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How to Compete for Talent like a Private Equity Firm
Private equity Digital ArticleIf you want to be successful, you have to harness the talent. The top private equity firms have a genius for hiring superior talent. All organizations need great people, but PE measures talent with one test only: performance. It’s not that private equity firms are heartless. Rather, their three- to five-year time horizon doesn’t allow […] -
A New Approach to Innovation Investment
Innovation Digital ArticleOver the years, we’ve seen a lot of potentially valuable innovations flop because the companies sponsoring them were using the fundamentally wrong logic in managing them. For instance, as Clayton Christensen recently described in the Harvard Business Review, they insist on valuing projects in terms of Net Present Value. A different approach, we’ve argued, is […] -
Are You Paying Too Much for That Acquisition?
Mergers and acquisitions Magazine ArticleThe key is knowing what your top price is—and having the discipline to stick to it. -
Measuring Investment Center Performance
Finance and investing Magazine ArticleA spate of articles and books about return on investment has appeared during the past two or three years. Improving company earnings in relation to the capital used to generate those earnings has become a matter of great concern to many top financial and general managers. Their concern is not surprising. About three years ago, […] -
Collaborating with Congregations: Opportunities for Financial Services in the Inner City
Economics Magazine ArticleBy pooling the resources of the poor and by sharing information, religious and financial institutions can work together to change inner-city economies. -
Gathering Green Data: Tools and Tips
Costing Digital ArticleIn my last post, I talked about the ways you can use green data — footprinting information on your products and services up and down the value chain — to create enormous value for your company. As they say, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. And those with the best information can cut costs, […] -
More and More Companies Want a Piece of the Next Snapchat
Venture capital Digital ArticleResearch suggests they’re likely to be disappointed. -
How to Overcome Your Fear of Failure
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleThink about what may happen if you do nothing. -
Don't Wait for a Crisis to Reduce Costs
Finance & Accounting Digital ArticleLeaders who respond decisively to cost creep can use freed-up resources to invest in strategic priorities and growth. -
What Is a Free Customer Worth?
Sales & Marketing Magazine ArticleFree customers who are subsidized by paying customers are essential to a vast array of businesses, such as media companies, employment services, and even... -
Make the Most of Your New Hourly Role
Finance & Accounting Digital ArticleDon't underestimate the benefits of overtime. -
Meet the New Banker, Same as the Old Banker?
Finance and investing Digital ArticleCitigroup’s appointment of Lloyd TSB’s Terri Dial to head its consumer banking operations is being heralded as part of “widespread changes” being implemented by CEO Vakrim Pandit. To this, I say: “Really?” Dial’s entire professional career has been in retail banking. How much of a change does she really represent? The banking industry is moribund. […] -
Case Study: Can an Ethical Bank Support Guns and Fracking?
Leadership & Managing People Digital ArticleA fictional case study examines the challenges of ethical banking. -
Capital Disadvantage: America’s Failing Capital Investment System
Costing Magazine ArticleTo compete effectively in international markets, a nation’s businesses must continuously innovate and upgrade their competitive advantages. Innovation and upgrading come from sustained investment in physical as well as intangible assets—things like employee skills and supplier relationships. Today the changing nature of competition and the increasing pressure of globalization make investment the most critical determinant […] -
Making Real Options Really Work
Accounting Magazine ArticleReal options are a complement to, not a substitute for, discounted cash flow analysis. To pick the best growth projects, managers need to use the two methods in tandem. -
The World Bank’s Innovation Market
Finance and investing Magazine ArticleWhether you’re fighting global poverty or launching new products, you need to build a pipeline of smart, practical ideas. Here’s how the World Bank did it. -
How Proposed SEC Disclosure Requirements Could Help Workers
Finance & Accounting Digital ArticleThe SEC has an opportunity to increase transparency, efficiency, and fairness in the U.S. labor market. -
Stock Market Signals to Managers
Finance and investing Magazine ArticleA company’s stock price is the clearest measure of market expectations about its performance. Yet in a 1984 Louis Harris poll of top executives from more than 600 companies, fewer than one-third thought the market fairly valued their company’s stock. Tellingly, only 2% thought their stock was overvalued, while a dramatic 60% said the market […] -
How Private Equity Firms Infuse a Positive Attitude
Private equity Digital ArticleTimes change and markets transform themselves overnight. The half-life of common wisdom is shorter than ever. But top private equity firms have distilled a set of institutional habits that boost the likelihood of their success. What’s critical to this success? Attitude. PE leaders take pains to foster a “results-oriented mind-set”. In short, that means creating […] -
Would You Want Carl Icahn to Run Your Company?
Boards Digital Article“We have a dysfunctional corporate governance system in the United States and nobody can attack it and nobody can do anything about it because it’s like the feudal system.” That’s Carl Icahn, in a fascinating interview with Reuters BreakingViews (thanks to Jeff Glekin and Lucy Marcus for pointing me to it). “It’s like a totalitarian […]
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Thomson Financial: Building the Customer-Centric Firm
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details In December 1999 Thomson Financial (TF) began a radical transformation from forty-one divisions toward a more integrated firm organized around customer... -
VF Corp: Acquiring the Iconic Skateboard Footwear Brand Vans
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details The chief financial officer of VF Outdoor Americas - a division of the world's largest apparel company, VF Corporation, must decide on the financial viability... -
Shenzhen JIT Technology: Accounts Receivable Management Issues
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details In March 2012, the president of Shenzhen JIT Technology Co., Ltd., a small electronics manufacturing company in Shenzhen, China, was facing a problem... -
Air New Zealand: The Recapitalization Decision (A)
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details Air New Zealand is a national airline faced with a number of important strategic and financial issues. The company's recent acquisition of Ansett Australia... -
Warner Music Group
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details TH Lee, a leading private equity firm, needs to decide whether to commit to the acquisition of AOL Time Warner's music group, and whether to commit the... -
Omar Selim: Building a Values-Based Asset Management Firm (A)
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details The sustainable investing market was a recent phenomenon in the first decade of the 21st century. However, an increasing number of investors began to... -
Kendall Square Research Corp.
