Spreadsheet for product 9B18N027.

In January 2018, an investment portfolio manager learned of a safety recall for Ford Motor Company (Ford) involving faulty airbags that failed to deploy upon collision. An investigation by U.S. regulators found that the company had been aware of these faulty airbags but had not taken proactive measures to mitigate the potential damage. As a result, in just one day, the share price for Ford dropped from $13.10 to $12.18 per share. The portfolio manager needed to anticipate the future of Ford and come up with a plan to protect his investors' wealth.

In 2017, wait times for kidney transplants in Ontario were getting out of hand. While patients from London Health Sciences Centre’s kidney transplant program in London, Ontario, had a reasonable wait of approximately one year, patients in Toronto's kidney transplant program waited almost four years. In an attempt to improve the overall wait times for all Ontario patients, the provincial Ministry of Health intended to merge the two currently independent programs and create a unified wait-list. Two doctors at London Health Sciences Centre were concerned about the effects of the merger for their patients in London, and asked an analytics specialist to determine the effects of the merger. Would the merger have the adverse outcome they expected for their patients’ wait times?

In early 2018, Blackstone announced that John McCormick would succeed Tom Hill as President and Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM), the largest fund-of-hedge funds in the world by a sizeable margin. As new CEO, McCormick must decide on strategic growth options for the firm as its traditional FOF business is maturing and growth in its nearly $80 billion in assets under management (AUM) is plateauing. In the recent past, BAAM had expanded into other investing businesses, making direct investments, seeding early-stage hedge funds, taking general partner stakes in investment management firms, and offering alternative investment products to retail investors. To determine the appropriate path forward, McCormick must assess whether BAAM has a competitive edge in each of these platforms, as well as if further expansion could create internal conflicts of interest within BAAM and, more broadly, Blackstone.

In early 2018, Nestlé announced the sale of its U.S. candy-making division and a select collection of twenty of its confectionery brands, including the Nestlé Crunch Bar, to Ferrero SpA for $2.8 billion. Under the terms of the Nestlé acquisition, each of the purchased confectionery brands was permitted to use the Nestlé parent brand name for one year after the close of the sale. After that time, the Nestlé Crunch Bar would be rebranded with the Ferrara parent brand (i.e., Ferrara Crunch Bar). As the Nestlé Crunch Bar brand transitioned to its new owners, it was time for some serious brand analysis to assess the brand equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar and plot a course for its future growth. How strong/weak was the brand? What were its sources of brand equity that could be leveraged in brand storytelling? Which types of messages might attract new consumers to the brand and what might work to cause infrequent users to purchase more often? Did the product itself need to be changed? Were there brand extension possibilities? Luckily, an old consumer research study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar conducted by Professor Gerald Zaltman was found on the shelves at Harvard Business School. The study used an innovative market research methodology developed by Professor Zaltman, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), which had proven to be useful to brand managers hoping to better assess and understand their brands. The research methodology and raw data from Professor Zaltman's ZMET study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar are presented in the original case as tools to help students assess and understand the brand equity of the Nestlé Crunch Bar and map its future strategic course. In this (B) case, the data from the study is analyzed and an executive summary of the results is presented.

In early 2018, Nestlé announced the sale of its U.S. candy-making division and a select collection of twenty of its confectionery brands, including the Nestlé Crunch Bar, to Ferrero SpA for $2.8 billion. Under the terms of the Nestlé acquisition, each of the purchased confectionery brands was permitted to use the Nestlé parent brand name for one year after the close of the sale. After that time, the Nestlé Crunch Bar would be rebranded as Crunch Bar with an endorsement from its new parent brand, Ferrara Candy Company, a division of Ferrero SpA. As the Nestlé Crunch Bar brand transitioned to its new owners, it was time for some serious brand analysis to assess its brand equity and plot a course for its future growth. How strong/weak was the brand? What were its sources of brand equity that could be leveraged in brand storytelling? Which types of messages might attract new consumers to the brand and what might work to cause infrequent users to purchase more often? Did the product itself need to be changed? Were there brand extension possibilities? Luckily, an old consumer research study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar conducted by Professor Gerald Zaltman was found on the shelves at Harvard Business School. The study used an innovative market research methodology developed by Professor Zaltman, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), which had proven to be useful to brand managers hoping to better assess and understand their brands. The research methodology and raw data from Professor Zaltman's ZMET study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar are presented in the case as tools to help students assess and understand the brand equity of the Nestlé Crunch Bar and map its future strategic course.

This technical note discusses the potential of Blockchain technologies in Africa, particularly to overcome institutional voids in trust and transactions.

Established in 2007, by early 2014 SoundCloud already boasted the second largest number of active music listeners among all streaming services and was recognized as the go-to platform for new artists. Yet, its founders Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss were questioning whether the firm should continue to focus on serving as a lab for emerging musical artists. They were wondering if the firm should instead enter the booming mainstream music-streaming market.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 219060.

In January 2017, the owner and founder of Storehouse Tea based in Cleveland, Ohio, was considering the company's next move. Storehouse Tea focused on providing organic, fair trade certified teas, and the founder was committed to operating her business in a way that would have a positive impact in the world by providing work to local refugees. However, she wondered how she could scale this impact. Among her options, she could introduce product extensions, pursue geographic expansion, target larger accounts, or hire additional employees. But which avenue for growth would best allow Storehouse Tea to further its core mission?

