Publications

16 Jul 2024
Op-Ed

Corporate Boards Are Failing in Their No. 1 Duty

Boeing CEO has focused on short-term earnings, increasingly at the expense of franchise value and safety. Will the company’s new CEO have the courage to return Boeing to its former position as the world leader in aviation? Wells Fargo: Wells Fargo sailed through the... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

February 2009
Case

Avid Radiopharmaceuticals: The Venture Debt Question

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Ann Leamon

The CEO of a promising biotech company must decide how to respond to the macro-economic slump of late 2008. He had planned to pursue an aggressive schedule, moving the firm's Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease imaging compounds through clinical trials and into the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Borrowing and Debt; Venture Capital; Financial Management; Investment; Health Testing and Trials; Expansion; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry

January 2023
Case

The Ford Motor Company Green Bond

By: Vikram S Gandhi and James Barnett

In November 2021, Ford Motor Company offered a $2.5 billion green bond to finance investments in electrification. Issuance of green bonds significantly increased into the 2020s, and to date, the Ford Motor Company green bond was the largest such bond offered by a... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Bonds; Green Technology; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

01 Dec 2007
News

How Business Schools Lost Their Way

that had staked their reputations on academic superiority — faced a full-blown crisis of identity and purpose. It was no longer possible for business schools to tout a mission of educating managers according... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Abraham Zaleznik; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

Article

Large Banks and Small Firm Lending

By: Vitaly Bord, Victoria Ivashina and Ryan D. Taliaferro

We examine the long-lasting effects of the 2007 real estate price collapse on small business credit supply. Banks affected by the decline in real estate prices systematically contracted their credit to small firms. At the same time, regional and local banks, many of... View Details

Keywords: Small Firms; Credit Supply; Banking Competition; Small Business; Credit; Financial Crisis; Banks and Banking; Competition

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September 2009 (Revised April 2020)
Case

VIZIO, Inc.

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Elizabeth A. Kind

William Wang, CEO of VIZIO, Inc., was proud of his company's success in providing affordable flat screen TVs. Since its founding in 2002, VIZIO had grown to over $2 billion in revenue and was one of the top three flat panel TV brands, along with Samsung and Sony. Faced... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Financing and Loans; Price; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Electronics Industry

21 May 2016
News

Homegrown Heroes

a recent article. Five years later, with events in 11 countries, including Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, and China, Sityodtong oversees a sports media company with 90 percent regional market share and triple-digit percentage annual growth. In a March 2015 HBS... View Details

Web

Challenges and Opportunities in the Restaurant Industry - Course Catalog

Course Content Restaurant Economics. We will do a deep dive into the levers of financial management of restaurants – examining both revenue and cost strategies. Compensation and Workforce Management. The... View Details

01 Mar 2018
News

Ask the Expert: Disaster Master

unexpected? What kind of internal communication exists for perfect coordination? —Karan Gupta (GMP 18, 2015) BEER: Companies can be prepared by having a crisis management team and established communication... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

April 2003
Case

Sunk Costs: The Plan to Dump the Brent Spar (A)

This case explores the conflict between Shell Oil and Greenpeace over Shell's plans to sink the aging Brent Spar oil platform in the North Atlantic. It details the tactics Greenpeace employed and examines Shell's responses. View Details

Keywords: Alliances; Crisis Management; Environmental Sustainability; Mining Industry; Energy Industry; North America

2013
Working Paper

Did Bank Distress Stifle Innovation During the Great Depression?

By: Ramana Nanda and Tom Nicholas

We find a negative relationship between bank distress and the level, quality and trajectory of firm-level innovation during the Great Depression, particularly for R&D firms operating in capital intensive industries. However, we also show that because a sufficient... View Details

Keywords: Great Depression; R＆D; Bank Distress; Patents; Research and Development; Financial Crisis; Innovation and Invention; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States

Read Now

May 2015 (Revised March 2016)
Supplement

Thomas Cook Group on the Brink (C): Transformation Year 2 Results

By: Benjamin C. Esty

Analyzes the results of the Thomas Cook turnaround plan after the second year under Harriet Green's leadership (November 2014). View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Corporate Restructuring; Female Ceo; Transformation; Change Management; Communication Strategy; Cost Management; Financial Liquidity; Financial Management; Management Succession; Leading Change; Crisis Management; Value Creation; Leadership; Travel Industry; United Kingdom

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Margie Kelley; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training

01 Jun 2007
News

Mission Possible

their money goes among the approved projects we sponsor,” says Ellis, who serves as the managing partner. “They can designate the money, or let it accumulate over a few years and then choose.” In addition to View Details

01 Jun 2020
News

All Hands on Deck

been upended by the global pandemic. We wanted to provide flexibility to those whose employment, health, visa, or financial situation may have changed significantly since they applied,” says Chad Losee (MBA 2013), View Details

Keywords: Jen Mele

December 1998
Case

Origins of National Income Accounting

By: David A. Moss and Joseph P Gownder

Set in the Great Depression, this case explores the origins of national income accounting in the United States. Highlights Senator La Follette's 1932 proposal for the federal government to begin collecting national income statistics. View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Crisis; Analytics and Data Science; Mathematical Methods; United States

29 May 2013
Research & Ideas

Faculty Symposium Showcases Breadth of Research

financial industry and those who regulate it, there are strong but conflicting viewpoints about the impact of private equity buyouts of public firms, especially in the wake of the recent global financial... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

July–August 2013
Article

Leadership Lessons from the Chilean Mine Rescue

By: Faaiza Rashid, Amy C. Edmondson and Herman B. Leonard

Three years ago, when a cave-in at the San José mine in Chile trapped 33 men under 700,000 metric tons of rock, experts estimated the probability of getting them out alive at less than 1%. Yet, after spending a record 69 days underground, all 33 were hoisted up to... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Crisis Management; Learning; Mining; Mining Industry; Chile

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January 1999 (Revised March 2003)
Case

Rich-Con Steel

One month after "going live" with a new information system, Rich-Con Steel is in crisis. The new system was intended to give the company basic visibility and control over its business processes, but instead, visibility and control appear to have evaporated. Marty... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Crisis Management; Business Processes; Steel Industry