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details Kendall Square Research was a small competitor in the supercomputer industry. Sales grew rapidly in 1992 and early 1993 and the company sold stock to... -
Strategy Execution Module 7: Designing Asset Allocation Systems
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details This module reading provides tools and analyses for acquiring and allocating resources. The module begins by reviewing the importance of setting strategic... -
The Millennium Challenge Corporation and Ghana
Leadership & Managing People Case Study11.95View Details A U.S. government agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), provides aid to developing countries, focusing on poverty reduction through economic... -
Knight Importers
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details In this exercise, the owner and sole proprietor of an art importing business must prepare a statement of changes in financial position. -
Business Process Reengineering: Its Past, Present, and Possible Future
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details Explores the origins of reengineering; its evolution during the 1980s and 1990s; the current state of reengineering, which is prevalent in business today;... -
Eagle Finance Corp. (A)
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details This case and its companion (UVA-F-1102) provide comprehensive coverage of a firm's decision to undertake an initial public offering (IPO). The company... -
Analyzing Standard Costs, Technical Note
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details Explains variance analysis. Concepts of price variance and quantity variance are introduced to analyze prime cost variances. Spending variance and capacity... -
Valuing Wal-Mart Stock
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details An investment advisor at a major brokerage is considering whether she should recommend Wal-Mart stock to her clients who do not currently have this stock... -
MTI: Cash Budgeting in Times of a Sharp Business Downturn
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details Bill Young, president and CEO of MTI was in Victoria, BC at the time of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Bill knew... -
Thingtesting: Launching a Brand Discovery and Testing Digital Community
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details Thingtesting, a brand discovery and testing digital community devoted to uncovering and exploring direct-to-consumer brands, had just received seed funding... -
Malaysia: People First?
Global Business Case Study11.95View Details On March 30, 2010, Prime Minister Najib Razak presented his new economic model (NEM) for Malaysia. With the goal of raising per capita income to over... -
New Science: Pioneering the Inside Sales Revolution
Sales & Marketing Case Study11.95View Details How do you get more out of existing sales resources? This common sales management problem is one that Follett Carter must solve as executive vice president... -
Baan Co. N.V.
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details In February 2000, Dutch enterprise software company Baan N.V. was in danger of being kicked out of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange's AEX index of blue chip...
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How to Compete for Talent like a Private Equity Firm
Private equity Digital ArticleIf you want to be successful, you have to harness the talent. The top private equity firms have a genius for hiring superior talent. All organizations need great people, but PE measures talent with one test only: performance. It’s not that private equity firms are heartless. Rather, their three- to five-year time horizon doesn’t allow […] -
A New Approach to Innovation Investment
Innovation Digital ArticleOver the years, we’ve seen a lot of potentially valuable innovations flop because the companies sponsoring them were using the fundamentally wrong logic in managing them. For instance, as Clayton Christensen recently described in the Harvard Business Review, they insist on valuing projects in terms of Net Present Value. A different approach, we’ve argued, is […] -
Are You Paying Too Much for That Acquisition?
Mergers and acquisitions Magazine ArticleThe key is knowing what your top price is—and having the discipline to stick to it. -
Measuring Investment Center Performance
Finance and investing Magazine ArticleA spate of articles and books about return on investment has appeared during the past two or three years. Improving company earnings in relation to the capital used to generate those earnings has become a matter of great concern to many top financial and general managers. Their concern is not surprising. About three years ago, […] -
Thomson Financial: Building the Customer-Centric Firm
Strategy & Execution Case Study11.95View Details In December 1999 Thomson Financial (TF) began a radical transformation from forty-one divisions toward a more integrated firm organized around customer... -
VF Corp: Acquiring the Iconic Skateboard Footwear Brand Vans
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details The chief financial officer of VF Outdoor Americas - a division of the world's largest apparel company, VF Corporation, must decide on the financial viability... -
Collaborating with Congregations: Opportunities for Financial Services in the Inner City
Economics Magazine ArticleBy pooling the resources of the poor and by sharing information, religious and financial institutions can work together to change inner-city economies. -
Gathering Green Data: Tools and Tips
Costing Digital ArticleIn my last post, I talked about the ways you can use green data — footprinting information on your products and services up and down the value chain — to create enormous value for your company. As they say, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. And those with the best information can cut costs, […] -
Shenzhen JIT Technology: Accounts Receivable Management Issues
Finance & Accounting Case Study11.95View Details In March 2012, the president of Shenzhen JIT Technology Co., Ltd., a small electronics manufacturing company in Shenzhen, China, was facing a problem... -
More and More Companies Want a Piece of the Next Snapchat
Venture capital Digital ArticleResearch suggests they’re likely to be disappointed.