A business's purpose is to serve its customers, and that means taking risks sometimes. One of these risks is losing money in lawsuits, which could be filed by employees, customers, or anyone else who was negatively impacted by the business. Insurance offers protection against these liabilities to a degree; nevertheless, lawsuits will still hurt the business in some way. This text looks at economic damages and its role in insurance claims, lawsuits, and injunctions against businesses. Readers should be able to understand economic damages as an aspect of business liability, outline business risks posed by economic damages, describe key determinants of economic damages, and estimate economic damages and business loss. While this book gives a broad overview of the connection between business liability and economic damages, it could not possibly cover all the issues that can arise; however, it will be of benefit to business owners, managers, students, lawyers, and economists who deal with business liability and liability cases. Chapter 1 offers an explanation of business liability generally. Liabilities are debts or obligations owed to others; in a business context, this can include loans and obligations in business contracts. Sources of business liability include owners, employees, customers, government, the public, and other businesses. The idea of social contracts is also discussed and is defined as an idea or framework that serves to define and limit the rights and responsibilities of society's members. Insurance as a solution to unexpected liabilities is explained. The insurer has an obligation to the business, and per the social contract, businesses have an obligation to society. Business liability can negatively impact innovation and economic growth, so in the United States, financial liability has been capped for each corporation.
A business's purpose is to serve its customers, and that means taking risks sometimes. One of these risks is losing money in lawsuits, which could be filed by employees, customers, or anyone else who was negatively impacted by the business. Insurance offers protection against these liabilities to a degree; nevertheless, lawsuits will still hurt the business in some way. This text looks at economic damages and its role in insurance claims, lawsuits, and injunctions against businesses. Readers should be able to understand economic damages as an aspect of business liability, outline business risks posed by economic damages, describe key determinants of economic damages, and estimate economic damages and business loss. While this book gives a broad overview of the connection between business liability and economic damages, it could not possibly cover all the issues that can arise; however, it will be of benefit to business owners, managers, students, lawyers, and economists who deal with business liability and liability cases. Chapter 2 discusses economic losses that businesses might be liable for as well as other economic concepts. Three ways that economic loss can happen are described: prevention of goods production by businesses, prevention of the distribution of produced goods to consumers, and prevention of consumption of goods received by consumers. The general concepts of economic opportunity and economic loss are explained, and several different types and examples are given, such as competitive markets, employment and pensions, and intellectual property. Goods consumption is described along with utility - the usefulness of the product itself or of the consumption. Four utility principles are proposed and explained in terms of society's utility function. Social economic loss is any lowering of society's utility. Several market principles are discussed, which are useful in estimating business liability.
A business's purpose is to serve its customers, and that means taking risks sometimes. One of these risks is losing money in lawsuits, which could be filed by employees, customers, or anyone else who was negatively impacted by the business. Insurance offers protection against these liabilities to a degree; nevertheless, lawsuits will still hurt the business in some way. This text looks at economic damages and its role in insurance claims, lawsuits, and injunctions against businesses. Readers should be able to understand economic damages as an aspect of business liability, outline business risks posed by economic damages, describe key determinants of economic damages, and estimate economic damages and business loss. While this book gives a broad overview of the connection between business liability and economic damages, it could not possibly cover all the issues that can arise; however, it will be of benefit to business owners, managers, students, lawyers, and economists who deal with business liability and liability cases. This chapter explains compensation for economic loss and how to roughly calculate how much compensation a business may face. Transfers implied by compensation and the role of markets in achieving transfers are both important aspects to consider. The court's approach to loss compensation and its connection to market principles are discussed. The best possible compensation rule for the courts might ideally maximize social utility. Courts could also learn something about compensation from markets as an economic institution. The market approach to loss compensation is described, and examples are given. Various market principles are used extensively in order to develop formulas for market prices, which can then be used to determine compensation for economic loss.
