Students must to decide whether Horizon Lines should seek Chapter 11 protection or attempt a voluntary financial restructuring. This case presents students with a wide range of financial restructuring alternatives to consider and should give them an appreciation of the advantages and disadvantages faced by a firm choosing to use the bankruptcy court. The case is best taught to experienced students who understand corporate finance fundamentals and, in particular, grasp the principes of valuation and capital structure. It is recommended that it be taught either just before or just after a Chapter 11 case such as "Delphi Corporation" (UVA-F-1617).
Microsoft Office was facing an uphill task in engaging the undergraduate student community. Attracting this audience-the most tech-savvy generation ever-was critical to the future of the Microsoft Office franchise. Microsoft's past advertising efforts to reach this audience had proven lackluster, while its key competitors were gradually entrenching themselves among this demographic. Microsoft's challenge was to determine the best tactics that could successfully connect with this audience. The (A) case describes Microsoft's dilemma and briefly addresses what college students mostly care about: managing homework, creating great-looking schoolwork, preparing for the workplace, and collaborating with friends and classmates. It also provides competitive information, chiefly Google's increasing presence in universities and its focus on the higher education market and the growing influence of Facebook among students and its evolution into a productivity tool. The (B) case describes the qualitative research tools that Microsoft used to get a better understanding of college students: day diaries using Twitter, technology diaries using the Internet and smartphones, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews with students. The case helps students understand the value of ethnographic and qualitative research techniques, draw inferences from the data, and subsequently make recommendations. It illustrates how ethnographic and observational studies enrich research by generating deeper consumer insight than traditional methods.
On June 12, 2008, Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems announced plans to merge. The combined company was to be renamed Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE). Invitrogen offered to acquire Applied Biosystems for $6.7 billion in cash and stock. AB shareholders would receive $38 per share in cash and stock, representing a 17 percent premium over the share's closing price on Wednesday, June 11, 2008.
Based in Nairobi, Kenya, EcoPost manufactures construction posts out of the thousands of tons of plastic waste produced daily by the city. The posts, which are manufactured using second-hand industrial equipment, are frequently used to build fences, park benches, and other objects. Because lumber is very scarce in Kenya, and subject to theft and termite damage, the posts sell very well, and the company has trouble keeping up with demand. The company's directors are seeking financing to purchase new equipment and scale and diversify their production. However, they face many obstacles overcoming skepticism from investors, largely because of their relatively poor financial record keeping.
This case documents the challenges involved in the adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) by the government in a democratic system, especially in the context of a developing country. Nemmadi was an e-governance project initiated in 2004 by the government of the state of Karnataka located in the southern part of India. Since the beginning of the new millennium, the policy and the political environment in Karnataka had turned quite favourable for such ICT initiatives. Aimed at improving the transparency, accountability and efficiency of the government administration at the village level, Nemmadi was an ambitious project conceived to offer digital services to rural citizens across 800 hoblis (cluster of villages) in the state. The services included issue of certificates of several kinds, which entitled the citizens belonging to economically and socially backward sections of the society to avail of benefits and concessions under various government schemes conceived as part of affirmative action by the state. Project Nemmadi was conceived as a 'sequel' to a celebrated e-governance initiative called Bhoomi, which involved digitization of seven million agricultural land records, and was a landmark in e-governance in India. Bhoomi was championed and closely led by Shekhar Puri, the then Principal Secretary of e-governance who also led the Nemmadi project during its roll-out phase. The roll-out of Project Nemmadi faced many challenges. The village functionaries and their interface with Nemmadi impacted project implementation, and hence adoption. It had received its share of bouquets and brickbats and had won several awards. Naveen Iyer took charge as the Principal Secretary of this department. Naveen's recommendations to the political leadership and the decisions that follow could transform the project to a truly village-level Citizen Service Center.
In 2012, Bill Allen and Maria Pejter, of Maersk Group's Human Resources Department, sat down to consider some key aspects of Maersk's talent management strategy. Headquartered in Copenhagen, Maersk was a global conglomerate with large shipping and oil & gas businesses. Among the talent management issues being discussed: an increase an employee turnover; internal training and development programs; hiring experienced talent from outside the firm; rehiring former employees ("boomerangs"); and increasing employee diversity.
As Clayton Christensen drove to the studio to deliver an online executive education class, he pondered the future of management education. How big a threat did online degree programs, corporate universities, and other innovations in the delivery of management training represent to the MBA program of the Harvard Business School or other residential programs? Certainly new innovations in the industry promised to deliver management education to a much broader audience at a far lower cost. Christensen had noted that many companies were less and less present in MBA recruiting, and he believed that companies' ability to train employees within the context of their jobs was quelling their desire for MBAs with less company-specific general management training. He wondered if the changes afoot represented a threat or an opportunity for the HBS MBA program. The case presents data on the HBS MBA program, including career and professional development statistics so that students are able to assess the cost of receiving an HBS MBA, and they are able to compare that cost to an online MBA program.
