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This case outlines Michael Woodford's awards and honors, after having been fired from Olympus in October 2011. It discusses the repercussions following an investigation into the fraud and the report which was released thereafter. It also discusses the lawsuit that followed (filed by Woodford against Olympus), its settlement, and the new Olympus board and the fate of the Olympus executives who were at Olympus while the scandal occurred.

Rock Health was a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization offering accelerator services to spur innovation at the intersection of healthcare and technology. The company was the creation of Halle Tecco (HBS '11) and her HBS classmate Nate Gross (HBS '11), who met early in their first year at the HBS Healthcare Club meeting and decided to undertake a year-long field study that married their shared interests in healthcare, technology and entrepreneurship. Rock Health supported health-tech entrepreneurs with a startup grant of $20,000, office space and a wide variety of professional support services. Entrepreneurial teams that participated in Rock Health's programs promoted services ranging from data-driven technologies that helped manage stress to mobile tools that attempted to diagnosis medical conditions as diverse as Alzheimer's disease and foot ulcers. The case is set in August 2011, as Rock Health is wrapping up its third group of entrepreneurs in a Boston program and planning for its fourth class at the home office. The case should enable students to identify emerging challenges, evaluate Rock Health's funding model, debate the effectiveness of its incubation service and assess its long-term viability.

In February 2011, Nintendo released the next evolution of the DS line of handheld gaming devices in Japan: the Nintendo 3DS. Despite initial rave reviews of the new device, sales figures were much lower than expected. In July 2011, Nintendo announced that it would reduce the price of 3DS by 30% to boost sales. At the same time, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata declared salary reductions for all of Nintendo's directors, starting with a 50% cut of his own salary. In October 2011, Nintendo predicted that the net loss for the year ending in March 2012 would be US$264 million, a first in the company's 30-year history. Back in 2006, the Nintendo Wii disrupted the video game industry, and in the following years, Nintendo was disrupted by Microsoft with Kinect and by Sony with PlayStation Move as well as by Apple and Google with their game-changing products targeting the mobile industry. It remained unclear how Nintendo could turn around and reclaim the few glorious years after the release of the Nintendo Wii game console and the Nintendo DS handheld game device.

In this updated case on Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, the company remains actively committed to rolling out and refining its Every Day Low Price ("EDLP") strategy across China, while making smaller, yet important strides to be locally relevant to its Chinese consumers. As recently as April 2012, then-CEO Scott Price shared his enthusiasm about Wal-Mart's growth and expansion in China. However, only a few short months later, by mid-summer 2012 (although not captured in this case), the company announced it would cool the rate of its expansions in China. Michael Duke (Wal-Mart's president and CEO) and other company executives cited a persistently hard economic climate in the United States and abroad, difficulty securing real estate on the mainland to allow for better laid-out stores, and a desire to hone its EDLP strategy as the reasons for the apparent pullback. This case uncovers issues that, to some foreign retailers, might be unsolvable, forcing an exit or, as was recently announced, a slow-down. At the same time, the case data suggests that Wal-Mart will do whatever it must to prevail in China, one of the largest markets in the world. Key discussions will emerge on whether or not the sheer tenacity of Wal-Mart to stay and thrive in China will overcome the company's seemingly endless issues with local governments, poorly managed store employees, high turnover and struggles with less-than-ideal store formats. This case is an update of the original case entitled "Wal-Mart in China-Every Day Low Price", published in 2005 by the Asia Case Research Centre. This updated case, in contrast to the original, addresses how Wal-Mart's American model for doing business in China has since broadened into a more culturally sensitive, two-pronged strategy.

The partners at Innova Capital, a leading mid-market private equity investor in Poland, must negotiate a transition of power between the two ex-patriate founders and three talented young Polish partners. If they fail to find an accomodation, the entire firm will self-destruct. This case explores the long-running process through which they were able to reach an agreement and the different motivations and goals that each partner wanted to achieve.

In spite of its abundant energy resources, Nigeria in 2012 had one of the lowest levels of energy use in the world. Self-generation of power from costly generators was double that of grid-supplied electricity. The history of its power sector was one of inefficient monopolies, missteps, and corruption. But a wholesale change to the market, designed under reformist President Obasanjo and pushed forward by President Jonathan, promised greater efficiencies and investment guided by private-sector principles including widespread privatization, pricing reforms, and reliance on firms to produce and distribute the electricity. Power producer firms on the sideline needed to decide whether they wanted to be a part of this new market.

