Walmart has decided to expand into Africa through the acquisition of the South African consumer goods retailer Massmart. In doing so, the world's largest retailer faces significant backlash from South Africa's largest union. The company must also contend with price-sensitive consumers and a lack of supplier relationships on the African continent. Will Walmart appeal to South African consumers and achieve the volume of sales needed to make its first African presence a success.

Molson Coors' chief corporate responsibility officer has been tasked to use the company's efforts toward global corporate responsibility to drive its global competitiveness. He must roll out new corporate responsibility initiatives to engage employees across the company's range of geographic locations.

Coca-Cola is considering which of several global marketing/promotional efforts to bring to the United States. Each has proven successful in other parts of the world, but for varying reasons. All represent efforts outside of the industry's normal advertising-based approach to marketing.

This course is about one question: What is the proper role of the government in the market economy? We study the role of government as it plays out in the real world, using vivid case studies from many countries, decades, and policy angles. At the same time, we align these cases with a rigorous theoretical framework that clarifies the circumstances under which government intervention in the market can improve outcomes.

A large U.S. investment management corporation has recently acquired a prominent Canadian investment management company with the justification for the cost of the acquisition largely based on huge economies of scale from integrating parts of the operations of both companies. A senior vice-president of the Canadian company has been asked to recommend how this should be done. She concludes that it would be best to keep administrative functions under the Canadian company’s authority, but when she presents her report to the chief executive officer of the U.S. firm, he requests that she change her report to give these functions to the Canadian branch of the U.S. company. Should she bow to her superior’s wishes and change her recommendation? What are the ethics and career impact of changing a professional opinion under pressure from top management?

Walmart has decided to expand into Africa through the acquisition of the South African consumer goods retailer Massmart. In doing so, the world’s largest retailer faces significant backlash from South Africa’s largest union. The company must also contend with price-sensitive consumers and a lack of supplier relationships on the African continent. Will Walmart appeal to South African consumers and achieve the volume of sales needed to make its first African presence a success.

Molson Coors’ chief corporate responsibility officer has been tasked to use the company’s efforts toward global corporate responsibility to drive its global competitiveness. He must roll out new corporate responsibility initiatives to engage employees across the company’s range of geographic locations.

Instructor spreadsheet for product 8B11N021.

By 2010, Virginia had become the fifth-largest wine-producing state in the United States and Michael Shaps had developed a reputation as one of Virginia’s premier winemakers. He had recently doubled his annual production capacity and was considering whether to increase production of his own “Michael Shaps”-label wines (MS), or accept offers to produce private-label wines (PL) for customers — a service he dubbed “custom crush.” He could increase his profits by selling PL wines at higher margins. However, it would take time to grow this new business, and any capacity reserved for a “custom crush” operation would reduce the number of cases of his own MS wines that he could produce. The financials of custom crush looked very promising, because in addition to higher margins, revenue from PL would be guaranteed by contracts prior to harvest — a situation of unusual security in the volatile wine business. Although his MS wines were of high quality and regionally popular, producing his own labeled wines was more of a speculative business, subject to myriad factors. Beyond the short-term financial impact, he also had to consider how a PL business would affect his own MS brand. Finally, Shaps had the opportunity to package wine in a box at significant savings over bottles and had to decide whether or how to introduce MS or PL wine in a box.

A Latin-based urban music ensemble, Calle 13, shapes its art form to redefine the rap/reggaeton scene that is predominant in Latin America. This redefinition includes political and social backlash towards the leaders of various countries, including the band members’ homeland of Puerto Rico. While the group’s political and social criticism results in some welcome exposure for the musicians, it also results in cancelled shows. The group wants to expand its market, and the members must decide how to proceed: Should the band shed its controversial image in an effort to gain a broader degree of public acceptance? Should it maintain the current style, provoking and delighting listeners with its sometimes scandalous antics?

Explores the role of CEO Man Jit Singh and his senior management committee in leading Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd. (formerly SET Pvt. Ltd.), a leading television broadcaster in India. Describes Singh's decision to evaluate employees based on values as well as performance, and the management committee's response. Allows for discussion of: 1) the impact of leadership style on team culture, performance, and effectiveness; 2) the challenges of building a values-based organization; 3) the complexities of managing talent in a young industry, particularly within an emerging market; and 4) the final decision by CEO Man Jit Singh and the subsequent actions taken by members of the management committee.

Supplement to (A) case: Explores the role of CEO Man Jit Singh and his senior management committee in leading Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd. (formerly SET Pvt. Ltd.), a leading television broadcaster in India. Describes Singh's decision to evaluate employees based on values as well as performance, and the management committee's response. Allows for discussion of: 1) the impact of leadership style on team culture, performance, and effectiveness; 2) the challenges of building a values-based organization; 3) the complexities of managing talent in a young industry, particularly within an emerging market; and 4) the final decision by CEO Man Jit Singh and the subsequent actions taken by members of the management committee.

In late July 2013, Danielle Engle, Managing Director of Clairemont Capital, was contemplating what to do about a large investment her fund had in the stock of Yahoo! Inc. In mid-2012, Clairemont had invested nearly $75M in Yahoo! after the tech company settled a highly visible proxy fight with prolific activist investor Daniel Loeb of hedge fund Third Point. Since that time, Loeb and his colleagues had joined the board, the company had hired a new CEO and the stock price was up nearly 80%-increasing the value of Clairemont's investment by $60M in less than a year. But Yahoo! had just announced an agreement to buy back two-thirds of Third Point's stake in the company. It had also announced that Loeb and two other company directors appointed at his request would step down from the board. At the same time, Alibaba, the giant Chinese e-commerce company of which Yahoo! owned a sizable stake, was widely expected to go public in the near future. What should Clairemont Capital do with its investment in Yahoo! in response to this news? This case provides students with opportunities to discuss shareholder activism, the interaction between a company growth strategy and business model and its valuation, discounted cash-flow valuation analysis, multiples valuation, transaction-based valuation, and company valuation by parts.

