Publications

Mar 2012
Article

Choosing the United States

A location decision is, in many respects, a referendum on a nation's competitiveness. When a company decides, say, to build a new plant in China rather than in the United States, it is effectively voting on View Details

23 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

The Strategy-Focused Organization

strategy. Heads of shared service units—marketing, human resources, and information technology, among others—were included in the membership of... View Details

Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton

July 1991 (Revised October 1995)
Case

KPMG Peat Marwick: The Shadow Partner

By: Robert G. Eccles Jr.

KPMG Peat Marwick executives needed to decide whether to fund full development of "The Shadow Partner," the name coined to describe a worldwide information network that would link all KPMG professionals to each other and to a wealth of data bases and information... View Details

Keywords: Information Management; Data and Data Sets; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Networks; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology

February 2000 (Revised November 2002)
Case

QuickenInsurance: The Race to Click and Close (A)

By: Lynda M. Applegate

ES Technologies started in 1976 as a storefront in Tempe, Arizona selling personal computer kits to hobbyists. Twenty years later, revenues exceeded $3.5 billion, and the business had evolved from a computer store to a master reseller and full-line integrator of... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Industry Structures; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Information Technology; Information Technology Industry; Arizona

07 Mar 2016
HBS Seminar

Scott Stern, MIT Sloan School of Management

13 Jul 2021
Blog Post

A View from the Horizon

Rene Jones, Chairman and CEO of M&T Bank, Harvard Business School, Summer Venture in Management (SVMP) alumnus 1985 In April, I was honored to join over 70 Black leaders from a variety of industries who... View Details

May 2004 (Revised April 2006)
Case

Ultra: The Quest for Leadership (A)

By: Dwight B. Crane and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho

Ultra is one of a small group of competing Brazilian petrochemical companies, each of which buys raw material and is a minority owner of Copene, a "cracking" company that provides ethylene and other materials. Because of an industry restructuring, an auction of shares... View Details

Keywords: Capital; Capital Budgeting; Investment; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Industry Structures; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Valuation; Bids and Bidding; Economy; Ownership Stake; Chemical Industry; Brazil

January 2025
Case

Reimagining the Employee Experience at the LEGO Group

By: Amy Edmondson, Mark Mortensen and Elisabeth Powell

In 2024, the LEGO Group faced a decision about the future of LEGO’s Benefits Experience Strategy and the “Best of Both” remote/hybrid work policy. With over 28,500 employees spanning global hubs, retail stores, and manufacturing plants, LEGO leaders had to consider... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Employee Relationship Management; Values and Beliefs; Organizational Culture; Alignment; Compensation and Benefits; Europe

Teaching

Overview

By: Nancy F. Koehn

My teaching and research focus on crisis leadership and how men and women use crises to make themselves better leaders. I currently teach a module in the Advanced Management Program and an HBS Online LIVE course on Courageous Leadership. The purpose of each course is... View Details

17 Dec 2014
News

Facilitating an understanding of business and society in Turkey and the surrounding region

As executive director of HBS’s Istanbul Research Center, Esel Çekin (AMP 184, 2013) serves as a bridge between the business world in Turkey and, more frequently, the broader... View Details

27 Jan 2019
News

Harvard study questions benefits of fund manager diversity

November 2005 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Massachusetts General Hospital and the Enbrel Royalty

By: David S. Scharfstein and Darren R. Smart

Massachusetts General Hospital is considering selling its royalty interest in Enbrel, Amgen's blockbuster drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. In assessing whether to sell, and at what price, the hospital must determine its value to a potential buyer as well... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Price; Investment Return; Capital; Value; Revenue; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Biotechnology Industry; Massachusetts

July 1985 (Revised January 1988)
Case

American Hospital Supply Corp.: The ASAP System (A)

American Hospital Supply, the largest firm in the U.S. hospital supply industry, has achieved success in part through the use of information systems. Changes in the hospital marketplace suggest a shift in strategy would be appropriate. What role should information... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Distribution Industry; Health Industry; United States

March 1992 (Revised December 1992)
Case

Salomon and the Treasury Securities Auction

By: Dwight B. Crane

Set in June 1991, two months prior to Salomon Brothers' announcement that the firm had violated the Treasury Department's rules governing the auctions of new Treasury securities. Salomon Vice Chairman John Meriwether must decide how to address problems that continue to... View Details

Keywords: Debt Securities; Managerial Roles; Ethics; Market Transactions; Bonds; Investment Banking; Crisis Management; Auctions; Legal Liability; Banking Industry

September 2008 (Revised April 2011)
Case

The American Express Card

By: John A. Quelch

Senior executives at American Express are reviewing the company's marketing strategy for charge and credit cards in the United States. A variety of growth options exists for students to consider, including further penetration of existing markets and the opening of new... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Credit Cards; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Financial Services Industry; United States

August 2007
Article

The Impact of Prior Decisions on Subsequent Valuations in a Costly Contemplation Model

By: Elie Ofek, Muhamet Yildiz and Ernan Haruvy

Keywords: Decision Making; Valuation

2025
Working Paper

Bank Financing of Global Supply Chains

By: Laura Alfaro, Mariya Brussevich, Camelia Minoiu and Andrea Presbitero

Finding new international suppliers is costly, so most importers source inputs from a single country. We examine the role of banks in mitigating trade search costs during the 2018–2019 U.S.-China trade tensions. We match data on shipments to U.S. ports with the U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; International Finance; Trade; Credit; United States; Asia