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This case is designed to provide an engrossing overview of stakeholder capitalism through a vigorous discussion of the conflicts that can arise when trying to serve multiple stakeholders. In 2007, Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) subsidiary Janssen has to decide whether or not to launch a new opioid painkiller-the first such launch in 25 years-amidst growing concerns about opioid abuse in the U.S. The (A) case starts with the history of human interaction with opioids, the most effective painkillers known, from the Sumarians through the innovation of controlled release opioids, led by Purdue Pharma's OxyContin. By the time J&J is ready to launch a new opioid, this innovation has led to increased opioid addiction, complicating the launch decision. Benefits to customers are now murky, employees may no longer feel the company is living up to its Credo, and society as a whole may be harmed. The (B) case summarizes the fallout of the opioid crisis, and how J&J's participation in that crisis has affected their brand, and society.

This case is set in 2019, and describes the social-entrepreneurial journey of Bettr Barista ('BB'), a Singapore-based coffee company. Launched in 2011 as a coffee academy, BB offered disadvantaged women and youth in Singapore a four-month long holistic programme providing barista skills for employability, emotional and physical training for psychological wellbeing, and an internship for learning on the job. At the end of the programme, BB helped the trainees secure employment in the industry. By end-2018, it had trained and placed more than 60 individuals with the support of government bodies, social sector organisations and private sector companies. To support and sustain its social goals, BB undertook for-profit coffee workshops for corporates and individuals, and ran other commercial businesses including a coffee roastery, retail coffee outlets and mobile brew bars. By end-2018, the coffee company had served 397,000 cups of coffee to 212,000 consumers through its cafés and mobile bars, and held more than 430 corporate events. However, in order to be truly sustainable, BB needed to expand internationally as the Singapore market was small and offered limited growth potential. Many of the neighbouring countries, being primarily coffee drinking markets, were attractive options. However, this also raised many concerns, as such a strategy could stretch the company's already limited financial and managerial resources. BB's business model was unique to Singapore, and the level of market development, technology, governance structures and government support varied significantly across countries in the region. Would BB have the expertise and resources to change or tweak its approach according to each country's market dynamics? Additionally, executing the expansion plans would require a comprehensive management structure to be put in place at BB. Could all of this be done without affecting the core values the company stood for?

The case is set in November 2019, and the protagonist is Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. From humble beginnings as an online book retailer, Jeff Bezos has built Amazon into one of the most valuable companies globally with a market cap of some $900 billion in 2019. Amazon has continued to diversify by integrating online and brick-and-mortar retail, hardware and software, products and services, and as well as original content creation and delivery via online streaming. Amazon Prime delivers content to over 100 million subscribers in the U.S. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the largest provider of cloud computing services, with $35 billion in sales and a 26 percent profit margin. Amazon's microtargeted online advertising services are growing rapidly. Yet, Amazon's retail business continues to display low profitability with thin margins of two percent, following years of losses. Amazon's overwhelming dominance in online commerce as a direct participant and as a provider of backend services to other firms is leading to calls for it to be broken up or to be regulated as a utility. Other strategic issues Jeff Bezos must address include continued diversification and international competition. Amazon's hard-charging workplace culture is also discussed.

This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. In 2009, Ricardo Martinez, management assistant at Premium Capital Investment Advisors (PCIA), was asked to fabricate some of the information to be included in the monthly account balance statements addressed to five shareholders in Premium Capital Funds (Premium), a piece within a complex network of firms founded by Interbolsa, the largest brokerage firm in Colombia. The request, Martinez had been told by his supervisor, "came from the top." Martinez found himself at a crossroads: however outrageous the order was, refusing to obey it would certainly have negative consequences for his immediate future and medium-term career. Reporting the issue to the authorities appeared as though it would be totally useless-and yet, obeying was out of question. What, then, could he do to try to stop this falsification from happening?

Supplement to case UV7926 This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. This B case contains a video and a transcript of an interview the case authors conducted with Ricardo Martinez on July 15, 2019, concerning his reflections on the ethical conflict described in the case and what he actually did about it.

