Publications

2016
Working Paper

Henry Kissinger's Negotiation Campaign to End the Vietnam War

By: James K. Sebenius and Eugene B. Kogan

President Richard M. Nixon was elected in 1968 with the widespread expectation that he would bring about an end to the costly and unpopular war in Vietnam. The task largely fell to National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. When the negotiations began, North Vietnam... View Details

Keywords: Kissinger; Negotiation; Negotiation Campaign; Bargaining; Diplomacy; Coercive Diplomacy; Multiparty Negotiations; Dispute Resolution; Mediation; Negotiation Process; War; Negotiation Types; International Relations; Negotiation Deal; Viet Nam; United States

SSRN

January 2011
Article

Developing Superior Negotiation Case Studies

By: James K. Sebenius

While a great deal of excellent advice exists for producing case studies on managerially relevant topics in general, negotiation cases have distinctive aspects that merit explicit treatment. This article offers three types of tailored advice for producing cases on... View Details

Keywords: Education; Cases; Negotiation

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Web

AASU50 - Alumni

Lee, MBA 2008 Kim Lew, MBA 1992 Lewis Long, MBA 1991 John Majors, MBA 2000 Debbie McCoy, MBA 2003 Jonathan Miller, MBA 2014 Alterrell Mills, MBA 2016 Aaron Mitchell, MBA 2011 Ronald Mitchell, MBA 1997 Leslie Wims Morris, MBA 1997 James... View Details

Blog

The Chao Center: The Heart of HBS Executive Education

the classroom, organize small-group meetings, or simply take a break. By design, the building's architecture relates both to the traditional structures of the main HBS campus and also to the twenty-first century spirit of nearby Tata... View Details

August 2003 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Royal Bank of Scotland, The: Masters of Integration

By: Nitin Nohria and James Weber

Describes the acquisition of Nat West by Royal Bank of Scotland. Describes the strategic rationale for the acquisition and the process by which the integration of the two banks was accomplished. The acquisition is remarkable for how successful it was, given the typical... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Integration; Banks and Banking; Success; Banking Industry; Scotland

July 2024
Case

Negotiating in a Hurricane: John Branca and the Michael Jackson Estate

By: James K. Sebenius and Alex Green

When the "King of Pop," Michael Jackson, unexpectedly died in 2009, he left behind an estate that was over $500 million in debt, with largely illiquid assets, and legions of creditors poised to begin to seize assets in as soon as 60 days. The task of managing Jackson’s... View Details

Keywords: Bargaining; Dispute Resolution; Negotiation; Entertainment; Financial Management; Financial Condition; Assets; Music Industry

Web

Buy Now, Pay Later: Cars on Time

The Rise of Installment Selling Home Finance Cars on Time The Secondary Credit Market The Usurer's Grip Research Links Credits For the first few decades of automobile history, cars were luxury items. The people who bought them did so for the fun of it, and typically... View Details

July 2017 (Revised October 2017)
Supplement

Becton Dickinson: Innovation and Growth (B)

By: Raffaella Sadun, Michael Beer and James Weber

This (B) case supplements the (A) case by providing additional information and updates through early 2016. View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Change Management; Innovation Leadership; Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

24 Apr 2014
News

Honoring a legacy

Having joined her family’s international shipping, trading, and finance business, Foremost Group, in 2001, Angela A. Chao (AB 1995, MBA 2001) began her career focusing on the company’s safety management system and vessel security planning. Now, as deputy chairman, she... View Details

Web

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

Sebenius : Winner of the 1986 Harold and Margaret Sprout Prize presented by International Studies Association for Negotiating the Law of the Sea: Lessons in the Art and Science of Reaching Agreement (Harvard... View Details

November 1994 (Revised January 1995)
Case

Wheeling and Dealing: The Zirconia GT

By: Howard Raiffa, James K. Sebenius, Craig Best and Scot Melland

A personal negotiation episode in purchasing a car is presented. Tactics and strategies commonly encountered by car buyers and car salespeople are illustrated. View Details

Keywords: Debates; Negotiation Tactics; Sales; Strategy

September 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Icahn Enterprises: Ponzi Scheme or Sound Investment

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese and James Weber

Icahn Enterprises, a publicly traded limited partnership founded and operated by famed activist investor Carl Icahn, had earned above market returns for over a decade. Between 2018 and early 2023, it had a compound annual return of 31%. Icahn invested in undervalued... View Details

Keywords: Stock Shares; Investment Return; Business Model; Valuation; Financial Services Industry

23 Oct 2019
News

Negotiators Share Lessons from High-Stakes Global Diplomacy

Administration. The videotaped interviews—to date with former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, James A. Baker III, Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, George Shultz, and Rex Tillerson—have been... View Details

Keywords: University Collaborations

01 Dec 2023
News

Engaging Students More Deeply

Students at Success Academy stay more focused on the dot rug. Photo courtesy HBS Multimedia Development To tell the compelling stories of a developer working to revitalize Miami Beach, a Maine lobsterman confronting the economic risks of climate change, and a charter... View Details

Keywords: April White

2014
Working Paper

Stepping Stone, Stopping Point, or Slippery Slope? Negotiating the Next Iran Deal

By: James K. Sebenius

The November 2013 "interim" nuclear deal between Iran and the "P5+1"—the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany—raises challenging questions. Will the initial deal function as a stepping stone toward a more comprehensive deal? Or will it drift into... View Details

Keywords: Negotiations; Iran; Nuclear; Conflict Resolution; Winning Coalition; Blocking Coalition; Strategy; Negotiation; International Relations; France; Germany; Iran; China; Great Britain; United States; Russia

SSRN

04 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: January 4

minorities. Read the paper: http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/apfelbaum%20norton%20sommers.pdf Leveraging Tribal Sovereignty for Economic Opportunity: A Strategic Negotiations Perspective Authors:Gavin Clarkson and James K. View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

July – August 2008
Article

Buy-Side vs. Sell-Side Analysts' Earnings Forecasts

By: Boris Groysberg, Paul M. Healy and Craig James Chapman

We compare the earnings forecast performance of analysts at a large buy-side firm to that of sell-side analysts. Our tests show that the buy-side firm analysts make more optimistic and less accurate forecasts than their counterparts on the sell-side. These performance... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Business Earnings; Forecasting and Prediction; Performance Effectiveness

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