Eccles, Robert G., and Dilyana Karadzhova

Case 409-036

a-connect was started in 2002 by three former McKinsey partners who wanted to develop an alternative business model consulting firm, which they have positioned as a high-end staffing company. The company has been very successful, growing to revenues of CHF 30 million with offices in Zürich, Düsseldorf, Boston, San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Instead of hiring full-time employees, the company uses a pool of 700 independent professionals (IP) who are typically former consultants from firms like Bain, BCG, and McKinsey. These professionals are managed by Talent Partners who match up IPs with client needs. One of the biggest challenges the firm faces is finding people who can fill this Talent Partner role since it requires a wide range of interpersonal and business development skills. As a way of instilling discipline in processes and procedures, from the very beginning the company set the objective of doing an IPO as a staffing company, thereby hoping to get the multiple of that category. Achieving this will require substantial growth in order to get to revenues of CHF 100 million, which they think is the size they need to be. Through the "Crystal Initiative" the company reviewed the three strategic choices of leveraging the operating platform, expanding the service portfolio, and focusing on the Global Sliver. They chose the latter, which means they decided to focus on getting deeper penetration into their existing large accounts. At the end of the case the founders are wondering if an IPO is still the right thing to do. Learn more...

Eccles, Robert G., David Lane, Namrata Arora, and Prabakar "PK" Kothandaraman

Case 408-095

An abstract is not available for this product. Learn more...

Fleming, Lee, and Thomas D. Perry

Case 608-083

An abstract is not available for this product. Learn more...

Shih, Willy, and Andrew King

Case 609-002

As the only significant competitor to Intel Corporation in PC microprocessors, Advanced Micro Devices faced daunting investment choices. Not only did it have to fund microprocessor design teams, it also had to fund silicon process R&D, and it faced huge capital expenditures associated with constructing its manufacturing facilities. The company was at a crossroads: it had to decide whether to partner with IBM or align with other firms as it tried to keep up with Intel. Learn more...

Fleming, Lee, and Thomas D. Perry

Case 609-070

An abstract is not available for this product. Learn more...

Wasynczuk, Andrew, and Nicole Bennett

Case 909-033

General Manager Luke Kolville, of the Los Angeles Spartans, struggles with the best approach to negotiate a long-term contract for his star quarterback. The agent for Washington is relatively new to the industry and has his sights set particularly high. Kolville needs to weigh a number of effects this negotiation will have on the player, his teammates, and the long-term prospects of the team. Learn more...

Oberholzer-Gee, Felix, and Julie Wulf

Case 709-456

Examines the decision of Alibaba Group to diversify from an international business-to-business (B2B) exchange (Alibaba.com) into a B2C and C2C exchange (Taobao.com) for Chinese retailers and consumers. In China, Taobao had managed to displace the once dominant eBay, the world's largest consumer marketplace. However, the company had little revenue because it offered services free of charge. Learn more...

Oberholzer-Gee, Felix, and Julie Wulf

Case 709-457

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Bell, David E., and Brian Milder

Case 509-007

In 2006, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation joined together to form a new organization, AGRA, to tackle the historic challenge of increasing agricultural production in Africa. Launched with much fanfare and led by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as chairman of the board, AGRA sought to help millions of African farmers and their families achieve food security and lift themselves out of poverty. By 2008, AGRA had assembled a strong leadership team and had funded numerous small projects ranging from seed development to education. However, it needed to secure additional funding from public and private donors, gain the cooperation of governments, and catalyze private markets to achieve its goals. Learn more...

Lerner, Josh

Case 809-095

Rod Calhoun, the head of the Altoona State Investment Board's private equity investment program, considered the communication he had just received. It was from Permira, the leading European buyout fund, and concerned its fourth fund, to which Altoona had made a €100 million commitment. The memorandum offered investors a chance to reduce their commitment to Permira IV. This potential offer was an attractive one, as it would allow the state pension to address its "over-commitment problem," one that plagued many institutional investors. But the terms of the arrangement gave Calhoun pause. Learn more...

El-Hage, Nabil N., and Leslie S. Pierson

Case 209-023

In 2002, Arcapita Bank, B.S.C., then known as First Islamic Investment Bank, or FIIB, faced a liquidity crunch. Aracapita offered Islamic-compliant private equity, real estate, and venture capital products. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack, however, Islamic banking was an endangered species in the U.S. Should Arcapita change its business model, and how should it finance its growing capital needs? Learn more...

Kaufman, Stephen P.

Case 607-007

Having already made 10 acquisitions of competitors in the last decade, the CEO of Arrow is evaluating the acquisition of another small competitor to boost sales, become #1 in a niche market segment, and achieve economies of scale. He is struggling with whether the deal makes strategic sense given forecasts that this niche segment is declining, whether the price is too high given the competitor's lack of profitability, and how to integrate the company into Arrow to maximize its value if he does the deal. Provides information to permit valuing the acquisition and developing a post-merger integration strategy and plan. Learn more...

Rhodes-Kropf, Matthew, and Ann Leamon

Case 809-086

The CEO of a promising biotech company must decide how to respond to the macro-economic slump of late 2008. He had planned to pursue an aggressive schedule, moving the firm's Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease imaging compounds through clinical trials and into the market. This involved expanding the firm's facilities and headcount, and he planned to fund this by taking venture debt. Although clinical trial data is extremely encouraging, questions about raising his next venture round and the overall environment has made him question the wisdom of this plan. This case provides students an opportunity to explore the true cost of venture debt and when it is best used to achieve the goals of all parties-venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and venture lenders. Learn more...

Bergstresser, Daniel B., Arthur I Segel, and Alexandra de Royere

Case 206-102

In 2003, the chairwoman and controlling shareholder of Argentina's leading residential mortgage lender are considering how to bring the bank's restructuring to a successful conclusion as the country's economy continues to suffer from the impact of the 2001-2002 currency crisis and default. As the bank's competitors, many of whom were also creditors, begin to close ranks, Banco Hipotecario's management and shareholders need to come up with a plan that will satisfy creditors and keep the bank's business model intact. Learn more...

Weinzierl, Matthew, and Eric D. Werker

Case 709-037

As his inauguration approached, President-elect Obama faced a financial sector meltdown, a costly bailout, and massive government deficits. With the economy in recession, interest rates near zero, and joblessness on the rise, Obama needed to decide whether, and how much, to use fiscal stimulus to resuscitate the economy. To help students understand Obama's options, the case reviews both the recent tax cuts under President George W. Bush, including the supply-side and demand-management justification given for them, and the broad history of fiscal policy in the United States. Learn more...

Basic Techniques for the Analysis of Customer Information Using Excel 2007: A Step-by-Step Approach

Martínez-Jerez, F. Asís

Note 109-052

The objective of this note is to provide a set of easy, step-by-step guides for some analytical techniques that are useful in the analysis of cases discussed in the course "Competing and Winning through Customer Information" (CWCI). The instructions that follow use datasets from three of the cases in the course: "Slots, Tables, and All That Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel," HBS No. 106-029; "MercadoLibre.com," HBS No. 106-057; and "Bancaja: Developing Customer Intelligence (A)," HBS No. 107-055. These datasets are available upon request from the author. Learn more...

Anand, Bharat N., and Samhita Jayanti

Case 709-449

Berkshire Hathaway describes the history and strategy of one of the best known investment firms over the last forty years. The case describes the investment philosophy of Warren Buffett, its legendary chairman and CEO, the gradual diversification of its portfolio, its capital allocation strategy, compensation structure, and corporate governance approach, leading up to August 2008. Learn more...

Groysberg, Boris, and Michael Slind

Case 409-047

Big Spaceship, a digital marketing agency, faced a rather big challenge: How to scale the distinctive culture that was essential to its competitive strategy? Renowned for the cutting-edge websites that it developed to market major Hollywood movies and leading consumer brands, the firm had won numerous awards and garnered considerable attention within the advertising industry. In mid-2008, Big Spaceship remained small (it had fewer than 50 employees) but was poised for significant growth. For founder and CEO Michael Lebowitz, the central challenge was to figure out whether and how the agency could retain its boutique culture while transcending its boutique size. The case begins by briefly outlining Lebowitz's background, along with the history of Big Spaceship since its founding in 2000. Then the case shifts to a discussion of external dynamics: the firm's value proposition, which focused on providing start-to-finish, strategy-driven digital marketing solutions; its interaction with clients; and its relationship with established players in the advertising industry. Next, the case examines the firm's internal dynamics. Here, in addition to describing the culture of Big Spaceship, the case puts special emphasis on the firm's recent shift from a functional structure to a team-based structure. Finally, the case provides an overview of key issues that Lebowitz and his team must consider as they plan for the firm's growth-how to raise capital, how to gauge the optimal size for the company, and how to manage an expanding staff. A major highlight of the case is the inclusion of more than a dozen graphically compelling exhibits, which help to illustrate the firm's value proposition, its innovation-oriented culture, and its evolving organizational design. Learn more...

