Publications

26 Jul 2012
News

To Get a 'Fair' Raise in Pay, Characterize Your Request as Mutually Beneficial

March 2010 (Revised June 2010)
Case

Whose Money Is It Anyway? (A)

By: V.G. Narayanan, Richard G. Hamermesh and Rachel Gordon

The Brigham and Women's Physician's Organization (BWPO) and its corporate parent disagree over who has jurisdiction over significant legacy funds. Are they controlled by the BWPO or do they belong to BWPO's corporate parent? The BWPO and its corporate parent must... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Investment Funds; Governance Controls; Agreements and Arrangements; Boundaries; Health Industry

April 2000
Case

Financing of Project Achieve, The (A)

By: Mihir A. Desai

An entrepreneur is forced to analyze the tradeoffs between different equity providers through a detailed analysis of venture financing terms and cash flow forecasts. The founder of a Web-based IMS for schools must negotiate a term sheet, determine funding needs, value... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Forecasting and Prediction; Venture Capital; Cash Flow; Equity; Negotiation Deal; Valuation

June 1993 (Revised December 1994)
Case

Milkpak Limited.: International Joint Venture

By: John A. Quelch

Considers a Pakistani company's decision to conduct a joint venture with a foreign multinational. In 1987, Milkpak Ltd. had successfully developed a market for sterilized milk and wanted to produce other value-added food products. The company was evaluating the best... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Multinational Firms and Management; Joint Ventures; Developing Countries and Economies; Food and Beverage Industry; Pakistan

2008
Working Paper

Open to Negotiation: Phenomenological Assumptions and Knowledge Dissemination

By: Corinne Bendersky and Kathleen L. McGinn

Phenomenological assumptions-assumptions about the fundamental qualities of the phenomenon being studied and how it relates to the environment in which it occurs-affect the dissemination of knowledge from subfields to the broader field of study. Micro-process research... View Details

Keywords: Citations; Knowledge Dissemination; Negotiation; Research

Read Now

12 Jan 2010
First Look

First Look: Jan. 12

engaging in real earnings management and suggest the effects on subsequent reporting periods and competitor behavior are greater than previously documented. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-073.pdf Negotiating the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

September 2006 (Revised November 2006)
Supplement

Cathy Benko: WINning at Deloitte (B)

By: Kathleen L. McGinn, Deborah M. Kolb and Cailin B. Hammer

Cathy Benko pulls together a group of Deloitte and Touche's top partners for a weekend discussion of the Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women (WIN). Benko, stimulated by the strong reaction by the attending partners, agrees to take on the leadership... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Partners and Partnerships; Agreements and Arrangements; Retention; Gender

May 1996 (Revised October 2001)
Case

BAE Automated Systems (B): Implementing the Denver International Airport Baggage-Handling System

By: Lynda M. Applegate, H. James Nelson, Ramiro Montealegre and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Describes the negotiations between the City of Denver officials, airlines, consulting companies, and BAE for the construction of a backup baggage system to enable the Denver International Airport (DIA) to open. When DIA finally opens in February 1995, 16 months behind... View Details

Keywords: Performance Effectiveness; Management Practices and Processes; Projects; Negotiation; Outcome or Result; Problems and Challenges; Air Transportation Industry; Construction Industry; Colorado

30 Jun 2016
Blog Post

4 Ways I've Changed at HBS

There are certain things you come to business school expecting to learn and certain ways you expect you’ll change. Over the course of my first year at HBS, I’ve learned how to prepare a balance sheet and negotiate a job offer—but I’ve... View Details

14 Apr 2016
News

5 Reasons Good Deals Get Rejected

July 2021
Case

Amazon HQ2

By: James K. Sebenius and Ben Cook

Amazon’s failed bid for a second headquarters location (“HQ2”) in Long Island City, New York offers many lessons for negotiators looking to avoid similar high-profile defeats in strategically important deals. The company’s project – which promised to bring billions of... View Details

Keywords: Buildings and Facilities; Negotiation; Public Opinion; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Problems and Challenges

December 2022 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Ribbit Capital and the Gauntlet Investment Opportunity

By: Shai Bernstein and Allison M. Ciechanover

Ten-year-old, Palo Alto-based Ribbit Capital is best-known for its global investments in fintech. The firm was also an early advocate of crypto and blockchain, having invested in more than two dozen startups in the space in the past decade. In the Spring of 2022,... View Details

Keywords: Alternative Assets; Cryptocurrency; Business Startups; Investment Portfolio; Decision Choices and Conditions; Negotiation Deal; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Venture Capital; Financial Services Industry; California

Royce Yudkoff is the MBA Class of 1975 Professor of Management Practice of Entrepreneurial Management at the Harvard Business School and a General Partner and co-founder of ABRY Partners, LLC in Boston, MA. Alongside Professor Richard Ruback, Royce currently... View Details

January 1997 (Revised November 1997)
Case

IBM and Siemens: Revitalizing the Rolm Division (A)

By: Ashish Nanda, Antonio Davila and Georgia Levenson

The case opens with a discussion of the evolution of the private branch exchange industry in the 1970s and 1980s. It follows the path of Rolm from an independent company to an IBM acquisition and its problem as an IBM division. Then describes Siemens' growing interest... View Details

Keywords: Communication Technology; Restructuring; Joint Ventures; Negotiation Participants; Business Divisions; Problems and Challenges; Acquisition; Telecommunications Industry

Find at Harvard

January 1994 (Revised July 1998)
Case

Repligen Corporation: January 1992

By: Josh Lerner and David Kane

Sandford Smith, CEO of Repligen, faces the breakdown of negotiations about a proposed joint venture with a large pharmaceutical firm. He must decide whether to proceed using his firm's internal resources or whether to seek to revise the proposed collaboration. If the... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Decisions; Contracts; Agreements and Arrangements; Value

December 1994 (Revised October 1996)
Case

Byrnes, Byrnes & Townsend: Case and Simulation

Designed to be used in conjunction with Patriot National Insurance Co. Discusses a suit brought by a woman client who was badly injured in an automobile accident and alleges that a proximate cause of the accident was faulty repairs on her car by a Patriot-insured auto... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Insurance; Insurance Industry

November 2005
Case

Michael Ovitz and The Walt Disney Company (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Alexis Chernak

Faced with the need to hire a new president, The Walt Disney Co. pursued Michael Ovitz, a founder of the Creative Artist Agency. Although initially disinterested, Ovitz engaged in negotiations with Michael Eisner, CEO of The Walt Disney Co., in the summer of 1995... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Management Teams; Selection and Staffing; Negotiation; Organizational Culture

Professor Louis T. Wells is the Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management at the Harvard Business School. He has served as consultant to governments of a number of developing countries, as well as to international organizations and private firms. His... View Details

Keywords: mining; telecommunications; utilities

November 2022
Case

Jon Fortt: The Art of Debate and Effective Communication

By: Francesca Gino, Sarah Livick-Moses and Ruth Page

This stand-alone multimedia case explores the art of communication in the space of negotiation. It follows the career journey of business journalist, media influencer, and co-anchor of CNBC's "Squawk Alley," Jon Fortt. He offers reflections on the race crisis in the... View Details

Keywords: Communication; Negotiation; Race