The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?
Business History, Customer/Marketing, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance
Shopping malls became the "Main Street" of US suburbs beginning in the mid-20th century. But will they persist into the 21st?
Nathan Cummings Foundation
Asset Management, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork, Social Enterprise, Sourcing/Managing Funds
The Nathan Cummings Foundation Investment Committee and Board of Trustees had studied the decision to go “all in” on a mission-related investment approach. The Board voted 100% to support this new direction and new goals for financial investments, but many questions remained. How could NCF operationalize and integrate this new strategy? What changes would it need to make to support the investment strategies' long-term success? How could NCF measure and track its progress and success with this new strategy?
Canary Wharf: Financing and Placemaking
Asset Management, Business History, Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Sourcing/Managing Funds, State & Society
The financial engineering of London's Canary Wharf was as impressive as the structural engineering. However, Brexit and the rise of fintech represented new challenges. Would financial firms leave the U.K.? Would fintech firms seek new kinds of space? How should the Canary Wharf Group respond?
Fondaco dei Tedeschi: A New Luxury Shopping Destination for Venice
Business History, Competitor/Strategy, Customer/Marketing, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Sourcing/Managing Funds, State & Society
The renovation of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice represented a grand experiment. Should an ancient building in the midst of a world heritage site be transformed into a modern mall for luxury goods? How best to achieve the transformation and make it economically sustainable? Would tourists walk to the mall? And would they buy or just look? What could each stakeholder learn from their experiences with the Fondaco dei Tedeschi?
Twining-Hadley Incorporated
Employee/HR, Investor/Finance, Metrics & Data, Sourcing/Managing Funds
Jessica Austin has been asked to compute THI's Weighted Average Cost of Capital, a key measure for making investments and deciding executive compensation. What should she consider in making her calculation?
Prodigy Finance
Competitor/Strategy, Investor/Finance, Social Enterprise, State & Society, Sustainability
Having pioneered a successful financing model for student loans, Prodigy also was considering other financial services that could make use of the company’s risk model. What new products could Prodigy offer to support its student borrowers? What strategy should guide the company’s new product development? Or should the company stick to the educational loans it pioneered and knew best?
Shake Shack IPO
Competitor/Strategy, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork, Sourcing/Managing Funds, Sustainability
Shake Shack's long lines of devoted fans made investors salivate when the company went public in 2015 and shares soared above expectations. Was the enthusiasm justified? Could the company maintain its edge in the long run?
tronc: Valuing the Future of Newspapers
Business History, Competitor/Strategy, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork
Gannet offered Tribune Publishing an all-cash buyout offer. Tribune then made a strategic pivot: new stock listing, new name "tronc," and a goal of posting 1,000 videos/day. Should the Tribune board take the buyout opportunity? What was the right price?
Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global
Asset Management, Investor/Finance, Sourcing/Managing Funds
Norway's Pension Fund Global was the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. With questions in 2014 on policies, ethical investment, and other concerns, what was the appropriate investment strategy for the Fund?
Role of Hedge Funds in Institutional Portfolios: Florida Retirement System
Asset Management, Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance, Metrics & Data, State & Society
The Florida Retirement System, one of the country’s largest state pensions, had been slow to embrace hedge funds, but by 2015, they had 7% of their assets in the category. How should they manage their program?
Factor Investing for Retirement
Asset Management, Investor/Finance
Should this investor look for a portfolio of factor funds to meet his goals for his 401(k) Retirement Plan?
Social Security 1935
Business History, Financial Regulation, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, State & Society
Frances Perkins, Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, shaped the Social Security Act of 1935, changing America’s pension landscape. What might she have done differently?
Bank of Ireland
Asset Management, Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork, Macroeconomics, State & Society
In August 2011, Wilbur Ross, an American investor specializing in distressed and bankrupt companies, purchased 35% of the stock of Bank of Ireland. Even for Ross, investing in an Irish bank seemed risky. Observers wondered if the investment made sense.
Ant Financial: Flourishing Farmer Loans at MYbank
Competitor/Strategy, Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork, Operations, State & Society
In 2015 Ant Financial's MYbank (an offshoot of Jack Ma’s Alibaba company) created the Flourishing Farmer Loan program, an all-internet banking service for China's rural areas. Could MYbank use financial technology to create a program with competitive costs and risk management?
Commonfund ESG
Asset Management, Investor/Finance, Metrics & Data, Social Enterprise
ESG (Environmental Social and Governance) investing had become an increasingly hot topic in the financial community. Could Commonfund offer its endowment clients some investment vehicle that would satisfy ESG concerns while producing sufficient returns?
Low-Carbon Investing: Commonfund & GPSU
Asset Management, Ethics & Religion, Investor/Finance, Social Enterprise, State & Society, Sustainability
In August of 2014, the movement to divest fossil fuel investments from endowment portfolios was sweeping campuses across the United States, including Gifford Pinchot State University (GPSU). How should GPSU and its investment partner Commonfund react?
Glory, Glory Man United!
Competitor/Strategy, Employee/HR, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork, Sourcing/Managing Funds
Manchester United might be the greatest English sports dynasty of all time. But valuation poses unique challenges. How much should a team's success on the pitch count toward its net worth?
360 State Street: Real Options
Asset Management, Investor/Finance, Metrics & Data, Sourcing/Managing Funds
360 State Street proved successful, but what could Bruce Becker construct on the 6,000-square-foot vacant lot at the southwest corner of the project? Under what set of circumstances and at what time would it be most advantageous to proceed? Or should he build anything at all?
Centerbridge
Asset Management, Employee/HR, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork
When Jeffrey Aronson and Mark Gallogly founded Centerbridge, they hoped to grow the firm, but not to a point that it would lose its culture. Having added an office in London, could the firm add more locations and maintain its collegial character?
