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- September 2023
- Case
Diamond Standard
By: Lauren H. Cohen, Zhaoheng Gong and Grace Headinger
Cormac Kinney, Founder and CEO of Diamond Standard, was on a mission to transform the U.S. diamond market through unlocking the precious gems as market-traded assets. As a serial FinTech entrepreneur, he hoped to add an additional service to his vault: Carats. The...
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Keywords:
Tokenization;
Fintech;
Cryptocurrency;
Liquidity;
Digital;
Rare Earth Minerals;
Decentralized;
Crypto Economy;
Financial Product;
Metals;
Diamonds;
Commodity;
Assets;
Financial Instruments;
Financial Institutions;
Financial Markets;
Investment;
Technological Innovation;
Natural Resources;
Financial Services Industry;
United States
- July 2021 (Revised January 2022)
- Case
K.C. Li: The Tungsten King
By: Geoffrey Jones and Casey Verkamp
This case examines the business career of Kuo-Ching Li, who was born in China in 1892, and built a successful minerals trading business called Wah Chang in the United States during the interwar years. He acquired a prominent role in tungsten, the strongest natural...
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- May 2021
- Teaching Note
DeepGreen - the Metals Company and Polymetallic Nodules
- February 2020
- Case
Klöckner & Co: Steeling for a Digital World
By: Scott Duke Kominers and Carin-Isabel Knoop
Hoping to get ahead of potential digital disruption at Klöckner & Co.—one of the world’s largest steel and metal distributors—CEO Gisbert Rühl set up both kloeckner.i (KCI), an internal transformation arm, and XOM Materials (XOM), an independent industry platform. KCI...
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- January 2020
- Teaching Note
Chile: Unrest in the Copper Nation
By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong
For decades, Chile enjoyed the stability of being the world’s largest producer of copper. Keynes would have advised that this period of growth would have been the time for the government to save, that “the boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the...
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- November 2019
- Case
Chile: Unrest in the Copper Nation
By: Laura Alfaro and Sarah Jeong
For decades, Chile was heralded as South America’s pillar of stable economic growth. Chile was the world’s largest producer of copper and enjoyed a long period of over 30 years of world demand for its resources. In 2013, the commodity boom ended and was replaced by a...
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- November 2019 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
DeepGreen - the Metals Company and Polymetallic Nodules
The world has begun a “green transition”—a move to reduce carbon emissions. Part of this will entail a growing shift to electric vehicles. Huge amounts of metals—cobalt, nickel, and copper—will be needed to supply electric vehicles. Mining these on land, however, is...
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- June 2017 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
Goodbye IMF Conditions, Hello Chinese Capital: Zambia's Copper Industry and Africa's Break with Its Colonial Past
By: Rafael Di Tella, Vincent Pons, Sarah Mehta and David Lane
Over the past several decades, rapid growth in Chinese investment and trade has created for Africa a new development partner. China represents an alternative to U.S. and European nations whose past imperialism, resource avarice, and economic dictates—through the...
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- 2016
- Case
Africa Strategy of China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group
By: F. Warren McFarlan, Jie Jiao, Dayong Yang and Shanshan Cao
Founded in 1983, China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. ("CNMC") is one of the earliest and largest global Chinese nonferrous metal industrial enterprises. It has investments and projects in 27 countries and trade networks in nearly 100 countries with a...
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- October 2015 (Revised September 2016)
- Case
Peru: Economic Miracle or Just a Mirage?
By: Richard H.K. Vietor, Fernando A. D'Alessio and Ricardo M. Pino
After years of rapid growth, Peru's economy had recently slowed. Mineral prices were down and the current President, Humala, had only a year remaining in office before the next election. And he could not run again. While the country had many strengths, especially in...
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- October 2015
- Teaching Note
Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield
Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower...
