• September 2019 (Revised May 2021)
• Case

pymetrics: Early Days

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In 2013, CEO Frida Polli was contemplating the next steps for her start-up business, pymetrics. After receiving her PhD in neuropsychology and MBA from HBS, she was determined to put her scientific and academic knowledge to work to build a business solving real world...  View Details

Keywords: BrainTech; Psychology; Hiring; Games; Entrepreneur; Start-up; Start-up Growth; Strategic Change; Strategy Formulation; Recruiting; Corporate Culture; Hiring Of Employees; Start-ups; Startup; Startups; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Business Startups; Strategy; Competition; Organizational Culture

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Wells, John R., and Benjamin Weinstock. "pymetrics: Early Days." Harvard Business School Case 720-374, September 2019. (Revised May 2021.)

• 2020
• Working Paper

Corporate Purpose in Public and Private Firms

By: Claudine Gartenberg and George Serafeim

Analyzing data from approximately 1.5 million employees across 1,108 established public and private U.S. companies, we find that employee beliefs about their firm’s purpose is weaker in public companies. This difference is most pronounced within the salaried middle and...  View Details

Keywords: Purpose; Corporate Purpose; Culture; Corporate Culture; Public And Private Organizations; Hedge Fund; Executive Pay; Organizational Culture; Mission and Purpose; Employees; Attitudes; Ownership; Leadership; Executive Compensation

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Gartenberg, Claudine, and George Serafeim. "Corporate Purpose in Public and Private Firms." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-024, August 2019. (Revised July 2020.)

• 2019
• Working Paper

The Value of Intermediation in the Stock Market

By: Marco Di Maggio, Mark Egan and Francesco Franzoni

Brokers continue to play a critical role in intermediating institutional stock market transactions. More than half of all institutional investor order flow is still executed by high-touch (non-electronic) brokers. Despite the continued importance of brokers, we have...  View Details

Keywords: Financial Intermediation; Institutional Investors; Research Analysts; Financial Institutions; Investment; Financial Services Industry

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Di Maggio, Marco, Mark Egan, and Francesco Franzoni. "The Value of Intermediation in the Stock Market." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-016, August 2019. (Revise and Resubmit to Journal of Financial Economics.)

• April 2019 (Revised July 2019)
• Case

Aperture Investors

By: Krishna G. Palepu, George Serafeim and David Lane

Aperture Investors is a startup investment firm that seeks to disrupt the asset management industry through competitive differentiation by charging investors primarily when its portfolio managers outperform the marketplace. Headed by Wall Street veteran Peter Kraus and...  View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Talent and Talent Management; Investment; Investment Funds; Asset Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Marketing Channels; Emerging Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry

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Palepu, Krishna G., George Serafeim, and David Lane. "Aperture Investors." Harvard Business School Case 119-053, April 2019. (Revised July 2019.)

• March 2019 (Revised May 2019)
• Case

Growth Investing at Totem Point

By: Suraj Srinivasan, Charles C.Y. Wang and Jonah Goldberg

The case describes the investment of hedge fund, Totem Point Management in Analog Semiconductors (ADI) as a way to discuss forecasting and valuation in growth companies. In June 2016, hedge fund Totem Point invested in ADI at around $55 a share. In general, Totem Point...  View Details

Keywords: Growth Investing; Investment; Strategy; Forecasting and Prediction; Valuation

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Srinivasan, Suraj, Charles C.Y. Wang, and Jonah Goldberg. "Growth Investing at Totem Point." Harvard Business School Case 119-091, March 2019. (Revised May 2019.)

• January 2019 (Revised March 2020)
• Case

Blackstone Alternative Asset Management in 2018

By: Emil Siriwardane, Luis M. Viceira and Shawn O'Brien

In early 2018, Blackstone announced that John McCormick would succeed Tom Hill as President and Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM), the largest fund-of-hedge funds in the world by a sizeable margin. As new CEO, McCormick must...  View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Expansion; Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry

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Siriwardane, Emil, Luis M. Viceira, and Shawn O'Brien. "Blackstone Alternative Asset Management in 2018." Harvard Business School Case 219-063, January 2019. (Revised March 2020.)

• November 2018 (Revised June 2019)
• Case

JANA Partners: Impact through Activism?

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Caitlin Reimers Brumme

Jana Partners, a well-known “activist” hedge fund has announced the launch of a new fund Jana Impact. The basic premise is that the fund will be able to generate superior returns by using Jana’s activist approach with companies that are underperforming on ESG metrics....  View Details

Keywords: Hedge Fund; Hedge Funds; ETF; Activist Investing; Activism; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Asset Management

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Gandhi, Vikram S., and Caitlin Reimers Brumme. "JANA Partners: Impact through Activism?" Harvard Business School Case 819-073, November 2018. (Revised June 2019.)

