Publications

Article

A Head Start on Succession

By: Joseph L. Bower

Our studies of CEO succession over the past several years have shown some improvements in the trends in CEO turnover, often resulting from outside pressures for improved oversight and better corporate governance. The next step in improving CEO succession—and ultimately... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leadership Development; Management Practices and Processes; Management Succession; Management Teams; Business and Shareholder Relations

Find at Harvard

2007
Working Paper

The Impact of Shareholder Activism on Financial Reporting and Compensation: The Case of Employee Stock Options Expensing

By: Fabrizio Ferri and Tatiana Sandino

In this paper we examine the economic consequences of over 150 shareholder proposals to expense employee stock options (ESO) submitted during the proxy seasons of 2003 and 2004–the first case where the SEC has allowed an accounting matter to be subject to an advisory... View Details

Keywords: Executive Compensation; Financial Reporting; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Corporate Governance; Investment Activism; Business and Shareholder Relations

May 2019
Case

Elon Musk's Big Bets Update, 2019

By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

This short case provides an update to Elon Musk's strategy and tactical moves with Tesla, Solar City, and SpaceX from 2016-2019. View Details

August 1998
Case

Record Masters

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz

Kent Dauten, a former general partner at the Chicago private equity firm of Madison Dearborn Partners, has engaged in a search to personally sponsor a buyout in which he can play an active management role. He has received a selling memorandum for Record Masters, a... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Leveraged Buyouts; Valuation; Negotiation Deal; Investment

March 1995 (Revised December 1995)
Case

Dividend Policy at FPL Group, Inc. (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Craig F Schreiber

A Wall Street analyst has just learned that FPL (the holding company for Florida's largest electric utility) may cut its dividend in several days despite a 47-year streak of consecutive dividend increases. In response to the deregulation of the electric utility... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Corporate Strategy; Policy; Competitive Strategy; Financial Strategy; Fluctuation; Energy Sources; Emerging Markets; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; Florida

February 2023 (Revised February 2025)
Case

Doing Business in Nairobi, Kenya

By: Archie L. Jones, Leonard A. Schlesinger, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Kuria Kamau

This case examines the challenges and opportunities of doing business in Nairobi, Kenya. It highlights Kenya's economic transformation in the decades leading up to 2024 in the context of its history, culture, and politics. The case gives an overview of some of the main... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business and Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Foreign Direct Investment; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; Kenya; Nairobi; Africa

August 2001 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Surface Logix

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Michael J. Roberts and Kim Slack

Describes a start-up in the field of nano technology--very small physical structures measured in the billionths of a meter. The company, Surface Logix, has assembled a portfolio of intellectual property and completed some of the R&D work required to develop actual... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Research and Development; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Product Development; Intellectual Property; Investment Portfolio

22 Oct 2012
Research & Ideas

Not Your Father’s State-Run Capitalism

companies operate and how government invests in them. And yet, the business world has been slow to catch up to these changes, says Associate Professor Aldo Musacchio, a member of the Business, Government, and the International Economy... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

16 Mar 2023
Blog Post

HySynergy and Crossbridge Energy

Production immersive field course, we met with the HySynergy-Crossbridge Energy partnership that was created to produce liquid e-fuels in Fredericia, Denmark. Many of the companies we visited in Denmark and the Netherlands emphasized View Details

01 Dec 2000
News

Vivek Ranadivé

software bus and plug applications into that." As simple as it sounds, this insight had a dramatic impact on the financial services institutions that were among Ranadivé's first customers. (TIBCO is an acronym for The Information Bus Company.)In 1985, View Details

Web

Financing New Ideas - Georges F. Doriot : Educating Leaders, Building Companies, Baker Library, Harvard Business School

Library Visionary, Innovator, Educator I n 1960, ARD invested $3.6 million in 18 companies and, by 1961, the firm became the first venture capital firm with shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In the article "Scientific... View Details

26 Jan 2021
News

Clubs See Wealth in FemTech; Health Care Alumni Look at COVID Response

Clubs News Clubs News Club Webinars Explore Untapped Potential of FemTech The HBS Women’s Association of Greater New York (HBSWANY), and the HBS Association of Northern California (HBSANC) each hosted a virtual panel discussion last month exploring the overlooked View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

August 1999 (Revised January 2002)
Case

Brita Products Company, The

By: John A. Deighton

Clorox's Brita skillfully exploits a tide of water safety concerns, growing a home water (filtration) business from inception to a 15% U.S. household penetration in ten years. The dilemma in the case arises as the period of increasing returns seems to be drawing to a... View Details

Keywords: Customer Value and Value Chain; Acquisition; Retention; Safety; Natural Environment; Emerging Markets; Investment Return; Equity; Demand and Consumers; United States

25 Apr 2014
News

Harnessing for-profit strategies for social good

experience to her current position as chief investment officer at ImpactAssets, a $120 million donor-advised fund that invests capital for social and environmental impact through public and private debt and... View Details

April 2006 (Revised October 2006)
Case

Chrysanthemum and Dragon: JAFCO Asia in China

By: Rawi E. Abdelal and David Lane

In the autumn of 2002, JAFCO Asia, a subsidiary of JAFCO Co., Ltd., became the first foreign private equity firm to open an office in Beijing's Haidian Science Park. JAFCO was the only Japanese private equity firm operating in China. As such, Managing Director Vincent... View Details

Keywords: History; International Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Government Relations; Expansion; Market Entry and Exit; Performance Effectiveness; Foreign Direct Investment; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry; China; Beijing; Japan

August 2001 (Revised March 2008)
Supplement

Kirk Arnold

By: Nitin Nohria and Alan Price

Supplements NerveWire, Inc. View Details

Keywords: Recruitment; Value; Mission and Purpose; Partners and Partnerships; Business Model; Customer Value and Value Chain; Investment Return; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Problems and Challenges; Consulting Industry; Newton