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In July 2012, Marissa Mayer was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of Yahoo! Inc. and was tasked by Yahoo's board of directors with turning around the company's performance. Mayer's ascension to the top position came with a number of challenges. Yahoo had seen seven CEOs come and go in its 18-year existence, five of whom had left within the last five years. In addition, Yahoo faced a number of corporate governance challenges, including the disgraceful exit of its former CEO amid charges that he had falsified his resumé, and the demands of an activist investor who was seeking four board seats to influence the company's strategic direction. Mayer also had to decide on how best to use the proceeds from the partial sale of the company's investment in the Alibaba Group, a Chinese Internet company. Mayer had to confront these issues prior to presenting her strategic plan to the company's board in mid-September.

The incoming vice-president in situ of Suncor Energy is faced with problems of underperformance at a new facility that uses the innovative in situ technology. This technology accesses bitumen in reservoirs too deep for traditional mining practices to recover. Although it is deemed less harmful to the environment than surface mining, in situ technology does create more greenhouse gas and sulphur dioxide emissions, but these can be controlled with new equipment. Recently, the site has come under investigation for two environmental compliance charges related to a missing piece of pollution control equipment. The new vice-president needs to analyze the root causes of the facility's operational challenges and develop a plan to deliver on the parent company's operational excellence strategy.

This case (an abridged version of UVA-M-0663) describes the history of the Red Bull brand and how the company stimulated and harnessed word-of-mouth to build a new product category (functional energy drinks) and brand franchise. The case concludes by asking the reader to consider where Red Bull will take its brand, product line, and marketing next, in light of many competitive challenges in the United States. The case was written to foster discussion of nontraditional brand-building strategies and the growing globalization of brands and products targeted toward younger consumers.

This is the Spreadsheet Supplement for Studio Moderna - A Venture in Eastern Europe (HBS Case #808110). Includes Exhibit 3a, Exhibit 3b, Exhibit 5, and Exhibit 6.

This is the Spreadsheet Supplement for Walker Insurance: Paul Thomson (HBS Case 813057). Includes Exhibit 1a, Exhibit 1b, Exhibit 2, Exhibit 4, Exhibit 5, Exhibit 6, and Exhibit 7.

This is the Spreadsheet Supplement for To JV or Not To JV? That is the Question (for XTech in China) HBS Case 807118. Includes Exhibit 1.

This case enables discussion of organizational and industry transformation.

In early 2013 the leaders of McKinsey & Co., were reflecting, as they did periodically, on the path forward for their firm. Founded in Chicago in 1926 by "James O. "Mac" McKinsey," with only a small staff in one office, the firm had grown to be a global company with more than 17,000 firm members, including more than 9,000 consultants. It was arguably the world's preeminent management consulting firm. This case describes the history of events and decisions which have led to this enviable record of success, and poses the questions before the firm's senior leaders in 2013. What should be their path forward? Could the firm continue to grow successfully with its current strategy, organization, and culture?

This note presents statistics on private equity exits and discusses important issues relating to the most common exits routes.

Emily Wang, an analyst with Future Securities, a Shanghai-based investment firm, is given the task of making stock purchase recommendations to her supervisor from a number of Chinese common stocks. One stock in particular, Hubei Lantian Co., Ltd. (Hubei Lantian), caught Emily's attention as a likely purchase recommendation. Before making her recommendation decision, Emily felt she needed to look deeper into the company's operating performance and financial condition. To this end, Emily performed a financial ratio analysis comparison of Hubei Lantian's financial ratios to those of selected peer companies. Hubei Lantian's major revenue sources were aquatic products (fish, ducks) and beverages (lotus root juice, mineral water). Guided by these revenue sources, Emily selected the financial statements of four companies in the fishery industry and three companies in the food and beverage industry to perform a peer company comparative financial ratio analysis. The case reproduces the individual company financial ratios Emily computed for her comparative ratio analysis. The student's task is to use these ratios and whatever insights they can develop from the case data to assess Hubei Lantian's individual and comparative performance, financial condition, and quality of earnings. In addition, the case assignment asks students to suggest possible lines of inquiry Emily might pursue if given the opportunity to conduct field research. At the end of the class, students are asked to make a stock recommendation.

