Publications

December 2007 (Revised July 2008)
Case

General Mills (A)

By: Raymond V. Gilmartin, Marco Iansiti and Bianca Buccitelli

General Mills is an 80-year-old company that specializes in consumer foods such as cereal, snacks, baking, and dinner products. Although General Mills is, on the whole, a very successful company, they have, in the recent past, had to face challenges as a result the... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Change Management; Cost Management; Problems and Challenges; Inflation and Deflation; Price; Consumer Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry

22 Jan 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, January 22, 2019

practical implications to the literature on organizational change, emotions, and language in global organizations. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=55473 December 2018 Strategy Science The View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

02 Jul 2010
What Do You Think?

Is Profit as a “Direct Goal” Overrated?

have observed. Almost to a person, they treat profit as a by-product of other things to which they devote most of their attention, things such as a focused strategy that delivers results to carefully-selected customers while pursuing... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

May 2020
Case

Trust Merchant Bank

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Pippa Tubman Armerding, Dilyana Karadzhova Botha and Salim Dewji

Trust Merchant Bank (TMB), a leading bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), needs to decide whether to enter the soon-to-be-liberalized insurance industry. Since its founding in 2004, TMB has played a pivotal role in reshaping the DRC banking landscape by... View Details

Keywords: Retail Banking; Financial Services; Financial Inclusion; Turnaround; Fintech; Banks and Banking; Financial Condition; Insurance; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Business Model; Family Business; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Monopoly; Banking Industry; Insurance Industry; Africa; Congo, Democratic Republic of the

Profile

Micah Macfarlane

wind, and solar. "I want to work on business development and strategy to scale the best ideas as rapidly and effectively as possible." After graduation, Micah wants to continue on that path – targeting our major sources of... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare/Biotech; Manufacturing/Energy; Nonprofit/Government/Education

10 Dec 2015
Blog Post

Working with Professors at HBS

Prior to joining the HBS Class of 2014, I worked in strategy and planning at HBO and spent a summer at Univision in the office of the CEO. Media has been my industry of choice ever since I was exposed to it in high school through the... View Details

01 Dec 2018
News

Hard Choices

the way I want to discuss it is by asking questions. They may sometimes seem rhetorical, but they’re not. They may sometimes seem straightforward, but they’re not. Because these choices are usually hard ones, and tests not just of intellect but of character. They are... View Details

Keywords: Seth Klarman (MBA 1982)

23 Dec 2008
First Look

First Look: December 23, 2008

welfare. Yet, our understanding of this decision is limited. Using an instrumental variables strategy and dataset new to this literature, we provide the first precise, causal estimates of the effects of education on financial market... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

04 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 4

We propose that firms' corporate governance and firms' strategic business activities within an industry are interlinked. By conducting a simultaneous economic analysis of business strategy and corporate governance, scholars can better... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

18 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 18, 2007

with higher average information asymmetries. We fail to find evidence consistent with this proposition. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-014.pdf PublicationsLocation Strategies and Knowledge Spillovers Authors:Juan... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2018
Supplement

Ant Financial (B)

By: Feng Zhu, Ying Zhang, Krishna G. Palepu and Anthony K. Woo

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Finance; Opportunities; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry

March 2000 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Thomas Weisel Partners (B): Year One

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Ashish Nanda and Scott D Landry

After its launch in February 1999, Thomas Weisel Partners experiences rapid growth in its first year. This case details the inaugural year's development and probes what steps the firm should take to continue the momentum. View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Financial Institutions; Management Teams; Growth Management; Financial Services Industry

31 Jul 2015
News

Sam Adams Could Turn Benedict Arnold Because of Taxes

Keywords: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

June 1995
Case

Quorum Health Group, Inc.

By: William A. Sahlman and Jason Green

Facing increasing competition from much larger industry players, Jim Dalton, CEO of Quorum, and Russ Carson, Managing Partner of Welch, Carson, Anderson & Stowe attempt to set the future direction for Quorum. The company was successfully spun-off from HCA in a... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Consolidation; Leveraged Buyouts; Venture Capital; Acquisition; Health Industry

Find at Harvard

October 1988 (Revised May 1990)
Case

Ford Motor Co.: The Product Warranty Program (A)

Raises powerful issues concerning product warranty policy as a strategic marketing variable. Also raises several exciting issues concerning the role of product policy in competitive battles, product line issues, interfunctional coordination issues, and some ethical... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Marketing Strategy; Insurance; Product; Policy; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; United States

September 2017 (Revised April 2022)
Case

Tempur Sealy International (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Lauren G. Pickle

This case explores the long-term relationship between Tempur Sealy (TPX, a mattress manufacturer) and Mattress Firm (MFRM, a bedding retailer and TPX's largest customer). For almost 20 years, the firms enjoyed a mutually beneficial and commercially prosperous... View Details

2020
Working Paper

The Effects of Information on Credit Market Competition: Evidence from Credit Cards

By: C. Fritz Foley, Agustin Hurtado, Andres Liberman and Alberto Sepulveda

We show empirically that public credit information increases competition in credit markets. We access data that cover all credit card borrowers in Chile and include details about relationship borrowers have with each lender. We exploit a natural experiment whereby a... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Credit; Financial Intermediaries; Credit; Information; Competition; Credit Cards; Financial Institutions