Publications

October 1991 (Revised November 1996)
Case

Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (A)

By: Michael C. Jensen

A Houston-based LBO firm makes two petrochemical acquisitions that benefit from improved industry conditions and improved organizational performance. The LBOs generate huge increases in value, creating problems for managers, who have large, undiversified equity... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Value Creation; Business Exit or Shutdown; Leveraged Buyouts; Chemical Industry; Houston

Web

Alternative Investments Course | HBS Online

identify their defining elements, such as size, risk, and liquidity Develop the confidence and ability to assess potential investment opportunities and maximize the value of investment portfolios Gain the skills and strategies to choose the right alternatives View Details

18 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 18

Performance enables future managers and business owners to attain the core skills they need to become integral members of their company's decision-making teams. This new program from established authors Srikant M. Datar and Madhav Rajan... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

11 Mar 2024
News

In Harmony

to help underwrite the sovereign bond offering that will save South Korea from financial ruin. It’s a novel of many elements, somehow managing to mingle Korean folktales with scenes of high-stakes financial negotiation. It’s the story of... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photograph by Jun Michael Park

March 1985 (Revised November 1988)
Case

Precision Parts, Inc. (A)

By: William A. Sahlman

Contains a description of a decision confronting two entrepreneurs in mid-1981. They are considering purchasing a small manufacturer of precision electromechanical parts. Among the issues in the case are the following: 1) Should Taylor and Grayson buy Precision Parts,... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Cost vs Benefits; Investment Return; Strategy; Management Practices and Processes; Risk and Uncertainty; Outcome or Result; Manufacturing Industry

19 Jun 2023
Blog Post

The Road to Impact

made a leap of faith. If he could just find a management position at a nonprofit, he figured, he could help direct social change. “That was my thesis,” he recalls. Since he made that jump, he’s proved that thesis correct several times... View Details

10 Feb 2009
First Look

First Look: February 10, 2009

approaches. Finally, the paper reviews the potential role of regional cooperation in mitigating conflict. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-086.pdf An Ounce of Prevention: The Power of Public Risk Management in... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

31 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 31

Furthermore, a third experiment shows that people tend to discount the wrongness of crossing ethical boundaries to hurt or help others when the action restores equity. The Private Equity Advantage: Leveraged Buyout Firms and Relationship... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2011
Article

Private Equity and Long-Run Investment: The Case of Innovation

By: Josh Lerner, Morten Sorensen and Per Stromberg

A long-standing controversy is whether LBOs relieve managers from short-term pressures of dispersed shareholders, or whether LBO funds themselves are driven by short-term profit motives and sacrifice long-term growth to boost short-term performance. We investigate 495... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Private Equity; Leveraged Buyouts; Investment; Innovation and Invention

Find at Harvard

28 Aug 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, August 28, 2018

Collaboration By: Bernstein, Ethan, and Stephen Turban Abstract— : Organizations’ pursuit of increased workplace collaboration has led managers to transform traditional office spaces into “open,” transparency-enhancing architectures with... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

August 2013 (Revised December 2014)
Case

Taking Dell Private

By: David J. Collis, David B. Yoffie and Matthew Shaffer

In July 2012, Michael Dell, CEO and founder of Dell, Inc., met with a representative of Silver Lake Partners to explore taking his company private. The company, which he had founded in his dorm room as a college freshman and which had made him the youngest Fortune 500... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Going Private; The PC Market; Market For Corporate Control; Corporate Strategy; Leveraged Buyouts; Change Management; Private Equity; Market Entry and Exit; Private Ownership; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Computer Industry; Technology Industry; United States