Publications

March 2006
Course Overview Note

International Finance: A Course Overview Note

By: Mihir A. Desai

Describes the International Finance course at Harvard Business School, which argues that the forces of globalization have fundamentally changed the scope and activities of firms, thereby altering the practice of finance within these firms. As a consequence of an... View Details

Keywords: Multinational Firms and Management; Business Ventures; Integration; Change Management; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment; Risk Management; Competitive Advantage; Motivation and Incentives; International Finance; Capital Markets

09 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Moving From Bean Counter to Game Changer

Buried in the middle layers of many organizations resides a strata of highly skilled experts, from HR managers to risk evaluators, whose collective wisdom and experience could prove invaluable in informing... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Banking

July 2007 (Revised March 2008)
Background Note

Staging Two-Sided Platforms

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Andrei Hagiu

Firms that aspire to develop two-sided platforms face a formidable challenge. Prospective users on each side will not invest in the platform until they are confident there will be enough users on the other side. Traditional strategies for dealing with this... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Risk Management; Two-Sided Platforms; Supply Chain; Strategy; Retail Industry

October 2009 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Merger of Equals: The Integration of Mellon Financial and The Bank of New York (A)

By: Ryan D. Taliaferro, Clayton S. Rose and David Lane

Less than a month after the close of the merger between The Bank of New York and Mellon Financial, managers at the two firms realized that plans for combining their asset servicing businesses—and realizing the $180 million of annual cost savings that they had promised... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Asset Management; Financial Institutions; Risk Management; Integration; Information Technology; Financial Services Industry

May 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Enron Odyssey (A), The: The Special Purpose of "SPEs"

The board has asked Ron Tolbert, an employee in the Risk Assessment and Control Group, to analyze three SPE transactions executed by Enron executives: the Destec, Rhythms, and Fishtail/Bacchus transactions, which were prominently featured in the Examiner's Report in... View Details

Keywords: Financial Management; Financial Instruments; Analysis; Accounting; Financial Strategy; Energy Industry

January 8, 2016
Article

When You’ve Made Enough Money to Cause Family Tension

By: Josh Baron, Rob Lachenauer and Diane Coutu

This article discusses the transition successful business founders face when moving from intense business focus to managing significant wealth in their "Second Act." It highlights the shift towards creating a family enterprise, requiring shared financial... View Details

Keywords: Wealth; Family Business; Management Succession; Transition; Family and Family Relationships

Register to Read

19 Feb 2019
News

Bank Boards: What Has Changed Since the Financial Crisis?

June 2014 (Revised November 2015)
Case

Via Verde

By: Arthur I Segel, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Philip Berkman, Sean Liu, Jared Katseff and Shawn Tuli

Developers Jonathan Rose and Adam Weinstein were trying to determine which of three proposals to submit to the city of New York in response to a RFP to create an affordable housing project in the South Bronx. The site, referred to as Via Verde, was a 1.5-acre... View Details

Keywords: Jonathan Rose Companies; Affordable Housing; Property; Real Estate Industry; United States

November 2018
Case

Cepuros Foods Malaysia: Finding the Secret Sauce for Growth (Brief Case)

By: John A. Quelch and Katherine B. Hartman

Shelby Diaz, country manager for Cepuros Foods International—Malaysia (CFI-M), must decide a growth strategy for the expansion of CFI-M's line of salsas, particularly regarding whom to target and how to allocate marketing investments. CFI-M could expand aggressively by... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Communications; Product Positioning

2010
Chapter

The Euro as a Reserve Currency for Global Investors

By: Luis M. Viceira and Ricardo Gimeno

This article explores the demand for the euro for risk management purposes and the evidence of stock market integration in the euro area. We define a reserve currency as one that investors demand either because it helps them hedge real interest risk and inflation risk,... View Details

Keywords: Volatility; Inflation and Deflation; Capital Markets; Currency; Stocks; Financial Markets; Financing and Loans; Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Risk Management

Find at Harvard

Read Now

Teaching Interest

MBA Elective Curriculum: Investment Strategies

By: Malcolm P. Baker

This is a CORE course for students pursuing careers in finance. Thus, students interested in pursuing careers in mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds, endowments, wealth management, financial consulting, marketing and client service, sales and trading,... View Details

Robert Simons

Robert Simons is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School. For over 35 years, Simons has taught accounting, management control, and strategy execution courses in both the Harvard MBA and Executive Education Programs. For 2024/25, he is teaching a... View Details

29 Sep 2009
First Look

First Look: September 29

provide indirect evidence as to why firm managers may cater to the demand for dividends from local seniors. Overall, these results suggest that the composition of a firm's investor base affects corporate policy choices. Download the paper... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 1994 (Revised September 1995)
Case

Enron Gas Services

By: Peter Tufano

The CEO of Enron Gas Services (EGS), a subsidiary of the largest U.S. integrated natural gas firm, considers the risks and opportunities of selling a variety of natural gas derivatives, both embedded in gas delivery contracts and as free-standing financial contracts.... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Energy Sources; Financial Services Industry; Energy Industry

29 May 2013
News

Talent Management: Boards Give Their Companies an "F"

08 Sep 2016
Video

Monitoring global supply chains

Causes and Consequences of Firm Disclosures of Anticorruption Efforts

Multinationals frequently operate in locations where laws against corruption are not widely enforced. We examine ratings of self-reported anticorruption efforts for 480 multinationals to better understand what factors underlie their efforts and their performance... View Details

Arthur I Segel

View Details

Keywords: federal government; real estate

December 2009
Case

Milliway Capital & Martin Smith: November 2008

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Ann Leamon

Martin Smith, a recent MBA graduate, has just joined a top-tier venture capital firm in the difficult environment of late 2008. One of his first assignments is to review three companies in a partner's portfolio and recommend strategies for managing them. In addition,... View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Financial Management; Private Equity; Business Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Venture Capital; Business or Company Management