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This material presents students with an opportunity to have another shot at cementing their understanding of the general format of the three basic financial statements, some of the content of those statements, and a few of the basic principles undergirding those statements. The tasks presented in the material are relatively direct and manageable as homework within an hour's time.

At the W'Up Bottlery in Uttar Pradesh, India, Rajat Mehra, director of supply-chain management, mused over the W'Up plant's supply-chain performance over the peak summer period that had just ended. The W'Up Bottlery, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCCBPL), made Coca-Cola and other soft drinks for several regions within the Uttar Pradesh market. While inventories had gone down and fill rates had improved relative to the previous peak-sales season, Mehra was looking for ways to improve performance dramatically. Mehra had heard about the concept of vendor-managed inventory (VMI) that was gaining popularity in the West. Implementing VMI would involve moving away from the current situation in which independent distributors placed orders for replenishment to the W'Up plant, to one in which distributors would instead report their inventory levels directly to the W'Up supply-chain management group. Managers in this group would then decide how much stock to send out to each distributor. Mehra and his team wondered how this idea might be applied to HCCBPL's highly fragmented supply chain, covering regions where IT infrastructure was sparse or non-existent. See also the B case (UVA-OM-1352

After spending a day in a meeting room in August 2005, pondering how to improve supply-chain performance, Rajat Mehra's team hit upon an idea that might enable dramatic reduction in the cost of stock-outs and excess inventory, through implementation of vendor-managed-inventory (VMI). This idea involved moving away from the current situation in which independent distributors placed orders for replenishment to the W'Up plant, which in turn shipped the items ordered. In the proposed system, distributors would instead report their inventory levels directly to the W'Up supply-chain management group. Managers in this group would then decide how much stock to send out to each distributor. This plan mirrored the concept of vendor-managed inventory (VMI) that was gaining popularity in the West. A novel idea for implementation allowed the company to circumvent the scarcity of IT infrastructure. See also the A case (UV1285).

Ferran Adrià, chef at elBulli, the highest-ranked restaurant in the world for two consecutive years, faces two related decisions. First, Adrià and his team must continue to develop new and different dishes for the ground-breaking cuisine at elBulli to guarantee a continuous stream of innovation, the cornerstone of the restaurant's success. In addition, they are also faced with the challenge of growing the business, exploring whether the core concepts from elBulli - this "taste of innovation" - can be applied to domains ranging from consulting to fast food. The case walks readers through an evening at elBulli, by using the rave reviews of former patrons to capture the full experience, from the long trip required to get to the restaurant, to the tour, to descriptions of the meal itself.

Why do managers become corrupt? Does corruption ever pay? When do friendly relations cross into bribery? How can CEOs manage and prevent outbreaks of corruption? These and other questions are raised by three short case studies of corruption in Germany: at the global engineering firm Siemens, the automaker VW, and the chemical giant BASF. While German law not only permitted overseas bribery but even made it tax deductible until 1999, it was not welcomed in some nations where Siemens did business such as the United States-or in Germany after 2000-but old practices continued. Cooperative management-labor relations, often seen as key to the post-World War II German industrial powerhouse, went sour at VW, as a top manager secured key concessions by paying for union leaders' lavish foreign travel and visits to prostitutes. After vitamin prices sagged in the late 1980s, BASF and the Swiss chemical firm Hoffmann-La Roche plotted a global cartel that lasted a decade and raised the prices of many vitamins 50 percent or more. In the end, even after record criminal fines and jail time for some executives, some observers argued, such practices were likely to recur.

The Londolozi game viewing reserve in South Africa became a defining icon of ecotourism during the 1990s and early 2000s--that is, a tourist business promoting ecological land management and, at the same time, local economic development. The reserve was in a region in the northeastern part of the country, not far from Mozambique, that sorely called out for progress in both these dimensions. The Sabi Sand Game reserve (within which Londolozi was located) was initially created by the government to provide hunters with an area in which to hunt wildlife. The government retained a portion of the reserve as the Kruger National Park, which allowed visitors to view wildlife, but banned hunting, in an effort to boost wildlife populations. The KNP was initially fenced off from the Sabi Sands Game reserve to prevent hunters from moving into the wildlife reserve. The fence, however, also prevented traditional east-west migration of animals across the region. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the farms within the Sabi Sand Game reserve converted their functions from hunting to wildlife viewing, and the fence was taken down. The new challenge for the farms while transforming into wildlife viewing became land management and local economic development.

