Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(3,307)
- Faculty Publications (404)
- March 1999
- Case
MySoftware Company (A)
By: H. Kent Bowen and Nicole Tempest
In 1997, Gregory Slayton took the position as CEO of MySoftware, which had been experiencing revenue and operating losses for the past two years. Within 90 days, he stabilized the company through a combination of cost cutting, financial discipline, and accountability... View Details
- January 1999 (Revised June 2006)
- Case
Advanced Technologies, Inc.
By: Thomas R. Piper
The CEO of a semiconductor equipment manufacturer is assessing the financial forecasts and financing plan prepared by the chief financial officer. Continued rapid growth will create substantial financing pressures, especially if profitability fails to recover and/or if... View Details
- April 1998 (Revised November 1999)
- Case
Hambrecht & Quist
By: Thomas J. DeLong and Nicole Tempest
Hambrecht & Quist (H&Q), an investment bank headquartered in San Francisco, has a very unique culture relative to its Wall Street counterparts. Firm members and even competitors describe the culture as entrepreneurial, team-driven, non-bureaucratic, and... View Details
- February 1998 (Revised August 2006)
- Case
House of Tata, 1995: The Next Generation (A)
By: Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu and Danielle Melito Wu
The Tata Group began the 1990s as a confederation of loosely coupled firms. This case considers the rise to prominence of the new CEO of Tata Group, Ratan Tata, and his attempts to strengthen the inter-relationships among the group companies at a time when critics... View Details
- June 1997 (Revised May 1998)
- Case
Mobil USM&R (A1)
By: Robert S. Kaplan
First of a two-part case on the development and use of a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) at Mobil's US Marketing and Refining Division. Split from the original (A) case to give students an opportunity to suggest objectives and measures for the division's initial BSC, without... View Details
- March 1997 (Revised January 1999)
- Case
Cambridge Technology Partners: Corporate Venturing (August 1996)
By: Paul A. Gompers and Catherine M. Conneely
Concerns the decision of Jim Sims, president and CEO of Cambridge Technology Partners (CTP) to form a corporate venture capital subsidiary. CTP is a fast-growing information technology consulting firm that has been presented with many investment opportunities from... View Details
- March 1997 (Revised April 1998)
- Case
Amazon.com (A)
Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, an Internet-based bookseller, has created one of the most successful ventures for electronic commerce on the Web. With revenue growing at a pace of 30% per month, Bezos attributes the success of Amazon.com to its value... View Details
- August 1996
- Case
ThermoLase
By: William A. Sahlman and Andrew S. Janower
John Hansen, CEO of ThermoLase, must develop a plan of action to exploit the company's new development-stage revolutionary hair removal technology with negligible revenues and a $500 million market capitalization. This nascent public Thermo Electron spin out company... View Details
- March 1995
- Case
Donald Salter Communications, Inc.
By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jeremy Cott
A new CEO is hired to manage the turnaround of a family-owned newspaper publisher. In a departure from previous management, he implements a new compensation scheme that explicitly ties executive pay to market-value-based measures of firm performance. Because the... View Details
- January 1995
- Case
3M: Profile of an Innovating Company
By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Afroze A Mohammed
Traces the birth and development of 3M Corp., focusing in particular on the origins of its entrepreneurially-based ability to innovate. In particular, it highlights the role of CEO William L. McKnight in creating a unique set of values, policies, and structures to... View Details
- November 1994 (Revised December 1995)
- Case
The Domik Project
By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.
Cameron Sawyer, CEO of Sawyer and Co., seeks financing for an office building he is developing in Moscow. The case describes the opportunities and challenges of development in Russia. Also highlights entrepreneurial opportunities in a changing world. View Details
- April 1994 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition (1987-1989)
Describes the actions taken by the new CEO to return the company to profitability, to clarify the vision, and then to build the infrastructure (human, capital, and information) needed to support the long-term change in strategy and organization. Ends with senior... View Details
- April 1994 (Revised October 2002)
- Case
Frito-Lay, Inc.: A Strategic Transition 1980-1986
Describes the environmental, organizational, and information technology context in the late 1970s that led to the development of the initial vision for change and the actions taken to implement that vision. The case ends with the abrupt departure of the CEO as profits... View Details
- March 1994 (Revised September 1995)
- Case
Enron Gas Services
By: Peter Tufano
The CEO of Enron Gas Services (EGS), a subsidiary of the largest U.S. integrated natural gas firm, considers the risks and opportunities of selling a variety of natural gas derivatives, both embedded in gas delivery contracts and as free-standing financial contracts.... View Details
- October 1993
- Case
Wertheim Schroder/Schroders
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Kalman D. Applbaum, Lisa Gabriel and Pamela A. Yatsko
In 1986, Wertheim & Co. of New York entered into a joint venture with Schroders plc of London to form the investment bank Wertheim Schroder. By 1993, there were numerous successes as the partners pursued joint opportunities, but there were also areas in which... View Details
- April 1993 (Revised October 1995)
- Case
ALZA and Bio-Electro Systems (A): Technological and Financial Innovation
By: Josh Lerner and Peter Tufano
To develop the next generation of risky products, ALZA, a mature and profitable biotechnology firm specializing in drug delivery systems, must raise $40 million. Organizational constraints and competitive concerns demand that the work be done inside the firm. However,... View Details
- October 1991 (Revised January 2000)
- Case
Workplace Safety at Alcoa (A)
By: Kim B. Clark and Joshua D. Margolis
Examines the challenge facing the managers of a large aluminum manufacturing plant in its drive to improve workplace safety. The CEO of the company has made safety a top priority. The plant has made good progress in reducing the injury rate, but now confronts the need... View Details
- February 1991 (Revised March 1995)
- Case
Alantar, Inc.
By: Jay W. Lorsch
The CEO and chairman of Alantar, Inc. is confronted with the problem of how to create a more effective board of directors and also how to provide for his own successor. View Details
- Research Summary
Growing as a Purposeful Leader
Leaders today have to lead in the context of extraordinary changes and challenges. The demands of today's stakeholders have risen significantly, and what is expected of senior leaders is quickly evolving in terms of their mission (more than profit),... View Details
- Research Summary
Market Triads: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Market Intermediation (Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, June 2002)
By: Rakesh Khurana
This paper examines the role of executive search firms in CEO search. The paper argues that the numerical shift from two party market transactions (e.g. buyers and sellers) to three party transactions (e.g. buyers, sellers, and third party) transforms market exchanges... View Details