Publications

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July 2006 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Changan Automobile Co., Ltd.

By: Dennis Campbell and Donglin Xia

Chairman Yin Jiaxu must communicate that the company's extraordinary reported performance in 2002 reflects Changan's unique strategy within the competitive dynamics of China's automobile industry. Changan's 2002 annual report demonstrated an extraordinary level of... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Media; Business and Shareholder Relations; Auto Industry; China

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

Keywords: Crisis Management; Management Succession; Strategic Planning; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business and Shareholder Relations; Conflict of Interests; Real Estate Industry

Educators

11 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

The Future of Boards

maximizing shareholder value as the primary focus and motivation for a corporation's existence” Topics tackled include how boards can most effectively oversee company strategy, CEO succession, and executive compensation. Also considered... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

19 Jul 2016
First Look

July 19, 2016

ecosystem whose interests were not aligned. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51375 Shareholder Activism on Sustainability Issues By: Grewal, Jody, George Serafeim, and Aaron Yoon Abstract—Shareholder... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 1992 (Revised September 1993)
Case

Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc.

By: Jay O. Light

A New York-based money manager owns a sizable percentage of the common shares of Cleveland-Cliffs, a U.S. iron ore producer. The money manager would prefer that Cliffs pay out or otherwise return $100 million of "excess cash" to the shareholders. The management resists... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Financial Strategy; Mining; Business and Shareholder Relations; Financial Services Industry

08 Apr 2008
First Look

First Look: April 8, 2008

Publication:Harvard Business Review 86, no. 4 (April 2008): 104-111 Abstract These days, boards are working overtime to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and other governance requirements meant to protect shareholders from executive wrongdoing.... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

06 Feb 2006
Research & Ideas

The Trouble Behind Livedoor

early 2003 would have 10,000 shares today. Why would a company want to cut the trading price of its stock by so much? A: In a stock split, each share of the firm is divided into more units, but the proportional ownership of each View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services; Technology

03 Apr 2007
First Look

First Look: April 3, 2007

Siliconix Shareholders Litigation that a freeze-out executed as a tender offer is not. This paper presents the first systematic empirical evidence on post-Siliconixfreeze-outs. Using a new database of all Delaware freeze-outs executed in... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 1988
Case

Agrico, Inc.: A Software Dilemma

By: F. Warren McFarlan

An information systems vice president has one hour to make an ethical decision: should a software program, left inadvertently on the company's computer, be copied and stored? Copying the program would protect clients' assets, but it seems to violate the vendor... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Ethics; Contracts; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Business and Shareholder Relations; Information Technology Industry

Educators

29 Apr 2002
Research & Ideas

Star Power! How to Win in Professional Services

to question, debate, and even oppose initiatives with which they disagree—and often do so. Corporate CEOs also tend to deal with their shareholders periodically and at a distance. True, they have to talk with analysts at least quarterly,... View Details

Keywords: by Jay W. Lorsch & Thomas J. Tierney

September 2010 (Revised July 2021)
Case

Gone Rural

By: Andre F. Perold

Gone Rural employs 750 women in rural communities across Swaziland to produce handwoven baskets and other hand-crafted items. The women are mostly grandmothers caring for children orphaned as a result of the country's high AIDS-related death rate. The company has a... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Growth and Development; Buildings and Facilities; Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Finance; Business and Shareholder Relations; Swaziland

Educators

July 2010
Supplement

Post-Crisis Compensation at Credit Suisse (C)

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

The (C) case describes the results of Credit Suisse's PIP I program, the value of PAF, shareholders' vote on the new compensation plan supported by management, and the impact of the company's approach to the U.K. banker's tax. View Details

Keywords: Voting; Taxation; Compensation and Benefits; Business and Shareholder Relations; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Switzerland; United Kingdom

1985
Manual

Teacher's Manual for Revitalizing Businesses: Shareholder/Work Force Conflicts

By: W. E. Fruhan Jr.

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Employees; Conflict and Resolution; Books

19 Mar 2018
Sharpening Your Skills

8 Ways To Be An Environmentally Conscious Manager

iPhoto In an interview about his recent book Profits and Sustainability, which portrays the iconoclastic entrepreneurs who built green startups in the 19th century, Harvard Business School historian Geoffrey Jones notes that being a business-environmentalist can be... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Energy

2012
Working Paper

How Short-Termism Invites Corruption—And What to Do About It

By: Malcolm S. Salter

Researchers and business leaders have long decried short-termism: the excessive focus of executives of publicly traded companies-along with fund managers and other investors-on short-term results. The central concern is that short-termism discourages long-term... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations; Public Ownership; Performance Expectations; Economy; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Trust; Financial Services Industry; United States