Publications

March 2005 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Advising on Currency Risk at ICICI Bank

In March 2003, a client approached the Markets Advisory Group at ICICI Bank, India's second largest bank, about a hedging transaction. The hedge involved multiple interest rates and currencies. Shilpa Kumar, head of the Markets Advisory Group, has to put together a... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Currency Exchange Rate; Capital Markets; Investment Funds; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; India

June 2012
Article

Leadership Is a Conversation

By: Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind

Globalization and new technologies have sharply reduced the efficacy of command-and-control management and its accompanying forms of corporate communication. In the course of a recent research project, the authors concluded that by talking with employees, rather than... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Management Style; Interpersonal Communication; Leadership; Cooperation; Partners and Partnerships

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March 2023
Case

Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline Company

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Li-Kuan Ni

On the morning of May 7, 2021, Colonial Pipeline Company became aware that the company had been the victim of a malicious ransomware attack that had stolen and locked up company data. The extortionists demanded 75 bitcoins (worth about $4.4 million at the time) in... View Details

09 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 9, 2008

independent social rating agency and avoids selection issues by taking advantage of a natural experiment that arose when the agency expanded the scope of its ratings. We find empirical support for our hypotheses and present implications... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2018 (Revised July 2023)
Case

Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL

By: Chiara Farronato, Alan MacCormack and Sarah Mehta

Set in March 2018, the case follows ride-sharing company Uber as it develops and launches a new product called Express POOL. This product offers a reduced price to riders willing to carpool, walk a short distance to/from their pick-up and drop-off points, and wait a... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Decision Making; Technology Industry; California; San Francisco

Working Paper

Benchmarking Against the Performance of High Profile 'Scandal' Firms

By: Emre Karaoglu, Tatiana Sandino and Randy Beatty

In recent years, several high profile firms engaged in accounting fraud that resulted in severe investor losses and erosion of trust in the capital markets. We examine high profile accounting "scandals" prosecuted by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unlike most... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Ethics; Executive Compensation; Performance Evaluation; Financial Services Industry; United States

SSRN

January 2006 (Revised February 2006)
Case

Deutsche Borse and the European Markets

By: Dwight B. Crane and Monika Stachowiak

In December 2004, Deutsche Borse proposed an offer for the London Stock Exchange. Some shareholders opposed the acquisition, leading to the offer's withdrawal and replacement of management, including the CEO and board members. Written from the viewpoint of Deutsche... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Strategy; Governing and Advisory Boards; Capital Structure; Stocks; Valuation; Corporate Governance; Price; Change Management; Commercialization; Financial Services Industry; Europe

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09 Nov 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Securities Litigation Risk for Foreign Companies Listed in the US

Keywords: by Beiting Cheng, Suraj Srinivasan & Gwen Yu

August 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Launching the War on Terrorism

Describes the decision-making process employed by President George W. Bush's War Cabinet in the days following the September 11th terrorist attacks. Examines how the president and his advisers framed the problem, exchanged ideas, generated alternatives, and developed a... View Details

Keywords: War; National Security; Decision Making; Crisis Management; Management Teams; Public Administration Industry; United States

March 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Eliot Spitzer: Pushing Wall Street to Reform

By: Rawi Abdelal, Rafael Di Tella and Jonathan Schlefer

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer faced a decision about how to stop wrongdoing committed by major Wall Street firms during the Internet boom. The equities analysts of Merrill Lynch and other Wall Street firms were charged with objectively advising retail... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Decisions; Financial Institutions; Stocks; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation; Conflict of Interests; Internet; Financial Services Industry; United States

December 2019
Article

The Ethical Perils of Personal, Communal Relations: A Language Perspective

By: Maryam Kouchaki, Francesca Gino and Yuval Feldman

The current paper focuses on how the type of relationship that exists between a group and its members influences misconduct by fostering certain perceptions of the group. Using multiple methods, lab- and field-based experiments (N = 1,679), and a large dataset of S&P... View Details

Keywords: Language; Codes Of Conduct; Ethics; Communication; Perception; Behavior

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June 2021
Case

Modern Endowment Management: Paula Volent and the Bowdoin Endowment

By: Luis M. Viceira, Emily R. McComb and Dean Xu

This case examines modern endowment investment management through the lens of a leadership transition between Chief Investment Officers (CIOs). In March 2021, Paula Volent is about to step down as the CIO of the endowment of Bowdoin College after twenty-one years, and... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Investment Banking; Growth Management; Investment Return; Capital Markets; Interest Rates; Competition; Cost Management; Risk Management; Financial Liquidity; Performance Evaluation

August 2012
Case

Growing Pains at Stroz Friedberg (Abridged)

By: David A. Garvin and Michael Norris

In late spring 2009, Stroz Friedberg co-presidents Edward Stroz and Eric Friedberg had to set growth targets for 2010. The leading global consulting firm they had built specialized in managing digital risk and uncovering digital evidence and had grown very rapidly.... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Change Management; Transition; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Consulting Industry

17 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership

[This is the fourth installment in a monthly series on management issues in the time of COVID-19.] “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams

John D. Dionne

John D. Dionne has been a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School since 2014 and is a recently retired Senior Managing Director and Senior Advisor to Blackstone. He is also Managing Partner of Franconia Capital, a... View Details

August 2023
Case

Floward

By: Krishna Palepu and Namrata Arora

In 2022, Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani, CEO and co-founder of Floward, an online flower and gifting company established in Kuwait in 2017, contemplated the firm's growth trajectory. Floward, an e-commerce enterprise that offered fresh-cut flowers sourced directly from... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Information Technology Industry; Middle East; North Africa; Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; United Arab Emirates; Jordan