Publications

May 2007 (Revised August 2012)
Case

Warburg Pincus and emgs: The IPO Decision (A)

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Two partners of Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm, are trying to decide whether to take a portfolio company public, and on what exchange. The company, Norway-based ElectroMagnetic GeoServices (emgs), has developed a market-leading technology that determines... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Globalized Firms and Management; Norway; England; United States

June 1995 (Revised June 1995)
Case

Ernst & Young United Kingdom (A)

By: John J. Gabarro and Samantha Graff

Intended to be a robust example of the challenges encountered during the early stages of a large-scale organizational transformation effort in a professional service firm. Describes a massive change program initiated and led by the new managing partner along with a... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Change Management; Leading Change; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Problems and Challenges; United Kingdom; London

February 2017
Teaching Note

The Tate's Digital Transformation

By: Jill Avery

John Stack was the visionary Head of Digital Transformation at the Tate, a collection of four major art galleries in the UK, including Tate Modern, the most visited gallery devoted to modern and contemporary art in the world. Stack was the architect of the Tate’s... View Details

28 Nov 2011
Research & Ideas

Rethinking the Fairness of Organ Transplants

A proposal out of Harvard and MIT to rethink how kidney transplants are allocated could result in a fairer system giving patients longer lives. The new empirical model, which is intensely data driven, would provide a flexible framework to... View Details

Keywords: by Dennis Fisher; Health

February 2023 (Revised May 2023)
Case

Accelerating the Accelerator: Raja Al Mazrouei at DIFC Fintech Hive

By: Linda A. Hill, Emily Tedards and Lydia Begag

In January 2023, Raja Al Mazrouei became the Managing Director and Acting CEO of Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI) in Dubai, UAE. In her previous role as the Executive Vice President of the DIFC Fintech Hive, she successfully built and led an accelerator program for... View Details

March 1986 (Revised December 1986)
Case

British Telecommunications, PLC

Presents a description of international equity markets, including comparisons of the U.S., Japanese, and British markets and recent trends toward deregulation of these markets. The decision focus of the case is on the initial public offerings of British... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Initial Public Offering; Capital Markets; Canada; London; Tokyo

October 2024
Case

Reed Group and Succession in a Family Business: An Impossible Job to Fill?

By: Lauren H. Cohen and Tonia Labruyere

James Reed had taken over Reed Group, the recruitment and career services company his father had founded and built, in 1994. He was now reflecting on succession planning and other challenges that lay ahead: with no obvious choice among his family members, he needed to... View Details

Keywords: Charity; Succession Planning; Family Business; Values and Beliefs; Management Succession; Mission and Purpose; Family Ownership; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Family and Family Relationships; Recruitment; AI and Machine Learning; Employment Industry; United Kingdom; London

15 Jun 2007
Research & Ideas

Remembering Alfred Chandler

chaos of his desk belied a very careful, systematic way of working. I met Al in the early 1990s, when he must have been in his mid- to late 70s. I remember looking at his raincoat, jacket, and tie—I almost never saw Al in anything but a jacket and tie—and thinking how... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

September 2019
Case

Dementia Discovery Fund

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Kathy Giusti and Sarah Gulick

The case is set in March 2019, and tells the story of the founding of the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF). The idea for the fund began in 2015, when then-Prime Minister David Cameron spoke about the importance of making breakthroughs in dementia research, and pledged... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Mission and Purpose; Recruitment; Health Care and Treatment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Financial Services Industry; Boston; Massachusetts; London; England

June 2008
Supplement

Kit Hinrichs at Pentagram (B)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Stecker

This case focuses on Kit Hindrichs, a 65 year-old partner at Pentagram, a privately-owned multidisciplinary design firm. One of the world's most prestigious design firms, Pentagram was founded by five designers from different disciplines in London in the 1970s. By... View Details

Keywords: Business Offices; Design; Managerial Roles; Private Ownership; Business and Shareholder Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Equality and Inequality; London; San Francisco; New York (state, US)

Research Summary

The Institutional Foundations of Lending: Indirect Regulation and State-Building

The Institutional Foundations of Lending: Indirect Regulation and State-Building makes two main theoretical contributions to the scholarship on credit markets and institutional development. First, the book demonstrates that opportunistic lenders can take... View Details

March 2019 (Revised June 2021)
Case

HelloSelf: Foundation

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

On January 6, 2019, HelloSelf, a London-based “BrainTech” company, founded a year earlier by Charles Wells, soft launched. The proposition was simply to help its members “Be your Best Self.” The company provided its registered members with access to a clinical... View Details

March 1996
Case

Ernst & Young United Kingdom (A) (Abridged)

By: John J. Gabarro and Samantha Graff

Intended to be a robust example of the challenges encountered during the early stages of a large-scale organizational transformation effort in a professional service firm. Describes a massive change program initiated and led by the new managing partner along with a... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Leading Change; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Restructuring; Problems and Challenges; United Kingdom; London

18 Apr 2005
Lessons from the Classroom

NFL Players Touch Down at HBS

opportunity is very, very short.— Ted Johnson, New England Patriots Topics covered in the course included entrepreneurship; tax and other legal responsibilities; assessing... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Sports

08 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

Is it Worth a Pay Cut to Work for a Great Manager (Like Bill Belichick)?

Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots is one of the highest-paid coaches in the National Football League; Forbes in 2013 estimated his salary as $7.5 million. His track... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg & Abhijit Naik; Sports

03 Mar 2008
First Look

First Look: March 4, 2008

early 1720, the South Sea Company and the Bank of England were competing for the right to issue new shares and to exchange those shares for government bonds that were then in the hands of the public. The... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

24 Mar 2009
First Look

First Look: March 24, 2009

authorities will soon deplete their supply. I evaluate a series of possible responses to this shortage: sharing addresses impedes new Internet applications and does not seem to be scalable. A new numbering... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

08 Apr 2014
First Look

First Look: April 8

non-core users when they are perceived as brand tourists. The brand tourism effect is mediated by core users' pride and moderated by brand patriotism and selectiveness of the brand. August 2013 Harvard Business Review The Limits of Scale:... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2021
Teaching Note

Michael Phelps: 'It's Okay to Not Be Okay'

By: Boris Groysberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Michael Norris

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 421-044. In 2020, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals in various swimming events, was now retired. As he looked back on his 20+ year athletic career, he considered what had gone into making him the... View Details

Keywords: Mental Health; Talent and Talent Management; Training; Health; Success; Performance Improvement; Personal Development and Career; Family and Family Relationships; Sports; Competition; Sports Industry; United States; Baltimore; Arizona; Sydney; Athens; Beijing; London