Publications

September 2006 (Revised March 2012)
Case

Fritidsresor Under Pressure (A): The First 10 Hours

By: Joshua D. Margolis, Vincent Marie Dessain and Anders Sjoman

When a tsunami hit Southeast Asia on December 26, 2004, the leadership team at a Swedish tour company must manage a devastating crisis affecting thousands of its customers and employees in Thailand. Documents the challenges the company faced in the first ten hours of... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; Crisis Management; Natural Disasters; Tourism Industry; Thailand; Sweden

12 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 12, 2008

unexpectedly in the midst of chaos brought by the resistance of its staff who feared losing their civil servant status after privatization. Also facing Mao was the forthcoming deregulation of the telecommunication industry on the island... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

30 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Where Could More Regulation Help Small Businesses? Online Lending.

more coordinated regulatory approach to oversight of financial services. Industry should be included and at the table to ensure that they have a consistent mechanism to provide feedback and advice on how any... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills and Brayden McCarthy; Financial Services

22 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

Advertising: It’s Not ‘Mad Men’ Anymore

attention. Exclusivity is still the norm, but the consensus around it is slowly shrinking." The Consolidation Myth Choices made in conflict policies can influence the size and distribution of agencies that the industry can support. This... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Advertising

05 Feb 2024
Research & Ideas

The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding

to tell them what to do, but more to inspire them. I think it’s just a smaller piece of a larger, grander transformation in organizations.” Good management now involves coordinating and collaborating with subordinates across functions to... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand

November 1990 (Revised June 1993)
Case

FMC Corp.: A Recapitalization

By: William J. Bruns Jr. and Julie H. Hertenstein

A proposed recapitalization will use new debt to pay a large dividend to some shareholders in return for a reduction of their voting power. The result will be a highly leveraged financial structure and negative owners' equity. Students can trace the effects of proposed... View Details

Keywords: Financial Statements; Financial Strategy; Asset Management; Financial Management; Business Conglomerates; Borrowing and Debt; Business and Shareholder Relations; Capital Structure; Equity; Private Equity; Chemical Industry

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February 2019 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Schneider Electric: Opening Up to External Innovation

By: Antonio Davila

Schneider Electric competes in tough but stable markets around energy management, automation, and control of infrastructures ranging from homes to production plants. New technologies and new approaches to serving markets are challenging the status quo. To take... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Venture Capital; Accelerator; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Technological Innovation; Organizational Design; Energy Industry; Energy Industry; France; United States

Research Summary

Institutions and Innovation

Henry Chesbrough's research interests lie at the intersection of organizations and innovation. His research to date falls into two tracks.

The first track examines the effect of the firm's institutional environment upon its ability to respond to innovation... View Details

2008
Article

The Gordon Research Conferences As Scientific Infrastructure

By: Arthur A. Daemmrich and Leah Shaper

Conferences serve as a crucial part of scientific infrastructure by offering participants the opportunity to announce novel findings, discuss research methods, and take part in a variety of networking activities. Presenting papers and learning about unpublished new... View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Interpersonal Communication; Infrastructure; Science-Based Business; Social and Collaborative Networks

26 Nov 2018
HBS Seminar

Emily Truelove, MIT Sloan School of Management

Competing in the Age of AI

Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani show how reinventing the firm around data, analytics, and AI removes traditional constraints on scale, scope, and learning that have restricted business growth for hundreds of years. From... View Details

December 1994 (Revised September 2011)
Case

The Millegan Creek Apartments

By: William J. Poorvu and John H. Vogel Jr.

Fleet Bank is considering a construction loan for a 390-unit apartment project in Austin, Texas. The case describes the location, market, product, and other real estate factors the bank needs to consider in making this loan. Also discusses the financial and... View Details

Keywords: Property; Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking; Housing; Risk and Uncertainty; Construction; Credit; Real Estate Industry; Real Estate Industry; Texas

February 1991 (Revised October 1991)
Case

Fenchel Lampshade Co.

By: William A. Sahlman

Describes the proposed purchase of a lampshade manufacturer by Steven and Michele Rogers, recent graduates of the Harvard Business School. Focuses on their plans to raise the capital necessary to buy the company. Among the issues raised are how to structure the deal... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Negotiation Deal; Business or Company Management; Cost vs Benefits; Manufacturing Industry

November 2003
Case

Procter & Gamble 2000 (A): The SpinBrush and Innovation at P&G

By: William A. Sahlman and Ryland Matthew Willis

Describes a set of decisions confronting some managers in the oral care division of Procter & Gamble. They must decide whether to buy a company that has developed an inexpensive, battery-operated toothbrush. The company's product has done well in one market, but... View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Innovation and Management; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Mergers and Acquisitions; Product Launch; Corporate Finance; Retail Industry

November 1997 (Revised October 2000)
Case

Interactive Minds (A)

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Christina L. Darwall

The efforts of two recent Harvard Business School graduates to start a venture capital/consulting firm focused on opportunities related to the Internet are recounted. Raises the question of what the nature of this opportunity is, how well-positioned the protagonists... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Internet and the Web; Market Entry and Exit; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Consulting Industry

October 2007 (Revised January 2009)
Case

The Hertz Corporation (A)

By: Timothy A. Luehrman and Douglas Scott

Examines the leveraged buyout of Hertz in 2005, a complex, high-profile deal and a good example of cutting-edge practice in private equity. The first of a two-part series on the Hertz LBO, adopts the perspective of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the leader of a private... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Private Equity; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Deal; Valuation; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry; United States

January 1987 (Revised May 1989)
Case

Merck-Banyu

By: Timothy A. Luehrman

Merck acquired control of Banyu in 1983. This was the first acquisition by outsiders of a major publicly traded Japanese company. This case is focused on valuing strategic investments in an environment of global competition. The case is complex because of the... View Details

Keywords: Acquisition; Investment; Globalization; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Industry Structures; Negotiation Deal; Public Ownership; Competition; Valuation; Japan

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March 1998 (Revised November 1998)
Case

Empresas CAP, 1994

By: Tarun Khanna and Danielle Melito Wu

Empresas CAP began as a private-sector steel company in 1946. Over the next 40 years, CAP's ownership structure moved from nationalization to reprivatization. Unrestricted by state ownership, CAP began to diversify its holdings. The case considers the viability of... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Privatization; Diversification; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Management; Planning; Steel Industry

Article

The Economy of Fear: H.P. Lovecraft on Eugenics, Economics and the Great Depression

By: Sophus A. Reinert

The early twentieth-century weird writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft is today best remembered for his genre defining style of academic noir pulp fiction. Yet in focusing on certain tropes of his work, such as the many memorable monsters he created to populate his... View Details

Keywords: H.P. Lovecraft; Society; Economics