Publications

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August 2013
Case

Pixability: Bettina's Board Walk

By: Noam Wasserman and Yael Braid

Description: Bettina Hein, founder-CEO of Pixability, is meeting with her board of directors to discuss her startup's fundraising prospects and the recent strategic pivot. Though Bettina loves the entrepreneurial exhilaration of "riding a rollercoaster every day,"... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Board Of Directors; Power And Influence; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation

Web

The Value Chain - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

in higher prices or lower costs. A company’s value chain is typically part of a larger value system that includes companies either upstream (suppliers) or downstream (distribution channels), or both. This perspective about how value is created forces View Details

Program

Mergers and Acquisitions

your company is private or public, or looking to buy or to sell, you will emerge with new ability to broker powerful deals and create shareholder value. Key Benefits Completing a successful merger or acquisition is a multifaceted project that involves View Details

2007
Working Paper

Innovation through Global Collaboration: A New Source of Competitive Advantage

By: Alan MacCormack, Theodore Forbath, Peter Brooks and Patrick Kalaher

Many recent studies highlight the need to rethink the way we manage innovation. Traditional approaches, based on the assumption that the creation and pursuit of new ideas is best accomplished by a centralized and collocated R&D team, are rapidly becoming outdated.... View Details

Keywords: Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Groups and Teams; Research and Development; Performance Improvement; Management Practices and Processes; Partners and Partnerships; Competency and Skills; Framework; Competitive Advantage; Global Strategy; Opportunities; Cost

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Program

Private Equity and Venture Capital

Summary Tax reforms, regulatory uncertainty, and global market volatility are creating a more complex investment environment, but the outlook for private equity remains strong. This investment management course provides the frameworks you... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Finance

Program

Family Office Wealth Management—Virtual

reflect the family's priorities and principles Find solutions to your wealth management challenges Develop an action plan for initiating an intergenerational transfer Implement best practices for separating... View Details

September 2024
Module Note

Governance for Non-Profit Social Enterprises

By: Brian Trelstad, Gerald Chertavian and Alexis Lefort

An overview of the various roles a non-profit board of directors plays, including the board’s principal responsibilities and how those evolve as organizations grow and scale. Looks closely at the overall role in setting the mission of the organization; supervising and... View Details

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards; Nonprofit Organizations; Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; United States

October 2018
Case

P-Will at DISCO

By: Ethan Bernstein, Naoko Jinjo and Yuna Sakuma

From the outside, DISCO—a Japan-based manufacturer of precision tools for semiconductor production devices—appeared to be a rather ordinary company that had achieved rather extraordinary success: it had simultaneously achieved 70% global market share, had lifted its... View Details

Keywords: Human Capital; P-Will; DISCO; Semiconductors; Self-Managed Organizations; Governance; Human Resources; Selection and Staffing; Management Practices and Processes; Management Systems; Organizational Structure; Organizational Design; Semiconductor Industry; Japan

Web

Placement - Doctoral

of the HBS Doctoral Programs have gone on to become prominent scholars in a wide range of disciplines at many of the world's most prestigious institutions. Placement, 2020-2025 Accounting & Management 2025 Terrence Tianshuo Shi Accounting... View Details

June 1999
Case

PDQ Manufacturing, Inc.

By: William J. Bruns Jr.

A small manufacturer of car wash facilities has been unable to develop management systems because of rapid growth. Now size dictates the need for such systems because the current personal management style is proving inadequate. View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Design; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Personal Development and Career; Growth Management; Manufacturing Industry

January 2013 (Revised March 2017)
Case

CloudFlare, Inc.: Running Hot?

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alex Godden

In July 2012, the cofounders of CloudFlare, a Silicon Valley startup that protects websites and accelerates their traffic, are considering the implications of five employees' resignations over the prior three months. Was this natural attrition for a high-tech venture... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth Management; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Resignation and Termination; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; California

19 Jun 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Learning to Manage: A Field Experiment in the Indian Startup Ecosystem

Keywords: by Aaron Chatterji, Solene Delecourt, Sharique Hasan, and Rembrand Koning; Technology

20 Apr 2023
Blog Post

Tackle the First 90 Days of Your Next Role: A 5 Step Process for Success on the Job

Detail What, Why, and How Step 1 in the “slow down to go fast” five-step process is to detail the first 90 days by communicating openly with your manager about: What you plan to do to learn your new role and contribute Why you are... View Details

01 Feb 2001
News

What Makes a Good Leader

Is it the ability to navigate in the choppy waters of change? Do leaders see the hidden opportunity in every setback? Is there really any such thing as a "born leader"? Five HBS faculty and some prominent alumni offer their perspectives on an increasingly essential... View Details

Keywords: Management

25 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

A Gentler Capitalism: Black Business Leadership in the New South Africa

Keywords: by Linda A. Hill & Maria Farkas; Communications; Telecommunications

January 2021
Case

Aster DM Healthcare: Budgeting for a Crisis

By: V.G. Narayanan and Amy Klopfenstein

In April 2020, Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, a network of clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies in the Middle East and India, must create her company’s budget for the 2021 fiscal year in light of the onset of Covid-19. The pandemic had... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Judgments; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost vs Benefits; Budgets and Budgeting; Health Pandemics; Health Industry; Asia; India; United Arab Emirates; Dubai

July 2017
Article

Business Responsibilities for Human Rights: A Commentary on Arnold

By: Nien-hê Hsieh

Human rights have come to play a prominent role in debates about the responsibilities of business. In the business ethics literature, there are two approaches to the question of whether businesses have human rights obligations. The “moral” approach conceives of human... View Details

Keywords: Rights; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Moral Sensibility; Society

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October 2012 (Revised August 2014)
Case

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board: October 2012

By: Josh Lerner, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Nathaniel Burbank

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is one of the largest and fastest-growing pools of investment capital in the world and follows an unusually active program of investment management. In October of 2012, Mark Wiseman was just 12 weeks into his role as... View Details

Keywords: Canada; CPPIB; Pensions; Private Equity; Financial Services Industry; Canada

March 2015
Case

Unilever: Combatting Global Food Waste

By: David F. Drake, Janice H. Hammond and Matthew G. Preble

The global consumer goods company Unilever was on pace to hit a number of aggressive targets by 2020 as part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Project, including a goal to halve the waste associated with the disposal of its products. Unilever's chief supply chain... View Details