In April 2023, Maxwell Cutler, director of marketing and sweet potato sales at Race-West Company (Race-West), faced a daunting challenge of high demand for produce in the week leading up to Easter, Passover, and Ramadan. With a responsibility to ship 35-40 truckloads per day, Cutler was under pressure to ensure timely deliveries to satisfy and retain customers. Despite his best efforts and collaboration with his cousin Rachel Pisarz, who managed onion sales, multiple incidents disrupted the transportation process. Cutler received phone calls and emails reporting missing drivers, misloaded shipments, late deliveries, truck breakdowns, and extreme weather conditions. These disruptions resulted in significant financial losses for Race-West as well the loss of some customers. Determined to resolve the situation, he wondered what steps he could take to address these challenges and implement measures to avoid encountering similar issues in the future.
For this exercise, students are asked to assume the place of the two founders and owners of a web-based company called Good Authority. The venture was launched one year earlier and has been successful, although the two owners are finding it difficult to continue operating the company during their spare time while working full-time hours at their day jobs. Recently, an investor offered to fund the salary and payroll expenses for one employee, allowing the two owners more time to grow and expand the business. The students are tasked with effectively designing a job for the new employee to allow the two owners time and energy to focus on the future and success of the business.
In this exercise, students are asked to assume the role of a project manager for Kaymak Consulting, a 210-employee management consulting firm located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Students must work in groups to determine how much of a merit increase each of six analysts should receive during their next salary review. They make their decisions while considering the values that the organization would like to encourage. Background information on each analyst, along with current salary, are provided in the exercise. The task is to determine the most fair and effective method for dividing the pool of funds for salary increase among the six analysts.
Nicole Rotumah, chair of the Tweed Aboriginal Co-operative Society Limited, which ran the Minjungbal Museum and Cultural Centre (MMCC) in Tweed Heads, Australia, and the museum manager, Tina Pidcock, were standing in the middle of their beloved museum looking at the worn flooring, dusty artifacts, general state of disrepair, and stark absence of visitors. It was August 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic had brought tourism to a standstill. However, both Rotumah and Pidcock knew that the museum's problems ran far deeper than the absence of visitors during the pandemic, and that something had to be done to revitalize this Australian cultural treasure. The question was what. Was MMCC functioning in the museum, tourism, or cultural experience industry? Who were its main stakeholders and competitors? Was it correct to measure success according to revenue or the number of visitors, or was protecting cultural heritage a sufficient goal?
This technical note graphically presents various working capital ratios (days inventory outstanding, days sales outstanding, days payables outstanding, cash conversion cycle, and operating cycle) over the 2016-2022 period by industry and for specific well-known companies. Students are given the opportunity to craft an intuitive "story" around the ratios they are presented.
This public-sourced case is based on a series of decisions Microsoft and other US-based technology companies made between 2021 and 2022 related to hybrid and return-to-office work policies coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The case focuses on the balance that must be struck between policies that enable employee flexibility in terms of choosing a work modality (based on factors such as productivity, physical health considerations, professional growth, and home care requirements, among others), while not disproportionately harming career prospects for historically marginalized groups who might prefer to work remotely (out of preference or necessity). Discussion could focus on topics such as distribution of care work, professional double standards for women, intersectionality, and other ethical considerations. At the Darden School of Business, this case is taught in first-year and second-year ethics electives. It would also be suitable in a module covering diversity, equity, and inclusion.
After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, companies around the world built and refined models of working in both fully remote and hybrid environments. While many of these policies and programs focused on maintaining operational productivity, few intentionally considered equity in their structures or outlined guidelines to ensure all employees felt they were treated fairly, regardless of chosen work modality or other external factors. While many organizations looked at factors such as pay, promotion rate, and attrition across different demographics as key measurements of equity, the onset of remote work appeared to require an expansion of these variables to include work modality so that companies can more clearly understand how physical presence in the office might impact these measures of advancement in the workplace. This technical note offers an overview of equity and remote work, including benefits of remote work for marginalized groups and challenges presented by remote work, including career-limiting factors. At the Darden School of Business, it is taught in first-year and second-year ethics electives. It would also be suitable in a module covering diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The case describes the demise of Credit Suisse Group AG (Credit Suisse), along with Credit Suisse's history and its significance for global markets and Switzerland. The case examines key episodes during the past 15 years that point to risk-management lapses, weak corporate governance, and ineffective restructurings. The case also discusses Credit Suisse's financial performance, capital and liquidity metrics over time, and its CEOs' efforts to alter its course. Finally, the case describes the reaction of the Swiss regulators during the final hours, the forced merger of Credit Suisse with UBS Group AG (UBS), and the potential impact of a bankruptcy on global markets and Switzerland. Given Credit Suisse's status as one of 30 systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) globally, its demise opens questions related to the efficacy of regulation after the global financial crisis (GFC), the role of regulators, and bank corporate governance. Ultimately, this case asks, "What are the lessons we can learn from Credit Suisse's demise?" in hopes that they won't be repeated.
The case, "Suez and Veolia in Hot Water," takes the merger between Suez and Veolia, the two largest global water and waste multinationals, as a starting point and puts it in the context of the ongoing discussion in France (and elsewhere) about remunicipalizing utilities, especially water and wastewater. The broader background of the case narrative constitutes, on the one hand, the water infrastructure crisis in many advanced countries, and, on the other, the challenges the water sector faces due to climate change. The emphasis of the case discussion is on the economic analysis of private-public partnerships (PPPs). These partnerships between the public and the private sectors are not trivial in the context of water infrastructure, especially because water utilities tend to be natural monopolies and because water is a good that has both a private and a public dimension. Suez and Veolia in Hot Water" is taught at the Darden School of Business in the MBA "Global Economics of Water" course. The case belongs in the policy module, which follows cases about and discussion of the global and climate-change context of water. The policy module focuses on water utilities and water markets. The case can also easily be taught on its own, as it deals with PPPs, which have been receiving quite a bit of attention lately.