Grossman, Allen, Naomi Greckol-Herlich, and Catherine Ross

Case 309-020

The Bridgespan Group was launched in 2000 by management consulting group Bain & Company as a nonprofit focused on strategy consulting for nonprofits and philanthropists. Over the next eight years, Bridgespan expanded its services to include executive search, knowledge sharing, and a web-based job matching service. While its growth was welcome, Bridgespan's leaders and board wanted to strengthen Bridgespan's positive impact on the nonprofit sector as a whole. Learn more...

Paine, Lynn S., and Lara Adamsons

Note 309-097

This note addresses some of the most frequently asked questions about the relation between human rights and business. Topics include the definition of human rights, the business leader's role regarding human rights, and legal liability of companies and executives for violating human rights. Learn more...

Hardymon, G. Felda, Josh Lerner, and Ann Leamon

Case 809-073

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is one of the largest and fastest-growing pools of investment capital in the world and follows an unusually active program of investment management. In the market turmoil of late 2008, Mark Wiseman, Senior Vice President of the Private Investments Department, must decide if this approach is still the best way to fulfill his organization's goal of protecting and increasing the pension assets of 17 million Canadians. Learn more...

Yao, Dennis, Francisco Quiero, and Julia Rozovsky

Case 709-447

In late March 2007, CBS faces an important decision about its online video strategy. A just-announced joint online distribution venture between NBC Universal and News Corporation (Fox) is the impetus for this decision. Should CBS join forces with this new venture, come to terms with YouTube, the leading video-sharing site on the Internet, or maintain a nonexclusive strategy? Learn more...

Esty, Benjamin C., and Aldo Sesia

Supplement 209-082

An abstract is not available for this product. Learn more...

Kohn, A. Eugene, John D. Macomber, and Ben Creo

Case 209-052

CityCenter is a $9 billion project for MGM MIRAGE. The project's star architects have a major disagreement about a critical design issue. Bill Smith, head of the MGM MIRAGE Design Group, must resolve this issue to the satisfaction of all the project's stakeholders. This case explores many issues in the construction of large-scale buildings: how to envision such a project, how to manage the architects, how different designs add value, and what criteria matter in resolving a dispute between designers. The case also explores the construction costs and revenue benefits of having two buildings built with significant leaning away from vertical. Learn more...

Kohn, A. Eugene, John D. Macomber, and Ben Creo

Case 209-094

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Porter, Michael E., and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg

Case 709-473

The Cleveland Clinic's health care services are internationally renowned for quality. In 2008, The Clinic is restructuring the organization into teams defined around patient needs, rather than traditional medical specialties. "Patients First!" takes shape as the teams measure and report outcomes, coordinate care, and develop to support improving value for patients. In addition to restructuring care delivery in the hospitals and throughout northeastern Ohio, The Clinic has investments, facilities, and staff in several other states in the U.S. as well as in Canada and Abu Dhabi. It is also considering initiatives in Austria, China, and India. Students can explore strategy transformation, geographic expansion, the process of introducing new measurement approaches, alignment of activities with strategic goals, and issues in leading change both within a company and across an economic sector. Learn more...

Isenberg, Daniel J.

Case 809-065

Abhi Shah ('06), co-founding CEO of Clutch Group in the U.S. and Bangalore, must decide whether to risk a law suit by recruiting an entire legal services team from a large U.S. corporation. His decision and how he implements it will have a dramatic impact on the legal process outsourcing startup. Learn more...

Cespedes, Frank V.

Case 709-451

This case is meant to be used in conjunction with the extant "Cola Wars" case studies. It outlines the global positions of Pepsi and Coca-Cola as of 2008 in the soft drink market, and then provides an overview of their competitive situations in three markets: Mexico, China, and India. The case raises the issue of whether any or all of these markets are a) structurally attractive for soft drink firms, and b) if so, how can Pepsi best "catch-up" with Coca-Cola in a given market. Learn more...

Childress, Stacey, and Geoff Marietta

Case 309-088

College Summit, a nonprofit organization "committed to the day when every student who can make it in college makes it to college," was faced with an important strategic decision. After growing rapidly at more than 30% a year for the last several years, founder and CEO, J.B. Schramm; Chief Strategy Officer, Mora Segal; and the College Summit team must now decide whether or not to dramatically redefine their organization's theory of change. College Summit could continue to "get results and grow real fast" or make the bold choice to re-conceptualize its strategy to focus on system-level change. While there were numerous risks to pursuing the alternative strategy for Schramm and Segal, the possibility of helping redefine the purpose of secondary education might be too significant to ignore. Learn more...

Snow, Daniel C., Gary P. Pisano, Elena Corsi, and Gudrun Urfalino Kristinsdottir

Case 609-042

Columbus Tubing must choose to improve an old technology (steel) or to develop a new material (carbon fiber). The decision must take into account a complicated context: increased demand for the "old" steel products made in Italy, increasing power of carbon fiber manufacturing partners in Asia, growing wage rates in Asia, and high wage rates in Italy. Two plans have been presented to the CEO, Antonio Colombo. The first is to push development of all of the company's technologies, perhaps even seeking new markets for them. The second is to rationalize operations and to redirect R&D resources to marketing of stylish, lower-tech bicycles. The company's future hangs in the balance. Learn more...

Trumbull, J. Gunnar, and Akiko Kanno

Case 709-017

Despite a tradition of high household savings, Japan has supported a dynamic and technically sophisticated consumer-lending sector. The high profitability of the sector has periodically attracted interest from domestic banks as well as international investors. Most recently, in 1998 and 2000 respectively, GE Capital and Citi Financial both acquired Japanese consumer-lending companies. In 2006, when the Japanese Supreme Court rules that one of the big Japanese consumer lenders must repay a borrower for "excess interest payments," the U.S. firms must decide how to respond. Learn more...

Edelman, Benjamin, and Andrei Hagiu

Case 909-006

In 2008, the U.S. consumer payments landscape was characterized by the ongoing prevalence of credit and debit card networks, the decline of checks, the rise of stored value cards, and the growth of new payment methods such as PayPal, Bill Me Later, and decoupled debit. This case presents the structure of these payment methods, focusing on incentives for both consumers and merchants, including direct costs, efficiency benefits, rebates, and treatment in case of loss or fraud. Learn more...

Thomas, David A., and Stephanie J. Creary

Case 409-042

Explores how two senior Wall St. executives created a successful commercial opportunity for Lehman Brothers that focused on building relationships with minority- and women-owned financial services firms. Illustrates how Patricia Miller Zollar and Nadja Fidelia aligned the Partnership Solutions Groups' activities with Lehman Brothers' "one-firm" strategy in ways that created economic value for the firm. Delves into the challenges of developing this business in an industry that tends to view "diversity" initiatives as activities that seek only to benefit society and not as opportunities to create economic gain. Learn more...

Upton, David M., and Bowon Kim

Case 609-018

Explores the journey of aggressive learning and capability building in the operations of a major Korean shipbuilder. While Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSHM) had once used its superior learning capability to topple its Japanese competition, it now faced the potential for a similar attack from new Chinese competitors. Without outsourcing some of its work to China, DSHM would become uncompetitive. However, in outsourcing the work, some skills would necessarily have to be transferred, potentially teaching the future competition and providing them with a platform to attack DSHM's core markets. Learn more...

Hamermesh, Richard G., and Lauren Barley

Case 808-064

DermaCare has developed an innovative new product for the treatment of acne that they hope to sell to consumers via direct-response television. The unconventional nature of the product and its distribution has led the company to seek angel financing. The Silicon Valley Band of Angels has agreed to finance the company and has submitted a proposed term sheet. Recently, however, a venture capital (VC) group has submitted a competing term sheet. The company must decide whether to accept financing from the Angels or the VC group. Learn more...

Thomke, Stefan, and Barbara Feinberg

Note 609-066

Describes Apple's approach to innovation, management, and design thinking. For several years, Apple has been ranked as the most innovative company in the world, but how it has achieved such success remains mysterious because of the company's obsession with secrecy. This note considers the ingredients of Apple's success and its quest to develop, in the words of CEO Steve Jobs, insanely great products. Focuses on 1) design thinking, 2) product development strategy and execution, 3) CEO as chief innovator, and 4) bold business experimentation. Learn more...

