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This case asks students to prepare a report comparing the financial and operating performance of AT&T and Verizon. Taking the perspective of a communications industry analyst, they must also consider the differences between and implications of the companies' business strategies and the differences between the technology and growth rates of the wireless and wireline business segments. As part of this exercise, students reorganize the balance sheets in terms of operating and financial components, calculate changes in working capital, derive un-levered free cash flow (FCF), and apply DuPont style ratios and margin analysis on a consolidated-as well as a segment-basis. Students must also consider the effects of actuarial gains and losses on operating results; and how analysts might adjust for those effects. The case was designed for first-year MBA students in financial statement analysis (FSA) and accounting classes, but it could also be used in other courses to prepare for discounted cash flow (DCF) exercises.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 917543.

Uber Technologies Inc., the popular ride-hailing company, entered 2017 having doubled its bookings in 2016 and achieving a valuation of nearly $70 billion, making it the largest venture capital-backed company in the world. Co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick embodied the company, with a hard-charging attitude embedded in the company's workplace culture that allowed it to successfully take on the entrenched taxi industry. Uber looked to enjoy another year of global growth in 2017, until lawsuits and a cascading series of scandals surrounding that same workplace culture led a group of powerful investors to seek Kalanick's resignation to protect their investment. This case presents an overview of the growth of Uber, the impact of Kalanick, and the role that Uber's board of directors had in shaping the company's growth. It centers on the factors leading to Uber board members and investors to call for Kalanick's resignation, focusing on how board oversight can help shape company culture and how entrepreneurial boards deal with founder CEOs. It then deals with the events that happened in the aftermath of Kalanick's resignation, including the appointment of Dara Khosrowshahi as CEO and the changes, the lawsuit brought against Kalanick by venture capital firm Benchmark Capital, and the governance changes proposed at the end of September 2017.

Supplement to case 317113.

Kjell & Company was a Swedish retail electronics chain founded in 1988 by brothers Marcus, Mikael and Fredrik Dahnelius. The company operated 84 stores, all company-owned, located mainly in the metropolitan areas of Sweden's most popular cities: Stockholm, Gothemburg and Malmö. The company's products consisted of home electronics, accessories for home electronics and cellular phones (e.g., networking accessories, headsets and phone cases), and parts for consumer electronics and appliances (e.g., semiconductors and switches). The company was noted for its excellent customer service and a fair "one-for-all" HR policy. The company had a direct sales force of about 350 in-store salespeople. The salespeople historically had been compensated by a fixed salary and a variable commission conditional on meeting a monthly sales quota. Anecdotal evidence suggested that the monthly-quota compensation scheme might have demotivated some salespeople toward the end of the month, as those who fell short early in a month simply gave up because they had no chance of meeting quota. Thus, to mitigate this problem, management proposed a shorter temporal horizon daily-quota scheme. The (A) case focuses on the decision faced by the CEO, Thomas Keifer, on whether to change the sales force compensation plan to a temporally shorter daily-quota scheme and, if so, how to implement the change-that is, whether to run a pilot study with the new plan (implementing it at a few selected stores) or to launch the plan at all stores simultaneously. The (B), (C), and (D) cases show the results of various metrics across different types of salespeople after the change in the compensation plan was implemented. The case series explores different ways to analyze data for inference about salespeople's behavior caused by a change in the compensation plan. Also, the case series shows ways to experiment with the compensation plan for causal inference.

This Reading introduces basic elements of the structure and process for mergers and acquisitions transactions, arising from markets, custom, and law. It introduces important characteristics of typical M&A transactions, such as deal structure, elements of M&A contracts, and reasons for and effects of a typical deal process. No prior knowledge or reading is necessary.

In 2010, three friends created Fruits of Sherbrooke as a way to rescue local fruit that would otherwise be wasted. The founders knew their efforts would be beneficial for the environment and for people in need of food. In February 2016, having grown their business into a successful social enterprise entirely through the help of volunteers, they faced important decisions. Realistically, they would not always be able to run the organization, which meant facing issues of succession. Additionally, they needed to decide how to balance growth strategies with their commitment to the social good. Should the organization focus on maximizing profitability or should decisions for growth be based only on providing the greatest benefit possible to the community and environment?

In 2014, Jiangsu Huabo Industrial Group Co. Ltd. brought together offline logistics services and an online platform to create Jiangsu PhoneWin Logistics Management Co. Ltd. (PhoneWin). PhoneWin's purpose was to exploit e-commerce opportunities for phones and related services in small towns and villages in China. Although competition was fierce from several large e-commerce companies in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, PhoneWin achieved some success. By November 2015, it had expanded into 13 provinces across China and built partnerships with over 300 suppliers. However, two Chinese e-business giants had started to expand their penetration in rural markets, becoming an inevitable threat to PhoneWin. As an early entrant in this market, how could PhoneWin compete against such powerful giants? Could it sustain its revenue and profit growth in the coming years?

Student spreadsheet for case W16834.

