Publications

October 1995 (Revised December 1996)
Case

Beechwood Spouts (B)

By: William A. Sahlman and Andrew S. Janower

Eight months has passed since Barker first invested in Beechwood Spouts, and the company's situation has deteriorated. The problems appear to be resolved. Barker must now decide whether to participate in a crucial bridge financing round, without which the company will... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financing and Loans; Information

01 Mar 2023
News

What’s in a Name

want to let go of? How do we hang on to the paradox? At first they saw some pushback on social media, but Birch and his leadership came to the conclusion that the folks who objected to what they saw as woke capitalism weren’t the people... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

Career Coach

Marc Herson

Plattner Ventures (Partner); Softbank Capital (Executive-in-Residence); SONY BMG Music (Senior Vice President, Strategy & Business Development); Bertelsmann AG (Investment Director); Thurloe Finance (Founder of VC firm); Lawyer View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital; Venture Capital

January 1987 (Revised November 1991)
Case

R.J. Reynolds International Financing

By: W. Carl Kester and William B. Allen

Reynolds must source a substantial portion of the financing of its Nabisco acquisition in offshore bond markets. Morgan Guaranty has proposed a yen/dollar dual currency Eurobond that could be hedged into dollars. This structure is compared to Eurodollar Bonds, Euroyen... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Capital Markets; Currency Exchange Rate; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Bonds; Financing and Loans

06 Apr 2016
Research & Ideas

Should Entrepreneurs Pitch Products or Ideas for Products?

In trying to secure financial backing for a new product, independent innovators generally face the question of how much to invest in development before showing it around. Should they create, say, a working prototype (and maybe even... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Motion Pictures & Video; Entertainment & Recreation; Banking

October 2013 (Revised May 2014)
Supplement

The TELUS Share Conversion Proposal, Spreadsheet Supplement

By: Lucy White and Benjamin C. Esty

A proxy battle between a Canadian firm and a US hedge fund over a proposal to unify the firm's dual class share structure. View Details

Keywords: Stock Shares; Capital Structure; Investment Funds; Telecommunications Industry; Canada; United States

07 Dec 2009
Research & Ideas

Government’s Positive Role in Kick-Starting Entrepreneurship

Public Efforts to Boost Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Have Failed—and What to Do about It. Government has played similar catalytic roles in creating hubs of innovation is places such as Tel Aviv and Singapore. Such success stories... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Technology

Career Coach

Brent Brown

Brent (HBS '02) has experience in private equity/venture capital, investment banking, and real estate, consumer products and digital media industries and currently serves on the boards of numerous private companies. Work Experience: US Army, Goldman Sachs, Taurus... View Details

December 1997 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Mid Ocean Limited: Trading Catastrophe Index Options

By: Kenneth A. Froot and Markus Mullarkey

An insurance industry executive must evaluate the potential of a set of newly-offered catastrophe insurance derivatives. The background addresses the roles of traditional reinsurance and securitization efforts in providing risk transfer and risk financing in the "cat"... View Details

Keywords: Commodity Market; Derivatives; Insurance; Capital Markets; Natural Disasters; Risk Management; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Insurance Industry; Bermuda

23 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Setting the Stage: A Young Scholar at HBS

are commonly called thrifts: savings banks, savings and loan associations, and credit unions. Savings institutions were really the first financial intermediaries established specifically to serve the personal saving and borrowing View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard; Financial Services; Financial Services

31 Mar 2002
Research & Ideas

You’re Wasting Your Employees! What You Can Do About It

managed and that senior managers' key responsibilities should center around its acquisition, allocation, and effective use. For the vast majority of companies, that assumption simply is no longer true. Without denying the need for prudent... View Details

Keywords: by Christopher A. Bartlett & Sumantra Ghoshal

01 Dec 2012
News

Shareholders' Value?

if one excludes new start-ups, most new capital is provided by debt. Of course, liquidity in the stock market does enable investors to capture gains on their investments, and it also enables mergers and acquisitions. To provide adequate... View Details

01 Jun 2010
News

Alumni Books

A Vision for Venture Capital: Realizing the Promise of Global Venture Capital & Private Equity by Peter A. Brooke (MBA ’54) with Daniel Penrice (New Ventures) This book chronicles the career of Peter Brooke, who has been called “the... View Details

Keywords: mathematics; statistics; Finance

April 2010
Teaching Note

Groupe Ariel S.A.: Parity Conditions and Cross-Border Valuation (Brief Case)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and James Quinn

Teaching Note for 4194 View Details

Keywords: Exchange Rates; Securities Analysis; Project Evaluation; Debt Securities; Analysis; Currency Exchange Rate; Performance Evaluation; Projects; Capital Budgeting