In late 2006 and early 2007 a number of imports from China, including toys, were found to pose health risks. With safety concerns about Chinese imports on the minds of readers, on July 26, 2007 the New York Times carried a feature article on the precautions Mattel, the world's largest toymaker, took to ensure the safety of its toys. In contrast to other toymakers, Mattel owned the factories in China where its most popular toys, such as Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, were made. Mattel's precautions, however, were not sufficient to shield it from health hazards in the toys it made in China. This case follows a number of product safety snafus, mainly around high lead levels, that Mattel faced from its various suppliers in China. In each situation, Mattel must weigh legal, ethical, and business considerations in determining how to best react.

Established in 1938, Highly Confident Transportation ("HCT") is a leading third-party logistics ("3PL") company in Taiwan. Originally a trucking and en-route transportation company serving domestic customers, HCT has transformed into a company providing integrated logistics services to global customers. Throughout its history, the company has prospered despite fierce competition, economic hard times and a rapidly changing market environment. HCT now competes against both domestic and foreign players. Despite these challenges, Chen Rong-chuan, chief operating officer of HCT, sees immense opportunities in the trend since the 1990s of outsourcing logistics functions to professional logistics companies such as HCT. In order to increase profits for the company, he has pushed for innovation and a service-oriented approach to be the future directions for HCT and has implemented a complete cultural change throughout the company. He has stressed the vital role of information technology throughout HCT's development into a leading 3PL company that offers logistics solutions both within Taiwan and around the world. This case can be used as a teaching tool for logistics or supply chain management courses.

In November 2006, two members of the FLIR Commercial Vision Systems (CVS) executive team attended a week-long program at Stanford University entitled "Customer Focused Innovation." Upon returning home, they created an "Innovation Center" based on what they had learned. Over the next 18 months, the Innovation Center was used to develop product ideas, improve manufacturing processes, and other tasks requiring creative thinking. FLIR CVS was a division of FLIR Systems, a manufacturer of thermal imaging cameras that used infrared radiation to "see" even in the total absence of light, or in adverse visibility conditions such as smoke or fog. The CVS division was developed and marketed products for commercial applications such as security monitoring, night vision cameras for automobiles, systems that allowed boat captains to see in foggy conditions, or imaging equipment for fire-fighting. The case provides a detailed description of one day-long session at the Innovation Center. The case explores the cultural bases of the Center's success during its first 18 months, and the impact of the Center on the company culture. It also poses problems facing the FLIR executives, such as how to make use of the large number of ideas generated at the Center, how to improve the Center's innovation sessions, how to expand the concept to other company divisions, and how to scale the program as the company expanded.

In Africa, the usage of insecticide treated bed-nets (ITNs) has shown to be one of the best ways to prevent malaria. USAID, the principal U.S. agency for providing assistance to countries, has just announced that by mid-2008, it will provide an additional $5 billion for malaria prevention and treatment in Africa. Specifically, the agency would like to see Tanzania improve not only ITN coverage (currently at only 14%) but more importantly ITN usage by the country's 35 million citizens. As of 2004, only 10% of children under the age of 5 were sleeping under bed-nets. USAID's goal for 2010 is to increase this to 80%. In this simulation, students need to develop a compelling proposal for USAID for reducing the malaria burden in Tanzania. View Video.

Coloplast's future global manufacturing strategy was based on relocation of volume production of mature product lines to low cost countries like Hungary and China, whereas most creative and innovative activities (pilot production, ramp-up and range care) were held captive in Denmark. The large scale project of offshoring, first volume production and later perhaps other activities, to Tatabanya, Hungary constituted a major shift in the operational strategy for Coloplast, which resulted in a series of organizational and managerial challenges. An important feature of the case is the surprise to the management team of how challenging it was to globalize the operations despite Coloplast's international experience operating a network of subsidiaries in more than 26 countries. The management team learned a lesson of how important it is to have the structure, the organization and the mindset in place when offshoring production. Sourcing internationally is obviously very different from selling internationally as it involves the entire organization. The learning process of the management team and the challenges they faced is unfolded in this case.

