Publications

March 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Case

China: To Float or Not To Float? (E)- ABB Investment in China

By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

In July 2005, China revalued its currency by 2.1% and adjusted its exchange rate regime toward a more market-based system. ABB, a global power and automation technologies company based out of Switzerland with operations in China, was among those companies confronted... View Details

Keywords: Currency Exchange Rate; Investment; Multinational Firms and Management; International Relations; Problems and Challenges; Value Creation; China; Switzerland

30 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

COVID Not Slowing VC Investment

The COVID-19 pandemic has battered industries around the world, but one sector's prospects aren’t so bleak: venture capital. Startup backers—and private-equity managers in general—say that half of their portfolio companies haven’t been harmed View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Financial Services; Banking

July 2009 (Revised August 2011)
Case

What Happened at Citigroup? (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

What went wrong at Citigroup? In 1998, the Travelers Group and Citicorp merged to create Citigroup Inc., considered the first true global "financial supermarket" and a business model to be envied, feared, and emulated. By year-end 2006 the firm had a market... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Globalized Firms and Management; Leadership; Risk Management; Failure; Financial Services Industry

02 Jul 2010
What Do You Think?

Is Profit as a “Direct Goal” Overrated?

decision-making and even to the future and viability of capitalism. One debate concerned the primacy of profit as a goal. Deaver Brown led this argument by saying, "Profit is the only legitimate goal of a corporation ," pointing... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

02 Dec 2009
What Do You Think?

Should Immigration Policies Be More Welcoming to Low-Skilled Workers?

Summing Up Low-skilled immigrants: burden or opportunity? Immigration is apparently a topic that stirs passions globally, judging from the responses to this month's column. As Nauman Lodhi pointed out, "Tough times give rise more than ever to tough thoughts... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

March 2022 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Aldrich Capital Partners

By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

By July 2016, the Aldrich Capital Partners team had spent over two years trying to raise their inaugural growth-equity fund. They had pitched to over 140 investors, but none had committed. Managing Partners Mirza Baig and Raz Zia each had extensive experience in the... View Details

Keywords: Growth Equity; Investment Evaluation; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Investment; Strategy; Decision Making; United States

02 Aug 2021
What Do You Think?

Can Companies with Remote Management Succeed?

below. References: Prithwiraj Choudbury and Emma Salomon, GitLab and the Future of All-Remote Work (A), Harvard Business School Publishing, April 2, 2020. Chip Cutter, The Back-to-Work Puzzle, The Wall Street Journal, July 24-25, 2021.... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

27 Jul 2019
Op-Ed

Does Facebook's Business Model Threaten Our Elections?

When the FTC announced in July a $5 billion penalty and other actions against the company over privacy disgressions, the Federal Trade Commission said it well: “ through at least June 2018, Facebook subverted users’ privacy choices to... View Details

Keywords: by George Riedel

9 AM – 9 AM EDT, 16 May 2018
HBS Online

HBX Becoming A Better Manager

Master a process approach to management and move your organization forward. In Becoming a Better Manager youll learn to identify, analyze, design, and influence four critical organizational processes: decision-making, implementation, organizational learning, and change... View Details

17 Jan 2017
Research & Ideas

Can China Maintain Its Economic Power?

A group of Chinese tourists visiting the promenade in front of Pudong's skyline. Source: Richmatts When F. Warren McFarlan and a small group of HBS colleagues arrived in Beijing in July 1979, they stepped off the plane into a country... View Details

Keywords: by Deborah Blagg

22 Aug 2005
Research & Ideas

The Hard Work of Failure Analysis

personal responsibility. Evidence of this problem is provided by a study of a large European telecoms company, which revealed that very little learning occurred from a set of large and small failures over a period of twenty years. Instead... View Details

Keywords: by Amy Edmondson & Mark D. Cannon

December 2007 (Revised August 2014)
Case

Xanadu on Broadway

By: Anita Elberse

Can one of Hollywood's biggest flops magically turn into a Broadway hit? Xanadu, an adaptation of a 1980 Olivia Newton-John roller-disco film described by one critic as "the epic failure to end all epic failures," opened on Broadway in July 2007. Producer Rob Ahrens,... View Details

Keywords: Theater Entertainment; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Demand and Consumers; Risk and Uncertainty; Creativity; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

2021
Article

The Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative in Europe

By: Mark Roe, Holger Spamann, Jesse M. Fried and Charles C.Y. Wang

In July 2020, the European Commission published the “Study on directors’ duties and sustainable corporate governance” by EY. The Report purports to find evidence of debilitating short-termism in EU corporate governance and recommends many changes to support sustainable... View Details

Keywords: Short-termism; Hedge Funds; Shareholder Activism; Securities Regulation; Agency Costs; Political Economy; Payouts; Repurchases; Corporate Governance; Investment Funds; Investment Activism; Research and Development; Investment; European Union