Walmart de México: Investing in Renewable Energy
Investor/Finance, Operations, State & Society, Sustainability
Walmart de México y Centroamérica contracted for power from EVM's wind farm, saving energy costs and improving sustainability. What should the company's next steps be to advance its goals?
Voltaire, Casanova, and 18th-Century Lotteries
Business History, State & Society
Gambling has been a part of human activity since earliest recorded history, and governments have often attempted to turn that impulse to benefit the state. The development of lotteries in the 18th century helped to develop the study of probabilities and enabled the financial success of some of the leading figures of that era.
George Hudson and the 1840s Railway Mania
Business History, Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance, Metrics & Data
Railways were one of the original disruptive technologies: they transformed England from an island of slow, agricultural villages into a fast, urban, industrialized nation. George Hudson was the central figure in the mania for railroad shares in England. After the share value crashed, some analysts blamed Hudson, others pointed to irrational investors and still others maintained the crash was due to macroeconomic factors.
Alexander Hamilton and the Origin of American Finance
Business History, Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance
Alexander Hamilton is said to have invented the future. At a time when the young United States of America was disorganized and bankrupt, Hamilton could see that the nation would become a powerful economy.
Demosthenes and Athenian Finance
Business History, Financial Regulation, Law & Contracts
Demosthenes' Oration 35, "Against Lacritus," contains the only surviving maritime loan contract from the fourth century B.C., proving that the ancient Greeks had devised a commercial code to link the economic lives of people from all over the Greek world. Athenians and non-Athenians alike came to the port of Piraeus to trade freely.
Kmart Bankruptcy
Asset Management, Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance
Less than 18 months after Kmart entered Chapter 11, the company emerged and its stocked soared. Why had the chain entered Chapter 11 in the first place and how had the bankruptcy process allowed the company to right itself?
South Sea Bubble
Business History, Financial Regulation
The story of the South Sea Company and its seemingly absurd stock price levels always enters into conversations about modern valuation bubbles. Because of its modern application, discerning what was at the root of the world's first stock market crash merits considerable attention. What about the South Sea Company and the political, economic and social context in which it operated led to its stunning collapse?
Oil, ETFs and Speculation
Asset Management, Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance
Since the markets' origins, traders sought standardized wares to increase market liquidity. In the 1960s and later, they sought assets uncorrelated to traditional bonds and equities. By late 2004, commodity based exchange-traded securities emerged.
UAW VEBA
Asset Management, Healthcare, Investor/Finance, Sourcing/Managing Funds, State & Society
A centerpiece of the 2007 contract negotiations between the UAW and GM - and later with Chrysler and Ford - was establishing a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) to provide for retiree healthcare costs. The implications were substantial.
Newhall Ranch Land Parcel
Asset Management, Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance
Acquired by a partnership of two closely intertwined homebuilders, Newhall Ranch was the last major tract of undeveloped land in Los Angeles County in 2003.
Northern Pulp: A Private Equity Firm Resurrects a Troubled Paper Company
Investor/Finance, Macroeconomics, State & Society, Sustainability
In 2008, the lumber industry was in a severe recession, yet Blue Wolf Capital Management was considering investment in a paper mill in Nova Scotia. How should they proceed?
Brandeis and the Rose Museum
Arts Management, Asset Management, Investor/Finance, Social Enterprise, Sourcing/Managing Funds
The question of the role museums should play in university life became urgent for Brandeis in early 2009. Standard portfolios of investments had just taken a beating. Given that environment, should Brandeis sell art in order to save its other programs?
Lahey Clinic: North Shore Expansion
Asset Management, Financial Regulation, Healthcare, Investor/Finance
In early 2007 the Lahey Clinic in Massachusetts believed that expansion of its North Shore facility was not only a smart strategy but also a business necessity. The two years of turmoil in the Massachusetts health care market prompted observers to question Lahey's 2007 decisions. Did the expansion strategy still make sense?
Taking EOP Private
Asset Management, Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork
With 594 properties nationwide, EOP was the nation’s largest office landlord. Despite EOP's dominance of the REIT market, analysts had historically undervalued EOP. However, Blackstone saw something in EOP that the analysts didn’t, and in November, Blackstone offered to buy EOP for $48.50 per share. What did Blackstone and Vornado see that the market didn’t?
Carry Trade ETF
Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Macroeconomics, Sourcing/Managing Funds
In 2006 Deutsche Bank (DB) brought a new product to market – an exchange traded fund (ETF) based on the carry trade, a strategy of buying and selling currency futures. The offering received the William F. Sharpe Indexing Achievement Award for “Most Innovative Index Fund or ETF” at the 2006 Sharpe Awards. These awards are presented annually by IndexUniverse.com and Information Management Network for innovative advances in the indexing industry. The carry trade ETF shared the award with another DB/PowerShares offering, a Commodity Index Tracking Fund. Jim Wiandt, publisher of IndexUniverse.com, said, "These innovators are shaping the course of the index industry, creating new tools and providing new insights for the benefit of all investors." What was it that made this financial innovation successful?
Subprime Lending Crisis
Asset Management, Financial Regulation, Investor/Finance, State & Society
To understand the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, we look at a failing Mortgage Backed Security (MBS) and then drill down to look at a single loan that has gone bad.
Hawara
Asset Management, Business History
Hawara is the site of the massive pyramid of Amenemhat III, a XII Dynasty [Middle Kingdom, 1204 – 1604 B.C.E.] pharaoh. The Hawara Labyrinth and Pyramid Complex present a wealth of information about the Middle Kingdom. Among its treasures are papyri covering property rights and transfers of ownership.