In 2016, the founder of Enigma Escape Rooms Ltd. (Enigma) was investigating an opportunity to expand his business to a second location. A new location would offer three additional escape rooms, and Enigma would enter the horror-based genre of the market. Enigma had strong demand for its adventure-themed escape rooms during its first year of operations. With escape room popularity at an all-time high and new competitors in or entering the market, the owner wondered if this was the best time to grow his business. He planned to complete a business size-up, assess the competition, and then project the costs and benefits of opening a second location before making a final decision.

Supplement to case 517127.

Entering 2017, Tencent and Facebook are reinventing their business models in areas including social media, e-commerce, fintech, gaming, mobile, IoT and VR, among others. The case illustrates the advantage of platform business models over pipeline models or a traditional product focus. It unveils the power of Chinese accelerated innovation and demystifies so- called Chinese "copycat" culture. It also shows how the two tech giants Facebook and Tencent have applied different business models and acquisition strategies, which to a large extent have been conditioned by social, geopolitical and regulatory issues. In showing that Tencent excels in multiple areas when benchmarked against Facebook, another case objective is to encourage students to challenge widely held beliefs that Chinese companies cannot innovate or are incapable of being global players. The case also reveals challenging aspects of doing Internet business in China, including the country's business culture, as well as the Great Fire Wall and how it boosted the Chinese economy, making it difficult for Western technology firms to enter.

In January of 2017, CJ Entertainment & Media (E&M) proudly announced that it will be holding its first ever KCON in Mexico City just two months later. CJ Group Chairman Jay Lee and Vice Chairwoman Miky Lee are pleased at the progress that KCON, a Korean-oriented music and cultural convention, has made since its debut in LA in 2012. In the years since 2012, the event has been held every year in LA, and has recently also taken place in New York, Tokyo, Paris, and Abu Dhabi, with varying levels of financial success. In addition to growing in number, KCON has grown in size. By 2016, KCON LA had become a three-day, two-concert affair, that attracted 70,000 attendees with a wide range of experiences for fans to enjoy, including Korean foods, dance classes, beauty products, and eSports offerings. Chairman Lee and VC Lee believe that KCON is a good vehicle for accelerating the Hallyu wave of Korean culture that was still sweeping the globe, and riding this wave in promoting CJ Group offerings. Indeed, the Group's food brand Bibigo, which ran nine restaurants in the LA area and sold frozen dumplings and other Korean foods in Costco across the U.S., and KCON.tv, a digital media channel, were experiencing commercial success in the U.S. market. But at the same time, there was some uncertainty about the best way to ensure continued growth of the KCON concept. Should they expand the current KCONs to include more days, shows, and events; launch KCONs in new geographies such as Southeast Asia or Australia; or some combination of these growth strategies? How concerned should they be with KCON's uneven financial performance and difficulty in generating sponsorship revenue? KCON LA and KCON Tokyo have made a profit for multiple years in a row, and KCON NY was in the black for the first time in 2016, but other KCONs lost money. What can they do to further grow the Bibigo brand in the US?

In late 2015, CEO Vince Forlenza was reviewing Becton Dickinson's transformation efforts designed to enable the company to innovate and grow in a changing environment. Becton Dickinson had been a successful medical device company for over 100 years. In recent years, cost pressures were causing its major customers to consolidate, and also to rethink their purchasing practices-moving from looking for products to looking for cost-effective solutions that added value and improved patient outcomes. These market forces caused Becton Dickinson to try to adapt to remain successful. In 2009, the company used the Growth and Innovation Profiling process to determine what barriers were preventing the company from achieving its strategic objectives. The result showed that the company needed to make changes in the areas of capabilities, coordination, and culture. Forlenza then led a transformation effort consisting of numerous initiative to overcome these barriers. Despite significant progress over the next few years, by 2013 Forlenza and his team became convinced that these changes alone would not be enough to enable Becton Dickinson to transform into a solutions company and achieve sufficient growth to remain relevant. In early 2015, Becton Dickinson acquired CareFusion, an acquisition 25-times larger than any of its previous acquisitions, and set out to create a new, integrated company made up of the best of both. By late that year, with the integration well underway, Forlenza was asking himself how successful the transformation had been and what he should do next to continue the journey.

This (B) case supplements the (A) case by providing additional information and update through early 2016.

Ferrero Group (Ferrero) operated in the chocolate confectionery industry. The industry was facing challenges with changes in consumer needs, and price volatility and scarcity of raw ingredients. To achieve its ambitious economic goals in this environment, Ferrero integrated various sustainability initiatives in its supply chain and grew the company through vertical and horizontal integration. Advocating a vision of "sharing values to create value," the company set sustainability goals for 2020, which included controlling and being able to trace the supply of raw ingredients. Could Ferrero maintain its leading position in the industry and achieve its sustainability goals? To what extent could the sustainability goals strengthen the company's competitive position and move it toward achieving its financial goals?

Non-profit governance at its core is very different from for-profit governance. Certain aspects of non-profit governance are widely pervasive across all non-profits, while all others are idiosyncratic to specific sub-groups of non-profits. After identifying these commonalities, this paper focuses on specific factors which make non-profit governance particularly nuanced and complicated in specific situations.