Eric Hughes, advertising sales manager at Regional Broadcast Network (RBN), needs to avoid a takeover by increasing revenue from ad sales. Currently, ad plans are created for advertisers by combining ad spots from a fixed inventory of shows, making an effort to meet requirements such as a preferred split of prime/non-prime shows and views (impressions) in target demographics. Ad plans are priced using rate cards (RCs) based on industry norms, and are often discounted to meet budget requirements. Revenue is not usually optimized using this system because the RCs do not accurately reflect the value of inventory. In this case, which builds on "TV Advertising Pricing at Regional Broadcast Network (A)," Hughes uses the full historical sales dataset to conduct a multivariable regression analysis and better understand what drives the price of a plan. Students are challenged to create their own analysis and rationale, and to develop a guide for pricing each advertiser's plan. This case set presents emerging best practices in maximizing revenues in the ad industry. Students are given supplementary Excel workbooks containing sample data and use the Solver module and regression analysis to complete the assignment. This case set is suitable for use when teaching pricing analytics, decision analysis, statistics, quantitative analysis, or operations management. It may be used with a graduate, undergraduate, or executive education audience.
Facilitated by hot Diablo winds, dry weather, and combustible vegetation, the Camp Fire in November 2018 almost destroyed the town of Paradise in Butte County, California. The fire also led to the demise of Merced Property and Casualty Company (Merced), a small property and casualty insurer based in Atwater, California. Following the Camp Fire, homeowners’ insurance claims exceeded Merced’s ability to pay out their insurance claims, and in December 2018, Merced was put into liquidation by the California Insurance Guarantee Association. In September 2021, Jessy Picado, chief executive officer of Insuredhouse, a small property and casualty insurer in Alberta, Canada, decided to scrutinize the case of Merced in a bid to restructure Insuredhouse’s climate risk management plan. Picado appointed Dany Voisin, chief risk officer, to identify the reasons for the downfall of Merced and draw lessons from it. Voisin had to determine what available information and financial ratios would have been indicators of Merced’s business vulnerability and use them in his analysis before making recommendations to Insuredhouse.
The implementation of the OKR-based Performance Management System (PMS) in Quick Heal, an Indian cybersecurity company came about because of Ms. Reetu Raina, the CHRO’s revelation about loopholes in the existing PMS that needed to be addressed. The old PMS had a rigid top-to-bottom approach without any mechanism for frequent feedback. Moreover, not every individual goal was tangible or aligned with the organizational strategy. As a result, it had become challenging to differentiate between high and low performers, and Quick Heal was missing out on a chance to grow as a company. The organization faced several challenges during the implementation process of the new OKR-based PMS, such as employees’ resistance to change, slow transformation of the traditional goal-setting process to a more agile approach and other barriers towards the new system’s adoption. Employees questioned the need and relevance of the new PMS amidst the uncertainties of the post-pandemic work norms and strongly resisted the transition. Mixed reviews from the department heads left Raina puzzled and wondering about the pitfalls of the transition, the implementation process and overall the potential of the new OKR-based PMS as a tool to create a performance-based culture at Quick Heal.
The chief general manager (Retail) at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) was reviewing the sites that had been shortlisted for network expansion. The company needed to select three sites out of six on the short list where it could expand its retail operations. Traditionally, the sales potential for HPCL’s main products—motor spirit and high-speed diesel—was an overarching factor for site selection. However, the company had to also now take into account the strategic requirement to expand the current retail fuel network while considering the energy transition as well as other growth avenues. As such, the network expansion strategy and site selection process had to be in alignment with the aspirational targets set by the company. For selecting the most suitable sites, a set of criteria was identified that aligned with HPCL’s targets. However, no single shortlisted site provided the maximum benefit across all criteria, so selecting the right sites for expansion would be a difficult task.
