Corporate Profits - Publications - Faculty & Research

17 Apr 2022
Book

How to Avoid the 'Ethical Slide' That Leads Companies Astray

Good ethical practices don’t just happen; everyone within a corporation has to continuously work on them. “People are not always comfortable talking about ethics,” Nelson says. “Some have been dismissing ethics as, ‘I don’t have to think... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

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HBS Entrepreneurship Summit - Alumni

Jr. Professor of Business Administration Fireside Chat: Pathways to Profitability Thomas R. Eisenmann (MBA 1983, DBA 1998), Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration Jenn Hyman (MBA 2009), Rent the Runway 5:45–9:00 p.m.... View Details

September 2023
Teaching Note

Roche: ESG and Access to Healthcare

By: George Serafeim

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 123-075. In May 2022, Roche Group, one of the largest healthcare companies in the world, hosted its first ESG investor event focused exclusively on its efforts to impact access to healthcare. While Roche had recently set an ambitious goal... View Details

Keywords: ESG; Access To Care; Healthcare; Healthcare Access; Innovation; Social Impact; Affordable; Health Care and Treatment; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Resource Allocation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Health Industry

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15 Jul 2019
Book

Many Executives Are Afraid of Finance. Here's How They Can Gain Confidence

researches tax policy, international finance, and corporate finance. The book grew out of his efforts to make finance more accessible through executive education teaching and his online course Leading with Finance. His previous book, The... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

18 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

Hazard Warning: The Unacceptable Cost of Toxic Workers

good corporate citizen at the end of the day, not only do they make it a nicer place to work, but they also help the profitability of the firm compared to those who are at the other extreme,” says Minor,... View Details

Keywords: by Roberta Holland

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Environmental Quality - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

impact profitability and its relationship to sustainable practices. Publications & Resources Jun 2010 Chair’s Paper The Porter Hypothesis at 20: Can Environmental Regulation Enhance Innovation & Competitiveness? by Stefan Ambec, Mark A.... View Details

28 Aug 2012
First Look

First Look: August 28

M. Perkins, and Mark Weick Publication: Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 24, no. 2 (spring 2012) Abstract Dow Chemical Company, which was founded in 1894, is now the second‐largest chemical company in the world. From the outset, the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2016
Case

The Quiet Ascension of LA Fitness

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In 2016, LA Fitness was the largest chain of non-franchised fitness clubs in North America, operating 676 clubs, serving 4.9 million members, and generating revenues of over $1.9 billion. Founded by Chinyol Yi, Louis Welch, and Paul Norris in 1984, the privately held... View Details

Keywords: LA Fitness; Health Clubs; Fitness; Gyms; Chain; Exercise; Personal Training; Retention; Bally Total Fitness; 24 Hour Fitness; Planet Fitness; Buildings and Facilities; Acquisition; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; For-Profit Firms; Customers; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Satisfaction; Demographics; Age; Gender; Income; Residency; Borrowing and Debt; Capital; Capital Structure; Cash; Cash Flow; Cost; Private Equity; Financial Condition; Financial Liquidity; Financing and Loans; Investment Return; Price; Profit; Revenue; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Multinational Firms and Management; Business History; Employees; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Capital; Contracts; Business or Company Management; Goals and Objectives; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Operations; Service Operations; Leasing; Private Ownership; Problems and Challenges; Sales; Salesforce Management; Situation or Environment; Opportunities; Sports; Strategy; Business Strategy; Competition; Competitive Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Segmentation; Information Technology; Mobile Technology; Technology Platform; Health Industry; United States; California; Los Angeles

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26 Nov 2007
Research & Ideas

Best Practices of Global Innovators

partners through revenue and profit sharing, while hedging risk by asking them to absorb a portion of development costs. The final principle that emerged in our work is the need to invest in building collaborative capabilities. Many... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