Supplement for case 713042

The purpose of this paper is to present a case about SYSCO's 'Best Business Practices' (BBPs). The analysis focuses on both the system and the impact of the system, particularly the measurable effects and the overall organizational impact. Perhaps, the most interesting issue is how a system for BBPs is used to manage a highly decentralized firm, and push the individual corporate entities to better performance, without requiring specific processes or best practices. Use of the system is illustrated through an example.

This exercise is one in a series intended to help students learn how to perform financial calculations in marketing contexts. Kookaburra, a maker of cricket equipment popular in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and India, was considering two strategies for positioning a new cricket bat in India. Both strategies would cannibalize current sales, and Lulu Popplewell, category manager responsible for the Indian market, needed to calculate the financial impact of both to determine which one she would recommend. This exercise poses a fictional problem about branding strategy on a new product, and asks students to consider the financial impact of different branding strategies and cannibalization rates.

Spreadsheet for case KEL684

In July 2010, Sujit Patil, head of corporate communications for Mumbai-based Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL) has to develop a company branding strategy after a series of acquisitions. TCL has acquired several of the top producers in the soda ash business, making it a commanding player in the global industrial and commercial markets for this product. The acquisitions include the large British producer, Bruner Mond; the US leader, General Chemicals Industrial Products; and Kenya based Magadi Soda - all of which have well-known brands and established customers. The senior management at TCL wants to see these new companies unified under a single global brand. But that task has proved difficult to execute given the long-standing brands and centuries-old companies. Kenyan Magadi Soda even has a town named after it! Patil must consider his next steps - whether to sustain the long-standing and well-selling brands, or scrap them all for a new global brand representing what is now the second largest soda ash producer in the world.

Katka Suvarinova, a financial analyst at Southern Cross LLC, and a recent MBA graduate, has been asked to prepare an analysis of Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation's recent financial performance, as well as an analysis of its accounting methods. Big 5 was a West Coast chain of sports equipment and apparel outlets, with 398 stores at the end of 2010. After Deutsche Bank's investment report maintained a hold rating and established a new target price of $13 per share for Big 5, Southern Cross decided to look at the company as a possible addition to its shorts portfolio. The shorts fund included companies that Southern Cross believed were headed for substantial stock price declines based on fundamental analysis. Southern Cross's portfolio manager had asked Suvarinova to pay close attention to the company's accounting methods, and particularly indicators that the company had significant off-balance sheet debt, which was not uncommon in the retailing industry. Retail companies often leased many of their stores, rather than buying the outlets with borrowed funds. From her MBA program, Suvarinova recalled that under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), some leases were not reported as debt on a company's balance sheet.

This case is designed to give students an opportunity to look at the decision points in creating a physician/hospital organization (PHO). Many of the issues are similar to those in creating an accountable care organization (ACO). There are many factors to consider: (1) how the hospital is positioned in the market, (2) why the physicians want to work with the hospital, (3)what the competition is doing with its physician/hospital integration strategy, and (4) how to analyze the external environment in the industry. The focus of the case is on how the hospital and the physicians must work together to strategically position themselves in the market.

This case illustrates the application of activity-based costing concepts to a healthcare institution. The class discussion can examine the rationale for and impact of MEEI's split-cost accounting system, and thus can demonstrate the power of an ABC approach.

This is a case about three cardiology groups that are proposing to merge. One issue is antitrust, and the benefits and motives for the proposed merger can be debated. A second issue is one of ethics. While the consultant may personally feel that the merger is not a good idea, she must satisfy her client. In addition, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) is explained and suggested as a tool to be used to define market concentrations and identify potential anticompetitive situations.

This case provides a vehicle for discussing the presentation of a nonprofit's financial statements. The presentation in the orchestra's annual report is unusual. It focuses on contribution to fixed costs from operating activities, highlighting the operating deficit and how this deficit was, or was not, made up from endowment revenue and annual fund raising. The case also includes an eight-year projection in the published financial statements, which is highly unusual.

This is a "ratio detective" case. Students must match nonprofit organizations with their corresponding financial information (contained in an exhibit). The text provides a basic description of each organization and contains sufficient hints, both direct and indirect, to allow them to make the identifications.

This case raises issues about management control in (1) a matrix organization, (2) a project-oriented organization, (3) a professional organization, and (4) a research/development organization. The focus is on a specific project, but the experience with that project can be used to generalize about management control in all the circumstances listed above.

This case examines the issues of establishing a capital structure for the leveraged buyout of Harrah's Casino.