In April 2016, Mark Parker, an experienced private-equity investor, is considering an investment in MedMetric, LLC (MedMetric), a seed-stage health care information technology company. The company has a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product that facilitated reimbursement for Medicare Advantage companies (MAs), private firms that provided an alternative way for senior citizens in the United States to receive Medicare coverage. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reimbursed these companies using risk-adjusted metrics submitted by the MAs that increased their payments for higher-risk patients. Since 2012, CMS had been transitioning from a simpler data-entry process to a more complex data system called the Encounter Data Processing System (EDPS). Smaller and medium-sized MAs struggled to adjust to EDPS and MedMetric's product targeted these MAs to facilitate the transition to EDPS and ensure accurate reimbursement from CMS. MedMetric's product is in development and has several contracts pending, but no revenues are expected until July 2016. Based on the difficulty of valuing the company at this stage, Parker is considering making a $1 million convertible note offering to bridge the company to a later Series A venture round. The terms of the note seem relatively standard to Parker, but he is unsure whether they will provide him with the equity stake and influence he is seeking from the company. Students are asked to evaluate whether the terms of the note are sufficient to grant him the 10%-to-15% equity ownership he is seeking. Seed-stage convertible notes have increased in recent years as a form of financing for early-stage companies. This case provides an introduction to convertible note offerings, their terms and structure, and how the equity ownership can be estimated when the valuation of the company is delayed until a later round of financing.

Student spreadsheet to case UV7929

A primary requirement for managing water effectively and sustainably is an accounting framework that registers the water that is available for use (supply) and the water that is being used (demand). A common accounting analogy is a water budget, or a water account. This note focuses on the water budgets of individual countries, defining concepts including renewable water, watershed, water withdrawal, water consumption, and dependency ratio. The note also includes data on the water budgets of Myanmar and Egypt.

When left unattended, natural resources tend to inch toward depletion, overuse, spoilage, or pollution. Common pastures get overgrazed; lakes are overfished; rivers are polluted, and so on. In the case of water, some may wonder how overuse or depletion is possible, as water is a renewable natural resource. In spite of this, depletion and overuse can occur in a practical sense and on a local level. The reasons for this overuse are often related to the "tragedy of the commons," a situation where individual users of a common resource pursue their self-interest without coordination and thus behave collectively in ways that are not optimal for the resource as a whole. This note explores the concept of the tragedy of the commons in relation to water, considering especially the implications of water's status as an unprotected open-access resource.

Cesar and Marco Esposito and Francisco Caceres, co-founders of the 14-year-old Chilean-based nutritional supplement company All Nutrition/Nutraline, are seeking to deepen their understanding of customers' behavior and buying patterns. After preliminary discussions with the sales force and in-store interviews with customers, they determined that well designed focus groups targeting sports nutrition customers would be an important first step in helping them to be "more in touch" with customers. This case describes the design, implementation, and analysis of the information gathered from these groups-and asks students to determine what kind of quantitative research would further deepen their understanding of who their customers are, how to segment them, and how to work with each of the segments.

This research note provides an understanding of income inequity, which is a component of broader income inequality. It begins by describing the difference between inequality and inequity before examining inequity within the workplace. Using the firm as the unit of analysis, the note discusses possible causes of inequity and the challenges of identifying and measuring inequity. It concludes by focusing on attempts to address inequity and discussing academic research that examines the impact of addressing inequity.

TJX Companies reported a CEO pay ratio of 1,596-to-1 in 2019, leaving board chair Carol Meyrowitz with a host of questions about whether, and how, she could take action to address concerns raised by having one of the highest pay ratios in the S&P 500. As a retail company, TJX had 270,000 employees, many making about $10 an hour. On the other hand, CEO Ernie Hermann made $19 million in 2019 as he successfully steered the company through the tumultuous retail environment. Meant to be read in tandem with the research note "Income Inequity and Income Inequality," this case examines the current disclosures companies make related to income inequality and asks whether they are sufficient or how they can be improved. This discussion around disclosure also provides opportunities to examine the role of the firm in creating income inequality and how the firm should balance its obligations to shareholders and employees when those obligations may be in conflict. Lastly, the case and note address the CEO pay setting process to give students an understanding of how pay is determined.

