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Student spreadsheet to W15991

In early 2016, Canada's venture capital (VC) investment environment was growing and, as a result, exciting new start-ups were fruitfully collaborating with a sophisticated selection of investors. Ajay Joshi, a partner at Helarctos Ventures (HV), a seed-stage venture capital investment fund based in Toronto, Canada, was an experienced entrepreneur in the mobile wireless technology (tech) space and a savvy VC investor. HV, founded in 2013, had invested in 28 tech start-ups, and six of them had been successfully acquired. But even with past successes, in an environment of hungry, enthusiastic start-ups that was getting larger and more diverse every year, Joshi and the HV team needed to continuously re-evaluate their process and be sure that they were relying on the right criteria for evaluating investments. Each investment in a start-up was a major decision and represented a significant and long-term allocation of finite capital, time, and energy. Joshi and HV needed to be sure of their decisions, when surety was in short supply.

Rite Aid Corporation (Rite Aid) shareholders had turned down a US$3 million bonus proposed for the chief executive officer (CEO) and elected a new board chair. Under the CEO's leadership, Rite Aid had paid off some debt and returned to modest profitability. However, two failed plans to sell the business had shaken the shareholders' confidence. Having dealt with falling sales, shrinking profits, the sale of over half of its stores, and the news that Amazon.com Inc. had acquired an online pharmacy, Rite Aid was facing challenges from all sides. The drugstore industry was in turmoil, and without a buyer, the board chair needed to revisit the company's strategy and its management's capabilities. In the face of consolidation, vertical integration, and disruption from new entrants, survival was uncertain. Could Rite Aid survive on its own? Would it be feasible to attempt a third merger agreement, or were more radical options needed?

In 2012, Sina Weibo stood out from competing microblogging products and developed into the largest social media platform in China. However, in 2013, competition from WeChat, a lack of high-quality content, and the exposure of an excessive number of fake accounts led to difficulties for Sina Weibo. By addressing three aspects of user activity-content producers, content consumers, and the platform operator-Sina Weibo was able to get back on the right track. The platform went from a loss in 2014 to a profit in 2018. However, behind the prosperity, in January 2019, Sina Weibo was facing new threats-namely, the disappearance of Chinese Internet user traffic dividends and competition from rivals Toutiao and Douyin. Sina Weibo's chief executive officer had to determine how to deal with these new threats.

Incorporated in 1983 in Uttar Pradesh, India, GHCL Limited had established itself by 2018 as a well-diversified group operating in chemicals, textiles, and consumer products segments. The home textiles division had launched a new line of bedsheets called Rekoop-a polyester fibre, extracted from recycled plastic bottles and combined with cotton to produce Rekoop bedsheets. The fibre also contained a DNA marker that enabled tracing of the product from fibre to finished product. The textile division was known for its low prices and weak business performance; to overcome that, the company believed that Rekoop could sell for higher prices and move the division's focus from volumes to margins. Rekoop could provide brand salience, visibility, and higher prices. However, the president and chief executive officer of the home textile division faced many decisions-what distribution strategy to follow, how to get stores and customers to buy the product, how to increase customer awareness, what price points to use, how to maintain brand salience, and above all which markets to enter.

Faced with the challenge of continuing to differentiate the Wellness Institute from traditional fitness facilities, the executive director at the non-profit organization was considering undertaking a thoughtful and comprehensive internal and external branding exercise to improve and refresh its brand. The executive director found the inconsistencies of the current brand troublesome. She was faced with some potential opportunities she would like to explore by better understanding the organization's brand. But would her many stakeholders support spending money on a branding exercise and investing resources in an effort to impact a broader community? Could she justify the expense to her board? How would her staff react to the rebranding? Was branding the best place to invest resources to impact the broader community?

This case explores the life and career of Alicia Keys, the 15-time Grammy winning singer-songwriter and producer. Set in 2019, it covers the evolution of Keys's 18-year musical career and additional passions, including acting, entrepreneurship, social justice activism, and collecting art with her husband, rapper and music producer Swizz Beatz. Now a mother of two young sons and with no intentions of slowing down, Keys considers what the next phase of her life and career might hold. This case would be useful for students studying the music and entertainment industry. It also holds relevance for executives approaching the peak of their career and looking to make more deliberate decisions about time management and prioritization.