A business's purpose is to serve its customers, and that means taking risks sometimes. One of these risks is losing money in lawsuits, which could be filed by employees, customers, or anyone else who was negatively impacted by the business. Insurance offers protection against these liabilities to a degree; nevertheless, lawsuits will still hurt the business in some way. This text looks at economic damages and its role in insurance claims, lawsuits, and injunctions against businesses. Readers should be able to understand economic damages as an aspect of business liability, outline business risks posed by economic damages, describe key determinants of economic damages, and estimate economic damages and business loss. While this book gives a broad overview of the connection between business liability and economic damages, it could not possibly cover all the issues that can arise; however, it will be of benefit to business owners, managers, students, lawyers, and economists who deal with business liability and liability cases. Chapter 4 explores when the evidence is unclear concerning whether or not claims of economic harm are valid. Evidence as seen by the insurer is discussed. Liability insurance is specifically described as well as insurance regulation. When it comes to the court, evidence may be seen differently. Courts have standards of evidence, which are a part of procedural law. These standards assess economic harm, just as insurance regulation does. Once a business is found liable for economic loss imposed on others, the dollar amount of economic loss must be determined by evidence. This chapter describes what that might look like with insurance and the courts, and it gives formulas and examples to further explore evidence and economic damages. Evidence may come in the form of statistics, which can be used to discover fault for some action. Taxes and economics expert witnesses may also play a role.
A business's purpose is to serve its customers, and that means taking risks sometimes. One of these risks is losing money in lawsuits, which could be filed by employees, customers, or anyone else who was negatively impacted by the business. Insurance offers protection against these liabilities to a degree; nevertheless, lawsuits will still hurt the business in some way. This text looks at economic damages and its role in insurance claims, lawsuits, and injunctions against businesses. Readers should be able to understand economic damages as an aspect of business liability, outline business risks posed by economic damages, describe key determinants of economic damages, and estimate economic damages and business loss. While this book gives a broad overview of the connection between business liability and economic damages, it could not possibly cover all the issues that can arise; however, it will be of benefit to business owners, managers, students, lawyers, and economists who deal with business liability and liability cases. Chapter 5 expands on the previous chapter and discusses cases where losses are suffered by workers or the families of someone who was wrongfully injured or killed. Business liability includes situations where a business causes someone to lose economic opportunity; one of these opportunity losses is the opportunity to work. In terms of personal injury cases, worklife expectancy needs to be taken into account. A formula for expected worklife is given as well as formulas to compare worklife expectancy with life expectancy and worklife expectancy with healthy life expectancy. The idea of worklife capacity is also discussed. Household services must be considered as well when calculating overall economic loss and damages. For example, if the injury prevents someone from being able to perform regular house or yard work, it may add to the damages for which the business is liable. In wrongful death cases, personal consumption is another factor.
A business's purpose is to serve its customers, and that means taking risks sometimes. One of these risks is losing money in lawsuits, which could be filed by employees, customers, or anyone else who was negatively impacted by the business. Insurance offers protection against these liabilities to a degree; nevertheless, lawsuits will still hurt the business in some way. This text looks at economic damages and its role in insurance claims, lawsuits, and injunctions against businesses. Readers should be able to understand economic damages as an aspect of business liability, outline business risks posed by economic damages, describe key determinants of economic damages, and estimate economic damages and business loss. While this book gives a broad overview of the connection between business liability and economic damages, it could not possibly cover all the issues that can arise; however, it will be of benefit to business owners, managers, students, lawyers, and economists who deal with business liability and liability cases. This chapter looks at antitrust law and focuses on a major theme of antitrust economics: ill-gotten profit. Benefits and challenges of a competitive marketplace are described. Supply and demand in the competitive marketplace is also explained with examples and formulas. Market equilibrium is when supply and demand meet - there is no excess or shortage of goods. Competition provides this equilibrium and the best deal to both buyers and sellers. Collusion and its negative effects are discussed with examples as well as cooperation among firms. Another topic explored is foreclosure; special conditions can mean that foreclosure is anticompetitive. Multimarket antitrust economics are also discussed, including vertical and horizontal linkages, cooperation, and anticompetitive multimarket conduct. Ultimately, businesses that harm competition may be liable for economic damages.
