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This field-based case describes the approach and decisions used by Harris Corporation's vice president of supply chain management and operations to establish a set of financial benchmarks. It requires students to use those benchmarks to decide what areas need focus to potentially raise the company's financial results and elevate its financial performance through specific actions within its supply-chain group.

This case outlines the dilemma of V. Raja, president and CEO of GE Healthcare India, when the company's ultrasound machines were implicated in many cases of prenatal sex determination. Even in the 21st century, Indian society favored males and many in India saw females as a burden on their families. Studies had shown that fewer and fewer girls were being born, with potentially catastrophic results for future Indian society. The reason: Many women were relying on ultrasound machines to determine the gender of their fetus and, if it were a girl, having abortions. Raja knew that GE Healthcare and ultrasound machines were providing much better medical care for Indians, particularly those in rural communities, and that the company was following all the rules and regulations to prevent this type of abuse. But he also understood the social issues that were involved. Ultrasound machine sales had enormous potential to help maintain GE's market-leading position in India. But should the company step back from its aggressive sales strategy? How could Raja and the company alleviate the growing discontent among critics and the media against the practice of prenatal sex determination testing using GE's ultrasound machines? What additional efforts did GE need to make to prove its intentions of promoting prenatal care? What other efforts should the company make to stop the illicit prenatal gender determination and resulting abortions? How could he protect the as yet untarnished image of GE as a responsible corporation going forward?

In 2006, Merrill Lynch became the lead book runner for a $5 billion convertible bond issue for MoGen, Inc., which was the single-largest convertible bond issuance in history. Merrill Lynch's Equity Derivatives Group needed to convince MoGen's management of the best coupon rate and conversion premium for MoGen and the potential investors in the issue. This pricing decision requires students understand the concept of valuing a convertible as the sum of a straight bond plus the conversion option. Valuing the conversion option as a call option requires the estimation of the Black-Scholes model, with the volatility being a particularly challenging input. The case is designed for students who already have a basic knowledge of bond valuation and option-pricing principles and works well with undergraduate, MBA, and executive education audiences. The instructor may choose to teach the case in one class period or two.

"The diversity lady has a label on her forehead and talks about the standard message," one senior executive at a large corporation said. "It's the same message we got 20 years ago. We do it annually but employees never get any of that. I've never had a diversity talk to my staff." Traditional diversity initiatives generally focus on specific dimensions of difference such as gender, race, sexual orientation, able-bodiedness, or religion. This material involves role-plays among a diverse group of players that encourage inclusion of a broader scope of social-identity differences such as diversity of problem-solving styles and emotional intelligence differences.

In 2007, Dr. Mark Horton took over as the head of the new California Department of Public Health (CDPH), at time when the governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, had already identified obesity as a prevention priority in his health care reform proposal. However, it was not immediately clear how the CDPH should prioritize the spending on obesity prevention, nor how it should measure and evaluate the success of its interventions. A wide range of possibilities were on the table, accompanied by strong advocates on each side.

In 2006, Talbots, Inc., a specialty women's retailer, purchased a competitor, J. Jill. The transaction created a large goodwill account along with accounts for trademarks and other intangible assets. Using prevailing accounting standards (Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 142), Talbots determined that the goodwill was not impaired in its Fiscal Year 2007 and it was carried forward at its purchase cost. However, one year later Talbots found the goodwill impaired, along with the trademarks and some store assets acquired from J. Jill in 2006, and these impairments were deducted from revenues in Fiscal Year 2008. Case includes financial statements.

Considers the situation facing David Barger, President and CEO of JetBlue Airways, in May 2007 as he addresses the airline's need to slow its growth rate in the response to increasing fuel costs and the effects of major operational crisis for the airline in February 2007. In 2005, JetBlue-typically viewed as a low-cost carrier (LCC)-made a move that is often considered antithetical to the LCC model. Specifically, JetBlue moved from a single aircraft type (i.e., the Airbus 320, or A320) to a fleet with two types of aircraft by adding the smaller Embraer 190, or E190. Students are initially asked to consider the impact of this decision on JetBlue's operations strategy and business model. They are then asked to consider how the reductions in aircraft capacity growth should be spread across the two plane types. This discussion hinges not only on issues of aircraft efficiency but also on those of operational focus and the ultimate competitive priorities of the airline as a whole.

