Publications

October 1999
Case

Royal Dutch/Shell in Transition (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine

After the Brent Spar episode and the 1995 events in Nigeria, Shell undertakes an intensive review of its values and business principles. At the same time, it conducts the largest multi-stakeholder consultation in its history in an effort to better understand society's... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Issues; Public Opinion; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Transformation; Environmental Accounting; Energy Industry

April 2006
Case

Big Bazaar

By: Ananth Raman and Laura Winig

Describes a high-growth Indian retailer, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd., and two of the company's formats--Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar. Challenges students to debate the company's concept, its strategic decision on how quickly it would like to grow, and some key... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Transformation; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Market Entry and Exit; Supply Chain Management; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Retail Industry; India

August 2022 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Sweet Teez Bakery: Projecting the Dough's Rise

By: Emily R. McComb, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein

In 2021, the HBS Impact Investment Fund student team met with entrepreneur Teresa Maynard, who had applied for a $25,000 impact investment loan. The students thought the former Harvard Data Scientist’s bakery business, Sweet Teez Bakery, showed promise. Maynard had... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investment; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Investment; Goods and Commodities; Financial Reporting; Small Business; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Massachusetts

31 Jul 2007
First Look

First Look: July 31, 2007

search processes that shape networks, cognition, and capabilities. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/07-106.pdf Cases & Course MaterialsBanca Regional Andino: Facing the Globalization of Microfinance Harvard View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

25 Jan 2021
Book

In a Nutshell, Why American Capitalism Succeeded

How did the United States become the world’s center of business growth following its founding in 1776? Surely a number of nations had powerful natural resources, stable financial and legal institutions, and dynamic entrepreneurs over that... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Manufacturing

June 1991 (Revised April 1993)
Case

General Electric: Jack Welch's Second Wave (A)

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

By the mid 1980's Jack Welch had completely transformed General Electric with more than 300 divestitures and acquisitions since the beginning of the decade. Welch insisted that his business units be number one or number two in their markets, and have the strength of... View Details

Keywords: Business Conglomerates; Transformation; Employee Relationship Management; Planning; Corporate Strategy

September 1996 (Revised September 2004)
Case

Monterrey Manufacturing Company

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A small manufacturing company plans and budgets sales and expenses to ensure that its strategy is feasible. It must trace costs of manufacturing through work-in-process to finished goods and cost of goods sold, and project cash flows and income. View Details

Keywords: Cost Accounting; Business Earnings; Cash Flow; Sales; Budgets and Budgeting; Manufacturing Industry

October 1996 (Revised April 2004)
Case

Eric Wood (A)

By: Myra M. Hart

Describes the early career of an MBA who went to work in a small business, bought the company, and is now contemplating an acquisition to expand the business. The issues involve personal/business finance and financial risk, as well as valuation and financial... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Business Growth and Maturation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Risk and Uncertainty

24 Jul 2023
Research & Ideas

Part-Time Employees Want More Hours. Can Companies Tap This ‘Hidden’ Talent Pool?

Part-time workers who want more hours are a hugely untapped resource. Strange, since employers continue to encounter skills shortages. Why are qualified, eager workers underemployed? Harvard Business School Professor Joseph Fuller’s... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

June 2006 (Revised April 2007)
Case

BioScale

By: H. Kent Bowen and Bradley R. Staats

In 2004, Mark Lundstrom must decide on a funding method and strategic approach for BioScale, a biotechnology company that he founded. BioScale has developed a microchip-based bioanalytical platform that can be used to detect very small concentrations of cells, viruses,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Science-Based Business; Capital; Financing and Loans; Partners and Partnerships; Biotechnology Industry

December 2011 (Revised June 2012)
Case

Samasource: Give Work, Not Aid

By: Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats

Samasource sought to use work, not aid, for economic development. The company secured contracts for digital services from large companies in the United States and Europe, divided the work up into small pieces (called microwork) and then sent it to delivery centers in... View Details

Keywords: Development Economics; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Enterprise

April 2007 (Revised March 2018)
Case

M-TRONICS (A)

By: Joseph L. Bower and Lynda M. Applegate

The new CEO of a small manufacturing firm pursues growth through the launch of Entrepreneurial Subsidiaries. While the firm grows revenues from $600 million to over $2 billion in 10 years, problems surface as the subsidiaries are integrated into the established... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Model; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Integration

February 2004
Case

Succession Capital Corporation

In 2003, a small buyout company in Canada was deciding which company to purchase next. This case explores the challenges facing a young entrepreneur in the process of selecting a new acquisition when financial and human resources are constrained. View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Entrepreneurship; Corporate Finance; Canada

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January 2003 (Revised February 2004)
Case

The Credit Suisse Group

By: Ashish Nanda and Kelley Elizabeth Morrell

On September 19, 2002, Lukas Muhlemann announced that he would step down as chairman and CEO of the Credit Suisse Group, effective January 1, 2003. The bank had progressed from a small Swiss start-up 150 years ago to a global banking powerhouse. Over the past 5 years,... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Management Succession; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Switzerland

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June 2008 (Revised August 2008)
Case

The Suzlon Edge

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Juliana Seminerio

With prices of oil, coal and gas at historically high levels, the wind industry had installed more than 20,000 MW of wind energy, representing a $37 billion investment in 2007. Besides high prices, wind energy represented a solution for consumers seeking an energy... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Cost vs Benefits; Renewable Energy; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Integration; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; India

June 2013 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Bonnie Road

By: Arthur I Segel, John H. Vogel, Jr. and Lisa Strope

Victor Alexander was intrigued by the packet of papers that lay in front of him. The papers comprised a brochure that Garden State Bank had put together in an effort to sell the Bonnie Road Distribution Center in Somerset, New Jersey, for $9.7 million. It was April... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Investment; Acquisition; Buildings and Facilities; Property; Partners and Partnerships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Distribution Industry; Real Estate Industry; Texas

February 2021 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Shopify: The Conquest for Chinese E-Commerce

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Avani Patel, Samantha Lin and Ariel Yang

In mid-2020, Tobias Lütke, CEO of Shopify, faced a critical decision on how to time potential expansion into the China market. Over the prior 15 years, his Canadian software-as-a-service company had grown from a small e-commerce solutions provider to a full service... View Details

December 2001
Case

Sarah Vickers-Willis: Career Decisions (A)

By: Myra M. Hart, Lynda M. Applegate, Sarah Harden and Susan Saltrick

Sarah Vickers-Willis, HBS MBA 1999, faces a critical career decision: Does she redirect the Internet start-up she helped found or join in shaping a for-profit firm with a social mission? Sarah, a young Australian business executive, has always strived to "find space"... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Leadership; Internet and the Web; Social Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Business Startups