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In February 2018 New York-based coworking company WeWork was valued at approximately $20 billion, making it the fourth-most-valuable start-up in the U.S., behind only Uber, Airbnb, and SpaceX. WeWork had experienced explosive growth since its 2010 founding, however it was revealed, during a private bond offering in mid-2018, that the company had posted a net loss for 2017 of $884 million. WeWork's founders insisted that the company's reliance on innovative technology-along with its mission to "create a world where people make a life, not just a living"- would secure its future success. This case outlines WeWork's business model and growth strategy and asks students to consider whether its market position is unique and defensible-and whether or not its valuation is overstated.

As of early 2018, five U.S. technology companies-Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft-were among the largest companies in the world. Similarly, three Chinese technology firms-Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, or BAT-had emerged as global players due in part to the protection of China's "Great Firewall," which made it more difficult for foreign companies to compete in Chinese markets. As these companies continued to scale by branching into new businesses, such as voice AI and self-driving vehicles, they also faced new and challenging questions about user privacy. The European Union had recently passed the General Data Protection Regulation, a comprehensive set of consumer data protection laws that would require technology companies to make significant changes to their operating model. Meanwhile, social media giant Facebook was facing allegations that Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm, had accessed information on tens of millions of Facebook users without their consent, prompting calls for big technology firms to be more strictly regulated. How would the five U.S. companies and BAT respond to these concerns? And looking forward, in what ways would these big companies compete with one another, and which would come out ahead?

In March 2017, Jason Blum, the founder and chief executive officer of film and television production company Blumhouse Productions, has another blockbuster on his hands with the movie Get Out, produced for just $4.5 million. Remarkable returns for its micro-budget films were nothing new for Blumhouse: in fact, in recent years, Blum and his team are responsible for more such outsized successes than any other producer, especially in the horror genre. The company's approach to movie-making is quite different from that of the major studios: it is not afraid to bet on projects that other studios have passed on; it pays its key cast and crew members the minimum salary stipulated by industry unions and only pays out sizeable bonuses if a movie's box-office reaches certain levels; it gives its directors a great deal of creative control; and it decides on a film's release strategy only once the first cut is ready. Has Blum discovered a robust formula for success in the film business? And is his approach sustainable, even as other players in Hollywood might seek to copy Blumhouse's strategy?

Jonah Peretti, CEO of digital publishing company BuzzFeed, needs to decide how to respond to Facebook's announcement that it would prioritize posts from friends over content from publishers.

Master limited partnerships (MLPs) are limited partnerships that trade on public exchanges in the form of units, similar to common stock. MLPs have several advantages relative to traditional C corporations (C-corps) that have resulted in their frequent use to finance energy-infrastructure assets. The general partners (GPs) retain control of the assets placed in the MLP, can drop down assets to the MLP, often at advantageous prices, and receive incentive distribution rights (IDRs). IDRs increase the GPs' share of the distributions over time, which in turn affects the MLPs' cost of capital. MLPs do not pay taxes at the entity level, which increases the amount of cash that can be paid to GPs and unitholders. MLPs trade on the basis of their yield and the stability and growth of their distributions. This technical note provides a brief history of MLPs, a description of their key features and terms, and several approaches to valuing them.

The chief operating officer at Cambridge Cooling Systems (CCS), based in Cambridge, Ontario, was helping his senior team prepare for two conference calls, with Italy and India, where CCS had foreign subsidiaries. At first glance, the chief issue with Italy seemed to be a lack of response from the managing director for Europe to detailed questions posed by project management for CCS. The issue with India seemed to be an inability to issue and stick to sales goals, and the Cambridge project manager wanted to speak about this with the managing director for Asia as soon as possible. However, further analysis revealed issues with how the headquarters in Cambridge had been managing its subsidiaries. Communications had broken down, and a conference call or two would not resolve the problem.