Herzlinger, Regina E., and Mark P. Allyn

Case 309-040

Should this gene detection firm enter the business of providing tests for the detection of genetic diseases? If so, how should it prioritize the tests it could develop?Learn more...

Edelman, Benjamin

Case 909-035

American Airlines sought to reduce the fees it pays to global distribution services (GDSs)-such as SABRE-to reach travel agents. But GDSs held significant tactical advantages. For example, GDSs had signed long-term exclusive contracts with the corporate customers who were American's best customers. Furthermore, travel agents tended to favor whichever GDS offered the highest commissions-impeding price competition among GDSs. Against this backdrop, American considered how best to cut its GDS costs. Learn more...

Edelman, Benjamin

Case 909-036

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Moss, David A., and Eugene Kintgen

Case 709-044

In 1730, Japanese merchants petitioned shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune to officially authorize trade in rice futures at the Dojima Exchange, the world's first organized (but unsanctioned) futures market. For many years, the Japanese government had prohibited the trade of futures bills because it was widely regarded as a form of gambling that caused rice prices to rise. However, when the price of rice fell to record lows in the late 1720s, the samurai (whose income was tied to the value of rice) saw their economic position fall relative to the merchant class, whose growing economic power worried the nation's elites. The shogun responded by easing restrictions on futures trading, but without officially sanctioning a futures market at Dojima. The question now was whether he should heed the merchants' petition and take the next step. Learn more...

Collis, David J., Juan Alcácer, and Mary Furey

Case 709-488

An abstract is not available for this product. Learn more...

Vietor, Richard H.K., and Nicole Forrest

Case 709-043

This case, along with Saudi Arabia: "Modern Reform, Enduring Stability" (709-042), provides an opportunity to discuss Saudi Arabia's efforts to modernize, without really Westernizing, in sharp contrast to Dubai, a nearby Arab Emirate. As Saudi Arabia's development strategy unfolds in the past six years, it is contrasted to social and political pressures within the country, volatility in global oil markets, and severe political problems in the Middle East. Learn more...

Gardner, Heidi K., and Robert G. Eccles

Case 409-060

This case illustrates the leadership and management challenges of starting a new firm based on a new business model and how success creates pressures that challenge the work/life balance which was one of the original goals of its two founders. The case also raises issues about the changing nature of careers and changing preferences people have for structuring their personal and professional lives.Learn more...

Piskorski, Mikołaj Jan, Hanna Halaburda, and Troy Smith

Case 709-424

eHarmony's CEO needs to decide how to react to imitations of its business model, encroachment by competing models, and ascendance of free substitutes. The case provides four options to address these threats and asks students to choose one after they analyzed the company's strategy. The analysis begins with the understanding of value proposition, as derived from failures of substitutes. It proceeds to examine industry structure and important differences across its different niches. Students can then analyze the essence of a focused differentiation strategy and understand the importance of costly strategic trade-offs. They can also estimate the size of eHarmony's competitive advantage over two other competitors before articulating threats to sustainability, all of which will help them choose one of the four options. Learn more...

Reiling, Henry B., Christopher M. Bruner, and Kevin F. Wall

Case 209-095

An abstract is not available for this product. Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam T., and Louis-Philippe Maurice

Case 809-088

For several months, founder-CEO Evan Williams has felt trapped, unable to control Odeo and its strategic direction. He longs for the "simple" days of Blogger, the previous venture he had co-founded. Although his Blogger experiences had included a major blow-up with his co-founder that had resulted in legal proceedings, a brush with near-bankruptcy, and the laying off of his entire team, Williams has become even more disillusioned with his current venture, Odeo. Odeo, a podcasting pioneer, had debuted almost two years before and had gotten off to a very strong start, with a high-profile debut at a prominent industry conference, coverage on the front page of the New York Times' Business section, and the raising of a large round of financing from a top-tier venture capital firm. His attempts to find an acquirer have failed, layoffs have begun, and he is now facing a meeting with an increasingly hostile board of directors. At that meeting, he is very tempted to resign so he can move on to his next project and regain the thrill of being an entrepreneur. Learn more...

Eccles, Robert G., Das Narayandas, and Kerry Herman

Case 409-001

Jonathan Kutchins and Mark Cullen, managing partners of IT consulting firm Exeter Group, Inc., are considering four potential client engagements. Three of them involve prominent universities, an area of market strength for the firm, and one involves a top-tier strategy consulting firm, a new market for Exeter. Each of the projects has both attractive and unattractive attributes, with various degrees of upside and downside risk. As a relatively new and small IT consulting firm, Exeter needs to make careful choices about how it allocates resources to projects, and it is not clear if the firm has the capacity to add all four projects at once. Thus Kutchins and Cullen have to decide which, if any, of these projects to do. In some cases they must also decide whether they want to try to restructure the nature of the engagement to better fit the firm's service model. Although young and small, the firm has grown successfully and is optimistic about its future prospects. Kutchins and Cullen thus want to make decisions about these very specific client engagements in the context of their overall strategy and the contributions of these engagements in helping the firm achieve its long-term goals. Learn more...

Healy, Paul M., and Krishna G. Palepu

Case 109-039

The case traces the rise of Enron, covering the company's business innovations, personnel management, and risk management processes. It then examines the company's dramatic fall including the extension of its trading model into questionable new businesses, the financial reporting problems, and governance breakdowns inside and outside the firm. The case offers students an opportunity to explore why Enron failed and to understand the systemic problems in governance that affected its board of directors, the audit committee, the external auditors, and financial analysts. Learn more...

Moss, David A., and Cole Bolton

Case 709-025

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan established the President's Commission on Privatization to identify federal government functions that could be shifted to the private sector. One agency that the Commission considered was the Federal National Mortgage Association, or Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae was a Depression-era creation that was charged with establishing a secondary market for home loans. By purchasing qualifying residential mortgages from individual home loan issuers, Fannie Mae provided these institutions with funds for the continued issuance of mortgages, thereby promoting the government's goal of increased homeownership. Although lawmakers had already partially privatized Fannie Mae in 1954 and again in 1968, the agency in 1987 still retained close links to the federal government, including an emergency line of credit from the U.S. Treasury. After its deliberations, the President's Commission recommended Fannie Mae be restructured into a fully private firm. Now it was up to Congress and the President to decide whether to accept and implement the Commission's findings. Learn more...

Moss, David A., and Cole Bolton

Case 709-040

In early October 1931, in the midst of a global economic depression, the U.S. banking system was in crisis-with bank suspensions running at near record levels. At the same time, the broader economy was sputtering, and U.S. gold reserves had come under severe pressure after Britain abandoned its gold standard in mid-September. As pressure continued to mount, the leaders of the Federal Reserve faced several critical decisions. Should they adjust interest rates? Was abandoning the gold standard an acceptable option? Should they lend more freely to the nation's commercial banks? Or would this only ensure the sorts of financial excess that had gotten the country into trouble in the first place? Was it time to give in to the mounting pressure, or to hold firm? Learn more...

Applegate, Lynda M., Robert D. Austin, Kalle Lyytinen, Esko Penttinen, and Timo Saarinen

Case 809-099

Describes the development of a business model based on "software as a service" (SaaS) for security solution distributed through Internet Service Providers (ISPs). F-Secure disruptively entered a mature business with dominant players by executing an innovative new service model. The case describes the challenges involved in developing and executing the new service model and offers students opportunities to discuss the evolving challenges the company faces looking forward. Learn more...

Bell, David E., and Mary Shelman

Case 509-004

In response to new laws governing liability and several food safety scares in the 1990s, European retailers drove the creation of a universal production standard based on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for fresh fruit and vegetables and a third-party certification system to monitor compliance. By 2008, the GLOBALGAP standard had expanded to cover coffee, tea, livestock, and aquaculture. Over 90,000 producers in 87 countries had been certified. Looking ahead, GLOBALGAP's board and management were discussing a number of questions, including the following: should GAP include environmental and social aspects beyond food safety; what was GLOBALGAP's role outside of Europe; and how GLOBALGAP is a 'hidden asset' compared to ethical labels such as Fair Trade. Learn more...

Siegel, Jordan, and Yi Kwan Chu

Case 708-479

This case on the globalization of East Asian pop music is useful for teaching concepts of regional business strategy and also of cultural arbitrage. Music companies in the case must examine why certain markets are clearly more profitable than others. They must also decide whether to expand internationally with a regional focus on East Asia or, alternatively, a focus on the U.S. and other Western markets.Learn more...

