Lerner, Josh, and Ant Bozkaya

Case 809-008

Abraaj Capital addresses issues of how to respond to the fast-growing Middle East market. Questions of scaling, institutionalization, and geographic scope are among those considered. Learn more...

Hawkins, David F., and F. Asís Martínez Jerez

Note 108-067

A technical note reviewing business combinations and Goodwill accounting under the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards, No. 141R. Learn more...

Hill, Linda A., and Emily A. Stecker

Case 408-080

Since 1979 when the United Arab Emirates was founded, the government of Dubai, the UAE's largest emirate, has pursued an ambitious vision: to build a global city with a non-oil economy in the Middle East. With its free trade zones, tax-free environment and jaw-dropping tourist destinations, Dubai was able to attract people from around the world. Emiratis compose less than 20% of the population. Until 2002, foreigners (who are mostly from the Indian subcontinent) could not own land in Dubai, but when legislation changed this, many companies saw the potential for lucrative opportunities. Tamweel was formed to offer Shari'ah-compliant mortgages on Dubai's often pricey real estate. As a pioneer of the home finance industry in Dubai, Tamweel and its CEO, Adel Al Shirawi, faced many challenges. For example, he had to attract and develop talent, often from nontraditional sources, to work in this newly formed industry. One promising method of leadership development was the Young Tigers program, an apprenticeship model. From 2004 to 2007, Tamweel grew rapidly, in part because its market research indicated that Dubai's middle class was not being served by the current market. Tamweel was posed to help satisfy a huge demand. By the beginning of 2008 it was ready to expand regionally. It had global ambitions, very much in line with the Sheikh's ambitious vision for Dubai. In early 2008, when Shirawi was tapped to become Vice Chairman of Istithmar World, Dubai's sovereign fund, he wondered what he could do to ensure that Tamweel continued to succeed. Learn more...

Wheeler, Michael A., and James K. Sebenius

Note 908-040

Six different business disputes, all in the shadow of pending litigation, are described. Students are asked to recommend the appropriate method of dispute resolution (mediation, arbitration, mini-trial, etc.) for each one, depending on the circumstances, especially to assess likely barriers to unassisted negotiation. Learn more...

Lassiter, Joseph B., III, and Elizabeth Kind

Case 809-019

In November 2006, Chris Michel left Military.com, which he founded in 1999, to start Affinity Labs, a global network of online communities. That month, Michel raised a Series A round of venture funding and established a partnership with Monster, which he had sold Military.com to. Within its first year of operations, Affinity Labs launched eight vertical portals including PoliceLink, NursingLink, TechCommunity, and IndiaOn. While the company was well ahead of its original plan to release four portals in 2007, Michel still faced a number of challenges. He had learned a great deal from Military.com and Affinity Labs' first launches, but in the case of each new community was faced with how best to construct the vertical and attract a sufficiently large audience. While the model seemed highly scalable because each vertical used the same core technology, every sector had its unique features. In the fall of 2007, executives from Monster opened up a dialogue with Michel about selling the company or expanding their relationship. Michel wondered if the time was right to sell or if he should grow Affinity Labs further with the hope of creating a company that could command the high valuations seen recently by a number of social networking concerns. Learn more...

Applegate, Lynda M.

Case 809-014

Enables a thorough analysis of the Amazon.com business model and its evolution from 1994 to 2001. The case ends with the company poised on the brink of bankruptcy and enables discussion of how to turnaround the company and leverage proprietary assets. Learn more...

Shih, Willy

Case 609-004

The establishment and growth of AMD's Dresden, Germany manufacturing site illustrates how processes develop in an organization and how those processes get institutionalized into a unique culture. Located in the Free State of Saxony in the eastern part of Germany (the former GDR), AMD's investment in the region leverages a historic and rather unique skill base in engineering and the sciences and catalyzes the rebirth and growth of one of the largest semiconductor clusters in Europe. Contrary to conventional wisdom in the semiconductor industry, the Dresden team only copied from its home corporate locations in the United States those processes and practices that it felt would work in Germany rather than follow a "copy exactly" strategy. Dresden becomes AMD's sole worldwide manufacturing location for microprocessors, but now the company is faced with the question of whether it can successfully transplant the highly successful culture to other global locations because of favorable investment incentives. Learn more...

Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, Jorge Tarzijan, and Jordan Mitchell

Supplement 709-416

This is Part B to the "Arauco: Forward Integration or Horizontal Expansion?" case. This short case looks at the company in late 2007 after it has decided to invest in a Brazilian joint venture involving forests, saw mills, and a paper mill. The case acts as an epilogue and allows students to revisit the concept of forward integration into paper in the Brazilian context. Learn more...

Ghemawat, Pankaj, and Catherine Thomas

Case 705-477

The Turkish home appliances firm Arcelik is revisiting its growth strategy. Options for growth include continuing to promote currently owned brands in international markets, acquiring new brands, expanding OEM or private-label contracts, and/or diversifying into other businesses within Turkey. Details Arcelik's position within various markets and relevant features of the home appliances industry. Learn more...

Raman, Ananth, Vincent Marie Dessain, Ane Damgaard Jensen, and Gudrun Urfalino Kristinsdottir

Case 608-174

The case explores the rapid and highly effective turnaround at AREVA's transmission and distribution (T&D) business by focusing on the division's operations. The division was struggling in 2004 when newly-appointed CEO Philippe Guillemot and his team improved performance substantially by focusing on four levers- industrial footprint realignment, competitive sourcing, process efficiency, and a competitive product offering. In 2008, the case challenges students to identify the best path forward. How can the progress achieved from 2004 to 2007 be sustained? AREVA T&D hopes to surpass ABB and Siemens in sales and profitability by focusing on superior product offerings, through "customer intimacy" (e.g., involving customers in new product development) and developing a reputation for environmentally friendly behavior. What is the role of operations management in this context? Learn more...

Lassiter, Joseph B., III, and Firas Alkhatib

Case 808-120

Ashdown's "growth" plan called for Mustafa Khalaf to leave his job as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Ashdown Contracting and to focus his attention on the growth of a separate business entity, Ashdown Pipeline, where Ashdown believed the greatest potential for the future existed. It seemed odd to Mustafa that finding a financial partner capable of providing tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars to reshape an industry was proving to be remarkably easy, while finding a single individual capable of replacing him in his old job was proving to be remarkably hard. As he flagged down a cab, Mustafa's mind wandered back to the challenge that he had been grappling with for many months: how to find his replacement as COO at Ashdown Contracting. Learn more...

Christensen, Clayton M., and Stephen P. Kaufman

Module Note 607-014

Summarizes a model that helps managers determine what sorts of initiatives an organization is capable and incapable of managing successfully. The factors that affect what an organizational unit can and cannot accomplish can be grouped as resources, processes, and the priorities embedded in the business model. Demonstrates what kinds of changes are required in an organization and team structure for each different type of innovation. Learn more...

Coval, Joshua D., Erik Stafford, Rodrigo Osmo, John Jernigan, Zachary Page, and Paulo Passoni

Note 208-086

The goal of these simulations is to understand the mathematics of mean-variance optimization and the equilibrium pricing of risk if all investors use this rule with common information sets. Simulation A focuses on five to 10 years of monthly sector returns that are initially drawn from a known multivariate normal distribution. Mean-variance optimization is designed to produce the highest ratio of excess portfolio return to portfolio standard deviation (i.e. the highest Sharpe ratio) in this setting. Simulation B alters the setting by allowing students to determine expected returns through a simultaneous auction. We continue to have agreement over the covariance matrix, and implicitly over expected payoffs, but allow students to set market prices. The average portfolio weights across the 10 sectors is calculated and is used as the vector of market capitalization weights. With these market weights (w) and the given covariance matrix, the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) implied expected returns are calculated for each sector and compared with the student set expected returns. Learn more...

Coval, Joshua D., Erik Stafford, Rodrigo Osmo, John Jernigan, Zachary Page, and Paulo Passoni

Note 208-087

Supplements "Asset Allocation I." Learn more...