Betting exchanges provide an electronic platform that allows ordinary consumers to not only back teams to win, but also to lay odds for other punters to back. This business model allows punters to cut out the middle-man of the bookmaker, and leads to a much more efficient 2-sided market. Betfair.com's domination of the betting exchange has threatened to undermine the core of the traditional bookmakers' business model. The case examines two aspects of the industry: 1. What specific choices did Betfair make to become the dominant betting exchange, winning the competitive battle over Flutter.com? 2. At what stages do Betfair.com's business model and those of the bookmakers interact? Will Betfair.com naturally come to dominate the industry, and if so how should the bookmakers react?

The marketing director of a new minor-league baseball team must design, conduct, and then interpret survey research to determine optimal ticket pricing that will yield large attendance figures and contribute to the owner's goal of breaking even in the first year of play. The pricing assignment becomes more challenging when other variables like concessions revenue are considered. Students are asked to complete a quantitative assignment as part of case analysis, but they must grapple with less quantifiable factors as well.

Describes the real-life outcome of the case Orchid Partners: A Venture Capital Start-Up (9-804-138).

Cruzsalud was a medium-sized company, founded in November 2004. The company's business model was based on the concept pre-paid health care, by means of which low-income subscribers obtain a set of health services in exchange for a fixed monthly payment, with prices ranging from 9 to 40 thousand bolivars (US$ 4.00 to 18.60) per month. Once operations were under way, Cruzsalud had to face several management problems linked to expected sales and subscriber fee collection mechanisms. Moreover, Cruzsalud faced a dilemma related to its business model. The Law for Workplace Prevention, Conditions, and Environment, which was passed in July 2005, forced companies, regardless of size, to provide workplace health and safety services. In response to that mandate, and the determination shown by authorities to comply with it, business demand for health services spiraled. This opportunity, together with the difficulties faced in reaching the required volume of customers, led the shareholders to wonder whether Cruzsalud should continue to focus on the low-income sector, as managers proposed, or move towards the market for employee health plans.

Google had become an extraordinarily popular website because of the efficiency of its search engine and that popularity spiraled through its applications. The key to Goolge's financial success was placing advertisements tailored to the search queries of each user. Google's objective was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible," and it's strategy had three components: search, ads, and applications. An expanding set of nonmarket challenges accompanied Google's success and growth. Challenges came from all areas: competitors, producers of complementary products, content producers, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and the public. This case explores Goolge's nonmarket challenges, including privacy issues in both the United States and European Union, the spectrum auction, intellectual property, corporate social responsibility, and Google's business practices in China.

On the return to their homeland of Croatia following a six-year visit to the United States, a couple has decided to open their own coffee house, one that is unique to the Croatian environment - a California-style coffee house that offers the quality, service, product assortment, ambiance and efficiency found in sophisticated coffee shops in developed markets, and all for a locally affordable price. The major challenge faced by the couple is how to grow. Specifically, should they consider franchising over organic growth? If so, how should they go about franchising in a country where the market is developing and where franchising is under-regulated, underdeveloped and misunderstood? This case can be used in entrepreneurship, retailing, international marketing or international business classes. The case provides a practical example of when and how to use franchising.

This is Part B to the "Arauco: Forward Integration or Horizontal Expansion?" case. This short case looks at the company in late 2007 after it has decided to invest in a Brazilian joint venture involving forests, saw mills and a paper mill. The case acts as an epilogue and allows students to revisit the concept of forward integration into paper in the Brazilian context.

Philip McCrea is dealing with the aftermath of the move of his company and family from San Francisco to New Jersey (from the A case). Although the move goes well from a family perspective, his business runs into challenges when he merges it into a Canadian company and winds up with 30% ownership. McCrea eventually resigns and has to deal with his role in the failure of the company, and the transition to the next step in his career.

This case analyzes the Hilton Hotels Corporation's CRM strategy at a key juncture in its history, immediately after the firm has been taken private by Blackstone. The case provides students with a comprehensive history of the evolution and IT enablers of Hilton's CRM Initiative, as well as the proprietary OnQ enterprise system. The case thus offers a rare opportunity to engage in a longitudinal evaluation of the firm's CRM initiative, and to enable students to propose the future evolution of the initiative based on their analysis.