Publications

January 2023
Case

EKI Energy Services: One Billion Carbon Credits

By: George Serafeim

Within nine months from the time of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in April of 2021, EKI Energy Services (EKI) shares had increased by more than 8,000%. Equally explosive was the growth of the company’s revenues and Earnings Before Interest, Taxes and Depreciation... View Details

Keywords: Carbon Credits; Carbon Emissions; Growth; Business Analysis; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Valuation; Climate Change; Accounting; Valuation; Transition; Renewable Energy; Analysis; Product Positioning; India

January 2023
Teaching Note

The Opioid Settlement and Executive Pay at AmerisourceBergen

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

Teaching Note for HBS Case No 122-014. In 2020, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, a Fortune 50 company in the drug distribution industry, agreed to settle thousands of lawsuits filed nationwide against the company for its opioid distribution practices that critics alleged... View Details

January 16, 2023
Article

40 Ideas to Shake Up Your Hiring Process

By: Joseph Fuller, Nithya Vaduganathan, Allison Bailey and Manjari Raman

Many companies today are struggling to hire and retain talent, but more often than not the problem is self-inflicted: They’re simply not using a broad enough array of tools, sometimes because they don’t even know the tools exist. In this article, the authors list 40... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Retention; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing

January–February 2023
Article

The Overlooked Key to a Successful Scale-Up

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Davide Sola and Martin Kupp

Many start-ups experience enormous popularity and runaway growth, but only a few go on to become stable giants. What separates them from the pack? They all go through a developmental stage called extrapolation, say three business school professors.
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Keywords: Entrepreneurship And Strategy; Scalability; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship

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December 2022
Case

To Feed the Planet: Juan Luciano at ADM

By: Joshua D. Margolis, David E. Bell, Damien McLoughlin, Stacy Straaberg and James Weber

In December 2022, Juan Luciano, Chairman and CEO of agribusiness and nutrition giant ADM, considered the next phase of the historic company’s future. Beginning in 2011 when he joined as COO and moving into his tenure as CEO in 2015, Luciano led a transformation of ADM... View Details

December 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Akooda: Charging Toward Operational Intelligence

By: Christopher Stanton and Mel Martin

The Akooda case describes the challenges confronting founder and CEO Yuval Gonczarowski (MBA ‘17) in 2022 as he attempts to boost sales. Launched in November 2020, Akooda was an AI company that mined 20 different sources of digital data, from tools like Slack, Google... View Details

Keywords: Data Mining; Productivity; Monitoring; Data Analysis; AI and Machine Learning; Knowledge Management; Operations; Problems and Challenges; Employee Relationship Management; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Information Industry; Boston; Israel

December 2022
Case

Taylor Farms: Adding Value to Fresh Produce

By: José B. Alvarez, Forest L. Reinhardt, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Pedro Levindo

In October 2022, Bruce Taylor (HBS MBA, 1981), Chairman and CEO of Taylor Farms, the leading producer of salads and healthy fresh foods in the United States, wondered whether this was the right time for Taylor Farms to venture into the Controlled Environment... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Cost vs Benefits; Logistics; Environmental Sustainability; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

December 13, 2022
Article

What Elon Musk Can Learn from Steve Jobs’s Return to Apple

By: Andy Wu and Goran Calic

Changing the strategic direction of an existing company is among the hardest management challenges out there. Most attempts fail. In trying to remake Twitter, Elon Musk has a daunting task ahead of him. There’s precedent, however, for dramatically reimagining a major... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Corporate Strategy; Change Management; Transformation

December 2022 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Daniel Defense: Responding to the Shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

At 11:33am on May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old man from Uvalde, Texas walked into the Robb Elementary School carrying a semi-automatic "AR-15-style” rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense and killed 19 children and two adults. Three days later, Representative Carolyn Maloney... View Details

Keywords: Gun Violence; Gun Policy; Second Amendment; Legal Liability; Government Legislation; Marketing Strategy; Business or Company Management; Product Marketing; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Crime and Corruption; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Manufacturing Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

December 23, 2022
Article

What the World Cup Can Teach Business Leaders About Top Performers

By: Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, Abhijit Naik and Harry Krueger

Our people are our greatest source of competitive advantage." This sentiment is often heralded in companies by everyone from middle managers to HR professionals to CEOs. It is a great sound bite. The problem: It is not true—at least, not entirely. View Details

