Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 26, 2012

Hedge fund investors who deploy capital in large and liquid markets can scale their time well. Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square, for example, has $9 billion in assets under management and fewer than ten investment professionals. A key constraining resource in traditional venture is a VC investor's time.

Disruptive Innovation 14

Disruptive Innovation Hedge Venture Capitalist Venture Funding 14

Harvard Business Review

JULY 12, 2016

Ask someone to name the demands that activist hedge funds make of companies and they’ll likely list corporate governance issues like board changes and executive compensation, or perhaps some form of restructuring. In contrast, fair marketing and advertising of products are very important for companies in these sectors.

Proposal 8

Proposal Short-term Advertising Hedge 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 10, 2014

One representative example: April’s Education Innovation Summit , where more than 2,000 people energetically discussed how technology and markets are charting the future of education globally. The business models of universities are being challenged, and it looks like the universities are out to lunch.

Real Estate 8

Real Estate Education Disruptive Innovation Asset Management 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2017

The marketing, underwriting, and servicing of SME loans have largely taken a backseat. New digital entrants have spotted the market opportunity created by these dynamics, and the result is an explosion in online lending to SMEs from fintech startups. Other sectors of retail lending have not fared much better.

Banking 11

Banking Stage-Gate Credit Scoring Competitive Advantage 11

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 12, 2018

Robo-advisors, which were introduced in 2008 , are steadily eating up market share from their human counterparts much the way that Amazon and Netflix have taken share from Walmart and Regal Cinemas. Finally, it is becoming clear that serious AI adopters with proactive business strategies based on it benefit from higher profit margins.

Consultative 8

Consultative Strategy Advice McKinsey 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Similarly, you can be sure that many — if not most — highly-secretive quantitative hedge funds have highly proprietary AH engines relentlessly recommending trading strategies and investment themes that lend themselves to review and refinement. The breakthrough innovator’s hypothesis doesn’t have to come from a human.

Engineering 8

Engineering Core Competence Information Technology Hedge 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 19, 2017

And because the traditional supermarket industry is highly concentrated (for example, in the UK, the top seven food retailers account for 87% of the grocery market), retailers have considerable market power to make change. Food waste starts at farms in the value chain. In the U.S.,

Retail 8

Retail Supply Chain Crisis Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2018

These advances all point toward the total automation of our lives, including the way we work and do business. It’s no wonder, then, that young people are anxious about their ability to compete in the job market.

Skills 14

Skills Morale Ethics System 14

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 11, 2013

When the well-known hedge fund manager and short-seller Jeremiah Hughes first put Terranola in the spotlight, issuing ominous warnings about unsold products, a looming patent expiration, and flawed growth projections, the considered judgment of the executive team was to do nothing. “I Terranola’s market cap skyrocketed to $8.1

Case Study 8

Case Study CFO Hedge PR 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

The other extreme is, “I have no intentions but look I’ve created jobs, ex post ,” and that is the post-rationalization of an economics-only business model. To us, the key about intentionality is that it must focus on a business model, a business plan upfront, with both economic and social impact.

Insurance 8

Insurance Bond Hedge Bottom-up 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 14, 2015

Wall Street investment banks and hedge fund activists, some of whom began targeting McDonald’s a decade ago , also gain from the temporary boosts that buybacks produce. For the other four highest-paid McDonald’s executives named in the company’s proxy statements, average total compensation ranged from a low of $1.5

Price 8

Price Franchising Short-term CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

Hedge Funds will love our data — they will practically buy any set of data that might give them a potential edge”. These are just a sample of thoughts from clients in recent months who were excited about the prospect of creating new businesses and new sources of revenue in what seems to be a lucrative new area.

Execution 8

Execution Metrics Content Christensen 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 3, 2018

In our view, while the proposal to ban dual-class shares raises important issues, its implementation would do more harm than good, given the challenges from the digital revolution and the growing imperative for established firms to transform their business models. So do some older, family-controlled firms, such as Ford Motor Co.

Class 10

Class Maturity IPO Short-term 10

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 11, 2011

When stock markets gyrate and growth prospects darken, it's tempting to rein in innovation programs and hoard cash. While businesses shouldn't react to economic uncertainty in knee-jerk fashion, the recent tumble in equity prices cannot be ignored. As it looked like the economic storm clouds were dissipating (ah, the good old days.)

Innovation 15

Innovation Fixed Costs Airlines Business Model 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 10, 2018

We’ve already seen that it’s possible to use external data to evaluate firms on what business models they are employing, and what those business models mean for their valuations. Active investors such as hedge funds seek to outperform the market and index providers.

Benchmarking 8

Benchmarking Software B2B GAAP 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 24, 2017

ICOs present both benefits and disadvantages, as well as threats and opportunities, to the traditional venture capital business model. Then, via price dynamics determined by market supply and demand, the value is settled on by the network of participants, rather than by a central authority or government.

Venture Capitalist 11

Venture Capitalist Due Diligence Finance Long-term 11

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 23, 2012

Trend lines, market sizing, and competitive benchmarks that served companies well during periods of gradual market evolution do little good in industries where new technologies create seismic shifts, demand is uncertain, and rivals emerge from left field. The company could merge with Dell.

Strategy 14

Strategy CEO Strategic Planning Consensus 14

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 26, 2017

They acquire huge customer bases and receive staggering market valuations while employing a relatively small number of people. Their business models are fluid. Understandably, they want to hedge against unpredictability and rapid change. It is not a hedge. Little that Steve Jobs did was.

Real Estate 8

Real Estate Technology Hedge Project 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 11, 2016

In malleable environments, such as in newly created or disrupted markets, they will need to envision and realize new possibilities. In environments that are both malleable and unpredictable, businesses will have to orchestrate the activities of entire ecosystems of companies using platform-based business models.

Strategy 9

Strategy Uncertainty Long-term Politics 9

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 8, 2018

And some companies with employee majority-owned stock programs, such as Publix Super Markets and outerwear maker W.L. The social impact funds want to support it for social reasons, whereas hedge funds and others are recognizing that the superior resiliency and performance of worker-owned firms can improve their returns.

ESOP 12

ESOP Company Cooper IAM 12

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 1, 2017

To be sure, blockchain may enable incumbents such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Credit Suisse, all of which are currently investing in the technology, to do more with less, streamline their businesses, and reduce risk in the process. After all, how do you cut cost from a business or market whose structure has fundamentally changed?

Finance 8

Finance IPO Banking Venture Capitalist 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Conversely, why market cigarettes? We think there's more to business success — and that something as straightforward as a simple equation could put capitalism on a better path. When ROE holds sway, a more or less certain return on a cost-reduction investment nearly always trumps a speculative bet on a new business model.

ROE 12

ROE Debt to Equity Ratio Innovation Incentives 12

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 21, 2015

Now, in a New York Times op-ed , Carl Icahn, the billionaire corporate raider turned hedge fund activist, has joined the chorus. The hedge fund activist wants Apple to double its stock price , with massive buybacks as the lever. He labels the Pfizer-Allergan deal a “travesty,” blaming the U.S.’s billion in dividends.

Hedge 8

Hedge Proposal Pharmaceuticals Price 8