Publications

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April 1993 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Northern Telecom (A): Greenwich Investment Proposal

By: Robert J. Dolan

The business products division has developed a business proposal asking for $50 million to fund the creation of a new telephone system for the small business market. The company's last entry into this marketplace lost $70 million. The new product would face 100... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Communication Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Investment; Product Development; Telecommunications Industry; Canada

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Web

Entrepreneurship - Faculty & Research

‘Product-Market Fit’ for the AI Age Keywords: AI ; Founder ; Startup ; AI and Machine Learning ; Technology Adoption ; Business Startups ; Entrepreneurship ; Market Entry and Exit Citation Purchase Related... View Details

June 2014 (Revised October 2015)
Case

Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower... View Details

Web

Skydeck - Alumni

professors, and lifelong partners they met on campus Helping Consumers Decarbonize their Purchases In this excerpt from the HBS podcast Climate Rising , Sanchali Pal (MBA 2018) discusses the business plan behind her sustainable spending... View Details

October 1993 (Revised September 1994)
Case

Northern Telecom (A): Greenwich Investment Proposal (Condensed)

By: Robert J. Dolan

The business products division has developed a business proposal asking for $50 million to fund the creation of a new telephone system for the small business market. The company's last entry into this marketplace lost $70 million. The new product would face 100... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Communication Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Investment; Product Development; Telecommunications Industry; Canada

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November 2004 (Revised July 2006)
Case

Patrimonio Hoy

By: Arthur I Segel, Michael Chu and Gustavo Herrero

Patrimonio Hoy is a program targeting the housing needs of the low-income population by CEMEX, a major Mexican company and a leading global cement producer. Originally conceived as a project to understand the customers in the self-construction segment better, a major... View Details

Keywords: Housing; Construction; Product Design; Globalized Firms and Management; Microfinance; Income; Market Entry and Exit; Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Construction Industry; Mexico

01 Dec 2023
News

Venturing Forth

“Right now the industry is going through a massive hangover after a complete rager,” says Jo Tango (MBA 1995), a senior lecturer at HBS and a venture capitalist who has exited from three unicorns. Like any financial industry, venture... View Details

Keywords: Janelle Nanos; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

06 Jun 2018
Research & Ideas

Cut Salaries or Cut People? The Best Way to Survive a Downturn

Reduction, co-authored by Harvard Business School’s Christopher T. Stanton, along with Jason Sandvik and Nathan Seegert of the University of Utah; and Richard Saouma of Michigan State University. “Managers changed the mix of commissions,... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

Web

Technology & Innovation - Faculty & Research

considered grinding it out but also saw the appeal in an acquisition if the right opportunity presented itself. Keywords: Business Startups ; Entrepreneurial Finance ; Technological Innovation ; Business... View Details

04 Oct 2016
First Look

October 4, 2016

concerns about the unobservable consequences of policy. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51704 Harvard Business School Case 217-007 Disintermediating the Banks: ThinCats and the Peer-to-Peer Lending... View Details

03 Apr 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 3, 2018

was already close to the margin of exit. Restaurants with lower ratings are closer to the margin of exit at all observed minimum wage levels and are disproportionately driven out of business by increases to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2023
Case

Azenta Life Sciences: The Road to Transformation

By: Gary P. Pisano and Catherine Piner

When the Board brought Steve Schwartz in as President of Brooks Automation in 2010, they gave him a clear mission: strengthen the company’s core semiconductor equipment business and find a new industry to enter. Over the course of the next decade, Schwartz and the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Market Entry and Exit; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Segmentation; Technology Industry

06 Jul 2023
News

Lessons from Major League Baseball's Game-Changing Innovations

talks about what it's like to lead innovation in a business steeped in tradition, how the league engineers for the outcomes that fans want, and what it will take to for robot umpires to be a win. In this part of the conversation, Marinak... View Details

October 2013 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American (A)

By: Gautam Mukunda, Lisa Mazzanti and Aldo Sesia

In 2007, Cynthia Carroll, the newly-appointed chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, was considering shutting down mines in South Africa for safety reasons, namely worker fatalities. No company had ever done so before. Carroll felt that operating a company... View Details

Keywords: Culture; Leadership; Gender; Safety; Working Conditions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Organizational Culture; Change Management; Mining; Mining Industry; South Africa

March 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Security Factors

By: Jay O. Light

A very successful entrepreneur who has built a factoring business in Atlanta is trying to decide how to sell this business. The issues are how to value the company and the strategy of selling. View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation; Strategy; Valuation; Atlanta

18 Apr 2023
Research & Ideas

What Happens When Banks Ditch Coal: The Impact Is 'More Than Anyone Thought'

Consumers who are eager to mitigate climate change can take many actions, such as reducing the number of airline flights they take or installing solar panels on their homes. But the planet is in a race against time, and individual action alone won’t help most countries... View Details

Keywords: by Barbara DeLollis; Financial Services; Mining

February 2008 (Revised September 2010)
Case

LeapFrog Enterprises

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins

Explores the success factors leading to the company's rise to the number three ranking in the aggressively competitive toy industry. LeapFrog has made the strategic decision to expand beyond the toy industry and enter the educational technology and services industry.... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Expansion; Consumer Products Industry; Education Industry