Keywords: Soccer; Performance; Business; Leadership; Competitive Advantage; Selection and Staffing; Talent and Talent Management

December 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Cann: High Hopes for Cannabis Infused Beverages

By: Ayelet Israeli and Anne V. Wilson

Founded in 2018 by Jake Bullock and Luke Anderson, Cann sold “social tonics,” or cannabis-infused beverages. By 2022, the company had several notable celebrity investors and talent partners, had sold over 10 million beverages to consumers, was distributing in six... View Details

2022
Book

Private Equity

By: Paul A. Gompers and Steven N. Kaplan

This Advanced Introduction provides an illustrative guide to private equity, integrating insights from academic research with examples to derive practical recommendations. Paul Gompers and Steven Kaplan begin by reviewing the history of private equity then exploring... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Investment Funds; Value Creation

2022
Article

The Pricing and Ownership of U.S. Green Bonds

By: Malcolm Baker, Daniel Bergstresser, George Serafeim and Jeffrey Wurgler

We study green bonds, which are bonds whose proceeds are used for environmentally sensitive purposes. After an overview of the U.S. corporate and municipal green bonds markets, we study pricing and ownership patterns using a simple framework that incorporates assets... View Details

Keywords: Green Bond; Pricing; Climate Finance; ESG; SRI; Sustainable; Municipal; Bonds; Environmental Sustainability; Financial Markets; Price; Ownership; United States

November–December 2022
Article

Your Company Needs a Space Strategy. Now.

By: Matthew Weinzierl, Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, Tarun Khanna, Alan MacCormack and Brendan Rosseau

Space is becoming a potential source of value for businesses across a range of sectors, including agriculture, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, and tourism. To understand what the opportunities are for your company, the authors advise you to consider the four ways in... View Details

Keywords: Space Strategy; Emerging Markets; Natural Resources; Analytics and Data Science; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Adaptation; Competition; Aerospace Industry

November 2022 (Revised March 2024)
Case

Northvolt: Building Batteries to Fight Climate Change

By: George Serafeim, Debora L. Spar, P. Tufano and Julia M. Comeau

In 2016, Swedish entrepreneurs Carl-Erik Lagercrantz and Peter Carlsson founded an electric battery company called Northvolt with the dual goals of creating a company to address climate change and bringing battery manufacture to Europe. Northvolt, which succeeded in... View Details

Keywords: Batteries; Climate Change; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Green Technology; Mission and Purpose; Goals and Objectives; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Green Technology Industry; Battery Industry; Sweden; Europe

November 2022 (Revised March 2023)
Case

OneSmart

By: Nien-he Hsieh, Meg Rithmire and Shu Lin

At the end of 2021, Xi “Steve” Zhang was facing an existential crisis for himself and his business. OneSmart was a premium educational company founded in 2008 offering K-12 afterschool tutoring for students nationwide under a number of brands. The company was founded... View Details

Keywords: Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Crisis Management; Failure; Education Industry; China

November 10, 2022
Article

5 Ways Startups Can Prepare for a Recession

By: Lou Shipley

Startups face unique challenges during economic downturns. They typically aren’t yet profitable and so are reliant on outside funding—and therefore are especially exposed when macroeconomic conditions change. To make it through a recession, startup CEOs should hit the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Organizational Culture; Sales; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Inflation and Deflation; Financial Crisis; Employee Relationship Management; Business Startups; Credit

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November 2022
Case

Arcos Dorados’ Quest for the Digitalization of Last-Mile Delivery in Colombia

By: Jorge Tamayo, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal

In 2018, Francisco Staton, Managing Director of Arcos Dorados in Colombia had to decide on the company’s strategy to expand its food ordering and delivery business in the country. Arcos Dorados stood as McDonald’s largest independent franchisee, and Colombia was one of... View Details

November 2022
Article

My Boss' Passion Matters as Much as My Own: The Interpersonal Dynamics of Passion Are a Critical Driver of Performance Evaluations

By: Jon M. Jachimowicz, Andreas Wihler and Adam D. Galinsky

Companies often celebrate employees who successfully pursue their passion. Academic research suggests that these positive evaluations occur because of the passion percolating inside the employee. We propose that supervisors are also a key piece of this puzzle:... View Details

Keywords: Passion; Job Performance; Motivation; Emotions; Performance Evaluation; Interpersonal Communication