This case is based on the real-life experiences of Matt Miner, who completed his MBA at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in 2009. After completing his degree, Miner realized that he and his growing family needed to prepare better financially for life post-MBA. This realization prompted him to pursue a program of household savings that would allow his family to be debt-free within five years. The case provides a short narrative along with exhibits containing quantitative information and assumptions. Students can work with the information and assumptions to address whether the Miner family could be debt-free within five years, even in the face of significant debt accumulated in the pursuit of Miner's MBA degree. Miner and his wife are contemplating significant household budgetary changes at the end of the third calendar quarter of 2010. The case is motivated by management accounting student anecdotes over many years, where the students claim to learn critical financial concepts in the course, yet they do not fully apply their learning to their personal lives. It also introduces a brief connection of management accounting to behavioral economics, specifically the literature on behavioral nudging via meaningful metrics that capture obscure information.
In the summer of 2019, notable track and field athlete Gwen Berry was representing Team USA at the Pan American Games in Peru when, having won the hammer throw-her specialty-she stood anxiously on the podium for the medal ceremony as the United States national anthem began to play. As she thought about both her own challenging upbringing and the social and racial injustice in the United States, exemplified by a recent encounter she'd had with a suffering homeless person, Berry wanted to make a gesture of protest. To do so, however, was against the International Olympic Committee's (IOC's) Rule 50, which prohibited protest in many sports venues, and would no doubt result in Berry's being disciplined at best, and perhaps even prohibited from further competition at worst. She was torn between making a statement there on the podium and the possible consequences and harm to her athletic career that might ensue if she did. This case pairs well with a technical note about the IOC's Rule 50, ""The United States Olympic Committee and Rule 50 in the 21st Century"" (UVA-E-0478).
This case is a follow-up to ""Gwen Berry and the Politics of Protest (A)"" (UVA-E-0479). Gwen Berry did protest at the Pan American Games in the summer of 2019 by raising her fist in the air when the US national anthem was playing. Pushback by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the public was swift and fierce. Berry, along with US fencing team member Race Imboden, who also protested, was put on problem for a year and immediately lost the sponsors who had supported her. With few exceptions, her fellow athletes voiced no support. However, after the death of George Floyd in May 2020 and the subsequent protests and sustained examination of social and racial-justice issues, things seemed to be turning a positive corner. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee apologized to Berry and seemed to be making the protest rules more lenient. Yet Berry knew that the underlying problems still existed and that the IOC maintained its grip on how protests could occur and on the athletes' lives and livelihoods. Berry thought about how she should move forward, both to propel her track and field career and to help other athletes stand up for themselves with the USOPC and make their voices heard-and, hopefully, to change the mindset and thinking of the IOC leadership.
This case is used to demonstrate the implementation of the residual income (RI) model using mid-cap SGX-listed firm Sheng Siong. Students are provided with basic financial statements and forecast assumptions. They are to use the data to construct the condensed financial statements and to derive the equity valuation as at the beginning of 2022 using the RI model and discounted cash flow (DCF) model. The case is useful for students to learn the mechanics of the RI and DCF model. The case can be done either as an in-class workshop/exercise or as an out-of-class assignment.
This case describes Shentong Metro Group's ("Shentong Metro Group" or "the Group") strategic transformation ("Three Transformations"), focusing on its transit-oriented development (TOD) between 2009 and 2020. As the world's most extensive urban metro system ("Metro"), its strategic transformation grew from the strategic intent to contribute to Shanghai's vision of improving residents' quality of life while ensuring the Group's sustainable development. The Group successfully planned and implemented its TOD initiative, completing three projects between 2012 and 2019. However, as a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE), the Group faced multiple challenges. First, conceptualizing and implementing the TOD initiative was not easy as Shentong Metro Group has to meet various social, financial, and operational goals. These goals were often vaguely defined (e.g., more environment friendly), while others were incompatible or even contradictory (e.g., increase employment while reducing costs). Second, the Group's core capabilities were in engineering, construction, and operational management of the Metro system. It lacked real estate development and management capabilities that were fundamental to the initiative. Third, the institutional environment and policies relating to TOD in Shanghai were underdeveloped and continually evolving. While the past TOD projects had, to some extent, overcome these challenges, the Group still faces many more ahead of future TOD projects. Some important questions include: What lessons could be gleaned from previous TOD projects? How should the Group fine-tune future TOD initiatives to realize the "Three Transformations?" How could it seize new opportunities based on Shanghai's urban development master plan?