Comin, Diego

Case 709-023

The Great Moderation is a significant decline in the volatility of fluctuations in most macroeconomic variables that the United States and other developed and developing economies have experienced at least since the mid-1980s. This case describes the basic facts, presents contending explanations, and explores the consequences of the Great Moderation for the likely amplitude of future business cycles. Learn more...

Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility

Rangan, V. Kasturi, and Regina Garcia-Cuellar

Case 509-025

Bimbo, headquartered in Mexico with 2008 sales of $7 billion, was one of the largest bakery companies in the world. Even as it had grown spectacularly in the last several decades, the company had earned a stellar reputation for its corporate social responsibility (CSR). As the company set its sights on international expansion, its third generation CFO, Daniel Servitje, wondered how to keep its growth and CSRobjectives neatly aligned. Learn more...

Tushman, Michael L., and David Kiron

Case 409-022

This case describes the evolution of a fast-growing Indian energy firm. It illustrates both leadership change as Hema is evolving as a leader, as well as how organization architecture (culture, systems, incentives, and human resources) is evolving. The case highlights a set of decisions Hema makes to build the firm. Learn more...

Kirby, William C., F. Warren McFarlan, and Tracy Yuen Manty

Case 309-029

HNA Group, the parent company of Hainan Airlines, was positioning itself to go global and make a mark for itself as the largest private airline in China. Positioned squarely behind the "Big Three" state-owned carriers, Hainan Airlines sought to create a world-class business. Following modern management practices, keeping sharp attention to cost control and capital operations, making aggressive entries into international markets, and maintaining a special corporate culture, Chairman Chen Feng was confident these factors were the engine that would drive HNA's continued growth.Learn more...

Childress, Stacey, and Geoff Marietta

Case 309-090

In his role as Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (Minneapolis Fed), Art Rolnick and his colleague, Rob Grunewald, had written "Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return." The thesis was fairly straightforward: early childhood development (ECD) had the highest returns; so states and local governments should invest in it. But the idea of investing in ECD for economic development was new and had never been tested on a large scale, particularly in the way that Rolnick and Grunewald recommended in a later paper-using market forces to drive demand for high-quality ECD programs. The Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF), formed in 2005, invested in two projects designed to test the economists' recommendations. The St. Paul Early Childhood Scholarship Program (SPECSP) provided up to $13,000 a year per child for parents in two St. Paul neighborhoods to select a high-quality ECD program of their choice. MELF had also invested in Five Hundred Under 5 (FHU5), a Minneapolis program formed to improve the capacity and quality of providers. Comparing SPECSP to FHU5 would offer insights on the potential impact of supply-side versus demand-side ECD initiatives. Rolnick reflected on the two MELF experiments. Which would be more effective? Would parents in St. Paul really drive up the quality of providers through the choices they made or was it better to work with providers directly to improve quality? Learn more...

Lerner, Josh, G. Felda Hardymon, and Ann Leamon

Case 809-071

In Spring 2011, Iris Running Crane, a 2009 HBS MBA, has finally achieved her goal of job offers from private-equity oriented jobs. Two are from true private equity operations; the other is a government agency charged with creating a clean energy economy for the United States. Each opportunity will help Iris achieve her long-term goal of a career as a private equity investor specializing in the clean energy sector, but each has drawbacks as well. Which should she choose? Learn more...

Bell, David E., and Catherine Ross

Case 509-021

Brazilian meat packer JBS surprised many in the U.S. beef industry when it acquired Swift & Co.-a company more than five times its size-in 2007, then moved to acquire the U.S.'s fourth and fifth largest beef producers in 2008. The new JBS Swift slashed costs and restructured, turning around a quarterly loss of $99 million to a gain of $140 million within 6 months. JBS aimed to position itself to supply beef markets around the world, but it faced a perfect storm of rising feed and fuel prices, a global credit crisis, and industry analysts skeptical about the company's debt load. Learn more...

Huckman, Robert S., and Gary P. Pisano

Case 609-046

Considers the situation facing David Barger, President and CEO of JetBlue Airways, in May 2007 as he addresses the airline's need to slow its growth rate in the response to increasing fuel costs and the effects of major operational crisis for the airline in February 2007. In 2005, JetBlue-typically viewed as a low-cost carrier (LCC)-made a move that is often considered antithetical to the LCC model. Specifically, JetBlue moved from a single aircraft type (i.e., the Airbus 320, or A320) to a fleet with two types of aircraft by adding the smaller Embraer 190, or E190. Students are initially asked to consider the impact of this decision on JetBlue's operations strategy and business model. They are then asked to consider how the reductions in aircraft capacity growth should be spread across the two plane types. This discussion hinges not only on issues of aircraft efficiency but also on those of operational focus and the ultimate competitive priorities of the airline as a whole. Learn more...

Lassiter, Joseph B., III, William A. Sahlman, and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Case 809-004

By 2008, a number of the firm's early cleantech investments were showing promise, and the companies were starting to need significantly more money to create the massive scale required in the energy sector. As Khosla thought about the hundreds of millions of dollars required by his portfolio companies, he wondered how he should position his firm at this stage of development. Should Khosla develop a new fund that focused on later-stage investments? Should he seek investments from large industry players such as the major oil companies? Should he try raising money from the managers of the sovereign funds in countries such as Singapore, Kuwait, and China? How should the firm work with its strategic partners? Khosla knew that lining up enough later stage funding would be challenging, as the cleantech industry was still unproven for investors. Nevertheless, he was determined to continue his pattern of making bold investments in this emerging field. Learn more...

Retsinas, Nicolas P., Arthur I Segel, Marc Diaz, and John Shepherd

Case 207-017

Kenya's Minister of Housing faces tremendous pressures in dealing with the pervasive housing troubles in his country. Kibera is the largest slum in Africa and home to more than 800,000 residents, yet only measures two square kilometers, roughly half the size of Manhattan's Central Park. Most homes are single-story structures and the density is 3,000 persons per hectare (compared to 43 in London, 100 in New York City, and 143 in Tokyo), making this one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The slum's living conditions are abysmal by Western standards and gets little to no support from the local government due to the entrenched bureaucracy that has seemingly misaligned interests in the slum. Learn more...

Eccles, Robert G., and Eliot Sherman

Supplement 409-075

Under the leadership of Tim Flynn, Chairman and CEO of KPMG, the firm made a number of changes in compensation, governance, and culture in order to address the underlying reasons for actions that occurred prior to him becoming CEO that led to the accounting giant paying $456 million to the federal government over allegedly selling illegal tax shelters. These changes included a common compensation bonus pool for the entire firm and rewarding people for professionalism as much as for business development; strengthening governance by adding a lead director to the board, removing the chairman and deputy chairman from board member selection, and creating separate committees for professional practice, ethics, and compliance and operations; and enhancing its ethics and compliance program through human resource processes (e.g., recruiting, orientation, training, and exit interviews), implementing periodic and required ethics courses, active firm leadership in these courses, and establishing multiple channels of communication for employees to raise concerns with an explicit "no retaliation" policy. In January 2007, 86% of the employees were proud to work for the firm, compared to 60% in 2005. Employee turnover was at an all-time low. And the Tax Practice, the source of the problems, was the fastest growing such practice in the Big Four accounting firms at 18%. Learn more...

Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, Jorge Tarzijan, and Jordan Mitchell

Case 709-410

Lan Airlines operates three distinct models: low-cost for domestic short-haul flights, full-service for international routes; and an international cargo business, the latter of which makes up 33% of Lan's overall revenues (markedly different from many U.S. legacy carriers that derive 3% to 4% of revenues from cargo). Since a change of ownership in 1994, Lan has grown steadily and quickly at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% from $318 million in revenues to $3.5 billion at the end of 2007. Lan is at an interesting point in history as the low-cost model was recently implemented. While early results have been strong, observers wonder if the airline can successfully manage three disparate business models. Learn more...

Roberts, Michael J., and Nabil N. El-Hage

Case 808-126

The case focuses on Lance Johnstone, a former NFL player, who has dabbled in real estate development during his playing career, and now, as a retired player, is trying to pursue the development of a 10-unit rental apartment building in a depressed area of Philadelphia, his hometown. The case presents the process Johnstone and his partner went through to purchase the vacant land and develop a construction budget and financing plan. Students are asked to evaluate the prospective financials for this development and assess the viability of the development plan and its prospective returns. The case then ends with a change in the fundamental assumption-the bank has withdrawn and a new bank will loan less than the original plan, and the construction budget has come in considerably higher. Students must evaluate the plan and prospective returns in light of this new information. Learn more...

Isenberg, Daniel J.

