Publications

20 Apr 2017
Video

Klarman Hall Topping Off Ceremony

November 1985 (Revised April 1990)
Case

Signode Industries, Inc. (A)

Signode Industries' packaging division manufactures steel and plastic strapping. In 1981 the company underwent the largest leveraged buyout in U.S. corporate history. The case focuses on the packaging division's need to maintain high profitability in a declining market... View Details

Keywords: Price; Marketing Strategy; Steel Industry; Steel Industry

November 2001
Supplement

Interview with Philip Casey at AmeriSteel

By: Joseph L. Bower and Sonja Ellingston Hout

Gerdau Group is a family-controlled Brazilian manufacturer and distributor of long steel products. Philip Casey describes the evolution of the company's strategy, organization, and financial and management issues as the company has grown to be the #2 steel producer in... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Growth and Development Strategy; Distribution; Production; Organizations; Family Ownership; Corporate Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Brazil

December 2010
Case

Fortis Industries, Inc. (A)

Fortis Industries' packaging division manufactures steel and plastic strapping. In 2007, the company underwent a leveraged buyout. The case focuses on the packaging division's need to maintain high profitability in a declining market for steel strapping. Since 1998,... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Marketing; Supply and Industry; Manufacturing Industry

December 2001
Case

iSteelAsia-2001

By: F. Warren McFarlan and Iris T. Li

Presents a follow-up one year later. Shows how this online steel distributor has now reached breakeven. Focuses on the new challenges for the future. View Details

Keywords: Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Economy; Goods and Commodities; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Information; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Problems and Challenges; Steel Industry; China; United States

February 1996
Case

USX Corporation

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Jeremy Cott

A large diversified steel and energy firm is pressured by a corporate raider to spin off its steel business in order to increase its stock price. As an alternative to the spinoff, management proposes replacing the company's common stock with two new classes of... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Stocks; Valuation; Financial Institutions; Cash Flow

October 2023 (Revised May 2024)
Case

JSW Steel: Balancing Growth While Decarbonizing

By: Vikram S Gandhi and Radhika Kak

Sajjan Jindal, Chairman & Managing Director of JSW Steel, India's largest steel producer by market capitalization, was facing a dilemma. Steel demand in India was expected to grow exponentially over the next decade. However, given its traditional reliance on carbon,... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Environmental Sustainability; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Growth and Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Pollutants; Pollution; Production; Steel Industry; India

September 2001 (Revised June 2005)
Case

Stevenson Industries (A)

By: John A. Davis and Kacie LaChapelle

Simon Carlson, chairman of the board of his family's fourth-generation industrial company, must decide how to deal with his conflict with the company's nonfamily CEO. Hired by the board just 15 months earlier to pursue growth more aggressively, CEO Paul Steel has upset... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Management Succession; Management Style; Governing and Advisory Boards; Management Teams; Rank and Position; Organizational Culture; Decision Making; Manufacturing Industry

March 2009
Case

Aderans

By: Robin Greenwood, Rakesh Khurana and Masako Egawa

Steel Partners is a U.S.-based hedge fund that has made a large investment in Japan-based wigmaker Aderans. The case is set at the close of the annual meeting in May 2008, when shareholders have voted against all incumbent board members. Steel Partners must act... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Investment; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Ownership Stake; Business and Shareholder Relations; Japan

Find at Harvard

03 Mar 2020
Video

Jorge Gerdau

Jorge Gerdau explains that the secret to his Brazilian steel company’s longevity, which has lasted five generations, was the continuity in the firm’s values.

View Details

08 Jan 2020
Video

Dr. Manu Chandaria

Manu Chandaria, Chair of the... View Details

Jorge Gerdau

Keywords: Steel

02 Feb 2017
News

Why the White House seems a little jealous of Germany

11 Oct 2016
News

Is Samsung Innovating Too Much, Too Fast?

September 2000 (Revised January 2002)
Exercise

Inventory Exercises

By: Paul M. Healy

Introduces students to the concepts of inventory valuation (LIFO and FIFO) using a simple example. They then get the chance to apply this knowledge to help understand the inventory footnote for California Steel Industries. View Details

Keywords: Logistics

August 1992 (Revised January 1998)
Case

Nucor at a Crossroads

Nucor is a minimill deciding whether to spend a significant fraction of its net worth on a commercially unproven technology in order to penetrate a large but hitherto inaccessible segment of the steel market. This case is an integrative one designed to facilitate... View Details

Keywords: Market Entry and Exit; Decision Making; Investment; Steel Industry

04 Feb 2020
Video

Dr. Manu Chandaria

Manu Chandaria, Chair of the Kenyan-based steel and aluminum group Comcraft, discusses how businesses should look at “profit as a means, not the end.” He assets that the purpose of profit is to improve the... View Details

March 1998 (Revised November 1998)
Case

Empresas CAP, 1994

By: Tarun Khanna and Danielle Melito Wu

Empresas CAP began as a private-sector steel company in 1946. Over the next 40 years, CAP's ownership structure moved from nationalization to reprivatization. Unrestricted by state ownership, CAP began to diversify its holdings. The case considers the viability of... View Details

Keywords: Ownership; Privatization; Diversification; Competitive Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Management; Planning; Steel Industry