Until 2014, Blossom Inners Pvt. Ltd. (Blossom), a leading lingerie brand in India, had followed the accepted standard of advertising lingerie with images of skin-revealing models. Influenced by their personal philosophy and concern about increasing crimes against women, the company's directors decided to break from the time-tested lingerie industry standards of communicating with sensual appeal. According to the managing director, Blossom would gain moral support from its customers by being the first in the industry to do away with body-revealing advertisements; however, sales figures dropped to low levels, senior marketing employees left the company, and customer service was flooded with calls. The directors, who were determined to stick to their plan, approached an innovative designer to create a new marketing strategy. Could this new advertising partner help Blossom stem its declining sales? What information should be included in the brief given to the designer? How could the designer advertise Blossom's lingerie while honouring the directors' philosophy?
Reliance Industries Limited entered the Indian telecommunications industry by launching Reliance Jio Infocomm, which offered high-speed, fourth-generation data services. Its business strategy was to provide integrated access to information, entertainment, and commerce at high speed and low prices. Despite the competitive landscape and various other challenges, the company was optimistic that it could acquire 100 million customers in 100 days. This ambitious target could be achieved through consistent marketing offerings and efforts driven by robust analytics. Could the company's innovative business model revolutionize the industry?
The CEO of Central Express Trucking (CXT), was preoccupied as he drove to work one morning in late October 2013. Diesel fuel prices had been a constant concern at the trucking company he had started 22 years ago. Over the last decade, the steady rise in fuel prices had squeezed margins and dampened profits. Yet despite the existence of fuel surcharges in all of CXT's contracts, short-term fuel price fluctuations still drove fluctuations in profitability. On his mind that morning was a proposal from the newest member of his sales team to offer a contract to a customer (shipper) that did not include a fuel surcharge.
In 2016, the director of finance and operations for a non-profit organization faced an important decision. Her organization offered an in-residence opportunity for high school students who excelled academically, but the organization’s cash flow for the upcoming year was in jeopardy. The director was considering increasing registration fees and planned to prepare cash budgets for the upcoming fiscal year for the program and for the organization. She knew that her decision had to be in line with the organization’s values and goals, but she also felt that raising fees might alleviate some of the program’s financial strain. <br><br>The program was already supported by alumni and many company and government sponsors. The director had to make a presentation to the board of directors and ensure her decision would maintain the quality of the program and its candidates and also help the organization’s cash flow.
Reliance Industries Limited entered the Indian telecommunications industry by launching Reliance Jio Infocomm, which offered high-speed, fourth-generation data services. Its business strategy was to provide integrated access to information, entertainment, and commerce at high speed and low prices. Despite the competitive landscape and various other challenges, the company was optimistic that it could acquire 100 million customers in 100 days. This ambitious target could be achieved through consistent marketing offerings and efforts driven by robust analytics. Could the company’s innovative business model revolutionize the industry?
Until 2014, Blossom Inners Pvt. Ltd. (Blossom), a leading lingerie brand in India, had followed the accepted standard of advertising lingerie with images of skin-revealing models. Influenced by their personal philosophy and concern about increasing crimes against women, the company’s directors decided to break from the time-tested lingerie industry standards of communicating with sensual appeal. According to the managing director, Blossom would gain moral support from its customers by being the first in the industry to do away with body-revealing advertisements; however, sales figures dropped to low levels, senior marketing employees left the company, and customer service was flooded with calls. The directors, who were determined to stick to their plan, approached an innovative designer to create a new marketing strategy. Could this new advertising partner help Blossom stem its declining sales? What information should be included in the brief given to the designer? How could the designer advertise Blossom’s lingerie while honouring the directors’ philosophy?
Since its inception in 2011, The Vanca, an Indian e-commerce brand selling women’s Western apparel, had come a long way. After overcoming initial problems typical of many entrepreneurial start-ups, The Vanca made significant progress in terms of sales. However, its brand-building activities had not been very successful. Having concentrated entirely on online digital marketing, the company did not see the expected results. The digital space offered many opportunities, but it was replete with cases of promising companies facing failure. In addition to the dynamic nature of the online retail space, there were new government regulations in India as of March 2016, which restricted online retailers in many ways, in an attempt to bring order to the previously unregulated industry. Accordingly, in May 2016, The Vanca hired a specific digital marketing manager with the goal of reworking the brand’s digital strategy. The company's management knew that multiple marketing issues needed to be addressed in order for The Vanca to achieve success.
In 2016, Detroit Bikes was a relatively new company seeking to become the largest bicycle manufacturer in North America. The U.S. bicycle market was dominated by imports from China and Taiwan, and Detroit Bikes saw an opportunity to compete by producing bicycles in the United States. The numerous business opportunities arising from Detroit’s economic downfall and recent resurgence provided an ideal location for the new bicycle company. The founder was growing Detroit Bikes aggressively, taking advantage of the company’s marketable “Made in USA” branding. His ambition was to build on this success, eventually producing 50,000 bicycles per year.
As a Lebanese non-governmental organization, Arcenciel (AeC) had successfully created several sustainable development programs and projects that addressed the needs of marginalized populations in Lebanon’s society. At the same time, AeC based its activities on an economic strategy that guaranteed financial independence from donations and public funding. This social entrepreneur had been able to develop and adjust its strategy in a very challenging environment over the course of several decades, successfully bridging the gap between non-profit objectives and the necessity to be financially profitable. In December 2015, the organization was about to win a prestigious national peace award in recognition of its research and activities. Government institutions, municipalities, and individuals alike had recently sought AeC’s assistance in dealing with a waste-management crisis. Although this project represented a useful opportunity for AeC to communicate its vision, the co-founder wondered whether the organization was prepared to assume a larger role in Lebanon or, even further, to introduce its concept abroad. He needed to think carefully about AeC’s evolution as well as its past success factors and the possibilities for expansion.
