Publications

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To all who declare that American democracy is broken—riven by partisanship, undermined by extremism, and corrupted by wealth—history offers hope. In nearly every generation since the nation’s founding, critics have made similar declarations, and yet the nation is... View Details

April 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Case

RTY Telecom: Network Expansion

Requires real option analysis to analyze a capital expenditure decision by a large regional telecommunications firm. The firm needs to add network capacity for its broadband offering and is trying to decide on how to do this. One approach is simply to purchase this... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Decision Choices and Conditions; Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry

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September – October 2011
Article

The Manufacturer's Incentive to Reduce Lead Times

By: Santiago Kraiselburd, Richard Pibernik and Ananth Raman

It is generally a well acknowledged fact that, ceteris paribus, reducing the lead times between downstream and upstream parties in a supply chain is desirable from an overall system perspective. However, an upstream party (e.g., a manufacturer) may have strong... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Demand and Consumers; Order Taking and Fulfillment; Production; Supply Chain Management; Sales; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry

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Program

The Women's Leadership Forum

build trust, and work more effectively with a diverse range of colleagues Make decisions with greater confidence under a variety of conditions Take control of your career... View Details

January 2025
Case

Arsenal Capital Partners' Refinancing of Pinnacle

By: Victoria Ivashina and Srimayi Mylavarapu

Arsenal Capital Partners’ portfolio company, Pinnacle, a leading producer of high-performance adhesive technologies, has experienced rapid growth under Arsenal’s ownership. Over just two years, Pinnacle's EBITDA increased from $13.5 million to $60 million. By mid-2021,... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Growth Management

March 2008 (Revised August 2020)
Case

Lisa Sherman (A)

By: Bill George and Jens Audenaert

Lisa Sherman is a successful executive at Verizon who is struggling with the decision to reveal her sexual orientation. After attending a diversity training workshop in which participants expressed extremely negative views about people in her community, Sherman wonders... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Identity; Personal Development and Career; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; Organizational Culture

30 Nov 2015
HBS Seminar

Soroush Saghafian, Assistant Professor of Public Policy - Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University

2009
Other Unpublished Work

Steering Monetary Policy Through Unprecedented Crises

By: David Moss and Cole Bolton

In early April 2008, economic conditions in Europe appeared to be deteriorating on almost all fronts: sales figures were falling, business and consumer confidence were slumping, forecasts for European growth were being revised downward, and inflation was rising. In... View Details

Keywords: Financial Crisis; Inflation and Deflation; Central Banking; Interest Rates; International Finance; Policy; Crisis Management; Europe

09 May 2012
Research & Ideas

Clayton Christensen’s “How Will You Measure Your Life?”

is taught in every fundamental course in finance and economics. That is, in evaluating alternative investments, we should ignore sunk and fixed costs, and instead base View Details

15 Jul 2014
First Look

First Look: July 15

performance to provide quantitative insight into the link between a firm's business model choices and its profit consequences. The method is applied to Walmart by building a qualitative representation of its... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

July 2003 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Ottawa Voyageurs, The

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Scott Baldwin, Chris Strong, Andrew Feng, Eliza Moody and David Ager

Manuel Tertuliano, head coach of a professional soccer club, must make some difficult decisions about the compensation of six of his players. Specifically, he must decide how to allocate $850,000 among these six players in a way that will benefit his team, which has... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Compensation and Benefits; Performance; Motivation and Incentives; Sports; Groups and Teams; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Canada

August 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Exercise

To Prioritize Money or Time? The P-Mot Exercise (Student)

By: Ashley Whillans and Liz Goldenberg

Working professionals are often in the predicament of needing to make a choice between activities that will grant them more money or more time. Indeed, in large-scale representative panels of working adults, most respondents report feeling pressed for both time and... View Details

Keywords: Time; Time-as Money; Money; Time Management; Decision Making

April 2017 (Revised May 2022)
Case

King Digital Entertainment

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Davide Sola, Federica Gabrieli and Elena Corsi

Riccardo Zacconi was the co-founder and CEO of King Digital Entertainment, the video game company that had quickly established itself as the world’s leading maker of casual games for mobile devices after the sensational success of its game “Candy Crush Saga.” Zacconi... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Structure; Acquisition; Decision Choices and Conditions; Video Game Industry; Europe; Sweden

August 2000
Case

Incat

Incat is a cutting-edge manufacturer of high-speed aluminum catamaran ferries. The company has been an entrepreneurial success story, growing to be the largest private employer in its home state of Tasmania, Australia. By 2000, Robert Clifford, the company's dynamic... View Details

Keywords: Production; Ship Transportation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Manufacturing Industry; Australia

Article

The Business of Business Schools: Restoring a Focus on Competing to Win

By: Robert Simons

As business leaders worry about the decline of American competitiveness, business schools are responding by changing their curriculums. But are the topics and approaches taught in today's business schools part of the solution or part of the problem? In this paper, I... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools; Purpose Of Business Schools; Management Education; Business School Curriculum; Strategy Execution; U.S. Competitiveness; Capitalism; Management Profession; Innovation; Competing To Win; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Trends; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decision Making; Design; Business Education; Curriculum and Courses; Innovation and Management

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07 Nov 2023
Research & Ideas

When Glasses Land the Gig: Employers Still Choose Workers Who 'Look the Part'

Seeking a programming gig? Wear glasses and keep your laptop in frame if you want your profile picture to attract recruiters on hiring platforms. A new study finds freelancers are more likely to land work when they “look the part” for a... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis

August 2008 (Revised December 2009)
Case

Nantero

By: William A. Sahlman, Dan Heath and Caroline Perkins

This case describes a decision confronting the founder of Nantero, a company developing a new semiconductor technology. The company needs to raise additional venture capital. Potential investors have competing visions for the company, and its business model. Some... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Venture Capital; Investment; Product Development; Production; Technology; Semiconductor Industry

December 2021 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Katerra (A)

By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn

In April 2020, Katerra executives struggled with a series of decisions that would determine the fate of one of the best-funded construction startups in history. Katerra was founded in 2015 by technology-industry executive Michael Marks and commercial real estate... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Construction; Real Estate Industry; Technology Industry; United States

September 1985 (Revised January 1986)
Case

Peter Wendell

By: William A. Sahlman

Contains a description of a decision confronting an employee of IBM in late 1981. Should he leave IBM to become head of a new venture capital fund which will specialize in technology investments? The case is designed to expose students to the nature of the opportunity... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Jobs and Positions; Opportunities; Valuation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Resignation and Termination; Venture Capital; Financial Services Industry; Computer Industry