Publications

November 2010 (Revised December 2011)
Supplement

Oriflame S.A. (C)

By: David F. Hawkins and Karol Misztal

Notes from Oriflame's 2009 annual report relevant to the assessment of the monetary impact of Oriflame's FX risk management actions. View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; International Accounting; Currency Exchange Rate; Annual Reports; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Risk Management; Standards; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

January 2021
Case

The Risk organization at SEB, a leading Nordic financial services group founded in 1856, undertook a culture change program focused on psychological safety, empathic listening, and strategic framing. The program enabled risk organization teams to make progress on... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Risk Management; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Decision Making; Banking Industry; Sweden

06 Dec 2010
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Doing Business in Emerging Markets

Sharpening Your Skills dives into the HBS Working Knowledge archives to bring together articles on ways to improve your business skills. Questions To Be Answered: How do I identify opportunities in emerging markets? How important are relations with the host country?... View Details

2014
Working Paper

Private Equity's Diversification Illusion: Economic Comovement and Fair Value Reporting

By: Kyle Travis Welch

This study examines how accounting has informed private equity diversification claims and demand for private equity investments. Despite research showing private equity lacks portfolio diversification benefits, those marketing private equity assets continue to... View Details

SSRN

12 Mar 2024
Research & Ideas

Publish or Perish: What the Research Says About Productivity in Academia

research post-tenure. Encouraging researchers to take more risks The researchers also questioned professors’ personal appetites for risk-taking, hoping to gain answers to the age-old question: How do you get scientists to take more risks?... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Education

03 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Layoffs Can Be Bad Business: 5 Strategies to Consider Before Cutting Staff

have to be this way. “If companies I know and admire are doing this, it can’t be that bad, or else they wouldn’t do it.” Layoffs are an example of “hope triumphing over science,” says Sandra Sucher, the MBA Class of 1966 Professor of View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Telecommunications; Technology; Financial Services; Manufacturing

February 1999 (Revised August 2000)
Case

InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets

Examines InterGen's breakthrough Quezon power project, located in the Philippines. Explores how InterGen evaluates and manages project risk through partner selection, the use of operating contracts, and project finance techniques. View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Emerging Markets; Infrastructure; Utilities Industry; Philippines

October 1994 (Revised November 1994)
Case

Alcoma: The Strategic Use of Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice Futures

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Phil Herndon and Katherine L. Morris

Increases in orange tree production led to an orange juice surplus. How does one manage price risk in the orange juice industry under these conditions? View Details

Keywords: Hedging; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Price; Risk Management; Futures and Commodity Futures; Food and Beverage Industry

12 Nov 2015
News

Airbnb Pledges to Work With Cities and Pay ‘Fair Share’ of Taxes

March–April 2017
Article

Advancing Conservation by Understanding and Influencing Human Behavior

By: Sheila M. Reddy, Jensen Montambault, Yuta J. Masuda, Ayelet Gneezy, Elizabeth Keenan, William Butler, Jonathan R. Fisher and Stanley T. Asah

Behavioral sciences can advance conservation by systematically identifying behavioral barriers to conservation and how to best overcome them. Behavioral sciences have informed policy in many other realms (e.g., health, savings), but they are a largely untapped resource... View Details

Keywords: Adaptive Management; Awareness; Behavioral Economics; Behavioral Science; Conservation Intervention; Conservation Planning; Decision-making; Incentives; Nudge; Management; Motivation and Incentives; Behavior; Marketing; Decision Making; Environmental Sustainability; Economics

Read Now

November 2016 (Revised December 2016)
Module Note

Strategy Execution Module 7: Designing Asset Allocation Systems

By: Robert Simons

This module reading provides tools and analyses for acquiring and allocating resources. The module begins by reviewing the importance of setting strategic boundaries as a basis for asset acquisitions. Next, a distinction is made between new assets acquired to meet... View Details

Keywords: Management Control Systems; Implementing Strategy; Execution; Asset Allocation Systems; Payback; Discounted Cash Flow; Internal Rate Of Return; Strategic Investments; Analyzing Acquisitions; Strategy; Capital Budgeting

October 1998 (Revised April 2000)
Background Note

Complexity and Error in Medicine

By: Richard M.J. Bohmer

Reviews the issues underlying the rate of error in medical practice and discusses the range of potential management interventions to decrease the risk of error. View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Management Practices and Processes; Risk and Uncertainty; Complexity

Article

Lessons From Hollywood: A New Approach To Funding R&D

By: Gary P. Pisano and Andrew W. Lo

Companies find it increasingly difficult to justify long-term, risky R&D investments—particularly in science-based fields such as biotechnology, advanced materials, and energy. We argue in this article that the traditional venture model has limits for such investments... View Details

Keywords: Financial Innovation; Financial Strategy; Project Management; R＆D; Start-up; Innovation Strategy; Business Model; Research and Development; Financial Management; Risk Management; Strategy

Find at Harvard

March 2019
Case

Mahindra Finance

By: V.G. Narayanan and Tanvi Deshpande

Mahindra Finance is a non-banking lender operating mainly in the rural and semi-urban areas of India. Set up in 1991, the company had grown to become a market leader with assets of $8.5 billion and a presence in 3,30,000 villages across India. Since most of Mahindra's... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Business Model; Volatility; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Credit; Financing and Loans; Service Delivery; Risk and Uncertainty; Financial Services Industry; India

09 Aug 2018
News

Two Million Fake Accounts: Sales Misconduct at Wells Fargo

January 2008
Background Note

Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs)

By: Joshua Coval and Erik Stafford

This lesson integrated Merton's (1974) contingent claims model of debt and equity claims with the CAPM, which allows us to examine the risks and pricing of credit portfolios and the derivative claims issued against them. In particular, this model is used to make... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Borrowing and Debt; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Investment Portfolio; Risk Management

April 1998 (Revised May 2000)
Case

Guidant Corporation: Shaping Culture Through Systems

By: Robert L. Simons and Antonio Davila

Guidant is a successful IPO start-up selling pacemakers and defibrillators. The case describes how managers install systems to balance innovation and control. Three parts of a shareholder value strategy are described. Controls include incentive systems, beliefs... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Motivation and Incentives; Planning; Risk Management; Management Systems; Business Strategy; Value Creation; System; Service Industry; Financial Services Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

18 Dec 2007
First Look

First Look: December 18, 2007

a social loss function. Purchase the paper from SSRN.com ($5): http://papers.nber.org/papers/w13622 New Framework for Measuring and Managing Macrofinancial Risk and Financial Stability Authors:Dale F. Gray,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2009 (Revised June 2009)
Case

iPremier (A): Denial of Service Attack (Graphic Novel Version)

By: Richard Nolan, Robert D. Austin and Michael Parent

Describes an IT security crisis, and raises issues of risk management, preparation for crisis, management of crises, computer security, and public disclosure of security risks. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Crisis Management