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The Sustainable Conservation case presents the story of San Francisco-based nonprofit that was founded to solve environmental problems in California through collaborative partnerships between the public and private sector. The nonprofit had built up strong expertise in the agriculture industry, with an early focus on the issues associated with water quality, air pollution, and land use. With a clear track record and a strong team in place, both the board and management team felt that the organization was poised to have even greater impact by expanding its projects and reach across California. Yet, it would clearly need a major influx of capital to execute upon that vision. Ashley and the board had therefore decided in 2011 to undertake the first major fundraising initiative in Sustainable Conservation's 19-year history. As Ashley read through the feedback from donors who had attended a recent event, she realized there were a number of questions yet to be answered to ensure that the initiative was successful.

Prototypes allow you to consider and test your product or service concept quickly and at low cost, and they play an important role in the development of new ventures. This quick introduction elaborates on the concept and illustrates the use of prototypes in a variety of contexts.

Israeli entrepreneur and inventor Dov Moran envisioned the creation of a mobile device that was a small, stand-alone, fully functional mobile phone that could be slipped into a variety of enclosures, or "jackets," that would provide added functionality and better reflect the personalities of its users. As the development of the Modu phone began to take shape, Moran and his team decided that to ensure the success of the new phone's much anticipated launch, Modu would develop and market the accessory jackets itself. The question now was which of the eight jackets to develop and what factors should be considered in making that decision. The case is about how to estimate optimal product-line extensions after accounting for experience curve and cannibalization effects of products that share similar features, cost, and price. This will require quantitative analysis that estimates the effect of the experience curve and cannibalization on cost, revenues, and ultimately profit. The issue is how to optimize profits by choosing an ideal set of products.

As a birthday present, Mike has just been given a new smartphone by his girlfriend Molly. However, it is not the phone he wants. Over the course of a few days, Mike struggles with the decision of whether to return the phone and get the one he wants, or keep the one he received as a gift. The case is written from the perspective of the consumer, and deals with consumer behavior issues such as anticipatory regret. It would be useful in an introductory marketing or undergraduate consumer behavior course.

This case presents a means by which students can explore how government policy is influenced by the actions of stakeholders in an economy: firms, taxpayers, voters, unions, and other organizations. It highlights how policy-making can be a process endogenous to the interests and influence of the private sector, and not an exogenous one, even in domains that are the power reserve of public policy makers. In 2010, the ruling party in Australia has devised a new tax, the Resource Super Profit Tax (RSPT). This tax has been devised to enable national and state governments to benefit from the boom in the mining industry by expropriating a greater portion of the industry's earnings. The RSPT has been prepared without any input from major mining companies in Australia, and if implemented would represent a substantial increase in their tax payable. The case is presented from the perspective of the CEO of BHP Billiton, one of the largest mining companies in Australia. The situation considers what, if any, action can be taken to combat a tax that has already been devised by the government and is about to be implemented. Successful analysis of the case involves an evaluation of all stakeholders in the Australian economy that will be influenced by the imposition of the RSPT. After this is done, a strategy needs to be devised that will influence the government to withdraw a tax to which it has already demonstrated a firm commitment.

The El Coyote Mexican Caf�, more commonly known as �El Coyote,� is a family owned restaurant located in Los Angeles, California. The restaurant faced criticism from pro-gay rights activists after the manager, and daughter of the owner, made a personal donation to support California Ballot Proposition 8, which activists associated with the restaurant rather than the individual. The case transpires over an eight-day period from November 4, 2008, which was the election day when the ballot proposition passed, to November 12, 2008 which was when the manager held an open breakfast at El Coyote to publicly discuss the issue.The central tension in the case revolves around how the manager�s donation to support a measure that legally defines marriage as �between a man and a woman� has garnered the restaurant with unwanted attention despite being a personal contribution separate from and not endorsed by the business. The goal of the case is to challenge students to think about tensions firms face in managing the external environment of their businesses in the face of both: (i) campaign finance and election issues; and, (ii) activists who may not understand all of the underlying facts.

Smart grid companies such as Viridity Energy are finding profitable opportunities to help their customers cut energy bills and simultaneously get credit for greater environmental responsibility. But will consuming fewer "dirty" watts from fuel sources such as coal and natural gas be a sufficient objective for customers in the future? What will rising societal expectations, tougher environment regulations, and new distributed clean energy technologies mean for the ability of smart grid companies to engage new customers and differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded field?

The Siemens Kalwa factory in Mumbai, also referred to as Kalwa Works (KW), started in 1973 with the production of motors and later diversified to produce switchgears and switchboards. By 2009, 40 per cent of all Siemens India employees were working in Kalwa and contributing 45 per cent of the total Siemens India production. Kalwa had become the most important business centre for Siemens India. In October 2006, Siemens AG decided to implement lean manufacturing in the Kalwa factory as part of a worldwide rollout of the Siemens Production System in all its medium-voltage facilities. The implementations were expected to bring drastic improvements in labour productivity, lower inventory levels, and higher throughput to improve the factories' financial performance. The lean program promised that the factory's current realized capacity of 4,000 panels per year could be increased by approximately 50 per cent to 6,000 panels per year in the medium term within two years, and to about 12,000 panels within the next four to five years. While the benefits of successful implementation were attractive, the company faced several challenges, including restructuring the organization, getting staff on board to accept and facilitate the change, and handling resistance from internal and external stakeholders. This case provides an opportunity to analyze and discuss lean implementation issues for a global multinational firm in the Indian context.

