Publications

July 2021
Teaching Plan

Aligning Mission and Margin at Southern Bancorp

By: Rebecca Henderson, Brian Trelstad and Eren Kuzucu

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 321-099. In October 2020, after spending almost a decade to turnaround Southern Bancorp, an Arkansan bank founded with the mission to provide financial services to rural, underserved communities, CEO Darrin Williams is wondering how... View Details

Keywords: Racial Wealth Gap; Banks and Banking; Growth and Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Going Public; Investment Return; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States; Arkansas

December 2009 (Revised April 2022)
Case

Lyondell Chemical Company

By: Stuart C. Gilson and Sarah Abbott

Hit with an industry recession and the global financial crisis of 2008, in January 2009 LyondellBasell Industries AF S.C.A., one of the world's largest internationally diversified chemical companies headquartered in The Netherlands, placed its U.S. operations and a... View Details

Keywords: Restructuring; Financial Crisis; Borrowing and Debt; Capital Structure; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financing and Loans; International Finance; Crisis Management; Chemical Industry; Netherlands; United States

August 2007 (Revised February 2008)
Case

Pinnacle Ventures

By: Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman and Elizabeth Kind

Describes a prospective "venture debt" loan to a new venture from the perspective of Patrick Lee, a principal at Pinnacle Ventures. Forces students to grapple with the nature of financial risk in the start-up firm and assess the prospective risks and returns to a... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Venture Capital; Investment Return; Business Startups; Financial Services Industry

November 2003 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Sanford C. Bernstein: The Fork in the Road (A)

By: Boris Groysberg and Anahita Hashemi

Soon after the death of the firm's legendary founder, the individuals then serving as chairman and as president--Lewis A. Sanders and Roger Hertog, respectively--talked about the future of their firm. Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., a private investment firm, had grown... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Performance Expectations; Competitive Advantage; Valuation

Find at Harvard

Teaching Interest

MBA Elective Curriculum: Investment Strategies

By: Malcolm P. Baker

This is a CORE course for students pursuing careers in finance. Thus, students interested in pursuing careers in mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds, endowments, wealth management, financial consulting, marketing and client service, sales and trading,... View Details

November 2014
Case

Oasys Water: Balancing Strategic Partnerships & Financing Decisions

By: Ramana Nanda, William A. Sahlman and Sid Misra

Oasys Water had developed a proprietary water treatment technology based on an innovative forward osmosis process that could remove dissolved solids from water more effectively and efficiently than existing technologies. As Oasys looked to scale, it was exploring... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Finance; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; China

01 Sep 2023
News

That Was Then, This Is Now

impact of clinical research on health equity and then on the art of gracefully claiming space on public transit. Hucking (soft) balls during an impromptu game of dodgeball with my shrieking nephews. Chatting with my two-year-old niece,... View Details

Keywords: Photographed by Tony Deifell (MBA 2002); edited by Julia Hanna. Above: Heidi Brooks, photographed in 2003 and 2023.; life experience; family; leadership

August 2018 (Revised September 2018)
Case

National Storage Affiliates: The REIT IPO Decision

By: Charles F. Wu, Max de la Bruyére and Gregory D. Himmel

In 2015, two years after founding National Storage Affiliates (NSA), Arlen Nordhagen and Tamara Fischer had an important decision to make. Should they proceed with NSA’s IPO? Although they had targeted to receive $15–17 a share, it was now apparent that the figure was... View Details

Keywords: Initial Public Offering; Problems and Challenges; Decision Making; Real Estate Industry

May 2017
Case

Pho Hoa Dorchester

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger, Michael Raiche and Roger Zhu

Pho Hoa is a traditional, family-owned Vietnamese restaurant in Dorchester, Massachusetts that opened in 1992. As he approached retirement in recent years, the founder/owner has scaled down his involvement in the day-to-day operations, leading to a number of... View Details

January 2013 (Revised February 2013)
Case

EverTrue: Mobile Technology Development (A)

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Brent Grinna is evaluating different options for the technology development of his start-up's iPhone app, including hiring local programmers, finding a CTO, or outsourcing. He only has a little over two months before he presents his alumni networking app to Brown... View Details

Keywords: Start-up; Mobile App; oDesk; Outsourcing; CTO; Minimum Viable Product; App Development; Business Startups; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Intellectual Property; Product Development; Globalization; Technology Industry; Massachusetts; Boston; India

March 2009 (Revised April 2011)
Course Overview Note

Growing, Financing, and Managing Family and Closely Held Firms: Overview of the Course

By: Belen Villalonga

Most companies around the world are controlled by their founding families, including more than half of all public corporations in the U.S. and Europe and more than two thirds of those in Asia. These companies are the subject of the Financial Management of Family and... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Financial Management; Corporate Governance; Governing and Advisory Boards; Family Ownership; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Valuation