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Raises a variety of issues associated with a program evaluation: conflicting data, the role of upfront targets, the importance of models of causality, and the appropriate time frame. It also has a political dimension. The available data are somewhat conflicting. Some performance measures suggest that considerable improvements took place since the introduction of the program, but it is not clear that the program is the cause of these changes. There also is the question of whether the resources devoted to the program could be used better elsewhere.

Addresses the use of a balanced scorecard (BSC) in a public school setting. Raises questions of who the customer is, what BSC elements are most appropriate, and how success can be measured for the different elements. Also addresses the issue of cooperation among the affected parties, such as teachers and parents.

Concerns a budgeting system that is unresponsive to senior management's needs. Several changes are needed to align the system with the organization's new strategy. The case can be taught on either a technical or a conceptual level (or both), depending on the instructor's interests and his or her goals for the course.

A complex case with many issues. Students must prepare a managerially oriented flow chart that will show key decision points, which students can then be analyzed, using data in the case, to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the program.

In June 2012, Best Buy was in crisis. In 1996, Best Buy overtook Circuit City as the world's leader in consumer electronics retailing; however, 18 years later, Best Buy now found this position threatened. With $51 billion in revenues, it was still the biggest CE retailer, but sales were flat and profits had collapsed. Meanwhile, Amazon's sales in Best Buy's categories were growing at more than 50% p.a. and its total sales, at $48 billion, were approaching those of Best Buy. As Wal-Mart cherry-picked popular items for steep discounts and Amazon encouraged consumers to compare prices using smart phones, Best Buy was becoming a showroom for lower cost retail models. International expansion was struggling and domestic sales of digital televisions were cooling. Although the popularity of mobile devices suggested easy growth, many devices were sold by telephone service providers, creating increased retail competition. To add to Best Buy's problems, on April 10, 2012, CEO Brian Dunn resigned after an investigation into his personal conduct. On June 7, 2012, Dick Schulze, the firm's founder, who had navigated the company through many strategic changes since 1966, also decided to leave and "explore all available options" for his 20.1% stake in the company. Best Buy had seen off many competitive challenges in the past. Would it be able to fend off these challengers and maintain its position?

For the past seven years or so, the Chinese government has been powering ahead with industrial policies to promote low-carbon energy technologies-wind, solar, electric batteries and vehicles, nuclear power, and even carbon capture and sequestration. In 2009, the government focused broadly on "indigenous innovation," a policy to adopt and then develop technology in dozens of high-tech sectors. As with the earlier focus on renewables, explicit governmental policies and subsidies discriminate against foreign products and foreign companies invested in China. The net effects of these initiatives leave low-carbon energy industries in the United States in the dust.

In fiscal 2000, Circuit City was at the top of its game. The world's leading consumer electronics retailer had delivered record sales and profits for the first year of the new millennium. It was a fitting moment for Richard Sharpe, the CEO of the last 14 years, to step down. Over his tenure, revenues had increased 18 times and operating profits 13 times. In June 2000, Alan McCollough succeeded him as CEO. A 12 year veteran of Circuit City, McCollough expressed confidence in the future, citing trends such as the digitization of televisions, music players, and cameras. But challenges loomed from the increasingly aggressive discount sector. Was Circuit City as strategically strong as its financial results suggested? Would it be able to maintain momentum and retain its leadership?

Ari Medoff's (HBS '11) goal was to control his own professional destiny by owning his own company. His search identified a suitable acquisition in Home Nursing of North Carolina, and he had negotiated a purchase price of $3.5 million, or 4.2x trailing EBITDA. Medoff had completed his due diligence, arranged financing, and completed the legal documents required to complete the acquisition and anticipated closing the transaction in just a few weeks. But then the sellers surprisingly asked to renegotiate the terms of the note they had agreed to early in the acquisition process. Medoff must decide whether to renegotiate the debt or abandon the transaction.

Anti-corruption web platform "ipaidabribe.com" leverages the transparency and anonymity of the Internet to encourage private citizens in India who have been the victims of corruption to self-report details of bribes paid, including the bribe amount, the name of the corrupt official, and services rendered. The ipaidabribe.com portal then aggregates these data to create maps and charts of corrupt activities across Indian cities. The theory is that such data will build awareness and shame, raising the cost of corruption. But after initial successes-buoyed by visibility generated from mass street protests against corruption in 2011-traffic to the website has slowed. The question before spouses, ex-bankers, and ipaidabribe.com co-founders Ramesh and Swati Ramanathan is how to generate and sustain interest in the web platform so that they have real impact on retail corruption in India. Possible solutions discussed include teaming up with local governments and police, focusing attention on one or two Indian cities, and franchising ipaidabribe.com internationally to create more visibility.

The key account manager of an engineering company has to convince a department to give up important contracts. The German engineering company Siemens had set up a global key account management program since 2010. The key account manager of an emerging account had been asked from his customer to cut the costs of two long-term contracts worth about €300 million that his customer had signed with Siemens. Although legally Siemens could refuse the revision, such an act could jeopardize Siemens' relationship with the customer. At the same time, a change in the contracts would bring about losses for Siemens. How should the key account manager handle this problem? He knew that he would have to be resourceful, given that he had no direct authority in the situation, but this was the nature of his job.

