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In November 2023, Mark Branson, the head of Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), reflected on the efficacy of the reforms initiated since the Wirecard scandal. BaFin had been discredited after Wirecard's downfall in 2020. The press had derided it as a "toothless tiger" because of its limited supervisory powers when it came to addressing warning signs of large-scale accounting fraud. Why did BaFin fail to detect the Wirecard scandal? Were the reforms sufficient to prevent another large-scale accounting fraud and to build trust with investors?

Based in Boston's Chinatown, the Asian Community Development Corporation's mission was to build affordable homes, empower families, and strengthen communities. The case examines whether ACDC should continue pursuing all three goals or focus on affordable housing.

On March 24, 2015, the chief executive officer of SVB Financial Group Inc., the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, was testifying to a US Senate committee. His goal was to provide evidence in support of raising the threshold of US$50 billion in assets, for Silicon Valley Bank's application for enhanced prudential standards under the Dodd-Frank Act. Silicon Valley Bank was above the threshold of $10 billion for some enhanced prudential standards, and close to the $50 billion cut-off for the full array of enhanced prudential standards. By the end of 2021, Silicon Valley Bank still fell below strict scrutiny from the enhanced prudential standards, despite having experienced rapid growth since the US Senate testimony. With the rapid growth of its deposits, the bank was facing a dilemma. Given the nearly zero rates on short-term bonds as of the end of 2021, should Silicon Valley Bank chase the higher yields provided by longer-term bonds and accept higher interest rate risk? What risk management practices should the bank follow? With its deposit base largely uninsured, would the bank's risk exposure become an issue?

Spreadsheet Supplement for Case W34036.

In 2022, Adani Cement was in conflict with transport unions due to a dispute over freight costs. The company had recently acquired two new cement manufacturing plants in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India, but abruptly closed their operations in December 2022 due to rising freight costs. The plant closures, aimed at seeking lower freight charges, surprised and angered thousands of truck drivers. It was imperative to resolve the deadlock between Adani Cement and the transport unions over freight rates.

In 2022, ToyBox Education Project sought to empower families to grow literacy, numeracy, and wellness starting at home. Based in Winnipeg, Canada, ToyBox Education Project provided an opportunity for students at the undergraduate and graduate level to complete several strategic assessments of a social enterprise within a post-secondary institution. The Faculty of Education at the University of Winnipeg had developed a number of tools to assist caregivers of children between ages two and eight to support their academic (i.e., literacy and numeracy) and social (i.e., wellness) development. The faculty received operational and research funding for three years. However, ToyBox Education Project had to find a financial model for long-term sustainability as well as develop its own capabilities to deliver its products and services.

The bindi brand Pearl Eyeflax was marketed by micro organization Payal Novelty Private Limited (PNPL), based in Bhubaneshwar, India. A bindi had rich traditional importance and was historically a critical part of the attire worn by women in India. However, over time the bindi had evolved to become more of a fashion accessory. With the rise of fusion fashion and growing international popularity of the bindi as a fashion accessory, the director of PNPL had to consider how best to showcase the bindi and devise possible branding and segmentation strategies to help the company reach an ambitious sales target of ₹25 million by 2023. What new segments and positioning strategies could PNPL focus on? What kind of branding strategies would spur growth? And should PNPL position the bindi as a cultural product or a fashion accessory?

In the throes of a global pandemic, on May 3, 2021, Exide Industries Limited (EIL) faced a critical juncture. The managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) convened the executive committee in Kolkata, India, to grapple with the choice between human capital and robotic process automation, specifically in the realm of accounts payable (AP) processes. Balancing tangible benefits and intangible costs, the executives debated the impact on employee morale and company culture. Amidst the complexities, the MD and CEO aimed to chart a course that harmonized innovation with tradition, ensuring automation fortified rather than undermined EIL's core strengths. Focused on the vital AP processes, the senior vice president (SVP) of corporate accounts and the IT team initiated an exploration, recognizing the need to navigate a delicate equilibrium between human insight and technological advancement. The narrative unfolds in a bustling city, against the backdrop of a pandemic-altered economic landscape, as EIL seeks a path forward that preserves its unique human capital while embracing the transformative potential of automation.