NSGC Information Technology Co., Ltd. (NSGC Technology) is both a cybersecurity enterprise engaged in technological innovation and a software firm focusing on cyber range construction and cybersecurity talent cultivation. It boasts a long history of doing business with the military industry, and it has produced a wide range of competitive cyber range products. At its inception in 2014, NSGC Technology initiated XCTF, a CTF (capture the flag) competition ranking first in Asia and second in the world, which earned the company a strong international reputation. NSGC Technology started to tap the global market in 2017 and has fostered an international outlook over many years of overseas practices. Its products and services are now available in more than twenty countries. While competing with leading global manufacturers, it has developed insights into the cyber range sector and become the only internationally competitive Chinese enterprise in this field. However, as the company marched from the military industry into non-military fields, it became trapped in low-level industry competition in 2021. In addition, the company’s overseas business has been severely impacted since 2020 by the COVID-19 outbreak. At the beginning of 2022, facing challenges at home and abroad, NSGC Technology had to carefully examine the relationship between domestic and global markets and formulate a new corporate development strategy.
The production supervisor of Gupta Furniture was tasked with selecting a mode of production that not only met the demand for the company’s best-selling product, the office interior chair, but also minimized the overall cost of production. The firm’s operations manager had stressed that the chosen production strategy should enable the company to meet demand at the lowest possible cost. As such, the brief was to prepare a comprehensive aggregate plan based on the forecasted demand scenario, considering how much to produce and when to produce in addition to determining which strategy among those traditionally applied would give the best results. The major challenge lay in planning and scheduling inventory, and determining regular production, overtime production, subcontracting, and employment levels over a medium term of 9 to 15 months, though both the short-term and long-term implications of these quantitative decisions also had to be taken into account.
In 2022, Elon Musk, known for his innovative ideas and often compared to Steve Jobs, made a big move by buying Twitter for $44 billion. He then started transforming the microblogging platform, rebranding it as "X." His goal was to turn Twitter into a super app like WeChat in Asia, combining many services like messaging, shopping and payments into one platform. This change was aimed at making Twitter more than just a place to post short messages, but a hub for various digital activities. The case study explores why Musk decided to take this bold step. It looks at the benefits he expected by bringing different digital services together. However, Musk faced many challenges during this transformation. The study discusses the impact of his decisions, including cutting down the workforce, changing policies and the reactions from users, advertisers and regulators. These issues show how difficult it is to change a well-known social media platform. Additionally, the study examines the problems Musk encountered in trying to make Twitter like WeChat in Western countries, where the digital environment is different from Asia. It considers what this big change could mean for the future of social media, online privacy and e-commerce, suggesting how this kind of transformation could change the way people use digital platforms. In short, "Has Elon Musk X'd Out?" provides a detailed look at Elon Musk's attempt to reshape Twitter. It gives insights into the challenges of creating a super app in the West and discusses the transformation's possible effects on the digital and social media world.
StoneCo was a fintech that entered the market in 2014 with an initial focus in the payment solutions for SMBs. In 2018 it held the largest Brazilian initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq, achieving a valuation of USD 9 billion at the close of the first day of trading. Its strategy was based on expanding from a pure payments business to a complete financial services platform for SMBs, which was labeled ABC (Acquiring, Banking, Credit). The company's rapid growth rate faced a setback when its credit operations expanded too quickly between 2020 and 2021. The company had granted loans to customers with weak financial guarantees in an unfavorable external scenario, during the pandemic, when stores were opening and closing due to lockdowns, and amidst a relevant change in the Central Bank´s regulation regarding implementation of the registry of receivables. As Chairman of the Board of Directors, Andre Street needed to consider whether the mistakes found in credit operations would not be repeated in other areas. Was StoneCo. running too fast? Was the Board of Directors properly guiding the company's growth strategy? This case explores the roles of the Board of Directors and its relationship with the top management team of the company.
