Informal Investment - Publications - Faculty & Research

05 Nov 2024
Research & Ideas

AI Can Help Leaders Communicate, But Can't Make Employees Listen

the CEOs of Hershey, General Motors, Nvidia, and Amazon during earnings conference calls against AI-generated responses to the same questions: Hershey CEO: “We’ve continued to invest in capacity in brands and businesses across the... View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Information Technology; Information Technology

01 Jun 2018
News

Q&A with Janet Cahill

know that HBS is using my gifts wisely? HBS employs a disciplined budget process—making trade-offs when necessary and focusing new investment in areas of strategic importance to extend the mission of the School. In the spirit of... View Details

01 Jun 2016
News

Fellowships Have Impact

fellowships discuss the impact of that support as they strive to make a difference in the world. (8 min. video) Investing in Fellowships Gifts in any amount to the HBS Fund for Leadership and Innovation help sustain the School’s... View Details

01 Dec 2011
News

Peak Earth?

investment advice.” Grantham, who has established a foundation to raise awareness about environmental issues and promote collaboration within the green movement, sees dark decades ahead and potential disaster if we don’t change our ways.... View Details

Keywords: Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

01 Mar 2008
News

Lessons from Private Equity

GADIESH: To reap private equity returns, act more like a private equity manager COURTESY OF BAIN & CO A recent Harvard Business Review article headlined “If Private Equity Sized Up Your Business” gave many leaders of public companies a thoughtful pause: Why can’t we... View Details

Keywords: Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments

01 Oct 1998
News

New HBS Alumni Board Members

her MBA in 1993, Jennifer E. Gilbert has been president of Art Investment Inc., a publishing firm in Boston. She is a director of the Business Associates Club and president of the HBS Network of Women Alumnae. From 1996 to 1998 she was... View Details

01 Jun 2025
News

Origin Story: Mary Chen (MBA 2026)

impact investing at Bain Capital where I focused on climate and sustainability.” Why HBS: “I see it as an opportunity to really pressure-test some hypotheses of what I want to do and build confidence around it. I want to follow my... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photo by Leah Fasten; climate finance; MBA; student life

01 Dec 2003
News

Business Answers the Call

of personality, coupled with the leadership of his successor, a former investment banker, extraordinary structural changes were made in the Seattle system. Nielsen retired from the school board in 2001 but remains active with a community... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Educational Support Services; Educational Services

May 2019
Case

Elon Musk's Big Bets Update, 2019

By: David B. Yoffie and Daniel Fisher

This short case provides an update to Elon Musk's strategy and tactical moves with Tesla, Solar City, and SpaceX from 2016-2019. View Details

Citation

Educators

Purchase

01 Dec 2001
News

BOOK: Creating Value through Corporate Restructuring

proceeded when faced with multiple options. Those options — from mergers and acquisitions to leveraged buyouts and asset divestitures to "vulture" investing and tracking stock — are also explored. Gilson reminds readers that the devil is... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

01 Jun 2012
News

Around the World

more students the same material offered in the United States, says Palepu. But HBS went the other way. “We said what we know is no longer valid in a globalized world, and we need to learn more before we teach,” explains Palepu. “So let’s View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Sep 2004
News

Hollywood Story

Ruth Epstein (MBA ’88) never went to film school, but nine years at Goldman Sachs proved to be great training for her new career in Hollywood. With fifteen-hour workdays filled with legal and financial negotiations, and the uncertainty of each new venture, View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; Information; Information

01 Mar 2005
News

Desert Dust-Up

Simmons “raising a ruckus in the oil patch,” said Barron’s (November 29, 2004). Simmons is chairman of Simmons & Co. International, a Houston investment bank active in the energy sector. As part of a small group invited to Saudi Arabia in... View Details

Keywords: Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing; Manufacturing

2025
Working Paper

Dynamic Personalization with Multiple Customer Signals: Multi-Response State Representation in Reinforcement Learning

By: Liangzong Ma, Ta-Wei Huang, Eva Ascarza and Ayelet Israeli

Reinforcement learning (RL) offers potential for optimizing sequences of customer interactions by modeling the relationships between customer states, company actions, and long-term value. However, its practical implementation often faces significant challenges.... View Details

Keywords: Dynamic Policy; Deep Reinforcement Learning; Representation Learning; Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment; Latent Variable Models; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Foreign Direct Investment; Analytics and Data Science

Citation

SSRN

Read Now

01 Dec 2014
News

Technology Making HBS More Accessible

as an investment banker focused on educational technology makes her very familiar with the topic. “The platform will enable people to collaborate across great distances,” she notes. Steve, who is a private equity real-estate investor,... View Details

01 Mar 2004
News

Warren Law Remembered

career, including Harvard Business School’s 1996 Distinguished Service Award. Samuel L. Hayes, III, the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, Emeritus, and a former student and colleague of Law’s, described Law as “one of the... View Details

Keywords: obiturary; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Jun 2005
News

NFL Players Tackle Cases at HBS

entrepreneurship, the first module in April focused on issues such as business structure, taxes, and spreadsheet analysis. For the second module in May, participants brought their own business or investment ideas for discussion. The... View Details

Keywords: NFL; Ted Johnson; Todd Collins; Mike Haynes; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

01 Jun 2012
News

Letters to the Editor

Bloomfield Hills, MI A Taxing Question Regarding his My Two Cents column, “My Beautiful Capital Gain,” in the March issue, I’d ask this of Dal LaMagna (MBA 1970): The money you invested was already taxed once at ordinary income tax rates,... View Details

Keywords: Administration of Economic Programs; Government; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

Web

Students of Business Disciplines | MBA

Students of Business Disciplines External Funding Accountemps/American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Student Scholarship A competitive award for two outstanding AICPA student affiliate members pursuing careers in accounting, finance, or View Details

07 Sep 2021
News

Embracing Activism for Social Change

much of her first post-HBS year managing the pilot. Resolving Crisis Situations Mendu and other members of the partnership developed a three-part initiative informed by the best practices they gathered from local stakeholders and... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg

Publications