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RJ Tuckerton, a graduate student, claimed in October 2019 that the student's privacy and other university rights were violated when a faculty member "outed" Tuckerton, who was gender transitioning. The protagonist in the case, John Schuler, was now faced with investigating Tuckerton's claims of university policy violations and a claim of retaliation for filing a complaint. The events of this case present the reader with claims made by Tuckerton, the statements by those alleged to have violated Tuckerton's rights, the statements of other witnesses, and with the university's relevant human resource policies. In studying the case, students will be confronted with an array of input, and will have to place themselves in the position of Schuler and determine if there are policy violations and make policy recommendations. The case presents an emerging issue in organizations-that of non-discrimination of transgender employees, and, with it, privacy and other protections asserted by an organization-and how an organization's policies are or are not responsive to employees.

Monday, January 13, 2020, was David Calhoun's first day on the job as President and CEO of Boeing, Incorporated. Prior to Calhoun's first day, two separate Boeing 737 MAX planes had crashed, killing 346 people. In the wake of the second crash, all 737 MAX planes worldwide had been grounded. Something had gone terribly wrong with Boeing's best-selling airplane. Calhoun will need to investigate and evaluate Boeing's actions preceding and following the two crashes to identify a strategy that restores the company's reputation, repairs relations with its stakeholders, and returns the 737 MAX to worldwide service.

In November 2019, John Fowler, founder and principle of consulting firm Blaise Ventures (Blaise) had been listening to a conference call where the management of Canopy Growth Corporation (Canopy) had reported its financial results for its second quarter ended September 30, 2019. Cannabis companies faced a wide array of complex financial reporting issues, and Fowler felt that being able to understand these issues and explain them to clients was critical to Blaise's success. Armed with Canopy's second quarter financial statements and select financial statement note disclosures, he set out to analyze the issues present in the company's most recent results.

In May 2020, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the liquor delivery company LiqHub was happy with his company's initial success. The company's first steps in the Indian market had been propitious, and the founders were happy with the government's validation of their business model. Now, they needed to determine how to replicate their success on a larger scale across India. The CEO needed to evaluate various growth options and make a decision about which operational strategy would most effectively grow the business during the COVID-19 pandemic and into the future. Should the company focus on diversification, product development, market penetration, or market development?

Founded in 2015, GreedyGame Media Pvt. Ltd. (GreedyGame) had a mission to develop culturally relevant gaming content into which ads could be seamlessly integrated so as not to compromise the user experience. Through this approach, organizations would also be able to target their users more sharply. The market looked promising, and the opportunity was ample, but gaming as an industry was still new to India, especially for its inclusion in business. There were many challenges from both the gaming side and the advertising side. GreedyGame had to find the right business model to create an ecosystem with cost-sharing between multiple stakeholders and to expand revenue streams beyond advertisers. In 2017, the company's co-founders wondered what their go-to-market strategy should be. Should they raise funds and continue on the same path they had been on, or should they look to find new collaborators and partners?

The General Electric Company's (GE's) iconic Appliances division enjoyed a significant role in the company throughout the 20th century, representing one of the most recognized engines of the GE brand. By the 21st century, however, GE had changed its focus to technology and infrastructure businesses, and GE Appliances' contribution represented less than 5% of GE's revenue and profit. Recognizing GE Appliances' lack of fit with the strategic direction of the company, GE embarked upon a sale process in 2008, but when the financial crisis struck, it pivoted to a spin-off, went back to a sale process, and then canceled the process altogether and decided to invest more than $1 billion in GE Appliances-including new products, renovated factories, and reshored manufacturing. It wasn't long before corporate thinking and an active board of directors pushed to restart the sale process of a more attractive GE Appliances asset. On September 8, 2014, GE announced it had signed an agreement to sell GE Appliances to global consumer-goods company Electrolux for $3.3 billion. This case examines GE Appliances' journey through a 7-month single-party sale negotiation, followed by a 15-month integration planning, government approval, and a court case.

In 2018, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted 9-0 for a tax that would require companies whose annual revenue surpassed $20 million to pay the city $275 per employee per year. The tax money would then be used to combat homelessness in Seattle. In response, Starbucks Senior Vice President John Kelly released a statement: "There's no reason why one of the wealthiest cities in the world should have children sleeping in cars. But the solution is not to funnel more money through a city council that has thus far failed to show it can spend it effectively." Ultimately, Starbucks, Amazon, and other large Seattle-based companies mounted a campaign to put a tax-repeal referendum on the ballot. The controversy grew, and less than a month after unanimously approving the tax, the City Council voted 7-2 to repeal it. Starbucks has been very public in its commitment to being socially responsible and a good citizen of the communities in which it operates, so how would customers react to the company not wanting to pay local taxes to support social initiatives?

Excited yet apprehensive after being named CEO of P.F. Chang's beginning July 1st, 2020, Damola Adamolekun was well aware of the extraordinary challenges facing the firm. The closure of businesses deemed "nonessential" owing to the COVID-19 pandemic had devastated the restaurant industry in the United States and abroad. The shock had been particularly unwelcome to P.F. Chang's, an upscale-casual restaurant chain known for serving made-from-scratch, wok-cooked Asian cuisine in contemporary bistros. In recent years, P.F. Chang's had shown weak results in restaurant sales and financial performance. Investment management firm Paulson & Co. had joined hands with TriArtisan Capital Advisors to acquire the firm in 2019, determined to turn it around. However, the new leadership team had not anticipated the havoc a pandemic would soon wreak on the economy and the industry. Adamolekun felt that the opportunity to lead the firm at age 31 was extraordinary, but the future was extremely uncertain in this turbulent environment. He was acutely aware that the future of the company, the returns investors hoped for, and perhaps the trajectory of his own career were all riding on the strategic plan he was developing for P.F. Chang's.

