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Nuru International was founded in 2008 as a social venture with the goal to eradicate extreme poverty around the world by helping the rural poor achieve self-sufficiency. The case follows Jake Harriman, founder and executive director, through the multiple human resource challenges he must face in building his nonprofit organization. The first of four vignettes involves Kevin Newton, one of Nuru's first employees, after his promotion to international agricultural director. In his new role, Newton become increasingly vocal and adversarial, voicing his opinions throughout the organization, and Jake must decide how to best handle the situation. The second vignette describes the poorly-handled termination of Nuru's contract grant writer and how Jake must deal with the employee and his supervisor. Finally, an unfortunate accident leads to Jake's absence at the company offsite resulting in two unfortunate situations. In the first, Nuru's recently terminated director of development publicly misrepresents the circumstances leading to his dismissal to the full group of employees attending the offsite. In the second, the employees compile an overwhelming list of gripes about the company, in Jake's absence, which he must ultimately address.

The OpenTable case describes the company's evolution from its startup phase in 1998 to its decision to go public ten years later. The company transitioned through three CEOs until it hired Jeff Jordan, former head of PayPal and general manager of eBay North America, to help take the company public. The case describes the various factors a company must consider when going public, including the company's long-term potential, the fiduciary responsibility to investors, the regulations associated with Sarbanes-Oxley, the time and energy required of the management team and financial staff to meet regulators' and investors' needs as a public company, and the obvious financial and branding benefits, among others. OpenTable has just selected Merrill Lynch as its lead bank when the U.S. financial markets collapse virtually collapse overnight in the fall of 2008, creating a decision point for the management team and board to either continue forward with the process or wait an indefinite amount of time until the economy gains more stability.

Birchbox offers trial-sized beauty products delivered monthly by mail -- attracting rave reviews. Seeing the success of this model, numerous "copycat" clones seek to offer the same service. Many of these copycats focus on non-U.S. countries, but others are challenging Birchbox on its home territory. Can Birchbox defend its position? How?

Spreadsheet supplement for case 212-035

The "Big 3" - Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Chrysler - were all headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Born between 1903 and 1928, they dominated the automobile industry in the U.S. for decades until they became complacent. In the 1970s they started losing share to better quality, more fuel-efficient foreign imports. By 2008 they were teetering, and two required federal government assistance to stay afloat. Within three years, remarkably, the Big 3 had turned around by improving competitiveness in quality, design and cost. Ford's Alan Mulally, GM CEO Ed Whitacre, and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne took different approaches to guide their respective companies to improvements in product design, quality, and cost competitiveness that led to sales increases, solid profitability and positive cash flow. From October 2010 to October 2011, GM, Ford, and Chrysler sales increased 1.8%, 6.2%, and 27%, respectively. GM and Ford reported strong profits and better-than-expected sales, and agreed to pay bonuses to unionized workers as part of new contracts. The Big 3 were gaining market share-Ford was now handily outselling Toyota Motor Corp. in the U.S. after falling behind in 2007. Many saw the "Big 3" turnaround as proof that a unionized manufacturing industry could be revived through strong, decisive leadership on multiple fronts and improved union relations.

Since the 1970s, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region (MSP) had outpaced the nation in job creation and income per capita. MSP's diversified base of industry clusters had enabled the region to adapt to economic downturns and an exodus of major corporate headquarters, earning it the accolade "Minnesota Miracle." Starting in 2003, however, MSP lagged the rest of the U.S. in job creation (see Exhibit 1). Alarmed business and civic leaders coalesced around a loose-knit group that congregated annually as the Itasca Project. In 2009 these leaders launched the Itasca Jobs Task Force, and its 2010 report set in motion a series of actions by groups of CEOs and politicians aimed at reversing these trends by creating jobs in all sectors of the economy. In the fall of 2011, however, it was unclear whether these efforts would achieve their intended results (see Exhibit 2), or whether longer-term corrective actions in education and skills training would need to take hold first.

Pacific Grove Spice Company is a profitable, rapidly growing manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of quality spices and seasonings. The company's business model requires significant investment in accounts receivable, inventory, and fixed assets to support sales. Although the company is profitable and all of its net income is reinvested in the firm, the firm must utilize significant amounts of debt to fund the necessary growth in assets to support sales. The bank is concerned about the total amount of interest-bearing debt on Pacific's balance sheet and has asked the company to provide a plan to reduce it. Debra Peterson, president and CEO, believes the current four-year financial projections are reasonable and attainable. She is also considering three opportunities: sponsoring a cable cooking show, raising new capital by selling shares of common stock, and acquiring a privately owned spice company. Students must analyze the company's financial projections to determine if the reduction in debt meets the bank's requirements. They must also analyze the opportunities and consider their individual and combined impacts on the company's financial position. The case illustrates the interaction between investment and financing decisions. This multifaceted case can be taught in a single class session or extended over several sessions and can be used as a final exam for an introductory MBA-level Finance course.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Product # 4366.

