Publications

18 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 18, 2008

because venture capitalists repeatedly sell their portfolio companies through acquisitions, venture capitalists may be able to certify the quality of the assets that an outside party is buying because they are "staking their... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

30 Sep 2014
First Look

First Look: September 30

enterprise in management and organization research, the lack of a cohesive knowledge base in this area is concerning. In this chapter, we propose that the underdevelopment of the attendant research infrastructure is an important, but... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

November 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman

By: Anthony Mayo and Mark Benson

At age 47, with two decades of experience as a lead designer for a Fortune 500 fashion company, Liz Claiborne put her life savings on the line to form Liz Claiborne, Inc., a partnership that included her husband. A decade later, in 1986, Claiborne was CEO of her own... View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Entrepreneurship; Business History; Leadership; Gender; Brands and Branding; Personal Development and Career; Apparel and Accessories Industry

07 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 7

competition. Their winning concept for the Water Cube combined elements of Chinese culture with innovative materials and sustainability requirements. The multidisciplinary and cross-company team, based in Sydney, Australia with counterparts in Beijing, faced project... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

April 2005 (Revised September 2005)
Case

Pegasus Capital: The Musimundo Decision

By: Michael Chu and Barbara Zepp Larson

The five managing directors of Pegasus Capital were meeting in June 2003 to make a go/no-go decision regarding the investment of Musimundo, one of the largest entertainment retailers in Argentina. Just four days before the planned closing of the sale, Pegasus' 50%... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Debates; Decision Choices and Conditions; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Financial Crisis; Music Entertainment; Investment; Business or Company Management; Risk and Uncertainty; Opportunities; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Argentina

01 Mar 2008
News

Avoiding a Succession Crisis

research suggests that planning for CEO succession should be part and parcel of the way a company is managed. Grooming potential leaders is a process that takes years. It’s not an ad hoc event. The key elements in this process are the way... View Details

Keywords: Joseph L. Bower; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management of Companies and Enterprises

2008
Working Paper

Hiring Cheerleaders: Board Appointments of 'Independent' Directors

By: Lauren Cohen, Andrea Frazzini and Christopher J. Malloy

We test the hypothesis that firms appoint independent directors who are overly sympathetic to management, while still technically independent according to regulatory definitions. We explore a subset of independent directors for whom we have detailed, micro-level data... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Managerial Roles; Prejudice and Bias

Read Now

January 2018 (Revised September 2023)
Case

Giving Birth to Ovia Health

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Julia Kelley

In late 2016, Paris Wallace, the CEO of Ovia Health, and the rest of the company’s co-founders faced a difficult decision about the best way to grow Ovia Health’s revenue. Founded in 2012, Ovia Health specialized in mobile and web applications in the women’s health... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry

08 Feb 2017
Blog Post

How I Chose My HBS Recommenders

graduating, I worked briefly for a Cambridge-based education startup named NuVu, before switching into management consulting and joining McKinsey. I spent time at McKinsey’s Dubai and New York offices, where I worked in a variety of... View Details

15 May 2012
First Look

First Look: May 15

company whose management engaged in a massive accounting fraud. ChuoAoyama was PwC's Japanese affiliate and one of Japan's largest audit firms. In May 2006, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA)... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

2011
Case

How Fast and Flexible Do You Want Your Information, Really?

By: Thomas H. Davenport and Jim Snabe

Almost all executives want more and faster information, and almost all companies are racing to provide it. What many of them are overlooking is that the real aim should not be faster information but faster decision making, and those aren't the same things. Executives... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Information; Service Delivery; Decision Making; Crisis Management

04 Jun 2018
What Do You Think?

Are There Conditions Under Which Directors Should Consider Hiring a CEO Fired Elsewhere for Inappropriate Behavior?

David Wittenberg wrote that a board that would automatically disqualify such fired managers might be playing it too safe. “When a board of directors identifies a candidate with the right skills, personality and track record, it should be... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

July 2024
Case

Board Director Dilemmas: Strategic Leadership

By: David G. Fubini and Patrick Sanguineti

Professor John Michaels, a distinguished scholar of corporate strategy, has served on the Board of OmniCo, a diversified industrial giant, for four years. Three months ago, the Board appointed a new CEO, Andrew Bennett, to lead growth, develop a more cooperative... View Details

Keywords: Board; Board Dynamics; Strategic Leadership; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Culture; Leadership Style; Management Succession

31 Oct 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 31, 2017

to permit even the most unsustainable and dirty industries. This working paper concludes that the emergent business history needs to be more fully incorporated in wider management and economics literatures on sustainability, while calling... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

07 Jun 2016
First Look

June 7, 2016

May 2016 American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings International Data on Measuring Management Practices By: Bloom, Nicholas, Renata Lemos, Raffaella Sadun, Daniela Scur, and John Van Reenen Abstract—We examine methods used to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

10 May 2011
First Look

First Look: May 10

business initiatives, we find that firms engage in a dynamic process of managing contradictory boundary activities. Boundaries between differentiated units are reinforced to enable exploitation and exploration, while corporate boundary... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2022 (Revised February 2024)
Teaching Note

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-055. When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique... View Details

March 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth

By: Ayelet Israeli

When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique product. Fifteen years later, the... View Details