Publications

SSRN

April 2022
Case

Marsha Simms: Trailblazer in Corporate Law

By: Robin Ely, Boris Groysberg, Colleen Ammerman and Olivia Hull

Follows the journey of lawyer Marsha Simms from her childhood in racially-segregated St. Louis to the upper echelons of the New York legal community. Describes her education, career choices, accomplishments, and setbacks. Highlights significant moments such as her... View Details

February 2015 (Revised April 2017)
Case

Edyficar and Mibanco: The Emergence of M&A in Microfinance

By: Michael Chu

Mibanco, a microfinance icon, is for sale, and Edyficar, owned by Banco del Credito (BCP), Peru's largest bank, is evaluating its acquisition. Until recently, such a transaction would have been fanciful given Mibanco's preeminent role in Peruvian microfinance, which... View Details

Keywords: Base Of The Pyramid; Peru; Latin America; Microfinance; Commercial Banking; Mergers and Acquisitions; Banking Industry; Latin America; Peru

December 2002 (Revised June 2003)
Case

Vignette: The Rebar Dilemma

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Martin Smith, a new associate at an LBO firm, must respond to a problem posed by his boss, based on an historical deal that suddenly came undone. After months of negotiation, his firm's plan to buy a bankrupt competitor of one of its portfolio companies and close it... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Competition; Growth and Development Strategy; Business or Company Management

12 Jul 2016
News

The Fastest-Growing Cause for Shareholders Is Sustainability

Executive Pay and "Independent" Compensation Consultants

Executive compensation consultants face potential conflicts of interest that can lead to higher recommended levels of CEO pay, including the desires to “cross-sell” services and to secure “repeat business.” We find evidence in both the US and Canada that CEO pay... View Details

January–February 2020
Article

Are You Undervaluing Your Customers?: It’s Time to Start Measuring and Managing Their Worth

By: Rob Markey

Leaders recognize that they should manage their businesses to maximize the value of the customer base. But too often, earnings pressures result in cost-cutting measures that hurt customers.

Loyalty-leading companies operate differently. They create systems for... View Details

Keywords: Customer Experience; Customer Value; Customer Centric Initiative; Customer Focused Organization; Customer Lifetime Value; Customer Focus and Relationships; Customer Value and Value Chain; Operations; Business Strategy

February 2020
Case

Drift: The First Sales Hire

By: Mark Roberge

David Cancel and Elias Torres, the co-founders of Drift, scaled their business to thousands of users and hundreds of thousands in revenue. However, they were falling short of the annual revenue target they communicated to the board of directors. Having scaled the... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; Salesforce Management; Selection and Staffing

November 2017
Case

Third Point Paints a Target on Sotheby's

By: Lena G. Goldberg

When faced with the increasing accumulation of its stock by activist investors led by Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC and the activists’ stated objective to replace management and at least some Sotheby’s Board members, Sotheby’s, the world’s oldest auction house,... View Details

Keywords: Fiduciary Duties; Activists; Activist Investors; Rights Plan; Poison Pills; Takeover Defenses; Corporate Governance; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation; Ownership Stake; Value Creation; Crisis Management

November 2014
Case

Jazztel

By: Jay Lorsch and Emily McTague

In October 2004 Fernández Pujals, founder of Telepizza, an international home delivery pizza business, bought 24.9% of Jazztel (€90 million), a telecom company. At the time, Jazztel was near bankruptcy and needed a capital injection to finish the year. Over the next... View Details

April 1988 (Revised July 1989)
Case

Precista Tools AG (A)

A young woman manager in a Swiss family firm finds that her role as a managing director becomes bitterly unpleasant once her older brother decides to leave an engineering career and join the family business. That is what the father, who was head of the business had... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Family Business; Family and Family Relationships; Gender Characteristics; Switzerland

April 1992 (Revised April 1996)
Case

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

By: Hugo Uyterhoeven

The board and management of General Cinema has to determine whether the acquisition of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ), thereby entering the publishing business, makes strategic sense. The case describes HBJ's involvement in several segments of the publishing industry:... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Boundaries; Supply and Industry; Segmentation; Publishing Industry