In 2018, Inditex, based in Spain, was the largest specialist fashion retailer in the world, generating sales of $31.5 billion in 2017 from a portfolio of eight retail brands selling through a total of 7,475 stores located in 96 countries and from websites in 49 countries. Its largest brand, Zara, generated sales of $20.8 billion and operated 2,118 stores. Since its IPO in 2001, Inditex had grown sales an average of 14.3% per year and net profits by 16.3% per year, adding over 6,000 stores in the process, and its stock had significantly outpaced the FTSE 100. While many fashion retailers were retreating in the face of weak demand and competition from online retailers, Inditex grew like-for-like sales for the year in all concepts and geographies. Online sales were up 41% year-on-year, reaching 10% of total sales. For several years, the company had been slowing the growth in retail space and investing in large flagship stores to support its online business. Significantly, in late 2016 Inditex closed four small Zara shops in the company's hometown of La Coruña and opened a 54,000-square-foot store in its place. Indeed, in the last quarter of 2017, the net number of store additions turned negative for the first time. Meanwhile, online fashion specialists such as U.K.-based ASOS were growing rapidly, adding thousands of styles a week to their websites and providing thousands of pick-up and drop-off points (PUDOs) at local retail locations around the world to support their online sales. And then there was the threat of Amazon, which had been pushing into online fashion for over a decade. Was Inditex chairman and CEO Pablo Isla doing enough to turn the online threat into an opportunity?

Cowen Inc.'s broker-dealer, Cowen and Company, LLC, boasted a number of analysts who had made prescient stock calls on the basis of creative data analysis. Now Cowen Inc. had opened a new subsidiary, Kyber, which would attempt to monetize new data science products. Robert Fagin, head of research, had to consider what Kyber's risks were, even as the unit opened the possibility up for new revenue streams. How could Cowen continue to exploit its competitive advantage with data?

A gerontologist in Kaiser Permanente's Colorado region is concerned with the high and growing cost of treating the elderly population. She introduces a new care model, Primary Care Plus, using an interdisciplinary team of a primary care doctor, palliative care specialist, nurse coordinator, clinical pharmacy specialist, and behavioral and social service specialists. The team focuses on the highest-risk patients to see if the new, pro-active care model can improve patient, family, and provider satisfaction and lower Kaiser Permanente's total cost of care for this patient segment.

In Canada, the Budweiser brand of beer was managed by Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V.'s Labatt Breweries subsidiary in Toronto, Canada. In 2016, a senior manager noticed that fewer younger consumers-those aged 19 to 24-were drinking Budweiser beer. In response, the brand increased its investment in television advertising and initiated price incentives, but the sales volumes did not respond accordingly. The senior manager's brand and research teams were tasked with determining which key messages to emphasize and which advertising vehicles to use to gain market share for this segment of the beer market. They started their work by reviewing consumer research on Budweiser's television advertisements. What could the teams do to increase Budweiser's engagement with this young demographic?

This case addresses the transition from cash to accrual accounting. It also demonstrates some of the difficulties in comparing one firm's data with industry averages.

Discusses several aspect of the formal control structure of nonprofit organizations, distinguishing among the responsibility center structure, the program structure, the information structure, and a variety of administrative factors and behavioral considerations including the importance of addressing cooperation and conflict in a bureaucracy.

First discusses full cost accounting, its uses, and the managerial choices involved in setting up a full-cost accounting system. Then discusses differential cost accounting, addressing the nature of costs and the subject of cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis. Then examines a variety of special considerations that can complicate CVP analysis. Finally, discusses when differential costs, rather than full costs, should be used in an analysis, and identifies some of the complications involved in using them.

Outsourcing is a strategy used by many municipalities in an effort to provide high quality public services at a low cost. The underlying theory is that by having an external vendor provide a service, the city or town can take advantage of the vendor's experience and economies of scale. The result will be comparable or better quality services than could be provided by the municipality itself, at a reduced cost to the taxpayers, while still allowing the vendor to earn a profit. Unfortunately, theory and reality sometimes diverge. This note discusses why this can happen and what can be done about it.

This case focuses on DTE Energy's transformation into a high-performing positive organization. When the case opens in 2010, DTE Energy has not only survived the 2008 recession but has had one of its most successful financial years in the company's history. CEO GerryAnderson had asked people to contribute ideas to save the company and avoid layoffs, and they had willingly done so. But now that the crisis is over, he wonders: can that energy be sustained? What can he, as a leader, do to maintain the momentum? The case traces the birth of DTE's new vision and execution of it, particularly with regard to HR practices, authentic communications, and metrics. The case covers 2010-2015 and includes exhibits of the tools the organization used. This is Case B of a three-case series which can be taught sequentially or as stand-alone cases. The cases describe the organizational transformation of energy utility company DTE Energy into a positive organization, focusing first on the personal transformation of DTE's CEO, Gerry Anderson (Case A); then on the transformation of the company (Case B) and finally on DTE Energy's advancement to the "next level" - positive social issues to improve the wider community and societal context in which the company operates (Case C).