Coval, Joshua D., Erik Stafford, Rodrigo Osmo, John Jernigan, Zachary Page, and Paulo Passoni

Note 208-088

Supplements "Asset Allocation I." Learn more...

El-Hage, Nabil N., Birche Fishback, Blake Gottesman, and Michael Marino

Case 209-010

Aurora Capital, a U.S. Private Equity firm, contemplates whether to acquire Douglas Dynamics, the leading U.S. maker of snow plows. Does a business that is highly dependent on the weather, and is seasonal, make a good LBO candidate? This case provides a good introduction to the LBO business. What are the characteristics of a successful LBO? And how do successful PE firms create value by acquiring such companies? Learn more...

Jones, Geoffrey G., and David Kiron

Case 808-133

Considers the creation of the world's largest fragrance company by Bernd Beetz, appointed chief executive of Coty Inc. in 2001. In 1990 the German consumer goods company Benkiser began acquiring fragrance and cosmetics brands with the intent of developing a beauty business. These included the long-established, but relatively small, U.S. fragrance company Coty. In 1996 the beauty business was spun off under the name Coty. When Beetz was hired as chief executive, it was still a fragmented collection of recently acquired brands. The case describes how Beetz re-ignited the dormant celebrity fragrance business with the successful launch of a new Jennifer Lopez fragrance line. Fashioning a new entrepreneurial culture based on the principles of "faster, further, freer," Coty hired longstanding executives from other firms and liberated their entrepreneurial capabilities, refreshing brands which had been tarnished into a global mass color cosmetics brand. In 2005 the acquisition of Calvin Klein from Unilever, and its renewal, catapulted Coty into the position of the world's largest fragrance company. The case provides an opportunity to examine the entrepreneurial, cultural, and organizational factors which enable acquired brands and employees to be re-invigorated and molded into a dynamic new global business. It asks if the cultural and other factors behind its rapid growth can sustain the company as it seeks growth much further as a top-five beauty company. Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam, and Rachel Galper

Case 808-167

Barry Nalls describes lessons learned during his 25-year career-his rise at GTE and shorter-lived ventures-and how these prepared him to found MASERGY, a telecommunications start-up. Even as a young boy in a family of entrepreneurs, Nalls had a reputation as a hard worker, but instead of becoming an entrepreneur himself, he built a long career at "the biggest company around," GTE. After years of working there in sales and marketing, he decided to venture out on his own. His GTE experiences armed him for some entrepreneurial challenges but also caused additional problems as he tried to start, build, and grow MASERGY. Four years after founding the venture, he now feels that he should have "taken the entrepreneurial plunge" much earlier in life. Learn more...

Malhotra, Deepak, and Max H. Bazerman

Exercise 908-051

A two-party negotiation between an Agent representing a new author and an Editor at a large Publishing Firm. The exercise involves a one-issue, zero-sum negotiation concerning the advance on royalties that the publisher will pay to the author. Learn more...

Malhotra, Deepak, and Max H. Bazerman

Exercise 908-050

A two-party negotiation between an Agent representing a new author and an Editor at a large Publishing Firm. The exercise involves a one-issue, zero-sum negotiation concerning the advance on royalties that the publisher will pay to the author. Learn more...

Porter, Michael E., Robert S. Huckman, and Jeremy L. Friese

Case 608-175

Considers the situation facing Gary Gottlieb, president of Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), prior to the opening of BWH's integrated cardiovascular center. This case allows students to develop an appreciation of the strategic, financial, organizational, clinical, and physical aspects of integrating health care delivery around specific categories of disease. It provides an opportunity to evaluate BWH's approach to integration along all of these dimensions and to identify the nature of the tradeoffs that hospitals-specifically, academic medical centers-face as they attempt to create disease-specific models of integrated care. Finally, students have the opportunity to evaluate the degree to which integrated models of care can be developed within academic medical centers. Learn more...

Sato, Vicki L., and Rachel Gordon

Case 608-114

In June 2003, Harvard University and MIT announced an unprecedented partnership to create a biomedical institute, The Broad Institute. The culture of the Broad centered on science, and those involved considered it to be at the edge of the scientific frontier. In just four years the Broad had made many important scientific contributions to the biomedical field. These included understanding genetic alterations in cancer; building an RNAi Consortium to better understand the role of every gene in the human body; creating an integrated database that mapped the connections among drugs, genes, and diseases; and cataloging inherited genetic variations of Type 2 Diabetes. Opportunities for additional important scientific advances beckoned but would require both funding and physical space. The Broad Institute's leaders, including Altshuler, Director of the Program in Medical and Population Genetics, and Golub, Director of the Cancer Program, needed to decide how big was too big. How many projects could the Broad productively support? What happened when the Broad outgrew its physical space? Altshuler and Golub knew that the Broad had made tremendous strides in the past year. It had minimized barriers and attracted many young scientists who viewed the Broad as an exciting place to do research. That success made the question of how to balance the priorities of growth and the preservation of the culture that had made everything possible all the more important. Learn more...

Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Joan Enric Ricart

Module Note 708-476

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Sahlman, William A., and Caroline Perkins

Case 807-057

Describes a set of financing issues confronting a rapidly growing company that uses "Word-of-Mouth" marketing techniques in promoting research, new products, or services. The company proposes to set the terms for a new round of venture capital it needs and to have venture capitalists bid for the right to invest on those terms by proving that they can add value to BzzAgent, Inc. Learn more...

Godes, David, Masako Egawa, and Mayuka Yamazaki

Case 508-092

Tamotsu Adachi, Managing Director of Carlyle Japan, wants to formulate a strategy to improve his firm's ability to source high-quality deals at competitive valuations, or prices. Buyout funds like Carlyle typically have two deal phases: sourcing and monitoring. These correspond to (i) "selling" the benefits to a business owner of going with Carlyle as a buyout partner, and then (ii) increasing the value of that business following the buyout. Since the profitability of a buyout depends on finding high-quality deals, the firm has focused to date on leveraging its contacts in the banking business, which has been a powerful institution in Japan for many years. These contacts have brought to Carlyle a number of good quality companies, but the volume of buyouts done by Carlyle in Japan has not been what they hoped it would be. Students are asked how the firm can improve on this deal sourcing approach. Learn more...

Godes, David, Masako Egawa, and Mayuka Yamazaki

Supplement (B), 508-093. Learn more...

Godes, David, Masako Egawa, and Mayuka Yamazaki

Supplement (C), 508-094. Learn more...

Kirby, William C., and Brittany Crow

Note 308-100

China faces enormous environmental challenges. This background note looks at the historical, economic and political origins of the environmental crisis that faces the world's fastest-growing economy. Learn more...

Marshall, Paul W., Michael Shih-ta Chen, and Keith Chi-ho Wong

Case 808-137

In late November 2000, Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., the once-monopolized telecom operator owned by the Taiwanese government, was on its way to privatization. Mr. C.K. Mao, Chairman of the company, who headed the job only three months earlier, after its prior chairman resigned unexpectedly in the midst of chaos brought by the resistance of its staff who feared losing their civil servant status after privatization. Also facing Mao was the forthcoming deregulation of the telecommunication industry on the island which would bring about new competitors on fixed-line services, in addition to the already competitive mobile communication segment where the company's once dominant market share was heavily eroded. Mao had to decide on the pricing strategies for the company's various product lines, including fixed line, mobile services, as well as data communication. He also needed to ponder on how to revise the company's compensation system to better motivate its staff in a deregulated market and communicate all these changes to the unionized labor force. Learn more...

Marshall, Paul W., Michael Shih-ta Chen, and Keith Chi-ho Wong

Supplement (B), 808-138. Learn more...

Spar, Debora L., and Brian DeLacey

Case 706-037

In November 2005, Novartis, a major global pharmaceutical firm, is reviewing its Coartem program, an ambitious attempt to deliver life-saving malaria drugs, at cost, to millions of poor Africans. The company is deeply committed to the project, but it is also struggling with the organizational issues involved in dealing with international institutions like the World Health Organization and fitting nonprofit objectives into a for-profit structure. Learn more...

