Publications

February 2018
Case

Aetna and the Transformation of Health Care

By: Rebecca M. Henderson, Russell Eisenstat and Matthew Preble

Mark Bertolini, chairman and CEO of the health insurer Aetna, faces a number of questions as he seeks to transform Aetna from a classic insurance company into a business that will engage much more deeply with its members around their personal health goals. His strategy... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Insurance; Transformation; Behavior; Leading Change; Strategy; Insurance Industry; Health Industry; United States; Connecticut

February 2017
Case

Clear Channel (A): The Rise, 1972–2003

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

At the end of 2003, Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a diversified media group with revenues of $8.9 billion, could claim leadership positions in all three of its main businesses. Clear Channel Broadcasting was the largest radio-station operator in the world, with... View Details

Keywords: Clear Channel; Clear Channel Outdoor; Radio; Outdoor Advertising; Concert Industry; Lowry Mays; Federal Communications Commission; Regulation; Regulations; Regulatory Environment; JCDecaux; Media; Growth Management; Consolidation; Competitive Strategy; Fair Value Accounting; Advertising; Acquisition; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Growth and Maturation; For-Profit Firms; Entertainment; Music Entertainment; Television Entertainment; Public Equity; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Government Legislation; Business History; Laws and Statutes; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Channels; Industry Structures; Public Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Opportunities; Strategy; Adaptation; Business Strategy; Commercialization; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Diversification; Expansion; Wireless Technology; Valuation; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Advertising Industry; Music Industry; United States; Texas

August 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Accounting for the iPhone Upgrade Program (A)

By: Jonas Heese, Krishna G. Palepu, H. David Sherman and Monica Baraldi

On September 9, 2015, Apple Inc. announced the “iPhone Upgrade Program,” a new way to purchase iPhone models 6s and 6s Plus in Apple’s retail stores throughout the U.S. Next to the strategic implications of the Upgrade Program, financial analysts tried to understand... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Apple Inc.; iPhone 6s; International Accounting; Electronics Industry; California; United States

February 2015 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Winnan Metal: Fulfilling the Dream

By: William R. Kerr, Jim Sharpe and James Weber

Neil Kashyap and Neil Lombardo (HBS '08) acquired Winnan Metal, Inc., a metal fabrication shop, after raising a search fund and an 11 month search to fulfill their dreams of becoming business owners. Two weeks after they took control of the company, Winnan's largest... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurial Management; Turnarounds; Bank Loan; Crisis Management; Financial Analysis; Search Funds; Acquisitions; Financial Capital Needed; Management; Operations Management; Sales; Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Change Management; Manufacturing Industry; United States; Indiana

September 2014
Article

OSHA Inspections Should Be Welcome: Results from a Natural Field Experiment in California

By: David I. Levine and Michael W. Toffel

For companies with strong internal occupational safety and health auditing programs, OSHA inspections might seem a formality that risk uncovering, at most, nitpicky deviations from the thousands of pages of safety regulations. For those with poor safety practices, OSHA... View Details

Keywords: Business and Government Relations; Operations; Safety; Governance Compliance; United States; California

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July 2014 (Revised October 2014)
Case

McKinsey & Co. - Protecting its Reputation (A)

By: Jay Lorsch and Emily McTague

On Tuesday March 15, 2011, all 1,200 global Partners of McKinsey & Co. gathered at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center near Washington, DC for their annual Partners' conference. The atmosphere was tense as Partners, in addition to their normal agenda,... View Details

Keywords: Board; McKinsey; Consulting Firms; Risk; Risk Assessment; Partnerships; Insider Trading; Confidentiality; Personal Investing; Reputation; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Management Practices and Processes; Risk Management; Consulting Industry; United States; California

October 2013 (Revised January 2014)
Supplement

Fred Khosravi and AccessClosure (B)

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Lauren Barley

It was January 2013, and Fred Khosravi, chairman of the board of AccessClosure Inc., wondered what the new year had in store for him and AccessClosure, the company he founded in late 2002. Khosravi was cautiously optimistic—the Mountain View, California-based medical... View Details

Keywords: Medical Devices; Vascular Closure Device; Patent Litigation; Patenting; Biomedical Research; Biotechnology; Biotech; Technological Innovation; Patents; Health Care and Treatment; Biotechnology Industry; United States; California

