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2011
Case

Wrapitup

By: W. Earl Sasser

A restaurant chain based in California offers made-to-order sandwich wraps using fresh, healthy ingredients. The founders of the company take a very active role in day-to-day business and tightly control every aspect of the restaurant operation from hiring store... View Details

Keywords: Service Operations; Governance Controls; Revenue; Employee Relationship Management; Planning; Customer Satisfaction; Problems and Challenges; Profit; Change Management; Compensation and Benefits; Leadership Style; Service Industry; California

2011
Working Paper

Management Practices Across Firms and Countries

By: Nicholas Bloom, Christos Genakos, Raffaella Sadun and John Van Reenen

For the last decade we have been using double-blind survey techniques and randomized sampling to construct management data on over 10,000 organizations across 20 countries. On average, we find that in manufacturing, American, Japanese, and German firms are the best... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Business Ventures; Public Sector; Private Sector; Country; Performance; Motivation and Incentives

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July 2002 (Revised December 2002)
Case

Mercer Management Consulting (A)

By: Thomas J. DeLong and Michael Echenberg

Insurance giant Marsh & McLennan acquires management consulting firms Temple, Barker & Sloane (TBS) in 1987 and Strategic Planning Associates (SPA) in 1990 and sets out to merge the two. The merger proceeds slowly and painfully. Following the February 1990 merger,... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Model; Decision Making; Organizational Culture; Personal Development and Career; Horizontal Integration; Consulting Industry

TeachingInterests

Investing for Impact

By: Archie L. Jones

The Field Course: Investing for Impact was born out of the efforts of HBS students and faculty in the spring of 2020 and offered for the first time in fall semester of 2021.

This course seeks to help students understand why certain... View Details

February 2021 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Barbarians at the Gate or Turnaround Gurus? Private Equity and the Rise of the LBO

By: Tom Nicholas and John Masko

During the 1980s, leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and the private equity (PE) firms responsible for carrying them out revolutionized both investment and management in the U.S. Between 1980 and 1989, buyout activity in the U.S. surged from $1 billion per year to $60 billion.... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Restructuring; Borrowing and Debt; Private Equity; Bonds; Investment Return; Institutional Investing; Profit Sharing; Business History; Management Style; Private Ownership; Performance Effectiveness; Value Creation; Financial Services Industry; United States

Web

Summer Fellowships | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

offered to students in the summer between their RC and EC year, supporting student founders in the development of their social impact startup. The program is for students who are serious about pursuing their idea and are committed to a... View Details

16 Apr 2024
News

Netflix Enters Its Dan Lin (MBA 1999) Era

head of film at Netflix, which details the challenges and opportunities ahead for him at the streaming giant. Lin is a longtime producer (notably of The Lego Movie and Sherlock Holmes) and founder of Rideback, the production company he... View Details

Web

Leadership Initiative - Leadership

digital strategy and execution, innovation and new venture development. Sunand is a digital strategy thought leader with expertise in transforming traditional businesses and creating and leading new digital and analytics-enabled businesses. He is the View Details

20 Jul 2010
First Look

First Look: July 20

Publications Market Reaction to and Valuation of IFRS Reconciliation Adjustments: First Evidence from the UK Authors: Joanne Horton and George Serafeim Publication: Review of Accounting Studies (forthcoming) Abstract We investigate the market reaction to, and the... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

February 2025
Tutorial

Preparing Business Leaders for an Era of Climate Instability: Understanding and Managing Physical Climate Risk

By: Michael W. Toffel and Spencer Glendon

In this compelling video, Spencer Glendon, founder of Probable Futures and Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School, describes the profound implications of climate change for businesses, the economy, and societies around the world. Drawing from his background in... View Details

Keywords: Risk; Uncertainty; Modeling; Climate Change; Adaptation; Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management

April 2023
Supplement

Fresh Food Generation

By: Brian Trelstad

Instructors should consider the timing of making videos available to students, as they may reveal key case details.

This case highlights one of five BIPOC entrepreneuers in the Boston area as part of the HBS Impact Investment Fund. In fall 2021, a team of... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Race; Food and Beverage Industry

September 2020
Case

The Black New Venture Competition

By: Karen Mills, Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Martin Sinozich and Gabriella Elanbeck

Black entrepreneurs encounter many unique obstacles when raising capital to start and grow a business. During their second year at Harvard Business School (HBS), MBA students Kimberly Foster and Tyler Simpson decided to do something to make a difference for... View Details

March 2017
Case

CIC: Catalyzing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (A)

By: William R. Kerr, Sari Kerr and Alexis Brownell

CIC creates "entrepreneurial ecosystems," renting out office and co-working space to start-ups and related companies and providing basic business needs like Wi-Fi and legal advice. Founder Tim Rowe refers to the CIC as "innovation infrastructure," bringing together... View Details

Keywords: Start-ups; Boston; Cambridge; St. Louis; CIC; Cambridge Innovation Center; Co-working Space; Entrepreneurial Ecosystems; Innovation Ecosystems; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Business Offices; Innovation and Invention

November 2013 (Revised December 2013)
Case

Endeavor: Miami Heats Up

By: William A. Sahlman, Ramana Nanda, David Lane and Lisa Mazzanti

Endeavor Global was a nonprofit that for 15 years had worked to nurture entrepreneurship in emerging markets by selecting local high-impact entrepreneurs for mentoring and aid in scaling up their businesses from committed local business leaders. In summer 2012,... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Entrepreneurs; Scaling; Emerging Market Entrepreneurship; Not For Profit; Entrepreneurial Finance; Mentoring; Business Networks; Hybrid Nonprofit Funding; Mission and Purpose; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Emerging Markets; Problems and Challenges; Finance; Miami

June 2011 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Vehbi Koç and the Making of Turkey's Largest Business Group

By: Asli M. Colpan and Geoffrey Jones

The case describes the creation of Turkey's largest business group by Vehbi Koç. The foundation of this group in the interwar years, and its subsequent diversification into many industries, including automobiles, household goods, and services, is analysed. The case... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Manufacturing Industry; Turkey

January 1999 (Revised March 2001)
Case

MindSpring

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

In a business environment where Internet Service Providers (ISP) has become increasingly commodity-like, Charles Brewer, founder and CEO of MindSpring, the nation's sixth largest ISP and the recognized leader in customer satisfaction, ponders a proposed merger with... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Satisfaction; Growth and Development Strategy; Web Services Industry; United States