Spar, Debora L., and Brian DeLacey

Case 707025

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Eccles, Robert G., David Lane, and Prabakar PK Kothandaraman

Case 408-099

In the highly competitive information technology outsourcing industry, Cognizant Technology Solutions has developed a strategy to differentiate itself by emphasizing building very close client relationships through its "Two-in-a-box" (TIB) model. This model is based on having two people share complete responsibility for the client. In the U.S. or Europe, the "on site" person, along with his or her relationship management team, is responsible for understanding the client's needs, obtaining projects and properly scoping out the work. The "offshore" person in India or elsewhere, along with his or her delivery team, is responsible for completing the project in a high-quality and timely way. The same top- and bottom-line metrics are used to evaluate the performance of both the on-site and offshore managers. This strategy (as opposed to ones based on things like low cost and innovation used by Cognizant's competitors) is intended to build deep and strong client relationships that will maximize Cognizant's "share of wallet." One interesting aspect of TIB is Cognizant Business Consulting, a 1,700-person group which advises clients in the context of helping them develop IT solutions for their business challenges. More recently, and as the next evolution of the TIB model, Cognizant is developing what it calls "Cognizant 2.0" or C2. C2 is a delivery platform based on Web 2.0 technology that enables Cognizant to subdivide work into tasks that can be allocated wherever in the world the best resources within Cognizant exist based on cost, expertise and availability while at the same time maintaining collaboration and integration to ensure timely and high-quality delivery. Learn more...

Coval, Joshua D. and Erik Stafford

Note 208-113

This lesson integrated Merton's (1974) contingent claims model of debt and equity claims with the CAPM, which allows us to examine the risks and pricing of credit portfolios and the derivative claims issued against them. In particular, this model is used to make investment and risk management decisions in the market for collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). Learn more...

Fleming, Lee

Case 608-064

The challenges and best strategies for the commercialization of university technologies are illustrated in this case which documents an MRI breakthrough that arose from the Charles Marcus laboratory at Harvard. Students discuss the interdependencies of intellectual property protection, strategy choices for science-based breakthroughs, and business models for university technology. Learn more...

Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Joan Enric Ricart

Module Note 708-452

This note defines the concepts of business model and the value loop. It also introduces business model representations and proposes four tests for evaluating business models in isolation. This is the first note in a series of three written for the HBS elective course "Competing through Business Models." Learn more...

Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Joan Enric Ricart

Module Note 708-475

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Herzlinger, Regina E., and Alfred Martin

Note 307-047

This note describes the current state of information technology connectivity in the health care sector. Learn more...

Coval, Joshua D., and Erik Stafford

Note 208-116

The goal of this simulation is to understand how convertible bonds can be viewed as a portfolio of simpler securities and to introduce an over-the-counter market. The convertible bonds that are available during the simulation are at-the-money and in-the-money so that changing credit risk exposure is not much of an issue. A convertible bond can be viewed as a simple coupon paying corporate bond plus a conversion option. A bond pricing model discounts the promised payments at a rate that compensates for time, risk, and expected loss (maturity matched Treasury yield plus a credit rating matched yield spread). The conversion option can be valued using the Black-Scholes call option pricing formula. The key is to recognize that each conversion option (one per bond) is equivalent to several equity call options (the conversion ratio determines how many equity options are implicit in each bond). Learn more...

Lee, Deishin, Michael W. Toffel, and Rachel Gordon

Case 608-055

This case describes how a company improves resource efficiency and process quality in its manufacturing process by developing a waste by-product into a new product. The case describes how CCP cleans production equipment between batches using styrene, which becomes a costly hazardous waste. Having worked on minimizing waste for the past 20 years, CCP believed it could not reduce the use of styrene without risking product quality. Instead, CCP was exploring the development of a by-product from its "rinse styrene," but faces uncertainty regarding the operational, financial, and environmental implications of doing so. This case contains data to support quantitative analyses of financial, operational, and environmental issues including some basic life-cycle analysis (LCA) calculations that focus on greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more...

Bowen, H. Kent, and Courtney Purrington

Case 608-108

The executive team at Corning has committed to double the rate of new business creation per decade, while at the same time growing the company's current businesses, including glass substrates for LCD displays. Their strategy, built on more than 150 years of successful innovation, is to invent "keystone components" which uniquely enable other companies' products and earn high margins from its proprietary technology. As part of the company's mission to be around for another 150 years, the executive team is also committed to devote considerable resources to basic research "in faith" that it will create new, high-margin businesses that will drive corporate growth in 10-20 years and enable the company to "reinvent" itself, even though they will not be around to reap the benefits of this investment. The executive team must choose how to allocate finite RD&E resources between (1) "pushing" one, or more, of four brand new businesses with considerable potential in the development pipeline to the market sooner; (2) allocating more resources to six new products being launched from existing businesses; or (3) spending more on exploratory research. In making these decisions, the executive team must consider the impact of their decision on not only near-term earnings, but on how it will enable Corning to diversify over the medium- to long-term in terms of the quality and quantity of its portfolio of new technologies in the development pipeline and new businesses being launched, especially so that it is not overly dependent on sales of a particular business like LCD glass. Learn more...

Healy, Paul M., and Maria Loumioti

Case 108-033

No abstract available. Learn more...

Healy, Paul M., and Maria Loumioti

Case 108-034

No abstract available. Learn more...

Healy, Paul M., and Maria Loumioti

Case 108-035

No abstract available. Learn more...

Healy, Paul M., and Maria Loumioti

Case 108-036

No abstract available. Learn more...

Abdelal, Rawi, Rafael Di Tella, and Jonathan Schlefer

Case 709-006

Why do managers become corrupt? Does corruption ever pay? When do friendly relations cross into bribery? How can CEOs manage and prevent outbreaks of corruption? These and other questions are raised by three short case studies of corruption in Germany: at the global engineering firm Siemens, the automaker VW, and the chemical giant BASF. While German law not only permitted overseas bribery but even made it tax deductible until 1999, it was not welcomed in some nations where Siemens did business such as the United States-or in Germany after 2000-but old practices continued. Cooperative management-labor relations, often seen as key to the post-World War II German industrial powerhouse, went sour at VW, as a top manager secured key concessions by paying for union leaders' lavish foreign travel and visits to prostitutes. After vitamin prices sagged in the late 1980s, BASF and the Swiss chemical firm Hoffmann-La Roche plotted a global cartel that lasted a decade and raised the prices of many vitamins 50 percent or more. In the end, even after record criminal fines and jail time for some executives, some observers argued, such practices were likely to recur. Learn more...

Narayandas, Das

Note 503-060

Describes in detail customer management strategies in business markets, including selection decisions, design and management of customer relationship strategies, monitoring the health of customer relations, and linking the vendors' customer management effort to customer profitability. Learn more...

Frei, Frances X.

Exercise 608-126

The exercise involves having students write letters to an organization of their choice describing their operating experience at a detailed level. The companies' responses are paired with the students' letters and the entire collection is made available to the class. The collection can be compelling. Students are quick to sense which organizations value customer communications as meaningful operational input. They find highly instructive the frequency with which situations laboriously recounted by their "valued customers" elicit generic responses from companies, and replies to detailed letters of praise get the tone dramatically wrong. At HBS, it is incorporated in a second-year elective, taught in a module devoted to utilizing customer-operators to improve operations (HBS No. 608-135). Learn more...

Anand, Bharat N., David J. Collis, and Sophie Hood

Case 708-445

Between 1985 and 2007, Danaher has been one of the best-performing industrial conglomerates in the U.S. This case examines the corporate strategy of this diversified, global corporation. It describes the firm's portfolio strategy and the Danaher Business System-a systematic and wide-ranging set of organizational processes the firm has developed to drive growth and create value. In 2008, the firm confronts various challenges in sustaining its impressive historical performance. First, can it continue to balance organic and acquisition-led growth? Second, what will be the impact of increased competition from private equity players? Third, for how long can its strategy of "continuous improvement" continue? Learn more...

