Publications

November 2007 (Revised October 2009)
Case

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

In an activist role, the hedge fund Third Point LLC has three board seats and an ownership stake of 9.5% in Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company. Third Point believed that Ligand had a strong drug portfolio and pipeline but that it was... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Private Equity; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Governing and Advisory Boards; Bids and Bidding; Ownership Stake; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States

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28 May 2013
First Look

First Look: May 28

to corrupt behavior. Working Papers Carry Trade, Reserve Accumulation, and Exchange-Rate Regimes By: Alfaro, Laura, and Fabio Kanczuk Abstract—Carry-trade activity and foreign participation in local-currency-bond markets in emerging... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2016 (Revised May 2017)
Case

eBay vs. Carl Icahn, 2014

By: David B. Yoffie and Eric Baldwin

This case explores Carl Icahn's attack on eBay, starting in January 2014. The case examines how John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, should respond to Icahn's demand that eBay spin off PayPal and accept Icahn's two nominees to the board of directors. View Details

Keywords: Activist Shareholder; Activist Investors; Technology; Strategy; Corporate Strategy; Investment Activism; Financial Services Industry; Retail Industry

May 2016 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Canadian Pacific's Bid for Norfolk Southern

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

In December 2015, Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) has just made its third bid to acquire Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC), one of the largest railroads in the United States. Having rejected the prior offers, NSC’s CEO James Squires and the NSC board must now value... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Financial Strategy; Investment Activism; Bids and Bidding; Negotiation Offer; Corporate Strategy; Rail Transportation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Transformation; United States; Canada

June 2025
Case

Vail Resorts: Responding to Activist Pressure (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Edward A. Meyer

On January 27, 2025, the head of a relatively small hedge fund named Late Apex Partners sent a highly critical letter to the board of directors of Vail Resorts, the world’s largest ski resort operator. In his letter, and the 88-slide presentation that accompanied his... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance; Capital Budgeting; Corporate Governance; Competitive Advantage; Competitive Strategy; Leading Change; Valuation; Investment Activism; Climate Change; Management Succession; Financial Management; Risk Management; Sports Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Travel Industry; United States; Australia; Canada

05 Nov 2012
Research & Ideas

What Wall Street Doesn’t Understand About International Trade

research. What's more, firms that correlate their international trading activity with the local ethnic community significantly outperform those that don't—a fact that has escaped notice of financial analysts. The findings could help Wall... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Stephen A. Greyser

Stephen A. Greyser is Richard P. Chapman Professor (Marketing/Communications) Emeritus, of the Harvard Business School, specializes in brand marketing, advertising, corporate communications, the business of sports, and nonprofit management. A... View Details

Keywords: sports

23 Jul 2008
Sharpening Your Skills

Sharpening Your Skills: Balanced Scorecard in Action

reduce the gap between strategy and execution? Does the BSC work in testing strategy? How Can The Balanced Scorecard Improve Corporate Governance? Working Paper: Improving Corporate Governance with the Balanced Scorecard The authors review the key roles of corporate... View Details

04 Jul 2005
Research & Ideas

Should You Outsource Your Marketing?

outsourcing marketing, at least beyond advertising, seems relatively new. Can you discuss this concept and the potential benefits to businesses? Gail J. McGovern: The outsourcing of marketing activities is catching on; in fact, in a... View Details

Keywords: by Poping Lin

May 2014
Article

How to Outsmart Activist Investors

By: Bill George and Jay W. Lorsch

We offer opinions on how management and corporate boards of directors can best manage investor relations with activist stockholders such as hedge funds who are demanding major changes within a corporation to improve stockholder return. Beverage industry firm PepsiCo is... View Details

Keywords: Investment Activism

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Read Now

Ashish Nanda is Senior Lecturer and C. Roland Christensen Distinguished Management Educator at Harvard Business School. From 2018 to 2021, he was course head for the MBA Required Curriculum course in Strategy. Beginning in 2022, he is teaching an MBA Elective... View Details

Rakesh Khurana

Rakesh Khurana is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at the Harvard Business School. He is also Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, co-Master of Cabot House at Harvard College, and the Danoff Dean of Harvard College.

Professor... View Details

Keywords: executive search

Research Summary

Social Entrepreneurship

By: James L. Heskett

This project is centered around an analysis of data and experiences of 31 executive directors of not-for-profit organizations who completed the Denali Initiative on social entrepreneurship, of which I was volunteer faculty chairperson, between 1999 and 2002. The... View Details

July 2016
Case

'Golden Leash' Pay for Directors at The Dow Chemical Company

By: Ian Gow, Suraj Srinivasan and Neeraj Goyal

In November 2014, The Dow Chemical Company was faced with the prospect of a proxy battle with prominent hedge fund and activist investor Third Point Management. The activist had criticized Dow’s recent performance and advocated that the company split itself to maximize... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Governing and Advisory Boards; Executive Compensation; Investment Activism; Chemical Industry

January 2008 (Revised July 2008)
Case

Opportunity Partners

By: Robin Greenwood and James Quinn

Philip Goldstein, the principal in a growing hedge fund and prominent activist investor, has taken a position in a Mexico-based closed-end fund. Following a hard-fought proxy contest in which he advocated for management to eliminate the fund's substantial discount,... View Details

Keywords: Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Business and Shareholder Relations; Value; Financial Services Industry; Mexico

November 2021 (Revised May 2022)
Case

QuantumScape's Mission to Revolutionize Energy Storage for a Sustainable Future

By: William A. Sahlman, Allison M. Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

QuantumScape CEO Jagdeep Singh juggles the many activities required to lead the next-generation battery pioneer. Founded in 2010, QuantumScape’s mission was to develop new “solid-state” car batteries that would improve upon traditional lithium-ion batteries in key... View Details

Keywords: Batteries; Electric Vehicles; SPACs; Innovation and Management; Technological Innovation; Science-Based Business; Environmental Sustainability; Auto Industry; Energy Industry; California; San Jose

July 2020
Case

Mortgage Backed Securities and the Covid-19 Pandemic

By: Emil N. Siriwardane, Luis M. Viceira and Dean Xu

In April 2020, global financial markets were still reeling as the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly across the world. Global equity markets had initially fallen by 30% in response to the pandemic, and high-yield credit markets had dropped by nearly 20%. In contrast,... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19; Mortgage-backed Securities; Health Pandemics; Financial Markets; Assets; Resource Allocation; Financial Instruments; Decision Making