Publications

November 2000 (Revised December 2000)
Case

Loewen Group Inc., The

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jose Camacho

A publiclytraded funeral home and cemetery consolidator faces imminent financial distress. The company has aggressively grown through use of debt. Restructuring the debt is potentially very costly to creditors, shareholders, suppliers, and other corporate stakeholders.... View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Restructuring; Capital Structure; Cost of Capital; Debt Securities; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Crisis Management; Business and Shareholder Relations; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Service Industry

October 2018 (Revised May 2019)
Teaching Note

Intuit: Turbo Tax PersonalPro - A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs

By: Joseph Fuller, Shikhar Ghosh and Monica Baraldi

Teaching Note for HBS No. 816-048. The case tells the story of a product manager within Intuit who develops an idea for a new product that spans two of the company's existing business units—professional tax software, sold to accountants, and the consumer focused... View Details

Keywords: Business Units; Business or Company Management; Applications and Software; Accounting; Product Development; Financial Services Industry

Max H. Bazerman is Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. His recent books... View Details

Keywords: accounting industry; accounting industry; accounting industry

03 Jul 2013
What Do You Think?

What Are the Limits of Transparency?

everyone's questions. We inverted the pyramid of the organization and made reverse accountability a reality." That's not all. Nayar makes his own 360-degree feedback open to 50,000 employees, and 3,800 View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

October 2008
Case

Hrad Technika

Examines a struggling IT outsourcing project from the perspective of the IT services provider-Hrad Technika. When used in conjunction with "Tegan c.c.c." (9-609-038), it provides an opportunity to see both sides of the issue. When Hrad enters into a contract to create... View Details

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Globalized Firms and Management; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Service Delivery; Service Operations; Projects; Information Technology; Wales

07 Mar 2023
HBS Case

ChatGPT: Did Big Tech Set Up the World for an AI Bias Disaster?

that, at the end of the day, those are also the communities with the least amount of power.” Is short-term hubris clouding my judgement? As a market leader, Google might have felt invincible enough to ignore major shortcomings in key... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Technology

29 Jul 2013
Research & Ideas

A Manager’s Moral Obligation to Preserve Capitalism

capitalism to allow its corporate managers to set up an accounting system that distorts the market—potentially leading to corporate scandals or an economic crash—and undermines capitalism itself. Rather, in... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

12 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 12

the Use of Unverifiable Estimates in Required Goodwill Impairment Authors:Karthik Ramanna and Ross L. Watts Publication:Review of Accounting Studies (forthcoming) Abstract SFAS 142 requires managers to... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

11 Jun 2021
Blog Post

Saying “Race” Out Loud: Leading Conversations on Diversity in HBS Classrooms

As an organizational behavior scholar, diversity and identity expert, and an assistant professor of management at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Dr. Stephanie Creary has become a recognized thought leader in navigating the... View Details

13 Dec 2022
Interview

Why Some Start-Ups Fail to Scale

By: Jeffrey Rayport and Curt Nickisch

Managing rapid growth is a huge challenge for young businesses. Even start-ups with glowing reviews and skyrocketing sales can fail. That’s because new ventures and corporate initiatives alike have to sustain profitability at scale, according to Harvard Business School... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Growth Management; Outcome or Result; Transition

Read Now

24 Feb 2015
First Look

First Look: February 24

adequacy, actuarial standards, accounting standards, and auditing practice. In these areas, corporate managers and financial experts such as auditors and bankers possess the technical expertise necessary for... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Jul 2006
What Do You Think?

How Important Is “Executive Intelligence” for Leaders?

and Street expectations I'll take the manager with his nose deep in a book any day." Akram Boutros, along with many others, argued for balance in our assessment of the importance of EI, pointing out that "both executive... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

April 2009 (Revised October 2010)
Case

Bob Beall at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

By: Robert Steven Kaplan and Sophie Hood

Bob Beall is the Chief Executive Officer of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF). CFF is an extremely successful organization, but Beall has to determine how to manage the organization through the financial crisis of 2008-2009. In this situation, donations are likely... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Governing and Advisory Boards; Leadership; Crisis Management; Nonprofit Organizations

18 Oct 2006
Research & Ideas

New at the Helm: A Talk with HBS Dean Light

convinced him that he needed more management skills. By his own recollection, he was virtually "clueless" about the very special place to which he was heading. His application to the MBA Program caught the attention of... View Details

Keywords: by Roger Thompson; Education

January 2007 (Revised October 2007)
Case

The Omidyar-Tufts Microfinance Fund: Striving to Reshape the Social Enterprise Capital Markets

By: Michael Chu and Jean Hazell

Seeking to impact global poverty and philanthropy, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar donates $100 million to Tufts University for a trust restricted to investment in microfinance. Explores the origins of the initiative, the perspectives and objectives of the various parties... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Microfinance; Investment Funds; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Emerging Markets; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry

December 2022 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Iberdrola: Leading the Energy Revolution

By: Juan Alcácer and Emer Moloney

At the end of 2019, Ignacio Galán, the Chairman and CEO of the world's third largest utility, Iberdrola, reflected on his almost 20 years at the company. He managed a portfolio of three very different businesses, each with their own specific opportunities and... View Details

12 May 2020
Research & Ideas

It’s Time To Relaunch Your Remote Team

routines calls for relaunches to help leaders and team members understand how each member has been affected, figure out how to address concerns, and ultimately get everyone back on the same track to achieve team goals. Team leaders should focus their relaunch in four... View Details

Keywords: by Tsedal Neeley

March 2010
Article

Calculating, Creating, and Claiming Value in Business Markets: Status and Research Agenda

By: Gary L. Lilien, Rajdeep Grewal, Douglas Bowman, Min Ding, Abbie Griffin, V. Kumar, Das Narayandas, Renana Peres, Raji Srinivasan and Qiong Wang

A key challenge facing business marketers surrounds developing a deeper understanding of customer needs. We conceptualize that challenge as having three dimensions: calculating, creating, and claiming value. We discuss key problems, new developments and research... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Problems and Challenges; Research; Customer Relationship Management