Moore, Ronald W.

Case 205-047

Discusses the bankruptcy reorganization process, with an emphasis on valuation and capital structure. Serves as the basis for a bankruptcy reorganization game that has been used for many years in Creating Value Through Corporate Restructuring, a second-year finance course. The game is played in Chapter 11, after previous efforts to complete an out-of-court restructuring failed. Students are divided into five claimholder groups-secured debt holders, unsecured senior debt holders, etc.-and these groups, under the supervision of a bankruptcy judge, must negotiate a satisfactory plan of reorganization or suffer significant incremental losses through liquidation. Provides the background information with respect to Delaware's history, prospects, and financial condition necessary to play the game. A rewritten version of an earlier case. Learn more...

Reiling, Henry B., and Kevin Wall

Note 209-042

The note (1) describes "spin-offs" and "split-offs," (2) summarizes the requirements to qualify for tax postponement, and (3) identifies the public policy considerations justifying this favorable treatment. Learn more...

Norton, Michael, Julian Villanueva, and Luc Wathieu

Case 509-015

Ferran Adriá, chef at elBulli, the highest-ranked restaurant in the world for two consecutive years, faces two related decisions. First, Adriá and his team must continue to develop new and different dishes for the ground-breaking cuisine at elBulli to guarantee a continuous stream of innovation, the cornerstone of the restaurant's success. In addition, they are also faced with the challenge of growing the business, exploring whether the core concepts from elBulli- this "taste of innovation"-can be applied to domains ranging from consulting to fast food. The case walks readers through an evening at elBulli by using the rave reviews of former patrons to capture the full experience, from the long trip required to get to the restaurant, to the tour, to descriptions of the meal itself. Learn more...

Mikes, Anette

Case 109-001

An early adopter of Enterprise Risk Management, energy giant Hydro One anticipated new threats and opportunities in an industry that faced climate change and carbon legislation, the deregulation of electricity markets, and the greater adoption of renewable technologies. CEO Laura Formusa felt Hydro One's risk profile had shifted, to the extent that she had to ask herself-was the strategy tenable? The case provides a rich description of Enterprise Risk Management in action and shows how Hydro One executives arrive at a shared understanding of the risk profile of the company. In the narrative a diverse group of managers (the chief executive, the chief financial officer, the head of the public relations and the chief regulatory officer) voice their views on the risks, collectively bringing a multiple stakeholder perspective to the risk profile. The case challenges students to define the problems and risks that the company faces, given its strategic objectives, its evolving risk profile, and the changing environment. The case also offers a discussion ground for defining the role of the chief risk officer and the relationship between risk management, strategic planning and capital budgeting. Learn more...

Coval, Joshua D., and Erik Stafford

Note 208-117

The goal of these simulations is to understand the dynamic replication technique behind the Black-Scholes/Merton options model. The simulations focus on a single stock and a risk-free discount bond, which are used to replicate a contingent payoff. The underlying stock and bond prices are randomly generated from the assumptions of the model, so that this simulation is testing the student's understanding and ability to use the model, rather than testing whether the model accurately explains prices. In each of the four simulations that make up this lesson, students are trying to replicate a contingent payoff, which is specified in terms of the closing stock price in one month (European-style derivative). The students are essentially working on an equity derivatives desk at a large bank and are responsible for delivering a derivative payoff to a client. The desk has taken in a premium upfront for guaranteeing the contingent payoff in one month's time. In the Black-Scholes/Merton model, a trader should be able to exactly match the contractual payment at expiration. Therefore, students are penalized based on the absolute difference between their actual ending value and a target ending value (starting value + derivative payoff). In particular, this difference is cumulated across all four simulations and then subtracted from their account. Learn more...

Coval, Joshua D., and Erik Stafford

Note 208-118

The goal of this simulation is to understand the reliance of option values on volatility. When an investor trades an option, they are essentially trading volatility. Therefore, much of the focus in this lesson is on forecasting volatility. Students are able to use two primary methods for forecasting volatility in this lesson-historical and implied. Students are provided with a historical dataset, from which they can estimate historical volatility of the stock returns. They can also use the dataset to study various statistical relations between the securities. In particular, two of the three securities behave independently of the others. Thus, students are able to analyze the dataset to form views of how the security prices are likely to evolve relative to each other. Learn more...

Trumbull, Gunnar

Case 707-021

Focuses on the challenges facing the European Union in 2006. Following the French and Dutch referendums in 2005, the fate of the European Constitution is in jeopardy. Ten new accession countries have just joined the EU, with Turkey in the beginning stages of the accession process. New member states and additional future members have provoked widespread debate on financial, political, and social issues. Growth within the EU has been sluggish, with high unemployment and low investment in R&D. The EU has launched a set of reforms to create a "single passport" system of mutual recognition within the EU for capital, services, and people. Still, terrorist attacks, an upsurge in domestic violence, budgetary problems, and foreign policy, enlargement, and immigration issues plague the EU. In light of these problems, what will be the future of the EU and its constitution? Learn more...

Baldwin, Carliss Y.

Note 208-103

The announcement of merger or acquisition conveys new information to the capital markets. This note describes how the stock prices of a Buyer and Target behave after the announcement of a deal. First, for an all-stock deal that is certain to go through, the note defines accouchement effects and describes the fundamental arbitrage relationship between Target and Buyer stock prices. It shows how post-announcement prices may be used to infer the market's estimate of synergies. It then explains how the betas of the two companies change post-announcement and the arbitrage relationship between prices in a cash-and-stock deal. Finally, it defines event risk and explains how it affects the prices of the Buyer and the Target. Learn more...

Coval, Joshua D., and Erik Stafford

Note 208-090

The event arbitrage module includes two simulation sessions. The first simulation focuses on analyzing and evaluating individual merger transactions, while the second simulation emphasizes managing a portfolio of individual positions and the limitations of arbitrage investing in real-world capital markets. The underlying data and information are derived from actual merger transactions and have been disguised to prevent students from knowing the outcome ahead of time. Learn more...

Herzlinger, Regina E,

Case 308-090

What are the barriers and opportunities to commercializing genetic diagnoses for disease? Learn more...

Frei, Frances X.

Exercise 608-128

This exercise provides students with an opportunity to thoroughly test an operating assumption. Students state an assumption as a testable hypothesis, collect and analyze relevant data, and communicate the results. At HBS, it is incorporated in a second-year elective taught in a module devoted to utilizing customer-operators to improve service operations (HBS 608-135). The exercise is taught in three parts: in-class workshop, project presentation, and post-exercise poll. Learn more...

Eisenmann, Thomas, and Brian Feinstein

Case 808-128

In early 2008, the online social networking site Facebook faced a competitive challenge from Google as well as questions about how Facebook could monetize its surging traffic. In May 2007, Facebook had launched Facebook Platform, which enabled third-party developers to build applications for its site. In late 2007, Google responded by organizing the OpenSocial Initiative. OpenSocial provided an application programming interface (API) that was adapted by many of Facebook's social networking rivals, including MySpace and LinkedIn. Relying on a single API allowed developers to avoid the cost of creating different versions of their applications for each social networking site. Facebook's managers had to decide how to respond to OpenSocial. Should they join the initiative or keep Facebook Platform proprietary and seek further differentiation? Learn more...

Pozen, Robert C.

Case 309-002

Deborah Pege, an attorney at Fidelity Investments, needs to decide whether Fidelity should attempt to patent business processes involved with its new charitable gift fund. The case explores the conditions that must be satisfied in order to receive a patent and raises issues about the value of patent versus other ways to protect intellectual property. Learn more...

Pozen, Robert C.

Supplement 309-003

The (B) case informs students of Fidelity's decision about pursuing a business process patent for its charitable gift fund and describes subsequent litigation and lawsuits filed by other companies over business process patent issues. Learn more...

