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In the mid-2000s, an American automaker opened an auto financing company in China, Shanghai-based C Automotive Finance Company (China) Ltd ("CAF"). CAF grew rapidly and broke even in three years. Nonetheless, the long cycle time of its application process led to rampant dissatisfaction among dealers and also lowered the number of car purchases financed by CAF as a percentage of total cars sold. The auto financing industry in China held great potential but was also becoming increasingly competitive as more and more foreign companies entered the market. In order stay on top of the game, CAF must improve the efficiency of its financing application process. What actions could CAF undertake to achieve this objective?

The co-founder of CardSwap.ca sat at his desk in the Toronto office from which he managed the company. CardSwap was an online service that provided consumers with the opportunity to convert unwanted gift cards into hard cash. The co-founder felt convinced that his small Canadian company created great value for its customers. After all there were around a billion dollars of unwanted gift cards entering circulation every year. People who owned these unwanted gift cards would surely want to use the CardSwap service. CardSwap could offer a strong value proposition to consumers while ensuring a healthy return through commissions on every transaction. Problems remained however CardSwap was a relatively small company and had no access to the multi-million dollar advertising budgets that might be needed to get a message out to consumers through an extensive multi-media strategy. How much should the company be willing to spend to acquire a customer? How best could this new company use its limited resources to communicate to customers the benefits that CardSwap had to offer?

Spreadsheet supplement for case W11988.

Ocimum Biosolutions, a start-up Indian bioinformatics venture in 2000, had established a presence in Europe and the United States by 2010. The contract research outsourcing industry was expected to continue to grow, as large pharmaceutical companies in industrialized countries were outsourcing work at all stages of the drug development life cycle - from discovery research to clinical trials designed to accelerate drug development as established drugs came off patent. The current challenges for Ocimum were continued growth and the ability to manage expansion while balancing risk. Anu Acharya, Ocimum's CEO, was considering possible solutions.

It was the beginning of December, 2010 and a newly formed team of analysts and consultants at Kristoffer Consulting were gearing up to complete their report for Bei Capelli, an Indianapolis-based hair salon catering to middle-class women. The co-owners felt that Bei Capelli had reached capacity at their current location, and wanted to develop a strategy to pursue future growth. Kristoffer Consulting was looking at growth strategies ranging from franchising, new locations, and new services to increase Bei Capelli's financial performance. The report was due the last week of January, and the team was trying to determine what information they need to gather from the owners to complete their analysis. The team has some challenging client issues and business integrity issues.

It was the beginning of December, 2010 and a newly formed team of analysts and consultants at Kristoffer Consulting were gearing up to complete their report for Bei Capelli, an Indianapolis-based hair salon catering to middle-class women. The co-owners felt that Bei Capelli had reached capacity at their current location, and wanted to develop a strategy to pursue future growth. Kristoffer Consulting was looking at growth strategies ranging from franchising, new locations, and new services to increase Bei Capelli's financial performance. The report was due the last week of January, and the team was trying to determine what information they need to gather from the owners to complete their analysis. The team has some challenging client issues and business integrity issues.

It was the beginning of December, 2010 and a newly formed team of analysts and consultants at Kristoffer Consulting were gearing up to complete their report for Bei Capelli, an Indianapolis-based hair salon catering to middle-class women. The co-owners felt that Bei Capelli had reached capacity at their current location, and wanted to develop a strategy to pursue future growth. Kristoffer Consulting was looking at growth strategies ranging from franchising, new locations, and new services to increase Bei Capelli's financial performance. The report was due the last week of January, and the team was trying to determine what information they need to gather from the owners to complete their analysis. The team has some challenging client issues and business integrity issues.

"In the last two years Ujaala Borderline had lost two key accounts and lost in the bidding process for a third large account. Ujaala Borderline's CEO and Executive VP Corporate Sales (Indian and MNC business) had just left a meeting with the firm's largest client - Sweekar Iron and Steel. Sweekar's CEO had informed them that he was taking his firm's business from Ujaala Borderline and going with another provider. The CEO had pointed out several servicing issues that had occurred over the last two years and considered that these issues had been ignored. First, there were errors in policies and several problems with delivery. Second, because of Ujaala Borderline's many organizational changes, managers at Sweekar were required to interact with several Ujaala Borderline staff - this issue was compounded by the claim from each Ujaala Borderline staff member that they owned the Sweekar account. Third, there were several mistakes in quotes. Fourth, Sweekar had three different relationship managers in four years because of the high staff turnover at Ujaala Borderline. Finally, a recent claim had not been settled to Sweekar's satisfaction. As the CEO left the meeting, he wondered what had happened. He had recently been profiled in a national newspaper as the CEO of the leading general insurer in India but now felt that he was embroiled in changes that he knew he had created. As he was thinking about the meeting with Sweekar's CEO and recent events he almost collided with an auto rickshaw. If Dhirender had not shouted a warning there probably would have been a collision. The CEO now realized that Ujaala Borderline had many problems and he knew that he had to act quickly and decisively to turn things around or else his job was at risk."

It was June 2011 and Alexander Saint-Amand, President and CEO of Gerson Lehrman Group, the largest expert network firm globally, has found his firm once again in the midst of controversy. This controversy centered around a number of insider trading cases that had been brought against consultants working for competing expert network firms. While GLG was in no way implicated in these cases, and GLG had invested significantly in its compliance policies and controls in order to prevent the mishandling of public information, the entire industry was being impacted. Saint-Amand is faced with the challenge of deciding how best to handle this crisis.