Gun violence was a significant problem in America. Three Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellows Christy Wood, Russell Sternlicht, and Gareth Glaser each decided to do something about gun safety. They each used their professional and leadership experience to identify their own solutions to the issue. Wood created a set of principles for investments funds to pressure gun manufacturers and gun sellers within their portfolios to adopt safety standards. Sternlicht designed a membership-based lobbying and advocacy group in order to harness the power of mass movements to create positive change. And Glaser founded a smart-gun company whose product could help reduce certain types of deaths and injuries. Would any of these three innovations move beyond the historical gridlock on gun safety?

This case provides an update to the (A) case, which introduces students to adaptive platform trials, an ambitious, more efficient type of clinical trial that increases access to therapies. The A case centers on Dr. Brian Alexander's efforts to launch an adaptive platform trial for studying potential therapies for glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive form of brain cancer. The (B) case provides an update and explores the strategies that Alexander is considering for sustainably financing this trial.

Christian (Chris) Viatte, head of service experience and innovation at Swisscom, market leader in Switzerland's telecommunications industry, strode into his office and dropped into his chair. Some of Swisscom's top executives would soon be holding a meeting to discuss the company's partnership with Mila, an on-demand home service marketplace start-up. Under Chris's leadership, Swisscom and Mila had created Swisscom Friends, a service solution connecting Swisscom customers with vetted, tech-savvy people in their neighbourhood who could help them with small service requests. By 2015, Mila and Swisscom had built up a service crowd of more than 1,500 active "Friends" throughout Switzerland, and Swisscom now had to consider the future of what was still a purely contractual relationship. Should Swisscom partially or even fully acquire Mila? Should it withdraw from the partnership and offer the service on its own? Should it become more involved in Mila's management? This two-part case discusses the development and management of the partnership between Swisscom and Mila, particularly how Mila grew from being a contractual partner to a fully owned subsidiary of Swisscom.

Christian (Chris) Viatte, head of service experience and innovation at Swisscom, market leader in Switzerland's telecommunications industry, strode into his office and dropped into his chair. Some of Swisscom's top executives would soon be holding a meeting to discuss the company's partnership with Mila, an on-demand home service marketplace start-up. Under Chris's leadership, Swisscom and Mila had created Swisscom Friends, a service solution connecting Swisscom customers with vetted, tech-savvy people in their neighbourhood who could help them with small service requests. By 2015, Mila and Swisscom had built up a service crowd of more than 1,500 active "Friends" throughout Switzerland, and Swisscom now had to consider the future of what was still a purely contractual relationship. Should Swisscom partially or even fully acquire Mila? Should it withdraw from the partnership and offer the service on its own? Should it become more involved in Mila's management? This two-part case discusses the development and management of the partnership between Swisscom and Mila, particularly how Mila grew from being a contractual partner to a fully owned subsidiary of Swisscom.

Since its founding in the late 1990s, JetBlue Airways has been known as an innovator in the U.S. airline industry. This case explores how in the mid- to late-2010s, JetBlue sought to drive further innovation by setting up a corporate venture capital arm. Led by Bonny Simi, a long-time JetBlue executive, commercial airline pilot, former U.S. Olympian, and Stanford alumna, JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV) seeks to bring external innovation in house. The case relates the history of JTV's establishment, details its investment decision-making criteria and processes, and examines the governance structures put in place to ensure strategic alignment with its corporate parent. Considerable attention is also paid to the ways in which JTV helps integrate into JetBlue Airways new technologies developed by the start-ups it invests in. Overall, the case assesses how JTV tries to achieve both financial and strategic objectives, which has historically been a challenge for corporate venture capital arms set up by other large companies across a variety of industries.

Plant management at Pasta Serafina, a pasta producer in the south of Italy, is struggling to contain employee absenteeism. While the misbehavior is concentrated in a minority of the workers, its effects impact not only the plant's performance, but also the climate and work environment. Embedded in institutional and legal environment that allows very little room for corrective action, and already dealing with persistent low margins, management decides to address the issue by asking the employees themselves to find a solution to the problem. The case exposes students to managerial challenges associated with curbing moral hazard and changing the company culture in a setting where standard legal and contractual tools, such as firing workers for performance or using incentives to influence behaviors, are not available.

