Publications

Read Now

November 2001
Teaching Note

Provident Life and Accident Insurance: The Acquisition of Paul Revere TN

By: Mihir A. Desai, E. Scott Mayfield and Mark Veblen

Teaching Note for (9-202-044). View Details

Keywords: Insurance Industry; Insurance Industry

May 2006 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Creating Meaning for the Customer: The Case of GMACI

Excellence in exploiting customer information and leveraging its affiliation to the GM group are among the strategic options that GMAC Insurance CEO Gary Kusumi is considering. GMAC Insurance, the wholly-owned auto insurance subsidiary of General Motors, formed through... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Insurance Industry

2013
Case

Advanced Leadership Pathways: General Gale Pollock and Services for the Vision Impaired

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter, Juliane Calingo Schwetz and Patricia Bissett Higgins

In July 2012, retired United States Army Major General Gale Pollock created Elevivo, a venture that worked on developing a comprehensive disease management software system to support the growing number of visually impaired individuals by providing them with tailored... View Details

Keywords: Disease Management; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Education; Information Technology; Insurance; Entrepreneurship; Leadership; Information Technology Industry; Health Industry; United States

February 2007
Background Note

BASIX Simulation Model

By: Peter Tufano and Shawn A. Cole

Explains how to use Crystal Ball to simulate the insurance decision in the BASIX case. View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Business Model; Valuation; Decisions; Finance; Insurance Industry

20 Mar 2000
Research & Ideas

No Place Like Home: America’s Housing Crisis and Its Impact on Business

affordable housing is the low-income housing tax credit, part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986," she says. "In essence, it provides a tax benefit to private investors — typically banks and insurance... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons; Construction; Real Estate

17 Jun 2025
Blog Post

Alumni in Climate Networking Series: San Francisco - Addressing Extreme Weather, Climate Risk, and Resilience

approaches like parametric insurance and community catastrophe coverage. Barney Schauble (AB ’95), Senior Advisor at Nephila and Principal of Greenthread, brought a global... View Details

02 Apr 2010
What Do You Think?

Why Are Fewer and Fewer U.S. Employees Satisfied With Their Jobs?

are, at the same time, exercising cost-cutting efforts (such as low wages, poor benefits, no health insurance for many employees in the case of Wal-Mart, fines for safety violations in the case of BP) in dealing with their employees.... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

December 2024
Case

Core Innovation Capital: Investing in Fintech for Good

By: Ray Kluender, Natalia Rigol, Benjamin Roth and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2017, Arjan Schütte, founder of Core Innovation Capital, faced a decision on whether to invest in Hugo Insurance, an auto insurance startup. Core, an early-stage social impact VC firm, focused on “fintech for good,” by investing in financial services for low- to... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Venture Capital; Social Entrepreneurship; Insurance; Measurement and Metrics; Investment; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Product Positioning; Insurance Industry; Insurance Industry; Insurance Industry; United States

08 Jul 2015
What Do You Think?

Do Americans Work Too Much and Think About Work Too Little?

colleagues on the Harvard Business School faculty, legendary teacher and thinker Tony Athos. In an organization with a culture of long hours and FILO (first in last out) norms (borrowing from David Physick's... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Financial Services

01 May 2009
What Do You Think?

Do Innovation and Entrepreneurship Have to Be Incompatible with Organization Size?

latitude," and insuring "no negative consequences" associated with failure of innovative ideas. The right kind of leadership—capable of building trust, the willingness to take risk, View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

September 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Telepass: From Tolling to Mobility Platform

By: Chiara Farronato, Stefano Denicolai and Sarah Mehta

Telepass, until very recently the sole processor of electronic toll payments on Italy’s highways, has ambitions beyond tolling. Since the mid-2010s, the company has been expanding into adjacent services. In 2017, Telepass launched TelepassPay—a mobile payment... View Details

August 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Icario Health: AI to Drive Health Engagement

By: David C. Edelman

Icario Health has built a market-leading artificial intelligence (AI) engine to help health insurers drive better health behaviors for their members, enabling the insurers to improve their Medicare performance. View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Health Care and Treatment; AI and Machine Learning; Health Industry; United States

September 2021 (Revised December 2021)
Case

Telepass: From Tolling to Mobility Platform (Abridged)

By: Chiara Farronato, Stefano Denicolai and Sarah Mehta

Telepass, until very recently the sole processor of electronic toll payments on Italy’s highways, has ambitions beyond tolling. Since the mid-2010s, the company has been expanding into adjacent services. In 2017, Telepass launched TelepassPay—a mobile payment... View Details

01 Mar 2006
News

Entrepreneur's Notebook with Paul Conforti and Kim Moore (both MBA '97)

managing call centers for insurance companies but wanted to switch from telephonic to face-to-face service, so I decided to focus on restaurants. I spent the first year at HBS researching the industry and... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; desserteries; Food Services and Drinking Places; Food Services and Drinking Places

12 PM – 1 PM EDT, 05 Oct 2016
Webinars: Trending@HBS

Negotiating the Impossible: Break Deadlocks and Resolve Conflicts (without Money or Muscle)

Some negotiations are easy. Others are more difficult. And then there are situations that seem completely hopeless. Conflict is escalating, people are getting aggressive, and no one is willing to back down. To top it off, you have little power or other resources with... View Details

May 2010 (Revised August 2010)
Case

Breaking the Buck

By: Robert C. Pozen and Elizabeth Leonard

After an incredibly volatile six months since Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, Finbar McCall contemplated his options. As the investment manager of RPG Prime Reserve Fund, Inc. (RPGXX), McCall had just heard the news that the U.S. Treasury was extending the... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Financial Crisis; Financial Management; Insurance; Investment Funds; Business and Government Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Financial Services Industry

10 Sep 2009
News

We Don't Need a Public Option

September 2020
Article

Medicaid Work Requirements in Arkansas: Two-Year Impacts on Coverage, Employment, and Affordability of Care

By: Benjamin D. Sommers, Lucy Chen, Robert J. Blendon, E. John Orav and Arnold M. Epstein

In June 2018 Arkansas became the first U.S. state to implement work requirements in Medicaid, requiring adults ages 30–49 to work twenty hours a week, participate in “community engagement” activities, or qualify for an exemption to maintain coverage. By April 2019,... View Details

Keywords: Medicaid; Health Care Policy; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Policy; Insurance; Health Industry; Arkansas

Find at Harvard

December 2020
Case

Tokio Marine Group (A)

By: David J. Collis, Nobuo Sato and Akiko Kanno

Tokio Marine, Japan's leading insurance company, has spent nearly two decades building a global footprint in different insurance businesses around the world. As the company becomes majority non-domestic it has to make a choice of what organisation structure to adopt to... View Details

Keywords: Organisational Design; Culture; Values; Global Strategy; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Values and Beliefs; Insurance Industry; Japan