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May 1986 (Revised February 1991)
Case

Wilson Lumber Co.

By: Thomas R. Piper

The Wilson Lumber Co. is faced with a need for increased bank financing due to its rapid sales growth and low profitability. Students must determine the reasons for the rising bank borrowing, estimate the amount of borrowing needed, and assess the attractiveness of the... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Financing and Loans; Banks and Banking; Forecasting and Prediction; Sales; Financial Strategy

April 2018
Article

Elite Strategies and Incremental Policy Change: The Expansion of Primary Education in India

By: Akshay Mangla

This article analyzes India’s recent enactment of universal primary education. This programmatic policy change is puzzling given the clientelistic features of Indian democracy. Drawing on interviews and official documents, I demonstrate the catalytic role of committed... View Details

Keywords: Education; Policy Change; Policy Elites; Institutions; India; Early Childhood Education; Policy; Education Industry; India

Find at Harvard

03 Jun 2015
Video

Hakeem Belo-Osagie

Hakeem Belo-Osagie, head of United Bank for Africa,... View Details

Building small business utopia: how artificial intelligence and Big Data can increase small business success

Small business lending has remained unchanged for decades, laden with frictions and barriers that prevent many small businesses from accessing the capital they need to succeed. Financial technology, or “fintech,” promises to change this trajectory. In 2010, new fintech... View Details

01 Mar 2004
News

Liquid and Efficient

president and COO of Goldman Sachs, with a background in both trading and investment banking as well as an electrical engineering degree from MIT, Thain is known for his... View Details

Keywords: Finance

01 Jun 2006
News

Money and Mortals

provides a view of society’s changing attitudes toward money and depicts its influence on mankind. Donated in 1975 by the New York banking firm of Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder,... View Details

Keywords: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools

June 2020
Case

RBC: Transforming Transformation (A)

By: Ethan Bernstein, Francesca Gino and Aldo Sesia

In 2017, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), a Canadian financial icon, mandated a swat team of “enablers of collaboration” (their job description) to support the personal and commercial bank in the enterprise-wide RBC Cultural Transformation initiative. Historically,... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Transformation; Change Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Decision Making; Human Resources; Management Systems; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Management Teams; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; Canada

18 Feb 2016
News

The Climate Custodians

Research Summary

Career Histories and the Biotechnology Industry

Professor Higgins' other major project focuses on the consequences of individuals' career experiences for firms and industries. This second research stream centers on the careers of executives in the biotechnology industry.

Professor Higgins has written... View Details

March 2017 (Revised May 2019)
Case

Marketing Transformation at Mastercard

By: Sunil Gupta, Srinivas K. Reddy and David Lane

Since 2013, Mastercard CMO M.V. Rajamannar (Raja) had transformed the firm's marketing by using unique experiences, digital technology, and social media to intensify linkages not only with cardholders, but also with Mastercard's direct bank and merchant stakeholders.... View Details

Keywords: Mastercard; Financial Services; Ingredient Brand; B2B2C; Experiential Marketing; Digital Marketing; ROI; Marketing; Customer Focus and Relationships; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Brands and Branding; Internet and the Web; Investment Return; Financial Services Industry

2013
Working Paper

Do Display Ads Influence Search?: Attribution and Dynamics in Online Advertising

By: Sunil Gupta

As firms increasingly rely on online media to acquire consumers, marketing managers feel comfortable justifying higher online marketing spend by referring to online metrics such as click-through rate (CTR) and cost per acquisition (CPA). However, these standard online... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Digital Marketing

11 Sep 2020
Video

James Mwangi

James Mwangi, CEO of Kenya’s Equity Bank, which has one of the largest customer bases of any bank in Africa, discusses how the Equity Bank model evolved through learning both from Asian companies and from the bank’s own customers. View Details

October 2018 (Revised January 2019)
Case

The Financial Crisis: Hank Paulson in 2008

By: Adi Sunderam, Robin Greenwood, Sam Hanson and David Scharfstein

On the afternoon of Monday October 13, 2008, Hank Paulson Jr., the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, walked into the large conference room across the hall from his office in the Treasury Department. Joining him were Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke,... View Details

Keywords: Bailout; Regulation; Financial Crisis; History; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Decision Making; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; United States

September 2016
Case

Financial Services at Falabella (A)

By: C. Fritz Foley and Agustin M. Hurtado

In 2010, the board and senior management team of Falabella, a leading retailer with operations throughout Latin America, faced choices about what to do with its financial services division. More than 4.5 million customers had CMR credit cards that could be used in... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Credit; Financial Institutions; Personal Finance; Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; Latin America; Chile; Argentina; Colombia; Peru

19 Mar 2014
Working Paper Summaries

The Use of Broker Votes to Reward Brokerage Firms’ and Their Analysts’ Research Activities

Keywords: by David A. Maber, Boris Groysberg & Paul M. Healy; Financial Services

08 Jul 2021
Video

Peter Wharton-Hood

Peter Wharton-Hood, a former senior executive at Standard Bank and Deutsche Bank in South Africa, discusses Standard Bank’s expansion in Africa beyond South Africa during the 2000s, which involved a heavy focus on expanding lending in markets in which it entered. View Details

January 2009 (Revised March 2009)
Teaching Note

The Tip of the Iceberg: JPMorgan Chase and Bear Stearns (TN) (A), (B1), and (B2)

By: Clayton S. Rose, Daniel Baird Bergstresser and David Lane

Teaching Note for [309001], [309070], and [309091]. View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Banking Industry

January 2011 (Revised April 2012)
Case

BBVA Compass: Marketing Resource Allocation

By: Sunil Gupta and Joseph Davies-Gavin

BBVA Compass, the 15th largest commercial bank in the U.S., is a part of the BBVA Group of Spain, the second largest bank in Spain with $755 billion in assets. In December 2010, Frank Sottosanti, Chief Marketing Officer of BBVA Compass, was reviewing the marketing... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Resource Allocation; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Performance Evaluation; Banking Industry; United States