Publications

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April 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

BlackRock (C): Integrating BGI (with video links)

By: Ranjay Gulati, Jan W. Rivkin and Aldo Sesia

On June 11, 2009, BlackRock, Inc., the world’s fourth-largest asset manager announced it was acquiring Barclays Global Investors (BGI) for $13.5 billion in stock and cash. The deal would more than double BlackRock’s assets under management (AUM), making it the world’s... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Integration; Organizational Culture; Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Information Technology; Asset Management; Financial Services Industry; United States

March 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

BlackRock (A): Selling the Systems? (with video links)

By: Ranjay Gulati, Jan W. Rivkin and Kelly McNamara

As the case opens in 1999, several key leaders at BlackRock, Inc., then a relatively small asset management firm, are trying to convince CEO Larry Fink and others that the firm should begin to offer Aladdin—its proprietary analytics and trading platform—to other asset... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Asset Management; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; United States

23 Jul 2012
News

Companies and Investors Should See More of Each Other

August 2018
Supplement

Garanti Payment Systems: Digital Transformation Strategy (B)

By: Shelle M. Santana and Esel Çekin

Supplements the (A) case. Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu, executive vice president of marketing at Garanti Payment Systems (GPS), a subsidiary of Garanti Bank, is grappling with three questions. First, should GPS create its own mobile app for credit card customers or leverage... View Details

August 2018
Case

Garanti Payment Systems: Digital Transformation Strategy (A)

By: Shelle M. Santana and Esel Çekin

Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu, executive vice president of marketing at Garanti Payment Systems (GPS), a subsidiary of Garanti Bank, is grappling with three questions. First, should GPS create its own mobile app for credit card customers or leverage the bank’s already... View Details

Ishita Sen is an assistant professor of business administration in the Finance Unit. She teaches the Finance I course in the MBA required curriculum. Professor Sen’s research focuses on financial intermediation, asset pricing, and insurance markets. In her current... View Details

07 Nov 2019
News

The Future Of Education In Family Business Leadership And Tips To Get Started

February 2007
Case

Behavioral Finance at JP Morgan

By: Malcolm P. Baker and Aldo Sesia

Following a successful model in Europe, JP Morgan has introduced a set of five U.S. retail mutual funds with an investment philosophy and marketing strategy grounded in behavioral finance. The asset management group believes that understanding investor biases like... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Investment Funds; Behavioral Finance; Competitive Advantage; Asset Management; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Customer Focus and Relationships; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States; Europe

Article

The Market for Catastrophe Risk: A Clinical Examination

By: K. A. Froot

Keywords: Catastrophe Risk; Corporate Finance; Cost Of Capital; Banking And Insurance; Asset Pricing; Hedging; Banking; Insurance; Decision Choice And Uncertainty; Financial Markets; Policy; Risk Management; Natural Disasters; Insurance Industry

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September 2016 (Revised August 2018)
Case

State Street—The Development and Growth of SHE

By: Vikram Gandhi

State Street Global Advisors was the investment arm of State Street Corporation, one of the largest custodians and asset managers in the world with over $2.3 trillion in assets under management. Inspired by demand from a large pension fund client for better gender... View Details

Keywords: ETF; Asset Management; Financial Services Industry

Brian Baik is an assistant professor in the Accounting and Management Unit at Harvard Business School. He teaches the Financial Reporting and Control course in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Baik studies how information, financial reporting, and... View Details

Keywords: private equity (LBO funds); venture capital industry

December 1995 (Revised December 1995)
Case

Yale University Investments Office

By: Josh Lerner and Jay O. Light

Yale University's investment office was responsible for managing its endowment, which totaled nearly $4 billion in June 1995. Yale had developed a rather different approach to endowment management, including substantial investments in "less efficient" equity markets... View Details

Keywords: Assets; Private Equity; Investment; Investment Return; Management; Markets; Strategy; Education Industry

22 Apr 2020
Research Event

How Investors Are Sizing Up Climate Change’s Risks—and Opportunities

March 4, Harvard Business School gathered senior executives, risk experts, and leading investment professionals from some of the world’s largest asset managers to share how they’re approaching these complex... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Financial Services

October 2007 (Revised November 2007)
Case

Barclays Global Investors and Exchange Traded Funds

By: Luis M. Viceira and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Provides an overview of the Exchange Traded Funds (EFT) industry and highlights the leadership role that Barclays Global Investors (BGI) has played in this developing asset class. BGI launched its first ETFs under the iShares brand name in 2000, and by mid-2007 BGI was... View Details

Keywords: History; Venture Capital; Asset Management; Stocks; Investment Funds; Leading Change; Expansion; Competitive Strategy; Capital Markets; Global Strategy; Financial Strategy; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Asia; Europe

April 2019 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Aperture Investors

By: Krishna G. Palepu, George Serafeim and David Lane

Aperture Investors is a startup investment firm that seeks to disrupt the asset management industry through competitive differentiation by charging investors primarily when its portfolio managers outperform the marketplace. Headed by Wall Street veteran Peter Kraus and... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Talent and Talent Management; Investment; Investment Funds; Asset Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Marketing Channels; Emerging Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

September 1998
Case

Vanguard Group, Inc. (1998), The

By: Andre F. Perold

Since the beginning of 1997, Vanguard's assets under management have increased more than 60% from $240 billion to almost $400 billion, making it second in market share only to Fidelity. Vanguard views this success as another vindication of its low-cost strategy of... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Cost Management; Investment Funds; Product; Service Operations; Performance Expectations; Competition; Consolidation; Expansion; Internet; Financial Services Industry

January 2016 (Revised November 2019)
Case

Blackstone at Age 30

By: Josh Lerner, John D. Dionne and Amram Migdal

Since its IPO in 2007 and following the global financial crisis, Blackstone largely outpaced its alternative investment firm peers in assets under management, new business launches, profitability, and market capitalization. Under the leadership of Stephen A.... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Asset Management; Private Equity; Financial Services Industry; New York (city, NY)

January 2002 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co., 2001

By: Joshua Musher and Andre F. Perold

Asset manager GMO underperforms the market during the 1996-2000 stock market bubble because of the focus on absolute risk. After suffering significant client withdrawals, performance again shines when the bubble collapses. Did they win the battle only to lose the war?... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Asset Management; Stocks; Investment; Price Bubble; Mathematical Methods; Risk and Uncertainty