity sector depended heavily on regulatory rules that influenced industry structure and pricing. RWE had emerged... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Governance Compliance; Business Strategy; Energy Industry; Germany

May 1999 (Revised November 2000)
Case

AES Global Values

By: Lynn S. Paine

Members of the development team for the AES Corp.'s power plant project in India must decide what plant technology to specify in their application for techno-economic clearance from the government of India's Central Electric Authority. Their choice is between more... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Generation; Technology Adoption; Energy Industry; India; United States

08 Apr 2009
Research & Ideas

Clayton Christensen on Disrupting Health Care

problem. Q: You mentioned that the places where health care is delivered are part of the outmoded business model. Could you elaborate? A: You can't make CT scans more affordable by changing the way big hospitals are run. But if you take... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg; Health

30 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: Preparing to Sell

On important occasions, we gather for family portraits. If you were to take a picture of your family business today, what would it show? Family businesses represent the aspirations, achievements, and... View Details

Keywords: by Jonathan Pellegrin; Food & Beverage; Retail

March 2004 (Revised June 2006)
Case

Journey to Sakhalin: Royal Dutch/Shell in Russia (A)

By: Rawi E. Abdelal

Operations of Royal Dutch/Shell in Russia included a strategic alliance with Gazprom, the country's natural gas monopoly, the development of the Salym oil fields in Siberia, and a small retail refilling network in St. Petersburg. Focuses on the Sakhalin II project.... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Energy Generation; Foreign Direct Investment; Lawfulness; Agreements and Arrangements; Alliances; Business and Government Relations; Energy Industry; Russia

08 Nov 2024
Op-Ed

How Private Investors Can Help Solve Africa's Climate Crisis

Harvard Business School’s Africa Research Center (ARC) and a member of the Finance Unit at HBS. My MBA elective course is called Cities, Structures, and Climate Shocks. This winter, my fellow HBS researchers and I canvassed investors,... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Green Technology; Energy

15 Dec 2008
Research & Ideas

The Surprisingly Successful Marriages of Multinationals and Social Brands

that social enterprise is becoming an integral and embedded part of the marketplace and enriching the avenues for businesses to generate simultaneously commercial and social value. Q: Do you think these... View Details

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

December 2007
Article

Private Power in Indonesia

By: Louis T. Wells

The Asian Currency Crisis led to the collapse of agreements Indonesia had negotiated for private electric power only a few years earlier. The ensuing struggle meant bad publicity and several hundred million dollars in costs for Indonesia. As Indonesia in 2007 was... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Government Legislation; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Sharing; Risk Management; Agreements and Arrangements; Business and Government Relations; Indonesia

Find at Harvard

10 Apr 2019
HBS Case

How Entrepreneurs Can Turn Lead Into Gold

cats, or whatever,” says Andy Wu, assistant professor of business administration in the Strategy unit of Harvard Business School. “What’s overlooked is a comprehensive framework for how you mobilize the... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services

April 1997
Case

Battle of Mannheim, The

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

Focuses in detail on implementing a corporate restructuring program in ABB's German subsidiary. Special attention is given to Germany's unique form of industrial governance. Two major problem areas--power plants and power transformers--are described in detail, as is a... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Energy Generation; Salesforce Management; Business or Company Management; Restructuring; Programs; Energy Industry; Germany

Find at Harvard

09 Oct 2019
Research & Ideas

For Better Ideas, Bring the Right People to the Brainstorm

moment that launches a powerful idea or brilliant product. Managers can use these insights to form teams that create better ideas. “Much of innovation is premised on the idea that you should talk to other people to generate ideas,” says... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

31 May 2016
HBS Case

Who Owns Space?

As a vast place full of limitless possibility, space is a huge draw for brilliant minds and big ambitions. A new generation of billionaire entrepreneurs is vying to lay claim to it. Be it Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, or Paul... View Details

Keywords: Re: Matthew C. Weinzierl; Aerospace

August 2024 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Commonwealth Fusion Systems: Born at Scale

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Jim Matheson, Kyle Myers, Gunnar Trumbull and Richard Vietor

This case study chronicles the journey of Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) on its ambitious mission to commercialize fusion energy and become the world’s leading provider of fusion power plants. Emerging from a “special arrangement” with MIT's Plasma Science and... View Details

Keywords: Nuclear Energy; Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial Finance; Energy Generation; Commercialization; Science-Based Business; Technological Innovation; Market Entry and Exit; Energy Industry

10 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution

Look at the business model. Walmart catapulted into a $400-billion-plus company by luring customers into stores with groceries at very low margins, reaping the benefits of additional trips, which generated... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

03 Apr 2013
What Do You Think?

Will Women Leaders Influence the Way We Work?

Summing Up How Important is Leadership Gender in Influencing the Way We Work? Any attempt to describe behaviors on the basis of gender runs the risk of stereotyping, generalizing, and generally oversimplifying. As Susan Chipman said in... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

February 1997
Case

Enron Development Corporation: The Dabhol Power Project in Maharashtra, India (A) (Abridged)

By: Louis T. Wells Jr.

A large, lucrative power plant is negotiated for construction/operation by an American power company in India's evolving privatized power sector. The process of incorporating the project is captured in this case. The American company will own and operate the plant in... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Transition; Energy Generation; Construction; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Emerging Markets; Negotiation Process; Production; Privatization; Energy Industry

April 2011
Case

Shell Nigeria: The WikiLeaks Cables

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Rebecca M. Henderson and Matthew Preble

In November 2010, WikiLeaks began releasing the first of hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables that it had obtained. Among the thousands of cables published by early 2011, were several that shed light on Royal Dutch Shell's operations in Nigeria and its... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Energy Generation; Operations; Communication Technology; Crime and Corruption; Metals and Minerals; Ethics; Energy Industry; Nigeria