Case 809-066

Shane Immelman, founding CEO of the Lapdesk Company of South Africa, is facing a number of challenges in taking Lapdesk from South Africa into the rest of the African continent. How should the African strategy be different from that of South Africa? What is the appropriate structure? Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam, and Eric M. Olson

Case 809-089

"Is this the right time or is it still too early?" Dick Costolo wondered as he reflected on the latest acquisition offer. He had been building FeedBurner with his three co-founders for almost four years and was staring at the details of an acquisition offer from Google. He and his co-founders had founded three prior ventures together, each of which had had increasingly attractive outcomes, but none of which had reached their full potential. The number on the table from Google was a big one. Should the deal be completed, it would be the biggest win the founding team had ever had. However, was this the right time to exit? If Costolo didn't think so, would he be able to convince his co-founders who all had different personal risk profiles? This was going to be the biggest decision in the life of FeedBurner and its co-founders. Learn more...

Margolis, Joshua D., and Rachel Gordon

Case 409-017

Should Lawrence Trinh pursue his aspiration of working in Vietnam-and if so, what set of principles and practices should he adopt if he encounters corruption? These are questions that reverberate for many students who wish to work in emerging markets and other contexts that pose stiff ethical challenges. Trinh seeks to combine his background in financial services with his desire to contribute to Vietnam's economic development, and he has to decide among four job offers with investment firms. But it is a complicated decision. First, none of the job offers fit his selection criteria perfectly. Second, despite growing reforms, Vietnam is still ranked poorly on indices of corruption. Third, Trinh's father (who fled Vietnam following the war) frowns upon doing anything that could contribute to the communist regime. Fourth, Trinh's girlfriend is about to start her next stage of medical training in the United States, which means that pursuing his aspiration now will separate them. All of these considerations raise three questions: (1) Is the timing right for Trinh to embark on his personal mission of contributing to the well-being of Vietnam? (2) Which job offer should he accept? (3) What set of principles and practices should he adopt that will enable him to remain true to his values and sustain his capacity to be a true agent of change, yet not undermine his ability to succeed as an investor? Learn more...

Elberse, Anita, and Jeffery McCall

Case 509-050

In 2005, to the astonishment of many sports industry insiders, superstar basketball player LeBron James fired his agent and established his own firm, LRMR, to handle all aspects of his business ventures and marketing activities and named his childhood friend Maverick Carter as the CEO. LRMR is tasked with turning James into a global icon as well as helping him reach his personal goal of becoming basketball's first billionaire. In late 2008, James has entered various lucrative endorsement deals and is considering three exclusive videogame endorsement opportunities from Electronic Arts, 2K Games, and Xbox Live to add to his portfolio. Allows for a rich discussion about how superstar athletes and other celebrities can create and capture value from their brands as well as what role talent agencies and other intermediaries play in that process. Provides in-depth information on three endorsement opportunities that each represents a common way in which talent can (choose to) get compensated: through a fixed-fee payment, a bonus payment structure, or a revenue-sharing agreement. Learn more...

Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Jordan Mitchell

Case 707-465

As of 2006, Microsoft is finding that its dominant position in client and server operating systems is under attack from Linux. While Linux has only 3% of the worldwide installed base of PC operating systems, it had captured 20% of the server market by the end of 2005 and was quickly becoming a formidable alternative for productivity programs with OpenOffice. Linux's "business model" to compete against Microsoft is significantly different than those of traditional for-profit software companies. Linux is open source (all code is made available for redistribution by anyone) and harnesses the collective power of thousands of programmers-both independent and employees of major software firms such as IBM, HP, Intel, Sun, and Dell-which allows it to work out bugs quickly and release new operating systems several times per year. Students are faced with the analysis of competitive interaction between the Windows and Linux business models and value loops and are asked to reason whether a clear winner will emerge. Learn more...

Abdelal, Rawi, and Thomas Koelble

Case 709-001

The Londolozi game viewing reserve in South Africa became a defining icon of ecotourism during the 1990s and early 2000s-that is, a tourist business promoting ecological land management and, at the same time, local economic development. The reserve was in a region in the northeastern part of the country, not far from Mozambique, that sorely called out for progress in both these dimensions. The Sabi Sand Game reserve (within which Londolozi was located) was initially created by the government to provide hunters with an area in which to hunt wildlife. The government retained a portion of the reserve as the Kruger National Park, which allowed visitors to view wildlife, but banned hunting, in an effort to boost wildlife populations. The KNP was initially fenced off from the Sabi Sands Game reserve to prevent hunters from moving into the wildlife reserve. The fence, however, also prevented traditional east-west migration of animals across the region. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the farms within the Sabi Sand Game reserve converted their functions from hunting to wildlife viewing, and the fence was taken down. The new challenge for the farms while transforming into wildlife viewing became land management and local economic development. Learn more...

Mayo, Anthony J. and Shandi O. Smith

Case 409-057

As America struggled to regain its balance in the aftermath of the American Civil War, Maggie Lena Walker did her best to actively effect change by finding solutions to the social and economic problems facing blacks and especially black women. Taking charge of the flailing Independent Order of St. Luke in 1899, Walker transformed the organization into a vibrant and thriving economic engine for blacks. With a vision of economic self-sufficiency, she established a newspaper in 1902, chartered the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in 1903, becoming the first woman bank president in the United States, and opened a store run by and for blacks. Throughout her life, Walker persevered and thrived despite personal, social, and professional obstacles.Learn more...

Daemmrich, Arthur A.

Note 709-033

This note describes the history and regulation of clinical trials, managerial challenges related to pharmaceutical product testing, and current debates regarding prescription drug safety. Since clinical testing takes between five and seven years, and consumes up to 70 percent of a drug's total development costs, pharmaceutical and biotechnology leaders need to understand clinical trial management. Likewise, with a growing variety of new product introductions requiring pre-market testing, managers and analysts in many business sectors will benefit from understanding clinical trials. Learn more...

Bell, David E., Nitin Sanghavi, and Laura Winig

Case 509-029

Marks & Spencer initiated a comprehensive approach to sustainability (reduction of waste, carbon emissions, fair trade) called Plan A. Does it offer a competitive advantage? Learn more...

Rivkin, Jan W., and Eric Van den Steen

Case 709-461

In 2008, executives at Microsoft must decide how to compete against Google in the market for Internet search and advertising. The case describes how Microsoft has responded to a set of competitive threats in the past, how Google has gained a dominant position in Internet search and advertising, and what Microsoft has done so far in its as-yet-unsuccessful effort to catch up with Google. The case then challenges students to construct a strategy that will allow Microsoft to achieve its objectives in the evolving market for search and advertising. Learn more...

Hardymon, G. Felda, and Ann Leamon

Case 809-072

Facing the downturn in late 2008, the partners in a West-Coast venture capital firm are trying to decide how to manage their portfolio companies and whether to make new investments. Not only must they consider the particulars of each company individually, but they must also think about how to manage the entire firm's portfolio. Learn more...

Abdelal, Rawi, and Irina Tarsis

Case 708-033

In 2007, Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, the CEO of Mubadala Development Company (Mubadala), had every reason to be optimistic about the future of his home, Abu Dhabi, one of the emirates comprising the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The tiny, sandy, and dry emirate with a population of 1.5 million, only 420,000 of whom were citizens, was nestled upon nearly 10% of the world's known reserves of oil and the 4th largest proven reserve of natural gas. With the price of oil doubling every 10 years between 1970 and the 2000s, the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) had enjoyed an era of increasing profitability. Another state-owned firm, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), had been investing extra oil revenues outside of the county for more than 30 years, and the intensely secretive organization had amassed assets worth an astonishing-and still rapidly growing-$500 billion to $900 billion. A common refrain held that Abu Dhabi nationals could live off of the returns generated by ADIA forever. Some accordingly referred to the emirate as "the richest city in the world." Yet Al Mubarak, trusted advisor to the crown prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahayan, and Mubadala were charged with transforming the economy of the emirate. Many were concerned that Abu Dhabi was in danger of suffering from the so-called "resource curse," as its economy focused on fossil fuels and little else. Not only would Abu Dhabi's economy continue to be subjected to the vagaries of world energy prices, there would be little for its citizens to do. Not everyone could work for ADNOC or ADIA. Not everyone was from one of Abu Dhabi's handful of incredibly wealthy families. To be a developed country, Abu Dhabi needed change. Fortune had already played perhaps too large a role. Learn more...

White, Lucy

Case 209-097

Perry Capital owns shares in King and, to facilitate approval of the merger, buys shares in Mylan, whilst hedging out its economic exposure to Mylan's share price using derivatives. The price at which Mylan proposes to merge with King is generous to King shareholders, but the merger does not look likely to be approved by Mylan shareholders, who must vote upon it. If Perry can swing the voting in favor of the deal, it will gain handsomely on its King shares without facing any corresponding losses on its Mylan holdings since those are hedged. Carl Icahn, another shareholder in Mylan, opposed the deal and sued Perry for alleged vote buying. Learn more...

