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A relatively inexperienced professor struggles with managing a case discussion in a class based on numeric analysis. The class is lethargic and time is tight; she considers both a number of possible reasons for their disinterest and different teaching strategies to stimulate discussion and learning.

A professor teaching a case discussion based on numeric analysis is pleased that a student finally "cracks" the case-but the numbers differ from her own. The instructor has to decide how to handle the discrepancy.

A professor has an awkward exchange with a student who has prepared numeric analysis, but whose numbers do not agree with her own.

After two successful years of consulting work, Sonya lands a job at a US-based petroleum company. She thrives in the firm's corporate culture and is soon promoted and transferred abroad to a developing country. However, she discovers that her firm has budgeted $5 million for "legal" consulting - in essence, a payment to the local government. When Sonya pursues the issue with her manager, he suggests that she leave her post and get more experience back home. Through an analysis of Sonya's experience, this case explores about how one might navigate the challenges presented by such an ethical dilemma.

Parker Petroleum's board has given a special task force 24 hours to come up with solutions to trouble on several fronts. Plans for investing $4 billion in a new petroleum refinery in Jumandia are at risk after local residents rioted, alleging environmental damage. Political pressure is also heating up after Jumandia's opposition candidate claimed Parker's CEO was complicit in a $5 million bribe paid to the country's current regime. At the same time, an activist hedge fund has bought 15% of Parker's stock and is pressuring the company to exit its Jumandian investments. In this case students take on the special task force's challenge to make recommendations on how the board should deal with the crises.

The regulations in the home care industry are changing. The industry is moving toward consolidation and favoring large companies. Closing the Gap, a small home care provider in Ontario, reaches a crossroad. The company has three strategic options to choose from: (1) sell the company, (2) buy another company, or (3) grow organically. Given these conditions, students will be asked to conduct an industry analysis and help the chief executive officer (CEO) of Closing the Gap make the appropriate decision. In the (B) case, students will be asked to evaluate an acquisition possibility and advise the CEO whether the acquisition will be a successful one or not.

This is a supplement to Closing the Gap - The Changing Home Care Environment (A) case, product #910M51. The regulations in the home care industry are changing. The industry is moving toward consolidation and favoring large companies. Closing the Gap reaches a crossroad. In this (B) case, students will be asked to evaluate an acquisition possibility and advise the chief executive officer whether the acquisition will be a successful one or not.

The media frequently report on the high cost of various health-related treatments. As there is a limit to the resources available to public and private health plans, they are not able to make all new treatments available. This raises questions about how to determine which treatments should be offered under a health plan. Cost effectiveness analysis has emerged as a powerful tool to help determine priorities and guide these policy decisions. This note is intended as a background reading for a first class on pharmacoeconomics or cost effectiveness analysis.

Detailing, or visits from pharmaceutical sales representatives to medical offices to provide details about a drug's purpose and side effects, has become the pharmaceutical industry's most costly direct-to-physician marketing effort, with an estimated $20 billion spent annually. Research studies offer conflicting conclusions on the effectiveness of this approach. One study found every dollar spent on detailing resulted in incremental sales of $1.72 and another concluded it offered only a modest impact. In this case students generate a regression analysis to consider the impact of detailing and sampling on a physician's prescription rate.

On October 20, 2009 Brady Dougan, the CEO of Credit Suisse Group, announced a new compensation plan for the bank. The announcement had followed quickly on the heels of the G-20 meeting the prior month where, in the wake of the financial crisis, the major governments had laid out a set of guidelines for compensation in the financial industry. Credit Suisse Group was the first firm to adopt the G-20 guidelines, and did so a year ahead of the suggested timetable. While responsive to the concerns of regulators and politicians, Credit Suisse's program was more than a knee-jerk reaction, the new compensation plan had been the result of a "10 year journey" to reshape the culture of the firm. After a significant investment of senior leadership time to explain the new program to employees a significant new challenge arose. On December 9, the U.K. government announced they would impose a one-time 50% tax on bankers' bonuses greater than 25,000 pounds. Dougan and the executive team had to decide how best to fund this tax. Was it fair or appropriate to have the shareholders shoulder the burden of the tax? Similarly, was it fair to ask the UK employees to suffer relative to their peers in other countries?

The (B) case describes how Credit Suisse management allocated the cost of the 25% U.K. banker's tax among shareholders, U.K. Managing Directors and the other employees globally.

The (C) case describes the results of Credit Suisse's PIP I program, the value of PAF, shareholders' vote on the new compensation plan supported by management, and the impact of the company's approach to the U.K. banker tax.

Senior Partner Rob Smith just led construction consultancy firm Davis Langdon through a major organizational change in Europe and the Middle East. In the past, compensation arrangements had not incentivized partners to collaborate across the firm to serve clients' increasingly global and complex needs. In 2007, under Smith's leadership, the partnership agreed to implement holistic change. This included a shift from geographical to sector structure and a new profit-sharing system that encouraged partners to work together for the benefit of the firm as a whole. Amidst the global economic crisis, Smith must decide how to extend on a global basis the alignment the firm has begun to achieve in Europe and the Middle East.

What happens when personal values and beliefs conflict with business decisions? This case, suitable for MBA, undergraduate, and executive learners, prompts engaging discussion of this issue. Oliver Sparling was a highly successful senior analyst at AFI International, a top consulting firm in Chicago with an open and tolerant workplace. He was also a gay man who had lived happily with his partner for over 10 years. Sparling encounters trouble, however, when one of the firm's clients, Bible Books, Inc., takes exception to his "inappropriate" openness about his sexuality (including wearing his commitment band). Sparling's boss calls him into the office and asks him to tone it down when he's at Bible Books, Inc. "These are not easy economic times," said the boss. "And this project is a big one for us. Basically, you're doing the company a favor if you lay low, and once the project is finished, it will be like it never happened. Besides, you know that you don't have anything to hide while you're at home here in Chicago. This is just for when you are in Birmingham." Sparling must decide what course of action to take.

Student spreadsheet to case 910N10

Spreadsheet supplement to case 908N23

This case describes the nineteenth century founding by Werner Siemens of the Siemens electrical business in Germany. Werner's dual role as inventor and entrepreneur is explored as he created one of the world's first multinational enterprises, whose growth initially rested on its pioneering role in the new telegraph industry. Werner sent his brothers to open businesses in Great Britain and Russia, and the case explores the advantages and disadvantages of family business as a form of organization, as well as the challenges growing it poses for such family firms.