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This case involves the decision to move investment funds to a new fund manager. The new fund has high percentage of its assets in nontraditional assets such as hedge funds and private equity. The learning objectives of the case are to provide background on the different types of assets available for investment by large endowment portfolios. The case also provides an opportunity to discuss market efficiency and the risk return trades involved with nontraditional assets.

The "big three" performance variables--growth in real GDP, inflation rate, and unemployment rate--are important starting points for delving into the macroeconomies of any country. This note offers some brief background on the policy environment surrounding performance reporting in the United States and the Eurozone; exhibits show historical performance on each of the big three variables for both. Students are asked to relate important events in the world economy to the path of the three variables from 1999 through mid-2009. Differences in performance in each country/region over time and differences among the regions are also requested in the assignment questions.

This case covers the coal industry and clean coal initiatives in the Unites States and China. Coal is a crucial source of global energy, but coal-fired plants are environmentally unfriendly and are a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. One way to reduce emission is through clean coal technologies, a term which usually refers to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), also referred to as Carbon Capture and Sequestration. CCS projects around the world are in the pilot and planning stage. The U.S. government has become involved in promoting clean coal technology by setting aside $3.4 billion for CCS projects through the Department of Energy. One billion of that will go toward a troubled CCS project called "FutureGen" in Illinois, and the government is trying to put together a group of 20 private companies to invest in the project in order for it to move forward. Private Companies, such as American Electric Power Company and Duke Energy are also working on their own individual CCS pilot projects. The Chinese government has also gotten involved in promoting clean coal technologies by dedicating billions of dollars to technology development and joining with private companies on CCS projects, the most notable of which is GreenGen. Seventy percent of China's energy comes from coal, as well as eighty percent of its electricity. The case also looks at the arguments and impact of environmentalists on the adoption of clean coal technologies. Environmentalists, most notably former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, believe that clean coal is a myth and have been lobbying against clean coal and coal in general.

In October 2008, the manager of client services at Duckworth Asset Management Inc. (Duckworth), an investment firm headquartered in St. John's, Newfoundland, was preparing for a briefing with Duckworth's vice-president of investments. The vice-president had been fielding several phone calls in the past few weeks, all from clients concerned about the significant drop in global financial markets. Since its June 2008 peak, Canada's S&P/TSX had dropped 33 per cent - one of the fastest market corrections in history. One client in particular - the Canadian Swimming Scholarship Foundation (CSSF) - had asked for a meeting with the vice-president regarding alternative investments. The CSSF had heard from another foundation that market neutral strategies could help them manage the volatility they were experiencing with their current holdings. The vice-president had asked the client-services manager to prepare a recommendation on how to best explain events in the current market, the concept of investment risk and if a market neutral strategy could help reduce total portfolio vulnerability.

This case examines the formation of an alliance between Fiat and Chrysler during the height of the financial crisis as a mechanism to save Chrysler from liquidation. The case traces the events leading up to the alliance, discusses the early stage issues with which the partners have to deal, addresses some of the governance issues, and examines the past merger between Chrysler and Daimler that ended in a failure. The case presents a normative approach to alliance management and conjectures about the success of the Fiat-Chrysler alliance. We address whether Chrysler is a suitable partner and whether there is a strong enough rationale for the alliance and whether the two partners are compatible. Finally, the case explores the lessons learned and the cautions that might derail the alliance.

Corin Fiske, the recently hired Director of News and Public Affairs at WEAA a public radio station licensed and owned by Morgan State University (MSU) in Baltimore, Maryland was facing some urgent issues and had concerns about the level of support and motivation among her staff for her and for the station's goals. For many years educators at the University had run the station as an educational resource for students and as a community service for the city. Over the past five years, the station had suffered from turnover in key positions (e.g., four General Managers in four years, Membership Director position open for over a year). The station had not had a fund raising drive in at least two years and had an operating loss of about $200,000 per year in recent years. A somewhat laissez-faire approach to management had been used at the station. Fiske had been recruited to help the station grow and achieve its potential. She was an experienced TV reporter and radio show host. She had an entrepreneurial spirit and viewed herself as a change agent. She had inherited a large staff of 30 direct reports, 29 were volunteers, one was paid, many had been at the station a long time (two to ten years). Most of the volunteers had no journalism or broadcast experience, other than their work at the station. The quality of the station's news and talk show programming had suffered from lack of knowledge of public radio broadcast standards and from lack of commitment by some hosts. Since Fiske began working at the station, she had experienced some challenges: staff being late, non-responsive, resistant to change, and argumentative/combative, plus a resignation. What could she do to ensure her success and the success of the organization? She urgently needed to strategize with her boss and develop a plan of action.

On the eve of trial, and after nearly 14 years of pre-trial litigation, the parties in Wiwa v. Royal Dutch/Shell jointly announced that the four U.S. lawsuits stemming from the execution of the Ogoni Nine in 1995 had been settled.

What role does trade finance play in facilitating global supply chain management? Richard S. Elman, founder and CEO of Noble Group Ltd., a global commodities trading company based in Hong Kong, must raise capital to support the firm's working capital and investment needs. In evaluating by which means Elman should raise capital, students must consider issues relating to the payment terms and financing arrangements used in world trade, as well as the risk management and operating decisions of a trade intermediary.

The president, chief executive officer (CEO) and director of Sofame Technologies Inc. (Sofame) is trying to boost sales at his firm. Sofame is trying to figure out why, with proven environmentally friendly technology, it is unable to achieve rapid rates of growth. The purpose of the case is to exhibit the issues and challenges in selling new technology and to highlight key elements of entrepreneurship, such as sales strategy and managing the sales cycle.

