Publications

20 Jan 2015
First Look

First Look: January 20

when the costs of financing a reorganization are greater than financing costs to a potential acquirer. Consistent with a senior creditor liquidation bias, the greater use View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 1987 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Baker Precision Instruments, Inc.

By: Ramchandran Jaikumar, Roy Shapiro, Donald Rosenfield and Kathryn E. Stecke

A rapidly growing machine parts manufacturer is trying to decide whether to acquire an advanced Flexible Manufacturing System or Systems. The selection decisions must address the impact of new technology, the effect of setup times on production planning and capacity,... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Cost vs Benefits; Machinery and Machining; Production; Decision Choices and Conditions; Management Systems; Manufacturing Industry; Industrial Products Industry

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15 Dec 2020
Blog Post

MBA Voices Blog: A Year in Review

entrepreneurial community at HBS, but co-founders as well. I spoke with alumni who were part of the Venture Capital and Private Equity (VCPE) club, and others who were Rock Center Partners. A colleague at... View Details

11 Sep 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, September 11, 2018

for a broad array of service domains where operations are hidden and levels of consumer trust and engagement are faltering. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=45842... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

07 Aug 2007
First Look

First Look: August 7, 2007

that both effects are operative. Instrumental variables analysis indicates that plausibly exogenous changes in payout policy result in shifting institutional ownership patterns. Similarly, exogenous changes in the tax code indicate that as the tax View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

26 Feb 2008
First Look

First Look: February 26, 2008

order to smooth earnings (Graham, Harvey and Rajgopal, 2005). We estimate that marketing actions can be used to boost quarterly net income by up to 20% depending on the depth of promotion. But there is a price to pay, with the View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 1986
Case

Premier Furniture Co.

By: Thomas R. Piper

A credit analyst for a furniture manufacturer is confronted with two customers who have exceeded their credit limits. The financial performance of each has been weak, and one of the customers has a highly leveraged balance sheet. Industry conditions are weak; the... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Financial Statements; Credit; Sales; Manufacturing Industry

13 Nov 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, November 13, 2018

to then cover their positions once asset prices start recovering. Predation leads to profits of about 25 basis points over ten days and increases the liquidation costs for the distressed fund by 40%. These... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

December 2012
Case

Coca-Cola: Residual Income Valuation

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Beiting Cheng and Edward J. Riedl

The case illustrates the use of the residual income (also known as the abnormal earnings) valuation approach. Students are asked to provide a valuation of Coca-Cola Company using the residual income valuation methodology and understand how it maps into the discounted... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Valuation; Financial Statements; Equity; Food and Beverage Industry

01 Dec 2013
News

Curing Health Care

every time," Tecco notes. "It's a great example of using technology to reduce costs and save time." Musing on the risk-reward equation of launching a start-up in the digital... View Details

Keywords: Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance; Management; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

December 2009
Case

Milliway Capital & Martin Smith: November 2008

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Ann Leamon

Martin Smith, a recent MBA graduate, has just joined a top-tier venture capital firm in the difficult environment of late 2008. One of his first assignments is to review three companies in a partner's portfolio and recommend strategies for managing them. In addition,... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Financial Management; Private Equity; Business Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Venture Capital; Business or Company Management

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26 Jan 2016
First Look

January 26, 2016

highly consistent with that of the pre-fee aggregate private equity index. The passive replicating strategy represents an economically large improvement in risk- and liquidity-adjusted returns over direct... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 1999 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Workplace Safety at Alcoa (B)

At the May 1996 annual shareholders meeting, Alcoa CEO Paul O'Neill reported that Alcoa was making great progress toward becoming a world-class leader, both in terms of workplace safety and profitability. This validated of O'Neill's decade-long emphasis on safety as... View Details

Keywords: Safety; Working Conditions; Quality; Cost; Profit; Management Systems

03 Feb 2021
Blog Post

Faculty Spotlight: Professor Jurgen Weiss

potentially make electric cars more common and faster than we thought. Can you walk me through it? Jurgen Weiss: Companies like Amazon or FedEx or UPS that own all the delivery trucks look much more closely at the total cost View Details

September 1989
Background Note

Performance Curves: Costs, Prices, and Value

By: Robert J. Dolan and Benson P. Shapiro

Explains the concept of a family of performance curves. The most well known is the price/performance curve relating the prices of items in a product line to their performance. Also discusses the cost/performance curve and its impact on product positioning, product line... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Price; Product Positioning; Performance; Competition; Value

February 2010 (Revised June 2014)
Supplement

CityCenter (D): Financial Crisis, Grand Opening, and a New Paradigm

By: John D. Macomber and Griffin James

"CityCenter (D)" follows the (A), (B), and (C) cases with subsequent chronological events through CityCenter's grand opening in December 2009 and financial results through March 2010. The case includes a simple valuation exercise intended to explore CEO Jim Murren's... View Details

Keywords: Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Private Equity; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Nevada; New Jersey

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

What It Takes to Restore Trust in Business

percent of American households owned equities in some form or another. By 2002, the figure for households had rocketed to 49.5 percent. Among single people in 1983, 42 percent held equities, while in 2002,... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

March 2017 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Corey Thomas and the IPO

By: Steven Rogers and Derrick Collins

Corey Thomas, the African American CEO of the company Rapid7, must decide if it is the right time to take the 15-year-old company public, as it stood poised to capitalize on what appeared to be the next frontier for digital technology markets—cybersecurity. In spite of... View Details

Keywords: Business Finance; Capital Markets; Private Equity; Internet and the Web; Initial Public Offering; Decision Making; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; United States

January 1989 (Revised September 1995)
Case

MSDI-Alcala de Henares, Spain

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Merck & Co., Inc. is evaluating a proposed cost-saving investment by its Spanish subsidiary. The case introduces techniques of discounted cash flow valuation analysis in a multicurrency setting. Can be used to teach basic international parity conditions as they relate... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Cash Flow; Cost Management; Currency; Investment; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Valuation; Spain