Chanel, the iconic haute couture house, founded by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel in 1913, came to embody its founder's philosophy, taste, and style and set a distinctive and influential tone for women's fashion. Coming to prominence during the height of cultural modernity in the 1920s and 1930s, Chanel's designs wrapped high and low cultural references into beautiful yet practical clothing and jewelry for women of Europe and the Americas. In their articulation of clean, classic lines, her designs set a standard for women's fashion and clothing, relevant from 1910 through to the 1960s. She created several iconic but understated staples of many women's wardrobes, such as her signature cardigan and suit, the quilted handbag with a chain-link strap, which left its wearer's hands free, and "the little black dress," all of which continue to be part of women's wardrobes today in some shape and form. Chanel died in 1971 leaving the future of the brand and its leadership uncertain.

The owner of a goat herd in Tennessee must decide whether to rent out his herd for a land-clearing project at a nearby resort. Goats are better suited to clearing the land than humans and machines, but the owner has never rented out his goats for such a purpose. The owner must identify costs associated with the project, then determine a price to charge for the service. Since the owner has no prior experience renting out livestock, he must come up with estimates of the incremental costs associated with the rental operation and prepare a bid with little knowledge of rates charged by competitors for goat rentals. This case provides a realistic example of the thought processes that business owners go through when evaluating whether to expand into complementary lines of business, as well as the considerations of entrepreneurs contemplating starting new businesses. See also Goats: The Green Alternative (B) and Goats: The Green Alternative (C).

Crown Investment Corporation (CIC) of Saskatchewan and its partners Mosaic Corporation and CIBC had decided to sell a fertilizer plant that they jointly owned. Now CIC and its associates had to come up with a value assessment and mode of sale.

After successfully establishing more than 33 retail stores in large cities across China, Decathlon, a large sporting goods manufacturer and retailer, planned to open its official online shopping website in China. The marketing department head of Decathlon China, has experimented with several new social media in China in order to increase the brand awareness among online shoppers. In the upcoming executive meeting, marketing department head would like to persuade the chief executive officer to dedicate more resources to social media to increase both online sales in the short term and market share in the long term.

An updated "Four Products" case. This 2011 version includes; sliced peanut butter, artificial dirt for thoroughbred race tracks, interactive tombstones, and stride-changing running shoes. These four products form the basis to assess the drivers of new product adoption. In particular, one of the critical tasks in marketing new innovations is predicting demand and rates of diffusion for those products. And while one can speculate on the scope and rate of diffusion for any given product, it's helpful to compare and contrast diffusion across products. Doing so allows one to focus on the drivers or product characteristics that influence product diffusion, making one product a star and another a dog. Specifically, looking across products allows one to pick up on things that get lost in discussing a single product. Note that this case often gets used with HBS No. 505-075, "Note on Innovation Diffusion; Rogers' Five Factors," which can be distributed along with the case or after the case has been taught.

Ten years into Quadriserv's life, Greg DePetris and his company were at a crossroads. Perhaps more so than any of Greg's previous ventures, Quadriserv represented a move into an established marketplace with strong and entrenched incumbents. Greg had a tested record of startups in the trading and financial sectors, but the difference in this case was that Quadriserv would be taking on some of the oldest and most venerable firms in U.S. finance. Quadriserv's goal was a bold one: to revolutionize the equity securities lending market. While the potential payoff was large, the downside risk was not lost on Greg and the firm's other principals. Further, the current moment represented an important decision point for the firm.

This case focuses on the complexities of building a real estate portfolio in two low-income neighborhoods of Chicago, Roseland and Englewood, during the foreclosure crises in 2011.

On October 28, 2011, 1,500 people, including many civic and business leaders, gathered outdoors in a Charlotte, North Carolina city square to celebrate the launch of Envision: Charlotte, a first-in-the-nation smart grid plan aimed at reducing energy use in the central business district. The initiative called for a 20% reduction in energy consumption in the city while promoting the region's burgeoning energy sector by attracting green-minded companies to the urban core and position Charlotte as a highly progressive business center. The idea was to make Charlotte the "new energy hub of America" and diversify away from its historical reliance on banking - a historically volatile industry. Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers and the other leaders in attendance hoped that rallying around a shared idea and supporting a civic initiative such as Envision was the formula for economic sustainability.

Since the 1970s, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region (MSP) had outpaced the nation in job creation and income per capita. MSP's diversified base of industry clusters had enabled the region to adapt to economic downturns and an exodus of major corporate headquarters, earning it the accolade "Minnesota Miracle." Starting in 2003, however, MSP lagged the rest of the U.S. in job ceation (see Exhibit 1). Alarmed business and civic leaders coalesced around a loose-knit group that congregated annually as the Itasca Project. In 2009 these leaders launched the Itasca Jobs Task Force, and its 2010 report set in motion a series of actions by groupos of CEOs and politicians aimed at reversing these trends by creating jobs in all sectors of the economy. In the fall of 2011, however, it was unclear whether these efforts would achieve their intended results (see exhibit 2), or whether longer-term corrective actions in education and skills training would need to take hold first.

Cosmetics company L'Occitane en Provence must decide if it is the right time to go public, and, if so, where to list. The firm could list on Euronext in Paris, close to the firm's headquarters in southern France, on one of the large exchanges in the United States, or perhaps in Asia, where much of the firm's future growth is expected. The case provides opportunities to discuss the benefits and costs of going public, including valuation implications, and illustrates the choices faced by a prospective public firm that operates in a global setting.