Publications

10 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

The Surprising Winners and Losers in the Retail Revolution

broad-assortment retailers are facing impacts across almost every category in their stores. Reading the commentary of equity analysts, one is impressed by the extent to which supercenters like Walmart and warehouse clubs like Costco have... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

January 2019
Case

First Aid Beauty

By: Karen Mills and Annie Dang

In 2008, Lilli Gordon, an experienced financial and skincare entrepreneur, founded First Aid Beauty (FAB). She had discovered a white space in the prestige beauty market: high-end skin solutions that were suitable for sensitive skin. After initial success through... View Details

Keywords: Prestige Beauty; Skincare; Preferred Shares; Common Stock; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Decision Choices and Conditions; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

Web

Live from Klarman Hall - Alumni

Welcome Address 10:00–10:30 a.m. EST Speakers: Srikant Datar , Dean of the Faculty, George F. Baker Professor of Administration and Robin Ely , Baker Foundation Professor and Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Emerita; Co-chair, Race, Gender, and... View Details

March 2008
Supplement

Patel Food and Chemicals Private Limited (B)

By: Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Alok Patel, the founder and chairman of a Gujarat-based, privately held edible oils processor, has hired a CFO and the company is doing extremely well. He wants to add a new plant to process oilive oil, but estimates he will need $20 million. He must decide among... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Financing and Loans; Investment; Financial Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry; Chemical Industry; Gujarat

Find at Harvard

13 Feb 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 13, 2018

provide firms with an opportunity to leverage their know-how and reputation across countries to create value. However, it remains challenging for them to actually capture that value using traditional Intellectual Property (IP) tools. In this paper, we document the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2008 (Revised June 2009)
Case

Actis: January 2008

By: Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Paul Feltcher, the CEO of Actis, a leading private equity investor in emerging markets, is preparing for an executive retreat at which the management team will consider how best to position the firm for the future. Actis could move in a number of different directions... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Private Equity; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Teams; Emerging Markets; Organizational Change and Adaptation

August 2021 (Revised February 2022)
Case

Northvolt: Making the World's Greenest Battery

By: Jurgen R. Weiss and Emilie Billaud

In 2021, the demand for lithium-ion batteries increased rapidly, particularly for electric vehicles. Anxious not to be reliant on Asian players, Europe was keen on developing its own home-grown capacity to control the value chain, maintain employment in Europe, and get... View Details

June 2021
Case

Modern Endowment Management: Paula Volent and the Bowdoin Endowment

By: Luis M. Viceira, Emily R. McComb and Dean Xu

This case examines modern endowment investment management through the lens of a leadership transition between Chief Investment Officers (CIOs). In March 2021, Paula Volent is about to step down as the CIO of the endowment of Bowdoin College after twenty-one years, and... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Investment Banking; Growth Management; Investment Return; Capital Markets; Interest Rates; Competition; Cost Management; Risk Management; Financial Liquidity; Performance Evaluation

Web

Hiring Organizations

Frontier Capital Greenhouse Capital Partners GreyMatter Greystar Grounded Capital Growie.io H H.I.G. Capital Harlem Children's Zone Harmonic Harvard Business School Harvard Kennedy School Harvard University Hastings Equity Partners, LLC... View Details

17 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

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

offers four research-backed strategies leaders should put into place now to create incentive programs that work, and three important pitfalls to avoid. Do: Offer equity ‘with juice’ For senior-level employees, a way to riches has always... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

06 Nov 2007
First Look

First Look: November 6, 2007

some implications for the future growth of the industry. Purchase this note: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=804176 Blue River Capital Harvard Business School Case 708-448 Examines the strategy and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

AME Learning Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Ann Leamon

Justin Joffe is about to graduate from HBS in Spring 2009. He must decide whether to join his father's company, Toronto-based AME Learning, as president working alongside his father who will be CEO. AME has been in business for 12 years, mostly as a small consulting... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Family Business; Age; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development Strategy; Family and Family Relationships

Find at Harvard

23 Feb 2021
News

Examining Race and Mass Incarceration in the United States

Program

Launching New Ventures

Pitch your business to potential investors and other stakeholders Evolve your leadership approach to manage ongoing innovation, radical change, and growth Address competitive challenges Make sound investment and resource allocation... View Details

21 Nov 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, November 21, 2017

membership is considered highly prestigious. We document that index-inclusion incentives have led firms to increase return on equity proportionally by 41% on average, via higher margins, efficiency, or shareholder payouts, depending on... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Program

Mergers and Acquisitions

Details Enable growth through an effective M&A process Build stronger M&A strategies Identify the right targets, assess business value accurately, and perform meaningful due diligence Negotiate complex multi-party, multi-issue deals that... View Details

18 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

How Brand China Can Succeed

Its double digit economic growth rates—especially for a country of over a billion people—have been enviable. China has become factory to the world. The Chinese are rightly proud of their achievements and the 2008 Olympics promise to be... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

February 2024 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Can Families Conquer Private Equity? Pritzker Private Capital

By: Lauren Cohen and Sophia Pan

Anthony (Tony) Pritkzer, Paul Carbone, and the Pritzker Private Capital (PPC) team wondered how to approach the firm’s next phase of growth. PPC was a private equity firm that offered a differentiated approach to the family capital market. Back in 2016, the partners... View Details

2021
Working Paper

Studying the U.S.-Based Portfolio Companies of U.S. Impact Investors

By: M. Diane Burton, Gurveen Chadha, Shawn A. Cole, Abhishek Dev, Christina Jarymowycz, Leslie Jeng, Laura Kelley, Josh Lerner, Jaime R. Diaz Palacios, Yue (Cynthia) Xu and T. Robert Zochowski

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the reliance on market-based solutions to social and environmental problems around the world (Barman 2016; Horvath and Powell 2020). The growth of impact investing is a vivid example of this trend and, although there have... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Impact Portfolio Companies; Investment; Social Issues; Environmental Sustainability; Investment Portfolio; Business Ventures; Analytics and Data Science; Performance; United States