In 2010, for the first time in 23 years, PepsiCo did not invest in Superbowl advertising for its iconic brand. Instead, the company diverted this $20 million to the social media-fueled Pepsi Refresh Project: PepsiCo's innovative cause-marketing program in which consumers submitted ideas for grants for health, environmental, social, educational, and cultural causes. Consumers voted for their favorite ideas, and PepsiCo funded the winners with grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000. The case highlights the benefits and risks of traditional branding and social media branding, including a discussion of how the Pepsi Refresh Project fits with Pepsi's previous brand positioning. The case discussion focuses on how the brand team should evaluate the initiative's return on investment (from sales to social media engagement), whether they should continue the initiative for 2011, and whether Pepsi is the right brand for this kind of initiative.

Suitable for MBA, EMBA, GEMBA, and executive education program in coursed on negotiation and intercultural management. This case is based on actual negotiations and data. The scenario has been adjusted and simplified for teaching purposes. The case describes the situation of Philip Fisch, a sales representative of a German midsize engineering company, in his negotiation efforts to close his second deal with Juan Antonio Fajardo Duque, vice minister of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade. It provides general information about the situation (UVA-OB-1019, the A case) and confidential information for students playing the roles of Fajardo and Fisch (UVA-OB-1020 and UVA-OB-1021, the B and C cases, respectively).

Supplement case for UV5845.

This brief note introduces to the student the challenges and rewards of learning to be a more skilled negotiator. Negotiation requires the integration of keen analytic insight with emotional intelligence capabilities.

John Beck, CEO of LightSpeed Computers, is seeking $10 million in venture capital financing to get his company off the ground after its initial seed funding. In Parts A through C, John faces a number of challenging scenarios, starting with the request from a prestigious Silicon Valley VC to hold off on closing a deal for four weeks to give him time to conduct due diligence. John later receives term sheets from other, smaller VCs and must decide whether to move forward or stand by his original commitment. Later, he must choose between two attractive but economically different deals.

John Beck, CEO of LightSpeed Computers, is seeking $10 million in venture capital financing to get his company off the ground after its initial seed funding. In Parts A through C, John faces a number of challenging scenarios, starting with the request from a prestigious Silicon Valley VC to hold off on closing a deal for four weeks to give him time to conduct due diligence. John later receives term sheets from other, smaller VCs and must decide whether to move forward or stand by his original commitment. Later, he must choose between two attractive but economically different deals.

John Beck, CEO of LightSpeed Computers, is seeking $10 million in venture capital financing to get his company off the ground after its initial seed funding. In Parts A through C, John faces a number of challenging scenarios, starting with the request from a prestigious Silicon Valley VC to hold off on closing a deal for four weeks to give him time to conduct due diligence. John later receives term sheets from other, smaller VCs and must decide whether to move forward or stand by his original commitment. Later, he must choose between two attractive but economically different deals.

This note provides some general perspective on the neuromarketing field, with a discussion of both current practices and future directions.

Aurelia Dimas had been sent to investigate the various properties being offered by the State of California in the form of a sale-leaseback agreement. The opportunity was perfect for her firm, Orrington Financial Partners, which had recently expanded its fixed-income portfolio to include real estate. The wide range of offerings in the Golden State Portfolio provided both diversification and stability over a period of decades. She had spent the last week walking the halls of each and every building to see the offering first hand. Now the task of valuing the portfolio rested on her shoulders.

In July 2004, Bombardier Aerospace announced its intention to develop a new family of aircraft called CSeries. In May 2007, three years after the initial announcement, the final decision on whether to proceed with the initiative was still pending. Moreover, during this period, the company released several confusing announcements that raised concerns among investors and industry analysts regarding the sustainability of the company's long-term strategy. In the meantime, Brazilian Embraer had invested heavily in research and development (R&D) and taken the leadership position in the regional aircraft segment from Bombardier. Consequently, Bombardier was faced with a serious dilemma: launch or not launch the CSeries project. Whatever the decision was, it was expected to have a major impact on the future market positioning of Bombardier. Students may be asked to act as advisors to Pierre Beaudoin, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Bombardier Aerospace, and recommend whether the company should proceed with the CSeries initiative. More specifically, students should do a full analysis of the company's external environment, identify the alternatives available to Beaudoin, assess these options based on internal and external environments and recommend a course of action. For Beaudoin, the recommendation was due before the annual meeting of shareholders, scheduled on May 29, 2007.

The case describes the situation faced by the vice-president of A-CAT Corp. The company was a mid-sized manufacturer and distributor of domestic electrical appliances, largely catering to the price sensitive rural population. The firm operated two medium-sized facilities in one of the remote districts in Vidarbha. A-CAT's manufacturing units had been in operation since 1986. A-CAT manufactured a wide range of electrical appliances including TV signal boosters, transformers, FM radio kits, electronic ballasts, battery chargers and voltage regulators. The focus was on their flagship product, the VR500 voltage regulator. The challenge was to select suppliers without offending the stakeholders involved in the process. The core issue was to come to a correct decision -- one that best suited company needs. The plan set by the team was to identify potential suppliers/vendors with their attendant strengths and weaknesses and to do so in a well-documented and structured manner.