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08 May 2020
In Practice

Nonprofits Hurt by COVID-19 Must Hoard Cash to Hold On

advice on how the social enterprise can restructure or redeploy its staff to be more effective. Preserving cash is the dominant issue. F. Warren McFarlan is the T.J. Dermot Dunphy Baker Foundation Professor of View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

09 Nov 2010
First Look

First Look: November 9, 2010

Alfaro, and Jonathan SchleferHarvard Business School Case 710-036 In 1997, amidst Japan's ongoing financial problems, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto sought to restructure the financial sector to make it... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2023 (Revised December 2023)
Case

TetraScience: Noise and Signal

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn

In 2019, TetraScience CEO “Spin” Wang needed advice. Five years earlier, he had cofounded a startup that saw early success with a hardware product designed to help laboratory scientists in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical spaces more easily collect data from... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Organization; Restructuring; Forecasting and Prediction; Digital Platforms; Analytics and Data Science; AI and Machine Learning; Organizational Structure; Network Effects; Competitive Strategy; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; Boston

11 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

Why Budgeting Kills Your Company

all business units to explore the budget implications of several strategic alternatives. The following discussion will help stimulate your thinking about how your own company's budgeting process can be transformed from an exasperating... View Details

Keywords: by Loren Gary

October 2023
Case

Leading Transformation at IHCL

By: Krishna G. Palepu, V.G. Narayanan and Malini Sen

In November 2017, Puneet Chhatwal, took charge as MD and CEO of IHCL, popularly referred to as the Taj Hotels. Despite being India’s largest hospitality company by market capitalization and respected for its values and service, IHCL had made losses for the last seven... View Details

Keywords: Turn Around Management; Hospitality Industry; Brand Management; Financial Strategy; Business Model; Restructuring; Asset Management; Leadership Style; Crisis Management; Brands and Branding; Product Positioning; Segmentation; Asia; India

January 2021 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Carnival Corporation: Cruising Through COVID-19

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah Abbott

In March 2020, in response to the global pandemic, the cruise industry ceased operations. Carnival was the largest cruise line operator in the world, and CEO Arnold Donald and his management team worked to position the company to survive. They slashed operating... View Details

Keywords: Debt Issuance; Equity Issuances; Convertible Debt; Cruise Lines; Restructuring; Capital; Crisis Management; Cash Flow; Health Pandemics; Borrowing and Debt; Travel Industry; United States

April 2011 (Revised January 2019)
Case

Talismark

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Talismark, which helped its customers manage their waste, was considering re-engineering its business fundamentals to dramatically increase profitability by changing its sales and information processes. Implementing the changes would be expensive and would interrupt... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Business Processes; Information Management; Sales; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Wastes and Waste Processing

November 2012
Teaching Note

Brink's Company: Activists Push for a Spin-off (TN)

By: Suraj Srinivasan

The case this Teaching Note addresses studies the decision of the security services company Brink's Corporation to spin off its home security division from the rest of the company. The decision followed intense pressure on the company by three activist hedge funds that... View Details

Keywords: Activist Investors; Spin-off; Leveraged Recapitalization; Debt; Hedge Funds; Conglomerates; Valuation; Restructuring; Accounting; Business Strategy; Investment Activism; Service Industry

March 1994 (Revised April 1995)
Case

EnClean: Malcolm Waddell's Story (A)

By: David J. Collis

Describes, in the words of its cofounder, the history of EnClean, an industrial and environmental services company, from its origins in 1984. The company grew rapidly and diversified into new businesses and new geographies both through acquisition and internally. It... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Expansion; Restructuring; Corporate Strategy

18 Apr 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, April 18, 2018

and TPG. In January 2015, Caesars Entertainment Operating Company (CEOC), its largest subsidiary, filed for Chapter 11. This set up a battle between the company and a set of large, distressed investors. At issue was not only how to View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

March 2010
Case

Sonoco Products Company (A): Building a World-Class HR Organization (Abridged)

By: David A. Thomas and Boris Groysberg

Describes the steps the vice-president of human resources takes in revamping an HR function that was noncooperative and, at times, competitive and introducing the company to the notion of HR as a strategic business partner. Explores changes made to the company's... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Organizations; Restructuring; Partners and Partnerships; Management Succession; Strategic Planning; Performance

Web

Strategy for Health Care Delivery - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

offered in cooperation with the HBS Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (ISC). Key Benefits In this program, you will use a value framework—first introduced by HBS professor Michael E. Porter in his book Redefining Health Care—as a template for View Details

01 Sep 2003
News

Larry Murphy

a $1.5 billion operation — as chief strategic officer. Responsible for strategy, acquisitions, business development, and the Disney brand on a global basis, Murphy helped grow the firm to a $60 billion enterprise by the time he and the... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Accommodation; Hospitality

October 2007 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Adelphia Communications Corp.'s Bankruptcy

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Belen Villalonga

In 2002, a massive accounting fraud and corporate looting scandal involving the founding Rigas family made Adelphia the 11th largest bankruptcy case in history, and the third-after WorldCom and Enron-among those triggered by fraud. Set in 2005, when Adelphia is... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Restructuring; Crime and Corruption; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Family Ownership

April 1999 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Al Dunlap at Sunbeam

By: Brian J. Hall, Rakesh Khurana and Carleen Madigan

Al Dunlap was one of the best-known corporate turnaround artists of the 1990s. In 1996, he was hired at Sunbeam to effect a restructuring, but was fired almost two years later when the company's financial performance and stock price began to decline. Many of the... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Restructuring; Stock Shares; Performance Evaluation; Leadership Style; Resignation and Termination; Motivation and Incentives; Executive Compensation; Outcome or Result; Consumer Products Industry; United States

10 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty Views on Debt Crisis

blame game engulfed politicians and S&P itself. In the midst of all this angst, four Harvard Business School faculty members offer their views on what went wrong and what needs to be done to right the US ship of state. bo Becker,... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

17 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

Welcome to Retirement. Who Am I Now?

FatCamera In an interview with Harvard Business School Professor Teresa Amabile for a study on retirement, one man on the cusp of exiting his career spoke openly about how the transition was making him question his identity. “After I... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Entertainment & Recreation

Web

Kristin W. Mugford | About

popular advanced finance elective that analyzes how economic stress and restructuring creates challenges and opportunities for businesses and their stakeholders. She has also taught Venture Capital and... View Details

July 2009 (Revised March 2010)
Case

Sotheby's & Christie's Inc.

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Catherine Jane Wise

The fine art auction business has remained a duopoly over its 250 year history. The industry is dominated by Sotheby's and Christie's Inc. Curiously, neither competitor has been able to overtake the other by a notable margin despite the clear network effects of this... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Business Model; Restructuring; Economics; Auctions; Market Entry and Exit; Duopoly and Oligopoly; Operations; Competition