This case follows the situation arising from the unprecedented circumstances of COVID-19, which forced the Eastern Mindfulness company to transition the business from physical to virtual interactions. Mr. Alok Taunk had successfully started Eastern Mindfulness, which offered interactive and engaging seminars, online courses, and mobile applications (MindFeed) that addressed holistic wellness, performance, and self-development. However, because of the unprecedented circumstances of COVID-19, Mr. Taunk had to cancel all his bookings and return to the clients any advances.

Makoye Safaris, a jungle safari tour company based in Tanzania founded by Vicent Makoye, offered fully guided, safe, and environmentally friendly tours largely to international tourists. The tours were private, custom designed, and flexible and included airport pick-up and drop-off, accommodation, transportation, and three meals daily. Makoye wanted the company to grow and acquire a larger market share. However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic spread worldwide, and Tanzania's tourism sector went into a downturn. Although the number of tourists started to increase in 2021, Makoye Safaris needed a good marketing plan to achieve its target of doubling the number of international tourists it served by 2025.

In 2001, the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRICs) were predicted to grow faster than many others; this prediction turned out to be true. In this technical note, the challenge is to identify the new BRICs in 2023. Students will investigate the following questions: What are the economics behind BRICs? How do investors and managers identify the next BRIC countries (i.e., the next high-growth economies)? Could the economic frameworks underlying BRICs analysis provide some clarity after the fog of the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Europe? This note includes a short explanation of the Solow growth model, an exploration of growth factors not considered in that model, and data for emerging-market economies in 2000. Finally, it offers a range of perspectives on growth factors and suggests an updated analysis of growth prospects and possible new BRICs in 2023. At the Darden School of Business, this note is taught in the first-year core GEM course and used in the Global Financial Markets course.

Choosing to deliberately lose a customer might violate prevailing wisdom, but not all customers are good for your business. The authors suggest that business leaders should focus on customer needs, behavior, and value when deciding which customers to cull in order to improve profitability and better serve other customers. They also describe the pros and cons of different approaches to ending customer relationships.

Today’s fad-driven retail environment is volatile, making it challenging for companies to accurately predict product demand. The authors provide a framework that considers both product life cycle and demand volatility that can help organizations fine-tune their product demand forecasting, with human and AI agents working in concert.

DiDi Global Inc. (滴滴出行) (NYSE: DIDIY) was a mobile transportation platform that monopolized the Chinese ride-hailing and taxi-hailing market having a user base of 550 million worldwide. On 16 June 2021, China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) launched an investigation of DiDi for unfair competitive practices and controlling pricing. DiDi's prospectus disclosed this but did not fully disclose the warning from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to postpone the listing for cybersecurity review and the risk involved from this noncompliance with information security. DiDi was listed on the NYSE on 30 June 2021, raising around USD4.4bn. Within nine days after the listing, CAC had banned all of DiDi's 25 ride-hailing apps from app stores over the mishandling of customer data and to safeguard national security. This led to a significant drop in DiDi's share price. On 16 July 2021, seven Chinese government departments, including those responsible for national security and cybersecurity, visited DiDi's office. Reports suggested that heavy fines, suspension of operations, and even delisting. As the largest shareholder with a 20.1% stake, how would the Chief Investment Officer of SoftBank's Vision Fund recommend to decrease risk exposure of its investment in DiDi?

Yasir Qureshi, the proprietor of the Indian cooking gas agency Universal Indane (UI), has asked the company's operations manager, Shruti Bhargava, to review the financial statement for fiscal year 2021-22 and prepare a report on the functioning of the various divisions. Although both the manager of human resources and the marketing manager had presented their reports, Qureshi wanted Bhargava to holistically audit the current inventory system at UI in terms of customer satisfaction levels and cost perspectives. Qureshi wanted Bhargava to prepare a report based on the representative data available from the company's headquarters in Jahangirabad. UI's inventory turnover ratio was reportedly improving, but the increasing inventory costs, year-on-year, seemed to suggest that new standard inventory practices needed to be adopted. The total operational cost for holding the inventory was calculated based on all relevant cost elements, including ordering cost, inventory holding cost, cost of delivery, and material costs. Standard inventory management principles from operations management literature were used for investigating inventory systems in natural business settings.

