This case follows IBM’s use of iterative software development to manage projects. The head of IBM’s Rational Product Development is asked by the head of IBM’s WebSphere Product Development to deliver an additional feature in the Rational product that would enable WebSphere to accomplish some new tasks. The feature requested is a critical requirement that has been requested very late in the product development cycle. Can the Rational Product Development team meet the WebSphere request? Should it undertake the changes to accommodate the new requirements? If so, can the team deliver the functionality without delaying the product release? This case also provides an opportunity to evaluate an iterative approach to project management.

The executive vice-president and chief operating officer (COO) of Canadian National Railway Company (CN), wants to change the culture at his organization. The COO has been promoted to his current position after CN purchased Illinois Central, and his first task is to review CN’s operations across the country. He notices that employees are leaving work early, a practice called “early quits” that is supposed to reward employees for working harder during the day. He also notices there are other practices, such as late starts that encourage lower productivity. With the goal of improving productivity in mind, the COO elects to tackle the issue of late starts before fixing the early quits problem. This case introduces behavioural science as one of the many management tools that can be used to influence behaviour.

This is a supplement to 9B13M090.

Ken Traub is hired as CFO for American Bank Note Holographics, the market-leading security holograph company in January 1999, but discovers on his first day that the company has misstated its financials and resigns. After consulting with the company for the next several weeks as it announces its misstatements to the public, he is asked to become president of the company. Should he take the job or is the company a sinking ship?

This note suggests an approach for developing an effective "career narrative" - a tool for packaging and sharing a professional's past achievements, long-term goals, and forward-looking needs through a compelling story. It focuses mostly on the ways junior professionals can leverage their career story, but also consider what role more senior mentors can - and should - play in cultivating and sharing juniors' career narratives.

In 2011, a group of passionate social entrepreneurs in Rio de Janeiro, with the support and encouragement of several prominent philanthropists and members of government, launch Ensina!, seizing Brazil's unprecedented economic growth and national commitment to education. The new independent educational non-profit is to be part of Teach For All, a global network of organizations inspired by Teach For America. While Ensina! is quickly able to raise the initial capital, recruit graduates from top colleges, garner positive press, and demonstrate early success in increasing student performance, the organization runs into a number of operational challenges in implementing its programs in schools. After pursuing various avenues to address obstacles for Ensina!'s execution found in navigating national education policy and funding, forging partnerships with municipal and state governments, confronting widespread cultural perspectives on teaching as a profession, and managing relationships with local school administrators and staff, Ensina!'s staff and board, despite some success and demonstrated impact, decide to suspend the program in January. Following this decision, Fabio Campos, the most recent CEO of Ensina!, contemplates the possibility of relauching a restructured Ensina! to help bring about enduring, transformative reform to Brazil's public education system, which he believes to be crucial to the future success of Brazil as a nation. The case presents students the opportunity to explore conditions necessary for successful collaborations between non-profit organizations and the government, grapple with the challenges of long-term large-scale performance improvement in public education, and examine Ensina!'s goals in public education reform and different operational strategies for organizations like Ensina! to consider implementing in the future.

Spreadsheet supplement for KEL740.

Spreadsheet supplement for KEL740.

Spreadsheet supplement for KEL740.

This case asks the student to take a stance on whether an portfolio manager should take a long or short position in the equity of Universal Display Corporation (PANL). The stock is polarizing, in that reasonable arguments could be made for both long and short positions. The case suggests a number of steps that an analyst might follow when valuing a company

Spreadsheet Supplement for KEL716

Ibrahim Dabdoub, the Group chief executive of the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), reflects on his past 30 years at the helm of the Bank. Under his leadership, NBK grew from a small local bank to one of the preeminent financial institutions in the region. However, following the global financial crisis of 2008 and the Arab Spring, NBK had to slow its regional expansion. Dabdoub wonders if the Bank is positioned to thrive and fulfill its collective ambition to become the Arab regional bank by 2020.