December 2012 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Lit Motors

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alex Godden

In mid-2012 Lit Motors had created both engineering and design prototypes and conducted initial customer tests on less than $750,000 of investment. Lit Motors' founder, Daniel Kim, had started the company to design and manufacture an efficient electric 2-wheeled... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Prototyping; Electric Vehicle; Urban Vehicle; Customer Tests; Gyroscope; Entrepreneurs; Development Stage Enterprises; Creativity; Disruptive Technologies; Consumer Surveys; Market Segmentation; Manufacturing Costs; Entrepreneurship; Auto Industry; United States; California

July 2012 (Revised August 2012)
Case

Friend Bank: The Time for Hope (Abridged)

By: Clayton Rose and Aldo Sesia

In 2010, Friend Bank was entering the fifth year of Hope Harris Johnson's ambitious 20-year growth plan to transform her family's one-branch community bank into an institution with a substantial presence in southeastern Alabama. Harris Johnson was pleased, so far, with... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Family Business; Strategy And Execution; Banks and Banking; Family Ownership; Financial Institutions; Strategy; Banking Industry; United States; Alabama

2013
Working Paper

Cross-Border Reverse Mergers: Causes and Consequences

By: Jordan Siegel and Yanbo Wang

We study non-U.S. companies that have used reverse mergers as a means to adopt U.S. corporate law (and sometimes U.S. securities law as well). Early adopters of cross-border reverse mergers and those firms that hired a Big Four auditor exhibited superior corporate... View Details

Keywords: Reverse Merger; Corporate Law; Corporate Governance; Nevada; United States

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June 2024
Case

Vinalhaven: The Downtown Project

By: Richard S. Ruback, Matthew Preble, Ruth Page and Dave Habeeb

Vinalhaven is an island community located approximately 12 miles off the coast of Maine. The island has a year-round population of about 1,300 people as of 2022, with an additional 3,000 people who reside on the island in the summer months. The two largest industries... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Environmental Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Natural Resources; Natural Environment; Weather; Sustainable Cities; Forecasting and Prediction; Construction; Property; Infrastructure; Capital Budgeting; Projects; Project Finance; Negotiation; United States; Maine

February 2024
Supplement

Can Cities Beat the Heat? (B7): Milwaukee Climate Action Snapshot

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Coelin P. Scibetta and Jacob A. Small

Climate snapshots provide a summary of climate actions that occurred between 2018 and 2024, highlighting major green initiatives, innovations, carbon mitigation strategy, and action across multiple levels of government and the private sector. Snapshots also provide an... View Details

Keywords: Cities; Climate; Climate Impact; Innovation; Mitigation Policies; Carbon Footprint; Investing; Climate Finance; Mobility; Adaptation; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Problems and Challenges; Sustainable Cities; United States; Wisconsin

February 2021
Case

The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations

By: Mihir Desai, Ruth Page, Suzanne Antoniou and Leanne Fan

How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their descendants, including Representative Regina Goodwin of Tulsa, believe they should be addressed through reparations and have consequently continued to push the government... View Details

27 Jul 2015
Research & Ideas

The ‘Promotion’ That Makes You Feel Bad

Dumas, an assistant professor at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business, describe their findings in the paper Unearned Status Gain: Evidence from a Global Language Mandate, forthcoming in the Academy of Management Journal... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

01 Apr 2002
News

Urban Evolution - HBS Research on the Inner City

After decades of decline, despair, and neglect, the last ten years have brought some preliminary signs of revitalization to a number of inner-city neighborhoods in the United States. Blighted areas such as Chicago's North Side, New York's... View Details

Keywords: Paul Grogan; Peter Tufano; David Crockett; Diana Barrett; Real Estate

01 Dec 2011
News

Reimagining the MBA

first stated mission was to educate leaders who “make a decent profit—decently.” By the early 1990s, the mission was articulated as “educating leaders who make a difference in the world.” What it means to educate leaders has evolved over... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; FIELD program; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

July 2019 (Revised November 2022)
Case

Backstage at Boston Ballet

By: David G. Fubini, Ryan Raffaelli, Begum Agca Okutgen and Julia Kelley

This case asks students to consider how to prioritize goals when placed in a new leadership role. In August 2014, Meredith “Max” Hodges became the youngest Executive Director (ED) in the Boston Ballet’s 51-year history. In her first year, she was able to claim several... View Details

December 2019
Case

Walmart Ecommerce (A): Picking up the Pace

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case is an abridged version (part 1 of 2) of "Walmart's Omnichannel Strategy: Revolution or Miscalculation?" HBS Case No. 720-370. The (A) case discusses Walmart's early forays into online retail, as well as improvements made under Doug McMillon beginning in 2014.... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Strategy; Internet and the Web; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Competitive Strategy; Retail Industry; Bentonville; Arkansas; United States