Publications

January 2021 (Revised July 2022)
Case

Snapp: Scaling Under Sanctions in Iran (A)

By: Meg Rithmire and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in November 2019 as Eyad Alkassar and Mahmoud Fouz, co-founders of Iran’s first and leading ride-hailing platform, Snapp, find out about Apple’s and Google’s decisions to remove all Iranian apps from their respective application stores.
The case... View Details

Keywords: Sanctions; Change Management; Disruption; Volatility; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Government and Politics; International Relations; National Security; Risk Management; Crisis Management; Transportation Industry; Iran; Middle East

June 1987 (Revised September 1997)
Case

Mebel, Doran & Co.

By: Samuel L. Hayes III

Puts the student in the position of a senior official of a major New York investment bank who discovers that information has leaked to the market on a confidential takeover plan that was being developed by a corporate client. The official has to decide how to deal with... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Banking; Mergers and Acquisitions; Crisis Management; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

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30 Nov 2021
In Practice

What's the Role of Business in Confronting Climate Change?

The 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, also known as COP26, ended with a hard-fought pact that called on businesses and governments to meet their climate change goals faster. The event followed an August report by the Intergovernmental... View Details

Keywords: by Lynn Schenk and Dina Gerdeman

25 Aug 2015
First Look

First Look Tuesday

Abstract—U.S. money market mutual funds (MMFs) are an important source of dollar funding for global financial institutions, particularly those headquartered outside the United States. MMFs proved to be a source of considerable instability... View Details

11 Sep 2012
First Look

First Look: September 11

surprisingly, local governments exercise the greatest control over urban land in cities that adopted market reforms earliest. Slavery's Scientific Management: Accounting for Mastery Author:Caitlin C.Rosenthal Publication:In Slavery's... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 May 2009
Research & Ideas

What’s Next for the Big Financial Brands

(Editor's note: Harvard Business School professor John Quelch writes a blog on marketing issues, called Marketing Know: How, for Harvard Business. It is reprinted on HBS Working Knowledge.) Recent news... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch; Banking; Financial Services

09 Feb 2010
First Look

First Look: Feb. 9

Transforming Public Education: Cases in Education Entrepreneurship. Winning in Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and Execution Authors:Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu, and Richard Bullock Publication:Harvard Business Press, forthcoming April Abstract The best... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Case

SafeGraph: Selling Data as a Service

By: Ramana Nanda, Abhishek Nagaraj and Allison Ciechanover

Set in January 2021, the CEO of SafeGraph, a four-year-old startup that sold Data as a Service, looked to the future. His aim was to become the most trusted source for data about a physical place. The company provided points of interest (POI) and foot traffic data on... View Details

Keywords: Data As A Service; Monetization; Pricing; Business Startups; Analytics and Data Science; Consumer Behavior; Analysis; Business Model; Health Pandemics; Information Industry; United States

01 Mar 2010
Op-Ed

A Golden Opportunity for Ford and GM

recalled almost 9 million vehicles—more than the entire number it sold the past three years. The irony is that Toyota gained significant market share in the past decade at the expense of its American competitors by offering superior... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Auto

01 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

How To Make Restructuring Work for Your Company

profitable when it decided to do its spin-off. What can be done to encourage companies to restructure sooner rather than later? In the case of United Air Lines, management in effect created a crisis that made employees more willing to... View Details

Keywords: by Stuart C. Gilson

January 2009 (Revised April 2009)
Case

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is one of the largest and fastest-growing pools of investment capital in the world and follows an unusually active program of investment management. In the market turmoil of late 2008, Mark Wiseman, Senior Vice President of the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Asset Management; Capital; Financial Management; Investment; Financial Services Industry; Canada

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12 Apr 2016
First Look

April 12, 2016

link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50897 forthcoming Journal of Marketing Research Repairing the Damage: The Effect of Gender and Price Knowledge on Auto-Repair Price Quotes By: Busse, Meghan, Ayelet Israeli, and Florian... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

May 2003 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Marks & Spencer: The Phoenix Rises

By: Joseph L. Bower

The great U.K. retailer fell on hard times in 1998. In 2001, a new CEO was recruited who appears to have succeeded in turning around this world-renown company. This case examines the steps he took (strategic, structural, and recruiting key people) and highlights a... View Details

Keywords: Global Strategy; Recruitment; Leadership Development; Crisis Management; Supply and Industry; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Segmentation; Retail Industry

01 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 1

and build technological and market capabilities? Does it matter to whom the firm supplies? Is involvement in product design important, or is manufacturing the key locus of learning? How does a supplier's initial resource endowment play... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

April 2009 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Before the Fall: Lehman Brothers 2008

By: Clayton S. Rose and Anand Ahuja

This case examines Lehman Brothers in the months preceding its collapse. Following the announcement of a huge and unexpected second quarter loss, the CFO was removed from her post after only seven months in the job. This case explores the challenges faced by a firm... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Financial Crisis; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Management; Financial Markets; Crisis Management; Trust; Financial Services Industry

13 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

When Good Incentives Lead to Bad Decisions

Among the culprits contributing to the recent financial crisis were bank loan officers who approved mortgage loans that were doomed to fail. Many of these frontline workers were motivated by bonuses and other incentives to approve... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking

08 Sep 2022
Book

Gen Xers and Millennials, It’s Time To Lead. Are You Ready?

from decades of teaching students from the Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z eras. George and coauthor Zach Clayton, CEO of the digital marketing firm Three Ships, urge young leaders to usher in a new way of doing business—one based on... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

June 2013
Article

Are There Too Many Safe Securities? Securitization and the Incentives for Information Production

By: Samuel G. Hanson and Adi Sunderam

We present a model that helps explain several past collapses of securitization markets. Originators issue too many informationally insensitive securities in good times, blunting investor incentives to become informed. The resulting endogenous scarcity of informed... View Details

Keywords: Information; Debt Securities; Financial Crisis