Publications

03 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

The Truck Driver Who Reinvented Shipping

Malcolm P. McLean, a truck driver, fundamentally transformed the centuries-old shipping industry, an industry that had long decided that it had no incentive to change. By developing the first safe, reliable, and cost effective approach to... View Details

Keywords: by Anthony J. Mayo & Nitin Nohria; Manufacturing; Transportation; Aerospace

April 2014
Case

Ford Motor Company: Blueprint for Mobility

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Noah Fisher

Mark Fields, Ford Motor Company's COO, had to ensure the company's current business model of building cars and trucks remained strong, while concurrently navigating the company into the rapidly expanding industry of personal mobility. Personal mobility required new... View Details

Keywords: Automobiles; Automobile Manufacturing; Ford Motor Company; Mark Fields; Blueprint For Mobility; Dearborn; Michigan; Car Sharing; Parking; On-demand Ride Sharing; Strategy; Business Model; Auto Industry; Michigan; United States

Web

The Art of American Advertising: 1865 - 1910

cultural landscape after the Civil War. By the 1860s, the railroad industry had created a national network for the manufacture and distribution of industrial and consumer goods and, with it, the need for... View Details

Web

People - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

the CFA Institute Investment Management Program for asset managers at HBS. Post Doctoral Jinlin Li Post Doctoral Jinlin Li completed his PhD in Economics at Peking University in 2021. His dissertation examined the behavior and performance of government View Details

February 2000 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Gray Security: Building a South African Services Firm

Describes Gray Security Services, an entrepreneurial South African firm that has recently gone through a financial restructuring with the help of Brait Capital Partners, a private equity firm. Gray provides complete security services to companies in South Africa, other... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Entrepreneurship; Equity; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry; South Africa

18 Nov 2022
HBS Case

What Does It Take to Safeguard a Legacy in Asset Management?

Make Venture Capital Accessible for Black Founders: An Entrepreneur’s Dilemma A World of Difference: What Keeps Companies from Becoming More Inclusive What Does It Take to Close the Opportunity Gap in... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne; Financial Services

December 2017 (Revised November 2018)
Case

Tesla Motors (B): Merging with SolarCity

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2016, electric car manufacturer Tesla announced that it was making an offer to acquire solar panel manufacturer SolarCity in an all-stock offer worth $2.6 billion in Tesla stock. Tesla’s co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, believed that the merger would generate... View Details

Keywords: M＆A; M＆A Valuation; Investing; Equities; Equity; Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Auto Industry; Energy Industry; United States

20 Nov 2017
Research & Ideas

How Independent Bookstores Have Thrived in Spite of Amazon.com

stores to 2,227. This surprising resurgence piqued the interest of Ryan Raffaelli, an assistant professor in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School, who studies how mature organizations and industries faced with... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel (with video by Amelia Kunhardt); Retail

03 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 4, 2008

of the recommended measures and sent the bill to the Governor for his signature. The life insurance industry objected, however, claiming that some of the new rules would reduce consumer choice and unnecessarily lower returns on company... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

11 May 2010
First Look

First Look: May 11

this case:http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/product/610031-PDF-ENG Revitalizing Dell Jan W. RivkinHarvard Business School Case 710-442 Dell Inc., with its vaunted Direct Model, defined success in the personal computer industry for more than a... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Web

Investor - Entrepreneurship

Student Journey Investor Required Curriculum Elective Curriculum FALL Attend the Rock/CPD Career Panels to learn about careers in VC. Learn about the role of a VC/Investor and recruiting approach. Meet with: Rock Venture View Details

Web

Bankruptcy | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Introduction 1840s – 1880s General Merchants to Commodities Brokers 1880s – 1920s Investment Banking & Securities Underwriting 1920s – 1960s Investing in Emerging Industries 1850–1968 Lehman Brothers Family Partners 1960s – 2000s... View Details

March 2009
Article

Trade-offs in Staying Close: Corporate Decision Making and Geographic Dispersion

By: Augustin Landier, Vinay Nair and Julie Wulf

We document the role of geographic dispersion on corporate decision-making. Our findings include: (i) geographically dispersed firms are less employee friendly; (ii) dismissals of divisional employees are less common in divisions located closer to corporate... View Details

Keywords: Business Divisions; Business Headquarters; Decision Choices and Conditions; Geographic Location; Employees; Resignation and Termination; Retention

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13 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 13, 2007

isolate the effects of channel expansion. We argue for advantages to using zip code level data for methodological and consumer data privacy reasons. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-043.pdf Multinational Firms, FDI Flows and Imperfect View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2024 (Revised May 2025)
Case

Carrie Wang: Choosing Between the Family Firm and the Family Spirit

By: Lauren Cohen, Fei Wu and Sophia Pan

Carrie Wang, Investment Head of the Wang’s single-family office, contemplated her next career steps. As one of the first businessmen who had risen from China’s industrial rise, her father had grown his wealth to a considerable level, eventually requesting that his... View Details

Keywords: Family Office; Interests Of Consumers; Family Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Financial Markets; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return; Private Equity; Customer Relationship Management; Interests; Reputation; Work-Life Balance; Real Estate Industry; China

February 2013 (Revised December 2015)
Case

Groom Energy Solutions: Selling Efficiency

By: Michael W. Toffel, Kira R. Fabrizio and Stephanie van Sice

Groom Energy Solutions helps organizations reduce their energy use and costs through the implementation of energy efficiency measures, which create long-term financial and environmental benefits. With early success serving customers in the cold storage and industrial... View Details

January 2016 (Revised January 2019)
Case

The Allergan Board Under Fire (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine, Suraj Srinivasan, John C. Coates and David Lane

In 2014, the Allergan Inc. board of directors received a surprise takeover offer from Valeant Pharmaceuticals in alliance with hedge fund activist Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management. In the unprecedented arrangement between an acquirer and a hedge fund... View Details