Supplement to case UV7332. On December 5, 1791, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton presented to Congress his "Report on the Subject of Manufactures," which proposed significant government support for nascent American industry through tariffs, subsidies, and other incentives. It seemed that Hamilton's politico-economic vision for America had substantial political momentum, yet James Madison and his circle viewed Hamilton's proposals with alarm, and a financial panic in August-September, 1791, raised new anxieties about the rapid political and economic changes occurring in the United States. In the face of these concerns, would Congress sustain its support for Hamilton's vision? This B case explores the reactions to and events following Hamilton's Report on Manufactures.
Noble Group, founded in 1986, was a large commodities trader based in Hong Kong and listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. In 2012, Noble shifted its business strategy towards an asset-light model. Under this model, Noble did not own mines or farms to produce commodities but built commodity sourcing capacity by working with and investing in producers in exchange for purchase and marketing contracts. Noble also worked with customers to secure supply contracts. Noble had a portfolio of 12,000 commodity contracts by end of 2014. The contracts were measured at fair value. Iceberg Research, an anonymous blog, released a series of reports starting in February 2015 alleging that Noble was too aggressive in its fair value accounting for contracts and investments in producers. Iceberg did not accuse Noble of fraud, but suggested that Noble's profits and balance sheet were highly inflated and Noble was headed for disaster. Noble defended its accounting policies and hired PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to provide an independent review of fair value measurement. PwC released a positive review of Noble's accounting. However, questions remained whether Noble's contracts and investments were overvalued. The case explores Noble's business and investigates whether questions about its accounting practices were in the past following the attestation by PwC.
Case A sets the context of disruption in India and outlines the challenges facing GroupM in 2013. In the early 2010s, internet technology and social media had started disrupting the Indian advertising industry. Explosive growth in the adoption of smartphones, rapid internet penetration and falling data rates meant the country was becoming a mobile-first economy. At the same time, the demographic profile and media consumption behavior of Indian consumers were evolving rapidly. Moreover, brand managers were no longer satisfied with the reach of a media plan. Instead, they were keen to see a measurable impact of their advertising spend through hard metrics such as sales, customer engagement, market share, and the like. As the growth of digital media threatened to disrupt the traditional advertising business, media agencies were struggling to navigate the digital advertising space. Despite GroupM India's market-leading position, incoming CEO CVL Srinivas realized that the company was on the wrong side of the digital trends in terms of its product, profile, partnerships and people. How could GroupM India leverage its scale to create a new practice with digital at the core and diversify its business beyond traditional media planning and buying? How could it move up the value chain and become a business partner for brands? Case B describes the digital transformation process GroupM India undertook from 2013 to 2016.
Case B describes the digital transformation process GroupM India undertook from 2013 to 2016. To respond to the challenges highlighted in Case A - product, profile, partnerships and people - the company identified customer focus and nimbleness as two "quests" to prioritize. GroupM focused on building comprehensive media solutions, targeting new-economy customers (such as e-commerce and digital companies), forging new partnerships with creative and ad tech players and, most importantly, leveraging its people. By end-2016, GroupM had not only retained its position as the largest player in the Indian advertising industry but had also widened its lead over competitors.
Ujwal Kalra founded Memorable Shaadi in 2014 while awaiting admission to the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. The startup offered services connecting clients and vendors in the Indian wedding industry. The case elaborates Ujwal's journey as an entrepreneur and the choices he made including hiring a co-founder and working remotely while pursuing an MBA. Ujwal now faces a dilemma: should he accept a plush consulting job through campus placement or go back and scale the firm? Memorable Shaadi highlights the classic dilemma facing entrepreneurs and the choices they need to exercise at different phases of their venture.
