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The University of Chicago Press November 2015.

Prudent, verifiable, and timely corporate accounting is a bedrock of our modern capitalist system. In recent years, however, the rules that govern corporate accounting have been subtly changed in... View Details

October 2007 (Revised January 2009)
Case

The Hertz Corporation (A)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Douglas Scott

Examines the leveraged buyout of Hertz in 2005, a complex, high-profile deal and a good example of cutting-edge practice in private equity. The first of a two-part series on the Hertz LBO, adopts the perspective of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the leader of a private... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Private Equity; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Deal; Valuation; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry; United States

May 2007 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Ernesto Tornquist: Making a Fortune on the Pampas

By: Geoffrey Jones and Andrea Lluch

Examines the career of Ernesto Tornquist, a cosmopolitan financier considered to be the most significant entrepreneur in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. Tornquist created a diversified business group, linked to the political elite, which integrated Argentina... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Development Economics; Partners and Partnerships; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Trade; Globalized Markets and Industries; Economy; Performance; Argentina

February 2015 (Revised April 2016)
Supplement

Quincy Apparel (B)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lisa C. Mazzanti

The (B) case provides post-mortem analysis from Quincy's cofounders on why their startup failed and what they could have done differently. Explanations for failure focus on Quincy's ambitious value proposition and resulting operational challenges; cofounder conflict;... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Online Retail; Women's Apparel; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

10 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

How to Get Companies to Make Investments That Benefit Everyone

Regulators often punish companies for bad behavior—for instance, by fining them if they pollute the environment. But instead of focusing on what business leaders are doing wrong and constantly slapping their hands, government officials... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

04 Oct 2019
Blog Post

Finding My Passion in the Startup Space

Business Operations for Blueground, one of the few bright exceptions, working between our New York headquarters and our offices in Athens. Finding your career passion is a trial and error process. People say “follow your passion” but this... View Details

2024
Working Paper

The Golden Revolving Door

By: Ling Cen, Lauren Cohen, Jing Wu and Fan Zhang

Using both the onset of the US-China trade war in 2018 and the most recent Russia-Ukraine war and associated trade tensions, we show a counterintuitive pattern in global trade. Namely, while the average firm trading with these nations significantly decreases their... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Business and Government Relations; International Relations

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06 Jun 2005
What Do You Think?

Is a “Level Playing Field” a Good Thing?

governments should stop the natural market dynamics, but . . . countries should (not) use the term 'level playing field' as an excuse for exploitation." Paul Jackson points out that "In this country [the United States], let... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

Web

Capturing & Disseminating Video/Photography During Course Activities | About

Capturing & Disseminating Video/Photography During Course Activities Please note: All classroom recordings are owned by HBS, with copyright to the recordings belong to the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The case and field methods, the hallmark pedagogies of... View Details

02 Aug 2020
What Do You Think?

Is the 'Experimentation Organization' Becoming the Competitive Gold Standard?

would be interesting , he continued, to examine sectors other than technology “for their natural tendencies and what drives such culture and procedural traits.” Joe noted that some of the principles of experiment design provide “a piece of View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Technology

10 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 10

paper investigates the role of the CRO in making these transformations happen. The two cases highlight that the role of the CRO may be less about the packaging and marketing of risk management ideas to View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 29

issue facing firms, that the business press has outlined a recurring set of prescriptive advice about the topic to practitioners, and why (despite its recurring nature) that advice seems to have limited usefulness. The chapter then... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2004 (Revised January 2005)
Case

IBM: Ordering Midrange Computers in Europe

IBM Europe is trying to expand business-to-business (B2B) efforts with its large distributors of midrange systems. These efforts aim to automate many transactions and business processes, removing the need for human involvement. IBM has completed an initial project with... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Marketing Channels; Distribution Channels; Information Technology Industry; Computer Industry; Germany; United States

24 Sep 2013
First Look

First Look: September 24

Earnings Call By: Eccles, Robert G., and George Serafeim Abstract—One of the challenges companies claim to face in making sustainability a core part of their strategy and operations is that the market does not care about sustainability,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2008
Casebook

The Rules of Globalization: Case Book

By: Rawi Abdelal

This is a book about the politics of the global economy — about how firms prosper by understanding those politics, or fail by misunderstanding them. Understanding the politics of globalization may once have been a luxury; it is now, for most high-level managers, simply... View Details

Keywords: Trade; International Finance; Globalized Economies and Regions; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Government and Politics; Business and Government Relations

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September 2022
Background Note

On CUE: The Quest for Optimal Customer Unit Economics

By: Elie Ofek, Barak Libai and Eitan Muller

Startups are often evaluated by how well they perform on unit economics, defined as the ratio of a customer’s lifetime value (LTV) to acquisition costs (CAC). A common target for unit economics, advocated by many VCs and analysts, is 3:1 (i.e., LTV/CAC=3). While there... View Details

Keywords: Unit Economics; Business Startups; Performance Evaluation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Customer Relationship Management; Analysis