Publications
Publications
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(2,092)
- Faculty Publications (405)
- April 2020
- Supplement
Oaktree: Pierre Foods Investment
By: Victoria Ivashina and Terrence Shu
This case is a setting to discuss “loan to own” investment strategy that is often pursued by distressed investors. The aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis left many companies with poor liquidity and limited ability to obtain credit. One of these companies was Pierre... View Details
- April 2020
- Teaching Note
Oaktree: Pierre Foods Investment
By: Victoria Ivashina, Michael Harmon and Terrence Shu
Teaching Note for HBS No. 219-018. This case is a setting to discuss “loan to own” investment strategy that is often pursued by distressed investors. The aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis left many companies with poor liquidity and limited ability to obtain... View Details
- 2020
- Working Paper
Demystifying the Math of the Coronavirus
By: Elon Kohlberg and Abraham Neyman
We provide an elementary mathematical description of the spread of the coronavirus. We explain two fundamental relationships: How the rate of growth in new infections is determined by the “effective reproductive number” and how the effective reproductive number is... View Details
- March 2020 (Revised June 2023)
- Case
Scaling Nextdoor
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Thomas O. Jones and Jeff Huizinga
Nextdoor, striving to solidify its position as the leading global social media platform for neighborhoods, works to scale audience, geography, and revenue. View Details
- March 2020 (Revised January 2022)
- Case
Michelin: Building a Digital Service Platform
By: Sunil Gupta and Christian Godwin
Michelin, a tire company with over a century of experience, attempts to develop a digital service platform for its fleet and dealer customers. The case focuses on the challenges of bringing a large, well-established company into the digital age. Concerned about the... View Details
- February 2020 (Revised February 2022)
- Case
Sustainable Product Management at Solvay
By: George Serafeim, Vincent Dessain and Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej
In November 2019, Ilham Kadri, CEO of Solvay, a Belgian specialty chemicals and advanced materials group, with annual revenues of more than €10 billion in 2018, announced the group’s mid-term strategy, eight months after she took the helm as Solvay’s 11th CEO. The case... View Details
Keywords: Sustainability; Sustainable Business And Innovation; Sustainability Management; Sustainable Development; Management Accounting; Innovation; Carbon Emissions; Sustainability Reporting; Sustainability Targets; Target-setting; Product; Management; Transformation; Growth and Development Strategy; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Chemical Industry; Europe; Belgium
- 2020
- Working Paper
Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores
By: Ryan Raffaelli
This study examines how community-based brick-and-mortar retailers can achieve sustained market growth in the face of online and big box retail competition. The appearance of Amazon.com in 1995 led to a significant decline in the number of independent bookstores in the... View Details
- January 2020 (Revised April 2020)
- Case
Rumo: Infrastructure for a Healthier Economy
By: Forest L. Reinhardt, Mariana Cal, Ruth Costas and Natalie Kindred
Brazilian logistics company Rumo operated 13,500 km in railway networks, port terminals, and inland transshipment terminals, connecting major Brazilian ports to the agriculture hubs of Mato Grosso and São Paulo state. Controlled by Cosan, Brazil's leading sugar and... View Details
- December 16, 2019
- Article
Why Your Startup Won't Last
By: Ranjay Gulati and Vasundhara Sawhney
Why do some startups that have crossed the threshold of “product-market fit” and have a viable business model still fail? This article begins by exploring the argument that most startups need more professionalization to thrive. Founders resist putting in place... View Details
- November 2019
- Case
Edita: Making Choices in Uncertain Times
By: Caroline M. Elkins, Juan Alcácer, Alpana Thapar and Youssef Abdel Aal
After 15 years of steady growth and expansion, Edita, a leading Egyptian snack producer, faced a series of challenges in the wake of the Arab Spring. In January 2011, the Egyptian Revolution sparked political and economic turmoil that reflected the waves of protest and... View Details
- October 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Brightview Senior Living
By: Lynda M. Applegate and James Weber
Marilynn Duker, CEO, was exploring how to grow the company while maintaining the culture that made it a leader in the field of senior housing. Brightview constructed and operated senior living apartment communities that offered independent living, assisted living, and... View Details
- October 2019
- Case
Agility Africa
By: Juan Alcacer, Caroline M. Elkins and Esel Çekin
This case illustrates the challenge and opportunities that firms face when developing and executing new business models in high-risk, low-infrastructure, low-trust countries. It features a global logistics group, Agility, that aimed to become the leader in supplying... View Details
- September 2019
- Article
Technology Reemergence: Creating New Value for Old Technologies in Swiss Mechanical Watchmaking, 1970-2008
By: Ryan Raffaelli
In 1983, 14 years after the introduction of the battery-powered quartz watch, mechanical watches and the Swiss watchmakers who built them were predicted to be obsolete (Landes, 1983). Unexpectedly, however, by 2008 the Swiss mechanical watchmaking industry had... View Details
- August 2019 (Revised August 2022)
- Case
Baroo (A): Pet Concierge
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Susie L. Ma
Baroo CEO Lindsay Hyde was facing unrest from the board of her pet services startup in August 2017. One board member (and lead investor) was alarmed that Baroo’s growth was slowing while its appetite for funding was accelerating. Hyde wanted to hit the gas and continue... View Details
- August 2019
- Case
Humanistic Capitalism at Brunello Cucinelli
By: Francesca Gino and Gary Pisano
This case explores one company’s attempt to experiment with a different underlying model for a capitalist enterprise. Brunello Cucinelli, S.p.A. is a leading manufacturer of luxury fashion apparel. Despite being a publicly traded enterprise with annual revenues... View Details
- August 2019 (Revised April 2020)
- Case
Transforming Hindustan Unilever
By: Krishna G. Palepu and Rachna Tahilyani
In October 2013, when Sanjiv Mehta had taken over the reins of Unilever’s business in India and the larger South Asia region, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) had been going through a difficult time. Caught in the midst of a weakening economy, falling consumer spending, and... View Details
- July 2019 (Revised May 2020)
- Supplement
Piramal e-Swasthya (C): A New Name, Bigger Scope, and Public-Private Partnerships
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Joyce J. Kim
In 2010, Anand Piramal acquired the Health Management Research Institute (HMRI), a healthcare venture, and merged it with his original digital healthcare startup Piramal e-Swasthya (PeS), so that PeS became Piramal Swasthya. After acquiring HMRI, Piramal Swasthya... View Details
- July 2019 (Revised October 2022)
- Case
Jai Vakeel Foundation: Addressing Disability
By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Kairavi Dey
Jai Vakeel, a nonprofit organization in India, serves individuals with Intellectual Disability (ID), those with an IQ below 70. The organization was founded by the parents of a child with Down Syndrome, and they (and their next generation) steadily built the... View Details
- June 2019 (Revised November 2019)
- Case
Malaysia: An 'Asian Tiger' Reawakens
On May 9, 2018, in an extraordinary upset, Mahathir Mohamad again became Malaysia’s Prime Minister. Najib Razak, who had headed the government since 2009, had been swept up in the 1MDB scandal—perhaps the biggest state-corruption incident in history. Although... View Details
- April 2019
- Supplement
Upwork in 2019
By: David Yoffie and Allison M. Ciechanover
Stephane Kasriel, the CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, updates his progress on how to redesign its business model in 2019. View Details