Publications

March 2024
Module Note

Navigating the Future: Managing Financial Forecasts

By: Mark Egan

This module note guides instructors on delivering a course module that focuses on understanding, developing, and using financial forecasts from a chief financial officer’s (CFO) perspective. The cases in the module equip students with an understanding of the techniques... View Details

Keywords: CFO; Forecasting; Corporate Finance; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Management; Revenue; United States

February 2003 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Bombardier: Canada versus Brazil at the WTO

By: Rawi E. Abdelal, Laura Alfaro and Brett Laschinger

In less than a decade, Bombardier had grown from a medium-size Canadian company to a highly profitable global player largely on the strength of the introduction of a new generation of regional jet and successfully marketing its product to airlines around the world.... View Details

Keywords: Trade; Global Strategy; Five Forces Framework; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Business and Government Relations; Situation or Environment; Competition; Air Transportation Industry; Canada; Brazil

Web

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February 2023
Case

Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse

By: Ayelet Israeli and Nicole Tempest Keller

In 2022, Roblox had 58.8 million daily active users, including over half of all children and teens under the age of 16 in the United States. Roblox, a free-to-use “co-experience platform”, allowed users to come together in immersive 3D experiences to socialize, work,... View Details

March 2021 (Revised January 2022)
Case

Philips: Redefining Telehealth

By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Alec Petersen, Natalie Kindred and Sara M. McKinley

As one of the world’s largest healthcare companies, Philips sought to reach beyond the walls of the hospital and expand its hospital-to-home program to gain future competitive advantage through technology solutions combining predictive analytics with care delivery. By... View Details

April 1986 (Revised May 1989)
Case

Alloy Rods Corp.

By: Frank V. Cespedes

In July of 1985 the managers of Alloy Rods (who recently purchased the company through a leveraged buyout arrangement) find that their chief competitor (a company more than 6 times as large as Alloy Rods) has introduced a new product clearly aimed at Alloy's most... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Business Strategy; Business or Company Management; Financial Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Marketing Channels; Product Development

January 2019 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Blackstone Alternative Asset Management in 2018

By: Emil Siriwardane, Luis M. Viceira and Shawn O'Brien

In early 2018, Blackstone announced that John McCormick would succeed Tom Hill as President and Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM), the largest fund-of-hedge funds in the world by a sizeable margin. As new CEO, McCormick must... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Expansion; Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry

September 2001 (Revised April 2002)
Case

Ocean Carriers

By: Erik Stafford, Angela Chao and Kathleen Luchs

In January 2001, Mary Linn, vice president of finance for Ocean Carriers, a shipping company with offices in New York and Hong Kong, was evaluating a proposed lease of a ship for a three-year period, beginning in early 2003. The customer was eager to finalize the... View Details

Keywords: Cash Flow; Forecasting and Prediction; Cost of Capital; Leasing; Corporate Strategy; Valuation; Shipping Industry; New York (city, NY); Hong Kong

July 2018 (Revised December 2018)
Case

SOFWERX: Innovation at U.S. Special Operations Command

By: Herman Leonard, Mitchell Weiss, Jin Hyun Paik and Kerry Herman

James “Hondo” Geurts, the Acquisition Executive for U.S. Special Operations Command, was in the middle of his Senate confirmation hearing in 2017 to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. The questions had a common theme: how... View Details

18 Nov 2008
First Look

First Look: November 18, 2008

publicly traded firms in the United States under scrutiny. This case examines perceived excessive pay and severance packages at several firms implicated in the credit crisis of 2008, the executive... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

March 2018 (Revised January 2020)
Supplement

STRIVR (B): Moving into the Enterprise

By: Rajiv Lal and Scott Johnson

STRIVR, a company focused on virtual reality training, has decided to shift focus from sports to enterprise customers. The change in strategy requires the CEO to solve a number of issues. The company initally offered training for hard skills, but clients have been... View Details

Keywords: Strivr; Virtual Reality; Soft Skills; Hard Skills; VR; Applications and Software; Market Entry and Exit; Business Strategy; Training; Sports; Technology Industry; Education Industry; United States

March 2012
Article

Choosing the United States

By: Michael E. Porter and Jan W. Rivkin

The U.S. is not winning its appropriate share of location decisions, even those involving the high-value-adding activities that the country has long been able to attract. In part, this is because U.S. policy makers are not addressing weaknesses in the national business... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; United States

Find at Harvard

07 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 7

statistically significant improvements in managerial effectiveness and performance. Now executives were wondering: how could Google build on the success of this project, extending it to senior leaders,... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

June 2002
Case

Southwest Airlines in Baltimore

By: Rogelio Oliva, Jody Hoffer Gittell and David Lane

The number of connecting passengers through Southwest Airlines' Baltimore station has grown 100% CAGR since 1997. Originally designed as a point-to-point network, this load of connecting passengers has been stressing Baltimore ground operations, resulting in an erosion... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Growth Management; Air Transportation; Service Operations; Air Transportation Industry; Maryland

26 Sep 2016
News

Letters from Prison

February 2017
Case

BlaBlaCar: The Road Ahead...

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Arun Sundararajan, Emilie Billaud and Caroline Caltagirone

In 2017, the co-founders of BlaBlaCar—the world’s largest long-distance carpooling company—reflected on the evolution of their venture and the way forward. BlaBlaCar had reached critical mass and size; yet staying still was not going to be enough to be relevant and... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Transformation; Decision Making; Values and Beliefs; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Platforms; Network Effects; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Internet and the Web; Transportation Networks; Transportation Industry; Web Services Industry; France; Europe