Musacchio, Aldo, and Dante Roscini

Case 709-041

This case describes the efforts of Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, to improve liquidity in money markets during the subprime crisis. The case explains the four main new tools for monetary policy (or quantitative easing) the Federal Reserve has used between 2007 and 2009: the Term Auction Facility (TAF), the Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF), the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), and the Asset Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (AMLF). Learn more...

Fruhan, William E., Jr.

Case 209-056

The note examines the role of credit rating agencies in capital markets, with emphasis on the role of these agencies in the recent credit crisis and recommendations for change. Learn more...

Herzlinger, Regina E., and Sara Green

Note 308-084

Background notes for MedVal and Fortis case studies. Learn more...

Deighton, John, and Leora Kornfeld

Case 509-032

What was the role of the Internet in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination between Senators Obama and Clinton? How does the role change in the shift from the Primary to the National election? The case examines media and content choices by each candidate and allows students to explore the role of new media in political campaigns. The focus is on fundraising in 2007 and campaigning for Primary delegate votes in 2008. Learn more...

Narayanan, V.G., Michael G. Wilson, and Rachel Gordon

Women's/Faulkner (BW/F) Hospitals

Case 108-016

After the merger of two local hospitals, hospital leaders much decide how to reorganize services to take advantage of newly created efficiencies. Focuses on the Orthopedics department at one of the hospitals. Learn more...

Rachael Ray: Cooking Up a Brand

Groysberg, Boris, and Kerry Herman

Case 409-011

The case details the rapid rise of Rachael Ray's career, beginning with her first appearance on NBC's Today show in March 2001. The case chronicles her success, exploring her various brands, promotional work, and expansion into new media markets. The case also allows students to grapple with the challenges Rachael Ray might face in terms of the continued sustainability of her successful brand. Learn more...

Eccles, Robert G., and Kaitlyn Simpson

Case 409-044

Rob Smith, senior partner of construction consultancy Davis Langdon, has just led the firm through a major organizational change in Europe and the Middle East. In the past, the firm's compensation arrangements did not encourage partners to collaborate across the firm to serve clients' increasingly global and complex needs. In 2007, under Smith's leadership, the partnership agreed to implement holistic change, which included shifting from geographical to sector structure and creating a profit-sharing system that rewarded more than just financial contribution and encouraged partners to work together for the benefit of the firm as a whole. In the midst of the global economic crisis, Smith must decide whether and how to extend on a global basis the alignment the firm achieved in Europe and the Middle East. Learn more...

Edelman, Benjamin

Case 909-034

A variety of services offer consumers benefits for dining at participating restaurants. This case examines four such services: Entertainment Book, Restaurant.com, Rewards Network, and OpenTable. Despite key functional similarities, each of the services chooses an importantly different approach-different pricing, different benefits to consumers, different benefits to restaurants, and different underlying technologies. Learn more...

Stevenson, Howard H., and Shirley Spence

Case 809-045

This case tells the story of Paresh Patel, born in Boston to an Indian immigrant family, as he develops an entrepreneurial career, participates in the Indian diaspora, and builds a family life. It provides background on Paresh's heritage, describes his youth and education (including HBS), his learning experience as the manager of a large family fund, his decision to launch a hedge fund in India, and the first years of the venture. It also profiles Nirva Patel and describes how they met, married, and managed the transition to a new life in Mumbai, including the impact on her career and personal aspirations. The case issue, set in October 2007, is whether to have their first child in Mumbai, or return to the U.S. for the delivery. Learn more...

Tushman, Michael L., and David Kiron

Case 408-023

Josef Felder, CEO of Zurich Airport, faces several crises as he tries to transform the Airport from a slow-moving, conflict-ridden, government-owned entity into a privatized, world-class airport. Learn more...

Tushman, Michael L., and David Kiron

Case 408-023

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Porter, Michael E., and Jennifer F. Baron

Case 709-458

Pitney Bowes, a Fortune 500 mail and document management firm, offered its first health plans in the years following World War II. Over the ensuing decades, Pitney Bowes adapted its approach to employee health amid rising health care costs, shifting employer attitudes towards health benefits and a rapidly changing policy environment. By 2008, the firm was widely regarded as an innovator in employee health, having dedicated substantial time and resources to its health benefits under the leadership of then CEO Michael Critelli and Corporate Medical Director Jack Mahoney. The case provides an overview of the history of employee health benefits in the U.S. and at Pitney Bowes. The range of health plans Pitney Bowes offered to employees in 2008, as well as the firm's contracting policies with commercial insurers and self-insured plan administrators, are examined in detail. Pitney Bowes health and wellness programs are also described, enabling an analysis of the firm's overall employee health strategy in 2008 and a discussion of where Pitney Bowes should focus its attention moving forward. Learn more...

Cohen, Lauren, and Christopher Malloy

Case 209-029

An abstract is not available for this product. Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam, and Rachel Gordon

Case 809-009

To help her finance her aggressive expansion plans, Genevieve Thiers plans to raise venture capital for the first time. She has spent the last six long years building Sittercity into the nation's leading babysitting web service, larger than all of its competitors combined. In the process, she brought her boyfriend and his sister into the business to help her, and ended up learning important lessons about mixing family and business. Now looking to raise venture capital, Thiers has just received an email from a general partner at a top VC firm, proposing another meeting and asking her to bring to the meeting an extensive list of proprietary information. This was a promising development, but Thiers was unsure whether she wanted to discuss Sittercity in such depth, especially when the venture capital firm had refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. How should she respond? Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam, and Rachel Gordon

Case 809-010

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Abrami, Regina, William C. Kirby, Elisabeth Köll, and F. Warren McFarlan

Note 309-073

Brief political, economic, and social timeline of China from 1949 to present to give context on and provide overview of modern Chinese history. Learn more...

Bergstresser, Daniel B.

Case 208-099

Primus is a credit derivative product company. How will they weather the credit crisis of 2007? Learn more...

Luehrman, Timothy A., and Brenda Chia

Case 209-004

In 2006, Progressive Corporation announced a change in its dividend policy. Henceforth, dividends would be paid annually rather than quarterly and, more importantly, would be set according to a formula that would result in considerably greater year-to-year variability than was the case historically. Under the new policy, dividends would be tied to the company's underwriting results, its performance relative to predetermined goals, and a target payout ratio. Progressive's new policy was intended to help with overall capital management in the cyclical property and casualty insurance business. Learn more...

Groysberg, Boris, and Kerry Herman

Case 409-011

The case details the rapid rise of Rachael Ray's career, beginning with her first appearance on NBC's Today show in March 2001. The case chronicles her success, exploring her various brands, promotional work, and expansion into new media markets. The case also allows students to grapple with the challenges Rachael Ray might face in terms of the continued sustainability of her successful brand. Learn more...

Hagiu, Andrei, and Hanna Halaburda

709-448

After years of gaming console industry leadership, how should Sony respond to the overwhelming success of competitor Nintendo's user-friendly Wii over Sony's high-tech PlayStation 3? It was August 2008 and Kazuo Hirai, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI), was contemplating questions from reporters about how Sony planned to respond to Nintendo's Wii console, which was dramatically leading Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 consoles in sales. The Wii's supremacy was especially disconcerting to Hirai, given that Sony had dominated the video game industry, and largely defined its course, since 1995. But the tables had turned dramatically in the current generation. Though the Wii was technologically much less advanced than PS3 and Xbox 360, the Wii's ease of use, innovative motion-sensitive controller, and simple but fun games had made the console a hit with all demographics: 9 to 65 years old, male and female. As a result, Nintendo had stolen a march on its two larger rivals by appealing to people who were traditionally not avid video game users. Microsoft's and Sony's more powerful machines remained targeted at the traditional "core gamer" audience: 18 to 34 year old males. Hirai was determined to restore that supremacy, in the current generation or the next. He knew that, whether or not he publicly defined SCEI's strategy as a response to Wii, he had to find a way for his company to deal with the new order of the video game industry that Nintendo had created. In seeking to do so, Hirai might find guidance in the history of the industry, which had been marked by rapid and frequent changes of fortune. Learn more...

Ruback, Richard S.

