Publications

March 2024
Case

Katharine Graham: Changing the World

By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun

This case traces the life of Katharine Graham from housewife to publisher of the Washington Post. Born into a family of wealth, Graham described herself as a “doormat wife” after she married Phil Graham and stayed at home to raise their children. His unexpected death... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Values and Beliefs; Power and Influence; Personal Characteristics; Leadership Style; Success; Work-Life Balance; News; Newspapers; Media; Gender; Publishing Industry

January 2018
Supplement

Peak Games: Hiring Priorities in Times of Rapid Growth (B)

By: William R. Kerr and Gamze Yucaoglu

On November 7, 2017, Sidar Şahin, founder and CEO of Peak Games, a Turkey-based global mobile gaming company, had just closed the sale of Peak Games’ card games studio. This sale included three of the company’s top grossing games and half of its team. Sahin was happy... View Details

September 2022 (Revised April 2023)
Case

Cesaro e Associati

By: Christina R. Wing and Amram Migdal

This case describes the leadership succession planning process at Cesaro e Associati (Studio Cesaro), founded in 1986 by Franco Cesaro in the northeastern Italian state of Veneto. In 2022, Franco was contemplating retirement and passing leadership of his firm, which... View Details

February 2017
Case

Yemeksepeti: Growing and Expanding the Business Model through Data

By: William R. Kerr, Gamze Yucaoglu and Eren Kuzucu

In October 2016, Nevzat Aydin, co-founder and CEO of Yemeksepeti, the Turkish online food-ordering company, was looking over the company's quarterly results and projections for the upcoming year with his management team. It had been almost a year and a half since Aydin... View Details

March 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

The Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy: Settling the Opioid Crisis

By: Kristin Mugford, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Susan Pinckney

How to get to a fair outcome for claimants in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy given its significant role in the U.S. opioid crisis. View Details

December 2012 (Revised March 2015)
Case

AmTran Technology Ltd.

By: Willy Shih, Jyun-Cheng Wang and Karen E. Robinson

As an original design manufacturer (ODM) of television sets and leading supplier to Vizio, a market leader in the U.S. for LCD flat panel TVs, AmTran Technology Ltd. uses what founder Alpha Wu describes as a "WE" model in which western companies perform sales,... View Details

June 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

Shellye Archambeau: Becoming a CEO (A)

By: Tsedal Neeley and John Masko

With the economy in a freefall, MetricStream is losing customers, hemorrhaging cash and struggling to make payroll. Several board members are threatening to quit. Others are pressing to sell the company even at dismally low valuations. It’s 2008 and lightning has... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Race; Gender; Leadership Style; Risk and Uncertainty; Change; Prejudice and Bias; Decision Making; Personal Development and Career; Technology Industry; California

March 2011 (Revised March 2013)
Supplement

a-connect: In Search of Talent Partners (B)

By: Robert G. Eccles and Penelope Rossano

The a-connect: In Search of Talent Partners (B) case updates company changes since the (A) case. Key updates include leadership and management appointments and organizational changes. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Selection and Staffing; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Structure; Consulting Industry

October 2010 (Revised April 2013)
Case

Bridge International Academies: A School in a Box

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee

Bridge International was founded in 2007 as a for-profit social enterprise to address the educational needs of poor children in Africa. Ten schools were operational in Kenya by 2010. The plan was to franchise nearly 3,000 schools all over Africa. The case is meant to... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Education; Growth and Development; Franchise Ownership; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Social Enterprise; Segmentation; Education Industry; Africa; Kenya

July 2002 (Revised December 2002)
Case

Mercer Management Consulting (A)

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Michael Echenberg

Insurance giant Marsh & McLennan acquires management consulting firms Temple, Barker & Sloane (TBS) in 1987 and Strategic Planning Associates (SPA) in 1990 and sets out to merge the two. The merger proceeds slowly and painfully. Following the February 1990 merger,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Horizontal Integration; Consulting Industry

01 Dec 2001
News

BOOK: Ruling the Waves

rules (legal strictures, backed by enforcement). While she begins by discussing the impact of developments such as the printing press and ocean navigation, Spar focuses on the communications technologies of the last two centuries. She... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Publishing Industries (except Internet)

November 1993 (Revised September 2018)
Case

Rudi Gassner and the Executive Committee of BMG International (A)

By: Linda Hill and Katherine Seger Weber

Explores the roles of CEO Rudi Gassner and the 9-person executive committee in leading BMG International. BMG International is the international music subsidiary of Bertlesmann, a German company that is the second-largest media conglomerate in the world. Describes a... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Management Teams; Decision Making; Business Plan; Growth and Development Strategy; Global Strategy; Leadership Style; Organizational Culture; Business Subsidiaries; Business Conglomerates; Cost Management; Change Management; Music Industry; Music Industry; Germany

15 Dec 2015
News

The Year in Ideas 2015

most nimble creators will move from a mobile-first to a mobile-only approach. “The strongest brands will continue to do what they do best—superserve their audiences—but the native advertising model will meaningfully challenge the existing, archaic advertising model,... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna, Christine Lejeune, Dan Morrell, and April White

01 Mar 2003
News

Service with a Smile

In an effort to understand the role that suppressing or exaggerating emotions has on employees, HBS assistant professor Laura Morgan Roberts and a colleague from the University of Toronto, Stéphane Côté, set about to measure the relationship between emotion regulation... View Details

Keywords: Laura Morgan Roberts; Stephane Cote; Publishing Industries (except Internet); Publishing Industries (except Internet)

August 2024
Case

Quickmart: Sustaining Growth in a Challenging Economic Environment

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Kuria Kamau

In July 2023, Peter Kang’iri, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Quickmart, Kenya’s second-largest retail chain, sat in his Nairobi office reviewing the company’s first half financial results before the weekly executive committee (EXCO) meeting. The company was in... View Details

Keywords: Distribution; Supply Chain; Logistics; Business Strategy; Expansion; Business Earnings; Growth and Development Strategy; Strategic Planning; Retail Industry; Retail Industry; Africa; Kenya; Nairobi

October 1999
Case

ZEFER: Building a Business at Hyperspeed

By: John T. Gourville and Joseph B. Lassiter III

In the past 18 months, ZEFER has gone from a several-person Internet consulting firm to a major player in the information-technology services industry. In particular, in the past six months, it has grown from 40 to 400 professionals, has hired a seasoned management... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development; Recruitment; Venture Capital; Acquisition; Organizational Culture; Managerial Roles; Growth Management; Information Technology Industry

March 2024
Case

Nomad: A License to Bank

By: Paul A. Gompers and Pedro Levindo

In late 2023, Lucas Vargas, CEO and co-founder of Nomad, a fintech that offered financial services in the United States for Brazilian residents, had to decide what to do to ensure the company’s continued expansion. Nomad launched its first product, a U.S. digital bank... View Details

May 2022
Supplement

Maestro Pizza (C): Taking the Fight Outside

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Fares Khrais

Maestro pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of... View Details