Rivkin, Jan W., and Ann Cullen

Note 708-481

This note provides detailed instructions on finding resources for conducting industry analysis, with a special focus on resources available at Harvard Business School. It allows students to transition from doing a Five Forces analysis on the basis of a case, where all relevant facts are provided, to doing a Five Forces analysis in a work setting, without the benefit of a prepackaged case. Exhibits provide detailed information on top resources for industry analysis, instructions for accessing prominent databases, notes on using the Internet and other new media, and some publication-related tricks of the trade pertinent to each step in the industry analysis process. Learn more...

Baker, Malcolm P., Carlos M. Galvez, and James Quinn

Case 208-080

CEO Wesley Edens and the five Fortress principals are contemplating a move unprecedented in the industry: becoming the first hedge fund and private equity firm to complete an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This case examines potential reasons for a leading alternative investment firm to go public, including the firm's own rationale relating to "people, permanence, currency, and capital," while also providing analyst expectations regarding target valuation and initial stock performance. Learn more...

Krasker, William S.

Case 606-004

Freemark Abbey must decide whether to harvest in view of the possibility of rain. Rain could damage the crop but delaying the harvest would be risky. On the other hand, rain could be beneficial and greatly increase the value of the resulting wine. This decision is further complicated by the fact that ripe Riesling grapes can be vinified in two ways, resulting in two different styles of wine. Their relative prices would depend on the uncertain preference of consumers two years later, when the wine is bottled and sold. Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam T., and Ashraf Haque

Case 809-024

Geoff Smart, founder and CEO of ghSMART & Co., wanted to build ghSMART into the #1 management-assessment firm for CEOs and investors. However, he had just received two pieces of very bad news: the demise of an existing project and the loss of a $1 million engagement he thought was already sold. The news raised difficult questions about how Geoff had structured his firm and had designed its governance and incentive systems. Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam T., and Ashraf Haque

809-025

Supplement to "ghSMART & Co., 2006: Pioneering in Professional Services. Learn more...

Isenberg, Daniel J.

Case 808-033

GI has developed a revolutionary video pill for imaging the small bowel in the gastro-intestinal tract. The development has required the integration of a wide variety of technologies. GI founder and CEO Gabriel Meron must determine GI's marketing strategy and prioritize GI's initial target markets: either the United States, Europe, or Japan, or any combination. He is also faced with the immediate decision if to make offers to U.S. and European regional managers. Cash resources are scarce, and GI hopes to raise additional capital soon. Learn more...

Godes, David B.

Case 508-066

Glass Egg is an outsource games development firm in Vietnam. They are able to offer brand-name publishers-Microsoft EA, Atari-significant cost savings in the development of art assets for their video games. However, the firm's management find themselves at a point at which they feel they need to make a strategic decision that will enable Glass Egg to grow more substantially and more quickly. They are evaluating three possible directions including expanding the sales force, expanding the scope of art development services they offer and, more radically, going into the games publishing business themselves. Besides offering a picture of an interesting firm in a growing, dynamic country and business, the case allows for an exploration of two important general themes: (1) Assessing alternative growth strategies. When should one pursue "more of the same" business vs. offering another product vs. looking for new customers? When is it better to develop an entirely different line of business with different customers and different products? (2) What are the differences between marketing to businesses vs. marketing to consumers? Since one of the options the firm is considering involves a consumer product-online game development-the case supports a discussion about the important differences, not only in terms of the nature of the buying process and buying center but also in terms of the vastly different organizational resources and structures that are needed in each. Learn more...

Siegel, Jordan

Case 708-486

This case tackles the topic of global talent management. It can be used to analyze the performance measurement, incentive, and talent development system used at a major multinational company. This case can also be used to analyze the extent to which this system should or should not be adapted for China and other emerging economies. Learn more...

Beyene, Tsedal, Thomas J. DeLong, and Alison Comings

Case 409-003

Greg James, a global manager at Sun Microsystems, Inc., sets out to meet with his entire 43-member customer implementation team spread across India, France, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America to resolve a dire customer system outage as required by a service agreement. Rather than finding a swift resolution to the rapidly escalating customer situation that motivated his trip, he finds himself facing distributed work, global collaboration, conflict, and management issues that are threatening to unravel his team. Learn more...

Hamermesh, Richard G., Carin-Isabel Knoop, and Cara Sterling

Case 808-044

This case chronicles the role that Harvard Business School alumni play in the healthcare industry. Overall data on alumni is given, and the industry is broken into seven areas in which the careers of twenty-five alumni are highlighted. Learn more...

Applegate, Lynda M., Gabriele Piccoli, and Chekitan S. Dev

Case 809-029

This case analyzes the Hilton Hotels Corporation's CRM strategy at a key juncture in its history, immediately after the firm has been taken private by Blackstone. The case provides students with a comprehensive history of the evolution and IT enablers of Hilton's CRM Initiative, as well as the proprietary OnQ enterprise system. The case thus offers a rare opportunity to engage in a longitudinal evaluation of the firm's CRM initiative and to enable students to propose the future evolution of the initiative based on their analysis. Learn more...

Ton, Zeynep, and Catherine Ross

Case 608-093

For its first 20 years, Home Depot was known for its entrepreneurial spirit and focus on customer service. Merchandising, purchasing, and store operations were all decentralized. When the company hit $45 billion in sales, many believed that a more disciplined approach to operations would be important for future growth. As a result, the company hired Bob Nardelli, a former GE executive, to lead the change. When Bob Nardelli became the Chairman and CEO in 2000, he centralized merchandising and purchasing and brought process discipline to store operations through using Six Sigma quality methodology. Although the changes led to higher profitability, the retailer's stock price remained unchanged. Many wondered if poor stock market performance was a reflection of the cultural change and declining customer service. Learn more...

Shih, Willy, Chintay Shih, and Chen-Fu Chien

Note 609-001

Well-codified interfaces have enabled horizontal specialization in the global semiconductor industry. This Technical Note describes the modern integrated circuit value chain and the motivation for the reuse of blocks of intellectual property in modern IC designs. It briefly examines ARM Limited as an example of an IP specialist supplier and looks at the evolution to complete Systems-on-Chip and Systems-in-Packages so that students may examine the evolution of industry structure in the accompanying case "System-on-a-Chip 2008: Global Unichip Corporation." Learn more...

Khanna, Tarun, Krishna G. Palepu, and Richard J. Bullock

Case 708-446

Chronicles the globalization of the Tata Group, one of India's largest business groups. Since 2000, many Tata Group operating companies have aggressively built international businesses, particularly through overseas acquisitions. After describing the globalization rationales and approaches of the major Tata Group companies, the case asks students to consider whether Tata Motors should pursue the acquisition of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands owned by US-based Ford Motor company. Learn more...

Roberts, Michael J., William A. Sahlman, and Sasha Novakovich

Case 808-163

This case includes structured interviews with four serial entrepreneurs about the way in which they built and used their boards in each of their companies and what they have learned through that process. These entrepreneurs were asked similar questions, such as "How do you build a board of directors in a venture-backed start up?"; "What do you expect of the board and how do you ensure those expectations are met?"; "What are the most and least value-added board activities?"; "How do you manage the board?"; "How does board composition change over time?"; "What were your biggest surprises about boards?"; and "What advice would you give first-time entrepreneurs?" Learn more...

Coval, Joshua D., and Erik Stafford

Note 208-119

The goal of this simulation is to understand the patterns in index option prices that are not predicted by the Black-Scholes model. In particular, the simulation focuses on two properties of options prices. First, at-the-money implied volatilities from index options tend to be larger than the realized volatility. Second, the implied volatilities from index options are increasing as the strike price falls relative to the current index level (i.e., out-of-the-month call options have larger implied volatilities than at-the-money call options). Students are given a dataset of relevant market information to analyze. From these materials, students are expected to develop an investment strategy that attempts to deliver low-risk profits from the index options market. The actual simulation is fairly short and simple. Students trade 1-month put and call options on the S&P 500 (SPX) at three different strike prices (10% out-of-the-money, at-the-money, and 10% in-the-money). The simulation covers five months of calendar time (5 sets of options) in about 35 minutes. Learn more...

