Publications

Ria is a JD/PhD student at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. At HLS, she was a John M. Olin Fellow and the winner of the 2021 Victor Brudney Writing Prize. She previously studied Economics and Mathematics at Columbia University, where she was nominated... View Details

January 2021
Article

Sales Hiring Is Hard to Do (Don't Make It Harder)

By: Frank V. Cespedes

In the aggregate, hiring in sales is more expensive than many companies’ cap-ex decisions. But it rarely gets the same attention and companies fail to deal with challenges inherent in sales hiring. Unlike many other business functions, there is no easily identified... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Selection and Staffing; Human Resources

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29 Oct 2019
Sharpening Your Skills

Robots in the Boardroom

the businesses they deal with. Fintech's Game-Changing Opportunities for Small BusinessArtificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data is transforming financial services for small-business. Companies... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

The Motion Picture Industry: Critical Issues in Practice, Current Research & New Research Directions

Keywords: by Jehoshua Eliashberg, Anita Elberse & Mark A. A. M. Leenders; Entertainment & Recreation; Motion Pictures & Video; Advertising

November 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Wallbox

By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui and Max Hancock

Enric Asunción co-founded Wallbox, a private EV charger company, in Spain in 2015. As CEO, Asunción transformed the company from a small start-up, focused on the European market, to a multimillion-dollar enterprise with offices on three continents. In 2021, a private... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Going Public; Acquisition; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Startups; Entrepreneurial Finance; Spain; United States; United Kingdom

March 2018
Teaching Note

Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity (A) and (B)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Victor Wu

Through the challenges facing Target, the case examines the ways in which corporations can become involved in political and legislative debates and processes, ranging from campaign contributions to lobbying. In 2016, Target CEO Brian Cornell must determine how to... View Details

January 2002 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Space Data Corporation

By: Alan D. MacCormack and Jay Wynn

Space Data Corp. plans to partner with the U.S. National Weather Service to place transceivers on weather balloons and thereby create a national mobile communications network. The company is in the late development stages and is planning to launch a regional test that... View Details

Keywords: Wireless Technology; Business Startups; Business Processes; Adaptation; Partners and Partnerships; Opportunities; Telecommunications Industry; Public Administration Industry; United States

October 2021
Case

Financial Reporting at Mattel

By: Aiyesha Dey, Trung Nguyen, Marshal Herrmann and Julia Kelley

In September 2020, Diana Ferguson was nearing her first Audit Committee meeting as the newly appointed Audit Committee chair of Mattel, Inc. Mattel was just recovering from an accounting scandal which had revealed the company’s poor internal controls and weak board... View Details

July 1990 (Revised October 1997)
Case

Siemens Electric Motor Works (A) (Abridged)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Explores how a cost system can help support a firm's decision to change strategies. In the process, the students are introduced to a simple activity-based cost system. Siemens Electric Motor Works found itself facing an increasingly competitive environment and so made... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Cost Accounting; Cost; Adoption; Cost vs Benefits; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Production; Business Strategy; Electronics Industry; Manufacturing Industry

Web

Placement - Doctoral

Evidence from Field Data Advisors: Eugene F. Soltes (Chair), Krishna G. Palepu , and Aiyesha Dey Close Business Economics 2025 Maxim Alekseev Business Economics, 2025 Placement: Hong Kong University of... View Details

22 Dec 2013
News

Jesse Willms, the Dark Lord of the Internet

17 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Money Isn’t Everything: The Dos and Don’ts of Motivating Employees

In a post-pandemic business world of hybrid work and quiet quitting, companies must rethink how they motivate employees. Good incentive plans and reward structures require a careful analysis of a company’s objectives, culture, and... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

05 Dec 2006
First Look

First Look: December 5, 2006

which patents are assigned with the firm names in the Census Bureau's SSEL business registry. Through the Census Bureau's file structure, this R&D platform can be linked to the operating performances of each firm's establishments,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2008 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Amazon: The Brink of Bankruptcy

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Enables a thorough analysis of the Amazon.com business model and its evolution from 1994 to 2001. The case ends with the company poised on the brink of bankruptcy and enables discussion of how to turnaround the company and leverage proprietary assets. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Restructuring; Entrepreneurship; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Business History; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy

February 1999 (Revised June 2000)
Case

Cimetrics Technology (A-1)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Jose Royo

Jim Lee, president of Cimetrics (a young, fast growing, software start-up) is reevaluating his small company's geographically dispersed product development model. To take advantage of talented low-cost labor in Russia, the company has relied on two software engineering... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Applications and Software; Business or Company Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Labor and Management Relations; Product Development; Performance Evaluation; Information Technology Industry; Russia; Canada; United States

March 2008
Course Overview Note

Dynamic Markets

By: Joshua D. Coval and Erik Stafford

The Dynamic Markets course at Harvard Business School is organized around the hands-on application of financial decision making in a wide variety of capital market settings. The course relies heavily on in-class simulations of a range of market settings where students... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Decision Making; Capital Markets; Competitive Strategy; Profit; Applications and Software; Information; Strategy; Price; Outcome or Result; Curriculum and Courses; Theory

25 Feb 2019
Research & Ideas

How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

Women make up more than half of the labor force in the United States and earn almost 60 percent of advanced degrees, yet they bring home less pay and fill fewer seats in the C-suite than men, particularly in male-dominated professions like View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

June 2010 (Revised June 2011)
Case

U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death"

By: Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Ramana Nanda

The case focuses on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the $38 billion of stimulus funding the DOE received to encourage clean tech. They focus on "bridging the valley of death" (i.e., helping young, innovative companies finance technically risky and very capital... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Government and Politics; Innovation and Invention; Programs; Business and Government Relations; Climate Change; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry