Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(1,060)
- Faculty Publications (84)
- December 2011 (Revised September 2015)
- Case
Carl Icahn and Clorox
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Kathleen Durante
This case outlines the takeover attempt by activist investor, Carl Icahn, for the Clorox Company. The board of the company repeatedly rejected Icahn's offers as inadequate. He made three bids over the course of three months. View Details
- October 2010
- Teaching Note
Target Corporation: Ackman versus the Board (TN)
By: Krishna G. Palepu and Suraj Srinivasan
Teaching Note for 109010. View Details
- June 2009 (Revised January 2011)
- Case
Target Corporation: Ackman versus the Board
By: Krishna G. Palepu, Suraj Srinivasan and James Weber
After 15 years of great performance, Target's faltering performance during an economic downturn led an activist shareholder to initiate a proxy fight. Target Corporation, the second largest discount store retailer in the U.S., had competed successfully against industry... View Details
- March 2009 (Revised September 2010)
- Case
HOYA Corporation (A)
By: W. Carl Kester and Masako Egawa
In 2007, HOYA of Japan must decide whether to change its friendly exchange offer for Pentax into a hostile cash tender offer. A surprising sequence of events had caused a friendly merger agreement to fall apart, resulting in a boardroom coup at Pentax and the... View Details
- January 2009 (Revised April 2009)
- Case
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is one of the largest and fastest-growing pools of investment capital in the world and follows an unusually active program of investment management. In the market turmoil of late 2008, Mark Wiseman, Senior Vice President of the... View Details
- September 2008 (Revised October 2008)
- Case
Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A1)
By: Fabrizio Ferri, V.G. Narayanan and James Weber
Two activist investors, one a founder and one a hedge fund manager, seek to improve board oversight at a chain restaurant company. Prestley Blake founded Friendly Ice Cream in 1935 with his brother, and the two created a chain of full-service restaurants. In 1979, they... View Details
- September 2008 (Revised October 2008)
- Supplement
Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A2)
By: V.G. Narayanan, Fabrizio Ferri and James Weber
The A1 and A2 versions of the “Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A)” split the original A case into two parts. The A1 case ends as activists Sardar Biglari and Phil Cooley prepare to meet with CEO Don Smith at Friendly's headquarters in September 2006. The... View Details
- April 2008 (Revised September 2008)
- Case
Shareholder Activists at Friendly Ice Cream (A)
By: Fabrizio Ferri, V.G. Narayanan and James Weber
Two activist investors, one a founder and one a hedge-fund manager, seek to improve board oversight at a chain restaurant company. Prestley Blake founded Friendly Ice Cream in 1935 with his brother, and the two created a chain of full-service restaurants. In 1979 they... View Details
- March 2008 (Revised March 2009)
- Case
Transforming AMFAM
By: Rakesh Khurana, Rajiv Lal and Cathy Ross
On a winter day in December 2007 at the American Family Mutual Insurance Company (AMFAM) headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, Dave Anderson and Jack Salzwedel remained in the conference room after the senior management meeting had concluded. Anderson, CEO of AMFAM since... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised February 2008)
- Case
South Dakota Wheat Growers
By: David E. Bell and Mary L. Shelman
As a farmer-owned cooperative, South Dakota Wheat Growers (SDWG) serves the needs of its 3,600 active farmer-members by supplying farm inputs and organizing the marketing and transportation of grain produced in the co-op's service territory. For almost 80 years, the... View Details
- January 2008 (Revised July 2008)
- Case
Opportunity Partners
By: Robin Greenwood and James Quinn
Philip Goldstein, the principal in a growing hedge fund and prominent activist investor, has taken a position in a Mexico-based closed-end fund. Following a hard-fought proxy contest in which he advocated for management to eliminate the fund's substantial discount,... View Details
- June 2007 (Revised December 2007)
- Case
AFL-CIO: Office of Investment and Home Depot
By: Rakesh Khurana and James Weber
Describes the AFL-CIO: Office of Investments activities in their campaign to improve governance at Home Depot by calling attention to Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli's compensation package and the company's poor performance. The AFL-CIO Office of Investments advocates... View Details
- November 2006 (Revised July 2021)
- Case
Kerr-McGee
By: Robin Greenwood and André Perold
Activist investors Carl Icahn and Barry Rosenstein acquire a stake in Oklahoma-based company Kerr-McGee. They demand two board seats and ask the company to make several operational and financial changes, including the repurchase of equity and divestiture of their... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised August 2005)
- Case
First Commonwealth Financial Corporation
By: Robert S. Kaplan
First Commonwealth Financial Corp., a financial institution in central and southwestern Pennsylvania, implemented the Balanced Scorecard for describing and implementing its new customer-focused strategy. Its founder and chairman decided that the Balanced Scorecard also... View Details
- September 2003
- Case
Executive Compensation at Reckitt Benckiser plc
By: V.G. Narayanan, Krishna G. Palepu and Lisa Brem
Investors felt betrayed by the increasingly lucrative pay packages awarded to CEOs and other top executives at multinational companies. Yet, board members charged with adequately rewarding executives were forced to compete with rising packages of salaries and stock... View Details
- May 2003
- Case
Renault-Nissan Alliance, The
By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Perry Fagan
On Wednesday, May 29, 2002, the board of directors of Renault-Nissan BV (RNBV) met for the first time to discuss the state of the alliance between Renault SA and Nissan Motors-two of the world's largest automakers. RNBV was a 50/50 joint venture company established in... View Details
- 2002
- Book
Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs
By: Rakesh Khurana
Corporate CEOs are headline news. Stock prices rise and fall at word of their hiring and firing. Business media debate their merits and defects as if individual leaders determined the health of the economy. Yet we know surprisingly little about how CEOs are selected... View Details
- June 2002 (Revised January 2010)
- Case
Delphi Corporation (A)
By: Jay W. Lorsch, Rakesh Khurana and Sonya Sanchez
The Delphi Corp.'s board of directors faces a transition as lead director Thomas Wyman approaches mandatory retirement. Chairman and CEO J.T. Battenberg reflects on Delphi's history and its successful reinvention by Wyman and Battenberg when it separated from its... View Details
- November 1996
- Case
Del Webb Corporation (B), The
By: Jay W. Lorsch and Samanta Graff
On November 16, 1987, the Del Webb board appointed Phil Dion chairman and CEO. This case outlines the development and implementation of a strategy to focus exclusively on real estate development and to liquidate all other assets. Discusses the appointment of two new... View Details
- November 1996 (Revised April 1999)
- Case
United Way of Southeastern New England (UWSENE)
By: Robert S. Kaplan and Ellen L. Kaplan / RA
A regional United Way organization, a nonprofit already active in total quality management, implements a Balanced Scorecard to link its strategic planning objectives with day-to-day operations, and is able to translate its vision and strategy into objectives and... View Details