Publications

Benjamin Esty is the Roy and Elizabeth Simmons Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Over the years, he has taught a variety of courses ranging from advanced corporate finance and project finance to competitive strategy and leadership. He... View Details

Keywords: financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services; financial services

October 1994
Case

Bankers Trust: Global Investment Bank

By: Andre F. Perold and Kuljot Singh

In October 1992, Eugene Shanks, president of Bankers Trust New York Corp., and Brian Walsh, head of the Global Investment Bank (GIB) business unit, are considering a proposal for a large and complex financing involving the North Sea Oil Co. (NSOC). The financing... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Credit Derivatives and Swaps; Risk Management; Value Creation; Business History; Capital Markets; Financing and Loans; Financial Markets; Corporate Finance; Banking Industry; Energy Industry

14 Sep 2021
Blog Post

Top 5 Myths About HBS

Chad Losee, Managing Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid, recently sat down with Cyril Straughn-Turner, second-year MBA student and Chief Admissions Ambassador, for a “Busting HBS Myths” event aimed at demystifying what business... View Details

Teaching Interest

Finance Reporting and Control

Financial Reporting and Control (FRC) is a course about how leaders can design and use performance measurement systems to build more effective organizations. Throughout their careers, business leaders are required to... View Details

March 11, 2020
Editorial

A Bolder Vision for Business Schools

By: P. Tufano

Business schools teach to a model that dates back to the 1950s. Given the growing demands on business to take a lead in confronting societal challenges, business schools need to update how they train business leaders and how they compete, argues Oxford’s Saïd School... View Details

Keywords: Business Schools; Business And Society; Business Education; Leadership Development; Business and Stakeholder Relations

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2012
Working Paper

Finding the God Particle of the Sustainability Business Case: Greener Pastures for Shareholder Value

By: Marc L Bertoneche and Cornis van der Lugt

The start of the 2000s saw a flurry of international publications on "the business case" for sustainability, seeking to map out the returns on investment and to differentiate recommended actions from cases of corporate philanthropy. Reports by business organisations... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Performance; Environmental Sustainability

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February 2022
Supplement

Agora (B)

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

This is the conclusion to Agora (A), where founder Elsa Sze decides if she wants to continue investing energy in her civic technology startup.
Agora was a civic technology (civic tech) startup founded by Elsa Sze, who wanted to enhance the connection between... View Details

Keywords: Civic Technology; Government Administration; Conferences; Business Startups; Business Strategy

03 Jul 2012
Research & Ideas

HBS Faculty on Supreme Court Health Care Ruling

experts in the health care field, to provide their views on various facets of one of this country's most important and complex problems. Bill George Professor of Management Practice, former chair and CEO of Medtronic, and author of 7... View Details

Keywords: Re: Multiple Faculty; Health

April 2012
Case

Bank of America: Mobile Banking (Abridged)

By: Sunil Gupta and Michael Norris

In January 2010, Bank of America is discussing its future mobile strategy. Should the company add complexity to its app, design multiple apps for business segments, or expand into other mobile channels? View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States

19 Jun 2013
Research & Ideas

Analyzing Institutions to Solve Big Problems

The academic study of institutions provides important insights into topics such as job design and health-care reform. But the field is a complex one, and it's not always obvious to outsiders how the intellectual tools of the trade are... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel & Anna Secino

January 2021 (Revised March 2021)
Case

Jumia's Path to Profitability

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in September 2019 as Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, co-founders and co-CEOs of Jumia, the leading Pan-African e-commerce platform, are contemplating the company’s path to profitability in the aftermath of a fragile investor sentiment, as the company... View Details

October 2009 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Societe Generale (A): The Jerome Kerviel Affair

By: Francois Brochet

This case illustrates the tension/balance that firms with complex and risky business models must consider in designing their internal controls. It describes the environment in which a derivatives trader engaged in massive directional positions on major European stocks... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Problems and Challenges; Complexity; Cost Management; Balance and Stability; Business Model; Design; Stocks; Crisis Management; Financial Markets; Consulting Industry; Europe

17 Nov 2003
Research & Ideas

The Business Case for Diabetes Disease Management

analyze the complexities of disease management and check all avenues for potential business opportunities. The participants, almost all of them health professionals, sorted through the risks and benefits of disease management for... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Health

December 2010
Article

The Case for Professional Boards

By: Robert C. Pozen

When the world's largest financial institutions had to be rescued from insolvency in 2008, many experts laid the blame at the feet of corporate boards. But insufficient board oversight is a problem that had supposedly been solved in 2002. As the United States... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Governing and Advisory Boards; Failure; Accounting Audits; Quality; Behavior; Legal Liability; Experience and Expertise; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Performance Effectiveness; United States

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September 2024
Case

InfraCredit and the Project Inception Facility

By: John Macomber, Namrata Arora and Maagatha Kalavadakken

Around the world, large infrastructure projects are frequently stymied by the high cost and high uncertainty of the project inception phase: the research and engineering and planning prior to financial close and start of construction. Could there be a new kind of... View Details

December 2001
Case

SinoSecurities.com

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Fred Young

Describes a complex software project that has run into difficulties. Students must decide whether to press forward, stop the project, or reconfigure it. Illustrates many of the similarities to challenges facing U.S. and Chinese companies in this difficult arena. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Applications and Software; Decisions; Problems and Challenges; Financial Services Industry; China; United States

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02 Nov 2023
Blog Post

Getting a Peek Into the HBS Experience

current students to learn about the HBS community and student experience, and hear about MBA admissions and financial aid. Recently, we had the privilege of interviewing Greg Asare, a graduate with a major in Biological Sciences from the... View Details

July 2004 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Linux in 2004

By: Pankaj Ghemawat, Brian Subirana and Christina Pham

A new technology platform conceived in the early 1990s, Linux developed into a force to be reckoned with in the operating system marketplace. At first, Linux was dismissed as a renegade option used only by tech geeks. By 2004, however, Linux had exploded into the... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Open Source Distribution; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Information Technology Industry