Publications

October 2017 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Snap Inc. Goes Public (A)

By: Lynn Sharp Paine and Will Hurwitz

Snap Inc.’s chairman must decide how to address investor concerns about the company’s unprecedented plans to issue only non-voting shares in its upcoming IPO. The case is set in early 2017 following the public availability of Snap’s IPO filing with the U.S. Securities... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Business and Shareholder Relations; Leadership; Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Telecommunications Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States; California

Web

Curriculum - Business & Environment

political structures of the states that seek to support and nourish this system. For the full listing, click here . Corporate Governance and Boards of Directors (Spring 2025) Lynn Paine Throughout the... View Details

01 Feb 2022
Book

Innovation Isn’t Just for Startups: How Big Companies Can Succeed

successful is first, you need enough structural separation. You do need the CEO and senior team connected, but you also need an individual leader who is able to be a change leader. You are not given the opportunity to be a View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

21 May 2007
Research & Ideas

Fixing the Marketing-CEO Disconnect

McGovern to discuss the CEO-marketing rift in more detail and describe the benefits of the tutorial. Sean Silverthorne: Why has marketing evolved so far from the executive suite over the years? You'd think corporate leaders would want to... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

01 Oct 2007
Research & Ideas

Encouraging Dissent in Decision-Making

calculation this way: "The potential costs to me for speaking out seem reasonably certain and somewhat immediate; the potential benefit to me for speaking out seems rather uncertain and definitely long-range." In the corporate... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

January 31, 2019
Article

The Backlash to Larry Fink's Letter Shows How Far Business Has to Go on Social Responsibility

By: Mark R. Kramer

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest investor with $6 trillion under management, evoked heated controversy with his remarks last week that his company would change its hiring and potentially its compensation structure to advance diversity and ensure that... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose

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11 Mar 2024
Blog Post

A Day in the Life: Ben Hsieh

a quick pulse check before the day begins. 9:30 AM: Our first class today is Leadership and Corporate Accountability (LCA), which examines the legal, ethical, and economic responsibilities of corporate... View Details

09 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time to Reset Decision-Making in Your Organization

a hierarchy that flows from the most enduring element, the corporate mission, through values, vision, strategy, and, ultimately, the implementation and monitoring of that strategy via tools such as balanced scorecards and key performance... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg and Sarah Abbott

Web

Health Care - Faculty & Research

towards a system that rewards value for patients. However, widespread adoption of value-based health care remains a challenge. This case study focuses on the care delivery transformation undertaken within an academic medical center, with a specific focus on novel... View Details

December 2019 (Revised June 2024)
Case

The Dutch East India Company in 1612 (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine and Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci

The Dutch East India Company’s board of directors must decide what to do about an impending legal requirement to liquidate the company’s assets and return to shareholders their capital and any profits earned during a ten-year lock-up period. The charter granted to the... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Globalized Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Laws and Statutes; Financial Markets; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Government Relations; Business History; Shipping Industry; Netherlands

13 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

below, Frazier provides insights into this turbulent period of American history with Tsedal Neeley (@tsedal), the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Topics ranged from corporate America’s role... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Pharmaceutical

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

association as well as the food and beverage brands that supply them. We’ve invested in the industry and served as corporate board members and leaders of industry coalitions, and we now, as educators, prepare future founders and leaders... View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

Web

Shad Hall | About

for Shad Hall is intended to meet the needs of the HBS community and includes classes and outreach initiatives that encourage wellness and fitness. The three-story, brick and concrete structure houses a multipurpose gym, indoor track,... View Details

April 1988 (Revised May 1992)
Case

Gaz de France

By: W. Carl Kester

The treasurer of Gaz de France is an aggressive, proactive manager of his company's liability structure, running one of the largest swap books of any non-financial corporation in the world. Currency futures, interbank forwards, and currency options are also frequently... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Borrowing and Debt; Currency Exchange Rate; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Policy; Management; Organizational Structure; Energy Industry; Europe

January 2014 (Revised April 2025)
Supplement

The PGA Tour (D)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Cole Magrath

In 1994, the PGA Tour (the "Tour"), the dominant incumbent professional golf circuit, had created tremendous value for its players. In the 1974 season, players competed for $8 million in prize money; by the 1994 season, the total prize purse had increased to $56... View Details

Keywords: PGA Tour; Tim Finchem; Deane Beman; Golf; Professional Golf; Business Model; Value Creation; Adaptation; Sports; Business Strategy; Sports Industry; United States

2011
Working Paper

The Organization of Firms Across Countries

By: Nicholas Bloom, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

We argue that social capital as proxied by trust increases aggregate productivity by affecting the organization of firms. To do this we collect new data on the decentralization of investment, hiring, production, and sales decisions from Corporate Headquarters to local... View Details

Keywords: Geographic Location; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Structure; Performance Productivity; Trust; Asia; Europe; United States