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Spreadsheet supplement for case W34884

The recently appointed placement officer at a prestigious business school in Bangalore, India, faced an unexpected challenge in the placement process involving a diligent second-year master of business administration student. The student's encounter with a leading restaurant aggregator during the final interview had taken an unexpected turn, leaving her feeling harassed. Disturbed by the student's experience, the placement officer began questioning the existing recruitment procedures, contemplating their alignment with evolving societal values. The student's experience underscored the intricate dynamics of modern recruitment, urging a reconsideration of established practices.

In 2022, the manager of Hyundai Nishat Motor (Private) Limited was ambitious to expand the company in Pakistan and continue its hard-earned growth. His first step was determining whether the expansion plan was worth it. But how could he estimate the cost of equity of a privately held firm? Although the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and dividend discount model (DDM) were most commonly used to calculate the cost of equity, neither of those models could be used with an unlisted company, which had no stock price and hence no stock returns and beta. Financial consultants thus advised the manager to research the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) and the cost of equity of Hyundai's competitors in a comparable company analysis.

The case follows the innovations of Gooru, a nonprofit with global reach that uses technology to empower learning experiences, from early childhood through lifelong studies, tailored to each student's needs. Gooru assesses students' current knowledge and provides them and their educators with the areas and guidance for improvement, as well as a scope of learning opportunities. It licenses its "GPS for learning.By October 2023, Gooru had been in operation for a dozen years, had received more than $35 million in grants, and was serving institutions and individuals including U.S. K-12 schools, the U.S. Department of Defense, SAP in Silicon Valley, and customers in India, South Africa, and the Middle East. A central question that Gooru now faces is whether it can scale significantly toward its educational goals while remaining a nonprofit.

This case takes the perspective of David Merrill, an entrepreneur and cofounder of Elroy Air (Elroy), a San Francisco start-up in the advanced air mobility (i.e., autonomous flight) industry. Elroy's business model depended heavily on innovation, not just in terms of developing new technology, but also doing so within a still-nascent industry. Elroy was a capital-intensive venture, due to high research and development costs and the long time horizon to reach profitability; it also faced risky and uncertain business and regulatory environments. The case provides an integrated profile of the company and Merrill and also contains the information needed for students to identify and understand the components of the business model canvas in the context of a start-up venture.

This case explores transformative business redesign for sustainability and social impact at De Beers, a longtime global leader in diamond manufacturing. De Beers (and the diamond industry at large) have come under fire over the years regarding social malpractice (e.g., displacement of indigenous groups, forced labor, poor working conditions, and the sale of "blood diamonds" to fund armed conflict) and environmental harm (e.g., open-pit mining, ecosystem degradation, water overuse, and carbon emissions). The case presents corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives introduced by De Beers in 2020 aimed at having a positive impact on society, the environment, and the industry overall. The case surveys the competitive landscape and increasing pressure from consumer trends and product substitutes before introducing three possible scenarios for De Beers to transform its business model and entirely re-orient its operations to maximize positive social and environmental impact. It is the end of 2023, and the fictional case protagonist has shaped the formation of these transformative opportunities and faces a decision about which, if any, to recommend to modify De Beers' historical challenges and chart a brighter path forward.

On September 5, 2023, Luke Hayes, owner of Hayes Public Relations (HPR) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was reviewing the company's financial performance for its seventh fiscal year. Having already reviewed the company's operating decisions for the previous fiscal year, Hayes was now preparing to review the company's financing and investing transactions for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2023.

On December 6, 2023, Shirley Rose, owner of the toy manufacturer Stacked, was reviewing the company's financial performance for its fourth fiscal year, ending November 30, 2023. Stacked manufactured toy wooden blocks in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Rose needed to record all necessary accounting transactions for fiscal year (FY) 2023 using the FY 2022 statement of financial position, the FY 2023 list of cash receipts and disbursements, and other related information provided in the exercise.

New research on talent-hoarding manager behaviors that prevent subordinates from pursuing jobs elsewhere within a company shows that it's bad for organizations, employees, and managers themselves. While managers may have real incentives to hold on to high performers, their reputations as talent blockers will cost them in the long run. They authors share data-backed evidence that letting their best employees go is often in managers own best interests.

In March 2023, Daikin India had reached the milestone of US$1 billion in turnover. It aimed to surpass $2 billion in the next three years. It had fared poorly in the Indian market since its entry in 2000, but after joining the company in 2010, Kanwal Jeet Jawa, the first Indian and inpatriate on the Japanese board of directors, had turned around Daikin's Indian subsidiary. Did Daikin's decision to make India an export hub and to replicate the Indian model for Africa and the Middle East make sense? What role should India play in Daikin's response to the "China plus one" strategy? Given that the AC industry grew through incremental innovation, how could Daikin compete with its rivals and grow sustainably in India and other emerging markets?

On October 31, 2017, Terry Hay, patriarch of the Hay family and leader of the family business, was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and given three weeks to live. This grim prognosis placed the Hay family on an unexpected trajectory and forced them to confront Terry's health crisis while grappling with the impending transition of their family business, Scandinavian Building Services Ltd. (SBS), based in Edmonton. Although the family had already planned for leadership succession, Terry's sudden illness forced them to accelerate their plans and adapt to unforeseen circumstances. How could the family navigate the leadership transition while responding to the urgency of Terry's illness? What strategic decisions would they need to make to stay competitive and grow market share? Most importantly, how could they preserve Terry's legacy and solidify the business's future across generations?