06 Feb 2020
Research & Ideas

What We Learned from Reading Jeff Bezos’ Patents

time breaking through the corporate shields that Bezos has erected. (A former analyst recalled to us that on a trip to the company, she saw the World War II slogan “Loose Lips Sink Ships” on a bathroom wall.) So we wondered if there... View Details

Keywords: by Tricia Gregg and Boris Groysberg; Retail

08 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Seven Negotiation Lessons from Amazon's HQ Disaster in Queens

New York offered to entice Amazon. This quickly became an albatross: Why did Amazon, whose value briefly exceeded a trillion dollars, headed by the world’s wealthiest man, need such incentives? (It didn’t help that Amazon paid no federal taxes on its $11.2 billion... View Details

Keywords: by James K. Sebenius; Real Estate; Construction

07 Jul 2003
Research & Ideas

4+2 = Sustained Business Success

compared to Kmart. (The other companies in their quad were Target and the Limited.) Both companies were in roughly the same financial shape in 1986, but Dollar General grew steadily, showing healthy profits year after year. Meanwhile,... View Details

Keywords: by Nitin Nohria, William Joyce & Bruce Roberson

January 2017 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Royal DSM: From Continuous Transformation to Organic Growth

By: William W. George, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Amram Migdal

Royal DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma was pondering the challenges of shifting DSM’s global organization from the constant transformations of the past 100 years to creating organic growth. When Sijbesma took the helm as CEO in 2007, he further pushed and completed the company’s... View Details

Keywords: Organic Growth; Organizational Change; M＆A; Mergers And Acquisitions; Divestment; Business Ventures; Business Divisions; Business Growth and Maturation; Restructuring; Change; Change Management; Transformation; Transition; Engineering; Chemicals; Mining; Ethics; Values and Beliefs; Finance; Capital Markets; Financial Markets; Food; Globalization; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Health; Nutrition; History; Leadership; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Leading Change; Management; Business or Company Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Management Practices and Processes; Management Style; Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Ownership; Public Ownership; Performance; Strategy; Adaptation; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Value; Value Creation; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Mining Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Europe; Netherlands

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Investment Banking & Securities Underwriting | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Skip to Main Content Lehman Brothers Collection Resources Baker Library Collections Corporate Reports Collection R. G. Dun & Co. Credit Reports HBS Cases Baker Old Class Collection Related Archival Collections Bibliography Site Credits... View Details

21 Nov 2006
First Look

First Look: November 21, 2006

Garry Twite Abstract U.S. corporations hold significant amounts of cash on their balance sheets, and these cash holdings have been justified in the existing empirical literature by transaction costs and precautionary motives. An... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 May 2020
Research & Ideas

China Tariffs and Coronavirus a Double Hit to American Retailers

however, that mostly absorbed the higher prices caused by the ongoing trade war. While last year’s corporate tax cuts helped to soften the blow, those tariffs have continued to cut into their profit margins.... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

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Research - Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

government-introduced business lending and corporate bond purchase programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast to the classic lender-of-last-resort thinking, the authors argue that an effective policy response to the... View Details

20 Dec 2010
Research & Ideas

Panama Canal: Troubled History, Astounding Turnaround

sustain his regime and transform Panamanian society; Noriega continued it in order to destroy anyone who threatened his control over the profits from corruption and cocaine. Once the United States removed Noriega through the brute... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Transportation

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Leadership Transitions | Baker Library | Bloomberg Center | Harvard Business School

Skip to Main Content Lehman Brothers Collection Resources Baker Library Collections Corporate Reports Collection R. G. Dun & Co. Credit Reports HBS Cases Baker Old Class Collection Related Archival Collections Bibliography Site Credits... View Details

March 2016 (Revised May 2018)
Case

Reinventing Best Buy

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

On March 1, 2017, Best Buy Company, Inc., North America’s largest retailer of consumer electronics and appliances, announced a third year of comparable-store sales increases and a 20.8% increase in domestic comparable online sales. These results were in marked contrast... View Details