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In late June 2009, management at The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF) was considering expanding the footprint of the TIFF Diversified Fund (TDF), the first truly comprehensive endowment management vehicle offered under the TIFF banner. The recent large capital losses suffered by most endowments, including those of Harvard and Yale, had motivated some to question the two basic premises of the endowment investment model-that investors get rewarded for bearing illiquidity, and that a diversified blend of asset classes and strategies provides meaningful protection against capital losses under virtually all market conditions. Despite this questioning, the investment professionals at TIFF were convinced that this model remained viable as a means of generating superior long-term returns, and that TDF was a vehicle that provided TIFF's current and potential clients access to this model. But they were aware that they would need to increase their efforts to educate their clients on the benefits of this comprehensive approach to investing, and also to reflect on whether to modify the current structure of TDF, particularly regarding its liquidity provisions.

Topics covered include: consumer marketing, market research, new product introduction, and quantitative analysis. TruEarth Healthy Foods, a maker of gourmet pastas, sauces, and meals, wants to build on its successful introduction of fresh whole grain pasta by introducing a similar product concept for pizza. In an increasingly competitive market, TruEarth is focused on beating its competition and wants to act quickly and decisively. The company conducts extensive market research, first using focus groups to test the concept and then following up with take-home trials. Acting as brand managers, students must complete a quantitative analysis of the available data to project the sales volume for pizza and then decide whether to bring the new product to market.

Student Spreadsheet for 4065.

Monsanto has led the effort to bring biotechnology to bear on food production. Through some management missteps and consumer resistance the company had difficulties in its early years. But since Hugh Grant became CEO the picture has brightened with widespread adoption of the company's products. This case focuses on the company's product pipeline and the galvanizing effect of the CEO's promise to substantially improve global food production by 2030.

Once Spain's largest sugar company, Ebro Puleva has been transformed through a series of international acquisitions into the world's largest package rice company and second largest pasta company. In 2009, Chairman Antonio Hernandez Callejas must decide how to proceed now that the firm's sugar business has been sold. A specific question is whether the firm should sell its dairy business, which is limited to Spain. The case discusses the firm's branding strategy, approach to integration, and organizational structure used to manage a global business. The case also describes several changes in consumer behavior and the retail food market brought on by the global financial crisis.

In 2005, the Qianjiang Group (QJ), a large-scale Chinese state-owned group, acquired the Italian company Benelli to expand its business in Western markets beyond Italy. Benelli's brand advantage was intended to provide the core competency for QJ to compete in the global motorbike markets; in addition, Benelli's capabilities and know-how in motorbike and scooter engineering also helped QJ complete its product portfolio. After a successful start, the many cultural differences related to an Italian business model and a Chinese company became problematic. Problems arose in integrating Chinese and Italian cultures and in coping with a completely different way of doing business, and the company was facing stiff competition from Japanese competitors. Despite excellent press and large industrial investments aimed at gaining efficiency and reducing prices, penetration of Western markets was difficult.

Appropriate for general management courses emphasizing operations strategy and senior leadership. Senior leadership in a company's global manufacturing department must respond to the critical senior management directive to achieve a 25% cost reduction. Under the direction of an advisory firm, an operational transformation strategy is developed and implementation is underway in the company's global network of 28 sites. Elements of the transformational program, including leadership challenges and progress after one year of implementation are presented. Students are asked to critique the progress and offer suggestions for the new vice president, who has recently been tasked with continuing a successful program rollout.

Appropriate for courses in operations management and leadership. Owners and employees of this company spent considerable time and effort developing a unique, extremely successful high-performance work-place culture based on trust and a decentralized structure. Individuals and teams managed their areas with little direct supervision from middle and upper management. Some managers, based on sales opportunities with new, large, and demanding customers, felt that it was essential to consider how a Lean or Six Sigma program could be blended into their work-place culture. But other managers were concerned about altering what was already successful. A teaching note (OM-1393TN) is available.

Executives at Sony Music Entertainment faced a dilemma: a user-generated video featuring controversial artist Chris Brown's music was netting millions of views per week on YouTube. Sony held the copyright to the song, and was entitled to issue a takedown notice to the party that uploaded the video. How should Sony act? This case looks at the issues faced by marketers in an environment in which consumers disseminate content without the assistance, or approval, of gatekeepers.

Hit with an industry recession and the global financial crisis of 2008, in January 2009 LyondellBasell Industries AF S.C.A., one of the world's largest internationally diversified chemical companies and headquartered in The Netherlands, placed its U.S. operations and a German subsidiary under U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. To successfully reorganize as a going concern, the company sought to raise over $8 billion in a super-priority "Debtor-in-Possession (DIP)" loan from a group of thirteen financial institutions, including commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds, and private equity funds. Representing one of the largest DIP loans in history, this financing was considered critical to the company's survival. One unique and controversial feature of the financing was a $3.25 billion 'Roll-Up" facility, under which a number of Lyondell's pre-bankruptcy lenders were allowed to significantly elevate the priority of debts they were already owed (so that they ranked ahead of all other pre-bankruptcy debts owed by the company), provided the lenders advanced new loans to the company to help finance its restructuring. With a costly liquidation as the alternative, various creditor groups objected to the DIP financing package, putting Lyondell's reorganization, and survival as a going concern, at significant risk.