The La Boulange: Exiting to a Large Strategic Buyer case follows the evolution of the La Boulange bakery and café chain and its eventual buyout by Starbucks Corporation. First, the case relates the founding story of La Boulange by its CEO Pascal Rigo. Then, the case discusses the controlling investment made by Sebastien Lepinard and the subsequent changes in La Boulange's strategy and governance structure. The case then discusses a buyout offer for the company and turmoil amongst leadership. Finally, the case delves into the buyout offer from Starbucks.

The La Boulange: Exiting to a Large Strategic Buyer case follows the evolution of the La Boulange bakery and café chain and its eventual buyout by Starbucks Corporation. First, the case relates the founding story of La Boulange by its CEO Pascal Rigo. Then, the case discusses the controlling investment made by Sebastien Lepinard and the subsequent changes in La Boulange's strategy and governance structure. The case then discusses a buyout offer for the company and turmoil amongst leadership. Finally, the case delves into the buyout offer from Starbucks.

Darden Business Publishing provides its own field case as a consultant is enlisted to help it streamline production using Lean principles. The case provides an overview of continuous improvement concepts applied in a service setting.

A consultant is enlisted to help an educational publisher streamline production using Lean principles. In the B case, the group prioritizes the problems it will address and identifies how success will be measured.

This third part of a three-part case provides an epilogue to the CPI initiative. One year later, the editorial office continues to see positive results.

The case discusses LinkedIn's corporate culture in 2012-2103 and the importance the professional networking company put on maintaining that culture as it dramatically expanded in headcount domestically and internationally. LinkedIn's leadership believed its culture was its competitive advantage. The company fostered creativity, innovation, and a collaborative and open working environment, embraced humor, and was results oriented. LinkedIn sought to hire staff who wanted to make a positive lasting impact in the world and who valued integrity. To build and grow the corporate culture, two programs were designed to inspire creativity and collaboration: 1) Hackdays, in which teams of engineers worked to find solutions to problems they found personally engaging; and 2) Incubator, in which a team could pitch a product to the executive staff and potentially get time to turn the idea into a reality. Maintaining the culture also meant that employees were given a day off every month for personal development. LinkedIn Analytics data was used to measure overall strategy and results as well as employee satisfaction; "All Hands Meetings" twice a month included fun activities and some tiebacks to the company's culture along with reviewing the company's operating priorities and progress; and social impact programs were given a high priority. LinkedIn aimed to hire and promote from within, and when hiring externally looked for evidence of collaboration, humor, and passion. New employees were assigned a personal mentor, and all employees were part of initiatives to help colleagues learn new skills. The company's leadership had to figure out how it could maintain or modify these activities as it quickly grew.

Anna Chu, an MBA from Singapore Management University, and new-hire to Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd., was excited by ANB-AMRO's assessment of ABC Learning Centres Limited (ABC), an Australian company operating childcare centres. Chu had been hired to analyze companies in which Temasek acquired shares and to report regularly to the fund's service sector portfolio manager. In May 2007, Temasek, Singapore's sovereign-wealth fund, acquired 12% of ABC Learning Centre's equity for $A7.30 per share, or a total purchase price of A$400 million. If ANB-AMRO's assessment of the intrinsic value of ABC's shares proved correct, Temasek's investment would be very profitable. But some observers questioned aspects of ABC's business model, particularly its contracting process for raising capital and outsourcing services for the learning centres. By January 2008, ABC Learning Centres Limited had become the largest operator of private childcare centres in the world, with more than 2,200 centres in Australia, the U.S., U.K., and New Zealand. ABC's growth strategy of cobbling together a global empire of daycare centres had been financed with short-term debt. In January 2008, the company announced semi-annual earnings that were lower than analysts' forecasts, sending the company's stock price into a tailspin.

On November 2012, a fire in a garment factory near the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka killed 112 people and injured several hundred. The factory was owned by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a subsidiary of The Tuba Group, a large Bangladeshi garment exporter whose clients included Wal-Mart, Carrefour, C&A, Kmart, and Li & Fung. The factory opened in May 2010, employed about 1,500 workers, and had sales of $35 million a year from the production of clothing such as T-shirts, polo shirts, and fleece jackets. In the aftermath of the fire, questions were raised about accountability. Some people argued that the factory owners and the regulators who establish Bangladesh fire safety standards were responsible. Others said that Western clothing companies and retailers who rely on low-cost clothing manufacturing in Bangladesh should ensure that their suppliers have safe factories or take their business elsewhere. Some assigned the blame to Western consumers' desire for cheap clothing that forced retailers to constantly look for low-cost manufacturing locations.