Publications

16 Mar 2020
Research & Ideas

How the Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting the Future of Business

industry at large, are losing revenue and cash flow that will be difficult to replace. Manufacturers can run overtime and make up for lost production and fill pent-up demand, but services demand is... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

June 2009
Case

Midland Energy Resources, Inc.: Cost of Capital

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: Risk Assessment; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Cost of Capital; Cash Flow; Capital Structure; Valuation; Capital Budgeting; Energy Industry

28 May 2020
Research & Ideas

Coronavirus Could Create a 'Bankruptcy Pandemic'

With a pandemic temporarily closing many businesses and stifling consumer demand, whole industries, especially those that recently leveraged their balance sheets to take advantage of near-zero interest rates, are seeing their profits disappear virtually overnight,... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Banking

15 Jul 2019
Book

Many Executives Are Afraid of Finance. Here's How They Can Gain Confidence

have been the preferred method. Is this good or bad? Desai: Much as free cash flow was a little-used metric 30 years ago and is now dominant, the capital allocation problem is now the dominant financial... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

June 1975 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Angus Cartwright III

By: Kenneth J. Hatten, William J. Poorvu, Howard H. Stevenson, Arthur I. Segel and John H. Vogel, Jr.

Judy and John DeRight, looking to diversify their investment portfolios, have retained Angus Cartwright, Jr. to identify prospective real estate acquisitions. Mr. Cartwright has four potential properties that he feels merit an in-depth financial analysis. The case... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Cash Flow; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Taxation; Balanced Scorecard; Valuation

04 Apr 2018
Research & Ideas

Smart Cities are Complicated and Costly: Here's How to Build Them

Chombosan Much promotion of smart cities assumes that municipalities will take a proactive, top-down, technology-first approach to urban progress. Thus far, these initiatives look for some forward-thinking city official (or immensely deep-pocketed private investor) to... View Details

Keywords: by John Macomber; Construction; Green Technology

January 2021 (Revised April 2022)
Case

Best Buy's Corie Barry: Confronting the COVID-19 Pandemic

By: William W. George and Amram Migdal

This case examines the leadership of Corie Barry, the new CEO of Best Buy, with a focus on actions the company took in 2020 to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. The case includes a history of Best Buy’s strategy and leadership, including the transitions between the... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Change; Disruption; Volatility; Communication; Competency and Skills; Customers; Decision Making; Ethics; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Finance; Cash Flow; Financial Condition; Financial Liquidity; Goods and Commodities; Corporate Governance; Health Pandemics; Human Resources; Executive Compensation; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Resignation and Termination; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Innovation and Invention; Jobs and Positions; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Job Design and Levels; Job Interviews; Job Offer; Labor; Employment; Human Capital; Working Conditions; Law; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Management; Business or Company Management; Crisis Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Management Succession; Management Systems; Management Teams; Risk Management; Operations; Distribution; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Logistics; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Supply Chain; Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Outcome or Result; Personal Development and Career; Retirement; Work-Life Balance; Planning; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Relationships; Business and Community Relations; Labor and Management Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Safety; Science; Strategy; Retail Industry; North and Central America; United States; Minnesota

October 2016
Case

The Quiet Ascension of LA Fitness

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In 2016, LA Fitness was the largest chain of non-franchised fitness clubs in North America, operating 676 clubs, serving 4.9 million members, and generating revenues of over $1.9 billion. Founded by Chinyol Yi, Louis Welch, and Paul Norris in 1984, the privately held... View Details

Keywords: LA Fitness; Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Exercise; Personal Training; Retention; Bally Total Fitness; 24 Hour Fitness; Planet Fitness; Buildings and Facilities; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Demographics; Age; Gender; Income; Residency; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; Capital Structure; Cash; Cash Flow; Cost; Private Equity; Financial Condition; Financial Liquidity; Financing and Loans; Investment Return; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Employees; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Contracts; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Operations; Service Operations; Leasing; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Situation or Environment; Opportunities; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Mobile Technology; Technology Platform; Health Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles

21 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

Are Your Employees Passing Up Incentives? Try Promoting the Programs More

offer these benefits. Even getting consumers with some of the highest electric bills in the country to turn off the lights can be challenge, as California found out with a failed discount program. Why some incentives spur action while... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

31 Jan 2023
Op-Ed

Can Insurance Technology Solve the Uninsured Driver Problem?

benefits by reducing emissions and traffic congestion. Providing an affordable insurance option To test how strongly uninsured drivers valued the option to buy fewer days of coverage at a time, we randomized whether or not drivers got a “bulk discount” for buying more... View Details

Keywords: by Ray Kluender; Insurance

26 Nov 2001
Op-Ed

Why Corporate Budgeting Needs To Be Fixed

This results in an overstatement of earnings and cash flows for many companies and an exaggeration of the extent of the good times. Conversely, during the early stages of an economic slowdown, as demand... View Details

Keywords: by Michael C. Jensen

11 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Budgeting Kills Your Company

profitability, cash flow, and capital investment. But this information is enough to enable managers to focus on long-term issues that are fundamental to the business's success—for example, why customers are leaving or what's wrong with a... View Details

Keywords: by Loren Gary

16 Apr 2020
Research & Ideas

Has COVID-19 Broken the Global Value Chain?

manufactured by another firm elsewhere, and distributed by dealers everywhere—all underwritten by global cash flows. Often these networks are established without much redundancy planning or other risk-mitigation factors to counter... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

31 Jul 2017
HBS Case

It’s Hard to Fix the Family Business Without Offending the Family

business is doing,” says Schlesinger. (An electronic point-of-sale register, purchased through a Vietnamese connection and installed in 2014, is rarely used, the case notes.) Furthermore, Than is more interested in protecting his cash... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Food & Beverage

12 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Enron’s Lessons for Managers

reported funds flow were attributed to accounting violations, he added. Third, Enron's debt was underestimated by one half: $10 billion reported versus $22 billion actual debt. However, these factors, he continued, were... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

28 Nov 2005
Research & Ideas

Unilever: Transformation and Tradition

direction, resulting in an excessive number of brands and factories organized nationally in a Europe undergoing economic integration, and a virtually autonomous business in the United States. There were barriers to flows of knowledge,... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products

11 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 11

theoretical and empirical investigation of the risks of globally diversified portfolios of stocks and bonds and of optimal intertemporal global portfolio choice for long horizon investors in the presence of permanent cash View Details

August 2010
Supplement

Flash Memory, Inc., Faculty Spreadsheet Supplement (Brief Case)

By: William E. Fruhan Jr. and Craig Stephenson

Keywords: Forecasting; Cash Flow; Forecasting and Prediction; Capital Budgeting