Publications

21 Apr 2009
First Look

First Look: April 21, 2009

portfolios of its conduits. The question is, how has the firm performed over the past four years? Has it earned $5 billion or lost $5 billion? Fair value accounting plays a key role in the dilemma. How should a financial View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

20 May 2008
First Look

First Look: May 20, 2008

Case 608-016 Cambrian House builds Internet-based products and services by relying entirely on its user community for all aspects of its innovation and new product development process. Users suggest ideas for new products and View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

09 Jan 2012
Research & Ideas

Location, Location, Location: The Strategy of Place

as nearby supporting industries; the company's ability to seek and retrieve knowledge in this setting; and its capability to do something better than competitors. An example of a firm playing tactical checkers instead of strategic chess... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

05 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 5, 2010

Demand: Model and Estimation Methodology Authors:Nathan Craig, Nicole DeHoratius, and Ananth Raman Abstract To set service levels, firms must understand how changes in service... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

February 2024
Case

Vespucci Partners: The New World of Venture Capital in Hungary

By: Paul A. Gompers, Tonia Labruyere and Emilie Billaud

Julia Sohajda was the young, female founding partner of the Hungarian VC firm Vespucci Partners, which focused on investing at seed stage into Hungarian deep tech startups and prepare them for a launch in the U.S market. Vespucci's first fund had largely been comprised... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Startups; Investment Funds; Financing and Loans; Entrepreneurship; Financial Services Industry; Hungary; United States

October 2022 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Founders First Capital Partners: An Approach to Capital Access Equity

By: Brian Trelstad, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein

In June 2021, Kim T. Folsom, the founder and CEO of revenue-based financing firm Founders First Capital Partners (FFCP), must decide whether to issue another loan to OnShore Technology Group, an up-and-coming software validation company. FFCP provided revenue-based... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Financial Instruments; Financing and Loans; Interest Rates; Investment Return; Revenue; Capital; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America; United States

March 2017 (Revised November 2017)
Case

BlackRock (A): Selling the Systems? (with video links)

By: Ranjay Gulati, Jan W. Rivkin and Kelly McNamara

As the case opens in 1999, several key leaders at BlackRock, Inc., then a relatively small asset management firm, are trying to convince CEO Larry Fink and others that the firm should begin to offer Aladdin—its proprietary analytics and trading platform—to other asset... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Competition; Information Technology; Asset Management; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; United States