This case describes DTE Energy CEO Gerry Anderson's transformation from a hard-nosed, "old school" leader to an authentic, purpose-driven leader implementing positive change. Students follow along as Anderson begins re-thinking his approach to leadership from a cost-focus to a more holistic view that employees are not "simply factors of production" and that management by edict was not sustainable. But just as Anderson is slowly earning employees' trust, the recession of 2008 hits and DTE faces a potential loss of $175 million. Anderson is confronted with the biggest challenge of his career: should he lay off a large portion of the workforce to save the company? Such a move would undermine all he had been working toward in his new leadership style and would destroy the trust he had been trying to build in the company, but his management team sees no alternative. What should Anderson do? This is Case A of a three-case series which can be taught sequentially or as stand-alone cases. The cases describe the organizational transformation of energy utility company DTE Energy into a positive organization, focusing first on the personal transformation of DTE's CEO, Gerry Anderson (Case A); then on the transformation of the company (Case B) and finally on DTE Energy's advancement to the "next level" - positive social issues to improve the wider community and societal context in which the company operates (Case C).

This case depicts how DTE Energy expanded its internal momentum as a positive organization to encompass improving the broader community as well. The case opens at the end of 2015, with DTE's stock price having tripled since 2008 and the company having won Gallup's Great Work Place awards. DTE Energy CEO Gerry Anderson has articulated the vision of DTE as being a "force for growth and prosperity in the communities where we live and serve," but he wonders how he can operationalize such an expansive, intangible vision, particularly given its external focus. The case describes DTE's work with the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, detailing the characteristics of positive leadership, applying authentic leadership, connecting to purpose and calling, and DTE's Positive Organization Framework. Students will be challenged to think of additional ways that for-profit organizations could become transformational forces for positive social good. This is Case C of a three-case series which can be taught sequentially or as stand-alone cases. The cases describe the organizational transformation of energy utility company DTE Energy into a positive organization, focusing first on the personal transformation of DTE's CEO, Gerry Anderson (Case A); then on the transformation of the company (Case B) and finally on DTE Energy's advancement to the "next level" - positive social issues to improve the wider community and societal context in which the company operates (Case C).

Due to Argentina's vast energy resources, its modern political history has been deeply intertwined with its "energy" history. In its many military coups and political uprisings, typically each government used artificially low energy prices to keep the population subdued and the revenues from YPF to finance these subsidies or worse to line their pockets. Many of the interventionist measures that Argentina's governments imposed on the energy sector, such as price controls and at the most extreme nationalization, made it nearly impossible for private sector energy players to succeed or for the public sector to invest in its development. After severe blackouts in the summer of 2014, many Argentines in the country's most populous cities were outraged and went to the streets in protest. These blackouts were specifically due to the increased power usage for air conditioning in the summer months but were more generally caused by the removal of subsidies for power companies and a dearth of public and private infrastructure investment. Into this environment, President Macri was elected and he made energy reform one of the key pillars of his administration. Furthermore, he invited the private sector back into Argentina to immediately alleviate its power generation deficiencies. In this case, the students will examine the ways in which Bruce Wayne and his team may structure and diligence this electric power infrastructure deal. Particularly, the students should come to understand how the deal structure could allow EFC to both gain the most benefit but also shift the risks away from their company. Key questions that will be explored include: What makes investing in infrastructure particularly risky? Can private investment close the world's infrastructure gap? Can political risk be mitigated?

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey. Sandy's massive size, coupled with an unusual combination of meteorological conditions, fueled an especially powerful and destructive storm surge, which caused unprecedented damage in and around New York City, the country's most populous metropolitan area, as well as on Long Island and along the Jersey Shore. This two-part case study focuses on how New York City prepared for the storm's arrival and then responded to the cascading series of emergencies - from fires, to flooding, to power failures - that played out as it bore down on the city. Profiling actions taken at the local level by emergency response agencies like the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), the case also explores how the city coordinated with state and federal partners - including both the state National Guard and federal military components - and illustrates both the advantages and complications of using military assets for domestic emergency response operations. Case number 2124.0