Publications

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01 Jun 2024
News

Crash Pad

2023, according to the property data firm CoStar, with another 200 in the planning stages. Policymakers have greeted the trend with enthusiasm, as it seems to offer a single solution to twin real estate... View Details

Keywords: Amy Crawford; illustrations by Kathleen Fu; building coversion; housing crisis; innovation; real estate; Real Estate

July 2024
Case

RMZ 4.0: 'How Fast Do We Want to Run?'

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

In 2023, RMZ Corporation (“RMZ”) a large family-owned real estate firm based in Bengaluru, India, announced plans to transform from a commercial real estate developer to a diversified alternative asset owner. Over the next 5 years, RMZ looked to grow its real estate... View Details

Keywords: International Expansion; Growth Management; Family Business; Talent and Talent Management; Goals and Objectives; Transformation; Growth and Development Strategy; Diversification; Change Management; Global Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Real Estate Industry; India

November 2003 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Ottawa Devices, Inc. (A)

By: Henry B. Reiling and Harry Clegg Midgley IV

A master plan accommodating two retiring brothers, the brother who will remain as president, third-generation family members, employees, philanthropic interests, and company imperatives must be developed by second-generation brothers who are controlling shareholders... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Change Management; Transition; Management Succession; Management Teams; Retirement; Conflict of Interests

October 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

MDH Partners: Evolving a Family Legacy

By: Christina R. Wing and Sarah Mehta

This case is about succession planning for MDH Partners, an Atlanta-based industrial real estate investment firm founded in 2005. When Jeffrey Small, Jr. cofounded MDH Partners, he named the company in honor of his grandfather, Mark Durward (MD) Hodges, an early... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business Ventures; Ownership; Business Exit or Shutdown; Family Business; Management Succession; Personal Development and Career; Real Estate Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States; Georgia (state, US); Atlanta

July 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Formosa Plastics Group: Business Continuity Forever

Wang Yung-ching, legendary Taiwanese businessman and philanthropist, passed away in 2008. He left behind an estate worth US $5.5 billion, but did not leave a will. The case discusses the potential motivation for Wang, and uses it to study succession planning for family... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Governance Controls; Management Succession; Family Ownership; Planning; Motivation and Incentives; Chemical Industry; Taiwan

September 2018
Supplement

From Beirut With Love (B): The Last Judgment

By: Christina R. Wing, Esel Y. Cekin and Samer Al-Rachedy

January 2010
Case

Five and Six Dulles Station

By: Arthur I Segel

Cricket Real Estate Advisors needs to decide if they should invest in a proposed joint venture development with Buddy Holly & Associates. Holly is a successful northern Virginia office developer who plans to develop two buildings containing 232,750 rentable square... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Joint Ventures; Markets; Accounting Audits; International Finance; Agreements and Arrangements; Change; Strategic Planning; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Financial Management; Real Estate Industry

09 Mar 2021
Cold Call Podcast

A Family Business at a Crossroads: Scaling and Succession

Keywords: Re: Christina R. Wing; Real Estate

01 Nov 2019
Video

Jaithirth Rao

Jerry Rao, serial entrepreneur and founder of the India-based real estate company Value and Budget Housing Corporation, says that his company avoids corrupt payments, especially because it plans an IPO in the... View Details

20 Jul 2017
News

The Looming Threat That Could Decimate Wall Street's Fund Managers

Profile

Frank Spencer

know the details of the plan. You just have to be willing to participate with others in the work." "Real estate is the thread that's run through my career," adds Spencer, who most recently served as president of Cogdell... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Real Estate

February 2010 (Revised May 2010)
Supplement

Bardhaman (B): Bengal Shrachi and the Township Design Decision

By: John D. Macomber and Viraal Balsari

A real estate developer in West Bengal chooses between two master plans for a 260 acre new township considering design, financing, and phasing. Two detailed master plans are considered, one with a radial design and an internal town square and one with a grid design and... View Details

Keywords: Urban Development; Construction; Design; Finance; Real Estate Industry; Real Estate Industry; West Bengal

CAMILLE J. DOUGLAS is a Lecturer at Harvard Business School and a Lecturer and Senior Fellow at Harvard University Graduate School of Design in their inaugural Master of Real Estate (MRE) degree program. She was an Adjunct Professor in Finance and... View Details

August 2008 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Polanco: A Fashionable Opportunity

By: Arthur I Segel and Ben Creo

Roberto Charvel is a young MBA graduate making his first personal real estate investment in his native Mexico City. Charvel is planning to purchase and renovate a nine-unit apartment building. Is the market good? Should he sell or lease the units? How should he handle... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Housing; Leasing; Property; Real Estate Industry; Mexico City

May 2021
Teaching Plan

Gera Developments: Leadership at a Crossroads

By: Christina R. Wing and John Masko

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 621-018. For decades, Gera Developments (Gera) was a boutique family-owned real estate development firm in Pune, India. But since 2000, managing director Rohit Gera had turned the company into a dynamic innovator in housing solutions for... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Construction; Geographic Location; Global Strategy; Globalized Firms and Management; Housing; Leadership Style; Management Succession; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Family Ownership; Family and Family Relationships; Urban Development; Customization and Personalization; Real Estate Industry; Maharashtra; India; San Francisco

March 1994 (Revised April 1994)
Case

Marriott Corporation - Restructuring

Deals with the decision of whether to split Marriott into two companies Marriott International and Host Marriott. Marriott has run into problems owing to the decline in real estate valuation. At the time of the case, it has a significant percentage of assets in hotels... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Ethics; Accommodations Industry

June 2011 (Revised June 2013)
Case

Sino-Ocean Land: Responding to Change

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas, Jeffrey Hu and Runjiao Xu

In 2010, Sino-Ocean Land Holdings Limited was a highly successful, large real estate developer based in Beijing, China. Sino-Ocean Land had three main business segments—property development, property investment/management, and other real estate related businesses. From... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Diversification; Property; Policy; State Ownership; Business Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Real Estate Industry; Beijing

February 2008 (Revised September 2009)
Case

Lance Johnstone: Developing 3000 North Broad

The case focuses on Lance Johnstone, a former NFL player, who has dabbled in real estate development during his playing career, and now, as a retired player, is trying to pursue the development of a 10-unit rental apartment building in a depressed area of Philadelphia,... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Development Economics; Construction; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Investment Return; Urban Development; Real Estate Industry; Philadelphia