Publications

28 Jan 2016
Blog Post

Why Get an MBA?

a personal one but allow me to share one person’s journey. The start of 2013 was a critical turning point for me. I was three years out of NYU Stern undergrad and asking myself that familiar question, “what do I want to do with my life?” After two packed years... View Details

Profile

Ahmed Alimi

was a unique opportunity to blend the skills I had acquired in finance with operational skills in strategy and management. I loved this work and wanted to do more. However, I know Africa is a uniquely... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Financial Services

October 2007 (Revised January 2009)
Background Note

Analyzing Relative Costs

By: Hanna Halaburda and Jan W. Rivkin

Introduces students to the technique of relative cost analysis, a core technique of strategists. Among the intricate quantitative analyses that strategists undertake, relative cost analysis may be the most common. The goal of a relative cost analysis is simply to... View Details

Keywords: Cost; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Mathematical Methods; Competition; Competitive Advantage

March 2001 (Revised August 2003)
Case

Wilkerson Company

By: Robert S. Kaplan

The president of Wilkerson, faced with declining profits, is struggling to understand why the company is encountering severe price competition on one product line while able to raise prices without competitive response on another product line. The controller proposes... View Details

Keywords: Activity Based Costing and Management; Competition; Profit; Product; Consumer Products Industry

August 2011 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Mike Mayo Takes on Citigroup (A)

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Amy Kaser

The case details the conflict between Mike Mayo, an influential banking analyst and Citigroup about what Mayo considers aggressive accounting policies. Mike Mayo questions Citigroup's lack of a valuation allowance against their Deferred Tax Assets despite Citi's recent... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Taxation; Capital; Financial Reporting; Corporate Disclosure; Valuation; Banks and Banking; Financial Strategy; Money; Conflict Management; Capital Budgeting; Asset Management; Banking Industry

14 Jun 2013
Talk

Why Business Can Be Good at Solving Social Problems

By: Michael E. Porter

Why do we turn to nonprofits, NGOs and governments to solve society's biggest problems? Michael Porter admits he's biased, as a business school professor, but he wants you to hear his case for letting business try to solve massive problems like climate change and... View Details

Keywords: Creating Shared Value; Strategy; Value Creation; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Profit; Scotland

31 Aug 2010
First Look

First Look: August 31

Financial Studies (forthcoming) Abstract This paper examines the impact of leveraged buyout firms' bank relationships on the terms of their syndicated loans. Using a sample of 1,590 loans financing private equity sponsored leveraged... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2010
Article

Sell-Side School Ties

By: Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Andrea Frazzini

We study the impact of social networks on agents' ability to gather superior information about firms. Exploiting novel data on the educational backgrounds of sell-side equity analysts and senior officers of firms, we test the hypothesis that analysts' school ties to... View Details

Keywords: Investment Return; Investment Portfolio; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Knowledge Acquisition; Social and Collaborative Networks

June 2010 (Revised July 2012)
Case

Dubai: Debt, Development, and Crisis (A)

By: Aldo Musacchio, Andrew Christopher Goodman and Claire K. Qureshi

On November 25, 2009, the city state of Dubai stunned markets by announcing that Dubai World, its flagship state holding company, would seek a six-month "standstill" on at least $4 billion U.S. dollars of its $26 billion in debt obligations. This case describes Dubai's... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Decision Choices and Conditions; Development Economics; Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Strategy; State Ownership; Business and Government Relations; Dubai

June 2024
Case

Growing Foodology into Latin America's Largest Platform for Virtual Restaurants

By: Jorge Tamayo, Rembrand Koning and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago

This case delves into the expansion strategy of Foodology, a cloud kitchen startup based in Bogotá that operated across four Latin American countries (Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru). Co-founders Daniela Izquierdo and Juan Guillermo Azuero (both HBS, 2019) grappled... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Food; Digital Platforms; Product Launch; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Business Model; Business Startups; Profit; Marketing Strategy; Expansion; Diversification; Food and Beverage Industry; Latin America; South America; Colombia; Brazil; Mexico; Peru

August 2008
Case

The Chubb Corporation in China

By: Li Jin, Michael Shih-ta Chen and Aldo Sesia

The Chubb Corporation, headquartered in the U.S., was the holding company for a number of property and casualty insurance companies which operated in 29 countries. In 1979, the Chinese government, as part of its "reform and open" policy invited a delegation of Chubb... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Globalized Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Emerging Markets; Market Entry and Exit; Business and Government Relations; Insurance Industry; China; United States

Find at Harvard

Web

Launching Tech Ventures | HBS Online

Laguna Health Care Strategy & Innovation Leader Determine which startups to invest in by understanding the key metrics that dictate whether a venture has achieved product-market fit and is ready for scaling. “The course is useful for... View Details

18 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

WeWork—The IPO That Shouldn’t?

founder’s verbiage, speak for itself. About the Author Nori Gerardo Lietz is a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the Finance and Entrepreneurial Management Units at Harvard Business School. She presently teaches Real Estate... View Details

Keywords: by Nori Gerardo Lietz; Financial Services; Real Estate

July 2008 (Revised July 2019)
Case

Amazon: The Brink of Bankruptcy

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Enables a thorough analysis of the Amazon.com business model and its evolution from 1994 to 2001. The case ends with the company poised on the brink of bankruptcy and enables discussion of how to turnaround the company and leverage proprietary assets. View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Restructuring; Entrepreneurship; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Business History; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy

Myra Hart's research focus is high potential entrepreneurship. She has taught MBA and executive programs, co-chaired the entrepreneurship unit, and led several HBS initiatives. As a founding memberView Details

Keywords: consumer products; e-commerce industry; education industry; real estate; retailing

December 2018 (Revised April 2020)
Case

Fluidity: The Tokenization of Real Estate Assets

By: Marco Di Maggio, David Lane and Susie Ma

In December 2018, the blockchain startup Fluidity was about to participate in its first tokenization deal, which would create digital access to property rights in a 12-unit Manhattan condominium complex. The deal was proof-of-concept for Fluidity, which hoped to... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Tokenization; Data Security; Revenue Model; Finance; Technological Innovation; Strategy

April 2022 (Revised August 2022)
Case

Antler

By: Dennis Campbell and Iuliana Mogosanu

The case describes the founding, development, and scaling of Antler, an early-stage investment platform that invests in entrepreneurs pre-team and, in many cases, even pre-idea. The case explores the economics of venture capital investing at such an early stage and the... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Technology; Analytics; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Expansion; Financial Services Industry

January 2021 (Revised June 2021)
Supplement

Eaton Corporation: Portfolio Transformation and The Cost of Capital (Abridged)

By: Benjamin C. Esty, E. Scott Mayfield and Daniel Fisher

In 2000, Eaton Corporation was a broadly diversified industrial conglomerate. But its strategy was evolving and its focus was narrowing around “power management” and more recently on “intelligent power,” the use of digitally enabled products and services designed to... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Conglomerates; Business Divisions; Cost of Capital; Corporate Finance; Value; Valuation; Industrial Products Industry; United States; Denmark; Republic of Ireland

February 1997 (Revised April 1998)
Case

first direct (A)

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

Describes the operations and strategy of the world's largest, fastest growing branchless bank. Using a person-to-person interface over conventional phone lines, First Direct provides standard banking and related financial products to nearly 700,000 customers throughout... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Customer Satisfaction; Banks and Banking; Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry; United Kingdom