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• Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2018 (Revised May 2019)

  Khan Academy 2018

  William Sahlman and Nicole Tempest Keller

  Founded in 2008, Khan Academy was a global educational nonprofit with a mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone anywhere in the world. By 2018, the organization had expanded into numerous content areas, product areas, and geographic markets. However, a newly minted 3-year strategic plan called for greater focus and prioritization to enable the young organization to maximize its impact. It also called for increased fundraising efforts to ensure long-term sustainability. The case poses several questions: How can the organization balance its far-reaching aspirational vision for transforming education globally with the short term need for greater focus? Would the priorities set in the strategic plan enable Khan Academy to create systemic global change? How should donors evaluate the attractiveness and impact of a potential investment in Khan Academy relative to other organizations in the educational market? Was Khan Academy on the right path to ensuring long-term sustainability? What should Khan Academy’s management team do?

  Keywords: entrepreneur; sustainability; scaling; Social Entrepreneurship; Nonprofit Organizations; Strategy; Education; Entrepreneurship; Teaching; Education Industry; California;

  Citation:

  Sahlman, William, and Nicole Tempest Keller. "Khan Academy 2018." Harvard Business School Case 819-064, October 2018. (Revised May 2019.)  View Details

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• Article | Review of Financial Studies | April 2019

  Private Equity and Financial Fragility during the Crisis

  Shai Bernstein, Josh Lerner and Filippo Mezzanotti

  Do private equity firms contribute to financial fragility during economic crises? We find that during the 2008 financial crisis, PE-backed companies increased investments relative to their peers, while also experiencing greater equity and debt inflows. The effects are stronger among financially constrained companies and those whose private equity investors had more resources at the onset of the crisis. PE-backed companies consequentially experienced higher asset growth and increased market share during the crisis.

  Keywords: Private Equity; Financial Crisis; Performance; Financial Condition;

  Citation:

  Bernstein, Shai, Josh Lerner, and Filippo Mezzanotti. "Private Equity and Financial Fragility during the Crisis." Review of Financial Studies 32, no. 4 (April 2019): 1309–1373. (Earlier version distributed as National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 23626 and Harvard Business School Working Paper No. 18-005.)  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2019 (Revised March 2019)

  Should a Pension Fund Try to Change the World? Inside GPIF's Embrace of ESG

  Rebecca Henderson, George Serafeim, Josh Lerner and Naoko Jinjo

  In the fall of 2018, Hiro Mizuno, the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of GPIF, the Japanese Government Pension Fund, was reflecting on his efforts to integrate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues into every aspect of GPIF’s portfolio. His efforts ranged from constructing new stock market indices based on ESG data, changing the compensation and incentives of active investment managers and passive funds, pushing for more corporate sustainability reporting and integrated reporting, and establishing collaborations with other asset owners to drive systems level change. He was convinced that the only way to meet his responsibilities to his beneficiaries was to improve the performance of the entire economy through a focus on improving corporate governance, increasing inclusion in the workplace and gender diversity and reducing environmental damage and progress towards tackling climate change. The early results from his efforts were promising, but was there more he could do?

  Keywords: pension funds; ＂ESG (environmental, social, governance) performance; Investment Funds; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Governance; Leading Change; Economy; Performance Improvement; Japan;

  Citation:

  Henderson, Rebecca, George Serafeim, Josh Lerner, and Naoko Jinjo. "Should a Pension Fund Try to Change the World? Inside GPIF's Embrace of ESG." Harvard Business School Case 319-067, January 2019. (Revised March 2019.)  View Details

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