Publications

SSRN

February 2005 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Richard Grasso and the NYSE, Inc. (A)

By: William W. George and Andrew N. McLean

In 2003, the New York Stock Exchange faces heated controversy over the pay of Chairman Richard Grasso. Traces Grasso's development and his success serving stakeholders while transforming operations at the world's largest exchange. Describes how Grasso's compensation... View Details

Keywords: Financial Markets; Corporate Governance; Executive Compensation; Leadership; Performance; Financial Services Industry; New York (state, US)

02 May 2018
Blog Post

Should Companies Disclose Employee Compensation?

already required of the five most highly compensated executives in the organization. Given Dalio’s devotion to radical transparency, we might assume that he would also be in favor of sharing such things as... View Details

Keywords: All Industries

October 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

McDonald's Board of Directors (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

In October 2019, the McDonald’s Corporation board of directors, chaired by Enrique Hernandez, Jr., gathered to learn the results of their outside counsel’s investigation into the conduct of the CEO. On the surface, the iconic fast-food chain was thriving as growing... View Details

26 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 26

supplement:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/611080-PDF-ENG Marshall & Gordon: Designing an Effective Compensation System (A) Heidi K. Gardner and Kerry HermanHarvard Business School Case 411-038 CEO Kelly Browne wrestles with the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Article

Formal Measures in Informal Management: Can a Balanced Scorecard Change a Culture?

By: Robert Gibbons and Robert S. Kaplan

Agency theorists, historically, have analyzed what kinds of performance measures should be used in formal incentive contracts. For example, after Kaplan-Norton proposed a balanced scorecard of both financial and non-financial measures, some envisioned its role only in... View Details

Keywords: Relational Contracts; Performance Measurement; Informal Management; Balanced Scorecard; Economics; Mathematical Methods

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Samuel L. Hayes holds the Jacob H. Schiff Chair in Investment Banking Emeritus, at the Harvard Business School. He has taught at the School since 1970, prior to which he was a tenured member of the faculty of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He... View Details

December 1998 (Revised December 1999)
Case

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Private Client Services

By: Thomas J. DeLong, David M. Darst, Ann K Rusher and Catherine M. Conneely

The 1997 merger of retail giant Dean Witter and investment bank Morgan Stanley was a year old when Bob Sculthorpe was appointed director of Private Client Services (PCS) at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MSDW). The firm was still operating under two separate broker-dealer... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Divisions; Investment Banking; Brands and Branding; Salesforce Management; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry

Lynn Sharp Paine is a Baker Foundation Professor and John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration, Emerita, at Harvard Business School. A member and former chair of the General Management unit, she has served in numerous leadership positions including Senior... View Details

20 Oct 2021
Blog Post

Mobilizing Private Sector Action For Racial Equity in Milwaukee: SE Summer Fellow Zach Komes (MBA 2022)

The HBS Summer Fellows Program enables students to apply their classroom training as they explore career opportunities in roles or regions where compensation is generally lower than the traditional MBA level. We are connecting with some... View Details

31 Aug 2021
Blog Post

Exploring the Art of Business: Social Enterprise Summer Fellow Felipe Ceron (MBA 2022)

The HBS Summer Fellows Program enables students to apply their classroom training as they explore career opportunities in roles or regions where compensation is generally lower than the traditional MBA level. This summer, we are... View Details

20 Nov 2012
First Look

First Look: November 20

http://www.people.hbs.edu/vkumar/dynamicbundling_fall2012.pdf Pay Harmony: Peer Comparison and Executive Compensation Authors:Claudine Gartenberg and Julie Wulf Abstract Using rich panel data on division... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2007 (Revised December 2007)
Case

AFL-CIO: Office of Investment and Home Depot

By: Rakesh Khurana and James Weber

Describes the AFL-CIO: Office of Investments activities in their campaign to improve governance at Home Depot by calling attention to Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli's compensation package and the company's poor performance. The AFL-CIO Office of Investments advocates... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Labor Unions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business and Shareholder Relations

October 2008
Article

Evaluating the CEO

By: Stephen P. Kaufman

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. After Kaufman became a CEO, he was struck by how perfunctory the board was in its... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leadership; Managerial Roles; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives

2021
Working Paper

Proxy Advisory Firms and Corporate Shareholder Engagement

By: Aiyesha Dey, Joshua White and Austin Starkweather

We examine the influence of proxy advisors on firms’ shareholder engagement behavior. Our analyses exploit a quasi-natural experiment using Say-On-Pay voting outcomes near a threshold that triggers a review of engagement activities by Institutional Shareholder Services... View Details

Keywords: Proxy Advisors; ISS; Shareholder Engagement; Disclosure; Business and Shareholder Relations; Executive Compensation; Corporate Disclosure

SSRN

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Susanna View Details

Keywords: health care

November 2007
Article

If Private Equity Sized Up Your Business

By: Robert C. Pozen

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. As the dust settles on the recent frenzy of private equity deals (including... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Capital Structure; Private Equity; Investment Return; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry

February 2009 (Revised March 2009)
Supplement

AFSCME vs. Mozilo...and "Say on Pay" for All! (B)

By: Fabrizio Ferri and James Weber

Union seeks to protect its pension funds through shareholder activism focused on corporate governance and executive compensation. The (B) case updates the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Labor Unions; Corporate Governance

02 Nov 2009
Research & Ideas

Shareholders Need a Say on Pay

With executive compensation soaring to unprecedented levels in recent years, the prickly issue of CEO pay has received increasing media and government attention. Now, with the perfect storm of a failing... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services

September 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

PDS: Ring-Fencing the Ranch

By: Dennis Campbell, Tarun Khanna and Kerry Herman

Pallak Seth, Group CEO of PDS Multinational Fashions, is contemplating options to bring better collaboration across his global apparel supply chain platform. PDS, a group of 50-plus subsidiary companies, each led by its own CEO and with different apparel industry... View Details

Keywords: Collaboration; Supply Chain Management; Performance; Partners and Partnerships; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Apparel and Accessories Industry