Publications

December 2010
Case

Fortis Industries, Inc. (A)

Fortis Industries' packaging division manufactures steel and plastic strapping. In 2007, the company underwent a leveraged buyout. The case focuses on the packaging division's need to maintain high profitability in a declining market for steel strapping. Since 1998,... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Marketing; Supply and Industry; Manufacturing Industry

September 2020
Article

Analyst Forecast Bundling

By: Michael Drake, Peter Joos, Joseph Pacelli and Brady Twedt

Changing economic conditions over the past two decades have created incentives for sell-side analysts to both provide their institutional clients tiered services and to streamline their written research process. One manifestation of these changes is an increased... View Details

Keywords: Analysts; Earnings Forecasts; Forecast Accuracy; Forecast Bundling; Business Earnings; Forecasting and Prediction

Register to Read

January 1999 (Revised November 1999)
Case

Metapath Software: September 1997

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Bill Wasik

In September 1997, John Hansen called together his board to debate an interesting choice that his company had to make. Hansen--the CEO of Metapath Software, a provider of software and services to wireless carriers--had two offers to describe. The first was an offer to... View Details

Keywords: Private Ownership; Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Decision Choices and Conditions; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Stocks; Public Ownership; Negotiation Deal; Telecommunications Industry; Information Technology Industry

August 2020 (Revised October 2020)
Teaching Note

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

By: Ashley Whillans and Liz Goldenberg

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 921-012. 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... View Details

Keywords: Time; Time As Money; Trade-offs; Money; Time Management; Decision Making

October 2024
Article

On Why Women-owned Businesses Take More Time to Secure Microloans

By: Goran Calic, Moren Lévesque and Anton Shevchenko

Examining gender differences in business financing reveals important dimensions on which women- and men-owned businesses differ. Although considerable progress has been made in understanding gender differences in mobilizing resources, the role of time in business... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Gender; Financing and Loans; Equality and Inequality; Risk and Uncertainty; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship

Register to Read

December 2006 (Revised January 2007)
Case

Restructuring Navigator Gas Transport Plc

By: C. Fritz Foley

How should creditors pursue their claims in a multi-jurisdiction bankruptcy? David Butters, Managing Director at Lehman Brothers, negotiates a restructuring of Navigator Gas Transport, a shipping company that is headquartered in Switzerland, incorporated in the Isle of... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Complexity; Capital Structure; Restructuring; International Finance; Law; Ship Transportation; Shipping Industry; Switzerland; Isle of Man

September 2022
Case

BancoSol: Financial Inclusion in the Perfect Storm

By: Michael Chu and Carla Larangeira

In the pandemic, financial inclusion icon BancoSol faces a government-mandated year-long deferral of all loan payments, followed by the sudden Covid death of its CEO. In a Bolivia mired in political turmoil following a failed presidential election, with clients not... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Crisis Management; Management Succession; Business Strategy; Innovation Leadership; Risk and Uncertainty; Financing and Loans; Restructuring; Financial Services Industry; Latin America; Bolivia

Article

Is it Better to Average Probabilities or Quantiles?

By: Kenneth C. Lichtendahl, Yael Grushka-Cockayne and Robert L. Winkler

We consider two ways to aggregate expert opinions using simple averages: averaging probabilities and averaging quantiles. We examine analytical properties of these forecasts and compare their ability to harness the wisdom of the crowd. In terms of location, the two... View Details

Keywords: Probability Forecasts; Quantile Forecasts; Expert Combination; Linear Opinion Pooling; Forecasting and Prediction

March 2002
Case

Mark Taper Forum (A)

The Mark Taper Forum, a regional nonprofit theatre in Los Angeles, has discovered and produced a highly acclaimed play entitled Angles in America. Because of the play's success, for-profit theatres on Broadway in New York have become extremely interested in... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Nonprofit Organizations; For-Profit Firms; Decision Choices and Conditions; Theater Entertainment; Los Angeles

Program

Succeeding as a Strategic CFO

decisions Become a strategic partner to the CEO Discover how to formulate, evaluate, and implement strategic choices that are grounded in financial metrics, but not limited to... View Details

June 2021
Case

Mobileye 2021: Robotaxi and/or Consumer AV?

By: David B. Yoffie, Danielle Golan and Nicole Tempest Keller

In March 2021, Amnon Shashua, co-founder and CEO of Israel-based Mobileye, was preparing to meet with Intel’s new CEO, Pat Gelsinger, to review plans for the future. Mobileye had been acquired by California-based Intel in 2017, but still operated independently.... View Details

Keywords: Technology Companies; Robotics; Autonomous Vehicles; Strategy; Decision Making; Transportation; Technological Innovation; Technology Industry; Auto Industry; Transportation Industry; Israel

April 2001 (Revised July 2001)
Case

Verge Software (A)

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Elizabeth Kind

Scott Rozic, CEO of start-up Verge Software, has just told his board that he is taking the company in a totally new direction, moving from enterprise knowledge management software to Internet direct marketing. This case covers the start-up of the business, and Rozic's... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Technological Innovation; Applications and Software; Management Teams; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Product Development; Information Technology Industry; United States

2006
Working Paper

Worse but Equal: The Influence of Social Categories on Resource Allocations

By: Stephen M. Garcia, Max H. Bazerman, Shirli Kopelman and Dale T. Miller

This paper explores the influence of social categories on the perceived trade-off between relatively bad but equal distribution of resources between two parties and profit maximizing, yet asymmetric payoffs. Study 1 and 2 showed that people prefer to maximize profits... View Details

Keywords: Demographics; Fairness; Resource Allocation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Profit

Read Now

Rakesh Khurana is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at the Harvard Business School. He is also Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, co-Master of Cabot House at Harvard College, and the Danoff Dean of Harvard College.

Professor... View Details

Keywords: executive search

12 Oct 2011
First Look

First Look: October 12

generally takes one of two approaches. The market timing and catering approach views managerial financing and investment decisions as rational managerial responses to... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

24 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 24

gas regulations are more likely to share greenhouse gas emissions levels and reduction targets. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/12-026.pdf The Rich Get Richer: Enabling Conditions for... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 May 2014
Research & Ideas

Reflecting on Work Improves Job Performance

it. Type 2 processes, on the other hand, are consciously reflective, and are often associated with decision making. Essentially, the researchers hypothesized that learning by doing would be more effective if... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

January 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (A): True to Brand?

By: Jeffrey Fear and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Examines one of the most important entrepreneurial decisions made in the history of Porsche, made in early 1998: to build a sport utility vehicle (SUV)--the Cayenne. After decades of relying on one or two sports car models and nearly going bankrupt and losing its... View Details

Keywords: Diversification; Supply Chain Management; Luxury; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Globalization; Brands and Branding; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry