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• Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | November 2017 (Revised November 2018)

  Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets

  Ramana Nanda, Robert F. White and Alexey Tuzikov

  Keywords: Blockchain; cryptocurrency; Initial Coin Offering; ICO; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Financial Services Industry;

  Citation:

  Nanda, Ramana, Robert F. White, and Alexey Tuzikov. "Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets." Harvard Business School Technical Note 818-066, November 2017. (Revised November 2018.)  View Details

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• Article | Harvard Business Review (website)

  The Hidden Costs of Initial Coin Offerings

  Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Ramana Nanda

  In recent years, much has been written about how the Blockchain is poised to transform traditional industries such as banking, real estate, and healthcare. More recently, it has gained attention as a way to finance new ventures, through what is known as an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Less noticed, though, is ICOs appear almost antithetical to the standard approach to financing a risky venture. Structured experimentation, popularized by Eric Ries' The Lean Startup, has been widely embraced as the gold standard for how to approach the commercialization of radical new ideas. From Boston to Beijing to Bangalore, entrepreneurs and investors rattle off the importance of designing focused experiments to test hypotheses in a capital-efficient fashion in order to achieve product-market fit. But ICOs substantially limit the benefits associated with such staged experimentation, for three reasons.

  Keywords: Initial Coin Offerings; Business Ventures; Entrepreneurship; Finance;

  Citation:

  Bussgang, Jeffrey J., and Ramana Nanda. "The Hidden Costs of Initial Coin Offerings." Harvard Business Review (website) (November 7, 2018).  View Details

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• Background Note | HBS Case Collection | October 2018

  Note on Managing Workforce Reductions

  Ethan Bernstein and Carin-Isabel Knoop

  Each individual who enters an organization will, at some point, leave. And yet most future leaders spend significantly more effort learning about recruiting than departures, despite the sensitivity and challenges associated with the latter. This note is intended to help address that imbalance. This note provides a roadmap for managers and employees to follow when instituting or facing layoffs. It aims to help managers consider the broader implications that should be taken into account when conducting layoffs, including how to structure and execute them effectively; how to minimize the negative impact on laid-off employees, “surviving” employees, the firm’s reputation, and the community; and what alternatives any firm contemplating layoffs should consider.

  Keywords: layoffs; downsizing; workforce; workforce reductions; delayering; Human Resources; Employees; Resignation and Termination; Management; Organizations;

  Citation:

  Bernstein, Ethan, and Carin-Isabel Knoop. "Note on Managing Workforce Reductions." Harvard Business School Background Note 419-039, October 2018.  View Details

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