Publications

May 2016
Case

OPET: Precision Marketing in Uncertain Times

By: Rajiv Lal, Esel Çekin and Eren Kuzucu

During Timucin Guler’s decade at OPET, a prominent fuel distributor in Turkey, he transformed the definition of marketing in the company. Under Guler’s lead, OPET, once a local player in the downstream distribution market, became the second largest fuel distributor in... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Customer Service; Emerging Market; Focusing On Customers; Competition; Turkey; Loyalty Program; Marketing Strategy; Downstream Distribution; Customer Relationship Management; Energy Industry; Turkey

21 Jul 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Enabling Versus Controlling

Keywords: by Andrei Hagiu & Julian Wright

Research Summary

Overview

By: Feng Zhu

Professor Zhu’s research focuses on the design of platform business models and its impact on platform performance. Platforms have become central to our economy. A platform is a product or service that enables two or more customer groups to interact. For example,... View Details

24 Apr 2014
News

A founding father of Silicon Valley venture capital guides entrepreneurs

Throughout his long career as a venture capitalist, Franklin “Pitch” Johnson (MBA 1952) has worked primarily in the biotech industry, earning a reputation View Details

13 Jun 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: A Startup Takes On the Credit Ratings Giants

studied the credit ratings industry in the wake of the financial crisis. In a paper published in the Journal of Financial Economics, he examined the role of competition between raters. One important distinction, in his view, is between... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Financial Services; Financial Services

01 Sep 2016
News

Ask the Expert: How to Build a More Diverse Board

Fortune 500 company or becomes a partner at a well-respected professional services or private equity firm, she has excelled beyond the need for a... View Details

October 2022 (Revised September 2024)
Case

To SFO or Not To SFO: The Tolman Family Selects a Family Office Strategy

By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, Victoria Alvarez-Arango, Grace Headinger, Mili Sanwalka and Anna Yuan

Peter Tolman, a first-generation investment professional, debated which family office strategy to adopt for managing his family’s assets. As the sole steward of his family’s wealth, he sought to conserve and grow his family’s wealth for him, his wife, and his two very... View Details

Keywords: Family Office; Investment Strategy; Family Business; Financial Strategy; Investment; Strategy; Diversification; Management; Asset Management; Wealth; Financial Services Industry; United States; Canada

12 Nov 2014
Op-Ed

A Challenge to the New Congress: Pass Housing Finance Reform

from the left and the right, set out to do just that. For the last two and a half years, we co-chaired the Commission's Mortgage Finance Reform Working Group. Remarkably, we saw consensus emerge from both parties on the goals of the new... View Details

Keywords: by Nicolas Retsinas & Rob Couch; Construction; Real Estate

June 2021 (Revised November 2021)
Case

Asian Corporate Governance Association: Stemming a 'Race to the Bottom' by Stock Exchanges?

By: Charles C.Y. Wang and Billy Chan

This case describes the movement towards dual-class listings on Asian stock exchanges and the efforts of the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA), a not-for-profit shareholder advocacy group, to discourage this trend. As a not-for-profit organization with no... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Nonprofit Organizations; Stocks; Financial Markets; Financial Services Industry; Hong Kong; China; Asia

24 Jul 2000
Research & Ideas

Something Ventured, Something Gained: A European View of Venture Capital

"that's where we have a distinct advantage." For Tazartes and his colleagues, in fact, the demand for the services they render has never been greater, as governments... View Details

Keywords: by James E. Aisner; Financial Services

01 Sep 2007
News

How to Take a Stand On UBS and Climate Change

financial services companies as it determines its stand on a matter of increasing public prominence. Oberholzer-Gee teaches the case in Strategies Beyond the Market, View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Educational Services; Educational Services; Educational Services

24 Apr 2014
News

A wild ride from adventure travel to social media marketing

which provides a SaaS platform for marketers to manage their presence on social networks, is a division of Google, and is among the largest acquisitions ever made by the... View Details

Products to Platforms: Making the Leap

Following the path of companies such as Apple and Amazon, more and more firms are trying to become not just product purveyors but also platform providers, facilitating direct connections between customers and other groups. Although launching a platform can... View Details

June 2013 (Revised August 2017)
Case

Coupa

By: Michael Roberts and William Sahlman

The case describes the growth of Coupa, a software as a service platform for procurement / expense management. The issues in the case are around how fast to grow and how to finance that growth. The case includes a detailed financial model that will help students... View Details

Keywords: Managing Growth; Sales Force Management; Growth Management; Entrepreneurship; Salesforce Management

April 2012 (Revised October 2013)
Supplement

eBay, Inc. and Amazon.com (B)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Anant Thaker

A decade after BusinessWeek declared the competitive battle between eBay, Inc., and Amazon.com "a defining moment for e-commerce," Amazon established itself as the leader. eBay must decide what strategy to use in order to regain the upper hand: maintain its current... View Details

February 2017
Case

Yemeksepeti: Growing and Expanding the Business Model through Data

By: William R. Kerr, Gamze Yucaoglu and Eren Kuzucu

In October 2016, Nevzat Aydin, co-founder and CEO of Yemeksepeti, the Turkish online food-ordering company, was looking over the company's quarterly results and projections for the upcoming year with his management team. It had been almost a year and a half since Aydin... View Details