Publications

July 2022 (Revised September 2022)
Case

Birla Carbon Egypt: Building Soft Power in a Foreign Country

By: Jeremy Friedman and Malini Sen

Birla Carbon, a flagship business of the nearly $60-billion global conglomerate and India-headquartered Aditya Birla Group (ABG), is one of the world's top manufacturers and suppliers of high-quality carbon black. The largest among its 16 manufacturing plants is Birla... View Details

March 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Case

Astra/Merck Group

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Marie Bell

Astra/Merck (A/M), originally a joint venture of AB Astra and Merck & Co., is preparing to be an independent company in 1993. Since the company does not engage in basic research and development of drugs, it is essentially a distribution organization. Fundamental to... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Marketing Strategy; Distribution; Performance Evaluation; Research and Development; Risk and Uncertainty; Sales; Competitive Strategy; Pharmaceutical Industry

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28 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Can You Buy Creativity in the Gig Economy?

Writers may lament the uncertainties of the digital age, as many turn to online markets to distribute their work with no promises of fame or fortune. But when authors are guaranteed a cut of their own book sales, they tend to work harder... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

12 May 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time To Relaunch Your Remote Team

times but crucial in times of uncertainty. Hitting the reset button once won’t be enough. It would be self-defeating to put voice to these unprecedented feelings of anxiety and uncertainty only to bury them away and trudge along as though... View Details

Keywords: by Tsedal Neeley

Article

Investor Sentiment in the Stock Market

By: Malcolm Baker and Jeffrey Wurgler

We examine how investor sentiment affects the cross-section of stock returns. Theory predicts that a broad wave of sentiment will disproportionately affect stocks whose valuations are highly subjective and are difficult to arbitrage. We test this prediction by... View Details

Keywords: Financial Markets; Stocks; Investment Return; Valuation; Forecasting and Prediction; Volatility; Price; Risk and Uncertainty; Behavioral Finance

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Read Now

21 Apr 2021
Research & Ideas

The Pandemic Conversations That Leaders Need to Have Now

uncertainties of the future and the strains of the present." Acknowledge the feelings. When sharing difficult news—or even beginning an ordinary staff meeting, some days—acknowledge the uncertainties of the... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg, Robin Abrahams, and Katherine Connolly Baden

30 Nov 2016
Working Paper Summaries

The Stock Market and Bank Risk-Taking

Keywords: by Antonio Falato and David Scharfstein; Financial Services; Banking

April 2011
Supplement

Felipe Calderón: Leading with Light and Power (B)

By: J. Bruce Harreld and David Lane

This sequence of cases explores how leaders get their team focused on framing, analyzing, and ultimately acting upon complex decisions. The A case provides an inside look as President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, works with his cabinet ministers to decide how to... View Details

Keywords: Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cases; Crime and Corruption; State Ownership; Business or Company Management; Economics; Risk and Uncertainty; Finance; Performance; Management Teams; Strategic Planning; Energy Industry; Mexico City

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01 May 2019
What Do You Think?

What Should the Leadership of YouTube Do?

littleny Can YouTube’s Users Help the Company Deal With Its “Moral” Problem?* This month’s mini-case described the dilemma faced by Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube: how far to promote “sustainability,” viewership, and (to some) free speech at the risk of losing what is... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Entertainment & Recreation; Media & Broadcasting

September 2022
Case

BancoSol: Financial Inclusion in the Perfect Storm

By: Michael Chu and Carla Larangeira

In the pandemic, financial inclusion icon BancoSol faces a government-mandated year-long deferral of all loan payments, followed by the sudden Covid death of its CEO. In a Bolivia mired in political turmoil following a failed presidential election, with clients not... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Crisis Management; Management Succession; Business Strategy; Innovation Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Financing and Loans; Restructuring; Financial Services Industry; Latin America; Bolivia

December 2011
Article

Stock Price Fragility

By: Robin Greenwood and David Thesmar

We investigate the relationship between ownership structure of financial assets and non-fundamental risk. We define an asset to be fragile if it is susceptible to non-fundamental trading shocks. An asset can be fragile because of concentrated ownership or because its... View Details

Keywords: Stocks; Price; Ownership; Risk and Uncertainty; Assets; System Shocks; Financial Liquidity; Forecasting and Prediction; Investment Return; Volatility; Relationships; United States

09 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Leadership Lessons of the Great Recession: Options for Economic Downturns

of Cote and his leadership team and asks them to consider the choices they would have made in the face of the extreme uncertainty surrounding future business conditions in the fall of 2008. Cote joined Honeywell as CEO in 2002. The... View Details

Keywords: by Sandra Sucher & Susan Winterberg; Aerospace; Electronics

October 2023
Case

Vida Health: Transforming Chronic Disease Treatment

By: William Sahlman and Nicole Tempest Keller

San Francisco based Vida Health, founded by Stephanie Tilenius, former vice president of Commerce and Payments at Google, was a B2B digital health startup focused on the treatment of cardiometabolic conditions, such as diabetes and obesity. Its innovative digital... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Health Care and Treatment; Product Marketing; Risk and Uncertainty; Technological Innovation; Health Industry; Technology Industry; United States; California; San Francisco

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Lawsuits and Litigation; Crisis Management; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Design; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Crime and Corruption; Business Organization; Business Model; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Governance Compliance; Policy; Compensation and Benefits; Resignation and Termination; Laws and Statutes; Legal Liability; Business or Company Management; Risk Management; Business Processes; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Failure; Agency Theory; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Risk and Uncertainty; Salesforce Management; Public Opinion; Banking Industry; North and Central America

June 2017 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Sales Misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Dennis W. Campbell, Susanna Gallani and Amram Migdal

Set in early 2017, this case examines widespread sales misconduct at Wells Fargo Community Bank. Wells Fargo's governance and controls are described in the lead up to the September 2016 announcement that Wells Fargo had settled with regulators for $185 million in... View Details

December 2022
Case

To Feed the Planet: Juan Luciano at ADM

By: Joshua D. Margolis, David E. Bell, Damien McLoughlin, Stacy Straaberg and James Weber

In December 2022, Juan Luciano, Chairman and CEO of agribusiness and nutrition giant ADM, considered the next phase of the historic company’s future. Beginning in 2011 when he joined as COO and moving into his tenure as CEO in 2015, Luciano led a transformation of ADM... View Details

July 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Case

LinkedIn (A)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

In the summer of 2005, LinkedIn, a two-year-old start-up, was choosing between two options to monetize its 5 million business people network. Members could contact each other through trusted intermediaries on the network to offer or seek jobs, consulting engagements,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Social and Collaborative Networks; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry