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• 29 Feb 2024

Beyond Goals: David Beckham's Playbook for Mobilizing Star Talent

Reach soccer's pinnacle. Become a global brand. Buy a team. Sign Lionel Messi. David Beckham makes success look as easy as his epic free kicks. But leveraging world-class talent takes discipline and deft decision-making, as case studies by Anita Elberse reveal. What could other businesses learn from his ascent?

• 26 Sep 2023
• Cold Call Podcast

The PGA Tour and LIV Golf Merger: Competition vs. Cooperation

On June 9, 2022, the first LIV Golf event teed off outside of London. The new tour offered players larger prizes, more flexibility, and ambitions to attract new fans to the sport. Immediately following the official start of that tournament, the PGA Tour announced that all 17 PGA Tour players participating in the LIV Golf event were suspended and ineligible to compete in PGA Tour events. Tensions between the two golf entities continued to rise, as more players “defected” to LIV. Eventually LIV Golf filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing the PGA Tour of anticompetitive practices, and the Department of Justice launched an investigation. Then, in a dramatic turn of events, LIV Golf and the PGA Tour announced that they were merging. Harvard Business School assistant professor Alexander MacKay discusses the competitive, antitrust, and regulatory issues at stake and whether or not the PGA Tour took the right actions in response to LIV Golf’s entry in his case, “LIV Golf.”

• 22 Nov 2022
• Research & Ideas

When Agreeing to Disagree Is a Good Beginning

When conflict stems from honest and open listening, disagreement can be a good thing, say Francesca Gino and Julia Minson. But developing those skills requires patience and discipline.

• 20 Apr 2021
• Working Paper Summaries

Cognitive Biases: Mistakes or Missing Stakes?

This study of field and lab data strongly suggests that people do not necessarily make better decisions when the stakes are very high. Results highlight the potential economic consequences of cognitive biases.

• 02 Apr 2021

Salary Negotiations: A Catch-22 for Women

Too assertive or too nice? New research from Julian Zlatev probes the lose-lose dynamics that penalize women in negotiations and perpetuate gender inequity. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 31 Mar 2020

Controlling the Emotion of Negotiation

Leslie John discusses the importance of asking (and answering) the right questions when negotiating, particularly under emotional stress. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 13 May 2019

The Unexpected Way Whistleblowers Reduce Government Fraud

Even unfounded allegations by whistleblowers can force government contractors to renegotiate their terms, say Jonas Heese and Gerardo Perez Cavazos. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 08 Mar 2019

Seven Negotiation Lessons from Amazon's HQ Disaster in Queens

After a lengthy courting process, Amazon thought its plan for a New York HQ campus was in the bag. But the company failed a primary goal of negotiations, says James Sebenius. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 15 Oct 2018

Shaky Business: How Handshakes Win Negotiations

A handshake before a negotiation can have a surprisingly strong effect on the outcome, according to Michael Norton, Francesca Gino, and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 30 Jul 2018

Why Ethical People Become Unethical Negotiators

You may think you are an ethical person, but self-interest can cloud your judgment when you sit down at the bargaining table, says Max Bazerman. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 05 Jul 2018

Henry Kissinger's Lessons for Business Negotiators

Much has been written about Henry Kissinger the diplomat and United States secretary of state, but surprisingly little about Kissinger the dealmaker. A trio of Harvard scholars remedies that with Kissinger the Negotiator: Lessons from Dealmaking at the Highest Level. Co-author James Sebenius discusses what business negotiators can learn. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 23 Jan 2018

Transaction Costs and the Duration of Contracts

When buyers transact with sellers, they select not only whom to transact with but also for how long. This paper develops a model of optimal contract duration arising from underlying supply costs and transaction costs. The model allows for the quantification of transaction costs, which are often unobserved, and the impact of these costs on welfare.

• 05 Apr 2017

For Women Especially, It Pays to Know What Car Repairs Should Cost

Consumers can negotiate cheaper auto repair prices by convincing service reps they know something about market rates—helping women overcome gender discrimination, according to recently published research by Ayelet Israeli and co-authors. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 05 Dec 2016

How The 2016 Presidential Candidates Misled Us With Truthful Statements

Paltering, a subtle form of lying where an almost true statement is used, is not unknown in the world of politics. Here are several examples. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

How To Deceive Others With Truthful Statements (It's Called 'Paltering,' And It's Risky)

Presidential candidates do it. Business leaders do it. You probably do it, too. Paltering is a gentle form of lying, but is reviled by negotiators on the receiving end. Research by Francesca Gino, Michael Norton, and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 23 May 2016

A Little Understanding Motivates Copyright Abusers to Pay Up

Many Internet users don't give a second thought to copying and reusing an image. Hong Luo and Julie Holland Mortimer explain how copyright holders can gently persuade abusers to do the right thing. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 11 May 2016

Fix This! Why is it so Painful to Buy a New Car?

Car-buying sends shivers up the backbones of American consumers, so why hasn’t the industry stepped up to create a better experience? Leonard Schlesinger, Jill Avery, and Ryan Buell tell their own war stories and talk about how the battle might yet be won. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 18 Apr 2016

The Cost of Leaning In

Women who are forced to negotiate tend to fare worse than if they hadn’t negotiated at all, according to research by Christine Exley, Muriel Niederle, and Lise Vesterlund. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 13 Apr 2016

Knowing When to Ask: The Cost of Leaning-in

The popular push for women to “lean in” holds that women should negotiate on their own behalf to overcome the gender wage gap. This study, however, shows the importance of choice in successful negotiations. Women usually choose to enter negotiations leading to financial gains and avoid negotiations that would result in financial losses. Regardless of the reasons for avoidance, leaning-in is not automatically the best advice for women.

• 04 Apr 2016

How to Negotiate Situations That Feel Hopeless

In Negotiating the Impossible, Deepak Malhotra outlines key lessons for negotiating sticky situations, with examples that include the Cuban Missile Crisis, disputes in the National Football League and National Hockey League, and several instances of high-stakes deal-making where companies found themselves negotiating against the odds. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

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A number of universities and organizations provide access to free business case studies.  Below are some of the best known sources.

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• Last Updated: Aug 26, 2024 1:04 PM
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Case Studies

Case studies are written by professors at HBS and at renowned business programs worldwide and offer slices of business life, focusing on actual problems and decisions companies face.

Google's Project Oxygen: Do Managers Matter?

Google's Project Oxygen started with a fundamental question raised by executives in the early 2000s: do managers matter? The topic generated a multi-year research project that ultimately led to a comprehensive program, built around eight key management...

Big Hit Entertainment and Blockbuster Band BTS: K-Pop Goes Global

Bang Si-Hyuk ('Hitman Bang') is the founder and co-chief executive officer of Big Hit Entertainment, the company behind BTS, a 'K-pop' band that has found unparalleled success around the globe-a remarkable feat given that most of their songs are in...

Cirque du Soleil

Retaining talent is an issue for any company whose success relies on the creativity and excellence of its employees. This is especially true for Cirque du Soleil, the spectacularly successful "circus without animals," whose 2,100 employees include 500...

GE's Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch's Leadership

GE is faced with Jack Welch's impending retirement and whether anyone can sustain the blistering pace of change and growth characteristic of the Welch era. After briefly describing GE's heritage and Welch's transformation of the company's business...

Pinckney Street

Although inexperienced in real estate, Edward Alexander hopes in June 2013 that youthful enthusiasm and an $240,000 in savings and inheritance will help him enter the real estate business. His experience chronicles the process of finding, evaluating, and...

Army Crew Team

The coach of the varsity Army crew team at West Point assembled his top eight rowers into the first crew team and the second tier of rowers into the second team using objective data on individual performance. As the second boat continually beat the first...

Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand

The Inside the Case video that accompanies this case includes teaching tips and insight from the author (available to registered educators only). The launch of the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card was enthusiastically received by Millennial consumers,...

Trader Joe's

The Inside the Case video that accompanies this case includes teaching tips and insight from the author (available to registered educators only). Based on a variety of metrics, Trader Joe's ranked as one of the most successful grocers in the United...

Amazon.com, 2021

In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit...

Leadership in Crisis: Ernest Shackleton and the Epic Voyage of the Endurance

Provides an opportunity to examine leadership and entrepreneurship in the context of Ernest Shackleton's 1914 Antarctic expedition, a compelling story of crisis, survival, and triumph. Summarizes Shackleton's career as an officer in the British Merchant...

The Tulsa Massacre and the Call for Reparations

The Inside the Case video that accompanies this case includes teaching tips and insight from the author (available to registered educators only). How should historic social injustices be addressed? Survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and their...

Instacart: Putting a Price on the IPO Share Valuation

Instacart is an online grocery delivery platform that is seeking to go public through an initial public offering (IPO). Instacart has hired an investment bank to be its lead bookrunner, and the bank is responsible for coming up with an IPO price range...

Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (A)

In 2023, Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson was contemplating her growth strategy at a leading U.K.-based cybersecurity venture, launched in 2013 by a group of anti-terror cyber specialists, University of Cambridge mathematicians, and artificial intelligence...

Caesars Entertainment: Governance on the Road to Bankruptcy

Caesars Entertainment was a large casino operator in the United States that had been purchased in a 2008 leveraged buyout by Apollo and TPG. In January 2015, Caesars Entertainment Operating Company (CEOC), its largest subsidiary, filed for Chapter 11...

Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (B)

Supplement to 824092.

Icahn Enterprises: Ponzi Scheme or Sound Investment

Icahn Enterprises, a publicly traded limited partnership founded and operated by famed activist investor Carl Icahn, had earned above market returns for over a decade. Between 2018 and early 2023, it had a compound annual return of 31%. Icahn invested in...

Hospital for Special Surgery: Returning to a New Normal? (A)

Early on the morning of April 27, 2020, Justin Oppenheimer stood outside the entrance to the lobby of the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) Pavilion Building with mixed emotions. On one hand, Oppenheimer, HSS' Enterprise Chief Operating Officer and...

Ashesi University: The Journey from Vision to Reality

In 1997, Patrick Awuah had a dream: to bring liberal arts education to Ghana. Amid the country's declining economy and pervasive corruption problems, Awuah saw education as an opportunity to reverse its fortunes by investing in the next generation of...

Lyft 2023: Roads to Growth and Differentiation

New CEO David Risher evaluates new strategic pathways while asking how much change his team can withstand in a given period.

The Silicon Valley Bank Crisis: MAPFRE USA's Investment in SVB Financial Group Bonds

Hotwire.com: Navigating Through Turbulence

On September 10, 2001, after speaking at an industry conference at New York's World Trade Center, Hotwire co-founder Spencer Rascoff boarded a flight from Newark to San Francisco. After returning home, Rascoff awoke the next morning to a phone call...

Microsoft Azure and the Cloud Wars (B)

By 2023, the global market for cloud infrastructure had consolidated into a three-horse race. As of Q4 2022, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google collectively accounted for 66% of the global market. AWS had a market share of 33%, Microsoft Azure had 23%, and...

Replika AI: Alleviating Loneliness (A)

Mondelez India Social Media Crisis: Sugar Content in Bournvita

In April 2023, an issue emerged around the elevated level of sugar found in Mondelez India's nutritional beverage, Bournvita. The sequence of events began with the posting of a 90-second video by a prominent social media influencer, which rapidly gained...

Carnival Corp: Cruising In the Time of Covid

Korea Venture Investment Corporation

Korea Venture Investment Corporation is the venture capital arm of the Korean government with a founding mission to build a domestic startup ecosystem that would be as competitive as Silicon Valley. KVIC manages a basket of funds-of-funds and has become...

Mitigating Climate Change with Machine Learning

This note highlights how machine learning is being used to decarbonize (reduce GHG emissions) several key sectors including electricity, transportation, building, industrial processes, and agriculture -- and how machine learning is being used to...

SundaySky: Changing Customer Experiences Through Personalized Video

In June 2023, SundaySky CEO Jim Dicso considers growth strategies. The software-as-a-service company provided software to create advertising videos, customer service videos, and other videos, like employee training modules, and had begun to pilot a new...

Open Source Machine Learning at Google

Set in early 2023, the case exposes students to the challenges of managing open source software at Google. The case focuses on the challenges for Alex Spinelli, Vice President of Product Management for Core Machine Learning. He must set priorities for...

Is Rice Climate's Next Petrol? Sustainability at Loc Troi Vietnam

Could rice become as crucial as petrol in the fight against climate change? In 2023, Nguyen Duy Thuan, General Director of Loc Troi Group (Loc Troi) Vietnam, was sceptical. His company, the largest rice producer in the country, faced a pivotal moment in...

All Home CA: Ending Homelessness Easy as 1-2-4?

Lowe's: Improving the Total Home Strategy

In 2023, Marvin Ellison, CEO of Lowe's, contemplated enhancements to the company's Total Home Strategy to accelerate performance and grow market share. In the last five years since becoming CEO, Ellison had championed a turnaround of the company,...

RMZ 4.0: "How fast do we want to run?"

In 2023, RMZ Corporation ("RMZ") a large family-owned real estate firm based in Bengaluru, India, announced plans to transform from a commercial real estate developer to a diversified alternative asset owner. Over the next 5 years, RMZ looked to grow its...

ASA Philippines: Making Financial Inclusion Possible

Kamrul Tarafder was the President and CEO of ASA Philippines Foundation, a social enterprise dedicated to empowering women by providing microloans for them to start or run small businesses. Unlike traditional microfinance models, these loans are...

