Publications

Read Now

September 1988 (Revised July 2000)
Case

Alex Dean

By: Shoshana Zuboff, Dave DeLong and Kathleen Scharf

Traces the evolution of Alex Dean's internal and external careers, exploring his psychological and emotional development, as well as seemingly dramatic shifts in career direction from research scientist to venture capitalist. Designed to encourage students to reflect... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Jobs and Positions; Emotions; Research and Development; Venture Capital

Find at Harvard

Career Coach

Claire DSilva

Claire led Strategic Business Development at Klarna before HBS and has previous experience in Strategy at Chase in New York. She led hiring for groups at both organizations and can provide insight into what they’re looking for in a candidate. She spent last summer in... View Details

November 2004 (Revised May 2010)
Case

RightNow Technologies

By: William A. Sahlman and Dan Heath

The founder and CEO of a CRM software start-up must decide between an attractive acquisition offer and the opportunity to go public. Discusses the growth of the company--including a lengthy discussion of entrepreneurial bootstrapping--as well as an aborted IPO attempt... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Applications and Software; Going Public; Management Teams; Finance; Strategy; Value Creation; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Acquisition; Computer Industry

June 2007 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Thomas J. Watson, IBM and Nazi Germany

By: Geoffrey Jones, Grace Ballor and Adrian Brown

Considers the strategy of U.S.-owned IBM, then a manufacturer of punch cards, in Nazi Germany before 1937. Opens with IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson meeting Adolf Hitler in his capacity as President of the International Chamber of Commerce. IBM had acquired a German company... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Values and Beliefs; Multinational Firms and Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Investment; Business and Government Relations; Germany; United States

January–February 2022
Article

Operational Disruptions, Firm Risk, and Control Systems

By: William Schmidt and Ananth Raman

Operational disruptions can impact a firm's risk, which manifests in a host of operational issues, including a higher holding cost for inventory, a higher financing cost for capacity expansion, and a higher perception of the firm's risk among its supply chain partners.... View Details

Keywords: Operational Risk; Operational Disruptions; Information Asymmetry; Control Systems; Operations; Disruption; Risk Management

Find at Harvard

Register to Read

23 Mar 2010
First Look

First Look: March 23

Publication: Management Science (forthcoming) Abstract We examine whether the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity is related to the prior career experiences of an individual's co-workers, using a unique matched employer-employee panel... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

January 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (A): True to Brand?

By: Jeffrey Fear and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Examines one of the most important entrepreneurial decisions made in the history of Porsche, made in early 1998: to build a sport utility vehicle (SUV)--the Cayenne. After decades of relying on one or two sports car models and nearly going bankrupt and losing its... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Supply Chain Management; Luxury; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Globalization; Brands and Branding; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry

01 Feb 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Dollar Funding and the Lending Behavior of Global Banks

Keywords: by Victoria Ivashina, David S. Scharfstein & Jeremy C. Stein; Financial Services

May 2025
Background Note

Social Enterprise in Latin America

By: Brian L. Trelstad and Karina Souza

This research note provides an overview of the social enterprise ecosystem in Latin America, exploring current dynamics across key markets, including country-specific insights on Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and Central America. In a region characterized... View Details

Leonard A. Schlesinger is Baker Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School where he serves as Chair of the School’s Practice based faculty and faculty Chair of the MBA Field Global Immersion program. He has served as a member of the HBS faculty from 1978 to... View Details

04 Dec 2007
First Look

First Look: December 4, 2007

real and sustainable; to decide how low a company must bid in order to win a competitive contract from a rival; to identify opportunities for internal cost reduction; to estimate, in the context of an acquisition, how much the costs of an... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Web

Curriculum | MBA

Joint Course SPRING TERM Business, Government, and the International Economy (BGIE) Harvard Business School The Entrepreneurial Manager Harvard Business School FIELD Immersion Harvard Business School View Details

July 2002 (Revised February 2003)
Case

Fresh Start? Peru's Legacy of Debt and Default (A)

By: Julio J. Rotemberg and Lisa Lewis

Considers the situation facing Alberto Fujimori as he takes office in 1990. Pays particular attention to Peru's long history of international borrowing, default, and renegotiation. This history suggests that the costs imposed by foreigners on Peru when it failed to... View Details

Keywords: History; International Finance; Sovereign Finance; Economy; Borrowing and Debt; Peru

September 2000 (Revised November 2004)
Case

Globalization of CEMEX, The

CEMEX is a Mexican company that has become a major international competitor in cement while maintaining a higher level of profitability than other, longer-established majors. CEMEX's superior profitability supplies a basis for discussing the sources of superior... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Profit; Performance; Globalization; Construction Industry; Mexico

08 May 2019
Blog Post

In the Business of Flexibility

As founder of Prokanga, the innovative recruiting firm that connects companies with experienced, flexible marketing and finance expertise, Jamie Cheney (MBA 2007) understands the value of a fluid workforce. Together with Annie Davis (MBA... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit / Government

March 1992 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Lada do Brasil

By: James E. Austin and Helen Shapiro

In an effort to capitalize on the entrepreneurial opportunity presented by the Brazilian government's trade liberalization, a Panamanian automobile trading company launched a business of importing the Russian made Lada cars into Brazil. The company confronts a complex... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Transformation; Economics; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Capital; Policy; Competition; Auto Industry; Brazil