Finance & accounting

What you measure is what you get. Senior executives understand that their organization’s measurement system strongly affects the behavior of managers and employees. Executives also understand that traditional financial accounting measures like return-on-investment and earnings-per-share can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation—activities today’s competitive environment demands. The traditional financial performance measures worked well […]

For decades now, venture capitalists have played a crucial role in the economy by financing high-growth start-ups. While the companies they've backed--Amazon,...

In virtually every decision they make, executives today consider some kind of forecast. Sound predictions of demands and trends are no longer luxury items, but a necessity, if managers are to cope with seasonality, sudden changes in demand levels, price-cutting maneuvers of the competition, strikes, and large swings of the economy. Forecasting can help them […]

Other countries can learn from how it’s using technology to expand financial inclusion.

A three-step path to sustainable growth.

Before you can understand the industry, you must first separate myth from reality.

During economic slowdowns, consulting, law, and accounting firms often start offering services and taking on clients they really shouldn't, just to keep...

Continuous improvement programs are proliferating as corporations seek to better themselves and gain an edge. Unfortunately, however, failed programs...

In 1979, a young associate professor at Harvard Business School published his first article for HBR, "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy." In the years...

The huge sums that private equity firms make on their investments evoke admiration and envy. Typically, these returns are attributed to the firms' aggressive...

Know what your project is worth in today's dollars.

Gauging—and communicating—what your products and services are worth to customers has never been more important.

The management of a company that I shall call Stygian Chemical Industries, Ltd., must decide whether to build a small plant or a large one to manufacture a new product with an expected market life of ten years. The decision hinges on what size the market for the product will be. Possibly demand will be […]

A detailed plan may be comforting, but it’s not a strategy.

What do companies like Rockwater, Apple Computer, and Advanced Micro Devices have in common? They’re using the scorecard to measure performance and set strategy.

If you want to know why so many organizations sink into chaos, look no further than their leaders' mouths. Over and over, leaders present grand, overarching--yet...

Many companies have become disillusioned with sales in the international marketplace as old markets become saturated and new ones must be found. How can they customize products for the demands of new markets? Which items will consumers want? With wily international competitors breathing down their necks, many organizations think that the game just isn’t worth […]

When it comes to assessing performance, business executives can be a lot like old-time baseball scouts, who have been around so long that they've developed...

Do you know what your most profitable product is?

Companies may want to shift a brand's position--to exploit less crowded territory, for example, or grow sales. Companies have long used perceptual mapping...

InfoVision illustrates university technology transfer through the choices of a graduating doctoral student. Also explores the challenges of working across...

This case, based on data collected in a longitudinal field study, presents Dr. Nathalie MajorCook, a Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) pediatrician,...

The case is set in early 2010, a few weeks after Agrium, a large fertilizer manufacturer and distributor, put an end to its attempt to acquire CF Industries...

Two young and inexperienced MBAs buy a virtually bankrupt company. They design a decentralized control system organized around profit centers. As a case...

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This case follows Kaspi.kz, a private equity (Baring Vostok) co-owned retail bank in Central Asia that evolved into a fintech, payments and e-commerce...

Describes the industry context that has resulted in the development of efficient consumer response (ECR) within the grocery industry and its adoption...

Supplements the (A) case.

At Merrimack Tractors and Mowers in 2008, product manufacturing costs are increasing faster than competitors' costs, and as a result earnings are likely...

The Sulzberger family owns 20% of the New York Times Co. (NYT) but controls 70% of the board through a dual-class share structure. At the company's April...

As dramatic changes in technology and customer tastes roil the music industry, the top executives of BMG Entertainment, one of the world's largest record...

Partners in a service firm are reviewing results for 2006, wondering whether large or small projects are more profitable. Present reports make small projects...

A technical note that defines return on invested capital (ROIC).

Jim Sharpe, president of Extrusion Technology, describes the first five years at the aluminum extrusion company he purchased. He begins with day one as...

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), a leading Indian multinational conglomerate, has been following a dividend policy that consistently pays its shareholders...

The objective of this technical note is to understand how equity analysts usually value public companies, taking The Walt Disney Company as a case study....

This technical note compares two methods of treating debt usage in discounted-cash-flow valuation of investment projects or companies. The note demonstrates...

This case is designed to support a discussion of how to apply an economic evaluation of the appropriate level of control of an externality to a real problem...

A technical consultant is travelling to New York Bakery, and eastern U.S. confectionery company that is under bankruptcy protection. The consultant's...

This technical note introduces the basic structure of the IS\LM and AS\AD models for a closed economy (i.e., one that does not engage in international...

What you measure is what you get. Senior executives understand that their organization’s measurement system strongly affects the behavior of managers and employees. Executives also understand that traditional financial accounting measures like return-on-investment and earnings-per-share can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation—activities today’s competitive environment demands. The traditional financial performance measures worked well […]

For decades now, venture capitalists have played a crucial role in the economy by financing high-growth start-ups. While the companies they've backed--Amazon,...

In virtually every decision they make, executives today consider some kind of forecast. Sound predictions of demands and trends are no longer luxury items, but a necessity, if managers are to cope with seasonality, sudden changes in demand levels, price-cutting maneuvers of the competition, strikes, and large swings of the economy. Forecasting can help them […]

Other countries can learn from how it’s using technology to expand financial inclusion.

A three-step path to sustainable growth.

Before you can understand the industry, you must first separate myth from reality.

During economic slowdowns, consulting, law, and accounting firms often start offering services and taking on clients they really shouldn't, just to keep...

Continuous improvement programs are proliferating as corporations seek to better themselves and gain an edge. Unfortunately, however, failed programs...

In 1979, a young associate professor at Harvard Business School published his first article for HBR, "How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy." In the years...

The huge sums that private equity firms make on their investments evoke admiration and envy. Typically, these returns are attributed to the firms' aggressive...