The case describes the growth trajectory of Vodafone Gujarat, one of the most successful circles of Vodafone India. Successive leaders of Vodafone Gujarat followed a highly entrepreneurial approach for building a market leadership position in urban and rural markets. The case provides a detailed description of how to execute growth strategies in the telecom sector, especially by designing a decentralized distribution structure, cementing first-mover advantage through trust, customizing products and services, and integrating with network rollout. The context of the rural market and bottom of pyramid customer segments makes this case relevant to other emerging economies.

In mid-2014, revenue market share of Vodafone Gujarat declined slightly ending decades of consistent growth. The cirlce had emerged as the market leader against some stiff competition from other leading players, viz. Airtel and Idea in one of key circles- Gujarat- in western India. Successive leaders had followed growth principles of superior network coverage, customer centricity, and innovation. The aggressive entrepreneurial approach was supported by autonomous structure. The new head of circle had the onerous task of arresting the decline and reviving local team.

The central theme of this case is corporate restructuring; in particular, its thematic unit is the process of financial stress within an organization. The courses and programs are for undergraduate courses such as Finance iii and Financial Strategy, with emphasis on financial analysis and modeling; for postgraduates such as the Masters in Finance in courses such as Financial Analysis and Corporate Finance; in the MBAs in the Financial Management course. These last three courses at the graduate level, although they contemplate financial analysis and modeling within their dynamics, would focus on the evaluation of restructuring alternatives. Likewise, this case can be applied to different executive education programs related to crisis management in family businesses, financial issues in general, and crisis management. In general, the case provides a situation for management decision-making in the process of financial stress, supported by financial modeling tools.

Spreadsheet supplement for case AN0081.

This case details the challenges faced by Marc Jones as the CEO of Aeris Communications (Aeris), a privately owned software company that provided Internet of Things (IoT) networks and services to automotive, fleet, and health care customers. In the case, Jones leads Aeris through a major industry transformation and considers how best to drive continued innovation and growth while navigating increasingly complicated "coopetition" with customers and partners as a result of Aeris's place in the technology stack.

The longest corporate takeover battle in the history of Switzerland - and possibly the world - pitted Sika, a Swiss chemicals manufacturer, against Saint-Gobain, a French conglomerate. At the heart of the dispute was a family business. Sika was a very successful family-controlled firm whose fourth-generation descendants decided to sell their stake in the company. The sale created a quandary for Sika's board of directors, however. How could the board reconcile the wishes of the family owners with the interests of the other shareholders and the company itself? The case highlights the governance dilemma faced by Paul Hälg, the Chairman of Sika's board of directors, and discloses how all parties came to an agreement after a protracted legal dispute lasting 41 months.

Allstate's Data, Discovery, and Decision Making group (D3) had started as a small group of data scientists helping to quantify insurance risk accurately, but by 2017 the group had ballooned to 300 employees offering data capabilities to the firm's business verticals (e.g., Claims or HR). Allstate's senior leadership team had recently defined the strategic objectives that should be driving D3 projects, but it quickly became apparent that D3's current structure was incongruent with these strategic goals. Both D3 members and leadership agreed: A reorganization was necessary. However, an earlier reorganization, which had reassigned employees without their input, had left them feeling burned. Senior leaders didn't want to make the same mistake twice but knew they didn't have time to post and review applications for each position in the new structure.

There has been a growing interest in fintech companies in recent years. The case describes how Privé Technologies has grown from a fintech startup to gain a firm foothold in Hong Kong and become a leading innovator in the financial and wealth management industries. The company was co-founded by Charles Wong and Julian Schillinger in 2011. The company uses modules similar to Lego building blocks to enable financial institutions to meet their customers' needs throughout the wealth management process, from customer onboarding, portfolio construction and recommendation to portfolio reporting and execution. With more than 100 staff and 6 offices in Asia and Europe, Privé has served over 60 financial institutions and its system has been used by over 3,000 financial advisors. This case study sheds light on how a fintech startup in Hong Kong can cope with different challenges and how to search and grasp growth opportunities and sell their products and services effectively.

Toyota Argentina (TASA) and the union representing automotive industry workers in the country had been working together since 2011 to address the challenges faced by Toyota's manufacturing plant in Zárate (Argentina). In 2019, after achieving all the goals set forward in its plan for the "Reborn Plant," Daniel Herrero, TASA's CEO, looked forward to the future.

Wearable electronics were endpoint devices designed to be worn, sense the human body and interact with the environment around the wearer, connecting humans to the Internet of Things. Wearable technology received a great deal of attention in the past decade and reached a peak state of hype in 2015. After 2015, there was increased doubt in the future of the technology after early product releases were underwhelming. Wearables in 2020 provides an in-depth analysis of wearable development in recent years across eight different form factors.