Accounting & Management
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- February 2025
- Case
Managing EPS at Stanley Black & Decker?
The case explores Stanley Black and Decker’s (SBD) 2022 financial restatement announcement, which related to how SBD accounted for certain equity issuances in 2019. These transactions had a minimal effect on earnings but significantly reduced shares outstanding, and thus increased earnings per share (EPS). The case provides a comprehensive review of stockholders’ equity accounts and EPS, one of the most ubiquitous metrics in capital markets. The case also illustrates some of the incentive conflicts that companies face when managing EPS, especially when market participants (e.g., analysts) fixate on EPS and compensation agreements are structured around EPS.
- February 2025
- Case
Managing EPS at Stanley Black & Decker?
The case explores Stanley Black and Decker’s (SBD) 2022 financial restatement announcement, which related to how SBD accounted for certain equity issuances in 2019. These transactions had a minimal effect on earnings but significantly reduced shares outstanding, and thus increased earnings per share (EPS). The case provides a comprehensive review...
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- February 2025
- Case
Ingersoll Rand: Broadening Employee Ownership
By: Ethan Rouen and Jenyfeer Martinez BuitragoSet in 2024, this case examines how Ingersoll Rand— a global leader in air, liquid, and gas handling technologies—approached broadening employee ownership. The company granted restricted stock units (RSUs) to all employees on their one-year anniversary, reinforcing a culture of ownership. As Ingersoll Rand expanded through acquisitions, CEO Vicente Reynal faced critical questions: How could the company sustain its ownership culture while integrating employees from newly acquired firms? Should it increase stock grants to strengthen engagement and retention? As Reynal prepared for a town hall with employees in Latin America, he reflected on these challenges and the long-term implications of the company’s broad-based ownership model.
- February 2025
- Case
Ingersoll Rand: Broadening Employee Ownership
By: Ethan Rouen and Jenyfeer Martinez BuitragoSet in 2024, this case examines how Ingersoll Rand— a global leader in air, liquid, and gas handling technologies—approached broadening employee ownership. The company granted restricted stock units (RSUs) to all employees on their one-year anniversary, reinforcing a culture of ownership. As Ingersoll Rand expanded through acquisitions, CEO...
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- January 2025
- Case
Hebbia: Redefining Productivity for Knowledge Workers Using AI
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Minoshka NarayanIn early 2025, George Sivulka, founder and CEO of Hebbia, reflected on the company’s rapid ascent as a pioneer in GenAI-powered productivity tools for knowledge workers. With its proprietary technology, Hebbia had redefined information retrieval and analysis and earned a loyal base of financial services clients. But the landscape was shifting: GenAI was becoming commoditized, and competitors across industries were emerging. As Hebbia’s primary product, Matrix, demonstrated robust traction, Sivulka faced pressing questions about the company’s future: Should Hebbia double down on financial services, tailoring its offerings to deepen product-market fit? Or should it expand horizontally, leveraging its technology to address unstructured data challenges in adjacent verticals like legal or pharmaceuticals? Should the company look inwards, where there were several opportunities to evolve its existing product? With an ambitious vision to place “capable AI in the hands of a billion people,” Sivulka grappled with the challenge of balancing innovation and scalability while maintaining Hebbia’s competitive edge. Was the company poised to make the right bets for long-term success? And how could it ensure defensibility as the GenAI space evolved?
- January 2025
- Case
Hebbia: Redefining Productivity for Knowledge Workers Using AI
By: Suraj Srinivasan and Minoshka NarayanIn early 2025, George Sivulka, founder and CEO of Hebbia, reflected on the company’s rapid ascent as a pioneer in GenAI-powered productivity tools for knowledge workers. With its proprietary technology, Hebbia had redefined information retrieval and analysis and earned a loyal base of financial services clients. But the landscape was shifting:...
About the Unit
The Accounting & Management unit at Harvard Business School strives to be the worldwide leader in research, course development, and teaching on top managements' use of performance measurement systems to:
- Communicate with external investors to ensure that their firms' securities are fairly priced and that they are able to access capital,
- Measure and evaluate their firms' economic performance,
- Improve resource allocation and strategy implementation within their firms, and
- Build accountability for performance through effective external and internal governance.
Unit research, course development, and teaching fall into two broad areas: Financial Reporting and Analysis and Management Accounting. Our research helps scholars and educators understand current best practices for the design and use of performance measurement systems that help managers to build more effective, value-creating organizations. Our teaching materials enable us to bring the results of this research into the classroom, and to practice.
Recent Publications
Brown and Coconut Spreadsheet Class Solution
- February 2025 |
- Supplement |
- Faculty Research
Managing EPS at Stanley Black & Decker?
- February 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Pricing an IPO at Allbirds, Inc. - Solution
- February 2025 |
- Supplement |
- Faculty Research
Pricing an IPO at Allbirds, Inc. - Student
- February 2025 |
- Supplement |
- Faculty Research
Pricing an IPO at Allbirds, Inc.
- February 2025 |
- Teaching Note |
- Faculty Research
Harvard Business Publishing
Seminars & Conferences
- 06 Mar 2025