Carlos Ghosn, a Brazilian-Lebanese-French, is by many counts, one of the - if not the - most celebrated automotive executives of the late 20th and early 21st century. This is a two-part case about his career, leadership, and decision-making. Part A starts in 1999, the early days of Ghosn's arrival in Japan, where he went on a mission to rescue Nissan, one of the biggest Japanese car manufacturers with a long tradition that had run into trouble and was in danger of bankruptcy. Ghosn went there after Renault entered into an alliance with Nissan in 1999. The case then goes back in time, following Ghosn from when he was born in Brazil, and then moved to Lebanon and later France, where he studied and began his career at Michelin. The case ends in November 2018, with talk about the potential merger of Renault and Nissan into a single company having stalled, leaving the alliance in status quo. Part A of the case is structured around a key tension: What happens when the cosmopolitan, melting-pot, aggressive Ghosn - who made his name as 'le cost-killer' - meets corporate Japan, with its very homogenous, indirect, and conflict-avoiding culture? Part B starts on November 19, 2018, when Carlos Ghosn is arrested as he arrives at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan. The accusations against him include allegations of misappropriation of company funds for personal use and concealment of a large amount of remuneration. According to the chief prosecutor, Ghosn's wrongdoings were more serious than insider trading. The case presents in some detail the different allegations against Ghosn, and then describes the reactions of Ghosn and Nissan to the accusations. It ends with a recounting of some of the subsequent events, including the granting of bail to Ghosn. Part B of the case is meant to facilitate discussion around a key question: How could someone as successful as Ghosn have come to engage in the kinds of behaviours he was accused of?
Digital to the core has been a rally call in DBS Bank for almost a decade. The bank was recognized as the "World's Best Digital Bank" by Euromoney twice in 2016 and 2018 respectively. What role did HR play in supporting the bank's transformation journey? The aspiration to transform the bank into a 28,000-person startup culture requires the Human Resources Division to reimage the HR value chain. What would a HR digital roadmap look like? How would employees, including potential new hires, experience an employee-centric digital culture? In a global war for digital talent, how to win the heads and hearts of employees?
Over a 10-year period, from 2008 to 2018, Indian tire production increased from 80 to 180 million units. Indian tire companies were thriving and investing heavily abroad. Four Indian tire companies were among the top 30 tire makers in the world. Although India was expected to experience high or hyper-growth in tire manufacturing, growth at such a fast pace brought uncertainties and risks. In addition to competition from low-cost tires imported to India, the industry was challenged by volatile pricing for the raw materials used in tire production, government initiatives that were having unintended consequences on tire sales, environmental considerations, and protectionism in India's largest export markets. What strategies did the industry need to reach profitability despite the ups and downs of the supply market, its dependence on large customers, changes in government policies, and environmental protection initiatives?
Haboydem was a second hand clothing store in Jerusalem that operated as a social enterprise by hiring and training individuals who were living with mental illness. The two store locations had successfully trained workers, and 70 per cent were able to find employment in mainstream businesses; however, in mid-2017, the co founders faced new issues. How should they deal with emerging competition from other second hand clothing retailers? How should they address the possibility of partnerships with other organizations? Should the company expand to additional locations or into additional activities? How should the co-founders measure Haboydem's success? They needed to reflect on how to best address these challenges, and how their social enterprise could best move forward toward a long term future.
This case illustrates the challenges that retailers face when they aggressively pursue geographical growth by expanding both their physical store network and their online presence. It features Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Retail, a franchisee of Carrefour hypermarkets in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, a company that strived to strike the right balance of offline and online for each of the markets it served. MAF Retail had a strong presence in the Middle East, particularly in its home market, the United Arab Emirates, and it had been building its presence in Egypt, Pakistan, Kenya, Georgia, and most recently in Uganda. There were also opportunities to open hundreds more stores in each of these markets and expand into 15 other countries in Asia and Africa where it had a license. But the retail environment was changing across the globe, owing to a shift in consumer behaviors that accompanied the rise of the online-only players. CEO Hani Weiss had been driving a digital transformation within the company, building the necessary technology and online capabilities to provide a seamless experience to its customers. The company also partnered with online-only players to increase its reach to customers in countries where MAF Retail had a presence and to provide an online offer to customers where it had no online store. Going forward, Weiss faced hard choices in deciding which markets to prioritize. He also had to determine the right balance of offline and online for each market. Should he invest his resources in opening new stores, or in building online capabilities-or both? How would his strategy differ in the key markets?
The widespread shift to remote working can endanger corporate culture, but leaders can take action to protect and sustain it. They should recognize it in action and call it out, be open to modifications that arise from new circumstances, and take advantage of disruption to bolster core values.
Opportunity marketplaces are an example of a digital platform that can improve data-driven decision-making and align talent quickly to new priorities. In this pandemic-market environment, they represent a step change in companies' ability to efficiently and effectively match labor with tasks.