Edmondson, Amy C., and Ann Cullen

Exercise 609-027

The purpose of this exercise is to explore the challenges of information collection and analysis. Students will, experientially, gain insights into how information is used and be exposed to a framework for identifying and evaluating information. In addition, the exercise will enable students to explore the processes and dynamics of teamwork in decision-making, the challenges of group decision-making, and the strategies for engaging team learning skills and attitudes to improve both the quality of and commitment to group decisions. Learn more...

Lakhani, Karim R.

Case 608-170

InnoCentive.com, a firm connecting R&D labs of large organizations to diverse external solvers through innovation contests, has to decide if it will enable collaboration in its community. Case covers the basics of a distributed innovation system works and the advantages of having external R&D. Links how concepts of open source are applied to a non-software setting. Describes the rationale for participation by solvers in innovation contests and the benefits that accrue to firms. Raises the issue if a community can be shifted to collaboration when competition was the basis of prior interaction. Learn more...

Frei, Frances X.

Note 608-154

No abstract available. Learn more...

Porter, Michael E., Saquib Rahim, and Benjamin Chung-Shi Tsai

Case 709-403

As of 2007, there were very few examples of widespread measurement and reporting of health outcomes, a critical quality measure. In-vitro fertilization clinics have been required to report their patient's health outcomes since 1995. The protagonist of the case, Dr. James Goldfarb, faces a number of challenges. As the medical director of a nationally-renowned fertility program at the Cleveland Clinic, he must run an efficient and effective practice that draws patients from both the surrounding area and from around the world. As a leader of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, he must contribute toward the continuing evolution of the practice of in-vitro fertilization and ensure that the outcome measurement system is creating proper incentives and delivering timely, accurate, and useful information to patient, physicians, and researchers. Learn more...

Hill, Linda A., and Emily A. Stecker

Case 408-057

Founded in 1934, Muzak pioneered the industry of background music. Equipped with propriety technology and a vast music library, over the ensuing decades the Muzak franchise organization expanded geographically. Despite a history of innovation, by the late 1990s Muzak had anemic financials and low employee morale. When new CEO Bill Boyd took the helm in 1997, he assembled a new management team. The new VP of Marketing, Kenny Kahn, worked with design firm Pentagram to re-brand the company, not just for customers but to spark organizational change. But because Muzak was a franchise organization, Kahn had to convince independent affiliates to pay for what turned out to be an extensive re-branding. This case can be used to teach how branding can be used as a tool for spearheading culture change-not to exercise influence without authority-and how businesspeople can effectively work with a design firm. Learn more...

Hill, Linda A., and Emily A. Stecker

Case 408-069

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Hall, Brian J., and Nicole Bennett

Case 908-068

In this case we look at the design and development of an unconventional market, where neither money nor traditional "goods" are exchanged. Kidney exchange is an idea pioneered by HBS professor and market designer Alvin Roth and a small group of innovative doctors. This case follows this group as they grapple with some of the complex questions associated with launching a national clearinghouse for kidney exchange. It raised critical questions about why and how value is created in markets and how important moral dilemmas (in this case, the buying and selling of human organs) complicate the connection between market exchange and value creation. Learn more...

Gilson, Stuart C., and Sarah Abbott

Case 209-044

A major bankrupt retailer is poised to emerge from Chapter 11. Two activist hedge funds ("vulture investors") will own over 50% of reorganized Kmart's common stock, based on prior investments in Kmart's debt claims, and an infusion of new equity financing. The Chapter 11 process has generated both costs and benefits for the company. Its future profitability, and the value of the reorganized business, are both highly uncertain. Learn more...

Huang, Yasheng

Case 708-052

What caused the 1997 Korea crisis? Did the International Monetary Fund (IMF) help or hinder recovery? Did democracy help or hinder recovery? Seen as an economic miracle, Korea succumbed to the wave of currency crises sweeping Asia in late 1997. Did the same state-led export growth strategy that had brought about such spectacular success cause this financial meltdown? Conversely, what role had foreign investors played in setting up the crisis by pouring short-term capital into Korea's partially and unevenly liberalized financial system? When it arrived on the scene, did the IMF do more to help Korea recover from its economic distress, or did it just bail out foreign investors and prepare the way for Wall Street to up buy Korean banks and firms? Had Korea's long move toward democracy helped or hindered government efforts to reform its economic strategy and to resolve the current crisis? This case explains the background to explore these questions. Learn more...

Coles, Peter A., Benjamin Edelman, Brian J. Hall, and Nicole Bennett

Case 908-061

Despite strong appeal among job seekers and outside recruiters, TheLadders' corporate job listings seem to lag. Could raising prices help solve the problem? TheLadders considers this strategic paradox. Learn more...

Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, Celso Fernandez, and Moritz Jobke

Case 708-414

When the Danish mobile phone service provider Telmore entered the market in October 2000, few people took notice. Its business model was not perceived as particularly aggressive or threatening to the industry. Less than three years later, Telmore's creative adaptation of the well-known, no-frills model of the airline industry had taken the Danish market by storm. With a combination of rock-bottom prices, simplicity, and a focus on customer satisfaction backed by a unique low-cost infrastructure, Telmore's business model, with its powerful virtuous cycles, proved to be the most successful innovation the industry had seen in many years. Learn more...

Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, Celso Fernandez, and Moritz Jobke

Case 708-415

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, Celso Fernandez, and Moritz Jobke

Case 708-416

Supplements the (A) case. 708-416. Learn more...

Paine, Lynn Sharp, Aldo Sesia Jr., and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Case 308-001

The (A) case describes a series of controversial events and alleged misdeeds that placed Citigroup in the public spotlight and launched investigations into the company's business practices by regulators in Japan and Europe in the fall of 2004. CEO Chuck Prince must decide what to do to right the company and restore its reputation. Learn more...

Paine, Lynn Sharp, Aldo Sesia Jr., and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Case Supplement 308-002

The (B) case describes the actions taken by Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince and his management team to right the company in the wake of the controversies and alleged misdeeds described in the (A) case. Learn more...

DeLong, Thomas J.

Case 409-023

Harriet Cornwall, a partner at the law firm of Kensington Palmer, LLP, is made lead over a fellow group of attorneys. Put in charge of guiding her colleagues in their annual goal-setting initiative, she notices four that need special attention. Cornwall must address their poor performance and goals as a colleague rather than as a manager. Learn more...

Eisenmann, Thomas, and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Case 808-114

In early 2008, managers in Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life, faced decisions about the company's strategy. Despite profound initial skepticism about demand for a user-generated virtual world that was not a traditional game, Second Life had achieved profitability and strong growth. However, growth had strained the company's infrastructure, resulting in frequent software crashes. Software ease-of-use was also a serious problem. As a result, 90% of new users abandoned Second Life after only a brief trial. Management was considering whether marketing partnerships and open sourcing its software might relieve strains and facilitate future growth. Linden Lab was also debating whether and how to allow interoperability between Second Life and other virtual worlds. Learn more...

Vietor, Richard H.K.

Case 707-002

This country case on Malaysia extends forward by seven years the case "Malaysia: Capital and Control" (702-040). It is based on Malaysia's ninth plan, which took effect in 2006. The ninth plan proposed five thrusts-moving the economy to higher value-added goods and services, raising the capacity for knowledge, addressing socioeconomic inequalities, improving the quality of life, and strengthening institutions and the civil service-to achieve 6% growth annually. All of this is to achieve "Vision 2020," a long-range plan for becoming developed. Considers the difficulties Malaysia faces, stuck between China and India on the low (value-added) side, and Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore on the high (value-added) end. Learn more...

Wei-Skillern, Jane, Sonia Marciano, and Barbara Passy

Case 308-129

In the summer of 2007, Mattel performed three major recalls of toys, mostly due to lead paint and other manufacturing issues in China. This case examines specifically how those recalls were perceived by consumers and responded to by Mattel, as well as what effect they had on the toy industry, consumer safety, and manufacturing in China in general. Learn more...

