Publications

January 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Christie's and Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi: The Value of a Brand

By: Jill Avery

A 16th century Renaissance masterpiece, missing for 137 years, believed by many to have been destroyed and then rediscovered less than a decade ago, becomes the most expensive painting ever sold, all the while surrounded by controversy. Did the buyer of Leonardo da... View Details

12 Aug 2015
News

5 Steps to Discover Your True North

07 Apr 2021
News

The Edge: The Best Ways to Spend Some of the Billions in Biden’s Big Jobs Proposal

05 Aug 2014
News

SBA’s former chief: Small business lending hasn’t recovered — and that’s a big problem

08 Aug 2014
News

Former SBA Chief Mills: Lending to Small Businesses Still Sluggish

March 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Paint-Pen, Inc.

Presents the background and some details on a possible acquisition opportunity--a manufacturer of ballpoint paint pens for the hobby and crafts industry. Forces students to peel the layers of this initially unattractive opportunity to find potential sources of value. A... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Entrepreneurship; Acquisition; Manufacturing Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

August 1989 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Harper Chemical Co., Inc.

A company acquires the rights to a mineral with potential uses in the ceramic and paint industries. After many years, sales are still far below expectations and the company considers selling the whole operation to a potential customer. Rewritten version of an earlier... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Industrial Products Industry; Chemical Industry

2017
Blitz Discussions

Counter Archives

29 Jun 2022
News

Watch for these 4 ‘red flags’ during the job interview, warns Harvard business expert: ‘You don’t want to work there’

22 Dec 2015
News

What Was Volkswagen Thinking?

19 Feb 2012
News

Time to tighten rules on US pensions

23 Sep 2020
Blog Post

Jo Tan (MBA 2021) Draws on Experience

Josephine (Jo) Tan (MBA 2021) always starts with a pencil sketch, a light grey roadmap of where things are going. Then bold black ink makes it permanent and watercolor paint gives it life. Recently she has added a step—bringing the almost... View Details

16 Dec 2015
Blog Post

Unexpected Moments at HBS

Having spent my childhood in a small Indiana town, and having worked the past four years within family-owned companies in the calm, open spaces of Colorado, I was incredibly nervous about the culture of HBS. I had artificially painted a... View Details

08 Nov 2010
News

Is There an Optimal Rich-Poor Gap?

June 2008
Case

Mattel's Long Hot Summer

In the summer of 2007, Mattel performed three major recalls of toys, mostly due to lead paint and other manufacturing issues in China. This case examines specifically how those recalls were perceived by consumers, and responded to by Mattel, as well as what effect they... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Quality; Production; Price; Manufacturing Industry; Consumer Products Industry; China