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01 Jun 2015
News

Research Brief: If State Pensions Clean Up Their Books, Who Pays?

When the financial crisis hit in 2008, it became apparent that many states had played fast and loose with their pension funding. Some states slashed benefits, others contemplated bankruptcy. You might think state governments, burned badly once, would be eager to clean... View Details

Keywords: Erin Peterson

19 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Why Innovations Sit on the Shelf

For the most part, this requires management to look closely at the roles of various parts of the business and alter the way employees interact. Increasing the pace of business innovation almost always requires reallocating decision rights... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Beer, Russell Eisenstat & Derek Schrader

01 Sep 2011
News

Coming Full Circle

“Mutiny is a rare and extreme example, but my findings also apply to situations where it becomes necessary to manage conflict or create buy-in for organizational change,” she adds. Merryman cites HBS professor Joshua Margolis as just one of the faculty members who... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

February 2019 (Revised January 2021)
Case

Quiksilver Inc. and Oaktree Capital Management

By: Kristin Mugford and Mike Harmon

Sports lifestyle company Quiksilver filed for bankruptcy in September 2015. Oaktree is considering an additional investment in the company to facilitate the restructuring. Students must consider whether Oaktree should invest given the risks of the turnaround... View Details

Keywords: Bankruptcy; Bankruptcy Reorganization; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Acquisition; Restructuring; Debt Securities; Transformation; Decision Making; Borrowing and Debt; Investment Return; Crisis Management; Negotiation; Retail Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; France; United States

July 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Case

ABRY Fund V

By: Nabil N. El-Hage, Richard S. Ruback and Leslie Pierson

In January 2006, Andrew Banks and Royce Yudkoff were considering raising a 5th fund for their media-focused private equity firm, ABRY Partners. ABRY had a strong track record that the co-founders attributed to their group's deep knowledge of the media industry and... View Details

Keywords: Cooperative Ownership; Venture Capital; Customer Relationship Management; Asset Management; Private Equity; Judgments; Competitive Strategy; Media; Corporate Finance; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Financial Services Industry

01 Dec 2019
News

3-Minute Briefing: Leslie Hale (MBA 2001)

that’s not where I wanted my career to go. I saw how hard my parents worked. I didn’t want to be an entrepreneur. But growing up just a step away from the decision makers was like the Hamilton song. I knew I wanted to be in “the room... View Details

Keywords: April White; real estate; leadership; diversity; African American; career paths; women in business; Real Estate

24 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, April 24, 2018

Hernando, María Luz González-Gadea, Rafael Di Tella, Agustín Ibáñez, and Mariano Sigman Abstract—Previous studies in adults demonstrated that beliefs and sharing decisions in social scenarios are closely related. However, to date, little... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 1982 (Revised April 1998)
Case

U.K. and the Gold Standard in 1925, The

Describes the issues and priorities involved in countries' use of the gold standard as the basis for managing their money supply. The setting of the United Kingdom in 1925 permits a real-world exploration of the important tradeoffs in "going back on gold" versus moving... View Details

Keywords: Money; Currency Exchange Rate; Standards; Cost vs Benefits; United Kingdom

September 2009 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Marquee: The Business of Nightlife

By: Anita Elberse, Ryan Barlow and Sheldon Wong

In December 2008, nightlife impresario Noah Tepperberg celebrated the fifth anniversary of his New York City nightclub Marquee. While most clubs are over within their first one-and-a-half years, Tepperberg has succeeded in keeping Marquee one of NYC's hottest clubs for... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Cost Management; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Strategy

September 1989
Background Note

Performance Curves: Costs, Prices, and Value

By: Robert J. Dolan and Benson P. Shapiro

Explains the concept of a family of performance curves. The most well known is the price/performance curve relating the prices of items in a product line to their performance. Also discusses the cost/performance curve and its impact on product positioning, product line... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Price; Product Positioning; Performance; Competition; Value

November 2010
Supplement

Magna International, Inc. (B)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Yuhai Xuan

Magna International, Inc., a Canadian-based automotive parts manufacturer, is considering whether and how to unwind its dual-class ownership structure. A family trust controlled by the founder owns a 0.65% economic interest in the company but has 66% of the votes via a... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Value Creation; Voting; Family Ownership; Cost; Cost vs Benefits; Stock Shares; Governance Controls; Governing and Advisory Boards; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Canada

January 2024
Case

ECOALF: Fashion for the Future

By: Elizabeth A. Keenan, Diego Aparicio, Carlota Moniz and María José Satrústegui

ECOALF, a Spanish fashion brand and sustainability pioneer, aimed to tackle the industry's challenges of excessive consumption and production. The brand's mission was to create timeless apparel exclusively from recycled and eco-responsible materials, matching the... View Details

16 May 2017
News

Facing the Board

of things. The 72 alumni were among 400 who returned to campus to join 936 students for the inaugural HBS Boardroom, a new RC capstone experience that includes first-year student teams presenting case-based management decisions to alumni... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Myers; photos by Susan Young; Blackrock; The Boardroom

August 2024
Case

Keurig: A Return to Growth

By: David Fubini and Patrick Sanguineti

By the early 2010s, Keurig Green Mountain (KGM) had lost the momentum that had made it the name in at-home coffee brewing in North America. Following a series of product missteps, negative media scrutiny, and ongoing challenges to its partner relationships, in late... View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Mergers and Acquisitions; Decisions; Initial Public Offering; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Going Public; Diversification; Expansion; Food and Beverage Industry

31 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Why These Business School Professors Oppose Trump's Executive Order on Immigration

professor in the Finance Unit: As an academic, my main reaction to the executive order is that this decision is absolutely not grounded in the facts. I spend a lot of energy teaching my students to look at... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

24 Sep 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Be an Angel Investor

Evaluation success will come in doing deals, emulating winners, and not making the same mistakes more than two, three, or four times. Case Study AOL: The One That Got Away Frans Kok shares with us the story about his decision not to... View Details

Keywords: by David Amis & Howard Stevenson

December 2010
Compilation

VCPE Strategy Vignettes II

By: Josh Lerner, G. Felda Hardymon, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, Ann Leamon and Lisa Strope

These three vignettes present various issues around the strategy and management of venture capital and private equity firms. In one, a senior partner must decide how to manage an over-extended colleague and how to reduce the risk of the firm's portfolio; the second... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Private Equity; Cost vs Benefits; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Investment Portfolio; Ownership; Partners and Partnerships; Risk Management; Stocks; Problems and Challenges; United States