Credit unions are a specialized type of depository institution with a cooperative, non-profit structure and a federal tax exemption. They originated as small, cooperative institutions with an emphasis on uncollateralized consumer lending to the unbanked working-classes. Over time, credit unions have evolved into a wide range of sizes, though compared to banks, a much higher proportion of credit unions are still very small. One subset of "non-traditional" credit unions have been able to expand as a result of looser field of membership requirements and expanded product and service offerings through the use of corporate credit unions and Credit Union Service Organizations. This case looks at the regulatory proposals around credit unions coming out of the financial crisis from the policy-making perspective. Credit unions have lobbied policymakers for expanded powers that will enable them to help stimulate the economy and create jobs by serving more customers and extending more credit. These expanded powers include increasing the business lending cap and raising secondary capital from non-members. The protagonist is a research analyst who must evaluate the benefits of credit unions against the costs, including the federal tax exemption. He also must consider the policy objectives of credit unions against alternative ways to achieve those objectives.

After 15 years of remarkable achievements, Taiwan-based HTC Corp. faced difficult times by 2012. CEO Peter Chou, who drove HTC's transformation from an unknown manufacturer of PDAs for other companies to a well-known global player in smartphones, faced an uncertain and complex environment. Apple's lead in the smartphone and tablet markets, the acquisition of Motorola by Google, the Microsoft-Nokia alliance, the rise of Samsung, and the extensive patent wars - each raised questions about how HTC could continue its upward trajectory. In a rapidly evolving and increasingly competitive market, what would a sustainable differentiation strategy look like for HTC? How could HTC, a historically innovative company, compete in the tablet market? And how could it weather - and mitigate - the patent wars?

Conceptual note that describes effective global strategy.

FIS Consulting Services was a business process outsourcing company specializing in consulting and financial advisory for global clients. This case deals with an offshore project team in the United States that was characterized by intra-group competitiveness, poor leadership and resource sharing, poor coordination, and limited cooperation. At the outset, the team developed a one-sided focus on achieving a high performance appraisal rating rather than completing the project as a team. The team underwent an inadequate group development process, which was manifested in the team's immaturity. Poor leadership and lack of behavioural norms led the team to move forward with conflicting beliefs, structural inadequacy, lack of guidance, and low cohesiveness. These factors led to a decline in the team's performance and stood as obstacles to the project's progress. Furthermore, these events damaged the reputation of the firm. The human resources manager needed to take urgent measures to save the project team.

This case and its companion (UVA-F-1102) provide comprehensive coverage of a firm's decision to undertake an initial public offering (IPO). The company is a nonregulated financial firm in a rapidly growing area of consumer finance (high credit-risk automobile loans). The A case follows the firm from its first meeting with investment bankers to the determination of a preliminary IPO price range. In the B case, the firm's "road show" encounters a "cold-issue" market, and Eagle is unable to sell its shares at a price near the preliminary file range. Management is confronted with the tough choice of whether to proceed with the IPO or cancel it. The cases provide a rich opportunity to compare management's internal valuation of the firm (derived from market multiples and discounted cash-flow analysis) with the market's assessment of value. Excel spreadsheet files are available for use with this case (UVA-S-F-1095) and its teaching note.

In 2002, Neo Sia Meng took over as Executive Director of Four Star Industries Private Limited founded three decades earlier by his parents. After joining the family business as Director in 1996, Sia Meng saw several local and foreign mattress manufacturers enter the Singapore market. This intensified the competition in the local market which was already seasonal and volatile. The increased competition resulted in a proliferation of product offerings from all the manufacturers. The local dealers who dominated the retail mattress market sought an exclusive range of in-house models from the local manufacturers. As Four Star depended heavily on the local dealers, it tried to accommodate their demands to increase its product range and service level. However, as Four Star substantially increased the variety of mattress offerings, its operations became chaotic, and matching demand with the correct inventory of mattresses became a significant challenge. The order fulfillment problems created significant pressures on the manufacturing operations and Sia Meng was worried that these operational problems might provoke some of his long serving employees to consider leaving the company. Sia Meng pondered the short and long term options for Four Star to move towards a responsive, but cost-effective operations model.

Supplement for case W12976

Keith Palmerston, managing director at PKG Capital, is thinking about what to do with his firm's holdings in Kraft Foods. In early 2010, Kraft, primarily a grocery products firm, is trying to acquire Cadbury, a well-known U.K.-based chocolate manufacturer. Palmerston is trying to determine if Cadbury is a good fit for Kraft's operations and if the transaction will generate value for shareholders. This case can be used in a strategy course as part of a negotiations module for strategic analysis, and to discuss the topic of valuation..

In January 2010, Bank of America is discussing their future mobile strategy. Should the company add complexity to their app, design multiple apps for business segments, or expand into other mobile channels?

Social media is disrupting politics in fundamental ways. For the first time, voters can join with one another and connect with their officials directly at a scale that is unprecedented. We believe that facilitating meaningful connection will result in a new form of civic participation that will profoundly change our world for the better." David Binetti, Founder and CEO, Votizen This case series outlines the business formation of Votizen. Founder and CEO David Binetti's original vision was to facilitate political action and organization. His efforts to start up led him through several manifestations of the original vision, each with its own challenges and quirks. Binetti used the dual lenses of Dave McClure's so-called "Pirate Model" and Steve Blank's "Customer Development Model" with which to navigate the waters. The case contains an unusual amount of detail as to the trials of starting up, as well as the usage and interpretation of the metrics prescribed by McClure and Blank.

Supplement for case E436A

Supplement for case E436A