In 2010, the U.S. retail market value for next-generation non-handset wirelessly-enabled devices was just over $1 billion. By 2011 it had grown 1,141% to $13.2 billion and was forecast to reach $24.7 billion in 2015. At the same time, user demand for data was surging with the popularity of mobile Internet, e-mail, and messaging, which left carriers scrambling to increase network capacity. To capture more revenue in the data market, AT&T formed the Emerging Devices Organization (EDO) in 2008 as a distinct internal initiative to identify and partner with manufacturers developing the next generation of mobile broadband devices - from eReaders to tablets, to implanted medical devices, to supply-chain tracking devices, to dog collars and many more. AT&T executives believed that these partnerships would position the company for its next "winning play," following the path it blazed in 2007 with Apple for the iPhone. The EDO was run by Glenn Lurie, who had led the team that partnered with Apple. He knew from experience that to capture the market with the next game-changing device, his team would need to develop a new partnership model, both inside AT&T and with the ecosystem of partners who were poised to lead the global mobile broadband revolution. Doing so within a company the size of AT&T would be tough, but Lurie believed his group was up to the task.

Atavist, a start-up founded by journalists, publishes enhanced ebook singles as well as the software to create enhanced ebooks. The company is currently engaged in both publishing and software development, but as they raise funding and grow, must decide whether to focus on one or the other.

The case opens with the Ford Motor Company seemingly on the path toward bankruptcy. Ford had been bleeding red ink for more than ten years when it decided in 2006 that continuing the same turnaround attempts was not going to right the ship. The company was facing significant external challenges, such as intense competition and changing consumer preferences, as well as internal challenges, such as quality and design issues and a stifling level of corporate complexity. As the case begins, CEO Bill Ford has taken the unusual step of hiring an auto industry outsider as his replacement. Alan Mulally, a thirty-seven-year Boeing veteran and principal architect of the venerable airplane manufacturer's own massive and successful turnaround, wasted little time in getting about the business of remaking Ford. He developed a plan to: •Focus on the Ford brand and divest the numerous other brands the company had acquired over the years •Simplify and streamline the company's manufacturing operations •Remake the corporate culture from one of fiefdoms and false optimism to collaboration and facing reality With an ardent belief in the plan's viability, Mulally raised nearly $24 billion and began to put his plan into motion. The case explores the many causes of this once-great company's decline and the steps it took to beat the odds and get back on the path of profitability.

This case discusses the emergence of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in India in relation to the growth of the Indian aviation industry and the subsequent fall of the LCCs into financial loss. The LCCs became important for value-adding and cost-cutting alternatives in corporate business travel. Before the 2008 global economic crisis, domestic air traffic LCCs recorded a compound annual passenger growth rate of 18 per cent. Among the many low-cost airlines in India, SpiceJet had been one of the most popular, with the lowest airfares and highest customer value. Though SpiceJet had a net profit of INR 1.01 billion (US$20.2 million) in fiscal year 2010-2011, the results following the financial year indicated that the company had also joined the ranks of loss-making airlines in India. A host of issues - such as rising debt, increasing cost to revenue ratios, growing management challenges, complicated flight operations, and rising oil prices - were threatening the survival of airline companies, especially LCCs. SpiceJet was no exception.

An entrepreneur believes in the potential of Readeo, his idea for a website that combines the love of reading with video calling. He sees Readeo as a solution that would allow, for example, his son to interact and spend quality time connecting with his grandparents. The entrepreneur has several important factors to consider as he works to launch his website. The case explores the challenges that he faces in the midst of uncertainty. While he knows he wants to start the business, the real question is how he should go about doing this.

PV Technologies, Inc. is an industry-leading manufacturer of photovoltaic inverters used to convert the direct current output of solar panels into alternating current for the commercial power grid. In conjunction with a request for proposal, the company's largest customer performs a routine evaluation and ranks PV Technologies third behind two key competitors. The director of sales and marketing must weigh the possible consequences of the report on the company's reputation while considering an appropriate response. Students must complete a quantitative analysis of four possible courses of action and make a recommendation.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Product #913507.

The North Side Children's Agency (NSCA) was a twenty-three-year-old nonprofit organization founded to serve very low-income working parents who qualified for income-based government child care subsidies. In support of its mission, the NSCA operated year-round, full-day child care programs at seven different sites for children from six weeks through twelve years of age. It employed a standard nonprofit governance model with a volunteer board of directors, each of whom was assigned to one of six committees, which functioned quite independently. After years of success, in 2004 the NSCA faced a serious cash shortage and its first deficit in a decade. Board members were not only surprised by the crisis but also unprepared to deal with the short- and long-term issues it raised. Board members required strong leadership to organize them to identify the causes of the crisis and think strategically about the organization's response.

The North Side Children's Agency (NSCA) was a twenty-three-year-old nonprofit organization founded to serve very low-income working parents who qualified for income-based government child care subsidies. In support of its mission, the NSCA operated year-round, full-day child care programs at seven different sites for children from six weeks through twelve years of age. It employed a standard nonprofit governance model with a volunteer board of directors, each of whom was assigned to one of six committees, which functioned quite independently. After years of success, in 2004 the NSCA faced a serious cash shortage and its first deficit in a decade. Board members were not only surprised by the crisis but also unprepared to deal with the short- and long-term issues it raised. Board members required strong leadership to organize them to identify the causes of the crisis and think strategically about the organization's response.