The case examines Levi Strauss' journey in implementing machine learning and AI into its financial forecasting process. The apparel company partnered with the IT company Wipro in 2017 to develop a machine learning algorithm that could help Levi Strauss forecast its revenues and earnings. The CFO of Levi Strauss, Harmit Singh, believed incorporating AI and machine learning into Levi Strauss' forecasting process would make the process more efficient and the resulting forecasts more accurate. While the algorithm led to more accurate forecasts, there were challenges to implementing and interpreting the AI-produced forecasts.
GlassHouse Research identified accounting red flags at Catalent. Fiat Lux Partners countered most of GlassHouse's claims. Who was right? This update explores the aftermath of the short seller duel.
STEPN was a one-year-old lifestyle app designed to incentivize routine physical activities like walking, jogging, and running by providing individual financial rewards for participants. The app was part of the move-to-earn (M2E) category of blockchain games. Within a short time, STEPN had established an exceptional track record of both financial performance and enterprise valuation and had achieved unicorn status. However, by January 2023, the Web 3 app was on the verge of being caught in what was known in the world of blockchain games as a death spiral. The prices of its flagship product and its exchange medium were both dropping, and the company’s net profits were also in decline. The co-founders needed to determine not only how to head off a death spiral in the short run but also how to sustain the business in the long run.
Ghost Tree Invitational (Ghost Tree) was established in 2007 as a non-profit organization. In the past, Ryan Chackel, the president of Ghost Tree, had organized a yearly two-day event in Bend, Oregon, to raise funds for donations to local non-profit organizations. The event included a golf tournament on the first day and a large outdoor dinner event on the second day. Ghost Tree had relied on sponsor dollars, donations, and ticket sales in a business model that had worked well until a recent change with the participating venue. In all previous years, the venue was donated free of charge to Ghost Tree, but this changed in 2022; Green Links Golf Resort would no longer be able to support the tournament, and the venue would now be an additional expense. Chackel needed to develop a new business model that would make financial sense while also staying true to the non-profit organization’s values. Was there a way to address the financial burden while also maintaining the ability to continuously donate to other non-profit organizations? How could Ghost Tree overcome these financial difficulties?
Zakir Khan, a celebrated Indian comedian, commanded an impressive and vast fan base. Khan’s unreserved exhibition of his authentic nature had earned him acclaim not only from his fans but also from fellow artists and the media. It had also allowed him to build a personal brand, leading to widespread appeal that had, in turn, unlocked diverse creative avenues for him that typically remained beyond the reach of conventional comedians. What else had contributed to Khan’s personal brand, and what would enhance and sustain that brand identity?
While Microsoft and its allies received immense praise from industry insiders for creating GitHub Copilot, a tool that greatly improved programming accessibility, it faced scrutiny from regulators and ethicists shortly after its launch. A class action suit was filed against them for using the publicly available codes to develop Copilot without informed consent. Ethicists raised concerns about their commitment to ethical and responsible innovation. While Microsoft and allies were being questioned they and several other big technology firms terminated a large numbers of AI ethics personnel. This raised several concerns about ethical and legal oversights in design, development, and deployment of AI-powered innovations like GitHub Copilot.
Established in August 2011 in India, Frontier Markets (FM) was one of the largest social commerce platforms working with women influencers and with a strong following of rural customers. Starting out as a clean-energy product company, FM adopted a gender-smart strategy to bring rural-based women entrepreneurs on board as the company’s representatives in rural villages. The company leveraged an extensive network of women entrepreneurs, known as Sahelis, through the Meri Saheli e-commerce app. Using the app, the company delivered products and services in finance, agriculture, health care, climate, digital, and essential services. In 2022, FM had over 20,000 Sahelis working with 432,000 rural families, implementing over 25 million solutions through direct sales and doorstep delivery. The firm’s founders considered expanding geographically to become India’s largest women-led commerce platform. They wondered how they could add 10 million new customers and generate over US$54.16 million in revenue in the next two years. What was the best option for achieving this ambitious growth: expanding in new markets; adding new product categories; or adding new strategic partners?