Publications

22 May 2020
Blog Post

Remembering Well and Making Meaning of Memorial Day

pure well-wishing – “hope alone is not a course of action,” one of my commanders loved to say. I believe remembering well means both taking stock of where we’ve been, and taking action – in service – going forward. One of the greatest... View Details

15 Aug 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Legislating Stock Prices

Keywords: by Lauren Cohen, Karl Diether & Christopher Malloy; Financial Services

19 Feb 2007
Research & Ideas

Inexperienced Investors and Market Bubbles

MacKay observed in 1852, "even chimney-sweeps and old clotheswomen dabbled in tulips." These days it's not just chimney-sweeps who are lured to investment heartbreak. New research suggests that even professional fund managers—if... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

06 Feb 2018
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas: February 6, 2018

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53786 forthcoming Strategic Management Journal Scope versus Speed: Team Diversity, Leader Experience, and Patenting Outcomes for Firms By: Choudhury, Prithwiraj, and Martine R. Haas... View Details

Program

Real Estate Management Program

value through healthy, sustainable, and climate-friendly design Deliver projects on time and on budget Build and contract with industry talent Expand your personal and professional network Extend your network by living and working with... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Real Estate

April 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Wayfair

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Susie L. Ma and Matthew G. Preble

In 2016 Niraj Shah and Steve Conine, founders of online home goods retailer Wayfair, are faced with a decision about how to improve user experience on their e-commerce sites. A key driver of consumer interest and conversion to purchase in the home category is visual... View Details

Keywords: Visual Assets; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Business or Company Management; Growth Management; Innovation and Invention; Operations; Strategy; Technology; Service Industry; Service Industry; United States; Massachusetts

03 Nov 2009
First Look

First Look: Nov. 3

listed and unlisted firms from across a wide spectrum of manufacturing and services industries and ownership structures such as state-owned firms, business groups, and private and foreign firms. Detailed... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

October 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Case

BlackRock (A): Selling the Systems?

By: Ranjay Gulati, Jan W. Rivkin and Kelly McNamara

As the case opens in 1999, several key leaders at BlackRock, Inc., then a relatively small asset management firm, are trying to convince CEO Larry Fink and others that the firm should begin to offer Aladdin—its proprietary analytics and trading platform—to other asset... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Asset Management; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; United States

04 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 4

incentives to invest in the face of potential holdup problems and also with the proposition that exclusive arrangements lead firms to seek contingent control rights to avoid lock-in when environmental uncertainty is high. Private Equity... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

July 2013 (Revised August 2017)
Case

TaKaDu

By: Elie Ofek and Matthew Preble

In December 2012, Amir Peleg, founder and CEO of TaKaDu, reflected on how to position his young firm for the next fiscal year and beyond. The small Israeli startup had developed an innovative software system that used patented algorithms and statistical analysis to... View Details

March 2004 (Revised August 2004)
Case

Strategic Review at Egon Zehnder International (A)

By: Ashish Nanda

The case describes the history of the executive search firm Egon Zehnder International (EZI) from its inception through 2000. Internal and environmental changes lead EZI leaders to question whether the firm might be at an inflection point in its history. The EZI... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Strategy; Service Industry

16 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 16, 2019

Recommendations are based on analyses of individuals’ career histories in the professional services sector and other settings, such as appliance manufacturing, oil and gas, health care, and education. The... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

December 2019 (Revised January 2021)
Supplement

The Leveraged Buyout of TXU: (B) Energy Future Holdings

By: Trevor Fetter, Erik Snowberg and Rebecca M. Henderson

This case is designed to support a lively discussion about the relative merits of shareholder vs. stakeholder perspectives in the context of a company that provides a vital public service that has important environmental implications. The 2007 purchase of TXU, the... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Transformation; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Environmental Sustainability; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Energy Generation; Utilities Industry; Energy Industry; Texas

February 2022 (Revised January 2024)
Supplement

Winning Business at Russell Reynolds (C)

By: Ethan Bernstein and Cara Mazzucco

In an effort to make compensation drive collaboration, Russell Reynolds Associates’ (RRA) CEO Clarke Murphy sought to re-engineer the bonus system for his executive search consultants in 2016. As his HR analytics guru, Kelly Smith, points out, that risks upsetting—and... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Talent and Talent Management; Compensation and Benefits; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Evaluation; Motivation and Incentives; Consulting Industry

January–February 2014
Article

Building a Game-Changing Talent Strategy

By: Douglas A. Ready, Linda A. Hill and Robert J. Thomas

When most of the world's financial services giants were stumbling and retrenching in the aftermath of the 2008 recession, the asset management firm BlackRock was busy charting a course for growth. Its revenues, profits, and stock price all performed consistently... View Details

Keywords: Talent and Talent Management; Success; Business Strategy; Financial Crisis; Financial Services Industry

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September 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Integral Capital Partners

By: Andre F. Perold and Markus Mullarkey

Integral Capital Partners is a small firm with a very distinctive approach to investing in high-technology stocks. The firm invests privately in small start-ups as well as in publicly traded companies, and it develops important financial and advisory relationships with... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Value Creation; Venture Capital; Asset Management; Partners and Partnerships; Public Sector; Private Sector; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; Financial Services Industry

Find at Harvard

23 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 23, 2008

individual-level data from an Indian software services firm to examine the effects of team familiarity and variation in market experience on multiple measures of performance for over 1,100 software... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

August 2005 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Procter & Gamble: Electronic Data Capture and Clinical Trial Management

By: Robert S. Huckman and Mark J. Cotteleer

Considers whether the management of Procter & Gamble (P&G) Pharmaceuticals should adopt Web-based electronic data capture (EDC) as the default standard for the management of its clinical drug trials. Provides a detailed description of the existing paper-based process... View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Internet and the Web; Information Technology; Adoption; Business Processes; Industry Structures; Technological Innovation; Service Operations; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

November 2007 (Revised August 2009)
Case

WL Ross & Co. and INVESCO

Wilbur Ross has built a successful private equity firm focused on distressed investing, WL Ross & Co. In 2006, INVESCO, an asset management company, approaches him about acquiring his firm. INVESCO has had weak performance in recent years and is looking to increase its... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment; Acquisition; Financial Services Industry