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Stakeholder climate change actions worldwide have prompted companies to measure their greenhouse gas emissions and reduce their carbon footprints by decreasing energy and fuel use. In the process, they are cutting costs, decreasing exposure to severe weather, reducing energy vulnerability, and potentially opening up revenue sources for carbon credit sales in the emerging markets for carbon trading. This note is effective in MBA, undergraduate, and executive education courses on clean commerce innovation, carbon markets, sustainability, and environmental and regulatory issues. This technical note stands alone and also works as a companion note to "Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net-Zero Snack Chip" (UV2025). For instructors, a teaching note is available, along with a supplemental Excel spreadsheet for use in performing carbon emissions calculations.

This note addresses the issues that arise and the complexities that must be addressed when designing a channel of distribution. Content includes the definition of a distribution channel, the steps in its design, functional discounting and margin allocation, the role channels play in branding, and recent trends.

This note explores brand evolution in a growing industry. Four high-end U.S. bicycle frame manufacturers (Trek, Seven, Moots, and Cérvolo) compete for brand status in the $2,000-and-up mountain bike market. Challenged by a coming carbon shortage and famed cyclist Lance Armstrong's retirement, the continued domination of Asian imports, and the reduction in the number of local bike shops, this industry faces significant strategy challenges.

This note gives step-by-step instructions on how to build a Monte Carlo simulation model in Microsoft Excel without using spreadsheet add-ins. The note explains the difference between "random" and "uniformly distributed." The note also explains: how the Excel function RAND() works, how to use Excel functions like NORMINV() to simulate random numbers from distributions other than the uniform; how to use VLOOKUP() with tabulated data to simulate numbers from any arbitrary distribution, and how to use Data Tables to produce multiple iterations of a simulation model. The note concludes with an example that illustrates the use of all of these concepts.

Community Development Loan Funds (CDLFs) make up the largest sector of the community development finance industry, with more than 800 certified CDLFs. Ninety-eight percent of CDLFs are nonprofit, servicing mainly the small business sector, with the help of the CDFI Fund, the Small Business Administration, and, increasingly, mainstream banks. CDLFs venture into risky areas where others sometimes fear to go, yet they have high repayment figures and low loss rates.

This technical note describes some of the key issues that bank analysts, ratings agencies, and the market broadly examine to understand the financial health of a bank and ultimately to estimate its value. Specifically, the note discusses alternative credit quality, capital, liquidity, and profitability metrics and provides related terminology.

This technical note discusses issues related to carbon markets: Emissions Trading Approaches (Cap-and-Trade, Baseline-and-Credit, and Offsets), Regulatory Framework (Kyoto Protocol), and two key mechanisms of credits creation, Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation; creation and trading of carbon credits (CERs) (markets such as OTC and organized exchanges such as the Chicago Climate Exchange); examples of investors in the carbon market (carbon funds) and carbon indices established; recent developments in the carbon markets in the United States such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the Western Climate Initiative; and investment considerations and factors affecting pricing in the carbon markets.

This note describes briefly bankruptcy regimes and out of court restructuring in 5 countries, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France and Japan.

The note describes how fair value accounting applies to debt securities that are classified by financial institutions as (1) "trading" securities, (2) "available for sale" securities, or (3) "hold to maturity" securities. It explains the hierarchy for inputs used in valuing Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 financial assets. Finally, it notes the percentage of assets held by four types of financial institutions that are (a) accounted for at "fair value," (b) the hierarchical categorization of the assets, and (c) the percentage of assets held by each institution category where changes in the fair market value affect that institution's reported income.

This note addresses the question of valuation in the venture capital setting. It discusses the methodologies most commonly in practice for arriving at valuation. Because valuation methodologies can yield widely varying results, this note looks at valuation from many different angles. The note addresses critical questions including: What value should the entrepreneur put on his/her company when first raising capital? What should the venture capitalist (VC) pay to invest in the company? What is the appropriate valuation for subsequent rounds of financing? What is the right value at which to exit the investment?

In 2005 new legislation was passed by the U.S. Congress, and signed into law by the President, that introduced a number of major amendments to U.S. bankruptcy law, affecting both business and consumer bankruptcies. This legislation, called the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), became effective on October 17, 2005. This note summarizes key provisions of the new law that affect business bankruptcy reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, contrasting these provisions with corresponding provisions in the old law.

The International Monetary Fund was dismissed as almost irrelevant to the global economy, but during the 2008 financial crisis, it returned to center stage, providing financial rescues for developing countries.

This technical note provides a brief overview of tax planning, the U.S. tax system, and basic U.S. tax law attributable to fundamental business decisions in a corporation's life.

This note takes the reader through the development of a positioning statement for a target market. The exercise includes determining the relevant point of reference (market definition, product category, competitive set) and associated points of parity, the point of difference, and why customers should believe the product or service can deliver on the desired positioning. The appendix contains a description of perceptual mapping, a tool that is often used when making positioning decisions.

This technical note begins with the resolution of the "Google and Internet Privacy" case (UV1354) (disturbed by the office reaction to him, Charlie resigns), and then discusses the privacy issues the case addresses. Although "personal privacy" is a difficult concept to define, academics and social commentators continue to struggle with that definition as well as the value of "personal privacy." For an individual, privacy is a significant factor in determining one's autonomy and independence. This technical note discusses the concept of personal privacy from a Utilitarian and a Kantian perspective.

This note is a primer on the newspaper industry, which has been in decline in the U.S. and Western Europe. The 19th century business model whereby news and editorial content was packaged and delivered to homes daily and paid for by national advertisers has been overturned by the internet and the corresponding immediate access to global information. The note covers the history of newspapers, industry economics, current news consumption trends, the response of the newspapers to the threat of the internet, and vignettes highlighting newspaper business models throughout the world.

As equity consideration has become more popular in acquisitions, so has the use of the "pricing-protection" mechanisms, such as floors, caps and collars. These contractual devices provide insurance to the shareholders of the target, and may protect the buyer as well. The purpose of this note is to define the main categories of price protection, and explain their impact on the payoffs and value of the deal to the target's shareholders.

Most companies around the world are controlled by their founding families, including more than half of all public corporations in the U.S. and Europe, and more than two thirds of these in Asia. These companies are the subject of the Financial Management of Family and Closely Held Firms course, an elective MBA course at Harvard Business School. The course introduces students to the unique finance, governance, and management issues faced by family firms, and to the ways in which these issues can be addressed. The course provides students with a framework for analyzing how family ownership, control, and management affect value, and whether and how more value can be created for the various stakeholders in family firms. The course is designed for students who may be involved with these companies in a variety of roles, including those of founders, shareholders, or managers of their own family's firm, as well as those of non-family managers and employees, investors or business partners (e.g., private equity investors), and advisors of various kinds (e.g., Investment bankers, board members, or consultants).

This is a note to introduce the principles for effectively implementing a new strategy. It emphasizes the interdependence of strategy and execution in developing and sustaining superior competitive performance. Primarily based on the notion that strategy should be a continual activity conducted by general managers, it outlines a practical methodology for realigning a firm's executional model whenever strategy changes.