Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(2,958)
- Faculty Publications (575)
- February 1997 (Revised July 2001)
- Background Note
Introduction to Activity-Based Costing
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Introduces the fundamental notions of activity-based costing (ABC). Motivates ABC by means of a simple example, a single and a diversified pen factory. Proceeds to show how ABC assigns costs more accurately to products and customers by: 1) identifying the activities... View Details
Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management
- February 1997 (Revised May 1998)
- Case
Tire City, Inc.
By: W. Carl Kester
A small, rapidly growing retail distributor of automotive tires must present a set of forecasted financial statements to a bank in order to obtain a five-year loan. Expected growth rates given in the case and historical financial ratios derived from recent financial... View Details
- January 1997
- Background Note
Assigning Support Department Expenses to Production Cost Centers (B): Flexible Budgets
By: Robert S. Kaplan
Describes the use of flexible budgets to assign support/service department costs to production cost centers. View Details
- December 1996 (Revised December 2006)
- Background Note
Introduction to Corporate Financial Engineering
By: Peter Tufano
Describes the content of the Corporate Financial Engineering (CFE) course at HBS. Used on the first day of class to let students know what the course will cover and the main ideas to be developed in CFE. View Details
Keywords: Corporate Finance
- December 1996 (Revised October 1999)
- Case
Kidder, Peabody & Co.: Creating Elusive Profits
By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila
On April 17, 1994, Kidder, Peabody & Co. announced a $350 million charge against earnings resulting from the discovery of false trading profits. That same day, the termination of Joseph Jett's employment with the company was made public. By illustrating the mechanics... View Details
- September 1996 (Revised October 1996)
- Case
Clarkson Lumber Company
By: Thomas R. Piper
The owner of a rapidly growing retail lumber company is considering the financial implications of continued rapid growth. The magnitude of the company's future financing requirements must be assessed in the context of the company's access to bank finance and/or equity... View Details
- July 1996 (Revised December 2001)
- Case
Becton Dickinson--Designing the New Strategic, Operational, and Financial Planning Process
By: Robert L. Simons, Antonio Davila and Afroze A Mohammed
Describes management's attempts to design and install a sophisticated planning and control system in an international company as it changes its strategy. Issues of strategy implementation, accountability, and performance measurement are at the core of the analysis, as... View Details
- May 1996
- Case
First Capital Holdings Corp.
By: Stuart C. Gilson, Harry DeAngelo and Linda DeAngelo
The manager of a money-management firm considers whether to invest in the securities of a large, financially troubled, California-based life insurance holding company that holds 40% of its assets in high-yield junk bonds. Over the past year, the value of its portfolio... View Details
- February 1996 (Revised November 2003)
- Case
Indianapolis: Activity-Based Costing of City Services (A)
By: Robert S. Kaplan
A new administration in the City of Indianapolis is initially determined to privatize many municipal services. Before taking this action, however, the city managers want to know the current cost of performing these services with the municipal workers. Existing... View Details
- January 1996 (Revised July 1996)
- Case
Rabobank Nederland
By: Kenneth A. Merchant and Robert S. Kaplan
Describes the account manager's role and the history of one credit application. The purpose is to evaluate various methods the bank uses to influence account managers' behaviors. Also describes some alternatives being considered to improve the information systems used... View Details
- January 1996
- Case
Case of the Unidentified Industries--1995, The
Helps students to understand how the characteristics of a business are reflected in its financial statements. View Details
- September 1995 (Revised June 2002)
- Case
Intel Pentium Chip Controversy (A), The
By: V.G. Narayanan and James D Evans
Following Intel Inc.'s decision to replace flawed Pentium chips, the company faces revenue recognition choices. Events leading up to IBM's decision to halt shipment of computers that have Intel's microprocessor inside and Intel's decision to replace all the flawed... View Details
- May 1995 (Revised April 1998)
- Case
AT&T Paradyne
By: Robert S. Kaplan
A company making data communication devices has adopted a Total Quality philosophy for working with suppliers, employees, and customers. The finance group finds its existing cost system has become obsolete because of a shift from manual to automatic production... View Details
- April 1995 (Revised March 1997)
- Background Note
Introduction to Derivative Instruments
By: W. Carl Kester and Kendall Backstrand
Provides an elementary introduction to three major classes of derivative instruments: options, forwards and futures, and swaps. View Details
Keywords: Financial Instruments
- March 1995 (Revised April 1997)
- Case
Co-operative Bank, The
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Srikant M. Datar
A British bank with strong roots in the cooperative movement encounters declining profitability in an increasingly competitive and deregulated financial services industry. It attempts to grow by broadening its customer base and increasing the range of products and... View Details
- January 1995
- Case
Keller Fund's Option Investment Strategies, The
By: W. Carl Kester
A closed-end mutual fund's decision to study option trading provides an opportunity to study the profit profile and pricing of multiple option investment strategies (e.g., buy a call, buy a put, write a call, buy stock-write call, etc.). This case is designed to... View Details
- December 1994 (Revised March 1996)
- Case
Ciba Consumer Pharmaceuticals' Acutrim: Challenges and Opportunities in Today's Diet Industry
By: Nancy F. Koehn and Rebecca Voorheis
Since its introduction in 1983, Acutrim has been a major player in the U.S. appetite suppressant market and in the broader diet industry. This case focuses on the strategic, regulatory, marketing, and financial challenges this product and the rapidly changing diet... View Details
- November 1994 (Revised February 1996)
- Case
Toy World, Inc.
By: W. Carl Kester
A shift from seasonal to level production of toys will change the seasonal cycle of Toy World's working capital needs and necessitate new bank credit arrangements. A rewritten version of an earlier case. View Details
- September 1994 (Revised June 2017)
- Case
Chemalite, Inc. (B): Cash Flow Analysis
By: Robert Simons and Antonio Davila
Students are asked to use actual and pro forma financial statements to prepare a statement of cash flows under both the direct and indirect method. View Details
- August 1994
- Case
Intuit, Inc.
The merger of two computer software firms with very rapidly growing non-overlapping products makes great strategic sense, but presents difficult valuation and accounting problems. How can a firm pay $225 million to acquire another firm with negligible current earnings,... View Details