Publications

January 2018 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Portugal: Can Socialism Survive?

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason

Portugal was not ready to join the European Monetary Union in 1999. With strong unions, weak competitiveness, and a legacy of socialism, it could not compete with north-European countries. After borrowing extensively to fund deficits, Portugal went into debt crisis in... View Details

Keywords: Economy; Financial Crisis; Economic Systems; Portugal

16 Oct 2014
News

Why the Future of Your Company Depends on Creating Visibility

19 May 2009
News

Mid-level jobs key to recovery

15 Jul 2011
Working Paper Summaries

Poultry in Motion: A Study of International Trade Finance Practices

Keywords: by Pol Antras & C. Fritz Foley; Agriculture & Agribusiness

Article

What Professional Service Firms Must Do to Thrive

By: Ashish Nanda and Das Narayandas

When the going gets tough, professional service firms (PSFs) often get desperate and chase all kinds of business just to keep the lights on. Consultancies, financial services firms, VC/PE firms, and the like offer services and sign up clients they should never have... View Details

Keywords: Professional Service Firms; Client Mix; Strategic Positioning; Organizations; Performance Effectiveness; Decision Making; Framework

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January 2010 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Knight the King: The Founding of Nike

By: Noam Wasserman and Kyle Anderson

It had taken Phil Knight 16 long years to build Nike into the number one athletic-shoe company in the country. When Knight had first conceived of the company for an MBA class project, Adidas had had more than 80% market share, but Knight's marketing approach had... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Initial Public Offering; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Apparel and Accessories Industry

October 2018 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Unbanklike Experimentation

By: Ryan W. Buell and Leslie K. John

Email mking@hbs.edu for a courtesy copy.

In August 2017, Commonwealth Bank of Australia was looking for ways to differentiate itself from competing banks and was also trying to improve the financial well-being of... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Experimentation; Banks and Banking; Credit Cards; Customer Focus and Relationships; Competitive Strategy; Banking Industry; Australia

16 Dec 2015
Video

Designing a Great Community

09 Nov 2011
News

Despite Critics, Mortgage Deduction Resists Change

December 2014 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Compass Group: The Ascension Health Decision

By: Ryan W. Buell

In 2012, Compass Group (Compass) was on the verge of closing a $2 billion deal with Ascension Health (Ascension), one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. Under the deal, Compass would provide foodservice management and cleaning services for 86 of... View Details

Keywords: Operations Strategy; Sectorization; Operational Focus; Customer Compatibility; Service Operations; Service Delivery; Operations; Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Industry; Health Industry; United States

February 2013
Case

Diamond Foods, Inc.

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Tim Gray

The Diamonds Foods, Inc. case describes the major accounting blow up at the company in late 2011 that was triggered by a report by Off Wall Street, a prominent short selling research firm. Diamond Foods, a high flying growth company in 2011, grew from a walnut farmers'... View Details

February 2016 (Revised June 2016)
Case

Curtis LLP: A Case on Cases

By: Nikolaos Trichakis

A product market firm faces an inventory investment decision in the face of demand uncertainty. To hedge against some of the uncertainty, the firm contemplates an additional fixed investment that would offer the flexibility of diverting inventory in case of weak sales.... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Decision Making Under Uncertainty; Operations Management; Inventory Management; Real Options; Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Decision Choices and Conditions; Operations

22 Feb 2012
Working Paper Summaries

The Dynamic Effects of Bundling as a Product Strategy

Keywords: by Timothy Derdenger & Vineet Kumar; Video Game

19 Aug 2020
News

Demystifying AI for business leadership

2020
Book

Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You

By: Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss

When leaders and aspiring leaders seek out advice, they're often told to try harder. Dig deeper. Look in the mirror and own your natural-born strengths and fix any real or perceived career-limiting deficiencies.

We offer a different worldview. We argue... View Details

Keywords: Leadership Skills; Belonging; Leadership; Management Skills; Trust; Organizational Culture

2014
Working Paper

Opting Out of Good Governance

By: C. Fritz Foley, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Jonathan Greenstein and Eric Zwick

Cross-listing on a U.S. exchange does not bond foreign firms to follow the corporate governance rules of that exchange. Hand-collected data show that 80% of cross-listed firms opt out of at least one exchange governance rule, instead committing to observe the rules of... View Details

Keywords: Financial Markets; Globalization; Corporate Governance

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July 2015
Exercise

An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management

By: Guhan Subramanian and Kait Szydlowski

A three party, multiple-issue negotiation exercise dealing with a potential merger between two leading department stores, called for by an activist investor hedge fund in a letter to both companies. Company management will now attempt to navigate next moves, which are... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Activist Investors; Takeover Defense; Negotiation Types; Mergers and Acquisitions; Corporate Governance; Investment Activism; Retail Industry