Publications

February 2015
Case

BlackRock: Diversity as a Driver for Success

By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly

In July 2014, the Global Executive Committee (GEC) for BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, held a two-day offsite to discuss the state of talent within the firm. A year prior, in 2013, Chairman and CEO Laurence (Larry) Fink had asked Global Head of HR Jeff... View Details

Keywords: Women And Leadership; Diversity; General Management; Leadership; Change Management; Human Capital; Leading Change; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Culture; Financial Services Industry; United States

Second Quarter 2014
Article

Dynamics of the Board Interview

By: Blythe McGarvie

You want candidates who meet the requirements of cultural fit, the right skill set, and meaningful diversity. No one expects the candidate to know everything about the company during the interview process. Research shows that companies with more women on their boards... View Details

25 Feb 2019
News

Impact investing: a new way to fund cures for cancer

October 2022
Case

Beam Dental (A)

By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani

In May 2014, Alex Frommeyer, cofounder and CEO of Kentucky-based Beam Dental, a seed-stage startup that developed connected toothbrushes that tracked brushing habits, needed to decide which strategy to pitch to a venture capital firm. The first pitch deck played to the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Presentations; Product Development; Insurance Industry; United States; Kentucky; Ohio

March 2011 (Revised January 2015)
Case

H Partners and Six Flags

By: Robin Greenwood and Michael Gorzynski

Rehan Jaffer, the founder of hedge fund H Partners, is considering what to do with his investment in Six Flags. H Partners had invested a significant amount of the firm's capital in the senior bonds of U.S.-based Six Flags, following that company's bankruptcy filing. View Details

Keywords: Behavioral Finance; Private Equity; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Debt Securities; Bonds; Investment; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

October 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

The Predictive Index

By: Lynda M. Applegate and James Weber

Mike Zani and Daniel Muzquiz needed to decide next steps to create a new category in the human resources consulting industry and scale their company.
Zani and Muzquiz, serial entrepreneurs, acquired Predictive Index in 2014. Previously, as clients of the... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Selection and Staffing; Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Change Management; Disruptive Innovation; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Consulting Industry; Service Industry; United States

29 Jun 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Trade Credit and Taxes

Keywords: by Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley & James R. Hines

February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
Case

OpenInvest

By: Shawn Cole, Boris Vallée and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolios to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapons manufacturers stocks or overweighting... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Impact Investing; Investment Portfolio; Customization and Personalization; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Financial Services Industry

28 Nov 2023
Book

Economic Growth Draws Companies to Asia. Can They Handle Its Authoritarian Regimes?

leaders have no political competition, or open autocracies like that of Russia, Turkey, and Malaysia, which hold elections but may lack safeguards and transparency that keep them fair. The book investigates the relationship between View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

November 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

Investor Relations at TOTAL

By: Gregory S. Miller, Vincent Marie Dessain and Anders Sjoman

Examines investor relations and financial communications in a large company with a diverse group of financial stakeholders. Total is an "energy major" based in Paris, France. The importance of its product and its impact on economies and environments combine with the... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Business and Shareholder Relations; Communication Strategy; Paris

13 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: Leadership Roles

decades. Whether you adopt the one-leader model for your own family enterprise, as RBS has done, or whether you build a team of leaders, you still need to design, structure, and allocate all the necessary leadership roles. Why? Because... View Details

Keywords: by John A. Davis

February 2016 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Mattermark

By: Jeffrey Bussgang and Annelena Lobb

Mattermark, a software-as-a-service company that sold software allowing companies to access financial information about privately-held companies and startups, was at a turning point. CEO Danielle Morrill had to allocate investment funding from a Series A round. She... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Marketing; Strategy; Technology Industry; United States

October 2014
Article

Putting Sales at the Center of Strategy

By: Frank Cespedes

Research indicates that relatively few firms execute their strategies effectively, and, on average, companies deliver just 50% to 60% of the financial performance that their strategies promise. One reason is a disconnect between strategic goals and field implementation... View Details