Publications

February 2020
Supplement

Managing Blackout at Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) (B)

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Gamze Yücaoğlu and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case opens in 2017 as Tim Murray, CEO of Aluminum Bahrain (Alba), the largest single-site aluminum smelter in the world outside China and a major contributor to the Bahraini economy, was contemplating the recovery options as the company was facing the most severe... View Details

Keywords: Aluminum Industry; General Management; Cultural Change; Change Management; Crisis Management; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Safety; Leadership; Emerging Markets; Bahrain; Middle East

February 2020 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Managing Blackout at Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) (A)

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Gamze Yücaoğlu and Youssef Abdel Aal

The case opens in 2017 as Tim Murray, CEO of Aluminum Bahrain (Alba), the largest single-site aluminum smelter in the world outside China and a major contributor to the Bahraini economy, was contemplating the recovery options as the company was facing the most severe... View Details

Keywords: Aluminum; General Management; Cultural Change; Change Management; Crisis Management; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Safety; Leadership; Emerging Markets; Bahrain; Middle East

October 2007 (Revised April 2009)
Case

TH!NK: The Norwegian Electric Car Company

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and David Kiron

On August 1, 2007, 61-year-old Jan-Olaf Willums' plane was flying along the Greenland coastline on his way back to Norway after intense discussions with several prominent U.S. venture capital investors, among them Kleiner Perkins and Rockport Capital Partners, about... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Innovation and Invention; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Auto Industry; Green Technology Industry; Europe; Norway

January 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Supplement

Toward Golden Pond (B)

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas, G.A. Donovan, Nancy Dai and Justin Seth Ginsburgh

Supplements the A case. Provides an additional dilemma for the Rong-D companies with regard to building luxury senior housing in China. View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Age; Investment; Housing; Risk Management; Emerging Markets; Business and Government Relations; Luxury; Chengdu

December 1998
Case

Casto Travel

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Susan Harmeling

Maryles Casto had the vision to build the largest travel agency in Silicon Valley, mirroring the growth pattern of the entire area. In 1997 the travel business changed dramatically as airlines chose not to pay travel agencies the fees they once did. Simultaneously, the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Finance; Internet and the Web; Change Management; Markets; Travel Industry

Find at Harvard

05 Sep 2006
First Look

First Look: September 5, 2006

significantly more on upfront marketing than non-pioneers. Contrary to expectations, however, firms in markets that exhibited increasing returns did not spend more on their... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2008 (Revised September 2010)
Case

LeapFrog Enterprises

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins

Explores the success factors leading to the company's rise to the number three ranking in the aggressively competitive toy industry. LeapFrog has made the strategic decision to expand beyond the toy industry and enter the educational technology and services industry.... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Expansion; Consumer Products Industry; Education Industry

28 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

Capital Rules: The Tensions of Global Finance

over the course of the 1980s and 1990s. Yet less than a decade after the financial crises that hit emerging markets in the 1990s, that orthodoxy is already View Details

Keywords: by Rawi Abdelal

March 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Blackout: August 14, 2003

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Ryland Matthew Willis

On August 14, 2003, an electricity blackout cascaded throughout the northeastern United States and Canada. Describes the structure, technology, and economics of the electric utility industry and how gradual deregulation beginning in the 1970s placed unprecedented, and... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Performance Improvement; Infrastructure; Energy Sources; Business and Government Relations; Networks; Emerging Markets; Failure; Economics; Utilities Industry; Canada; Northeastern United States

29 Nov 2006
Research & Ideas

Rich or Royal: What Do Founders Want?

those who have to choose between Rich versus King. The strongest factors that emerged from those analyses were whether the entrepreneur had leveraged his or her own prior assets in building the venture—in... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Financial Services

12 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Can Consumers be Trusted with Their Own Health Care?

care costs? Quelch noted that in the cases of the grocery retail market and the financial services market, higher empowerment typically leads to lower costs because more of the work is shifted to the... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Health

03 Mar 2014
Research & Ideas

Facebook’s Future

people use various online social platforms, makes some predictions. In the first decade of its existence, Facebook, aided by the broad adoption of mobile devices and fast internet connections, emerged as a... View Details

Keywords: by Mikolaj Piskorski

06 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

The Art of American Advertising

Harvard Business School's Baker Library is hosting a historical exhibit that examines the advertising industry in a bygone era, when marketers still had to depend on printed materials to capture consumer... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

22 Sep 2014
Op-Ed

Online Banks Fill Funding Needs for Small Business

percent for loans of up to $250,000 that can stretch for three years. P2P platforms offer amortizing loans with fixed interest rates and three to five year maturities. A third emerging online player in small... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Banking; Financial Services

December 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Nestle and Alcon--The Value of a Listing

By: Mihir A. Desai, Vincent Dessain and Anders Sjoman

In response to a perceived undervaluation by the capital markets, Nestle is considering divesting a part of its ophthalmology subsidiary, Alcon, and must decide on a listing location. In the process, students are challenged to wrestle with the valuation of a... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; International Finance; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Markets; Taxation; Business Subsidiaries; Valuation; Food and Beverage Industry; Health Industry; Europe; United States

24 Jul 2006
Research & Ideas

How Kayak Users Built a New Industry

are often, but not always, the first to market with their innovations. Sometimes the early user-manufacturers are displaced by large, well-capitalized companies, but in other cases, they grow up to be... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Entertainment & Recreation

28 Oct 2024
Op-Ed

Latino Voters Have Grown More Politically Divided. That’s Not Surprising.

John Judis and Ruy Teixeira heralded a new age of US politics in their 2002 book, The Emerging Democratic Majority. The book predicted that the growing Latino population, coupled with a clear Democratic lead... View Details

Keywords: by Richard Calvo, Vincent Pons, and Jesse M. Shapiro

March 2016
Teaching Plan

Emaar: The Center of Tomorrow, Today

By: Sid Yog, Esel Cekin and Marc Homsy

Starting in 1997, Mohammad Alabbar, Chairman of Emaar, has been largely associated with Dubai's most renowned real estate projects: the world's tallest building, largest mall and biggest fountain show. Emaar's pioneering success attracted a large number of private... View Details

Keywords: Middle East; United Arab Emirates; Egypt; Dubai; Real Estate; Finance; Emaar; Public Real Estate Company; Market Entry and Exit; Competitive Strategy; Financial Condition; Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Real Estate Industry; Dubai