Perold, André F., and Kenneth A. Froot

Note 208-110

Examines various approaches to measuring investment performance. The approaches include the use of risk exposure and the Sharpe and Information Ratios. Applies the approaches to a variety of mutual funds to demonstrate the effect of using different metrics to measure fund performance. Learn more...

Kaplan, Robert Steven, Chris Marquis, and Brent Kazan

Case 408-003

Marc Buoniconti is the co-founder of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a nonprofit medical research organization. The project was founded in 1985 by Marc and his father Nick, a former Hall of Fame football player, when Marc suffered a spinal cord injury. In 2007, Marc was still confined to a wheelchair, but the Miami project had developed into the world's largest spinal cord injury research and treatment center. It had 250 employees, operated from a $37 million state of the art facility located on the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine campus, and had raised in excess of $275 million since its inception. However, there was still no cure for spinal cord injury, and many of the project's supporters were becoming anxious for a substantial clinical breakthrough. Fundraising was always a concern, particularly as government spending on research was declining. Marc and his father were keenly aware of the challenge of maintaining the enthusiasm and financial backing of the Miami Project's supporters. Yet they needed to avoid over-promising regarding the likelihood of potential breakthroughs, which required painstaking research and stringent clinical trials. The leadership also questioned whether the mission should remain focused on spinal cord injury, or whether it should broaden to include brain trauma and other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Case provides an opportunity to discuss the challenges of non-profit management, medical research and to debate appropriate strategy for the Miami Project in 2007. Learn more...

Rangan, V. Kasturi, and Marie Madelene Bell

Supplement 509-009

This short (B) case provides an update of how Microsoft organized its unlimited potential initiative. Learn more...

Piskorski, Mikołaj Jan, Masaru Nomura, and Kanako Miyoshi

Case 709-413

Kasahara, the founder and CEO of mixi, the most successful Japanese on-line social network, is deciding between two strategic options: (i) B2C or (ii) C2C to leverage the power of the social network. In the B2C option, mixi would become a portal for on-line shopping for both digital content and tangible goods and charge the business sellers a fee. In the C2C option, mixi would facilitate exchanges between mixi's members through on-line flea markets or auctions and charge the members for successful transactions. In choosing between the two options he has to consider other upstart networks, particularly in the field of mobile social networking. Learn more...

Herzlinger, Regina E., and Alfred Martin

Case 308-085

The Multiple Sclerosis Center of Atlanta wishes to expand beyond Georgia. The factors influencing this decision are discussed, including drug treatments currently available, and the impact of future drugs in the FDA pipeline as well as financing issues. Learn more...

Piskorski, Mikołaj Jan, David Chen, and Carin-Isabel Knoop

Case 708-499

The case, set in late 2007, examines what MySpace-the largest online social network-should do to respond to its agile competitor, Facebook. Since its inception MySpace had experienced phenomenal growth, acquiring 20 million members in its first 20 months of operation, and another 70 million a year later, to become the most visited website in the United States. Its growth stalled around mid-2007, just a few months after Facebook had released its programming platform which allowed outside programmers to build applications using its social network data. The wealth of new applications on Facebook allowed the company to increase its membership by more than 15% in one month. To remain competitive MySpace had to release its own platform, and now it needs to decide whether to build its own proprietary application platform or join OpenSocial, a Google-sponsored open source platform. Learn more...

Hall, Brian J., Deepak Malhotra, and Nicole Bennett

Case 908-064

MBA student Monroe Davies is asked by a potential employer to determine his own compensation package. This case follows Jim Hummer, President and CEO of Whole Health Management and Davies through a unique recruitment process that raises questions of compensation and employee incentives, negotiation strategy, and human resources management. Learn more...

Hall, Brian J., Deepak Malhotra, and Nicole Bennett

Case 908-065

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Hall, Brian J., Deepak Malhotra, and Nicole Bennett

Case 908-066

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam, and Deepak Malhotra

Case 809-020

Michael Reich is having severe doubts about how he split the equity with his co-founders two months ago, when they completed a one-page "November Agreement." Since then, Michael has found an angel investor and has worked non-stop on the business, while one co-founder was off enjoying the winter break with his family and the other worked on lucrative consulting contracts for other companies. Michael has just sent his co-founders a proposal that would re-allocate the equity within their founding team, and all three founders are getting ready to reopen a negotiation they thought had been finalized. Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam, and Deepak Malhotra

Supplement, 809-021. Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam, and Deepak Malhotra

Supplement, 809-022. Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam, and Deepak Malhotra

Supplement, 809-023. Learn more...

Froot, Kenneth A., and Michael Heinrich

Case 206-130

At the cross-section of capital markets and the catastrophe insurance space stands the hedge fund Nephila. Nephila must decide how best to take advantage of the newly presented market opportunities post hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita. Nephila has a plethora of options as it brings capital markets understanding to the insurance space. Nephila can easily trade in and out of insurance products and is not subject to regulatory restrictions. Yet, Nephila only capitalizes 1% of the entire catastrophe reinsurance market. What is the best way to grow? Learn more...

Childress, Stacey, Scott Benson, and Sarah Tudryn

Case 308-074

Founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a catalyst for the transformation of the public education system in New Orleans, President Sarah Usdin and CEO Matt Candler must adapt their strategy to respond to a continuously shifting local context. By 2008, conditions on the ground begin to stabilize, creating a new set of challenges in realizing the organization's vision to provide excellent public schools for every child in New Orleans. Learn more...

Retsinas, Nicolas P., Daniela Beyersdorfer, and Elena Corsi

Case 208-136

In August 2006, Magnus Lofgren and Robert Provine, managing directors and co-founders of the "North Real Estate Opportunities Fund," need to decide which real estate investment the Fund should pursue as its first project. The Fund's target region, Central and Eastern Europe, was changing rapidly and returns in some of the more developed regions started to resemble those generated in Western Europe. Yet, the two partners had managed to identify several projects in different countries that promised to generate the Fund's targeted Internal Rates of Return at or above 20% annually. They now had to decide which opportunity was the best match to the Fund's investment profile and showed the highest economic promise. Learn more...

Pozen, Robert C., and Felicia Ellsworth

Note 309-023

This note analyses and compares the legal definitions and practical applications of Business Method and Software Patents in the United States and European Union. Learn more...

Note 609-009

This note discusses the topic of compulsory licensing of patents from the perspective of U.S. and international law. Learn more...

Pozen, Robert C., and Elizabeth M. Leonard

Note 309-019

Rules governing the introduction of generic drugs in U.S. and EU have some similarities but significant differences because of the Hatch-Waxman Act in the U.S. Learn more...

Fruhan, William E., Jr.

Note 208-126

This note describes the hedge fund industry as of the end of the year 2007. Learn more...

Paine, Lynn Sharp, and Lara Adamsons

Note 308-096

This note provides an introduction to the law of sexual harassment. It has three parts. Part One describes the laws on harassment in the United States. Part Two explores controversial and emerging aspects of the American legal framework. Part Three gives a brief overview of sexual harassment laws and policies in several regions of the world, including Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Learn more...

Lerner, Josh, G. Felda Hardymon, and Ann Leamon

Note 808-169

This note explores the limited partner advisory boards. Based on interviews with seven experienced limited partners who serve on a number of different advisory boards, it presents the roles of the advisory board, the ways it can influence the general partner, and the reasons for limited partners to serve on them. It also contrasts the findings of this survey with a paper on the performance differential between university endowments and other institutional investors and hypothesizes the reasons behind it. Learn more...

Grossman, Allen, and Naomi Greckol-Herlich

Note 308-033

This note introduces students to the current state of the nonprofit sector around the world. It also provides insight into the sector's origin and purpose as well as the identifying important current trends. The note draws on numerous sources to provide a single resource for readers to gain understanding of this complex sector. The intended audience includes students, prospective professional leaders, those considering joining a board, consultants to the sector, or anyone wishing to learn more about the field. Learn more...

Pozen, Robert C., and Megan Barbero

Note 309-024

This note details the use and treatment of Covenants not to Compete in the United States, United Kingdom and France to compete or trade secrets versus patents as alternative ways to protect a businesses' intellectual property. Learn more...