The Crescent Standard Investment Bank Limited (CSIBL) was the largest investment bank quoted on all the stock exchanges in Pakistan, so when it declared a huge loss of Rs2.1 billion (US$35.5 million) for the year December 31, 2005 the market was taken by surprise. There had been some rumors that all was not well and that the investment banking regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), had sent a team to investigate the affairs of the bank. Since the main shareholders were individuals or companies of the well-known business group known as the Crescent Group, there was enormous interest in the CSIBL affairs by financial and political circles as well. The case describes the various types of entities that were merged to form the CSIBL, principally to protect the stakeholders by creating an entity with a large capitalization. The bank had reported in its annual reports that all the internal control mechanisms for good governance stipulated by the SECP were in place and the auditors (internal and external) had reported that these were satisfactory. Yet, when subjected to an investigation, it was revealed that the internal management was involved in a variety of acts of misrepresentation and concealment. The case focuses on the weaknesses in the structure of the corporate governance regime in Pakistan. The fact remains that no amount of internal or external checks can stop the internal management from colluding to perpetuate a fraud.

To make its supply chain fit for the future, Hilti, a global player in the construction industry, is revising its current supply chain setup. In particular, the firm has identified three restructuring alternatives: (1) Low pain low gain: Keep the existing supply chain setup and pursue only minor changes. (2) Consolidate around existing structures: Increase the profitability of the existing structures and consolidate production. Closures of individual plants might be necessary. (3) Greenfield: Exploit the potential of a low-cost region and shift the entire production to new facilities in Eastern Europe. The case takes a look at the different options Hilti has and outlines the underlying strategic alternatives. Learning objectives: While discussing the case, students will specifically learn about the chances, difficulties and trade-offs between different objectives involved with supply chain reorganization.

Dr. C.V. Chen received news that one of Lee and Li's senior assistants had found a loophole in a power of attorney from one of the firm's clients, SanDisk Corporation (SanDisk), that had allowed him to illegally sell the client's shares in a Taiwanese company and to sneak out of Taiwan with over NT$3 billion. Unfortunately, Lee and Li had no insurance to cover this embezzlement. Chen knew that the three senior partners needed to develop a plan of action to save the law firm, take care of the lawyers and other employees, maintain the reputation of the firm within Taiwan and abroad intact, do what was best for SanDisk and Lee and Li, and keep the more than 12,000 clients from deserting the firm.

This case examines the challenges in implementing fair value accounting for mortgage instruments, the role of accounting in the sub-prime crisis, and proposals for revising accounting standards given the crisis.

Dr. Scott Gabu, Chairman of the Emergency Department of the world-renowned, university-based Mercy Hospital, was deeply disturbed when he read the letter from the family of John Samson, a patient who had come to the emergency room one week earlier, that described an incident that occurred at the hospital in which Dr. Jason Diliper, the attending Chief Resident in charge of Mr. Samson, irresponsibly threatened Mr. Samson's health by leaving his bedside while Mr. Samson was having difficulty breathing. Diliper had been a rising star at the hospital, but lately a number of reports about his behavior had concerned Gabu. Was Diliper burning out? What should Gabu do?

Should this gene detection firm enter the business of providing tests for the detection of genetic diseases? If so, how should it prioritize the tests it could develop?

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 109031

For Intel Corporation, the processes and priorities that have made it so successful are difficult to overcome as the company tries to diversify away from its core. The case examines the history and evolution of the New Business Initiatives (NBI) group, as the leader grapples with the questions surrounding why so few of the unit's start-ups actually become significant businesses within Intel's existing divisional structure. While a handful have successfully "graduated" and continue to show high levels of promise, these ventures did not represent truly new and distinct businesses for Intel. Rather they were strongly tied to existing businesses, raising the question of whether NBI had simply become a way for existing divisions to off-load budgetary risk. The case examines what worked, and what didn't, and the challenges posed by transitioning new ventures into the mainstream of the company.

This technical note introduces the basics of forward and futures contracts. It covers the very simplest contract on financial assets with no income and expands the discussion to cover contracts on financial assets with dividends, contracts on foreign currency and commodities. There is a discussion on the difference between forward/futures prices and the expected spot rate.

This technical note covers the pricing of warrants. The note derives the basic formula for the pricing of warrants and offers a simple example to demonstrate the underlying concepts.

This technical note addresses the basics of risk measure for options. It introduces the different risk measures for options: Delta, Gamma, Vega, Rho, and Theta. Although the note focuses primarily on price risk (Delta) and the Delta risk (Gamma), it does address volatility risk (Vega), interest-rate risk (Rho), and time decay (Theta). In addition to providing derivations and basic calculations, the note provides a full description of Delta hedging.