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It was January 2013, and Fred Khosravi, chairman of the board of AccessClosure Inc., wondered what the new year had in store for him and AccessClosure, the company he founded in late 2002. Khosravi was cautiously optimistic-the Mountain View, California-based medical device company had been cash flow positive for seven consecutive quarters with annual revenues over $70 million. Since 2007, it had shipped well over 1.5 million of its vascular closure device (VCD), the Mynx, which was stocked in more than 1,200 catheter labs worldwide. However, a 2008 patent infringement lawsuit filed by St. Jude Medical, the VCD market leader, loomed large. The case was on appeal, and a three-judge panel would hear arguments in March 2013. If AccessClosure lost its appeal, it faced a $27.1 million judgment for patent infringement and a permanent injunction from selling its Mynx family of VCDs, its sole source of revenue.

Inc. Magazine's "coolest small company in America," Zingerman's Community of Businesses (ZCoB), is an exemplar positive organization known for its culture and award-winning food. This case covers the ZCoB's decision in 2013 to migrate toward broad-based employee ownership and the iterative, inclusive process by which Zingerman's Partners Group researched and crafted a new ownership design for the ZCoB. Should they use an ESOP, equity compensation, become a cooperative, or create their own model? As students learn about Zingerman's culture (e.g., its progressive views on sustainability, commitment to open book finance, decision-making by consensus) and evaluate which model might be the best match, they grapple with questions that are top-of-mind for the partners: Who will own the ZCoB, and how will it be run when the founders (who own 30-67% of each Zingerman's business) are no longer living? How can it foster a positive, thriving workforce that is the driving force behind a sustainable busi

The Brooklyn Warehouse, a popular restaurant in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is cramped for space because of its popularity within its neighbourhood and as a tourist destination in the city. The restaurant is a private company with two shareholders, one of whom is not involved in operations. Because of the economic downturn, the risky nature of the business and the fact that it has been open only four years, the owners are having trouble securing financing for their expansion plans from their bank and other conventional lenders. However, while negotiating a renewal of their lease in late 2011, their landlord offered to pay for half the cost of building a patio to increase the size of the restaurant. To raise the other half, the owners turn to crowdfunding as a method of raising capital through social media by tapping into their community of friends, family and loyal customers. In return for their donation, which may vary from $100 to $2,500, sponsors are offered various packages, including free meals, a company T-shirt and their name listed on a wall of honour. However, little is known about the appropriate accounting or tax treatment for money raised in this manner. The owners had heard horror stories about businesses that used innovative ideas to raise funds only to have fines and penalties levied by government agencies for income tax and sales tax or even by the Securities Commission for improper accounting. The owners turn to their accountant for advice.

The founder of ServiceForce, a company that provides repair and maintenance for motorized two-wheel vehicles in India, has a dilemma about whether he should sell the rights of his franchisee business, join hands with a venture capitalist, borrow money for capacity building or see the business grow through franchising. The start-up was initiated with his own money and family investment. A mere 18 months has shown great success with two service stations, a mobile workshop to service rural and industrial clients and a system of card packages that allow customers to pre-pay for a range of services. The company is a recognized brand for customer satisfaction and quality workmanship, and the employees are happy and contribute to the company well-being by participating in customer promotion schemes. However, competition from both vehicle manufacturers' service stations and unorganized garages is growing in tandem with the skyrocketing sales of two-wheel vehicles, especially to the younger demographic. In order to grow, the company is at a crossroads: should it borrow money to ramp up the growth of the business through new capacity building or invest in more franchises? Should the owner accept the offer to buy the franchise rights from him outright or the offer from a venture capitalist, which will result in losing some control?