In 2019, Nigerian entrepreneur Dr. Ayoola (Ayo) Oduntan is accelerating distribution of Noiler, a genetically optimized breed of poultry, to smallholder farmers across Nigeria. The bird was bred to be productive as a source of both meat and eggs and to thrive in the rural Nigerian context-e.g., living in harsh outdoor conditions and relying on forage and kitchen scraps for food. The Noiler breed was developed by Oduntan's poultry business, called natnudO Group, which operates feed mills and hatcheries, processes broilers and layers, and sells poultry products to Nigerian restaurants and retailers. The Group had revenue of about $64 million in 2019. Oduntan wants to get Noilers into millions of poor households in Nigeria and other West African countries as fast as possible. His mission is to tackle protein-related malnutrition in Nigeria, which afflicts millions of children. He has devised a unique value chain model to build sustainable markets for Noilers, with a focus on creating economic opportunity for poor farmers, empowering women, and most of all getting protein to children who need it. In late 2019, he is considering next steps for the Noiler enterprise. Should it remain within a commercial entity or be spun off as a not-for-profit? What would that look like? Should he sell the genetics? How important is it for this to remain a Nigerian enterprise versus bringing in multinational partners? What could reinforce or threaten the model's scalability and sustainability?

This case is designed to provide an engrossing overview of stakeholder capitalism through a vigorous discussion of the conflicts that can arise when trying to serve multiple stakeholders. In 2007, Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) subsidiary Janssen has to decide whether or not to launch a new opioid painkiller-the first such launch in 25 years-amidst growing concerns about opioid abuse in the U.S. The (A) case starts with the history of human interaction with opioids, the most effective painkillers known, from the Sumarians through the innovation of controlled release opioids, lead by Purdue Pharma's OxyContin. By the time J&J is ready to launch a new opioid, this innovation has lead to increased opioid addiction, complicating the launch decision. Benefits to customers are now murky, employees may no longer feel the company is living up to its Credo, and society as a whole may be harmed. The (B) case summarizes the fallout of the opioid crisis, and how J&J's participation in that crisis has affected their brand, and society.

Convertible notes are often used to raise early-stage financing for start-up companies, frequently due to their advantages related to delayed valuation, greater speed, and lower cost of completion compared to venture capital financing. As a result, there has been a large increase in the number of early-stage companies raising capital through convertible notes over the past decade. Investors have made this form of financing more available, believing that small amounts of money can significantly advance the development of young companies. Entrepreneurs often find that convertible notes are easier to raise than a first round of venture capital. The ease of convertible note financing, however, sometimes belies the hidden risks and costs associated with its use. This technical note discusses the most frequently used terms and arrangements of early-stage convertible notes, the estimation of the noteholder's equity ownership from delayed valuation, and the costs and risks of this form of financing to both entrepreneurs and investors. The case "MedMetric, LLC: Seed-Round Convertible Note Financing" (UV7929) can be assigned with the note as an application of this form of financing.

By mid-2019, more than the 18 years since its inception, mjunction had grown to become India's largest e-commerce player and the world's largest e-marketplace for steel. The company had extended its presence to multiple business units, such as coaljunction, teajunction, and straightline.in, all of which operated under the corporate name of mjunction. Some of the business units enjoyed a strong brand identity, while others did not. The chief executive officer was worried about the implications of the diverse brand names being used. Should the organization use a common corporate name for all of its businesses, or follow an individual brand name strategy? And if mjunction chose to transition to a single brand name, how could it minimize the loss of brand assets and other issues?

A senior manager of marketing and sales at a large medical devices firm has convened his team to help him choose a new manager that will be capable of attracting new business and promoting overall revenue growth. The decision has been narrowed down to two, equally qualified candidates: an outgoing and outspoken woman, and a well-liked man. The conversation is going in circles until someone mentions that the woman's behavior at the office party was inappropriate "for a mother." Students are asked how to manage difficult decisions where latent bias may be a factor first from the point of view of this senior manager, and then from the point of view of his female boss, whom he consults with in the second part of the case. This case, which disguises the facts of an actual scenario, is designed to surface and explore students' instinctive decision-making tendencies around a high-stakes leadership situation. Thus it is short enough to be read and responded to in class. Students are assigned readings and assignments related to the case after class discussion, in which they are encouraged to further reflect on their initial responses. This case can be used to focus on the decision itself-whom to promote-or on how the decision should be made (i.e., on the decision-making discussion). The case is quite flexible and would work in any course that deals with leadership, ethics, decision-making, organizational behavior, human resources, and related topics. It is appropriate for a range of levels and audiences, including undergraduate, MBA, and executive education.

After years building a solid customer base by cross-selling its financial service offerings, Wells Fargo was engulfed by a scandal over unauthorized accounts opened in customers' names. Regulators discovered that hundreds of thousands of fake accounts had been opened by bank employees scrambling to meet sales quotas. Was it the work of rogue employees, or the result of an unethical corporate culture coupled with an unrelenting drive to "sell, sell, sell"?