Thirty years after being founded by CEO Marco Stefanini, Stefanini is one of the largest providers of ICT services in Latin America. Unlike most Brazilian (and Latin American) companies, Stefanini has focused on international markets for many years. As a truly global company with presence in 41 countries it is one of the most globalized companies in Brazil, with 21, 200 employees and over US$800 million in revenues. In 2017, Stefanini is helping many companies with their digital transformation/journey, while at the same time being transformed itself as traditional sources of revenue diminish/disappear. Hence digital is both a great opportunity (in terms of new business) but also a challenge. How Stefanini will transform itself? What avenues to growth exist, and what alternatives in terms of new business models, new geographies, acquisitions?
The case highlights a failed attempt to 'liberate' management and employees from traditional business practices at a factory in France. It closely follows the events that took place at Poult during a 10-year period that began in 2006. It draws on the astute reflections of the last CEO at Poult, who, until his dismissal in 2017, was actively engaged in building an alternative culture among the firm's 800 factory workers, machine operators and technicians. Thanks to detailed analysis, the case offers insight into the matrix of activities that constitute a 'liberated enterprise', from building autonomous teams to driving innovation from the bottom up.
Two leadership groups from Boston 2024 negotiate with government bodies, community leaders, and olympic officials in an effort to bring the 2024 Olympics to Boston.
A summary of events that occured after the (A) case, including Los Angeles winning nomination for the 2028 Olympics with assistance from Pagliuca and Boston 2024 bid material.
The existing U.S. health care system is complex. Most individuals have health insurance coverage provided by various third-party payers. The payers include employers, health insurance carriers, and government-sponsored programs, such as nationally administered Medicare and Medicaid, which is offered by all 50 states with some support from the federal government. Each payer's program varies in terms of the health services covered as well as the amount of the cost of care allocated back to the individual in the form of visit copayments, individual deductibles, and other cost-sharing strategies. These offerings are administered by various health plans and many payers offer multiple administrative alternatives. For example, Medicare is administered nationally, but there are multiple "Medicare Advantage" alternatives available as well as the basic program offering. In addition, there are numerous Medicare supplemental plans available to increase the benefits for the individual recipient. Founded in 2014, DPC Concentric Health System's (DPC Concentric's) mission is to identify the people, strategies, and capital needed to help the U.S. health care system heal itself. Based on continuous improvement design driven by continuous learning, DPC Concentric's human capital/technology initiatives deploy the power of entrepreneurial physicians in a free market. This social entrepreneurial approach responds distinctly to the incumbent relationship infrastructure of "fee-for-service" third-party reimbursement at the provider and self-funded payer levels. The DPC Concentric continuous-improvement infrastructure becomes practical, achievable, and self-perpetuating as incumbent leadership commits to catalyzing outcome-based health care solutions. It is distinctly relationship based, providing incumbent advisers ample opportunity to lead as continuous-improvement consultants to physicians and employers.
Mackenzie Spencer, vice president of operations at Strategic Consulting Group, must determine a staffing (the "S" word) plan for the upcoming year. She must balance the costs of overstaffing with those of understaffing in the face of uncertain demand for future services. Students can either determine a staffing plan based on the expected demand or by taking into account the uncertainty by simulating demand. This case was awarded second place in the 2017 Decision Sciences Institute case-writing competition. It is used at Darden in the first-year operations course as well as in the service operations elective. This case would also be suitable for use in a first-year decision analysis course or in an elective or course module covering optimization.
Katie Hood, CEO of the One Love Foundation (One Love), a group dedicated to the prevention of relationship violence, had grown the organization's base of funding support to $6 million by 2017 and broadened its mandate to include relationships across many demographics. But questions about how best to deploy their funding loomed, as well as divergent views on the pace of growth the organization should target. One Love also needed to develop better metrics by which to measure its success. This case explores Hood's plan of action as she aims to bring One Love to greater scale.
Supplement to (A) case. Katie Hood, CEO of the One Love Foundation (One Love), a group dedicated to the prevention of relationship violence, had grown the organization's base of funding support to $6 million by 2017 and broadened its mandate to include relationships across many demographics. But questions about how best to deploy their funding loomed, as well as divergent views on the pace of growth the organization should target. One Love also needed to develop better metrics by which to measure its success. This case explores Hood's plan of action as she aims to bring One Love to greater scale.