In early May 2013, Abercrombie & Fitch, a high-end clothing retailer in the United States, faced a loss of consumer confidence in its brand after quotes made by its CEO in an interview seven years earlier resurfaced. His remarks fostered the perception that the company was prejudiced against overweight people. In response, angry consumers released a YouTube video entitled #FitchTheHomeless urging people to donate their Abercrombie & Fitch clothing to homeless individuals. This video went viral and inspired negative feedback towards the company from both social media networks and mainstream media outlets. Abercrombie & Fitch's first response came 12 days later with a second apology issued the following week. Nonetheless, the controversy continued, and by June, Forbes announced that the company's BrandIndex Impression was at an all year low. How can Abercrombie & Fitch reverse the negative feedback and regain its consumers' loyalty? You might also like: Abercrombie and Fitch, Mountain Dew: The Most Racist Soft-drink Commercial in History?, Domino's Pizza

This case looks at the public-private partnership (PPP) between the Health Ministry for the government of Lesotho and a private consortium headed up by Netcare, a South African company, to build and operate a new referral hospital and four feeder clinics in Maseru, the nation's capital. The project was one of the first efforts to design a PPP in Africa for the construction and the operation of a major hospital plus the clinical services. The project is perceived by the International Finance Corporation as a major success. The case focuses on three issues: 1. the steps taken by the government, IFC, and the private parties to form a workable public-private partnership; 2. the design and implementation of the key performance indicators contained in the contract; and 3. the sustainability of the project in light of higher than anticipated costs and lower quality health services in other areas of the country, which have resulted in a demand for services from the new clinic and hospital far in excess of the numbers originally forecast. Case number 1999.0

The (A) case describes the launch of a new passenger vehicle in China, produced jointly by Nissan of Japan and by Chinese automaker Dongfeng. Early sales results following the April 2012 launch were disappointing and the joint venture's managers had to decide how to respond. The case includes information on the structure of the industry, on government regulation, and on the preferences of Chinese purchasers of automobiles, including information about environmental considerations. The short (B) case, designed for distribution in class, describes further complications, as an international dispute between the Japanese and Chinese governments created further uncertainties for Chinese consumers and hence for the carmakers. The (C) case concludes the story; it too can be distributed in class.

The (A) case describes the launch of a new passenger vehicle in China, produced jointly by Nissan of Japan and by Chinese automaker Dongfeng. Early sales results following the April 2012 launch were disappointing and the joint venture's managers had to decide how to respond. The case includes information on the structure of the industry, on government regulation, and on the preferences of Chinese purchasers of automobiles, including information about environmental considerations. The short (B) case, designed for distribution in class, describes further complications, as an international dispute between the Japanese and Chinese governments created further uncertainties for Chinese consumers and hence for the carmakers. The (C) case concludes the story; it too can be distributed in class.

The (A) case describes the launch of a new passenger vehicle in China, produced jointly by Nissan of Japan and by Chinese automaker Dongfeng. Early sales results following the April 2012 launch were disappointing and the joint venture's managers had to decide how to respond. The case includes information on the structure of the industry, on government regulation, and on the preferences of Chinese purchasers of automobiles, including information about environmental considerations. The short (B) case, designed for distribution in class, describes further complications, as an international dispute between the Japanese and Chinese governmenbs created further uncertainties for Chinese consumers and hence for the carmakers. The (C) case concludes the story; it too can be distributed in class.

In 2012, over 750 million people around the globe lacked access to safe drinking water. Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, sought to bring fresh water to poor and rural areas with the Slingshot, a water purification device. Kamen's challenge was to identify ways to distribute the Slingshot to areas where it was most needed. A partnership with the Coca-Cola Company helped Kamen to pilot distribution of the Slingshot in low-access regions.

This note discusses valuation in the context of business mergers and acquisitions. It builds on standard methods of business valuation to consider the unique questions arising in a merger or acquisition setting. The note focuses on valuation using the discounted cash flow (DCF) approach and the comparable-firm-multiples approach and presupposes an understanding of the principles of business valuation. The note provides and reviews the details of an acquisition valuation case example. At Darden, it is used in the First Year core Finance course in a module covering Corporate Finance.