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Keywords:
Convertible Debt;
Uncertainty;
Competition;
Startup;
China;
Supply ＆ Demand;
Growth;
Rare Earth Minerals;
Discounted Cash Flows;
Mining;
Payoff Diagrams;
Option Pricing;
Capital Budgeting;
Capital Structure;
Cash Flow;
Financial Strategy;
Market Entry and Exit;
Vertical Integration;
Valuation;
Metals and Minerals;
Mining Industry;
Industrial Products Industry;
Canada;
California
- February 2015 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Winnan Metal: Fulfilling the Dream
By: William R. Kerr, Jim Sharpe and James Weber
Neil Kashyap and Neil Lombardo (HBS '08) acquired Winnan Metal, Inc., a metal fabrication shop, after raising a search fund and an 11 month search to fulfill their dreams of becoming business owners. Two weeks after they took control of the company, Winnan's largest...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurs;
Entrepreneurial Management;
Turnarounds;
Bank Loan;
Crisis Management;
Financial Analysis;
Search Funds;
Acquisitions;
Financial Capital Needed;
Management;
Operations Management;
Sales;
Entrepreneurship;
Decision Making;
Change Management;
Manufacturing Industry;
United States;
Indiana
- August 2014 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
Molycorp: Morgan Brothers' Reverse Convertible Notes (C)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield
In August 2011, Morgan Brothers Bank was issuing a $2.5 million reverse convertible note with payoffs linked to the price of Molycorp's common stock. These financially engineered securities were just one of many kinds of structured notes available in the retail market....
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- August 2014 (Revised March 2015)
- Case
Molycorp: Issuing the 'Happy Meal' Securities (B)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield
Molycorp, the Western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expansion in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. After reporting lower than expected...
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Keywords:
Convertible Debt;
Uncertainty;
Startup;
Growth;
Rare Earth Minerals;
Mining;
Hedge Funds;
Short Selling;
Equity Capital;
Capital Structure;
Financial Strategy;
Valuation;
Metals and Minerals;
Equity;
Capital;
Debt Securities;
Stock Shares;
Financial Management;
Mining Industry;
Industrial Products Industry;
Canada;
California
- June 2014 (Revised October 2015)
- Case
Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)
By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield
Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower...
View Details
Keywords:
Convertible Debt;
Uncertainty;
Competition;
Startup;
China;
Supply ＆ Demand;
Growth;
Rare Earth Minerals;
Discounted Cash Flows;
Mining;
Payoff Diagrams;
Option Pricing;
Capital Budgeting;
Capital Structure;
Cash Flow;
Financial Strategy;
Market Entry and Exit;
Vertical Integration;
Valuation;
Metals and Minerals;
Mining Industry;
Industrial Products Industry;
Canada;
California
- January 2014 (Revised March 2014)
- Case
Ford Asia Pacific & Africa: The E-coating Facility Decision in Gujarat, India (A)
By: Juan Alcacer and Nancy Hua Dai
In April 2013, Ford Asia Pacific & Africa (FAPA) was examining its options for e-coating service metal parts for the Ford Customer Service Division in Sanand, Gujarat, India. Randy Creel, Director of Parts Supply & Logistics, FAPA, worked with his colleagues in the US,...
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- October 2013 (Revised December 2015)
- Case
Alcoa's Bid for Alcan (A)
By: Paul Healy and Penelope Rossano
In spring 2007, Alcoa CEO Alain Belda was concerned about the company's market position in light of increased competition from developing markets. China's recent entry into the aluminum market was affecting both supply and demand. Furthermore, downstream and upstream...
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- August 2013 (Revised November 2013)
- Case
Ford vs. GM: The Evolution of Mass Production (A)
By: Willy Shih
This case explores the very different paths taken by the Ford Motor Company and the General Motors Corporation in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Henry Ford's Model T was a car for the masses. After considerable experimentation, Ford Motor... View Details
Keywords:
Innovation;
Exploration;
Dominant Design;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business History;
Innovation and Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Leading Change;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Product Positioning;
Product Design;
Product Development;
Business Strategy;
Corporate Strategy;
Vertical Integration;
Auto Industry;
Manufacturing Industry;
Michigan
- August 2013 (Revised November 2013)
- Supplement
Ford vs. GM: The Evolution of Mass Production (B)
By: Willy Shih
This case explores the very different paths taken by the Ford Motor Company and the General Motors Corporation in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Henry Ford's Model T was a car for the masses. After considerable experimentation, Ford Motor... View Details
Keywords:
Innovation;
Exploration;
Dominant Design;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business History;
Innovation and Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Leading Change;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Product Positioning;
Product Design;
Product Development;
Business Strategy;
Corporate Strategy;
Vertical Integration;
Auto Industry;
Manufacturing Industry;
Michigan
- March 2013
- Case
Singapore Metals Limited
Singapore Metals Limited (SML) has declining sales but has developed a new product (curled metal pile driver pads) that, in field tests, delivers customer benefits that are many times SML's manufacturing costs. Jonathan Lee and Alex Tan of SML's Engineered Products...
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