Publications

01 Nov 2019
Video

Jaithirth Rao

Jerry Rao, serial entrepreneur and founder of the India-based real estate company Value and Budget Housing Corporation, says that his company avoids corrupt payments, especially because it plans an IPO in the... View Details

September 1986 (Revised March 1987)
Case

Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division

Describes events occurring over a four-year period in one division of Graves Industries. The division goes through a business cycle and uses several methods of managing earnings to meet its budget targets. The purpose of the case is to allow the exploration of the... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Crime and Corruption; Ethics

May 2009 (Revised June 2009)
Case

Areva

By: V.G. Narayanan and Lisa Brem

Areva, the world's market leader in civilian nuclear power, was positioned to take advantage of the resurgence of nuclear power. However, three issues clouded the positive outlook: (1) a 1.7 billion euro loss on the construction of the first next generation nuclear... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Statements; Energy Generation; Cash Flow; Investment; Energy Industry; Europe

Find at Harvard

September 2003 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Grafica, Inc.: Winning the New Jersey Lottery (A)

Debra Taeschler, CEO of Grafica, is considering how to structure her agency's bid for the New Jersey Lottery account. The Lottery is facing declining sales in all major categories and plans to slash its 1999 marketing budget by 32%. Taeschler is debating whether to... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Decision Making; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; New Jersey

February 1991 (Revised November 1993)
Supplement

Investment Analysis and Lockheed Tri Star

A set of five exercises in capital budgeting. Student calculates and compares various decision criteria (including IRR and NPV) for capital investment projects. This is an introductory case, where relevant cash flows are provided, and the focus is on the discounting... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Manufacturing Industry; Air Transportation Industry

Mar 2012
Article

Macroeconomic Policy and U.S. Competitiveness

government deficits put upward pressure on the cost of borrowing for companies. The authors propose a plan--they call it "20/21 by 2021"--to reduce the deficit from 3.8% of GDP (the Congressional Budget Office's most likely... View Details

22 Feb 2011
News

How to refocus US mortgage interest relief

26 Nov 2021
News

Black Friday Deals? If You Didn’t Shop Early There Is Good Reason to Wait

January 1989 (Revised October 1993)
Background Note

Note: Valuing a Business Acquisition Opportunity

By: William E. Fruhan Jr.

Describes how to value an acquisition opportunity as a capital budgeting problem. Cash flows are discounted at the cost of capital and debt is deducted to value the equity capital of the target company. A key contribution of the note is the discussion of five methods... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Acquisition; Opportunities

17 Oct 2013
News

In Hollywood, big bets lead to big payoffs

July 16, 2015
Article

How Small Businesses Can Fend Off Hackers

By: Lou Shipley

If you wanted to hack a business, which one would you pick: A Fortune 500 company with a large digital-security budget and a team dedicated to protecting its cyberassets? Or a small enterprise that doesn’t employ a single IT security specialist? Security breaches at... View Details

Keywords: Hack; Data Security; Small Business; Analytics and Data Science; Safety; Information Technology; Cybersecurity

September 2011
Case

Vibco Industrial Vibrators

By: Das Narayandas, Kerry Herman and Matthew Preble

Karl Wadensten, president of Vibco Vibrators, was deciding whether to grow his small company through a marketing push for one of two technologies that he believed could launch his company to the next level of sales, or if he should continue to grow his company through... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Marketing; Product Launch; Customization and Personalization; Expansion; Manufacturing Industry

April 1980 (Revised December 1991)
Case

Hampton Machine Tool Co.

A bank lending officer must decide whether to extend and increase a loan to a small machine tool company. Case provides sufficient data for preparation of cash budgets and pro forma financial statements in order to analyze the lending officer's problem. Other issues... View Details

Keywords: Machinery and Machining; Financing and Loans; Financial Statements; Manufacturing Industry

13 Jan 2017
News

Not Just A Crock: The Viral Word-Of-Mouth Success Of Instant Pot

April 2010
Case

Groupe Ariel S.A.: Parity Conditions and Cross-Border Valuation

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and James Quinn

Groupe Ariel evaluates a proposal from its Mexican subsidiary to purchase and install cost-saving equipment at a manufacturing facility in Monterrey. The improvements will allow the plant to automate recycling and remanufacturing of toner and printer cartridges, an... View Details

Keywords: Exchange Rates; Securities Analysis; Project Evaluation; International Finance; Debt Securities; Currency Exchange Rate; Cash Flow; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Capital Budgeting; Europe; Mexico

October 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Supplement

PittaRosso: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pricing and Promotion

By: Ayelet Israeli and Fabrizio Fantini

PittaRosso, a traditional Italian shoe retailer, is implementing an AI system to provide pricing and promotion recommendations. The system allows them to implement changes that would affect both the top of funnel and bottom of funnel activities for the company: once... View Details

01 Sep 2009
News

Professor, Historian, and Storyteller

Paul Kennedy examines in his 1987 book The Rise and Fall of Great Powers — issues of imperial overstretch, fiscally, economically, and geopolitically. There are other reasons too. The events of the last ten... View Details

Keywords: News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services

2009
Case

Midland Energy Resources, Inc.: Cost of Capital: Brief Case No. 4129.

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Joel L. Heilprin

The senior vice president of project finance for a global oil and gas company must determine the weighted average cost of capital for the company as a whole and each of its divisions as part of the annual capital budgeting process. The case uses comparable companies to... View Details

Keywords: Capital Budgeting; Cost of Capital; Energy Industry