• October 2018 (Revised April 2019)
• Case

Stock-Based Compensation at Twitter

By: Jonas Heese, Zeya Yang and Mike Young

Olivia Nash, an analyst at leading hedge fund BlueShark Capital Management, had just finished listening to the hour-long earnings call for Twitter’s Q4 2017 results. Was Twitter doing well? That depended on which numbers she chose to believe. According to Generally...  View Details

Keywords: Twitter; Non-GAAP Disclosure; Stock-based Compensation; Earnings Management; Corporate Disclosure; Compensation and Benefits; Stocks

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Heese, Jonas, Zeya Yang, and Mike Young. "Stock-Based Compensation at Twitter." Harvard Business School Case 119-032, October 2018. (Revised April 2019.)

• 2018
• Working Paper

The Impact of Pensions and Insurance on Global Yield Curves

By: Robin Greenwood and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen

We document a strong effect of pension and insurance company (P&I) assets on the long end of the yield curve. Using data from 26 countries, the yield spread between 30-year and 10-year government bond yields is negatively related to the ratio of pension assets (in...  View Details

Keywords: Pension Funds; Investment Funds; Insurance; Assets; Interest Rates; Bonds

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Greenwood, Robin, and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen. "The Impact of Pensions and Insurance on Global Yield Curves." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-109, June 2018. (Revised December 2018.)

• March 2018 (Revised March 2018)
• Teaching Note

OpenInvest

By: Boris Vallee and Caitlin Reimers Brumme

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolio to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapon manufacturers stocks or overweighting LGBTQ...  View Details

Keywords: Socially Responsible Investing; Investing For Impact; Robo-advisors; Investment; Values and Beliefs; Customization and Personalization; Technology; Financial Services Industry

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Vallee, Boris, and Caitlin Reimers Brumme. "OpenInvest." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 218-089, March 2018. (Revised March 2018.)

• March 2018
• Case

Sachem Head's Activism at Autodesk

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

In 2015, activist hedge fund Sachem Head Capital, led by founder Scott Ferguson, launched an activist campaign at computer aided design (CAD) software maker Autodesk. The activist campaign, waged mainly in private, was over Autodesk's lackluster financial performance,...  View Details

Keywords: Shareholder Activism; Investing; Activist Investing; CEO Turnover; Hedge Fund Activism; Benchmarking; Corporate Governance; Technology; Investment Activism; Performance Improvement; Management Succession; United States

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Srinivasan, Suraj, and Quinn Pitcher. "Sachem Head's Activism at Autodesk." Harvard Business School Case 118-086, March 2018.

• February 2018 (Revised August 2018)
• Case

OpenInvest

By: Shawn Cole, Boris Vallée and Nicole Tempest Keller

Founded by a team of hedge fund and NGO alumni, OpenInvest launched its platform in 2015 to enable retail investors to tailor their portfolios to their personal values in an automated way, for instance by screening out weapons manufacturers stocks or overweighting...  View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Impact Investing; Investment Portfolio; Customization and Personalization; Technological Innovation; Social Issues; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Model; Financial Services Industry

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Cole, Shawn, Boris Vallée, and Nicole Tempest Keller. "OpenInvest." Harvard Business School Case 218-064, February 2018. (Revised August 2018.)

• January 2018 (Revised April 2021)
• Case

Capital Allocation at HCA

By: W. Carl Kester and Emily R. McComb

In early 2017, HCA Holdings, an investor-owned hospital management company, faced a strategically important capital allocation decision. After the exit of its private equity sponsors in 2016, HCA had to determine how best to allocate its substantial annual free cash...  View Details

Keywords: Capital Allocation; Cash Distribution Policy; Dividends; Share Repurchases; Growth Strategy And Execution; Growth Investing; Capital Expenditures; Debt Management; Debt Reduction; Debt Policy; Hospital Management; Investor-owned Hospital Chains; Capital Budgeting; Capital Structure; Cash Flow; Corporate Finance; Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Industry; United States

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Kester, W. Carl, and Emily R. McComb. "Capital Allocation at HCA." Harvard Business School Case 218-039, January 2018. (Revised April 2021.)

• January 2018
• Case

Trian Partners' Proxy Contest at Procter & Gamble

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Quinn Pitcher

In July 2017, activist hedge fund Trian Partners announced that it was launching a proxy fight at U.S. consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble. P&G would be the largest company ever subjected to a proxy fight, as Trian sought to have its CEO, Nelson Peltz, elected to the...  View Details

Keywords: Investment; Corporate Governance; Institutional Investing; Investment Activism; Business and Shareholder Relations; United States

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Srinivasan, Suraj, and Quinn Pitcher. "Trian Partners' Proxy Contest at Procter & Gamble." Harvard Business School Case 118-049, January 2018.