In the summer of 2016, the general manager of IXSIR Winery of Lebanon (IXSIR)—a young winery in Lebanon that offered customers a new level of quality by producing wine from a mixture of grapes harvested from different terroirs—received news of a bomb striking Beirut. IXSIR had been facing challenges competing in the unstable and risky local market, and the general manager realized that the bombing signalled rougher economic times ahead and likely a decrease in wine consumption. He was concerned about how the political unrest in the country could negatively impact wine sales and started thinking about different ways to tackle the threat of an ongoing economic downturn. He also wondered how to mitigate a potential decrease in revenue. Should IXSIR pursue revenue-generating activities such as oenotourism or diversify into different products?
In 2016, Tesco PLC, a leading U.K. retail chain, had undergone tremendous financial turmoil. Profitability had been decreasing since 2013 with heavy losses registered during fiscal year (FY) 2014/15. Net profit had decreased by 304 per cent from 2012 to 2015. However, after the appointment of a new chief executive officer in 2014, Tesco managed to register a net profit of £138 million in FY 2015/16: an astonishing turnaround. Evidently, Tesco was recovering from its losses, but the share price of the company had fallen by more than 20 per cent from 2015 to 2016. What course of action would enable Tesco to maintain and improve its value for shareholders? What areas should the chief executive officer focus on in order to change Tesco’s financial performance?
In late 2011, Jerry Bertram, vice president and general manager of the fire retardant additives business of Huber Engineered Materials (HEM), a division of family-owned J. M. Huber Corporation, was preparing to present the potential acquisition of the precipitated alumina trihydrate (PATH) business to the environment, health, and safety committee of Huber's corporate board. He had convinced HEM's leadership of PATH's strategic value to their business and the urgency of the acquisition based on PATH's parent company's movement into Chapter 11 bankruptcy and its plans to close the PATH plant. Winning board approval posed a major challenge. It was unclear whether the plant would remain operational, because HEM would have to enter a shared-services arrangement with PATH's parent company, which continued to use the site. In addition, acquiring PATH would mean integrating its specialized, unionized labor force into Huber, which had very few union workers. Finally, early due diligence had revealed tens of millions of dollars of potential environmental risk on the site. The last issue was particularly critical, given Huber's generations-long history of respect for the environment, and its executives' and directors' reluctance to take on any business with excessive environmental risk. This case illustrates in depth the family business values that can promote consideration of an ostensibly unconventional and risky strategic move, and enable executives to push for approval of the same, as backed by comprehensive risk assessment and mitigation plans.
This case provides students with the opportunity to analyze the income tax disclosures for Apple Inc. In particular, it provides for discussion about such topics as deferred taxes, valuation allowances, unrecognized tax benefits, and the statutory rate reconciliation. What is most unique about the example is that Apple reports around $200 billion of cash and investments on its balance sheet. However, students learn that Apple shareholders would incur a significant tax penalty were Apple to repatriate the cash and distribute to shareholders. Also, Apple designates some foreign earnings as permanently reinvested, but not other earnings. Therefore, students can see the accounting effects of both designations.
This exercise is taught in a Darden first-year elective, "Financial Reporting," as the second half of a module covering Managerial Accounting for Pension Plans, but would also work well in a first-year MBA core accounting course. It was designed to be taught as a follow-up case to "Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension Plans for Caperton Corporation" (UVA-C-2375), although it can be taught alone. This exercise provides students the opportunity to analyze the pension footnote disclosures for AT&T Inc. In particular, it focuses on the components of pension expense, the balance sheet accounts, and the various assumptions that drive these figures. What is most unique about the example is that the exercise is set in 2008, and in 2010, AT&T elected to immediately recognize actuarial gains and losses in net income. To provide comparable prior year financial statements, AT&T restated 2008 accounting for immediate recognition of actuarial gains and losses. Therefore, students can see the significant effect of this change in accounting policy by comparing the $12.8 billion in net income originally reported in 2008 with the $2.3 billion loss AT&T reported for the restated 2008.
Since its inception in 2011, The Vanca, an Indian e-commerce brand selling women's Western apparel, had come a long way. After overcoming initial problems typical of many entrepreneurial start-ups, The Vanca made significant progress in terms of sales. However, its brand-building activities had not been very successful. Having concentrated entirely on online digital marketing, the company did not see the expected results. The digital space offered many opportunities, but it was replete with cases of promising companies facing failure. In addition to the dynamic nature of the online retail space, there were new government regulations in India as of March 2016, which restricted online retailers in many ways, in an attempt to bring order to the previously unregulated industry. Accordingly, in May 2016, The Vanca hired a specific digital marketing manager with the goal of reworking the brand's digital strategy. The company's management knew that multiple marketing issues needed to be addressed in order for The Vanca to achieve success.
In 2016, Tesco PLC, a leading U.K. retail chain, had undergone tremendous financial turmoil. Profitability had been decreasing since 2013 with heavy losses registered during fiscal year (FY) 2014/15. Net profit had decreased by 304 per cent from 2012 to 2015. However, after the appointment of a new chief executive officer in 2014, Tesco managed to register a net profit of £138 million in FY 2015/16: an astonishing turnaround. Evidently, Tesco was recovering from its losses, but the share price of the company had fallen by more than 20 per cent from 2015 to 2016. What course of action would enable Tesco to maintain and improve its value for shareholders? What areas should the chief executive officer focus on in order to change Tesco's financial performance?