Your True Moral Compass

Taffi: Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

Taffi was a tech-enabled fashion styling startup founded by Shahad Geoffrey in Saudi Arabia in 2020. Within three years of operating, Geoffrey had pivoted the business multiple times. In 2023, Geoffrey was attempting the business's most ambitious pivot...

Biogen and the Aduhelm Melee

Alzheimer's Disease is a devastating condition affecting millions of Americans. At this time, there is no cure. In 2021, Biogen's Aduhelm (aducanumab) received FDA approval under the accelerated approval pathway after a controversial approval process. ...

Dabur India Ltd.: Building Efficiency and Optimizing Retail Performance

In August 2022, a senior sales executive at Dabur India Ltd. was facing mounting pressure to meet the company's sales and distribution key performance indicators. He was responsible for urban retail expansion, as well as promoting new products in a...

WayCool: Reimagining the Food Supply Chain

Founded in 2015, WayCool, is an Indian agri-tech start-up that built a B2B operation acquiring fruits and vegetables from product-specific agriculture companies and small-holding farmers. It sold them to business customers, such as local retail stores,...

Adventures Inc: 21st Century Brand Building

Founded in 2020, Adventures worked with celebrities in Brazil to create and launch digitally native brands. The idea was to match the celebrity's skill in creating content and entertaining fans with Adventures' skill in consumer packaged goods marketing...

Jubilee Enterprises of Thailand: Growing through insights

Unyarat Pornprakit (Unya) is the youthful chief executive officer of Jubilee Enterprise PLC, a diamond jewelry retailer. Since Unya became CEO in 2008, she has expanded the chain to 128 stores and grown the revenue to $400 million. She has managed to...

Seed Stage Fund: Dispute in Venture Capital (B) - Paul Chambers

This role-play exercise presents students with a realistic and complex negotiation challenge: it asks them to participate in a quantifiable negotiation between managing partners in a venture capital fund who are embroiled in a co-founder dispute. The...

Code Tenderloin: A Small Black-Led Nonprofit Tackling Tough Social Issues in San Francisco

In late 2020, Maria Judice and the other members of the senior leadership team of Code Tenderloin (CT), a Black-led, nonprofit community support organization based in San Francisco, were wrestling with several challenges, especially around hiring to...

Beirut International Model United Nations: Conference-Planning System

On a day in early June 2017, Fadi Kanaan, a member of the organizing committee of the Beirut International Model United Nations (BEYMUN) conference at the American University of Beirut (AUB), sat in front of college hall feeling very excited yet worried...

Hampstead Tea: Coping with Brexit

In March 2021, the founder of Hampstead Tea, a specialty-tea processor based in London, United Kingdom, found herself at a crossroads. Since 1995, the founder had been exporting packaged tea to countries in the European Union (EU) as well as selling it...

Orange Sky: Balancing Commitment to Cause and Well-Being

Orange Sky Australia evolved as an entrepreneurial non-profit organization offering two primary services for the homeless: mobile laundering of clothes and engaging in genuine, individual, face-to-face connections through conversation. In February 2024,...

Bauer Hockey: Navigating a Sponsorship Crisis - Epilogue (B)

On October 10, 2022, Mary-Kay Messier, vice-president global marketing of Bauer Hockey (Bauer), was faced with a difficult decision on the future of Bauer's sponsorship of Hockey Canada. Hockey Canada was experiencing widespread fallout from sexual...

Bauer Hockey: Navigating a Sponsorship Crisis (A)

Co-operate or Control? Credit Union Wealth Management in Canada

In November 2016, the chief executive officer of Credit Union Central of Manitoba was reading the report Credit Union Wealth Management Strategic Option Assessment, which he had commissioned several months earlier. He saw the report as the best and...

Simira Diagnostics: Is Crafting the Brand Identity Enough?

In January 2023, the diagnostic services provider Simira Diagnostics (Simira), founded in Navi Mumbai, India, in 2017, decided to launch a company-wide rebranding project. When unveiling the new logo to the team, the co-founder emphasized the need to...

Vimto Arabia: Navigating Cultural Marketing Landscapes

The UK brand Vimto was successfully integrated with the Ramadan season in the Persian Gulf region, which presented a compelling narrative of strategic brand adaptation and cultural sensitivity. Through a strategic partnership between the British company...

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Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (A)

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• | Language: English
• | Pages: 24

About The Author

Jeffrey F. Rayport

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Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (B)

• Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (B)  By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Alexis Lefort
• Darktrace: Scaling Cybersecurity and AI (A)  By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Alexis Lefort