Cipla Limited was a pioneer in inhalation therapy in India, and was globally acclaimed for its range of inhalers for obstructive airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In 2014, the company wanted to take inhalation therapy to the masses, especially in the rural and semi-urban areas of the country. This required strengthening its reach at the general practitioner level (among primary care physicians) and extending optimal medical care to patients who were otherwise sub-optimally treated. The company proposed a further increase to the sales and marketing budget, but the head of Cipla Limited's respiratory division had a different viewpoint. He proposed establishing a lateral structure of doctors as knowledge experts to urge practitioners to adopt inhalation therapy, as he had done in a successful trial in Delhi. The company was looking forward to implementing this second option across the country, but there were various issues to resolve with such an unconventional approach, and challenges were anticipated in the plan's implementation and expansion.

Health Services Software (HSS) was a software company specializing in software for hospitals. Founded by a health care team with first-hand knowledge of the issues facing hospitals, HSS had first mover advantage. At the onset of HSS's operations, hospitals had capital funding that allowed them to acquire the software with five-year licensing agreements. Five years later in 2016, as the licences were expiring, the hospitals no longer had the capital funding and could not afford a large cash outlay from their operating budgets for a new five-year licence. In light of the change in funding options for the hospitals, HSS was considering whether to move to an annual-subscription-based software. But before the team could establish the prices for the software, they needed to better understand the company's cost structure. HSS hired a consultant to conduct the costing exercise.

On December 5, 2018 The Oak View Group (OVG) broke ground on the Seattle Center Arena (SCA) project. The cost of the project was not insignificant-and it continued to rise. Originally projected to cost $564 million, at groundbreaking the price tag stood at $850 million. Seattle sports fans were thrilled with the project. The city of Seattle had been without a winter sports team since 2008 when the Seattle SuperSonics, a National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise, left the city for Oklahoma. The SCA would be home to a new National Hockey League (NHL) franchise, and the hope was that, sooner rather than later, the NBA would return to Seattle. Tim Leiweke, cofounder and CEO of OVG, was ultimately responsible for the success of the project. A sports industry veteran with experience building sports facilities and developing event and sponsorship revenue for sports facilities, Leiweke believed music and live entertainment were critical to making the finances work. Leiweke would need to walk a fine line between promoting the SCA as venue for music and live entertainment, while at the same time, maintaining the trust and support of Seattle's sports fans.

In May 2019, Cheryl Leong, Head of Fraud Analytics and Data Management at Moss & Associates, a mid-sized New York accounting firm, was tasked with fraud detection in annual reports. Besides helping clients present financial information to stakeholders, accounting firms had to ensure there were no misrepresentations. The incidence in companies reporting material falsehoods had risen in recent years and regulators were pushing accounting firms to detect those instances earlier. Companies had been using qualitative text to mislead stakeholders of their financial wellbeing. Leong was working on a data analytics platform that would replace the time consuming task of manually going over executive statements and management discussion & answers (MD&A) sections. Several text mining techniques were available within the system to break text down for classification. With the fraud detection tool ready for launch, she wondered whether she had adequately addressed the challenges of analysing text in annual reports. What steps should she programme the tool to take? How successful it would be?

This case series describes the startup of Farm to School of Park County, an emerging nonprofit organization in the US state of Montana. Case (A) describes the community, the need, and the origins of Farm to School in Livingston, Montana. The leaders of Farm to School face a budget crisis and need to evaluate four options to decide whether, when, and how it should become an independent organization. As Case (B) begins, Farm to School has decided to enter into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with the local community foundation. The next task for the organization's leaders is recruiting founding board members. They need to decide whom to ask and how to do it. In Case (C), the board develops a strategic plan and establishes committees. However, the board members and leaders start to feel fatigue in the face of the demands of a startup organization, leading to questions about what is truly strategic and how work will get done. The Farm to School organization in Case (D) has just issued its first annual report, filled with meaningful accomplishments. The leaders of the organization begin to plan to build an organization that will outlast them and the founding board members.

Supplement to case KE1110 This case series describes the startup of Farm to School of Park County, an emerging nonprofit organization in the US state of Montana. Case (A) describes the community, the need, and the origins of Farm to School in Livingston, Montana. The leaders of Farm to School face a budget crisis and need to evaluate four options to decide whether, when, and how it should become an independent organization. As Case (B) begins, Farm to School has decided to enter into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with the local community foundation. The next task for the organization's leaders is recruiting founding board members. They need to decide whom to ask and how to do it. In Case (C), the board develops a strategic plan and establishes committees. However, the board members and leaders start to feel fatigue in the face of the demands of a startup organization, leading to questions about what is truly strategic and how work will get done. The Farm to School organization in Case (D) has just issued its first annual report, filled with meaningful accomplishments. The leaders of the organization begin to plan to build an organization that will outlast them and the founding board members.

Supplement to case KE1110 This case series describes the startup of Farm to School of Park County, an emerging nonprofit organization in the US state of Montana. Case (A) describes the community, the need, and the origins of Farm to School in Livingston, Montana. The leaders of Farm to School face a budget crisis and need to evaluate four options to decide whether, when, and how it should become an independent organization. As Case (B) begins, Farm to School has decided to enter into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with the local community foundation. The next task for the organization's leaders is recruiting founding board members. They need to decide whom to ask and how to do it. In Case (C), the board develops a strategic plan and establishes committees. However, the board members and leaders start to feel fatigue in the face of the demands of a startup organization, leading to questions about what is truly strategic and how work will get done. The Farm to School organization in Case (D) has just issued its first annual report, filled with meaningful accomplishments. The leaders of the organization begin to plan to build an organization that will outlast them and the founding board members.