Publications

September 2002 (Revised October 2002)
Case

Managing Knowledge and Learning at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and David Kiron

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) faces a serious loss of knowledge--both because of the "faster, better, cheaper" mandate for Mars missions and from the retirement of key personnel. An extensive knowledge management system for NASA/JPL includes formal knowledge-capture... View Details

Keywords: Knowledge Management; Knowledge Dissemination; Leadership Development; Internet and the Web; Risk and Uncertainty; Organizational Culture; Retirement; Human Resources; Human Capital

February 2019 (Revised November 2024)
Case

Theranos: Who Has Blood on Their Hands? (A)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Christina R. Wing, Emilie Fournier and Anna Resman

This case covers the rise and fall of Theranos, the company founded by Elizabeth Holmes in 2004 to revolutionize the blood testing industry by creating a device that could provide from a small finger prick the same results and accuracy as intravenous blood draws. As... View Details

Keywords: Health Testing and Trials; Corporate Accountability; Organizational Culture; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Entrepreneurship; Lawsuits and Litigation

July 2007 (Revised March 2009)
Case

Berkshire Partners: Purchase of Rival Company (A)

Berkshire Partners, a private equity firm in Boston, was pleased with their recent investment in the Holmes Group, a home comfort consumer electronics company. The portfolio company was exceeding key financial targets and Berkshire Partners was confident that it would... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Capital Structure; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment; Acquisition; Financial Services Industry; Boston

October 2020
Case

John Branca: Negotiating the Beatles' Northern Songs Catalog (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Alex Green

In 1985, pop music superstar Michael Jackson instructed his attorney, John Branca, to make a bid for the Northern Songs music catalog, which contained the songs of the Beatles. In a challenging negotiation with Australian media baron Robert Holmes à Court, Branca... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Entertainment; Music Entertainment; Strategy; Music Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; United States; United Kingdom

23 Jul 2001
Research & Ideas

Sam Walton: Great From the Start

Franklin did $72,000 in sales. Five years into Walton's tenure, it did a quarter of a million. At a rental fee of 5 percent of sales, that meant the difference between $3,600 and $12,500 or $8,900 for Mr. Holmes. $8,900 in 1945 is, inflation adjusted, over $85,000 in... View Details

Keywords: by Richard S. Tedlow; Retail

27 Jan 2023
Op-Ed

Have We Lost Sight of Integrity?

deceitfulness and fraudulence led to his public lambasting. Santos is just the latest in a long line of leaders for whom integrity has little to no meaning, including Frank’s Charlie Javice, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, Tesla’s Elon Musk, Theranos’s Elizabeth View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

17 Sep 2021
Research & Ideas

The Trial of Elizabeth Holmes: Visionary, Criminal, or Both?

Former Theranos employees began testifying this week against Elizabeth Holmes, the once-celebrated biotech’s founder and CEO, in a criminal trial that has Silicon Valley worried. In opening statements last week, federal prosecutors charged that View Details

Keywords: by Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Gazette; Biotechnology; Technology; Medical Devices & Supplies

17 Apr 2022
Book

How to Avoid the 'Ethical Slide' That Leads Companies Astray

figure is even higher, at 22 percent. And managers are responsible for 60 percent of all misconduct, with nearly a quarter of it coming from senior managers. Avoiding ’the ethical slide’ Nelson points to the recent Theranos trial, in which founder and CEO Elizabeth... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

15 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Why Americans Voted for an Income Tax

them." It turns out that Romney, like Obama and FDR, views taxes as our way of paying for what we want government to do for us. As US Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said: "I like to pay taxes. With them I... View Details

Keywords: by Matthew C. Weinzierl

28 Apr 2003
Research & Ideas

Supply Chain Risk: Deal With It

Harvard Business School The potential frequency of any hazard raises what Holmes calls "the risk manager's dilemma": "Frequency is never unarguable. You can't guarantee we'll have an earthquake, so what do you do about... View Details

Keywords: by David Stauffer

13 Apr 2016
Research Event

What Does 'Diversity' Really Mean?

a beauty feature on the needs of women with different types of skin, showcasing a range of actresses of different backgrounds with large close-up shots. Holmes began to throw out some names, including Eva Mendes, Lucy Liu, and Alfre... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman

03 Jan 2016
Research & Ideas

NFL Black Monday: How Much Do Coaches Really Matter?

turns out that these research findings hold value not only for football teams, but for any organization that depends on leadership for success. An empirical study of coaching ability In 2009, scholars Tim R. Holcomb, R. Michael Holmes... View Details

Keywords: by Boris Groysberg & Abhijit Naik; Sports

08 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

You Won't Make It If You Fake It

single drops from the finger. Holmes’ rapid rise to fame put her on a fast track to success, with high expectations and intense pressures. Yet she hadn’t had adequate leadership experience leading people through difficult and complex business problems. View Details

Keywords: by Bill George

December 2011
Supplement

The Long and Short of Apollo Group and the University of Phoenix

By: Luis M. Viceira, Andrew S. Holmes and Damian M. Zajac

Keywords: Education Industry

2024
Working Paper

Employer-Based Short-Term Savings Accounts

By: Sarah Holmes Berk, John Beshears, Jay Garg, James J. Choi and David Laibson

We study the introduction of a choice architecture design intended to increase short-term savings among employees at five U.K. firms. Employees were offered the opportunity to opt into a payroll deduction program that auto-deposits funds from each paycheck into a... View Details

Keywords: Behavior; Personal Finance; Investment Funds; Employees; Saving; United Kingdom

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November 2011 (Revised December 2013)
Supplement

The Long and Short of Apollo Group and the University of Phoenix (B)

By: Luis M. Viceira, Joel Heilprin, Andrew S. Holmes and Damian M. Zajac

Keywords: Education; Corporate Finance

2024
Working Paper

Automating Short-Term Payroll Savings: Evidence from Two Large U.K. Experiments

By: Sarah Holmes Berk, James J. Choi, Jay Garg, John Beshears and David Laibson

Automatic enrollment is often used to increase retirement savings. What are the effects of using it (or, alternatively, requiring an active enrollment choice) to increase short-term savings? We evaluate two experiments in the U.K. at employers that enable workers to... View Details

Keywords: Retirement Savings; Participation; Automatic Enrollment; Retirement; Human Resources

November 2011 (Revised December 2013)
Case

The Long and Short of Apollo Group and the University of Phoenix (A)

By: Luis M. Viceira, Joel Heilprin, Andrew S. Holmes and Damian M. Zajac

A hedge fund is deciding whether to liquidate its position in Apollo Group, a for-profit education firm, in light of significant political and macro-economic uncertainty facing the industry. As part of the investment analysis a complete discounted cash flow analysis... View Details

Keywords: Higher Education; Internet and the Web; Education Industry; Technology Industry