Publications

22 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Does Spirituality Drive Success?

in the Boston-Cambridge area, but was financing over 50 percent of AIDS housing, Glassman said. In addition to outreach and socially responsible investing, the bank offers online donation functionality to any nonprofit that is a bank... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace, Sean Silverthorne & Wendy Guild

January – February 2009
Article

Content vs. Advertising: The Impact of Competition on Media Firm Strategy

By: David Godes, Elie Ofek and Miklos Sarvary

Media firms compete in two connected markets. They face rivalry for the sale of content to consumers, and at the same time, they compete for advertisers seeking access to the attention of these consumers. We explore the implications of such two-sided competition on the... View Details

Keywords: Monopoly; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Business Model; Price; Media; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Advertising; Profit; Media and Broadcasting Industry

Find at Harvard

23 May 2018
News

Abigail P. Johnson, MBA 1988

Return to Alumni Achievement Awards main page TIMELINE 1961 Born, Boston, Massachusetts 1984 Earns BA, Art History, Hobart and William Smith Colleges 1985 Joins Booz Allen Hamilton, Research Associate 1988 Earns MBA 1988 Joins Fidelity, Equity Analyst 1994 Named... View Details

Keywords: Susan Young

December 2021 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Bed Bath & Beyond: The New Strategy to Drive Shareholder Value

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel W. Fisher

At one time, Bed Bath & Beyond was one of the most successful specialty retailers in the United States—its growth and profit margins far exceeded both peer retailers in the home goods market as well as many other discount retailers. But in 2014, its stock price peaked,... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Diversification; Corporate Governance; Leading Change; Performance Evaluation; Valuation; Investment Activism; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States

January 2009
Case

Berkshire Hathaway

By: Bharat N. Anand and Samhita Patwardhan Jayanti

Berkshire Hathaway describes the history and strategy of one of the best known investment firms over the last forty years. The case describes the investment philosophy of Warren Buffett, its legendary chairman and CEO, the gradual diversification of its portfolio, its... View Details

Keywords: History; Private Equity; Diversification; Resource Allocation; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Strategy; Investment; Corporate Governance

October 2007 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Vertex Pharmaceuticals and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation: Venture Philanthropy Funding for Biotech

By: Robert F. Higgins, Sophie LaMontagne and Brent Kazan

In 2001, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated acquired the San Diego-based biotech company, Aurora Biosciences. The combination of Vertex's and Aurora's technologies would improve the flow of novel drug candidates into development. However, several questions related to... View Details

Keywords: Philanthropy; Philanthropy Funding; Innovation; Funding Model; Venture Capital; Partners and Partnerships; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Acquisition; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; San Diego

June 2023
Case

Investing in the Climate Transition at Neuberger Berman

By: George Serafeim and Benjamin Maletta

By mid-2023, Neuberger Berman (NB), an active asset manager, had grown its assets under management to about half a trillion dollars and took pride in its client centricity and innovative spirit. Responding to client demand for investment products that integrated... View Details

24 Apr 2014
News

Honoring a legacy

Having joined her family’s international shipping, trading, and finance business, Foremost Group, in 2001, Angela A. Chao (AB 1995, MBA 2001) began her career focusing on the company’s safety management system and vessel security... View Details

October 2007 (Revised January 2009)
Background Note

Analyzing Relative Costs

By: Hanna Halaburda and Jan W. Rivkin

Introduces students to the technique of relative cost analysis, a core technique of strategists. Among the intricate quantitative analyses that strategists undertake, relative cost analysis may be the most common. The goal of a relative cost analysis is simply to... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Competitive Advantage

14 Jul 2016
Blog Post

Dating at HBS

discussion group, I came to respect him greatly. We always ended up on the same side of the arguments, and whereas I could teach him Finance he excelled in Technology and Operations Management, so we complemented each other’s skillset. We... View Details

10 Aug 2016
Blog Post

3 Benefits of the Case Method

rewarding. I can easily recall the anxiety I felt early in my time at HBS when I took a contradictory viewpoint in Finance and had to explain it in front of 90+ intelligent and engaged classmates. As my MBA drew to a close, quickly... View Details

01 Jun 1998
News

Simmons Family Endows Professorship

he became the youngest state banking commissioner in the United States when he was appointed to that position in Utah. He left this post in 1952 to organize the Bank of Utah in Ogden. A year later, he became president of the Lockhart Company, a consumer View Details

June 2020
Case

Recovering Trust After Corporate Misconduct at Wells Fargo

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Jonah S. Goldberg

The case describes widespread misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank in the period leading up to 2017 and the company’s subsequent attempts to improve internal controls, company culture, and corporate governance. The case examines the potential causes of large scale... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Misconduct; Internal Controls; Banks and Banking; Crime and Corruption; Corporate Governance; Organizational Culture; Governance Compliance; Management Systems; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Improvement; Governing and Advisory Boards

Web

Faculty - Race, Gender & Equity

Faculty Faculty Lynda M. Applegate Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration, Emerita Lynda M. Applegate is a Baker Foundation Professor at HBS and is Chair of the Advisory Committee for Harvard University’s Masters Degree of Liberal Arts in View Details

Web

Courses by Faculty Unit - Course Catalog

Management) Michael S. Kaufman Andy Pforzheimer Spring 2026 Q3Q4 3.0 The Coming of Managerial Capitalism Tom Nicholas Spring 2026 Q3Q4 3.0 Entrepreneurial Finance (also listed under Finance) Sabrina Howell Fall 2025 Q1Q2 3.0... View Details

03 Dec 2020
News

Cut Payroll Costs with Transparency, Fairness, and Compassion

September 2012
Teaching Note

Stryker Corporation: Capital Budgeting (TN)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

This case examines some parts of Stryker Corporation's systems and procedures for approving and authorizing capital spending of many different types, including buildings, machinery, and working capital for existing businesses, as well as transactions with third parties... View Details

Keywords: Capital Expenditures-equipment; Capital Expenditures-machinery; Internal Rate Of Return; Discounted Cash Flows; Net Present Value; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Cash Flow; System; Organizational Culture; Policy; Business Processes; Capital Budgeting

June 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Sephora Direct: Investing in Social Media, Video, and Mobile

By: Elie Ofek and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Julie Bornstein, senior vice president of Sephora Direct, is seeking to double her budget for social media and other digital marketing initiatives for 2011. A number of digital efforts implemented in the past two years seem to be bearing fruit and there is a desire to... View Details

Keywords: History; Leadership; Marketing Strategy; Marketing; Emerging Markets; Investment Return; Investment Funds; Budgets and Budgeting