• September 2017 (Revised February 2019)
• Case

Blackstone's GSO Capital: Crosstex Investment

By: Victoria Ivashina, John D. Dionne and Jeffrey Boyar

This case focuses on the Blackstone credit arm, GSO Capital as it evaluated a proposal for an equity investment into the distressed company, Crosstex Energy L.P., an integrated midstream energy company, that was hit hard by declining natural gas prices during the 2008... View Details

Keywords: Distress Investing; Rescue Financing; Investment; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Condition

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Ivashina, Victoria, John D. Dionne, and Jeffrey Boyar. "Blackstone's GSO Capital: Crosstex Investment." Harvard Business School Case 218-008, September 2017. (Revised February 2019.)

• September 2017 (Revised July 2021)
• Case

Asset Allocation at the Cook County Pension Fund

By: Emil Siriwardane, Juliane Begenau and Yuval Gonczarowski

Nickol Hackett, chief investment officer of the Cook County Pension Fund, is responsible for investing the fund’s $9 billion worth of assets on behalf of the employees of Cook County, Illinois. Like many other defined-benefit pensions at the time, the Cook County... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Investment Funds; Financial Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions

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Siriwardane, Emil, Juliane Begenau, and Yuval Gonczarowski. "Asset Allocation at the Cook County Pension Fund." Harvard Business School Case 218-030, September 2017. (Revised July 2021.)

• August 2017 (Revised November 2021)
• Case

Ryan Greene at Rainier Wearables

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Christopher Payton

This case provides a platform for discussing mental health and depression in entrepreneurship. Why do entrepreneurs have more mental health issues than other professions? What can an entrepreneur do if they face a situation where their mental well-being is being... View Details

Keywords: Mental Health; Depression; Entrepreneurship; Well-being; Personal Development and Career

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Ghosh, Shikhar, Thomas R. Eisenmann, and Christopher Payton. "Ryan Greene at Rainier Wearables." Harvard Business School Case 818-047, August 2017. (Revised November 2021.)

• July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
• Case

Media Markets Down South: Goldman Sachs' Investment in Grupo Clarín

By: Rafael Di Tella, Jose Liberti and Sarah McAra

Founded in 1945, Grupo Clarín expanded over several decades to become Argentina’s largest media conglomerate. With leading positions in newspapers, broadcast television, broadcast radio, cable television, and Internet services, Grupo Clarín caught the attention of... View Details

Keywords: Media; Business and Government Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Journalism and News Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Argentina

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Di Tella, Rafael, Jose Liberti, and Sarah McAra. "Media Markets Down South: Goldman Sachs' Investment in Grupo Clarín." Harvard Business School Case 718-007, July 2017. (Revised November 2017.)

• July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
• Case

Propel

By: Mitchell Weiss and Sarah McAra

In 2014, Jimmy Chen, a former product manager at Facebook, founded the start-up Propel to build software for low-income Americans. After conducting in-depth behavioral research, Chen and his small team in New York City began to develop technology to address the... View Details

Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Govtech; Food Stamps; EBT; Mobile App; User Research; Financial Services Referrals; Grocery Marketing; Customer Discovery; Social Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Business Model; Research; Social Enterprise; Poverty; Welfare; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; United States

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Weiss, Mitchell, and Sarah McAra. "Propel." Harvard Business School Case 818-008, July 2017. (Revised November 2017.)

• June 2017 (Revised September 2021)
• Case

Sales Misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Dennis W. Campbell, Susanna Gallani and Amram Migdal

Set in early 2017, this case examines widespread sales misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank. Wells Fargo's governance and controls are described in the lead up to the September 2016 announcement that Wells Fargo had settled with regulators for $185 million in... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Lawsuits and Litigation; Crisis Management; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Design; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Crime and Corruption; Business Organization; Business Model; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Governance Compliance; Policy; Compensation and Benefits; Resignation and Termination; Laws and Statutes; Legal Liability; Business or Company Management; Risk Management; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Failure; Agency Theory; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Salesforce Management; Public Opinion; Banking Industry; North and Central America

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Srinivasan, Suraj, Dennis W. Campbell, Susanna Gallani, and Amram Migdal. "Sales Misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank." Harvard Business School Case 118-009, June 2017. (Revised September 2021.)

