Publications

October 2022
Case

Beam Dental (A)

By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani

In May 2014, Alex Frommeyer, cofounder and CEO of Kentucky-based Beam Dental, a seed-stage startup that developed connected toothbrushes that tracked brushing habits, needed to decide which strategy to pitch to a venture capital firm. The first pitch deck played to the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Presentations; Product Development; Insurance Industry; United States; Kentucky; Ohio

April 2017
Case

Luminopia: Improving Treatment for Visual Disorders

By: Doug J. Chung and Sarah Mehta

Luminopia—a start-up founded in January 2016 by three Harvard College freshmen—uses virtual reality technology to treat amblyopia (more commonly called “lazy eye”), the single biggest cause of visual disorders among children. By February 2017, the three founders had... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Virtual Reality; Startup; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Business Startups; Price; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Cambridge; Massachusetts; United States

March 2018 (Revised July 2018)
Case

Cadre

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Scott Duke Kominers and David Lane

Late in 2017, CEO Ryan Williams and his team debated whether Cadre should become not only a technology-enabled investment manager, but also an online trading exchange providing high levels of liquidity for investors in commercial real estate (CRE) equity. Cadre was a... View Details

Keywords: ＂Cadre,＂; Entrepreneurship; Market Design; Digital Platforms; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Private Equity; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States

July–August 2012
Article

What Good Are Shareholders?

By: Justin Fox and Jay W. Lorsch

The article looks at the role outside shareholders play in corporate governance in the U.S., and the relationship between companies' shareholders and managers, as of 2012. It recounts the shift beginning in the 1970s toward shareholders claiming an increasing amount of... View Details

Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Business and Shareholder Relations; Investment Activism; Corporate Governance; Decision Making; Managerial Roles; United States

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December 1999 (Revised August 2001)
Case

Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (A)

By: Stefan H. Thomke and Ashok Nimgade

Focuses on Millennium's strategy to grow and revolutionize drug development through the use of new technologies such as genomics. Describes how Millennium Pharmaceuticals--a fast-growing biotechnology firm in Cambridge, MA--has used strategic alliances to finance the... View Details

Keywords: Cost Management; Financing and Loans; Medical Specialties; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Time Management; Product Development; Problems and Challenges; Alliances; Technology; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Cambridge

Web

Global Impact of the Collapse | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

2011). Workers embrace outside the offices of Lehman Brothers in Canary Wharf in London, Monday, September 15, 2008. Courtesy of AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth. On October 3, 2008, under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the government addressed the mortgage... View Details

November 2020
Supplement

Integrating Beam Suntory (B)

By: David G. Fubini, Rawi Abdelal and David Lane

Supplements (A) case: The spring 2014 acquisition of U.S. alcoholic spirits maker Beam Inc. by Japan’s Suntory Holdings vaulted Suntory from 15th to third-largest international spirits company in the world. Yet Suntory had borrowed nearly the entire $16 billion... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Communication; Borrowing and Debt; Globalization; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Retention; Leadership; Supply Chain; Organizational Structure; Ownership; Relationships; Conflict and Resolution; Integration; Value Creation; Food and Beverage Industry; Japan; United States; Chicago

14 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Reforming New Orleans Schools After Katrina

interested than seats available, the school is required to run a random lottery to fill the seats. Charter schools receive public funding on a per pupil basis from federal, state, and local sources. The operating dollars are usually... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Education

03 Oct 2023
Research Event

Build the Life You Want: Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey Share Happiness Tips

emotion that's also appropriate for the one that you're actually feeling or or simply deciding to disregard your emotions, living in the living in the observational state as opposed to constantly looking in the mirrors around you making... View Details

Keywords: by HBS Staff

October 2002 (Revised December 2003)
Case

Collabrys, Inc. (A)-The Evolution of a Startup

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Brian DeLacey

The CEO of a two-year-old start-up must now decide whether to become a technology provider or a service agency. In a time of enormous uncertainty about the viability of various business models for Internet-delivered services and products, Collabrys has survived the... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Technological Innovation; Cost vs Benefits; Partners and Partnerships; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; United States

02 May 2023
What Do You Think?

How Should Artificial Intelligence Be Regulated—if at All?

humanity. Clearly, AI is a big deal with large potential benefits and, at the moment, largely unknown risks for society. It will get more important fast. Why? Two tech giants, Microsoft and Google, are competing for first-mover advantage along with a third competitor,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Information Technology; Technology

October 2010 (Revised July 2013)
Case

AEP: Carbon Capture and Storage

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

By October 2010, American Electric Power, the largest coal-fired, electric utility in the United States, had been operating a carbon capture and sequestration pilot plant for one year. Using a proprietary, Alstom chilled ammonia technology, AEP was capturing and... View Details

Keywords: Energy Generation; Government Legislation; Technological Innovation; Partners and Partnerships; Projects; Decision Choices and Conditions; Environmental Sustainability; Problems and Challenges; Utilities Industry; United States

January 2010
Article

Buy Local? The Geography of Successful Venture Capital Expansion

By: Henry Chen, Paul A. Gompers, Anna Kovner and Josh Lerner

We document geographic concentration by both venture capital firms and venture capital-financed companies in three metropolitan areas: San Francisco, Boston, and New York. We find that venture capital firms locate in regions with high success rates of venture... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Expansion; Success; Capital; Geographic Location; Business Units; Corporate Accountability; Business Offices; Goals and Objectives; Mission and Purpose; Investment Funds; Corporate Governance; Boston; New York (state, US); San Francisco

Find at Harvard

September 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

Western Technology Investment

By: Ramana Nanda, William A. Sahlman and Nicole Keller

Based in Portola Valley, California, Western Technology Investment (WTI) specialized in a hybrid form of debt and equity financing for early-stage companies. Like traditional venture capital and private equity firms, WTI raised funds from institutional investors and... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Equity; Finance; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; California

Web

Entrepreneurship - Faculty & Research

agencies, and Fortune 500 executives. The bet: by providing "no-strings-attached" help to ecosystem partners, the partners might someday reciprocate by steering founders seeking funding to a16z. The case closes by asking whether a16z... View Details

2003
Report

UK Competitiveness: Moving to the Next Stage

By: Michael E. Porter and Christian H.M. Ketels

In October 2002, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) appointed Professor Michael Porter and his team to conduct a brief, three-month review of the existing evidence on UK competitiveness. The effort was funded jointly by the ESRC and the Department of... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Economics; Performance Productivity; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Research and Development; Competency and Skills; Investment; Assets; Corporate Strategy; Policy; Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; United Kingdom; United States

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September 2013
Case

United Rentals (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch, Kathleen Durante and Emily McTague

In December 1997 United Rentals (URI) went public on the NYSE. Ten years later, during the peak of the economic meltdown, the company's performance was in decline. United Rentals had experienced its share of problems in the prior years and was still struggling to... View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Board Dynamics; Accounting Fraud; Governance; Board Committees; Merger; Corporate Governance; Construction Industry; United States

Web

Ways to Give Today - Alumni

monthly or annual basis—via credit card. This will ensure that you are counted as a donor every year and help HBS to plan more effectively. Wire Transfer You can wire funds directly to HBS from your bank using the information provided... View Details

June 2018 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Valuing Snap After the IPO Quiet Period (A)

By: Marco Di Maggio, Benjamin C. Esty and Gregory Saldutte

Snap, the disappearing message app, went public at $17 per share on March 2, 2017, making its two 20-something founders the youngest self-made billionaires in the country. Over the next three weeks, 14 analysts made investment recommendations on Snap: two with buy... View Details