Increasing digitalization of grocery retail and quick commerce reveals insights about managing complex supply chains at scale and shifting revenue streams from product sales to data monetization. How are the roles of retailers changing? What happens if marginal cost goes to zero? How might new models change the grocery value chain? Building on earlier future of commerce themes, this note illustrates the challenges and opportunities of next generation retail trends in the grocery sector, including automated order management, logistics optimization, automated fulfillment centers, and the outlook for the future.
This case focuses on the experience of a newly hired procurement manager who wanted to turn around the inventory management system at an oil and gas drilling contractor company-a step that seemed imminent. The case walks students through the inventory management process of a typical oil and gas drilling contractor to eliminate inefficiencies. By studying this case, students will realize the importance of efficient inventory management for the profitability of the company, identify inefficiencies in the existing inventory management process, learn the complexities involved in the inventory management process, and come up with their own optimum solutions.
FunctionFox Systems Inc. (FunctionFox) was a small company headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, specializing in project management and timesheet tracking software. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing restrictions, FunctionFox decided to move to 100 per cent remote work in late 2020 and sold the building where its office had been located. In early 2022, when the pandemic appeared to be subsiding, the president of FunctionFox was considering whether the company should continue with fully remote work, return to in-person work, or find a hybrid mode. She had to consider the pros and cons of each alternative and prepare a recommendation for her colleagues.
As co-founders of home nursing company Buurtzorg, Jos de Blok and Gonnie Kronenberg prized both self-management and organizational learning. Buurtzorg's 10,000 nurses across 950 neighborhood nursing teams in the Netherlands were empowered to manage themselves, both in terms of client care and team management. In its 16 years of existence, that had made Buurtzorg highly successful and had made its model attractive both for other Dutch companies and internationally. Yet because neighborhood teams managed themselves, so much of what they learned remained in the team. While nurses would sometimes try to spread such solutions to peer nursing teams, such as through calls/texts or the compan's internal social network BuurtzorgWeb, there was no holistic, top-down process for reviewing and disseminating best practices across all nursing teams-in part because Buurtzorg had been designed to avoid such hierarchical, top-down management in favor of a more flat, nimble, and minimally bureaucratic organization. They attributed much of the company's success (in terms of high client satisfaction and low employee turnover) to that model. But as the Dutch population aged and the country faced an increasingly dire nursing shortage, nurses would need to work more efficiently than ever, and elevating local, variegated learning to company-wide best practices would be one way to do so. How could Buurtzorg break the tradeoff between prizing self-management and effective sharing of best practices for organizational learning?
Chris-Tia Donaldson was the CEO and founder of Thank God It's Natural (tgin), a specialty hair care line for women with naturally curly, kinky, or wavy hair types. By early 2019, Donaldson had built tgin into a national brand in the United States, with its products widely available at large retailers such as Walmart and Target, as well as in specialty beauty retail stores like Sally Beauty. One important beauty retailer still did not carry the brand, however: Ulta Beauty, a US chain of 1,196 brick-and-mortar beauty stores located predominantly in high-traffic shopping centers around the country. Ulta also had a robust online storefront in ulta.com and had cultivated a vibrant social media presence. On Donaldson's desk was an offer from Ulta Beauty to stock tgin for the first time. Should she commit to this deal, knowing she was setting aside other opportunities, such as e commerce, direct-to-consumer (DTC), and the pursuit of additional distribution channels? All things considered: Was this distribution agreement with Ulta really the best path forward for tgin?