Victor Alexander was intrigued by the packet of papers that lay in front of him. The papers comprised a brochure that Garden State Bank had put together in an effort to sell the Bonnie Road Distribution Center in Somerset, New Jersey, for $9.7 million. It was April 2013 and the New Jersey real estate market was recovering and the capital markets were in disarray. Alexander had convinced 10 friends to put up $200,000 each in addition to his own $200,000 to acquire one or two troubled properties. Alexander decided to focus on warehouse properties due to their relatively small size, their strong historical performance, and his relevant experience. He wondered whether Bonnie Road would make a good investment.

Though it had wiped out billions of dollars of debt "Houdini-style" in the past, in 2008 the future of Caesars Entertainment Corporation was uncertain. This case presents students with the company's complex financial circumstances and an overview of the industry in which it competes, as seen through the lens of an associate at a credit hedge fund. Charged by the firm's senior portfolio manager with assessing an investment in the debt securities of Caesars Entertainment Corporation, the associate is asked to analyze the terms of a proposed leveraged buy-out.

Spreadsheet supplement for KEL738.

This case, a supplement to UVA-M-0663, examines the energy drink market during the span of years from 2005 to 2012. Red Bull still retained the highest share by value, but energy shots, a new product form pioneered by 5-hour Energy, were showing phenomenal growth in the category.

In 2013, Anders Byriel, CEO of the family-owned Danish textiles company, Kvadrat, considered the firm's strategic plan. In 2000, Byriel and Mette Bendix, Kvadrat's Product Director, had taken over management of the company from their fathers, who had founded Kvadrat in the 1960s. Byriel and Bendix had joined Kvadrat in 1992, and since that time, Kvadrat had grown from €19 million in annual sales to over €86 million. It had expanded its focus on selling textiles to European architects and furniture manufactures, becoming a global company with a wide product range and a broad customer base. Kvadrat's internal organization had grown and transformed to support this larger business. Now Kvadrat's management team was focused on a number of key initiatives: expansion into Asia; improved sales trends in its curtain and Soft Cells businesses; development of Kvadrat's retail sales operations; the implementation of new Human Resources practices; and the execution of a new organizational design. Was such an extensive growth, turnaround and internal development agenda feasible? And, were the initiatives being considered the right ones for Kvadrat?

In 2000, Inditex was one of the largest specialty apparel retailers in the world, with $2.4 billion in sales from 1,080 stores across 33 countries. Zara, Inditex's main brand, produced popular designer items at a fraction of design-house prices and could push an item from design to display in less than two weeks. This left most other fashion retailers, who took between 9-12 months for this process, far behind. However, Inditex was still only one-sixth the size of the world's largest specialty retailer, US-based Gap, and two-thirds the size of its Swedish rival, H&M. Amancio Ortega, Inditex's notoriously private Chairman and founder, was committed to challenging these industry leaders. This expansion required more capital and, in July 2000, the company announced it would IPO in 2001. There was also the question of a new management team to take the company forward. Ortega was approaching retirement as was the CEO, José Maria Castellano. The first attempt to find a younger CEO had failed. Hopefully, an IPO would attract a new management team that could maintain Inditex's rapid expansion.

In the 11 years since its public offering, Inditex and its flagship brand, Zara, had expanded into 86 countries, achieved $21.6 billion in revenue, and become the largest specialty apparel retailer in the world. In marked contrast to the general malaise of the Bolsa de Madrid, Inditex's share price tripled from 2008 to 2012 and traded at 25 times expected 2013 earnings, a 15% premium over Swedish rival, H&M. From 1,080 stores in 2000, it had expanded to 6,009 locations while sales and operating profits grew 25% p.a over this period. It had also established online stores across 23 different markets, with plans for launches in Russia and Canada during 2013, and it managed eight different brands. CEO Pablo Isla remained confident of future success and anticipated store expansion would continue growing at 8%-10% per year for the next three to five years. How could Inditex best maintain its strong growth and fend off competition?