Publications

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November 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

United Technologies: Are the Parts Worth More Than the Whole?

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

After spending more than 50 years creating a diversified industrial conglomerate that Fortune magazine described as “arguably the most profitable conglomerate in America” in 2014, UTC’s CEO Greg Hayes was under pressure from activist investors (Dan Loeb and Bill... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Strategy; Business Conglomerates; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Organizational Structure; Investment Funds; Value Creation; Aerospace Industry; Electronics Industry; Industrial Products Industry; United States

January 2023
Teaching Note

MicroStrategy’s Investment in Bitcoin

By: C. Fritz Foley, Celine Chammas and Donal O'Cofaigh

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 222-048. View Details

Keywords: Bitcoin; Corporate Strategy; Acquisition; Investment Portfolio; Capital Structure; Equity

October 2019 (Revised February 2025)
Case

A Conversation with Ellen J. Kullman, Chairman & CEO of DuPont, 2009-2015

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

Ellen J. Kullman, the retired Chairman and CEO of DuPont, describes how she guided the storied science and technology company through a contentious proxy battle with activist investor Trian Partners, which acquired DuPont shares in 2013 and sought to break up the... View Details

Keywords: Agribusiness; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Institutional Investing; Leadership; Leadership Style; Management; Transformation; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Chemical Industry; United States

31 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 31

corporate leaders have significant discretion. Corporate philanthropy is our setting to study how a differentiated structural element-the View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne & Carmen Nobel

Web

Demystifying the Family Enterprise - Course Catalog

structure necessary to support it. Module two deep dives into the Operating Company and the Corporate governance structure necessary to support the Family Organization. In... View Details

01 May 2013
News

Lynn Thoman, MBA 1979

For Lynn Thoman, co-president of the Leon Lowenstein Foundation and managing partner of Corporate Perspectives, choosing an MBA program was easy. “Harvard Business School was the only one I applied to,” she says. “I was attracted by the... View Details

09 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 9

different ownership structure and managers with different risk aversion and talent match endogenously through incentive contracts. The model predicts and the data support that, compared to widely held firms, family firms use contracts... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

02 Aug 2004
What Do You Think?

For Greater Transparency, Is Section 404 an Effective Response?

of the article. Richard Eckel opined that "A basic misconception is that Section 404 increases transparency afforded to stakeholders... What 404 does is require that corporate leadership demonstrate that the processes used to produce... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

03 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

The Competitive Advantage of Global Finance

of these firms face various issues—including management of exchange rate risk, how to structure their internal capital markets, how to do capital budgeting worldwide, and how to respond to varying regulatory and tax incentives. The book... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

December 2019
Case

WeWork Files for an IPO

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

For the board of The We Company—better known as WeWork—August 14, 2019, promised to be a pivotal day. It was then that WeWork’s IPO prospectus, known as an S-1 filing, would be made public, giving potential investors, the media, and the general public a window into the... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Leadership; Management; Private Equity; Valuation; Venture Capital; Real Estate Industry; Technology Industry; United States

July 2009 (Revised January 2014)
Case

Sustainability at Millipore

By: Michael W. Toffel and Katharine Lee

This case describes Millipore Corporation's approach to becoming a more environmentally sustainable company. As he prepared for his quarterly meeting with the CEO, the Director of Sustainability needed to develop positions on several issues. Tactically, he needed to... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Disclosure; Operations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Structure; Natural Environment; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants

01 Sep 2006
News

East to West

Issues surrounding corporate governance are a source of ongoing debate in the boardrooms of companies around the world — not just the United States. A new case, “Governing Sumida Corporation,” takes readers inside a Japanese manufacturer... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services; Management

01 Mar 2009
News

A Modern-Day Classic

the exception of some work done on multinational corporations by HBS professor emeritus Chris Bartlett. It’s only recently that there’s been a resurgence of interest. We wanted to capture that moment.” Lawrence and Lorsch’s book... View Details

Keywords: Publishing Industries (except Internet); Information

01 Dec 2003
News

Books

Back to the Drawing Board by Colin B. Carter and Jay W. Lorsch (Harvard Business School Press) Corporate boards are frequent targets of criticism in the wake of recent corporate scandals. But in their new... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

11 Jan 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

New Game, New Rules: Developing Managers for a Competitive World

The Program for Global Leadership assembles senior executives from organizations worldwide who participate and interact in a unique, multi-phased educational process. The program's unusual structure helps them to gain fresh insight about... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

December 2007 (Revised July 2011)
Case

Leadership in Energy: Jim Rogers at Cinergy

By: Boris Groysberg, Nitin Nohria, Colleen Kaftan and Geoff Eckman Marietta

Jim Rogers, CEO of the energy company Cinergy, has led the company from the brink of bankruptcy to one of the premier energy companies through selecting a focused strategy, aligning the organization to support it, and mobilizing all the employees to implementation. The... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Leading Change; Organizational Culture; Organizational Structure; Alignment; Corporate Strategy; Energy Industry