Stocks - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2024 (Revised August 2024)
Case

Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Alexis Lefort

In 2023, Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson was contemplating her growth strategy at a leading U.K.-based cybersecurity venture, launched in 2013 by a group of anti-terror cyber specialists, University of Cambridge mathematicians, and artificial intelligence (AI) experts.... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Talent; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Cybersecurity; Leadership; Business Growth and Maturation; Recruitment; Resignation and Termination; AI and Machine Learning; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Going Public; Technology Industry; United Kingdom; Europe; United States

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29 Nov 2021
Research & Ideas

How Bonuses Get Employees to Choose Work Over Family

perks like bonuses, commissions, or stock options tied to hitting certain goals. But managers may not realize that these incentives could contribute to employee dissatisfaction, burnout, and personal problems at home. “The more our... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Kim Raczka

30 Nov 2022
Research & Ideas

Recruiters: Highlight Your Company’s Diversity, Not Just Perks and Pay

Employers are dangling all sorts of sparkling lures to capture hot job candidates in the battle for top talent: Generous compensation. Stock options. Lofty titles. But Harvard Business School research suggests that many companies fail to... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

20 Oct 2008
Research & Ideas

The Seven Things That Surprise New CEOs

reporting on results and management's decisions. Surprise Six: Pleasing Shareholders Is Not The Goal Warning signs: Executives and board members judge actions by their effect on stock price. Analysts who don't understand the business push... View Details

Keywords: by Michael E. Porter, Jay W. Lorsch & Nitin Nohria

09 Oct 2001
Research & Ideas

Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Organizations

expected to try to fill up their own vessels with fish on each voyage—to do less would not be in their competitive interest. Yet if every fisherman acts this way, all will lose out as the overall stock becomes depleted. Economists call... View Details

Keywords: by Paul Lawrence & Nitin Nohria

01 Apr 2000
News

Highly Recommended: Leah Modigliani

it to the top." But this key financial strategist ("When She Talks, Stocks Move" a New York Times headline recently proclaimed) has other things on her mind. "Do you think you could get me the recipe for that spicy tomato cocktail they... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna

October 2013
Article

Corporate Venturing

By: Josh Lerner

For decades, large companies have been wary of corporate venturing. But as R&D organizations face pressure to rein in costs and produce results, companies are investing in promising start-ups to gain knowledge and agility. The logic of corporate venturing is... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Knowledge Acquisition; Corporate Strategy; Research and Development; Business Startups; Innovation and Invention

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May 2004
Article

The Risky Business of Hiring Stars

By: Boris Groysberg, Ashish Nanda and Nitin Nohria

With the battle for the best and brightest people heating up again, you're most likely out there looking for first-rate talent in the ranks of your competitors. Chances are, you're sold on the idea of recruiting from outside your organization, since developing people... View Details

Keywords: Staffing; Employee Retention; Selection and Staffing; Employees; Retention; Competitive Advantage; Human Resources; Performance

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15 Jul 2019
Book

Many Executives Are Afraid of Finance. Here's How They Can Gain Confidence

disproportionate stock price hit to an earnings miss reflects that informational problem. The promise of private equity involves solving that gap between owners and managers. Buybacks must be interpreted in that context as either... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

30 Jul 2018
Research & Ideas

Why Ethical People Become Unethical Negotiators

fraudulent fund, even though many suspected something was strange, since the low-risk fund had defied reality by dramatically outperforming the stock market several years in a row. “We were all aware of this hedge fund that had had great... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

06 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Are You a Level-Six Leader?

of the modern world's greatest Opportunists. Also of this genre, although somewhat lesser known, is Jeffrey Skilling, the Enron CEO who sold off tens of millions of dollars of stock just before Enron filed for bankruptcy, claiming he had... View Details

Keywords: by Mitch Maidique

01 Jun 2007
What Do You Think?

How Should Pay Be Linked to Performance?

for shareholders. However, there is a sense, expressed by John Ippolito, that there is a lack of perception in boards of directors of "what constitutes 'creating value' in the enterprise many boards are too ready to turn over the keys to the incoming CEO—then... View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

29 Aug 2018
What Do You Think?

What Should Harley-Davidson’s Management Do?

tax cut in 2017 he did it by visiting Harley-Davidson’s facilities in his home state of Wisconsin. The Company had not performed well in recent years. By 2017, its profits were $521 million on revenues of about $5.6 billion; both figures were below 2013 results. Over... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett; Auto

18 Nov 2015
Research & Ideas

Who Really Determines CEO Salary Packages?

compensation package added up to $15.2 million in 2013, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That compensation includes a vast array of factors, such as salary, bonuses, stock options, and long-term incentive payouts. Interlocking... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Consulting

Web

Poor’s Manual: The Rise of Business Analysts - Railroads and the Transformation of Capitalism | Harvard Business School

and useful comparative ratios among states such as net earnings to cost, net earnings to gross, and stocks to bonds. Managers and investors eagerly bought copies of Poor’s Manual , which allowed them to follow a company’s growth and... View Details

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New Levels of Capitalism: Finance - Railroads and the Transformation of Capitalism | Harvard Business School

railroads represented a highest percentage of listed stocks and bonds issued on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock market grew from a few shares in the 1830s to hundreds of... View Details

13 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 13, 2010

PublicationsBuy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down Authors:John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead Publication:Harvard Business Press, 2010 Abstract You've got a good idea. You know it could make a crucial difference for you, your organization, your... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

03 Apr 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Bridge Building in Venture Capital-Backed Acquisitions

Keywords: by Paul A. Gompers & Yuhai Xuan

May 2018
Case

Inditex: 2018

By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth

In 2018, Inditex, based in Spain, was the largest specialist fashion retailer in the world, generating sales of $31.5 billion in 2017 from a portfolio of eight retail brands selling through a total of 7,475 stores located in 96 countries and from websites in 49... View Details

Keywords: Fashion; Succession; IPO; Competition; Initial Public Offering; Multinational Firms and Management; Management Succession; Growth and Development Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry

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2002
Book

Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs

By: Rakesh Khurana

Corporate CEOs are headline news. Stock prices rise and fall at word of their hiring and firing. Business media debate their merits and defects as if individual leaders determined the health of the economy. Yet we know surprisingly little about how CEOs are selected... View Details

Keywords: Managerial Roles; Selection and Staffing; Personal Characteristics; Experience and Expertise; Investment Activism; Corporate Strategy

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