Case 209-060

In 2004, the Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan (IRCJ) was given the task of restructuring Daiei, one of the largest Japanese retailers and the country's most prominent zombie companies. The IRCJ was a government-sponsored organization that was funded with 50 billion yen in equity capital and 10 trillion yen of government-guaranteed funds. Daiei presented the IRCJ with a unique opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of its restructuring strategy which would require a significant write-down of Daiei's bank debts, substantial store closures and workforce reductions, and sufficient new private equity capital to help reposition and revitalize Daiei's retail operations. Overcoming these hurdles in a large and visible company like Daiei would be an important accomplishment for the IRCJ. But, failure, too, would have far reaching consequences. Learn more...

Edelman, Benjamin

Case 909-032

Right Media considers systems and policies to make sure that ads are only shown on web sites where they are appropriate, and vice versa. Setting standards is particularly challenging given the large and growing marketplace, the numerous participants, their diverse requirements, and the dynamics of policy enforcement when market participants are competing intensely. Learn more...

Ivashina, Victoria, and André F. Perold

Case 209-088

In December 2008, in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Rosetree Capital Management was evaluating the purchase of a pool of U.S. residential mortgages. The firm had formed an investment vehicle to acquire troubled residential mortgages from banks and other motivated sellers. The idea was to purchase mortgage loans at a discount and to work with individual borrowers to restructure their debts. Performing mortgages could then potentially be resold in the secondary market. The case provides cash flow projections in various economic scenarios that are revealing of the economics of troubled mortgages and home foreclosure. Rosetree needed to decide whether and how much to bid for the loans. Learn more...

Vietor, Richard H.K., and Nicole Forrest

Case 709-042

This case, along with "Dubai: Global Economy" (709-043), provides an opportunity to discuss Saudi Arabia's efforts to modernize, without really Westernizing, in sharp contrast to Dubai, a nearby Arab Emirate. As Saudi Arabia's development strategy unfolds in the past six years, it is contrasted to social and political pressures within the country, volatility in global oil markets, and severe political problems in the Middle East. Learn more...

Wasserman, Noam, and Louis-Philippe Maurice

Case 809-069

For several months, things had been spiraling downwards at Savage Beast, the music-recommendation company started three years before by Tim Westergren. The company's founder-CEO recently left due to pressures both at home and within the venture. Dozens of investors turned thumbs-down on the venture; salaries had been cut; and, tensions had risen within the founding team. Now Westergren, the founder who has taken over as CEO, is facing even deeper pressures as he finds out about a lawsuit filed by former employees, and he is wondering if it is time to give up on ever achieving his vision. Learn more...

Shih, Willy

Case 609-062

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is executing a strategy that leverages the desires of municipalities in China to build clusters of high technology companies. By partnering with those cities to build new semiconductor fabs that SMIC would then operate under contract, the company could build scale without necessarily confronting immediate large capital outlays. Unlike the Build-Operate-Transfer model that some municipalities were using to build infrastructure like the new subway in Shenzhen, in the SMIC "Reverse BOT model" a municipality would build a capital-intensive fab and SMIC would operate it, sharply lowering its capital costs. This model gave the company a unique level of flexibility in an industry where capital costs were the major driver of product costs. Learn more...

Eccles, Robert G., and Catherine Zhang

Case 409-065

Shanghai Diligence Law Firm, started in January 2006, is a rapidly growing law firm in China's burgeoning legal services market. In addition to the usual challenges facing all professional service firms (picking and retaining talent and building a desired client portfolio), the firm faces some challenges and opportunities that are unique to its setting in China and the fact that the firm is not yet three years old. The legal profession in China is a new and rapidly growing one with a large number of small firms all trying to carve out a distinctive niche for themselves. One of the partners in the firm, Joseph Shang, has created an innovative compensation system he calls the "A-B-C-D Model" which enables even the most junior associates to earn compensation for bringing in new business. This model is a kind of hybrid between the typical compensation system found in a Chinese law firm and those found in U.K. and U.S. law firms. The goal of this approach to compensation is to enable the firm to get and keep promising lawyers while also giving them an incentive to help grow the business. Somewhat unusual for a typical law firm, or any type of professional service firm, this compensation model is only used in Shang's practice. The founder and CEO, Chenyao Wu, has his own version of an "A-B-C-D Model," and discussions are taking place about what the firm should be doing about compensation. In addition to compensation, the firm is grappling with issues regarding divergent views amongst the partners, building a brand in a very competitive marketplace, and the stability of the core team. Finally, the firm has been presented with an opportunity to join two other firms in a three-way merger and the partners are debating the risks and opportunities in going forward with this. Learn more...

Ferri, Fabrizio, V.G. Narayanan, and James Weber

Case 109-013

Two activist investors, one a founder and one a hedge fund manager, seek to improve board oversight at a chain restaurant company. Prestley Blake founded Friendly Ice Cream in 1935 with his brother, and the two created a chain of full-service restaurants. In 1979, they sold the business and retired. In 2000, Blake became concerned that Friendly's CEO, who owned approximately 10% of Friendly and also owned a larger percentage of another restaurant company, was shifting expenses between the businesses in a way detrimental to Friendly shareholders but personally advantageous to the CEO. Further, Blake believed that Friendly's board of directors was not meeting their fiduciary obligations to shareholders by properly overseeing the activities of the CEO and that the directors had conflicts of interest because they were involved with the CEO's non-Friendly business activities. In 2003, Blake filed a lawsuit against the CEO and the company. In 2006, Sardar Biglari, a hedge fund manager who had invested in Friendly, entered into negotiations with Friendly for him to join the board of directors to help improve the management of the business. When these negotiations failed, Biglari launched a proxy fight against Friendly in 2007. While these two activist investors shared similar objectives, they worked independently and chose different strategies. Learn more...

Ferri, Fabrizio, V.G. Narayanan, and James Weber

Case 109-014

Supplements the (A1) case. Learn more...

Groysberg, Boris, Nitin Nohria, and Kerry Herman

Case 409-079

Marcel Lorent, head of International Mobility at Brussels-based Solvay Group, faces decisions on the expatriation status of four of his firm's talented executives. Each decision will impact the candidate's professional and personal life and will have implications for effective management and growth in Solvay's global markets. The case explores these issues, with a close look at Solvay's attempts to develop talent management and mobility processes that allow the firm to align its strategic needs with the complexities of its individual employees' needs and lives. Learn more...

Vietor, Richard H.K., and Juliana Seminerio

Case 708-051

With prices of oil, coal and gas at historically high levels, the wind industry had installed more than 20,000 MW of wind energy, representing a $37 billion investment in 2007. Besides high prices, wind energy represented a solution for consumers seeking an energy source that would not add to the problems associated with global climate change. Suzlon Energy Limited (Suzlon), India's largest manufacturer of wind turbines, had evolved from a small family-run business into a global enterprise spanning four continents in just over a decade. But would the costs associated with the aggressive growth policy be too much for a young company to handle? Learn more...

Simons, Robert L., Kathryn Rosenberg, and Natalie Kindred

Case 109-017

This case examines the strategy implementation and risk management decisions at Sydney IVF, a research-based in vitro fertilization and stem cell company based in Australia. Drs. Robert Jansen and Jock Anderson, who co-founded Sydney IVF in 1986, developed novel technologies which they leveraged to carve a leadership role in the inherently risky artificial fertilization business. As the company grew, its executives grappled with managing the political, ethical, and business risks associated with the contentious lab-based fertility field, instituting sophisticated safeguards such as an independent ethics committee and a "whistle blower" system for employees concerned with the company's practices. In less than two decades, Sydney IVF grew from just four employees to over 200, expanded internationally, and broadened its services to include prenatal screening for genetic diseases and DNA tests to determine lineage and paternity. In addition, the company launched a wholly-owned subsidiary, the Stem Cell Company. CEO Robert Jansen hoped to grow the Stem Cell Company but faced many challenges, including the significant ethical risks, challenging regulatory environment, and uncertain future of the stem cell field. The case describes how Jansen safeguards against risk without stifling the innovative spirit necessary to commercialize stem cells. Learn more...

Hamermesh, Richard G., and David Kiron

Case 808-073

Gokhan Hotamisligil is a star researcher at Harvard School of Public Health who has made groundbreaking discoveries linking fat cells, inflammation, and diabetes. He now wants to form a company to commercialize these discoveries. At the same time, Isaac Kohlberg, the head of Harvard's Office of Technology Development (OTD), is eager to improve Harvard's record in commercializing science. Describes the negotiations between Hotamisligil, OTD, the new company, and the School of Public Health to establish appropriate licensing and sponsored research agreements. Learn more...

