Publications

18 Sep 2007
First Look

First Look: September 18, 2007

modularized. Instead these areas should be located in transaction-free zones so that the costs of transacting do not overburden the system. The boundaries of transaction-free zones constitute breakpoints where firms and industries may... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2024
Case

Caesars Entertainment: Governance on the Road to Bankruptcy

By: Kristin Mugford

Caesars Entertainment was a large casino operator in the United States that had been purchased in a 2008 leveraged buyout by Apollo and TPG. In January 2015, Caesars Entertainment Operating Company (CEOC), its largest subsidiary, filed for Chapter 11. This set up a... View Details

Keywords: Gaming; Chapter 11; Fraudulent Conveyance; Apollo; TPG; Bankruptcy; Leveraged Buyouts; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Private Equity; Financial Management; Lawsuits and Litigation; Negotiation; Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Borrowing and Debt; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Las Vegas

August 2017 (Revised January 2020)
Case

Berkshire Partners: Party City

By: Victoria Ivashina and Jeffrey Boyar

In 2005, Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm specializing in growth equity, was one year into their ownership of Amscan, the market leader of designed, manufactured, and distributed decorated party goods and accessories. However, Amscan's primary... View Details

Keywords: Turnaround; Fundraising; Cross-fund Investment; Private Equity; Vertical Integration; Governance; Valuation; Manufacturing Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

January 2018 (Revised May 2018)
Case

AT&T Managing Technological Change and the Future of Telephone Operators in the 20th Century

By: Daniel P. Gross and William R. Kerr

By the 1930s, AT&T dominated the American phone industry, serving 10 million telephones and employing over 100,000 switchboard operators. But beginning in the mid-1910s, the company began changing from manually operated switchboards to mechanical switching systems that... View Details

Keywords: AT＆T; Bell Telephone; Phone Lines; Phone Operators; Mechanical Switching; Layoffs; Technological Change; Transition; History; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Disruption; Change Management; Communications Industry; Communications Industry; United States

January 1999 (Revised July 2003)
Case

Shady Trail

By: Arthur I Segel

Holt Lunsford was intrigued by the packet of papers that lay in front of him. The papers comprised a brochure that Lonestar Bank had put together in an effort to sell the Shady Trail Distribution Center in Dallas, Texas. Shady Hill was a five-year-old,... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Acquisition; Buildings and Facilities; Property; Partners and Partnerships; Decision Choices and Conditions; Distribution Industry; Distribution Industry; Texas

2007
Working Paper

The 'Fees → Savings' Link, or Purchasing Fifty Pounds of Pasta

By: Michael I. Norton and Leonard Lee

Many consumers have had the experience of entering discount membership clubs to make a few purchases, only to leave with enough pasta to outlast a nuclear winter. We suggest that the presence of membership fees can lead consumers to infer a "fees → savings" link,... View Details

Keywords: Price; Profit; Spending; Consumer Behavior; Retail Industry

Read Now

15 Feb 2022
Book

When Working Harder Doesn’t Work, Time to Reinvent Your Career

roadmap to the second curve How do you know it’s time to look for that second curve? “One of the big tipoffs is that you just don’t enjoy your work as much anymore,” Brooks says. “People love to do what they’re really good at. When you... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman

December 2009 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Managing Talent at Bertelsmann AG (A)

By: Boris Groysberg, Nitin Nohria, Mark Maletz and Kerry Herman

Bertelsmann's EVP HR Immanuel Hermreck and his team were focused on four key HR issues. Three of these were somewhat discreet: improving Bertelsmann's employer brand; managing Bertelsmann talent across the firm's decentralized businesses; and ensuring early... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Leadership Development; Strategic Planning; Competitive Advantage; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Germany

Web

Behavioral Finance & Financial Stability

result, there are meaningful externalities in the mutual fund industry due to cash management. A fund family may coordinate the liquidity management efforts of its funds in order to minimize volatility spillovers from fire sales. Related... View Details

28 Jan 2019
Research & Ideas

Forget Cash. Here Are Better Ways to Motivate Employees

really matters in the workplace is helping employees feel appreciated.” Rewards that signal to employees that they did a good job and that their manager cares about them will encourage employees to want to work even harder, the research... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

The issue of control is examined, as is the related question of the "stickiness" of knowledge within large international firms. The discussion draws on a case study of the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods manufacturer Unilever, which... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

06 Oct 2016
HBS Seminar

Edward Fertik, Yale University

Web

Organizational Behavior - Faculty & Research

Administration Industry Citation Read Now Related Raffaelli, Ryan, Tiona Zuzul, Ranjay Gulati, and Jan Rivkin. "Outcome and Process Frames: Strategic Renewal and Capability Reprioritization at the Federal Bureau of Investigation."... View Details

08 Sep 2015
First Look

September 8, 2015

demonstrates why some places, times, and industries should be associated with a greater degree of experimentation by investors. Investors respond to financing risk—a forecast of limited future funding—by modifying their focus to finance... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

16 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Can Decades of Military Overspending be Fixed?

States has often turned to cutting-edge technology solutions to solve strategic and operational challenges. “Costs tend to rise in all organizations unless managers and their staffs are skilled in industrial management and strongly... View Details

Keywords: by J. Ronald Fox; Service

01 Dec 2023
News

The Imposter Among Us

Edited by Jen McFarland Flint; Illustrations by Peter Arkle It was their rst day at Harvard and like the rest of his cohort, Edgar Wallner (PMD 22, 1971) will never forget meeting Robert Gaines-Cooper. Frankly, it would have been difficult to miss the Englishman, who... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

February 2024
Supplement

JTC: Stronger Together with Shared Ownership: What JTC Did and Its Impact

By: Ethan Bernstein

Nigel Le Quesne, CEO of Jersey-based financial services firm JTC, firmly believed that "shared ownership" was at the heart of his company’s successful track record. The firm had seen its revenues, profits, and number of clients and staff grow steadily throughout its... View Details

Keywords: Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Employee Ownership; Financial Services Industry