"In November 2005 Fidelity Homestead, a savings bank in Louisiana, began noticing suspicious charges from Mexico and southern California on its customers' credit cards. More than a year later, an audit revealed peculiarities in the credit card data in the computer systems of TJX Companies, the parent company of more than 2,600 discount fashion and home accessories retail stores in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Justice Department, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found that hackers had penetrated TJX's systems in mid-2005, accessing information that dated as far back as 2003. TJX had violated industry security standards by failing to update its in-store wireless networks and by storing credit card numbers and expiration dates without adequate encryption. When TJX announced the intrusion in January 2007, it admitted that hackers had compromised nearly 46 million debit and credit card numbers, the largest-ever data breach in the United States. "

As IT innovations in the last years emerged on the consumer market, employees are more experienced in the private than in the corporate use of innovative IT devices and applications. These employees, familiar with the benefits consumer products offer, expect those to be provided by their corporate IT. This trend, referred to as 'consumerization of IT', leads to more and more consumer innovations infiltrating companies. In particular, mobile consumer devices are currently spreading into companies, strongly pushed by top management, and create several challenges to Chief Information Officers (CIOs) around the globe: 'What IT costs are associated with the use of mobile consumer devices?', 'How will corporate use of mobile consumer devices affect IT management?', and 'How to introduce an IT service for corporate as well as personal mobile consumer devices?'. OMEGA Group, a multi-national company with 50,000 employees, wants to leverage the potential of mobile consumer devices for corporate purposes. Therefore, these questions have to be addressed and answered by its CIO. The teaching case is designed to introduce the characteristics of consumerization and associated challenges for IT management. The case uses selected information systems methodologies and frameworks.

Chinese Galanz was the world's largest microwave oven manufacturer in 2013. It had sales of 20 million microwave ovens, group revenues of RMB46 billion (US$7.3 billion) and 46,000 employees. Founded in 1978, it started manufacturing microwaves in 1991. Since then it had grown its business rapidly; in the early 2000s, Galanz had become the largest microwave manufacturer in the global market in terms of units, a position it continued to hold in 2013. In addition, it had become the top seller of electric ovens in the world, and established significant presence in the air conditioning (AC), refrigerator, and dishwasher categories. The case outlines Galanz's impressive achievements in just two decades, describing the reasons for its success: the unique market conditions on both supply and demand side, Galanz's successful OEM model and pricing strategy, and its ability to transform the industry dynamics in the process. However, with increasing pressure of competitive threats, it could no longer rely on its business model to ensure continued growth and profitability. Galanz decided that it needed to move beyond its OEM business to become a consumer brand. The case investigates the way that Galanz is seeking to do this, investing in R&D to stimulate product innovation and changing the organisational design to get closer to its customers. It then looks at Galanz's efforts to diversify into other categories. It also explores some of the global market dynamics at play in various white goods industries.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Is it better to reward existing customers for loyalty -or spend your marketing dollars on attracting new ones? Many companies face that management dilemma, and expert opinions on the subject conflict. The authors argue that the answer to that question depends on how fluid customer preferences are in a market and to what degree some of a company's customers are much more valuable than others. In markets where consumer preferences are highly fluid and where the highest-value customers are much more valuable than others, companies should focus on rewarding their best existing customers. Examples of industries in which this is the case include airlines and car rentals. However, if either or both of those two characteristics -customer shopping flexibility and concentrations in customer value -is not in place, then companies should focus on offering their best prices to new customers. When identifying high-value customers, it's important to remember that revenues and profits may not necessarily be correlated. The authors note that it is not only possible that high-volume customers are not as valuable as they seem, but, in some settings, they may be downright unprofitable. For example, at one bank with which one of the authors worked, about 50% of customers contributed negatively to profits. The authors suggest several approaches to addressing the problem of unprofitable customers, including customer education and selectively increasing prices to those customers.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.