Publications

February 1996 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Viacom, Inc.: Carpe Diem

By: Joseph L. Bower and Thomas R. Eisenmann

Viacom has reached a powerful position in the global entertainment industry through skillful and very bold acquisitions. Now its further expansion is challenged by the moves of Rupert Murdock's News Corp. Different businesses within Viacom have contradictory positions... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Cost vs Benefits; Decisions; Entertainment; Global Strategy; Management; Competition; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Entertainment and Recreation Industry

Find at Harvard

Mar 2012
Article

Choosing the United States

exhaustive analysis. At the same time, managers ignore substantial hidden costs associated with non-U.S. locations and overlook the benefits they could reap were they to invest instead in local communities. This article examines the... View Details

Paris Wallace

extensively in academic and corporate settings including Harvard, MIT and Wharton. Paris holds a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, and an M.B.A. and M.P.A from Harvard University, where he was a Reynolds Fellow. He is an avid cyclist and he and his wife split... View Details

Keywords: Biotech & Life Sciences;#19;#Digital Health;#43;#Healthcare;#56;#Personal Health & Wellness;#64;#Software/App

01 Sep 2012
News

Muhammad Yunus Visits HBS

more than 1 million homes. He has also arranged partnerships with multinationals to combat illness. For example, he persuaded Adidas to build a shoe that conformed to the company’s quality standards but still would cost only one euro.... View Details

Keywords: Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations; Personal Services

December 2020 (Revised March 2022)
Teaching Note

Forecasting ClimaCell

By: Joshua Lev Krieger, Christopher Stanton and James Barnett

A weather technology startup, ClimaCell considers the R&D trade-offs and financing implications of pursuing a proposed contract with a major automobile maker, rather than continuing its focus on building a scalable, all-purpose weather prediction engine. View Details

Keywords: Weather; Forecasting and Prediction; Business Startups; Research and Development; Finance; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Making; Strategy; United States; Israel; Massachusetts; Colorado

February 2007 (Revised March 2007)
Case

UBS and Climate Change--Warming Up to Global Action?

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Forest L. Reinhardt and Elizabeth Raabe

Marco Suter, Executive Vice-Chairman, UBS Board of Directors, carefully studied the chart on his desk. It showed the public commitment of major financial institutions to help mitigate global warming. Evidently, UBS lagged behind its competitors. The graph was part of a... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Energy Conservation; Cost vs Benefits; Law; Financial Institutions; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Accountability; Financial Services Industry

October 2001 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Club Med (C): The "Re-New" Plan

By: Frances X. Frei, Daniel Rethazy and Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar

Supplements the (A) and (B) cases. View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Industry Structures; Competitive Advantage; Organizational Culture; Cost; Customer Satisfaction; Accommodations Industry; United States

01 Jun 2012
News

Letters to the Editor

efficiency, it’s true that in many areas, private is more efficient. But not in health care. Compare Medicare administrative costs to those of private insurers. Medicare Advantage has average costs 15... View Details

Keywords: Administration of Economic Programs; Government; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

01 Apr 2001
News

Big Deals: Project Finance Helps Mitigate Risk in Large-Scale Investments

cost something on the order of $5 billion, not the $5 million one might expect for a typical start-up,” Esty explains. And all too often, he adds, they can turn out to be losing propositions. The managerial challenge is to make sure that... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Motorola; Air Transportation; Transportation; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services; Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Finance; Telecommunications; Information

09 Jan 2014
News

Tapping into Opportunity

increased its water efficiency by 21.4 percent between 2004 and 2012, recently announced a new initiative to increase that efficiency by another 25 percent. Or look at another example: extracting shale gas ("fracking"). It costs from 50... View Details

Keywords: Constantine von Hoffman; Business and Environment Initiative; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

March 2004
Case

L.L. Bean: A Search for Growth

By: Rajiv Lal, Walter J. Salmon and James Weber

In mid-2003, CEO Chris McCormick felt L.L. Bean was in a good position to begin to grow again. For nearly 90 years, the company sold clothing and gear for outdoor enthusiasts through its catalogs and a single retail store in Freeport, Maine. In the three decades prior... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Restructuring; Growth and Development Strategy; Cost Management; Sales; Performance Improvement; Diversification; Distribution Channels; Resignation and Termination; Retail Industry; Web Services Industry