Publications
Publications
Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(10,864)
- Faculty Publications (1,722)
- November 2004 (Revised May 2010)
- Case
RightNow Technologies
By: William A. Sahlman and Dan Heath
The founder and CEO of a CRM software start-up must decide between an attractive acquisition offer and the opportunity to go public. Discusses the growth of the company--including a lengthy discussion of entrepreneurial bootstrapping--as well as an aborted IPO attempt... View Details
- November 2004 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
Marvel Enterprises, Inc.
By: Anita Elberse
The management team of Marvel Enterprises, known for its universe of superhero characters that includes Spider-Man, the Hulk, and X-Men, must reevaluate its marketing strategy. In June 2004, only six years after the company emerged from bankruptcy, Marvel has amassed a... View Details
- November 2004 (Revised April 2005)
- Background Note
Math for Strategists
By: Tarun Khanna and Jan W. Rivkin
Great strategists rely heavily on numbers as they go about their work. Offers an overview of the high- and low-brow quantitative tools that students encounter during the Strategy course. The class explores high-brow tools in detail; the focus here is on low-brow... View Details
- October 2004 (Revised July 2005)
- Case
Kinetic Concepts, Inc.
By: Jay W. Lorsch, Dwight B. Crane and Ashley Robertson
Raises issues about how the nature and function of a board changes as a company moves from ownership by its employees, including the founder, to ownership by a private equity firm, Fremont Partners, culminating in a highly successful IPO. Gives students the opportunity... View Details
- September 2004 (Revised February 2006)
- Case
Fernwood Art Investments: Leading in an Imperfect Marketplace
By: Boris Groysberg, Joel Podolny and Timothy Keller
As Bruce Taub, founder of Fernwood, strolled past some of New York City's finest galleries, he pondered the unique challenges that Fernwood faced. Where others had seen the inefficiency of imperfect markets, Taub saw an opportunity to revolutionize the very nature of... View Details
- September 2004
- Article
Rational Overoptimism (and Other Biases)
Rational agents with differing priors tend to be overoptimistic about their chances of success. In particular, an agent who tries to choose the action that is most likely to succeed, is more likely to choose an action of which he overestimated, rather than... View Details
- July 2004 (Revised December 2004)
- Case
Timberland: Commerce and Justice
By: James E. Austin, Herman B. Leonard and James Quinn
When Jeffrey Swartz became the third generation in his family to lead the Timberland Co., he pursued a strategy in which commerce and justice were "inextricably linked." Community involvement, environmental management, and global labor standards became not addenda to... View Details
- July 2004 (Revised September 2004)
- Case
Novell: CEO-led Turnaround and Growth Strategy
By: Richard L. Nolan and Robert D. Austin
Novell CEO Jack Messman tried to return the company to its leadership position in the software industry through a strategy that embraces Linux and other open source software. This case serves as an introduction to open source software and strategies based on open... View Details
- June 2004 (Revised July 2005)
- Case
Procter & Gamble: Global Business Services
By: Thomas J. DeLong, Warren Brackin, Alex Cabanas, Phil Shellhammer and David L. Ager
Dave Walker, vice-president of business service opportunities and chairman of the governance team at Procter & Gamble, must decide what to do with P&G's 5,700 employee Global Business Services (GBS) group. GBS brought together internal services such as finance,... View Details
- June 2004 (Revised June 2006)
- Case
Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.
Scientific-Atlantia (S-A), a leading manufacturer of cable TV equipment, is confronting strategic challenges in mid-2004. For decades, cable operators have faced high switching costs that have locked them into exclusive supply relationships with either S-A or its... View Details
- May 2004
- Supplement
Slingshot Technology, Inc. Supplement: Partnership Agreements
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins
Slingshot Technology Inc. (STI) is a privately held software start-up founded in 1995 focused on identifying emerging spaces in the IT services industry and partnering with vendors selling promising but unproven technologies in those spaces. The vendors used STI to... View Details
- May 2004 (Revised December 2004)
- Case
Slingshot Technology, Inc. (A)
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins
Slingshot Technology Inc. (STI) is a privately held software start-up founded in 1995 focused on identifying emerging spaces in the IT services industry and partnering with vendors selling promising but unproven technologies in those spaces. The vendors used STI to... View Details
- May 2004 (Revised December 2004)
- Case
Slingshot Technology, Inc. (B)
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins
Slingshot Technology Inc. (STI) is a privately held software start-up founded in 1995 focused on identifying emerging spaces in the IT services industry and partnering with vendors selling promising but unproven technologies in those spaces. The vendors used STI to... View Details
- May 2004 (Revised December 2004)
- Case
Slingshot Technology, Inc. (C)
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins
Supplements the (A) case. View Details
- November 2003 (Revised March 2006)
- Case
Dow Chemical's Bid for the Privatization of PBB in Argentina
By: Mihir A. Desai and Alexandra de Royere
What price should Dow Chemical bid for PBB, a petrochemical complex that is being privatized by the Argentine government? To answer this question, students are forced to consider the role of country risk, the underlying currency exposure of the business, and how to... View Details
- November 2003 (Revised March 2004)
- Case
Drilling South: Petrobras Evaluates Pecom
By: Mihir A. Desai and Ricardo Reisen de Pinho
The Brazilian oil company, Petrobras, is evaluating the acquisition of an Argentine oil company, the Perez Companc Group (Pecom). The acquisition would increase Petrobras' oil reserves and expand its interests outside Brazil, a significant step for the largest company... View Details
Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Forecasting and Prediction; Financial Crisis; Non-Renewable Energy; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Corporate Governance; Risk Management; Emerging Markets; State Ownership; Performance Evaluation; Risk and Uncertainty; Valuation; Energy Industry; Argentina; Brazil
- November 2003 (Revised September 2016)
- Case
Creating Global Oil, 1900-1935
By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Daniel Wadhwani
Taught in the elective MBA course entitled The Evolution of Global Business. Examines the development of an international cartel in the oil industry in the 1920s and 1930s. Focuses on the decisions and actions of the leading multinational oil companies—particularly... View Details