This case study presents the dilemma of a vice president of human resources at a health data processing company who must decide how to implement the results of digital productivity monitoring software that tracked employees' work activity via, among other things, keystroke tracking, monitoring websites visited, and checking email content. The data tracked through the software produced an overall employee productivity score meant to assess who was doing what and when and helped identify employees who had generally been inactive and unproductive. This software was controversial within the company. Many employees called it intrusive and dystopian. Other employees were positive about the software's use, claiming that it helped them be more productive and focused, and that it rewarded good workplace behavior. The decision the vice president now faces is how to adjust the salaries of all employees based on the productivity detected by the monitoring system in the face of internal polarization about the software. Should the vice president boost the salaries of those with the greatest productivity and decrease the salaries of those with low output?
For strategists, a good hypothesis is invaluable, both as a starting point and as a guide to help structure a good analysis. A hypothesis-driven approach is widely regarded as the gold standard in tackling problems where uncertainty and ambiguity make it difficult to identify obvious solutions. "What needs to be true?" (WNT) is a framework that highlights the power and importance of assumptions in strategic decision-making; thus, it is an essential complement to a hypothesis-driven mindset. It is meant to be an "everyday carry" tool in the strategist's arsenal-something that is simple and compact enough to be quickly deployed on the fly. It is versatile and can be used as a reliable starting point for any evaluative exercise.
In February 2023, Irene Cameron was preparing to launch her property technology (proptech) start-up Geo-Registry Integrated Datachain Inc. (GRID) in eastern Ontario. She had identified several problems with the real estate process and planned to disrupt the industry with a one-stop blockchain platform. The platform would integrate all the steps and processes in buying and selling real estate, including the services provided by professionals such as real estate agents, mortgage brokers, lawyers, and municipalities. Cameron had completed extensive validation and now had to decide what business model to test out and which revenue model to leverage.
On May 5, 2023, Vicky Poirier received a call from Daniel Chen, vice-president of finance at Freeze Inc. After receiving an internal tip, Chen was calling to ask her to investigate a potential case of collusion involving one of his colleagues. As president of Quantum Juricomptable Inc. (Quantum), Poirier had to discuss the issues and challenges of this potential mandate with her team before deciding whether to accept it. Quantum's investigation team, including forensic accountants, planned and performed an investigation to verify whether these allegations were true and prepared a forensic accounting report for a special committee at Freeze. The consequences of this report would be significant for the organization. How should the Freeze react to the report's findings? What were the issues and challenges underlying any decision to dismiss the wrongdoers? Should Freeze dismiss them? This case extends into a supplementary B-case, which introduces a new decision point (see product W33372).
On May 5, 2023, Vicky Poirier received a call from Daniel Chen, vice-president of finance at Freeze Inc. After receiving an internal tip, Chen was calling to ask her to investigate a potential case of collusion involving one of his colleagues. As president of Quantum Juricomptable Inc. (Quantum), Poirier had to discuss the issues and challenges of this potential mandate with her team before deciding whether to accept it. Quantum's investigation team, including forensic accountants, planned and performed an investigation to verify whether these allegations were true and prepared a forensic accounting report for a special committee at Freeze. The consequences of this report would be significant for the organization. How should the Freeze react to the report's findings? What were the issues and challenges underlying any decision to dismiss the wrongdoers? Should Freeze dismiss them?
At the end of December 2022, the chief executive officer of Logic Fruit Technologies (LFT), a product engineering research and development company, was trying to decide which of three partnerships to pursue to double the company's profit margin percentage by 2025. LFT was headquartered in Gurgaon, India, and provided end-to-end solutions in electronic design outsourcing. LFT's board of directors wanted to make a decision at its meeting on January 30, 2023.
By September 2022, Elizabeth Hooper had been working for 100 days as chief human resources officer at AccelleWell, a contract development and manufacturing organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Just before her arrival, AccelleWell was acquired by the private equity firm Evenhuis Equity Partners. The company's chief executive officer who hired Hooper was fired shortly after she started and was replaced by a new "fixer" who was brought in to turn around the company. Initially, Hooper thought that she could work well with the new leader, who voiced his support for Hooper publicly at an all-staff meeting and approved her plan to add new positions to the human resources team. However, he soon proved to be a toxic leader, making sexist and ageist comments and firing various executive team members. Hooper wondered if she could hold on to her own job. Was there any hope that she could still be successful as part of the executive team that had transformed AccelleWell into a leading life sciences employer?
Tianjin Motor Dies Co. Ltd. (or “Tian Qi Mo”; TQM) was a China-based automotive technology supplier that specialized in the research and development (R&D), design, manufacturing, and distribution of automotive body panel dies, welding tools, and automobile body stamping fixtures. Although TQM had struggled during China’s reform toward a market economy, the company’s persistent focus on and investment in R&D, innovation, and technology enabled it to survive and thrive, eventually growing to become an industry leader in China. A key pillar of the company’s strategy was information technology (IT). The company’s focus on IT had enabled it to establish a solid foundation for growth. In today’s age of digital disruption, TQM sought to leverage IT to transform its traditional product-based business model into a hybrid model that included not only products but also a platform that enabled different stakeholders in the automotive industry to transact and collaborate. The vision was promising, but TQM faced many challenges in its implementation.
Today’s senior business managers have the power â€" and the responsibility â€" to prevent AI project failures. But in order to do so, they need to know how to evaluate the data sets and models being used. This article offers a framework for identifying the right data set for your business problem and suggests six tough questions to ask developers before and during the deployment of artificial intelligence models.