Publications

2006
Other Unpublished Work

Structural Closure and Exposure: Market Reactions to Announcements of Acquisitions and Divestitures

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski and Nitin Nohria

Keywords: Acquisition; Business Exit or Shutdown; Market Entry and Exit

Read Now

April 1990 (Revised November 1991)
Case

In many ways Frost is an archetypal, small, dying manufacturing firm. With profits gone in a no-growth business and unable to diversify, Charles Frost bets the company on computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment to replace the existing 1940s era screw machines.... View Details

Keywords: Small Business; Diversification; Business Exit or Shutdown; Manufacturing Industry

August 2015 (Revised June 2016)
Supplement

Dinr: My First Start-up (B)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Kristina Maslauskaite

Keywords: Business Exit; Business Startup; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Food

Web

Avoiding Startup Failure - Course Catalog

Avoiding ethical lapses as startups struggle Tactical steps for managing a venture’s shutdown to preserve relationships, reputations, and integrity How to learn from a venture’s failure and what to do with those learnings Addressing... View Details

18 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 18

case: http://hbr.org/product/cynthia-carroll-at-anglo-american-a/an/414019-PDF-ENG Harvard Business School Case 414-020 Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American (B) In 2007, Cynthia Carroll, the newly appointed chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, ordered the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2009 (Revised September 2009)
Case

The Termination of U.S. Auto Dealerships in 2009

By: Das Narayandas, Kerry Herman and Sarah Morton

The case chronicles the sudden termination of many U.S. autodealers in the wake of the economic crisis in the fall of 2008. View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Financial Crisis; Marketing; Distribution; Sales; Auto Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

October 2000
Case

Francisco de Narvaez at Tia: Selling the Family Business

By: Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

In January 1999, Francisco de Narvaez sold Tia, his family's retail business in Argentina. De Narvaez reflects on the decision to sell and the selling process. View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Business Exit or Shutdown; Decisions; Argentina

December 1989
Supplement

People Express Decline: Interview with Don Burr, Video

By: Michael Beer

Presents an interview with Don Burr, CEO, as he reviews his account of how and why People Express failed as a corporation and was ultimately sold to Continental Airlines. View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Failure; Business Exit or Shutdown; Air Transportation Industry

05 Jun 2014
Blog Post

Learning to fail at HBS

and shutdown two startups - a culinary curation service (you can see the remnants of it at www.zesters.co) and a date idea recommendation engine (the origins of this are as nebulous as its fate). I think I knew this somewhere in the back... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Consumer Products / Retail

December 2003
Case

Sale of Hephaestus, Inc. to Vulcan Ventures, Inc.

Henry Hephaestus founded Hephaestus, Inc. in 1895. Its first product was a tapered roller bearing for use with horse-drawn wagons and carriages. It reduced friction on the axle and reduced the force necessary to move a heavy load, thereby enabling one horse to do the... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Entrepreneurship; Family Ownership; Manufacturing Industry

December 2015
Teaching Note

Nokia's Bridge Program (A) & (B)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Susan J. Winterberg

This teaching note is designed to be used in conjunction with the cases "Nokia's Bridge Program: Redesigning Layoffs (A)," HBS No. 615-013, and "Nokia's Bridge Program: Outcome and Results (B)," HBS No. 615-014. Instructors could also assign "Layoffs: Effects on Key... View Details

Keywords: Layoffs; Plant Closure; Outplacement; Shared Value; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Business Exit or Shutdown

October 1991 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (A)

By: Michael C. Jensen

A Houston-based LBO firm makes two petrochemical acquisitions that benefit from improved industry conditions and improved organizational performance. The LBOs generate huge increases in value, creating problems for managers, who have large, undiversified equity... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Value Creation; Business Exit or Shutdown; Leveraged Buyouts; Chemical Industry; Houston

01 Mar 2010
News

Slum for Sale

daunting prospect of determining which residents would receive 300 square feet of free housing (limited to families in residence before January 2000), it’s easy to imagine a nightmarish scenario of unpopular evictions and shutdowns of... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Administration of Housing Programs, Urban Planning, and Community Development; Government

December 2003 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Scott Lawson's Dilemma

By: Thomas R. Piper

The head of SysCom's test equipment division is concerned about how to answer employee and customer questions concerning the possible sale or liquidation of the division. The consequences of alternative approaches (full transparency vs. strong optimism and reassurance)... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Interpersonal Communication; Business Divisions; Corporate Governance; Ethics; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry

January 1992
Teaching Note

Gulf Oil Corporation-Takeover TN

By: Richard S. Ruback

Teaching Note for (9-285-053). View Details

Keywords: Privatization; Business Exit or Shutdown; Bids and Bidding; Natural Environment; Energy Industry

05 Aug 2015
News

What A Fashion Entrepreneur Learned When Her Startup Flamed Out Early

Keywords: failure; Apparel Manufacturing; Manufacturing

July 2012
Case

Shut It Down?

By: Clayton Rose

Meredith, the head of a major division of a financial firm, must confront an unexpected response and challenge from a senior colleague when she proposes shutting down an underperforming unit. View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Collaboration; Business Units; Business Exit or Shutdown; Leadership; Strategy; Financial Services Industry

winter 1976
Article

Please Note Location of Nearest Exit: Exit Barriers and Planning

By: M. E. Porter

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Business Exit or Shutdown; Market Entry and Exit

Find at Harvard

April 1989 (Revised March 1993)
Case

ProTech, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Piper

A company is considering the elimination of a product line. As part of that consideration, it must develop possible strategies for closing the division, and identify the economic and non-economic implications of the strategy. The situation is complicated by the... View Details

Keywords: Marketing Strategy; Decision Making; Business Exit or Shutdown; Equity; Problems and Challenges