Publications

November 2003 (Revised January 2005)
Case

San Francisco Giants

By: William A. Sahlman and Elizabeth Kind

Larry Baer, executive vice-president and COO, was eager to improve profitability for the San Francisco Giants baseball team. Over the last few years, the Giants have had a number of successes. They successfully built the first privately financed ball park in over 30... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business or Company Management; Success; Sports; Sports Industry; San Francisco

2017
Working Paper

Rainy Day Stocks

By: Niels Gormsen and Robin Greenwood

We study the good- and bad-times performance of equity portfolios formed on characteristics. Many characteristics associated with good performance during bad times – value, profitability, small size, safety, and total volatility – also perform well during good times.... View Details

Keywords: Performance; Stocks; Situation or Environment

Read Now

September 2013 (Revised November 2013)
Case

Qatar: Energy for Development

By: Aldo Musacchio, Colin Donovan, Samir Mikati, Rami Sarafa and Abdulla AlMisnad

Despite being the richest country in the world on a per capita basis, for analysts Qatar belongs in the group of emerging markets considered "frontier markets." This case analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the development strategy of this small country as set... View Details

Keywords: Frontier Markets; State-owned Enterprises; State Capitalism; Sovereign Wealth Funds; Economic Development; Sovereign Finance; State Ownership; Development Economics; Energy Industry; Middle East; Qatar

November 2021 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Babban Gona: Great Farm

By: Kristin Fabbe, Tarun Khanna, Caroline M. Elkins, Zeke Gillman, Eleni Kyrkopoulou and Thomaz Teodorovicz

In 2020, Babban Gona was one of the world’s largest farming operations with over 140,000 acres of maize farms, an area over ten times as large as Manhattan, and over 80,000 member-farmers in Nigeria. According to the company, the average Nigerian farmer’s net income... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Value Creation; Agribusiness; Capital Budgeting; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Nigeria; Africa

March 2016 (Revised August 2018)
Case

JPMorgan Chase after the Financial Crisis: What Is the Optimal Scope of the Largest Bank in the U.S.?

By: David Collis and Ashley Hartman

When Jamie Dimon took over as CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMorgan Chase) in 2005, he reaffirmed the commitment to pursue a "universal bank" strategy—providing a full range of products and services to both retail and wholesale clients. Yet the merits of the universal... View Details

Keywords: Scope; Regulatory Reforms; Universal Banking; Synergy; Optimization; Simplification; Finance; Strategy; Business Strategy; Financial Crisis; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

September 2017 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Dinesh Moorjani and Hatch Labs

By: Christopher Stanton, Shikhar Ghosh, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

This case is about Tinder. It discusses different business models and ways of structuring the initial team. With a $6 million investment from IAC/Interactive in 2010, Dinesh Moorjani founded Hatch Labs to build mobile apps. His mission was to attract entrepreneurial... View Details

Keywords: Returns; Incubator; Mobile App; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Model; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Talent and Talent Management; Valuation; Equity; Finance; United States; North America

21 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 21

Publications October 2014 Harvard Business Review Press Aligning Strategy and Sales: The Choices, Systems, and Behaviors That Drive Effective Selling By: Cespedes, Frank V. Abstract—There are many books that provide strategy advice and... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Apr 2011
First Look

First Look: April 5

now also has an equity stake in the Bahamas' gaming and resort industry. The case explores the growing role of project financing by way of China's Export-Import Bank and its implications for business... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Apr 2023
Cold Call Podcast

A Rose by Any Other Name: Supply Chains and Carbon Emissions in the Flower Industry

Keywords: Re: Willy C. Shih & Michael W. Toffel; Agriculture & Agribusiness

March 2021
Case

Proteak: Valuing Forestry Assets

By: Gerardo Pérez Cavazos and Carla Larangeira

In early 2020, 414 Capital was hired by Proteak, Mexico´s largest forestry platform, to perform a valuation of its teak business, a high-grade hardwood commonly used to build boat decks, outdoor walls, furniture, doors and small objects. Teak plantations typically... View Details

Keywords: Forestry; Assets; Valuation; Forest Products Industry; Financial Services Industry; Mexico

15 Apr 2024
Book

Struggling With a Big Management Decision? Start by Asking What Really Matters

Business leaders face a wide variety of difficult decisions: whether their companies should stay small or go big, whether layoffs are necessary for survival, whether a proposed partnership is a good idea or... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

Program

Senior Executive Leadership Program—China

Summary Today's global business environment offers many exciting prospects for talented executives and ambitious organizations. To take full advantage of emerging opportunities in China and beyond, View Details

17 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Being the Boss

Nineteen years ago, Harvard Business School professor Linda A. Hill wrote the first edition of her book Becoming a Manager, detailing the experiences of several first-year supervisors who were making the daunting transition from star... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

11 Sep 2017
Research & Ideas

Why Employers Favor Men

men perform better on average at certain tasks, according to the research paper When Gender Discrimination Is Not About Gender. The paper was written by Katherine B. Coffman and Christine L. Exley, both assistant professors at Harvard View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

October 1993 (Revised September 1996)
Case

BANC ONE - 1993

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven and Myra M. Hart

From a small local bank, Banc One has grown to one of the largest and most profitable banks in the United States under the leadership of its CEO, John B. McCoy. It has an impressive track record of improving the performance of its acquisitions while retaining the... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Acquisition; Organizational Culture; Policy; Adaptation; Business Growth and Maturation; Strategy; Performance Improvement; Industry Structures; Banking Industry; United States

September 2009 (Revised June 2011)
Case

Mercury Athletic: Valuing the Opportunity

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Joel L. Heilprin

In January 2007, West Coast Fashions, Inc., a large designer and marketer of branded apparel, announced a strategic reorganization that would result in the divestiture of their wholly owned footwear subsidiary, Mercury Athletic. John Liedtke, the head of business... View Details

Keywords: Mergers ＆ Acquisitions; Sensitivity Analysis; Cost of Capital; Restructuring; Valuation; Cash Flow; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Finance; Apparel and Accessories Industry

28 Jun 2016
First Look

June 28, 2016

businesses. The strategy literature uses real option theory to explain the transition to scale, but does not consider the complex relationships between corporate ventures and their parent organizations. By comparing six longitudinal cases of large firms’ new View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2003 (Revised March 2008)
Case

India on the Move

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Emily Thompson

By 2003, India had been growing at almost 6% annually since 1992, after it suffered a financial collapse, abandoned import substitution, and moved gradually to adopt the Washington Consensus. Now, financial controls and competition barriers are less burdensome,... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Foreign Direct Investment; Business and Government Relations; India

September 2006 (Revised November 2008)
Case

Supergrid

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Supergrid is a mammoth wind-power development scheme for Europe, recently proposed by Airtricity. This firm, founded in 1997, is a fast-growing power-development company focused on wind. Already having built about 600 megawatts of wind turbines in Scotland and Ireland,... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Performance Capacity; Business and Government Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; Europe; United States