Chris Pew, an expert backcountry skier, was a founder and the CEO of 12-year-old TREW Gear, a premium niche brand for technical backcountry ski apparel. TREW Gear's products--snow bibs, jackets, pants, and accessories--were selling well through independent and specialty retailers and direct to consumers on trewgear.com. Heavy on Pew's mind, however, was how to continue growing the business, particularly the question of whether he should start selling TREW products on Amazon.com. Would TREW's presence on the behemoth US-based e-commerce platform help the company grow, long-term? Shorter-term, would selling on Amazon deliver the 20% increase in revenues his investors wanted to see by the end of the year? And if Amazon wasn't the best choice, what distribution strategy should he embrace?
In 2013, Jonathan Martin, a starting lineman for the Miami Dolphins, left the team. He cited the negative effects of the team's culture-specifically, bullying and mistreatment by several of his teammates-on his well-being, saying it had contributed to depression and thoughts of self-harm. The news of Martin's departure exploded across media channels in the following days. At the behest of the Dolphins' ownership, the US National Football League (NFL) hired a law firm to investigate. On February 14, 2014, the law firm's findings (called the Wells Report) were released to the public, and they were damning. There was clear evidence of harassment targeting Martin as well as others on the Dolphins team. But while some within the NFL reacted to the findings with dismay, others said that playing football was ""a man's job,"" and indicated that the behavior called bullying and harassment was simply part of the high-testosterone culture. This public-sourced case and its follow-up, ""A Dolphin Bullied: Jonathan Martin's NFL Experience in Miami (B)"" (UVA-E-0481) use the context of the NFL to expand student understanding of gender binaries as shaped by racial and socioeconomic factors, and to discuss possible interventions to diminish turnover and promote inclusion. They promote a discussion of how underrepresented individuals navigate a work environment where they are not prototypical. This case also allows for a discussion of mental health as part of a broader focus on wellness at work.
This case should be used after students have read "A Dolphin Bullied: Jonathan Martin's NFL Experience in Miami (A) (UVA-E-0477). It provides a brief update on actions taken by different stakeholders following the release of the Wells Report in 2014. The case also directly addresses issues of sexuality in the NFL.
Confecciones La Montaña (CLM), a social business founded by former Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) combatants in rural Colombia, emerged out of the peace deal signed between FARC and the Colombian government in 2016. The business was part of the effort of former combatants to rejoin civilian life and help alleviate poverty in conflict-affected areas, thereby nurturing appropriate conditions to sustain peace in the country. However, the workshop had a limited productive capacity, which hindered its ability to grow, and, in 2021, the general manager had to determine the best way to increase capacity and ensure the sustainability of the business. Should CLM outsource some of its manufacturing to others in the area, or should it support the development of other clothing workshops created by former combatants across the country?
Founded in California in 2012, Ravel Law Inc. (Ravel) was a legal tech start-up that developed groundbreaking legal analytics products. In 2017, Ravel’s co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) was deciding between two very different paths to take the company—a decision that would shape Ravel’s future and ultimately determine how the CEO would exit the company. One path would lead Ravel to an acquisition or sale, and the other would allow the company to further develop its technology and eventually lead to an initial public offering (IPO). Should the CEO sell Ravel now and harvest its existing value, or should he hold on to the company and raise money to build internal capital for a future IPO? As the leader of Ravel, the CEO had to weigh the benefits and costs of fundraising for a third round of investor money against the benefits and costs of selling Ravel. While doing so, he also had to consider what would bring the most value to Ravel’s stakeholders as well as satisfy his personal interests in the venture and in an exit.
Maya Fonseca, the marketing analyst for video streaming service FilmCast, and her colleague Rupert Cruz had to interpret the results of a conjoint analysis conducted by their company. FilmCast was a large company, competing against Videosource and Webflickstream. The marketing analysts were debating whether it made sense to lower the price of their services and if the conjoint analysis results supported this idea.