Breadfast is an online grocery delivery retailer founded by Mostafa Amin, Muhammad Habib, and Abdallah Nofal in Egypt in 2017. The three co-founders are now contemplating international expansion into new markets to further grow their revenues and diversify geographically. They have decided to investigate expanding into nearby Tunisia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Therefore, they must examine the macroeconomic environment and the food and beverage industry in those two countries to determine if the conditions are favourable to ensure a successful international expansion. In addition to identifying the criteria of attractiveness for each country, the co-founders must select the most appropriate market entry strategy. The online grocery retail market in Tunisia and KSA has been growing as a result of evolving consumer preferences and the COVID-19 pandemic. Both countries have favourable and unfavourable factors. Given the risks and trade-offs in each country, Breadfast must determine which market to enter and which mode of entry will increase its the chance of success.

This case looks at the issues involved in planning the 2022 convocation (graduation) ceremony at the Delhi-based Trident Institute of Management and Entrepreneurial Studies (TIMES). The dean of academics, who was responsible for piloting the convocation, needed to be certain that the ceremony could be completed within a limited time to accommodate the schedule of the chief guest (the leader of a multinational conglomerate). The convocation had two parts: the award of medals and certificates to outstanding students and the conferring of degrees and diplomas on the other graduands. The challenge faced by the dean of academics was determining whether the graduands could walk across the stage, collect their medal and/or certificate, and pose for a photo within the stipulated time. The case looks at the convocation from a process perspective, whereby a mismatch between supply and demand can result in waiting times and may also mean that an inventory is needed. The problem in the case is suitable for analysis using Little's law, which states that the average inventory equals the average flow time multiplied by the average flow rate. This short case is concerned with various process parameters such as bottlenecks, capacity, loading, inventory, flow rate, throughput rate, takt time, and cycle time.

In 2019, the director of the newly minted Digital Services Lab at JOB Co. found himself on the brink of a crucial meeting with the company's chief executive officer. The focal point of their impending discussion rested on the stagnation of progress in the Mentor 2.0 project-an initiative conceived to embody an agile paradigm in digital transformation, championed by an inventive Scrum team. Despite the project's noble intentions, the journey towards agility had proven to be riddled with formidable challenges for the team. The director, acutely aware that the destiny of Mentor 2.0 was intricately intertwined with the prosperity of the Lab, the linchpin of JOB Co.'s digital metamorphosis, grappled with the necessity of explaining the situation accurately. The imminent meeting stood as a decisive moment for him to carefully consider the most effective strategy. He understood that the future path of the Mentor 2.0 project held significant implications for the Lab-a pivotal force guiding JOB Co.'s digital evolution.

In January 2021, an equity analyst in the Student Managed Investment Fund of the Asian Institute of Management was trying to estimate the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) of Aboitiz Power Corporation (AP) based on the capital asset pricing model. The WACC estimate would be part of her discounted cash flow valuation, which would then help her determine whether or not the fund should invest in Aboitiz Power Corporation. AP was a leading power generation and distribution company in the Philippines with ₱81.1 billion in revenues over the nine-month period ended September 2020. The Philippines was in the middle of a lockdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and while the stock market was showing signs of recovery, the analyst was worried that record low interest rates might exert unwarranted downward pressure on her WACC estimate and artificially raise her discounted cash flow valuation of AP. The company's WACC had decreased from 2019 to 2020, reflecting a lower risk-free rate, lower borrowing rate, lower stock price, and resulting weight of equity. The analyst needed to explore potential adjustments to normalize the WACC away from pandemic conditions in order to confirm her recommendation regarding investing in AP stock.