Publications

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November 2012 (Revised January 2014)
Case

HCA, Inc. LBO Exit

By: Victoria Ivashina

This case discusses the events following the 2006 $33.2 billion buyout of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) by a consortium of private equity firms, including Bain Capital, KKR, and Merrill Lynch's private equity arm. The case highlights some of the core features... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Finance; Stockholders; Dividends; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering

April 2006 (Revised September 2009)
Case

BYD Company, Ltd.

By: Robert S. Huckman and Alan D. MacCormack

Considers whether BYD Co., Ltd., the largest Chinese maker of rechargeable batteries, should enter the Chinese automobile industry by acquiring Qinchuan Auto, a state-owned car manufacturer. Set just after BYD's initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Labor; Production; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Auto Industry; Battery Industry; Manufacturing Industry; China

07 Jun 2019
News

Harriett Tubman On The $20 Bill

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

sales in the United States as a percentage of P&G's sales rose from 14.8 percent between 1924 and 1926 to reach almost 50 percent in 1933. In 1930 P&G suggested purchasing Lever in the United States as part of a world division of markets, but the View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

May 2020 (Revised August 2021)
Case

Playing the Field: Competing Bids for Anadarko Petroleum Corp

By: E. Scott Mayfield, Daniel Green and Benjamin C. Esty

On April 8, 2019, Occidental’s CEO Vicki Hollub made a private offer to buy Anadarko Petroleum Corporation for $72 in cash and stock. Anadarko's CEO Al Walker said he would consider the offer, yet three days later, on April 11, he signed a merger agreement with Chevron... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Bids and Bidding; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits

February 2008 (Revised June 2008)
Case

Shoppers' Stop Group (SSG)

By: Rajiv Lal and Virginia Fuller

As B.S. Nagesh thumbed through the 2006-2007 Annual Report for Shoppers' Stop Group (SSG), action shots of healthy-looking people dressed in the latest fashions amid the words "Redefining Retail" brought a smile to his face. As managing director of SSG-a Rs 8.9 billion... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Initial Public Offering; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Emerging Markets; Retail Industry; India

Leading with Finance is a flexible, 6-week, highly-interactive online course which is designed to provide participants with a thorough understanding of the principles of finance – a toolkit for making smart financial decisions and the confidence to clearly... View Details

January 2009
Case

Marks and Spencer: Plan A

By: David E. Bell, Nitin Sanghavi and Laura Winig

Marks & Spencer initiated a comprehensive approach to sustainability (reduction of waste, carbon emissions, fair trade) called Plan A. Does it offer a competitive advantage? View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Strategic Planning; Environmental Sustainability; Competitive Advantage; Retail Industry

We contribute to the growing literature on the effectiveness of corporate boards by examining the effect of two insights that have been largely unexplored in prior studies that use public data. First, since boards’ responsibilities are wide-ranging, more holistic... View Details

February 2000 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Kendle International Inc.

By: Dwight B. Crane, Paul W. Marshall and Indra Reinbergs

Candace Kendle and Christopher Bergen, the CEO and COO of Kendle International, Inc., are reviewing ways to finance the growth of their privately-owned company. Kendle is a contract research organization that conducts clinical drug trials for pharmaceutical and... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Financing and Loans; Venture Capital; Stock Options; Banks and Banking; Debt Securities; International Finance; Financial Strategy; Management Skills; Private Ownership; Initial Public Offering; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

03 Aug 2012
News

The Long-Term Value of Internet Companies

March 2008 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Facebook

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Aaron Smith, David Chen and Brian Feinstein

As Facebook topped one billion monthly users in October 2012, the online social network continued to face questions about how best to monetize its surging traffic. The company could invest further in new advertising products, which represented the majority of the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Profit; Open Source Distribution; Social and Collaborative Networks; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Information Technology Industry

15 Nov 2010
News

Harvard Business School Faculty on General Motors IPO

December 2014
Case

Groupon: A New CEO Takes Charge

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Arnold B. Peinado

On August 7, 2013, Eric Lefkofsky, the chairman and largest shareholder of Groupon was named CEO, replacing founder Andrew Mason, who had run the company since its inception in 2009. When Groupon had its initial public offering (IPO) in November 2011, the company's... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Disruptive Technologies; Growth Strategy; Customer Relations; Service Management; International Business; Business Models; Strategy Execution; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; United States

May 2015
Case

Venture Republic, 2011

By: W. Carl Kester and Mayuka Yamazaki

In December 2011, the founders of Venture Republic, a Japanese developer and operator of on-line search engines for shopping and travel, faced a decison about whether or not to take the company private in a management buyout transaction just three years after an... View Details

Keywords: Management Buyout; MBO; Valuation Methodologies; Financing Decisions; Conflicts Of Interest; Governance; Japan; Search Engines; Going Private; Conflict of Interests; Internet and the Web; Valuation; Privatization; Financing and Loans; Corporate Governance; Web Services Industry; Japan

April 2022
Case

Mastercard: Creating a World Beyond Cash

By: Sunil Gupta, Linda A. Hill, Julia Kelley and Emily Tedards

In late 2021, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach and Chairman and former CEO Ajaypal “Ajay” Banga considered how Mastercard could best position itself for continued success in the years to come. Since Mastercard’s initial public offering in 2006, the company had grown and... View Details

10 Jan 2014
News

New horizons for HarvardX

July 2018 (Revised November 2018)
Case

The Robin Hood Army

By: Susanna Gallani

In 2014, Neel Ghose and a handful of friends spent one evening distributing excess food they had collected from local restaurants to the less fortunate people living under the Hauz Khas flyover in South Delhi. Four years later, this initiative had developed into The... View Details

Keywords: Volunteer-based Organization; Food Redistribution; Nonprofit Organizations; Food; Human Needs; Expansion; Global Range; Growth and Development

December, 2024
Article

6 Lessons from Companies That Shut Down Their Business in Russia

By: William R. Kerr, Kalle Heikkinen, Mika Malin, Panu Routila and Joel Ryynänen

Increasingly, companies are being pressured to decouple from regions that customers, employees, politicians, advocacy groups, and even leaders deem politically fraught. This can pose a dilemma for executives, as research both shows that fast decision-making is vital,... View Details