Rivkin, Jan W., and Troy Smith

Note 708-492

Describes a set of activities in which students will participate before and during a day of classes on offshoring. The day's classes will examine the implications of offshoring for policy makers, business leaders, and workers. Learn more...

Vietor, Richard H.K., Jan W. Rivkin, and Juliana Seminerio

Case 708-030

The movement from jobs in the United States to developing countries, in a process known as offshoring, has become quite a controversial topic. Managers not only need to decide which activities, if any, to move offshore, but where to move them. This case describes the nature of offshoring and its effect on developing countries. Learn more...

Shih, Willy C., Stephen Kaufman, Melissa Blakeley, and Marissa Dent

Case 607-135

Pandora.com provided a highly customizable online radio service tailored to listeners' musical preferences and had registered explosive growth since its September 2005 launch. But proposed changes in royalty rates threatened to kill off many Internet radio sites, including Pandora. Explores Pandora's business model and whether it can evolve to remain viable. Learn more...

Stevenson, Howard H., and Shirley M. Spence

Supplement 809-001

Describes the real-life outcome of the case "Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up" (9-804-138). Learn more...

Tucker, Anita, and Jillian A. Berry

Case 608-171

Meldon Hospital challenged a team of physicians to improve patient flow from the Emergency Departmentto Intensive Care Units (ICUs). One of the team members, Thornton Burgess, Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) at Meldon Hospital, encountered workarounds by two physicians attempting to transfer their patients to the SICU because the other ICUs were full. Reflecting on the wasted effort and confusion caused by the workarounds, Burgess sent an email outlining the situation to the team. His email generated a negative backlash and chain of defensive emails from involved staff who felt criticized. Learn more...

Tucker, Anita, and Jillian A. Berry

Supplement 608-172

This case is an e-mail that follows up on the original case, which describes a day at Meldon Hospital when the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) was full, but two Meldon patients needed MICU beds, forcing the patients' physicians to search for available beds on Meldon's other intensive care units. The Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) and the Thoracic Surgery Intensive Care Unit (TSICU) had available beds, and thus the case protagonist, SICU Chief, Thornton Burgess, had to decide whether the units should allocate their open beds to these two patients. The admitting physician (Martin Zollo) for the Emergency Department (ED) patient closely adhered to the hospital's protocol for requesting an ICU bed, and his patient was placed on the SICU without incident. However, the floor patient's admitting physician, Krishna Dugar, was unfamiliar with the hospital's policy. Therefore, in addition to correctly contacting admitting to request an ICU bed, Dugar incorrectly called the SICU and TSICU directly to ask those units for a bed for his patient. Thus, admitting was working on finding a bed for Dugar's patient on the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) while at the same time, the TSICU attending, Dr. Fred Moran, was debating with the nurse manager about whether they should accept Dugar's patient. Ultimately, Moran overrode the nurse manager's rejection and agreed to accept the patient, only to learn that the patient no longer needed the bed. Thus, all of the TSICU's efforts and conflict on behalf of the patient was wasted. Learn more...

Hagiu, Andrei, and Waishun Lo

Case 709-405

In 2007, PCCW had to formulate a strategy for growth of its successful NOW TV platform and its quadruple play implementation outside of Hong Kong. Launched in September 2003 by PCCW (Hong Kong's largest telecommunications operator), NOW TV had swiftly become the world's most successful commercial IPTV deployment. By the end of June 2007, the service had an installed subscriber base of almost 820,000 and offered a choice of 143 TV channels, 71 of which were exclusive. However, opportunities for growth were inherently limited to Hong Kong (7 million inhabitants), which meant PCCW had to find ways to expand its NOW platform or seek to license parts of it internationally. Learn more...

Maurer, Noel

Case 706-052

In 2006, the Philippines faces a difficult choice. Japan has offered the country a trade agreement that includes access to the Japanese labor market for Philippine nurses and other professionals. The same trade agreement, however, means opening the country's manufacturing enterprises to Japanese exports, which is bitterly opposed by some of the nation's largest foreign investors. President Gloria Arroyo-embattled by coup attempts and political scandals-must decide whether to advance the nation's three-decade-old strategy of encouraging the export of its labor resources or whether to attenuate that strategy to meet the demands of large foreign investors. Learn more...

George, Bill

Supplement 409-025

Philip McCrea is dealing with the aftermath of the move of his company and family from San Francisco to New Jersey (from the (A) case). Although the move goes well from a family perspective, his business runs into challenges when he merges it into a Canadian company and winds up with 30% ownership. McCrea eventually resigns and has to deal with his role in the failure of the company and the transition to the next step in his career. Learn more...

Hill, Linda A., and Emily Stecker

Supplement 409-029

This case traces the development of eBay Germany, eBay Inc., and the career of eBay Germany's first country manager, Philipp Justus. The case covers from 2000 through the fall of 2007. This case details how eBay Germany, once a small start-up, became one of eBay's most successful locations. The case reveals how Justus added seasoned leaders and structure to the group, while allowing for improvisation. The case also traces Justus's career, as he moved to running eBay Europe and ultimately, the auctions group, which took him to headquarters. Like eBay Germany, eBay itself grew tremendously, in part from acquisitions like PayPal and Skype. But, growth in core areas, like auctions, had slowed. This case explains how eBay Inc. and eBay Germany tried to keep their "secret sauce." Learn more...

Ghemawat, Pankaj

Case 706-488

No abstract available. Learn more...

Ramanna, Karthik

Case 109-002

Studies the role of Cisco in setting current U.S. accounting standards for acquisitions and goodwill. Students are asked to analyze an acquisition in the context of an ongoing political debate on mergers accounting. Learn more...

Ramanna, Karthik

Supplement (B), 109-003. Learn more...

Ghemawat, Pankaj, and Patricio Del Sol

Case 799-015

Endesa, a privatized Chilean electricity generator, has made significant investments in the privatization of Argentina's electricity sector and is now contemplating an even larger privatization opportunity in Peru. In deciding how much to bid in Peru, Endesa must account for the political context in which privatization is being undertaken, as well as a host of other uncertainties. Learn more...

Gabarro, John J., and Thomas J. DeLong

Note 908-415

The purpose of this note is to ground and amplify on the characteristics and challenges of the producing manager role. It is in response to requests from participants for a piece of "take away" material that can be shared with colleagues in professional service firms that is detailed and operational in nature. Learn more...

Heskett, James L., and Tor Askild Aase Johannessen

Case 908-408

Professor Kenneth Carpenter has received word that he has inadvertently offended one of his students. He is pondering a possible response. Learn more...

Heskett, James L., and Tor Askild Aase Johannessen

Case 908-409

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Heskett, James L., and Tor Askild Aase Johannessen

Case 908-410

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Heskett, James L., and Tor Askild Aase Johannessen

Case 908-411

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Heskett, James L., and Tor Askild Aase Johannessen

Case 908-412

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Iyer, Lakshmi

Case 707-008

Between 2000 and 2004, India's economy grew by 6.35%. Focuses on the states of Punjab and Kerala, which emphasized sharply different development strategies. The states had to decide whether to focus their investment efforts on physical capital or improving social indicators. Both states faced constraints in the form of budget deficits, competition from other states, and coordination with central government policies. Learn more...

Heskett, James L., and W. Earl Sasser, Jr.

Case 808-166

The leadership team of Rackspace, faced with accommodation of its service offering and dwindling financial reserves, decides to make customer focus the rallying cry of its new strategy. This short case was designed as the discussion igniter for a series of short video clips describing the shift to a more customer-focused approach. Learn more...

Pozen, Robert C.

Case 609-010

This brief case describes settlements Indian drug maker Ranbaxy has made with Pfizer and AstraZeneca, as well as Daiichi Kangyo's purchase of a majority shareholding in Ranbaxy in 2008. Learn more...

Anteby, Michel, and Mikell Hyman

Case 409-034

Marc Fontaine, a new manager at a global manufacturing concern, is on a fast-track