Bigship Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Bigship), an Indian courier aggregator start-up, made its mark in the industry as late entrant during the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2023, the chief executive officer and co-founder was struggled with emerging issues during internal and external crises: The company's employee attrition rate had reached 100 per cent, customer loyalty was in question, and rising levels of fraud were putting pressure on profitability. To add to these problems, another co-founder had sacked all of the company's marketing staff due to disciplinary issues. With a plethora of problems, the CEO and her team now had to determine whether to focus first on tackling internal issues or aggressively follow growth volumes. In which direction should they steer the company's strategy?

The latest offering by Reliance Brands Limited (an undertaking of Reliance India Limited) under the aegis of the Jio brand was Jio World Plaza (JWP), an ultra-luxurious mall with breathtaking architecture and an upscale range of brands and services, signalling that India had arrived on the global luxury market. Providing an eclectic mix of Western and Indian wearable and lifestyle brands, JWP had the potential to transform the luxury sector by the effective usage of brand management strategies. In November 2023, Jio's management faced the question of whether to shape its brand architecture as either a branded house or a house of brands.

Why managers can assume making strategic assumptions supports effective decision-making.

This article explores the effects of open innovation on innovation performance in military bureaucracies. While the understanding of how bureaucratic organizations can benefit from open innovation is still limited, this study discovered that open innovation can have a negative effect on innovation performance. However, leveraging an innovative culture can lead to improved innovation performance in organizations characterized by high levels of structure and hierarchy, especially those where secrecy and security are of vital importance.

When he became CEO, facing limited growth prospects, a low valuation, and therefore a stagnating share price, Menegaux and his team launched a set of initiatives to reposition Michelin. These included (1) articulating a clear purpose ("We care about giving people a better way forward"), (2) formulating a strategic vision-the "Michelin in Motion" strategy aiming to generate 20%-30% of revenue from non-tire activities by 2030, a significant leap from less than 5% in 2020, (3) introducing a new leadership model-I CARE-and reshaping the company's values around the idea of respect for all its stakeholders, and (4) introducing the dream for Michelin to be recognized by 2050 as a critical innovation leader that helped humanity conquer new frontiers. The overall plan centered on driving performance across profit, people, and the planet. Despite challenges, by 2024, these changes had begun to show results, with the company's share price rising by 23% since the beginning of his tenure, although Menegaux believes this does not fully reflect the company's potential.

In December 2022, Dr. Tomislav ("Tom") Mihaljevic, CEO and President of Cleveland Clinic, was reflecting on the last few years at the hospital, marked both by unprecedented challenges and remarkable achievements. Cleveland Clinic had recently been ranked the world's second-best hospital. Dr. Mihaljevic was especially proud of the special recognition given to Cleveland Clinic's COVID-19 pandemic response and attributed this to the hospital's 77,000 "caregivers" (defined as all clinical and nonclinical personnel at the hospital). Despite ongoing challenges, from an anticipated operating loss in 2023 to extreme burnout for caregivers across the hospital enterprise, Dr. Mihaljevic was contemplating ambitious Objective Key Results (OKRs) for 2023, particularly for caregivers. Dr. Mihaljevic and his executive leadership team grappled with the latest pressing issues in their weekly team meeting. They had missed their caregivers targets two years in a row, but Dr. Mihaljevic still thought it was best to set stretch goals for 2023. As they thought about the need to attract and retain caregivers, they recognized how imperative it was to accelerate their digital journey. The executive team was now considering how to achieve this by leveraging technology and data to improve patient and caregiver experiences. It was not clear what 2023 would bring for the hospital, but Dr. Mihaljevic remained optimistic about the year ahead and delivering on Cleveland Clinic's four care priorities: patients, caregivers, organization, and community.

Surana & Surana International Attorneys (S&S) is a multispecialty law firm. Since its inception in 1971, it had declined to serve clients who were in the industries of meat, tobacco, alcohol, and gambling (M-TAG). In early March 2023, a large opportunity arose from a world leader in the alcohol business. Sanjay Mehta, Head of Business Development, met Vinod Surana, CEO and Partner at S&S, to convince him about bringing change to its deep-rooted tradition of sticking to no M-TAG. Kartik and Keerti,CEO's two sons would join S&S soon after finishing their legal education. Surana had a dilemma whether to stick to the existing business philosophy of "no M-TAG" clients or be flexible, considering growing competition and the business requirements.

Companies that are serious about sustainability tend to ignore one of the most powerful tools available to them: lobbying to advance climate policy. Yet, without a business case for doing so, companies fail to invest adequately in advocacy. To change this, they first need to identify the most applicable business rationale for investing in advocacy. This article explains what leaders need to know about building a business case and strategy for climate policy advocacy.

This case study explores the various digital interventions (DIs) used by the Asude Foundation (Asude) in delivering education to students from low socio-economic sections in Aurangabad, India, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact on students' learning outcomes. Asude used an approach of recombining resources and leveraging the available digital and human capabilities, thus it provided a holistic and practical solution to the challenges created by the pandemic coupled with various institutional voids. The case study considers how Asude should plan in 2022 for growth and sustainability.