The president of a small Canadian tour operator of packaged vacations faces foreign exchange risk resulting from a future transaction in which the firm is committing to pay in U.S. dollars where the company's revenues are in Canadian dollars. The thin profit margins require the company to consider different hedging alternatives. The case provides significant information that will allow students to discuss international parity conditions and various hedging strategies within a relatively simple context.

This case is an update of the 2005 case on the human capital development of ASIMCO (Asian Strategic Investment Corp.) in China. ASIMCO is an automotive component group serving the Chinese motor vehicle industry. This case showcases ASIMCO's management development efforts in the very different cultural environment of China and its succession program, exploring the challenges faced by Western companies operating in China in the process.

This case illustrates the tension/balance that firms with complex and risky business models must consider in designing their internal controls. It describes the environment in which a derivatives trader engaged in massive directional positions on major European stocks and indexes without being detected for over a year. Although the case could be used to teach the basics of internal controls, it is likely to be more effective by eliciting a debate about how predictable the incident was, and whether or not there was anything fundamentally flawed about the company's choices in terms of strategy, control systems and culture. It also provides an opportunity to discuss the challenges of dealing jointly with a market-wide crisis (subprime) and a company-level crisis.

This case illustrates the tension/balance that firms with complex and risky business models must consider in designing their internal controls. It describes the environment in which a derivatives trader engaged in massive directional positions on major European stocks and indexes without being detected for over a year. Although the case could be used to teach the basics of internal controls, it is likely to be more effective by eliciting a debate about how predictable the incident was, and whether or not there was anything fundamentally flawed about the company's choices in terms of strategy, control systems and culture. It also provides an opportunity to discuss the challenges of dealing jointly with a market-wide crisis (subprime) and a company-level crisis.

What role does trade finance play in facilitating global supply chain management? Richard S. Elman, founder and CEO of Noble Group Ltd., a global commodities trading company based in Hong Kong, must raise capital to support the firm's working capital and investment needs. In evaluating by which means Elman should raise capital, students must consider issues relating to the payment terms and financing arrangements used in world trade, as well as the risk management and operating decisions of a trade intermediary.

SAS: Leadership in Business Intelligence is set in 2007 and traces the history of a great analytics software firm, considered to be the leader in a domain loosely characterized as Business Intelligence. The firm is one of the world's largest private companies, global leader in Analytics and Business Intelligence and the 33rd largest software company in the world. Ownership of SAS is concentrated in the hands of two programmers, one of whom, Jim Goodnight, holds two thirds of the shares and has acted as CEO for the last 30 years, piloting the strategy of the firm. SAS was originally a statistical analytics software package developed by Jim Goodnight and his original partners before the founding of the firm in 1976. Between its founding and 2007 the firm developed a breathtaking array of software add-ons and capabilities that allows firms to perform data storage, data mining, reporting and generate scorecards that enable managers to forecast opportunities and make data-based decisions for the future.

In July 2008, BP was embroiled in a dispute with the Russian partner of its TNK-BP joint venture. The partners had many areas of disagreement, including the level of capital investment, dividend payouts, international expansion, the number of expatriates, and selection of the CEO. The joint venture also had problems with the Russian government over employee visas and exploration licenses. From BP's perspective, the joint venture was an important part of its global oil and gas business. TNK-BP accounted for nearly one-quarter of BP's oil production, and close to one-fifth of its reserves. How the issues between the partners and with the government were resolved would have a lasting impact on BP and its presence in Russia. The resolution would also impact Russia's overall reputation for attracting and supporting foreign investment.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Sustainability is garnering ever-greater public attention and debate. However, the business implications of sustainability merit greater scrutiny-and scrutiny of a different kind than the "green"-oriented focus that's most common. Will sustainability change the competitive landscape and reshape the opportunities and threats that companies face? If so, how? How worried are executives and other stakeholders about the impact of sustainability efforts on the corporate bottom line? What -if anything -are companies doing now to capitalize on sustainability-driven changes? And what strategies are they pursuing to position themselves competitively for the future? To begin answering those questions, MIT Sloan Management Review and collaborator The Boston Consulting Group conducted in-depth interviews with more than 50 global thought leaders, followed by the Business of Sustainability Survey of more than 1,500 worldwide executives and managers about their perspectives on the intersection of sustainability and business strategy, including their assessments of how their own companies are acting on sustainability threats or opportunities right now. The study identifies three major barriers that impede decisive corporate action: a lack of understanding of what sustainability is and means to an enterprise; difficulty modeling the business case; and flaws in execution, even after a plan has been developed. The study also reveals that while novice practitioners think of sustainability mostly in environmental and regulatory terms, with any benefits stemming chiefly from brand or image enhancement, practitioners with more knowledge tend to consider the economic, social and even personal impacts of sustainability-related changes in the business landscape.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. MIT Sloan Management Review's first annual Business of Sustainability survey revealed much about what executives are thinking and doing about sustainability-driven concerns right now -as well as what's impeding their attempts both to capture opportunities and defend against threats. The most widely credited leading thinkers at the sustainability and management intersection, though, wanted to explore something else: the ways that many fundamental management and strategy practices will be transformed by the pressures that sustainability issues are already bringing to bear. This article identifies eight significant ways that current management expectations and practices will be affected by growing societal and economic understanding about sustainability. Among them: how labor productivity can be dramatically increased by sustainably designed workplaces; how companies "bump into" sustainability-related choices, even when they don't look for them; how a company's sustainability profile will become a proxy for the organization's overall management quality; how innovation results are improved by pursuit of sustainability-related outcomes; how sustainability efforts within an organization lead to more productive collaboration across typical organizational silos; and how transparency and trustworthiness will become increasingly consequential to competitive success.