Raj Biyani faced tough challenges managing Microsoft IT India: leading a remote development organization in which key decisions were made in Redmond, and managing an organization that was perceived as less strategic than its sister Microsoft India Development Center with which it shared the Hyderabad, India site. The case follows Biyani's thought process in diagnosing the organization's problems, and poses the challenges of leading globally distributed operations.
Jon Corzine became the CEO of MF Global in March of 2010. 18 months later, and in the wake of a massive trade in European sovereign debt, the firm filed for bankruptcy, the 8th largest in U.S. history. As the firm failed it was discovered that over $1.6 billion in segregated customer assets was missing. The case explores issues that may have contributed to MF Global's demise, including its business model and the competitive pressures it faced prior to and following Corzine's arrival, and the strategic and managerial decisions taken by Corzine to reorient the firm. In addition, the sovereign debt trade, created to boost earnings, is described in some in some detail.
When MF Global failed in October of 2011, it was discovered that $1.6 billion of segregated customer assets was missing. Safeguarding these assets was the firm's responsibility, and in the words of one SEC official, its "sacred obligation." What is known about the missing assets is that they were taken from the accounts of customers trading in commodity futures and used in other areas of the firm; less is known about how it happened. The case describes MF Global's operating model, certain management decisions, its regulatory oversight, and the chaos of its final days, allowing for an exploration of how so much money could have gone missing. (Note: This case may be in read in conjunction with its companion, "MF Global: Changing Stripes" (HBS Case 312- 105), which discusses the managerial and strategic issues leading to the firm's collapse.)
Venture capitalist Atul Kapadia was inclined to provide seed funding for Sujeet Kumar and Michael Sinkula to found Envia Systems, a lithium-ion battery company. Admittedly, Envia was little more than the founders' vision of an affordable electric vehicle and the potential of playing in a very large market. But for Kapadia, it was precisely these two key ingredients that made Envia attractive and akin to other early-stage investments he had made at Bay Partners.
In April 2012, the director of marketing for Pepsi Beverages Canada assessed the launch plans for the year's version of what had traditionally been called the Pepsi Challenge. Now called the Pepsi Ultimate Taste Challenge, the goals of the campaign were very aggressive and, of course, a Coke versus Pepsi battle was always difficult. The novelty for summer 2012 was the emphasis on social media, and the interaction between social media and the Ultimate Taste Challenge. In addition, the marketing director was targeting the Millenials as a target market segment. These consumers were a notoriously difficult group to market to. The marketing director assessed the proposal he received and needed to make a decision as to whether to approve it, or whether changes were necessary to achieve his market share goals.
In April 2012, the director of marketing for Pepsi Beverages Canada assessed the launch plans for the year's version of what had traditionally been called the Pepsi Challenge. Now called the Pepsi Ultimate Taste Challenge, the goals of the campaign were very aggressive and, of course, a Coke versus Pepsi battle was always difficult. The novelty for summer 2012 was the emphasis on social media, and the interaction between social media and the Ultimate Taste Challenge. In addition, the marketing director was targeting the Millenials as a target market segment. These consumers were a notoriously difficult group to market to. The marketing director assessed the proposal he received and needed to make a decision as to whether to approve it, or whether changes were necessary to achieve his market share goals.
Founded in 1987, Invitrogen was one of the largest catalog life science companies in the industry. Its customers came from academic research, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and government laboratories. Scientists viewed Invitrogen as a one-stop shop for all major molecular biology, biochemistry and cell culture reagent products, with prices ranging from a hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars.
Kosmos Energy (Kosmos) was founded in 2003 by a small group of oil and gas industry veterans backed by private equity capital. The company's original plan was to explore for oil along the West African coast. If a commercial discovery was made, Kosmos would sell the asset to an exploration and production (E&P) firm. In 2007, Kosmos and its partners announced a major discovery in deepwater offshore Ghana. Three years later in December 2010, Kosmos was at a crossroads. First oil from the Ghana discovery, now called Jubilee, was delivered in November 2010. Earlier in the year, a sales agreement with ExxonMobil for Kosmos' interests in Ghana was terminated. Kosmos now had to decide on its corporate future and its presence in Ghana. Should the company remain a pure "E" company or expand to E&P, and should it retain its interest in Jubilee's development? Integral to both questions was how the company could either raise capital for, or reap capital from, the Jubilee field
A chief of medicine is attempting to determine the cost of the diagnoses of patients who are treated in her department. Three different cost systems are being evaluated.
This case provides students with an opportunity to think about a management control system that focuses on cost drivers and that has established clinical departments as profit centers.
This case describes a "bundled pricing" approach to managed care contracting. Bundled pricing is a contracting strategy whereby a hospital and its physicians share the risk of a fixed price contract. The case raises questions about managed care pricing strategies and hospital-physician relationships. Students must analyze the financial implications of the hospital's contracting strategy and propose an approach that provides appropriate incentives for physicians while minimizing the hospital's risk.
An introductory breakeven case designed for students with no prior experience with breakeven analysis. The purposes of the case are: (1) to teach the concept and techniques or breakeven analysis, (2) to clarify the difference among fixed, variable, and step-function costs, and (3) to demonstrate the relationship of costs and revenue to volume.