Publications

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June 2013 (Revised August 2013)
Background Note

Note on Pension Guarantee Funds

By: Robert C. Pozen and Patricia Bissett Higgins

The United States and the United Kingdom both had quasi-government agencies that provided back-up insurance for individuals participating in defined benefit ("DB") pension plans. This note compares and contrasts the United Kingdom's Pension Protection Fund ("PPF") with... View Details

Keywords: Pensions; Pension Guarantee Funds; Pension Protection Fund; Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation; Employee Retirement Income Security Act; PBGC; ERISA; MAP-21; Legislation; Insurance; Saving; Retirement; Labor; Labor and Management Relations; Employees; Insurance Industry; United States; United Kingdom

17 Sep 2018
Research & Ideas

Welcome to Retirement. Who Am I Now?

retirement in different phases of our careers, they talked to millennials just starting out in the work world, workers inching closer to retirement age, late-career professionals entering retirement, and... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Entertainment & Recreation

15 Feb 2016
Research & Ideas

Want Your Employees to Plan Better for Retirement? Don't Do This

great success with this model by showing customers how much energy they were using compared to others living in their area. This quickly turned energy saving into a kind of friendly competition and drove great results. Sharing retirement... View Details

Keywords: Re: John Beshears; Financial Services

2024
Book

Retiring: Creating a Life That Works for You

By: Teresa M. Amabile, Lotte Bailyn, Marcy Crary, Douglas T. Hall and Kathy E. Kram

Retirement, as a major life transition, can be both thrilling and challenging in unexpected ways. Written by acclaimed authors in the fields of business leadership, careers, and work, this book goes beyond the typical financial and health-related advice on retirement,... View Details

Keywords: Retirement

21 Feb 2023
Research & Ideas

Are Your Employees Passing Up Incentives? Try Promoting the Programs More

retirement savings plan, may be a lack of effective advertising. “All this money and time and smart people thinking about programs is all for naught if we don’t effectively communicate them,” John says. In particular, companies are... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

2008
Chapter

Life-Cycle Funds

By: Luis M. Viceira

The U.S. retirement system has experienced a substantial transformation in recent years. It has evolved from a system in which employees relied mainly on Social Security and professionally managed defined benefit (DB) pension plans sponsored by their employers to... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Personal Finance; Investment Funds; Compensation and Benefits; United States

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Forthcoming
Article

Transitioning Into Retirement: The Interplay of Self and Life Structure

By: Marcy Crary, Douglas T. (Tim) Hall, Kathy E. Kram, Teresa M. Amabile and Lotte Bailyn

This paper explores the psychological, social, and behavioral ways in which professionals end their corporate careers and reorient themselves and their lives in the transition from employment to retirement. Framed within life course theory, specifically the adult... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Behavior; Transition; Identity

September 2007
Case

Still Leading (B4): Lee Iacocca—Driving Impact

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Lance P. Pierce

Lee Iacocca, a successful CEO of an auto company, devoted himself after retirement to several social causes. Describes issues in the transition. View Details

Keywords: Transition; Transformation; Retirement; Work-Life Balance; Problems and Challenges; Civil Society or Community; Auto Industry

April 1999 (Revised May 2005)
Case

GE's Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch's Leadership

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Meg Wozny

GE is faced with Jack Welch's impending retirement and whether anyone can sustain the blistering pace of change and growth characteristic of the Welch era. After briefly describing GE's heritage and Welch's transformation of the company's business portfolio of the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Global Strategy; Leadership Development; Goals and Objectives; Six Sigma; Management Succession; Service Operations; Quality; Corporate Strategy

17 Oct 2014
Research & Ideas

New Treasury Rules Help Long-Retirement Planning

The United States Treasury recently amended its rules to encourage workers with retirement plans to purchase life annuities within these plans. Life annuities generally make fixed monthly payments from the date of View Details

Keywords: by Robert Pozen; Financial Services

October 2014 (Revised September 2017)
Case

The National Football League and Brain Injuries

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Matthew G. Preble

The National Football League (NFL) was both the most popular spectator sport in the U.S. and a major economic entity, taking in roughly $10 billion a year in revenue. However through the early twenty-first century, an increased understanding of the long-term effects of... View Details

Keywords: Employee Safety; Safety; Employees; Sports; Health; Ethics; Sports Industry; United States

06 Oct 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Optimal Illiquidity

Keywords: by John Beshears, James J. Choi, Christopher Clayton, Christopher Harris, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian

07 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

How the U.S. Army Develops Leaders

The U.S. Army is one of the best training institutions in the world, says HBS professor Scott A. Snook, a retired Army colonel. How does the Army develop leaders? Snook discusses his new book, Making Sense of Officership: Developing a... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

March 2009
Article

Loyalty-Based Portfolio Choice

By: Lauren Cohen

I evaluate the effect of loyalty on individuals' portfolio choice using a unique dataset of retirement contributions. I exploit the statutory difference that in 401(k) plans stand alone employees can invest directly in their division, while conglomerate employees must... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Retirement; Decisions; Employees; Performance Evaluation; Business Conglomerates; Compensation and Benefits

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January 2021 (Revised February 2021)
Case

Carnival Corporation: Cruising Through COVID-19

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah Abbott

In March 2020, in response to the global pandemic, the cruise industry ceased operations. Carnival was the largest cruise line operator in the world, and CEO Arnold Donald and his management team worked to position the company to survive. They slashed operating... View Details

Keywords: Debt Issuance; Equity Issuances; Convertible Debt; Cruise Lines; Restructuring; Capital; Crisis Management; Cash Flow; Health Pandemics; Borrowing and Debt; Travel Industry; United States

April 1999
Case

French Pension System, The: On The Verge Of Retirement? (Abridged)

By: David A. Moss

Surveys the French pension system, its particular institutional characteristics, and some of the critical challenges and opportunities facing French reformers. Like almost every other industrialized country, France has a large pay-as-you-go public pension system that... View Details

Keywords: Retirement; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Policy; Economic Growth; Economics; Capital Markets; Wages; Public Administration Industry; France

December 1987 (Revised April 1996)
Case

Waste Management, Inc.

In early 1985 the CEO of Waste Management, Inc. is deliberating over several equity-linked debt alternatives to finance the retirement of debt. The teaching objective is to expose students to various forms of equity-linked debt financing alternatives. View Details

Keywords: Equity; Borrowing and Debt; Service Industry

January 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Citigroup 2003: Testing the Limits of Convergence (A)

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Examines Citigroup's strategic transition and highlights issues that its newly announced CEO Charles Prince will face as he assumes leadership of this global financial corporation upon the retirement of its charismatic CEO, Sandy Weill. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Globalized Firms and Management; Management Succession; Transformation; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

September 2018
Case

Granite Equity Partners

By: Victoria Ivashina and Jeffrey Boyar

This case follows Rick Bauerly, CEO of Minnesota-based Granite Equity Partners, a private equity firm that specialized in buying out retiring business owners in the Minnesota community. In 2007, Granite Equity was considering an investment in Tyrell Corp. (name... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Exit; Investing; Fund Exit; Fund Management; Wealth Management; Liquidity; Buyout; Exit Strategy; Preferred Shares; Convertible Notes; Finance; Private Equity; Investment; Asset Management; Wealth; Management; Financial Liquidity