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A Refresher on Net Present Value
Budgets and budgeting Digital ArticleKnow what your project is worth in today’s dollars. -
Stop Budgeting, Start Improving
Operations and supply chain management Digital ArticleIn my last post, I argued that companies can’t keep their costs in line by attacking them directly. The typical approaches of budget cuts and layoffs usually don’t result in sustained changes to their cost structure — the costs creep back. Instead, companies must make fundamental changes to the way they work — how they […] -
The Greening of the Balance Sheet
Budgets and budgeting Magazine ArticleGreen initiatives can, by reducing costs, enhance a company’s bottom line. Actions that harm the environment can have the opposite effect. Now, thanks to a burgeoning market in greenhouse gas emission credits put into effect by the Kyoto Protocol, environmental considerations will increasingly affect not only companies’ income statements but also their balance sheets. A […] -
M&A Needn’t Be a Loser’s Game
Corporate communications Magazine ArticleMost takeovers devour buyers’ wealth. But acquirers who understand they’re actually buying customers can avoid disastrous deals and find ones that work. -
How to Prioritize Your Innovation Budget
Innovation Digital ArticleSpend on tomorrow’s opportunities, not just today’s needs. -
Get Your Budget Ready for the Upturn
Leadership Digital ArticleEight ways to re-position for growth as the economy improves. -
Expensing Stock Options: A Fair-Value Approach
Accounting Magazine ArticleExpensing options is good in theory and practice. This new treatment ensures that estimates of stock option value reflect both the nature of the incentive contract and the subsequent market reality. -
Budget Choice: Planning vs. Control
Finance & Accounting Magazine ArticleBudgets have two primary functions: planning and control. Companies must decide which function is most important and then resolve a number of formulation... -
How Much Cash Does Your Company Need?
Financial analysis Magazine ArticleMore than you think—a lot more—if yours is a knowledge-based corporation. That’s because you need to provide for intangible liabilities—the investments a company has to make to realize the benefits of its knowledge. -
Corporate Budgeting Is Broken--Let's Fix It
Organizational Development Magazine ArticleCorporate budgeting is a joke, and everyone knows it. It consumes a huge amount of executives' time, forcing them into endless rounds of dull meetings... -
Case of the Unhealthy Hospital
Technology & Operations Magazine ArticleBlake Memorial Hospital was in poor financial health, due to rising costs and stagnating revenues. The hospital's quality of care was also a major problem,... -
Who Needs Budgets?
Finance & Accounting Magazine ArticleBudgeting, as most corporations practice it, should be abolished. Most other building blocks are in place, but companies continue to restrict themselves... -
Why Executives Should Start Acting Like Activist Investors
Budgets and budgeting Digital ArticleTo stay competitive, companies need to be able to shift how they allocate capital in response to changing business conditions. -
Making the Business Case for Your Marketing Budget
Marketing Digital ArticleHow CMOs can move beyond short-term metrics and convince their colleagues that long-term growth requires patience. -
Why Sit on All that Cash? Firms Uncertain on Cost of Capital
Finance and investing Digital ArticleWith a record $2 trillion in cash and short-term liquid assets on hand, U.S. non-financial firms certainly seem poised to expand. What’s holding them back? Many are deeply uncertain about which initiatives they should fund — and one root of this indecision is a general lack of confidence in the cost of capital projections they […] -
Conflicting Roles in Budgeting for Operations
Finance & Accounting Magazine ArticleOperational budgets usually consist of a projected income statement and a series of supporting statements, such as budgeted sales, production costs and... -
Program Budgeting Works in Nonprofit Institutions
Accounting Magazine ArticleProfessionals in nonprofit service organizations have long resisted the inauguration of cost accounting concepts (in many instances with good reason), but their resistance is breaking down in the face of supporters’ demands for better controls over expenditure of the money, materials, and manpower they contribute. Often, however, the well-intentioned management and trustees of an institution […] -
What Really Prevents Companies from Thriving in a Recession
Recessions Digital ArticleIt’s about knowing how to reallocate — and deallocate — resources. -
We Tracked Every Dollar 235 U.S. Households Spent for a Year, and Found Widespread Financial Vulnerability
Global Business Digital ArticleSalary data masks the true extent of the problem. -
High Margins and the Quest for Aesthetic Coherence
Sales and marketing Magazine ArticleCompanies squeezed by low-cost competitors might be able to learn something from a Danish maker of upscale wastebaskets and soap dispensers. As globalization further erodes profits in developed countries, brands whose labor is based in low-cost economies may eventually have an insurmountable advantage over those from the developed world. Consumer product firms in Europe, the […]
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Sunkist Growers, Inc.
