Publications

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January 2005
Case

Building Career Foundations: Humphrey Chen (A)

Follows the career decision making of a second-year MBA student who is engaged and must negotiate both cross-cultural and dual-career issues. Humphrey Chen must decide between a consulting firm and running his own start-up company (pre-Internet boom). He confronts... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Personal Development and Career; Family and Family Relationships; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues

10 Jun 2014
First Look

First Look: June 10

http://ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2013.837889?nosfx=y August 2013 Harvard Business Review The Price of Wall Street's Power By: Mukunda, Gautam Abstract—Over and over again, executives make View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

July 2010 (Revised February 2011)
Supplement

Eden McCallum: A Network-Based Consulting Firm (B)

By: Heidi K. Gardner and Erin McFee

To weather the 2009 financial crisis, Eden McCallum's cofounders must renegotiate partners' compensation, attract independent consultants to meet different client demands, and reassure their Advisory Board that their network-based consulting model remains sound. The... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Governing and Advisory Boards; Compensation and Benefits; Partners and Partnerships; Consulting Industry

November 1999
Case

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (C)

By: Andre F. Perold

Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. (LTCM) was in the business of engaging in trading strategies to exploit market pricing discrepancies. Because the firm employed strategies designed to make money over long horizons--from six months to two years or more--it adopted a... View Details

Keywords: Fluctuation; Capital; Financial Liquidity; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Management; Risk Management; Markets; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

April 2009
Case

Merck: Managing Vioxx (A)

By: Robert L. Simons, Kathryn Rosenberg and Natalie Kindred

This two-class case series allows students to stand in the shoes of CEO Ray Gilmartin during the unfolding stages of a reputational crisis. Merck's mission statement claims to "put patients first," but the company is widely criticized for putting profit before patient... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Crisis Management; Reputation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Customers; Business or Company Management; Cost vs Benefits; Corporate Accountability; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Customer Focus and Relationships; Pharmaceutical Industry

August 2016 (Revised August 2016)
Teaching Note

Intrapreneurship at DaVita Healthcare Partners

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Matthew Preble

DaVita Healthcare Partners Inc. (DaVita) is one of the U.S.'s leading dialysis providers, a process whereby persons with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are connected to a machine that performs the functions of a healthy kidney. Kent Thiry, DaVita's CEO, has expanded... View Details

Keywords: Intrapreneurship; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Startup Management; Startup; Strategic Positioning; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Business Startups; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States

October 2009
Case

Low-k Dielectrics at IBM

By: Willy C. Shih and Giovanni Carraro

Innovations at the frontiers of technology carry enormous risk of making wrong choices. This case examines a decision made by IBM in its semiconductor process technology strategy: a material to use as a dielectric insulator in its leading edge silicon chip technology.... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Product Development; Science; Creativity; Semiconductor Industry; United States

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April 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Bob Beall at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

By: Robert Steven Kaplan and Sophie Hood

Bob Beall is the Chief Executive Officer of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF). CFF is an extremely successful organization, but Beall has to determine how to manage the organization through the financial crisis of 2008-2009. In this situation, donations are likely... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leadership; Crisis Management; Nonprofit Organizations

June 2024
Teaching Note

Roku 2021

By: David B. Yoffie

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 721-480. This case is used to explore the strategic concept of "look forward, reason back." Roku in 2021 is trying to figure out the future of television and streaming media. Students are asked to provide a vision for television and... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Television Entertainment; Forecasting and Prediction; Decision Choices and Conditions; Strategy; Strategic Planning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Media and Broadcasting Industry

11 Feb 2014
First Look

First Look: February 11

Furthermore, we show that the impact on organic and indulgent items is dissociable in a manner dependent on the consumers' motivation for bringing bags. These findings have implications for decisions related... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

04 Aug 2006
What Do You Think?

What Happens When the Economics of Scarcity Meets the Economics of Abundance?

be made, many would regard this as a quaint set of beliefs held by people about to come face-to-face with the real world. Anderson describes three conditions critical to potential long-tail profits, all of which are provided by the... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

December 1998 (Revised January 2004)
Case

Singulus

By: Walter Kuemmerle and Chad S Ellis

Describes Singulus, the compact disk metallizer business of Leybold AG, a large German company, which has been put up for sale. In April 1995, buyout firm Schroder Ventures has to decide whether to acquire the business. The investment decision is complicated by a... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Manufacturing Industry; Germany

January 2025
Case

Uncovering Questionable Behavior

By: David Fubini, Patrick Sanguineti, Amy Chambers and William Fubini

In this short vignette on the boundaries of professionalism, Alex Harding, recently promoted to Team Leader, faces a difficult decision regarding his client. While serving the CFO of the client company in preparation for an upcoming merger, he and his team uncover... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Decision Choices and Conditions

August 2009 (Revised July 2010)
Case

Jones Lang LaSalle: Reorganizing around the Customer (2005)

By: Ranjay Gulati and Lucia Menzer Marshall

Peter Roberts, CEO of Jones, Lang, LaSalle (JLL) Americas division, has been charged with expanding the company's presence in its core geographic markets while simultaneously growing its corporate account business. Roberts and his task force have narrowed their options... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Global Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Business Strategy; Real Estate Industry

July 2012
Case

Show Me the Money (A)

By: Clayton Rose

A business unit leader faces a major decision when an employee critical to a high profile transaction asks for a unique compensation arrangement that has implications for the culture of the business. View Details

Keywords: Culture; Compensation; Leadership; Cost vs Benefits; Decision Choices and Conditions; Organizational Culture; Compensation and Benefits

January 2008
Background Note

Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs)

By: Joshua Coval and Erik Stafford

This lesson integrated Merton's (1974) contingent claims model of debt and equity claims with the CAPM, which allows us to examine the risks and pricing of credit portfolios and the derivative claims issued against them. In particular, this model is used to make... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Borrowing and Debt; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Investment Portfolio; Risk Management

January 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Geely SEA: New Electric Vehicle Platforms

By: Willy C. Shih and Shu Lin

Kent Bovellan, the Chief Engineer and Head of the Vehicle Architecture Center for Geely Holding, the Hangzhou, China headquartered global automotive group, was debating the platform choice for an upcoming "D" segment midsized battery electric vehicle (BEV). He had led... View Details

Keywords: Product Innovation; Product Architecture; Product Engineering; Platform Design; Platform Strategy; Information Infrastructure; Digital Platforms; Information Technology; Product Design; Product Development; Cost Management; Decision Making; Competitive Strategy; Industry Structures; Auto Industry; China; Sweden