• June 2017 (Revised August 2018)
• Supplement

Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity (B)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Victor Wu

Supplements the (A) Case. View Details

Keywords: Campaign Finance Reform; Corporate Political Activity; Lobbying; LGBTQ; Campaign Contributions; Campaign Finance; Retail; Shareholder Activism; Public Opinion; Social Issues; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Problems and Challenges; Laws and Statutes; Rights; Crisis Management; Risk Management; Media; Political Elections; Taxation; Corporate Accountability; Values and Beliefs; Fairness; Diversity; Customers; Communication; Business and Government Relations; Retail Industry; United States

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Hsieh, Nien-hê, and Victor Wu. "Making Target the Target: Boycotts and Corporate Political Activity (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 317-131, June 2017. (Revised August 2018.)

• June 2017
• Case

Waze Connected Citizens Program

By: Mitchell Weiss and Alissa Davies

Di-Ann Eisnor, Director of Growth at Waze, founded the company’s Connected Citizens Program (CCP), a data-sharing partnership that provided officials with traffic incident and congestion data. Since 2015, her program had enabled officials in Kentucky and elsewhere to... View Details

Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Waze; Public-Private Partnerships; Scaling Technology Ventures; Di-Ann Eisnor; Paige Fitzgerald; Noam Bardin; Ehud Shabtai; Cities; Traffic; Crowdsourcing; API; Scaling Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Information Technology; Transportation; Growth Management; Transportation Industry; Israel; Indonesia; United States; Brazil; Los Angeles; Kentucky

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Weiss, Mitchell, and Alissa Davies. "Waze Connected Citizens Program." Harvard Business School Case 817-035, June 2017.

• May 2017
• Case

CNS Worldwide

By: Robert J. Dolan and Karthik Easwar

CNS Worldwide has long been the market share leader in the IaaS cloud server market, yet it has remained unprofitable for years. Industry capacity utilization is low, and prices have declined over 70% over the last decade. CNS is considering withdrawing from the market... View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing; Performance Capacity; Bids and Bidding; Analysis; Web Services Industry

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Dolan, Robert J., and Karthik Easwar. "CNS Worldwide." Harvard Business School Brief Case 917-531, May 2017.

• May 2017 (Revised July 2017)
• Supplement

Aadhaar: From Voluntary to Mandatory

By: Tarun Khanna, Anjali Raina and Rachna Chawla

Approximately 1.1 billion residents of India (99% of the population) had a unique biometric identity—Aadhaar—by 2017. In six years, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had achieved an unprecedented milestone in emerging and developed markets. The... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business and Government Relations; Emerging Markets; Information; Information Technology; Organizational Design; Infrastructure; Identity; Projects; Information Management; Government and Politics; Digital Platforms; Internet and the Web; Transformation; Society; Welfare; Social Issues; Private Sector; Public Sector; Information Technology Industry; Asia; India; New Delhi

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Khanna, Tarun, Anjali Raina, and Rachna Chawla. "Aadhaar: From Voluntary to Mandatory." Harvard Business School Supplement 717-512, May 2017. (Revised July 2017.)

• May 2017
• Supplement

Buffer.com (B)

By: Susanna Gallani, Tiffany Y. Chang, Brian J. Hall and Jee Eun Shin

Buffer decided to release its salaries and compensation calculation formula to the public, and the public reaction was greater and more positive than they would have imagined. The company experienced both an increase in volume and a change in the kinds of inbound... View Details

Keywords: Compensation; Compensation Design; Company Values; Culture; Transparency; Attraction; Selection; Performance Measurement; Performance Measures; Performance Metrics; Startup Management; Compensation and Benefits; Organizational Culture; Values and Beliefs; Performance Evaluation; Measurement and Metrics

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Gallani, Susanna, Tiffany Y. Chang, Brian J. Hall, and Jee Eun Shin. "Buffer.com (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 917-020, May 2017.