Spreadsheet supplement for case UV3928.

Appropriate for entrepreneurship and strategy courses. The focus in the case is on how two entrepreneurs created a differentiating business model that was dependent on quality service and excellent execution. From a growth perspective, the case discusses two very different approaches to geographical expansion so as not to dilute the customer experience or the brand. Now the business faces the difficult question of how to scale the business faster.

The protagonist in this case is an analyst attempting to value Netflix, Inc., and check whether her recent buy recommendation at a price of $20.00 per share was still valid. Recent bad news had caused the price to drop and she needed to do her best to figure out what was the future for Netflix, and was it undervalued at $17 per share? Intended for MBA students, this case contains her discounted cash flow valuation and a set of assumptions (revenues per customer, retention rates, etc.) students can use to perform a valuation of the existing Netflix customer base as another approach toward judging the $17 stock price. There are two student spreadsheets available for this case (UV4342 and UV4343).

Intended for MBAs, this case concerns the valuation of Netflix, Inc., which was the largest U.S. online movie rental subscription service in early 2009. After reviewing Netflix's historical financial and customer relationship performance, this case presents three approaches for valuing the firm in early 2009. The first is a company-level discounted cash flow analysis based on pro forma projections of revenues, earnings, and cash flow. The second approach attempts to judge whether the prevailing market value of Netflix was reasonable by comparing selected company ratios with those of comparable companies. The final approach is based on the assumption that Netflix's enterprise value (EV) was the sum of its current and future subscribers' values (discounted present values, to be exact). There is also a spreadsheet available for students (UV5597).

This note presents a series of questions that leads students through the essential logic linking capital structure and firm value. It begins with a nontax benchmark, then proceeds through valuations with tax deductibility based on (1) a discount rate with tax effects built in (discount free cash flow at the WACC), (2) the valuation of specific claims (value equity cash flows and debt cash flows separately), and (3) the valuation of types of cash flow (value assets and interest tax shields separately). The note concludes by linking these concepts to stock price effects around recapitalizations. Financial risk (leverage effects on CAPM betas) is also introduced and illustrated.

This case examines the April 2009 decision of Rosetta Stone management to price the initial public offering of Rosetta Stone stock during one of the most difficult periods in capital-raising history. The case outlines Rosetta Stone's unique language learning strategy and the associated strong financial performance. Students are invited to value the stock and take a position on whether the current $15 to $17 per share filing range is appropriate. The case is designed to showcase corporate valuation using discounted cash flow and peer-company market multiples. The epilogue details the 40% first-day rise in Rosetta Stone stock from the $18 offer price. With such a backdrop, students are exposed to one of the well-known finance anomalies-the IPO underpricing phenomenon-and are invited to critically discuss various proposed explanations.

Housing investment, a highly cyclical subcomponent of GDP, is a significant source of its fluctuations. Recent events in the housing market have been central to the meltdown of financial markets and the deep recession that began in late 2007. This note provides some background on the so-called housing bubble and, in doing so, highlights some of the primary sources of volatility in housing investment and real estate markets.

Could be used in entrepreneurship business strategy courses. This is a social entrepreneurship case that demonstrates the application of business best practices to a large rural community health organization. The case raises issues regarding growth/expansion and the examines the conflict between the mission and strategic focus. It asks the question: What are the business model limits to "doing good?"

The protagonist in this case is an analyst attempting to value Netflix, Inc., and check whether her recent buy recommendation at a price of $20.00 per share was still valid. Recent bad news had caused the price to drop and she needed to do her best to figure out what was the future for Netflix, and was it undervalued at $17 per share? Intended for MBA students, this case contains her discounted cash flow valuation and a set of assumptions (revenues per customer, retention rates, etc.) students can use to perform a valuation of the existing Netflix customer base as another approach toward judging the $17 stock price. There are two student spreadsheets available for this case (UV4342 and UV4343).

This case examines the April 2009 decision of Rosetta Stone management to price the initial public offering of Rosetta Stone stock during one of the most difficult periods in capital-raising history. The case outlines Rosetta Stone's unique language learning strategy and the associated strong financial performance. Students are invited to value the stock and take a position on whether the current $15 to $17 per share filing range is appropriate. The case is designed to showcase corporate valuation using discounted cash flow and peer-company market multiples. The epilogue details the 40% first-day rise in Rosetta Stone stock from the $18 offer price. With such a backdrop, students are exposed to one of the well-known finance anomalies-the IPO underpricing phenomenon-and are invited to critically discuss various proposed explanations.