Business Performance - Publications - Faculty & Research

07 Feb 2012
First Look

First Look: February 7

future performance and cost of capital and (ii) to critically assess the implied assumptions underlying the market's expectations. The case is best suited for a course on business valuation at all levels... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

02 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Not All M&As Are Alike—and That Matters

We know surprisingly little about mergers and acquisitions, despite the buckets of ink spilled on the topic. In fact, our collective wisdom could be summed up in a few short sentences: Acquirers usually pay too much. Friendly deals done using stock often View Details

Keywords: by Joseph L. Bower

Clayton S. Rose

Clayton Rose is Baker Foundation Professor of Management Practice. He currently teaches the course Accountability in the Advanced Management Program. His research is focused on the how leaders can manage the challenges created by the intense, varied and often... View Details

Keywords: financial services

April 2014
Supplement

Ingrid Johnson: Reflections on Leading Change

By: Michael Tushman

This case discusses the issue of leading change at the business banking division of Nedbank, a prominent South African bank, between 2005 and 2009. (This timeframe, beginning just 11 years after Apartheid's end, covers Ingrid Johnson's leadership of this division... View Details

Keywords: Leading Change; Restructuring; Personal Development and Career; Commercial Banking; Banking Industry; South Africa

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September 2022
Article

Experimentation and Start-up Performance: Evidence from A/B Testing

By: Rembrand Koning, Sharique Hasan and Aaron Chatterji

Recent scholarship has argued that experimentation should be the organizing principle for entrepreneurial strategy. Experimentation leads to organizational learning, which drives improvements in firm performance. We investigate this proposition by exploiting the... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; A/B Testing; Data-driven Decision-making; Organizational Learning; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Business Startups; Learning; Performance; Decision Making

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Research Summary

Competitive Strategy

By: Michael E. Porter

Porter is engaged in a major new body of work on the theoretical foundations of competitive positioning and the underpinnings of sustainable competitive advantage. This research highlights the distinction between positioning and operational effectiveness; the... View Details

23 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Building a Better Buyer-Seller Relationship

Buyers and sellers in mature industrial markets can turn single transactions into long-term beneficial relationships by a deeper understanding of the complex connection between the two, says Harvard Business School professor Narakesari... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Program

Succeeding as a Strategic CFO

as capital budgeting and managing risk, in an effective manner Gain confidence in situations outside of your areas of expertise Strengthen your communication skills Improve how you describe your plans and performance results to... View Details

August 1993 (Revised April 1998)
Case

Filene's Basement

By: David E. Bell and Dinny Starr

Filene's Basement is in the process of deciding where, and if, to locate two new stores in its new Chicago area of operations. The existing Chicago area stores have been performing well, however, management is concerned with over saturation of the market. At the time... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Business Processes

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December 2012 (Revised March 2015)
Case

AmTran Technology Ltd.

By: Willy Shih, Jyun-Cheng Wang and Karen E. Robinson

As an original design manufacturer (ODM) of television sets and leading supplier to Vizio, a market leader in the U.S. for LCD flat panel TVs, AmTran Technology Ltd. uses what founder Alpha Wu describes as a "WE" model in which western companies perform sales,... View Details

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September 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Teaching Note

Gemini Investors

By: Richard S. Ruback, Royce Yudkoff and Ahron Rosenfeld

Teaching Note for HBS No. 211-066. Gemini Investors was a private equity firm that targeted equity investments of between $4 million to $6 million per firm. In the period from 2000 to 2015, Gemini had successfully deployed four funds, all licensed as Small Business... View Details

Keywords: Small ＆ Medium-sized Enterprises; Small Business; Private Equity; Investment Funds; Decision Making; Financial Services Industry; United States

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Web

Live from Klarman Hall - Alumni

management and leadership challenges of running an alliance, and the uncertain legal status of some of the groups. Video Recording Driving Climate Performance through Accountability and Governance Faculty Moderator: George Serafeim (DBA... View Details

06 Mar 2020
Book

A Great Teacher's Lessons for Leading

Click to watch. “The best teachers are leaders, and the best leaders are also teachers,” says Harvard Business School Professor Thomas DeLong, who since 1997 has taught more than 20,000 MBAs and executives on campus and around the globe.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

22 Mar 2022
Cold Call Podcast

How Etsy Found Its Purpose and Crafted a Turnaround

Keywords: Re: Ranjay Gulati; Technology; Retail

20 Aug 2019
News

Should a Pension Fund Try to Change the World?

William E. Fruhan

Professor WILLIAM E. FRUHAN, JR. is George E. Bates Professor, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. He received his BS degree from Yale University, and his MBA and DBA degrees from Harvard University. He has served as Senior Associate Dean and Director of... View Details

Keywords: aircraft; airline; chemical; electronics; grocery; medical supplies; oil ＆ gas; pharmaceuticals; retailing; steel

Article

To Drive Efforts...Don't Tiptoe Around Your Legal Risk

By: Edward Chang and Bonnie Levine

Many Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives are scuttled because DEI leaders and legal teams feel themselves to be at odds over questions of acceptable risk. DEI leaders see lawyers as guardians of the status quo, whereas legal experts, trained to... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Risk Management; Legal Liability

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02 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

The Secret of How Microsoft Stays on Top

of the company from Harvard Business School professors Marco Iansiti and Alan MacCormack. Their take: Microsoft wins through effective management of its intellectual property and an ability to spot and react to important trends before... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

January 2003 (Revised June 2003)
Case

Adams Capital Management: March 2002

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

In March 2002, the five partners of Adams Capital Management (ACM), a venture capital firm investing in information technology telecommunications with $700 million under management, gathered to discuss whether they should change their strategy in view of the prolonged... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Venture Capital; Investment Portfolio; Business or Company Management; Partners and Partnerships; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry

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2011
Book

Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What's Right and What to Do about It

By: Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel

When confronted with an ethical dilemma, most of us like to think we would stand up for our principles. But we are not as ethical as we think we are. In Blind Spots, leading business ethicists Max Bazerman and Ann Tenbrunsel examine the ways we overestimate our ability... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Failure; Performance Evaluation; Sales; Consumer Products Industry

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