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September 2006 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Empemex

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Regina Garcia-Cuellar

Studies an entrepreneurial venture in Mexico City. The protagonists, two MBAs from HBS, started a pawn shop chain funded from their private equity office after finishing business school. This is timed at a point where the protagonists have to decide how to grow the... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Mexico City; United States

TeachingInterests

Investing: Risk, Return and Impact (MBA)

By: Shawn A. Cole

This is an investing/finance course, designed to build on skills introduced in the RC finance course, but with an emphasis on how and whether investors should incorporate what have traditionally been considered “non-financial” criteria in their decisions: for... View Details

March 1990 (Revised November 2004)
Case

O.M. Scott & Sons Co. Leveraged Buyout

By: George P. Baker III and Karen Wruck

Documents the organizational changes that took place at O.M. Scott & Sons Co. in response to their leveraged buyout. Provides the opportunity for students to discuss the effects of high leverage on management decision making, and the differences between operating as a... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Capital Structure; Borrowing and Debt; Organizational Structure; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Management; Business Conglomerates; Cost of Capital; Financial Services Industry

March 2009 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Risk Management at Wellfleet Bank: Deciding about "Megadeals"

By: Anette Mikes

Inspired by one of the few banks that successfully weathered the 2007-2009 credit crisis, the case illustrates risk management in a corporate finance business. Chief executive Alastair Dowes has to decide if the risk governance process is adequate to uncover mega-risks... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Decision Making; Performance Evaluation; Credit; Balance and Stability; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Decision Choices and Conditions; Negotiation Offer; Performance Effectiveness; Corporate Finance; Banking Industry

26 May 2023
Blog Post

Bringing Space Tech Back to Earth

Sciences (SEAS) and Harvard Business School, will soon head to SpaceX, where she’ll work in the direct-to-cell connectivity department. Along with enabling normal cell phone features such as text messaging and phone calls, that technology... View Details

January 2002 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Strategic Planning at NFTE

By: Allen S. Grossman and Daniel F. Curran

The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), is a successful nonprofit poised on the verge of explosive growth. The senior management contracted with McKinsey consultants to help guide the process. The founders of NFTE brought it from a small program... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Partners and Partnerships; Nonprofit Organizations

Marcela is a PhD candidate in Business Economics. Previously, she did her undergraduate studies at Universidade de Sao Paulo and obtained a Master's degree in Economics from PUC-Rio. Her research interests include... View Details

22 May 2020
Blog Post

Reflections on Service - Armed Forces Alumni Association Student Profiles

Each of these portraits tells a unique story of military service. The HBS students featured represent a small portion of the many veterans who live and learn in our community. They are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, spouses and... View Details

Program

Senior Executive Program—Africa

Summary African countries face a distinct set of social, economic, and political conditions that create unique business challenges—along with exciting opportunities. To gain a competitive advantage, View Details

Web

Organizational Behavior - Doctoral

Organizational Behavior In the field of Organizational Behavior, researchers draw on the methods and concepts of psychology and sociology to examine complex organizations and the ways that people behave within them. Scholars in the doctoral program in Organizational... View Details

October 1995
Case

Singapore TradeNet: Beyond TradeNet to the Intelligent Island

By: Lynda M. Applegate, John L. King and Soon-Siong Neo

Describes the actions taken by the government of Singapore to enable the country to survive and prosper after it achieved independence in the late 1960s. Recognizing that its small size, limited natural resources, but excellent location placed it in a vulnerable... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Communication Technology; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Information Technology Industry; Singapore

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30 Jun 2020
News

Disruption Amidst Disruption: Fintech in the Age of Coronavirus

April 1991 (Revised July 1994)
Case

Southland Corp. (B)

By: Richard S. Ruback

Examines Southland's financial difficulties following the LBO in 1987 up to the first restructuring plan in July 1990. The teaching objectives are: to explore the complexities of a failed leverage buyout and the operating restrictions that result from financial... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Equity; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financing and Loans; Crisis Management

March 2023
Case

FinTunes, Inc., Board of Directors

By: Lynn S. Paine and Jennifer Fonstad

The board of FinTunes, Inc., a start-up aimed at helping musicians distribute their work and manage their finances, must decide among three candidates to serve as the company’s first independent director. The terms of FinTunes’ last round of financing provided that the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Music Industry; Los Angeles; California

20 Aug 2008
Op-Ed

The Time is Right for Creative Capitalism

small number of rivals—for market power. (Indeed, at the Harvard Business School where I have taught business history to thousands of MBAs, students often compare the early... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy Koehn

March 2017
Case

Swagbucks

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Matthew G. Preble

In early 2016, Chuck Davis, chairman and CEO of Prodege LLC, parent company of the brand promotion business Swagbucks, and Josef Gorowitz, Prodege’s founder and president, must decide whether to acquire MyPoints, a competitor to Swagbucks, after the company’s... View Details