The case complements Pasta Serafina (A) by describing the aftermath of a town hall meeting in which management had publicly denounced the absenteeism problem and challenged the employees to find a solution. In spite of the initial mistrust against management, the fear of an imminent plant closure coupled with the relief associated with finally being able to be heard by management, pushes the employees to act to contain the problem themselves. Within a short time, absenteeism hits record lows. Management, however, is left wondering about the sustainability of the new culture.

In late 2018, evidence emerged that many of Google's temporary help agency workers, vendors, and independent contractors ("TVCs") were unhappy with the company. TVCs, who reportedly made up 49.95% of Google's 170,000 person global workforce, had raised concerns of mistreatment, citing instances of pay inequity, social exclusion, and physical endangerment. "Flexible" workers, such as TVCs, were often seen as a key cog for Silicon Valley's IT companies: they made workforces scalable, they helped firms get access to specialized knowledge for temporary projects, and they boosted innovation by creating "knowledge spillovers" between firms. But, at the same time, many onlookers worried that flexible work arrangements were aggravating social inequality and making more jobs precarious. Google employees, major media outlets, and politicians demanded that the company change its policies on TVCs. One suggestion was that Google convert all of its TVCs to full-time status by early 2020. As tensions reportedly escalated between Google's workforce and its management team, some began to wonder if Google was still an employer of choice.

This note reviews the basics of projecting cash flows for a typical operating decision. To find the economic consequences of any decision, one needs to project the cash flow effects of that decision and discount those at the appropriate hurdle rate. The focus on cash flows arises because any evaluation of economic impact must recognize opportunity costs-the other uses to which one might allocate resources available to a firm. This note discusses two typical ways to organize operating information to calculate cash flow, typically referred to as free cash flow in this context. The first estimates the cash consequences related to various elements of a decision. The second starts with a typical accounting estimate of operating income before taxes and then makes adjustments. The concepts in this note are applied to the firm Morgan Industries, a setting that has been integrated across all the Financial Analytics Toolkit series of technical notes.

In September 2014, the national logistics manager at Lajpal Tea Pvt. Limited (Lajpal Tea), a leading tea brand in Pakistan, received notice that one of his key logistics service providers would soon terminate his service contract for transportation services. This contractor had been associated with Lajpal Tea since the company originated; however, due to payment delays and non-responsive behaviour from the logistics team, he decided to terminate his services and provided three months' notice as per the terms and conditions of his contract. The transport company's business was strong: the owner had many local contacts, geopolitical influence, and a good understanding of the local market. However, his trucks were old fashioned and were not equipped with the latest technology, such as global positioning system tracking. Lajpal Tea, a leading organization with plans for expansion, had to decide what to do now. Should the logistics manager negotiate with the existing contractor or find an alternate transporter from among the other available options?

In 2016 (A case), the founder of Tokyo Smoke, a cannabis retailing enterprise based in Toronto, needed to attract investors. The former Google Inc. employee had taken advantage of public policy changes in Canada and was modelling his retail business on Starbucks Corporation, which had educated North American consumers about coffee and captured a huge share of the coffee market. He needed investment capital in order to build his brand and needed to determine an appropriate valuation as part of his pitch for investment capital. By 2018 (B case), he had to address new challenges in his role as chief retail officer of Canopy Growth Corporation (Canopy), the Canadian licensed producer of cannabis that had taken over the company he founded. How could he position Canopy as a world leader in retail cannabis?

Supplement to case W19534 In 2016 (A case), the founder of Tokyo Smoke, a cannabis retailing enterprise based in Toronto, needed to attract investors. The former Google Inc. employee had taken advantage of public policy changes in Canada and was modelling his retail business on Starbucks Corporation, which had educated North American consumers about coffee and captured a huge share of the coffee market. He needed investment capital in order to build his brand and needed to determine an appropriate valuation as part of his pitch for investment capital. By 2018 (B case), he had to address new challenges in his role as chief retail officer of Canopy Growth Corporation (Canopy), the Canadian licensed producer of cannabis that had taken over the company he founded. How could he position Canopy as a world leader in retail cannabis?

In mid-2017, faced with declining viewership and the loss of the associated advertising and affiliate fees from the pay-TV bundle, The Walt Disney Company needed to consider alternative ways to reach and engage viewers. One option was to move away from bundles and go direct to the consumer. Another option was to acquire more content and make it accessible across multiple platforms. But would these strategies be enough to stem subscriber losses? How did the push by technology disruptors into original content influence these decisions? Were there other strategies worth considering in light of changing tastes, technology, and competition?