Publications

December 2005 (Revised September 2007)
Case

Canyon Johnson Urban Fund

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Alexa Arena

Basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson and K. Robert Turner, managing partner of Canyon Johnson Urban Fund (CJUF), raised $271.7 million for investments in urban real estate. The fund considered two projects, both located in Hollywood, CA. The first was located on... View Details

Keywords: Investment; Projects; Business and Government Relations; Public Opinion; Urban Development; Real Estate Industry; Los Angeles

September 2020 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Hot Wheels: Launching The Mixed Play Experience

By: Elie Ofek, Andres Terech and Nicole Tempest Keller

Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., had developed an entirely new “mixed play” product experience that blended familiar Hot Wheels play in the physical world with breakthrough play in... View Details

Keywords: Toys; Go-to-market Strategy; Product Development; Technological Innovation; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Decision Making; Marketing; Strategy; Los Angeles

22 May 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

A Luxury Industry Veteran Teaches the Importance of Aesthetics to Budding Business Leaders

angel investor in fashion tech; Vanessa Kay, senior vice president at Moët Hennessy USA, who heads up the Veuve Clicquot, Krug, and Ruinart champagne brands; Edda Gudmundsdottir, a fashion designer and style consultant whose clients... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Beauty & Cosmetics; Apparel & Accessories; Auto; Tourism

19 Oct 2021
Research & Ideas

Fed Up Workers and Supply Woes: What's Next for Dollar Stores?

imported goods shipped and delivered in a timely fashion. What is happening? Willy Shih: The biggest importers in the US—Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Target—they’re all suffering from congestion in Los Angeles and Long Beach, in the Port... View Details

Keywords: by Christine Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Retail

10 Sep 2012
HBS Case

HBS Cases: Branding Yoga

four-year-old under his guru Bishnu Ghosh. He arrived in America in 1971, opening his first studio in Los Angeles and teaching traditional Hatha yoga to students including Shirley MacLaine. Bikram built his business slowly. In 1979, he... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Entertainment & Recreation

23 Jun 2008
Research & Ideas

Innovative Ways to Encourage Personal Savings

college roommates who worked in South Central Los Angeles as a community organizer. He was bemoaning the lack of financial services to people who lived there. As a result, I became very interested in what we might call "consumer" or... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Financial Services

April 2010
Case

Talent Agencies

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Toby E. Stuart and Lauren Barley

The case overviews the talent agency industry in Hollywood in 2009. Focuses on the role of the talent agent, the dynamics of professional service firms, the challenges facing agencies in light of major changes in the entertainment industries, and a possible merger... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Problems and Challenges; Change; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Los Angeles

07 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

The Rise of Personalized Entrepreneurial Finance and Other VC Trends

through angel groups, and people gaining access through mutual funds, which ordinarily wouldn’t have invested in entrepreneurial companies but are increasingly doing so. At HBS, we’re spending a lot of time looking at the globalization of... View Details

Keywords: Re: Josh Lerner; Financial Services; Banking

March 2023
Case

FinTunes, Inc., Board of Directors

By: Lynn S. Paine and Jennifer Fonstad

The board of FinTunes, Inc., a start-up aimed at helping musicians distribute their work and manage their finances, must decide among three candidates to serve as the company’s first independent director. The terms of FinTunes’ last round of financing provided that the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Music Industry; Los Angeles; California

January 2006 (Revised December 2006)
Case

Wal-Mart's Business Environment

By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee

In 2004, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. proposed to build a new supercenter in Inglewood, a low-income community near Los Angeles. The proposal was a part of Wal-Mart's strategy to bring its supercenter format to California. Introduced in the late 1980s, supercenters added a... View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Expansion; Market Entry and Exit; Corporate Strategy; Labor Unions; Conflict and Resolution; Retail Industry; Los Angeles

March 2002
Case

Mark Taper Forum (A)

The Mark Taper Forum, a regional nonprofit theatre in Los Angeles, has discovered and produced a highly acclaimed play entitled Angles in America. Because of the play's success, for-profit theatres on Broadway in New York have become extremely interested in... View Details

Keywords: Business or Company Management; Nonprofit Organizations; For-Profit Firms; Decision Choices and Conditions; Theater Entertainment; Los Angeles

Find at Harvard

July 2011
Case

Barrick Gold: Implementing a Transition to IFRS

By: David F. Hawkins and Angel R. Solis

Barrick Gold must change from Canadian – GAAP to IFRS. Case covers the transition. View Details

Keywords: International Accounting; Transition; Mining Industry; Canada

2023
Working Paper

The Real Effects of Fair Workweek Laws on Work Schedules: Evidence from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia

By: Caleb Kwon and Ananth Raman

Effective in eight jurisdictions and banned in four, Fair Workweek Laws (FWL) aim to increase the predictability and stability of work schedules. Among other requirements, these laws penalize employers for unilaterally adjusting work schedules without providing some... View Details

Keywords: Working Conditions; Employees; Outcome or Result; Los Angeles; Chicago; Philadelphia

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29 May 2013
Research & Ideas

Faculty Symposium Showcases Breadth of Research

Dishonesty and Its Organizational Implications, she discussed several laboratory and field experiments meant to uncover factors that lead people to make unethical choices. "We seem to face this type of conflict at any given moment between the View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Financial Services

December 2004 (Revised February 2005)
Case

Exporting Spanish Olive Oil to the U.S. Market

By: Ray A. Goldberg, Hal Hogan and Miguel Angel Llano Irusta

Spain is the largest olive oil producer, yet it sells much of its product to Italy, where it is repackaged as Italian olive oil. The decision maker in the case wants to develop Spain as the olive oil leader not just in production but in quality and value added. He... View Details

Keywords: Plant-Based Agribusiness; Trade; Goods and Commodities; Demand and Consumers; Supply and Industry; Brands and Branding; Decisions; Customization and Personalization; Product Design; Product Development; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Spain; United States; Italy