In July 2019, AFC Ajax's chief executive officer Edwin van der Sar finalized one of the biggest transfers in soccer-that of Matthijs de Ligt, only 19 years old but already one of the sports world's brightest stars-from AFC Ajax to Italian powerhouse Juventus FC for a €75 million fee. A few months earlier, Ajax had sold another young star, Frenkie de Jong, to Spanish champions FC Barcelona for a record €86 million. Once Europe's most feared team, Ajax had lost its prominence to teams from Europe's bigger leagues since the mid-1990s but gained a stellar reputation as a feeder of young talent to clubs in those leagues. Now, just as Ajax seemingly was making its way back to the highest echelons of European soccer-in the 2018-2019 season, Ajax managed to advance to the semifinal of the Champions League, Europe's most elite club competition-the club would lose two players who played a crucial role in its comeback. Did van der Sar have the right strategy to find long-term success? Could Ajax continue to develop soccer's next superstars-all while challenging Europe's elite clubs?
In April 2013, TransDigm, a company that manufactured a wide range of highly engineered aerospace parts for both military and commercial aircraft, announced an agreement to acquire Aerosonic Corporation for $39 million in cash (1.2 times Aerosonic's sales of $31 million). Having acquired more than 40 companies in the past 20 years, TransDigm was an experienced acquirer with a unique business model focused exclusively on value creation. This case describes TransDigm's acquisition process with a focus on the merger negotiations and the key contractual terms in the merger agreement (break-up fees, go shop period, standstill provision, top-up options, etc.). It serves as a complement to the TransDigm in 2017 case (HBS #720-422). Whereas the TransDigm case provides an overview of the company, its history, its value creation strategy, and its financial performance, the Aerosonic case provides a deep dive into a single transaction as a way to illustrate TransDigm's acquisition-driven growth strategy and to practice valuing an acquisition offer using multiple methods. Ultimately, the goal is to understand the change in value from a standalone company to a fully integrated and value-enhanced subsidiary of the TransDigm Group.
The first two cases in this series are set in the financial services industry, and explore whether it is better for back-office workers to be generalists who provide the flexibility of being able to handle the complete range of transactions that the company faces or specialists who focus on a subset of the overall transaction mix. The objective is to introduce the advantages of demand pooling in reducing the variability associated with the forecasting of highly variable workloads, while also demonstrating the benefits to worker learning and efficiency improvements that can come from specialization. The case is set at the Retail Investor Group Operations of the Vanguard Group, the mutual funds and ETF giant. Karin Risi, the managing director, is faced with a back-office operation that hasn't kept up with massive transaction growth, one that is struggling under the weight of mounting client phone call and transaction volumes, client complaints, and buckling employee morale. And worse, the press was taking notice. The (A) case details the complexity in the growing backlog and frames the question of whether they should pursue a specialist model. The (B) case, for distribution in class, details the impact of an initial segmentation of workload into eight categories and poses additional questions for class discussion and analysis.
The first two cases in this series are set in the financial services industry, and explore whether it is better for back-office workers to be generalists who provide the flexibility of being able to handle the complete range of transactions that the company faces or specialists who focus on a subset of the overall transaction mix. The objective is to introduce the advantages of demand pooling in reducing the variability associated with the forecasting of highly variable workloads, while also demonstrating the benefits to worker learning and efficiency improvements that can come from specialization. The case is set at the Retail Investor Group Operations of the Vanguard Group, the mutual funds and ETF giant. Karin Risi, the managing director, is faced with a back-office operation that hasn't kept up with massive transaction growth, one that is struggling under the weight of mounting client phone call and transaction volumes, client complaints, and buckling employee morale. And worse, the press was taking notice. The (A) case details the complexity in the growing backlog and frames the question of whether they should pursue a specialist model. The (B) case, for distribution in class, details the impact of an initial segmentation of workload into eight categories and poses additional questions for class discussion and analysis.
The case series titled "Indian Railways - Powering Through to Excellence (A) & (B)" are highly intricate and complex primary data pricing cases involving a public-private partnership (PPP) undertaking by the Indian government, specifically the Indian Railways (IR). The seed of the idea lived through multiple governments and IR administrations before becoming a reality. The pricing and plant development decision took seven years to execute. While the case can be viewed broadly as a study of a PPP project in India, the significant aspect of the project is that it was initiated primarily with price considerations in mind. The IR had been facing rising engine costs for its locomotives, poor asset utilization rates, exorbitant costs for replacement parts and underperformance in asset service and repair. The technology platform of its current fleet of 6,000 HP locomotives and spare components was nearly 20 years old.