Alfaro, Laura, Lakshmi Iyer, and Namrata Arora

Case 709-029

In October 2008, Tata Motors canceled their car manufacturing plant in West Bengal state, in the face of widespread farmer protests over land acquisition issues. This meant abandoning a project in which the company had invested $300 million and delaying the launch of the Nano, the world's cheapest car. What strategy could Tata have pursued to avoid this outcome? Would similar problems arise in Gujarat state, where the project had been relocated? Learn more...

Bell, David E., Natalie Kindred, and Mary Shelman

Case 509-008

In 13 years, Bruce Taylor had built Taylor Fresh Foods into a $1 billion company and the top supplier of salads to the U.S. food service industry and to supermarket deli departments. In 2008, he was convinced that the time was right to make a big push in the fresh food area to satisfy consumers that were demanding more convenient, natural, good-tasting, and locally-grown foods. Taylor needed an action plan to make Taylor Fresh the industry leader before his competition woke up to the opportunity that lay before them all. Learn more...

Rose, Clayton, Daniel Bergstresser, and David Lane

Case 309-001

Bear Stearns & Co. burned through nearly all of its $18 billion in cash reserves during the week of March 10, 2008, and an unprecedented provision of liquidity support from the Federal Reserve on Friday, March 13 was insufficient to reverse the decline in Bear's condition. Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and New York Fed President Timothy Geithner were intent on limiting the impact of Bear's problems on the wider financial system. James "Jamie" Dimon, Morgan's Chairman and CEO, was in frequent contact with these regulators over the weekend of March 14-16, negotiating possible scenarios for the rescue of Bear, without which Bear would be forced to seek bankruptcy protection when markets opened on Monday. Late on Sunday afternoon, March 16, Bear's board accepted Morgan's offer to purchase Bear for $2 per share, an offer that would not have been made without significant government assistance. There was hope that the Bear rescue would help avert the far-reaching spread of damage into the larger financial world that many policymakers viewed as likely to follow the failure of a major investment bank.

This case examines a seminal event in the financial and economic crisis that began in the summer of 2007 and provides background for better understanding the full scope of the crisis as it was revealed during the summer and fall of 2008. It was written to address two sets of issues. First, it provides the opportunity to understand the corporate finance issues of capital and liquidity and of firm valuation. Second, the case allows for the exploration of aspects of a firm's internal and external governance, as well as the challenges of navigating through a crisis when faced with compelling pressures from competing stakeholders. Learn more...

Rose, Clayton, Daniel Bergstresser, and David Lane

Case 309-070

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Rose, Clayton, Daniel Bergstresser, and David Lane

Case 309-091

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Applegate, Lynda M., Gabriele Piccoli, and Kathryn Brohman

Case 809-059

In July 2008, the co-founders of TripIt, a free online travel organizer that aggregated travelers' bookings from many top travel websites, had recently secured $5.1 million in new financing. While the co-founders believed that their company offered travelers a unique service, they felt growing pressure from investors to show that the company could grow revenues and achieve profitability. To be profitable, TripIt needed not only to grow its user base but also generate more traveler itineraries, which was critical to obtaining advertising revenue from travel suppliers and intermediaries. The online travel industry was a hyperactive industry, and while TripIt was breaking new ground, the threat of competitors was very real. Learn more...

Steenburgh, Thomas, and Jill Avery

Case 509-035

This case introduces emerging Web 2.0 social media in virtual worlds, social networking sites, and video-sharing sites and encourages students to explore the opportunities and risks they present for brands. The case allows students to grapple with the strategic and tactical decisions that accompany marketing communications strategy and to combine information on consumer behavior with an understanding of brand objectives in order to assess and evaluate new social media options. Brand manager Margaret Foley is facing an increasingly complex media environment in which her traditional media plan, focused on television, print, and radio advertising, has become less effective due to declining audiences, increased advertising clutter, and consumers tuning out. She is exploring emerging Web 2.0 social media options to determine if they can better achieve her branding and advertising objectives. Her challenge is to cut through all of the hype surrounding Web 2.0 and to analyze the social media's potential for her brand by delving into the consumer needs and behaviors underpinning Web 2.0 technologies. Learn more...

Visions of Web 3.0

Eisenmann, Thomas, and David Andrew Vivero

Case 808-147

Explores the Semantic Web, a vision for the next generation of the World Wide Web in which information is stored in machine-readable formats. While the Semantic Web would make information more easily accessible, barriers to its adoption are very high because website owners would need to recode data and content on their existing sites, agree on ontologies for structuring information, and develop new tools for querying Semantic Web data. The case profiles two start-ups with very different strategies for exploiting Semantic Web opportunities: Radar Networks and Metaweb Technologies. Learn more...

Collis, David J., Juan Alcácer, and Mary Furey

Case 709-462

An abstract is not available for this product. Learn more...

Collis, David J., Juan Alcácer, and Mary Furey

Case No. 709-489.

An abstract is not available for this product. Learn more...

Watson, Noel, Laura Rock Kopczak, and Prashant Yadav

Case 609-061

The case focuses on the challenges of Roche maintaining a supply network for a global influenza pandemic response initiative based on its antiviral drug Tamiflu. The Roche group is a 40 billion CHF company consisting of a pharmaceutical division and a diagnostic division. The company's antiviral drug Tamiflu dominates the market for prevention and treatment of seasonal influenza (flu). Tamiflu, however, could also play an important role in responding to the first wave of a pandemic caused by a particularly harmful strain of the influenza virus A. Tamiflu was designed to be effective against any strain of Type A or B influenza. Thus, there was the potential to establish a preparedness plan based on creating a stockpile of the drug in conjunction with an appropriate plan for distribution to the affected population. The use of Tamiflu in such a crisis would allow the world to respond immediately, rather than having to wait for development of a vaccine which had limitations in its effectiveness, and the drug had been endorsed by the WHO as a first line of defense. The case focuses on the challenges of Roche maintaining a supply network for a global pandemic response initiative. Managing supply is particularly challenging for three reasons. First, demand for stockpile quantities is spiky and uncertain, and governments placing orders expect lead times to be short. Second, lead times for increasing capacity are long, as are lead times for drug production and encapsulation. Last, media coverage and press releases made by governments and other stakeholders increase the stakes, as negative media coverage may damage Roche's reputation with consumers, leading to lower sales levels for its products. Learn more...

Foley, C. Fritz, and Linnea Meyer

Case 209-091

How can distressed investors take advantage of the procedures governing an international bankruptcy? Wilbur L. Ross, chairman and CEO of the private equity firm WL Ross & Co., LLC, has the opportunity to bid for debt and equity claims on Plascar Industria e Comercio Ltda., the Brazilian subsidiary of the bankrupt global auto components company Collins & Aikman Corp. In evaluating this opportunity, students must analyze Ross's strategy to reshape a global industry with significant overcapacity, consider the opportunities created by the legal procedures that govern cross-border insolvencies, study a debt overhang problem, and consider how restructuring alternatives can address this problem. Learn more...

Davis, John A.

Case 809-098

This case describes how Alex Wolf, the founder of a small architecture and urban planning firm based in Portland, Oregon, decides to offer partnership to two trusted colleagues, and then how strains develop in their relationship. It asks what can be done to improve these work relationships and if these three individuals can be successful partners. Learn more...

Mikes, Anette, Peter Tufano, Eric Werker, and Jan-Emmanuel de Neve

Case 709-024

Rising food prices threatened an unprecedented number of people around the world with malnutrition or starvation in 2008. The new Executive Director of the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP)-the world's largest food relief agency-must not only address this challenge but also must rethink the WFP's strategy in the rapidly changing world of humanitarian assistance. Learn more...

Stuart, Toby, and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Case 809-090

Yieldex Founder, Doug Cosman, is faced with the decision to sell his young software start-up for $4 million or to hire a CEO (Tom Shields) and pursue Series A venture capital financing. His angel investors and CEO candidate Tom Shields believe he should reject the offer and focus on building the company into a bigger enterprise. Cosman is attracted to the financial rewards offered by the potential acquirer. Learn more...

Stuart, Toby, and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld

Case 809-091

Supplements the (A) case. Learn more...

Mayo, Anthony J., Masako Egawa, and Mayuka Yamazaki

Case 409-049

The case presents a biographical portrait of Yoshiko Shinohara who founded Tempstaff in 1973, one of the largest temporary staffing agencies in Japan. In addition to chronicling Shinohara's entrepreneurial activities, the case provides contextual background about the role of women in business in Japan in the last few decades of the 20th century. Learn more...

Grossman, Allen, Catherine Ross, and William Foster

Case 309-007

Tennessee-based nonprofit Youth Villages had an impressive record of serving emotionally and behaviorally troubled youth and their families, with higher success rates and lower costs than most child services providers. Yet expanding to offer its services on a broader scale proved challenging. Learn more...