Commerce Bank, Case Study

The hardest thing about becoming a big bank is not becoming a big bank.
— Douglas Pauls, chief financial officer, Commerce Bank

CASE STUDY by Dennis A.Yao, Co-Unit Head of Strategy, Harvard Business School. 

Dennis Yao is the Lawrence E. Fouraker Professor of Business Administration and Co-Head of the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. He joined the faculty in 2004 after having been at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. From 1991-1994 he served as Commissioner.

Professor Yao has a BSE in civil engineering from Princeton, an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business (economics group) at Stanford. Before beginning his doctoral studies, he was a car product planner at Ford Motor Company. He also has served on the National Advertising Review Board. Professor Yao has also written extensively in the areas of antitrust policy and non-market strategies. His work has been published in top economics, strategy, political science, and public policy journals. Professor Yao has also held a number of editorial positions with strategy, economics, and public policy journals.