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details A new media strategy for lemon advertising involving the concentration of the entire budget in a single-print vehicle, is under consideration. -
Experiments in Public Procurement: Italy Buys in Bulk Sequel
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details Under pressure from the European Union, which had admitted Italy to the "Eurozone" hesitantly, on condition that the country control its deficit spending... -
Harvard Business School Executive Education: Balancing Online and Offline Marketing, Spanish Version
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details How does a small business set its online media budget? The HBS Executive Education Division can be viewed as a small-to-medium sized business unit with... -
The Boeing Tanker Lease Deal (B)
Strategy & Execution Case Study5.00View Details In May 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved an agreement allowing the Air Force to lease 100 converted Boeing 767 aircraft as aerial refueling... -
Shelby Division 2012
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details The vice-president and general manager for Michigan Plastic Inc.'s Shelby Division (Shelby) is faced with various options. Shelby specializes in thermoforming... -
University of Trent, Spanish Version
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details Focuses on two issues: 1) technical systems that can be employed in nonprofit organizations for control and motivational purposes. Systems discussed range... -
Tackling Fraud and Corruption in the United Nations
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details Rahul Ratna recently gave up his position in a private corporation to head a new department at the United Nations (UN), Office of Internal Oversight Services... -
Note on Flexible Budgeting and Variance Analysis
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details Discusses the concept of a flexible budget (I.e., a budget adjusted for changes in volume and mix) and then how it can be supplemented with an analysis... -
Whirlpool Research and Engineering Division (C)
Organizational Development Case Study5.00View Details Four years after the A and B cases (UV0528 and UV0530), the annual plan has drifted greatly from that suggested by the analysis in the B case. How can... -
Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (B): The Performance Agenda
Leadership & Managing People Case Study5.00View Details Describes the implementation in Seattle Public Schools, under the direction of Superintendent Joseph Olchefske, of a systemwide standards and accountability... -
Backyard Pub: Inflatable Ideas
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study8.95View Details In April 2017, a third year student at Western University was contemplating launching a new business, Backyard Pub. The company would rent inflatable... -
Polysar Ltd., Japanese Version
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details Canada's largest chemical company produces and markets butyl rubber in two divisions, each treated as a profit center. The new plant in the North American... -
Daya Counselling Centre: Response to Funding Cuts
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details In early October 2018, the executive director of Daya Counselling Centre had just learned that the Ontario Works program, one of the centre's major funded-referral... -
Seattle Public Schools--1995-2002 (C2): Race, Class, and School Choice
Leadership & Managing People Case Study8.95View Details Presents the decision by the Federal Court of Appeals for the ninth Circuit in the spring of 2002 to invalidate Seattle's use of race as a factor in allocating... -
Axonify: Budgeting for Rapid Growth
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details In late 2016, Axonify, a Canadian technology company that managed a corporate online learning platform, was struggling to meet aggressive revenue growth... -
Revenue Recognition at HBP, Japanese Version
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details In early 2014, Paul Bills, CFO of Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), sat down with David Wan, the company's CEO, to discuss budget preparations for the... -
Merced College
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details Highlights some of the issues around the role of an endowment fund and the impact of SFAS 117 and 124 on it. Provides a good vehicle for discussing the... -
City of Somerville:Using Activity-Based Budgeting to Improve Performance in the Somerville Traffic Unit
Global Business Case Study8.95View Details As first step, Somerville officials developed an inventory of the main programs of each of Somerville's 18 departments and the costs associated with each... -
BAE Automated Systems (A): Denver International Airport Baggage-Handling System, Spanish Version
Technology & Operations Case Study8.95View Details Describes the events surrounding the construction of the BAE baggage-handling system at the Denver International Airport. It looks specifically at project... -
Sonsonala (A)
Finance & Accounting Case Study8.95View Details This case has a twofold focus: first, to project a budget for pharmaceuticals based on morbidity patterns, required drug regimens, and unit costs, and...
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How to Build Wealth When You Don’t Come from Money
You are worthy of wealth, despite the systems designed to keep it from you. -
5 Ways to Manage Your Personal Finances
Finance and investing ListicleFirst, let go of your limiting beliefs about money. -
A Refresher on Net Present Value
Budgets and budgeting Digital ArticleKnow what your project is worth in today’s dollars. -
Everything You Need to Know About Stock Options and RSUs
Budgets and budgeting AdviceJust like salary, you should negotiate equity compensation. -
Sunkist Growers, Inc.
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details A new media strategy for lemon advertising involving the concentration of the entire budget in a single-print vehicle, is under consideration. -
Experiments in Public Procurement: Italy Buys in Bulk Sequel
Finance & Accounting Case Study5.00View Details Under pressure from the European Union, which had admitted Italy to the "Eurozone" hesitantly, on condition that the country control its deficit spending... -
Harvard Business School Executive Education: Balancing Online and Offline Marketing, Spanish Version
Sales & Marketing Case Study8.95View Details How does a small business set its online media budget? The HBS Executive Education Division can be viewed as a small-to-medium sized business unit with... -
The Boeing Tanker Lease Deal (B)
Strategy & Execution Case Study5.00View Details In May 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved an agreement allowing the Air Force to lease 100 converted Boeing 767 aircraft as aerial refueling... -
Shelby Division 2012
Strategy & Execution Case Study8.95View Details The vice-president and general manager for Michigan Plastic Inc.'s Shelby Division (Shelby) is faced with various options. Shelby specializes in thermoforming... -
Stop Budgeting, Start Improving
Operations and supply chain management Digital ArticleIn my last post, I argued that companies can’t keep their costs in line by attacking them directly. The typical approaches of budget cuts and layoffs usually don’t result in sustained changes to their cost structure — the costs creep back. Instead, companies must make fundamental changes to the way they work — how they […]