After an unusual round of doubles in May 2011, real estate investor Bobby Turner, Managing Partner, Canyon-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund (CACSFF) and Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Canyon Capital Realty Advisors, found himself at a loss for words. Turner was in the midst of raising capital for the CACSFF, a vehicle designed to promote the success and growth of best-in-class charter schools by acting as a for-profit "bridge" developer of educational facilities throughout the United States. He thought he had found the perfect investor in Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist, who for years had been an outspoken supporter of education reform. But as he made his pitch on the tennis court alongside his partner, retired professional tennis star Andre Agassi, and Andre's wife, retired professional tennis star Steffi Graf, he realized he would encounter more resistance than originally expected. Despite Gates' fascination and intrigue with the pair's novel concept, he was hesitant to mix the non-profit oriented efforts of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with a for-profit private equity investment. Turner had heard similar concerns from other philanthropists and foundations. Furthermore, the fund's characterization as a social enterprise left unanswered questions regarding how making a positive impact could be juxtaposed with efforts to maximize investor profits. What started off as the match of the century ended rather unceremoniously as Gates graciously declined the opportunity to invest in CACSFF. As Turner and Agassi walked off the court, they realized they would have to go back to the drawing board to better gauge which investors would have an appetite for this type of investment and how best to market the fund to those parties going forward.

In early January 2012, the director of social media for the McDonald’s Corporation (McDonald's) was challenged with a tall order. The corporation had just launched a large public relations campaign using the Twitter hashtag “#MeetTheFarmers” to promote connections with family farms and local suppliers. Maximizing a Twitter Promoted Trends expenditure, the director had switched the hashtag from “#MeetTheFarmers” to “#McDStories” halfway through the first day of the campaign. However, numerous detractors used the hashtag to express negative comments towards the corporation. A few days later, the media started to run negative coverage with mocking headlines and articles providing screenshots of the negative tweets but no statistics that explained or put proper context to the situation. The director needed to devise a better strategy for McDonald’s social media campaigns in order to prevent potential media fallouts.

Ciaran Meghen and Ronan Loftus, co-founders of IdentiGEN (an Irish company that had created a unique service called DNA TraceBack to help customers identify and trace meat products), were discussing the company's future. The recent crisis over beef products being contaminated with horsemeat in Europe had generated strong demand for IdentiGEN's services. But more than this, DNA TraceBack gave customers strong insight into their operations to ensure product was genuine, and helped facilitate a continuous feedback loop between all players of the supply chain to deliver a high quality product to consumers. In light of strong demand, how should IdentiGEN proceed in terms of which customers to work with, and which products should it support?

A good financial system is essential for a well-functioning and efficient economy. It allocates capital to its most productive uses and manages risk. However, financial systems are fragile, and this fragility can cause financial crises which usually impact the real economy, as Japan and the United States have experienced. The causes of a financial crisis are many and varied, but commonalities exist. Financial crises usually create long periods of slow economic growth.

In this article, we present an overview of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the financial sector. We focus on how socially responsible investment and shareholder activism have been integral parts of corporate social responsibility in the financial sector. We examine how the financial sector and its firms are evaluated and rated via a sustainability index, the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, and show that even leading financial institutions do not employ proactive practices regarding socially responsible investment and shareholder activism. Finally, we provide examples of two companies, UBS AG and the Co-operative Banking Group, that do utilize proactive practices.

In this Executive Focus article, Emory Zink and Travis Selmier interview John Succo, an expert on derivatives securities and securities trading, who discusses the technical nature and the policy debates regarding how high frequency trading (HFT) and so-called 'dark pools' affect equity trading. Succo, a co-founder of one of the world's largest derivatives-trading hedge funds, deflates the arguments that HFT adds to liquidity, showing us how the mechanism of HFT actually removes liquidity from the market. Wondering why regulatory authorities accepted speed in lieu of liquidity, he finds politics and lobbying as key factors. Dark pools, on the other hand, are trading arrangements that benefit both their members and the general trading public by dampening stock price swings. This interview addresses many questions about HFT and dark pools.

In 1995, the European Union passed Directive 95/46/EC, which set the legal framework for European Union citizens to own the rights to their personal data. However, American law bestows ownership to the holder of the data, not the individual, and officials feared the European Union initiative might disrupt data sharing among United States and European Union affiliates. Thus, they negotiated the 2000 Safe Harbor Agreement to allow companies to voluntarily submit to yearly certifications that fulfilled European Union demands, but kept U.S. businesses in control of their data; nevertheless, the Agreement does not include financial and banking services. Instead, the United States argued that the privacy protections within the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act adequately fulfilled European Union guidelines. The European Union disagreed and financial data sharing has operated under a moratorium for the past decade. However, the 2008 financial crisis has governments and clients clamouring for more data transparency to determine risk in the financial system. These global efforts, the European Union's recent push to strengthen the Directive, and the Dodd-Frank Act have pushed data sharing to the policy forefront. This article asserts that transatlantic data sharing will ultimately have to accommodate the privacy cultures in both the United States and the European Union, but firms must be prepared to cope with demands on their data by establishing government relations offices, standardizing information systems, enhancing education for compliance officers, and improving business school curricula.