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Toyota Kirloskar Motor Company Private Limited (TKM) was a leading car manufacturer in India, one engaged in a significant level of corporate social responsibility activities. TKM focused on health and hygiene issues in rural and semi-urban districts in India, as sanitation was a significant concern there. TKM's efforts to facilitate the improvement of health and hygiene among its program beneficiaries had met with considerable success. The company was now looking to expand the project to increase its coverage. The ambitious multi-year program plan raised several questions: Could the number of targeted beneficiaries be achieved? What challenges were likely to arise? How should the company select an implementation partner?

In late 2015, the government of Delhi, India, took a radical step to curb traffic congestion and pollution, by restricting the use of private automobile vehicles in Delhi’s National Capital Region. Drivers of vehicles whose licence plate numbers ended in odd numbers would be able to drive only on odd-numbered days, and drivers of vehicles whose licence plate numbers ended in even numbers would be able to drive only on even-numbered days. All restrictions would be lifted on Sundays. The management of Indraprastha Gas Limited, Delhi’s sole supplier of compressed natural gas, a safe, economical, and clean-burning fuel, needed to communicate the benefits of clean fuels, in an attempt to gain an exemption for vehicles using its compressed natural gas. The company also needed to address the concerns of both its internal stakeholders—shareholders and employees—and its external stakeholders—customers, suppliers, and policy-makers.

This note, which serves as a glossary, was constructed to ease the transition of students into financial accounting courses. The glossary includes both foundational terms that are widely used and terms introduced in one or more common financial accounting cases. The terms are explained in a manner that aims to inform both novice and advanced students.

In July 2018, the general manager of the Banff Aspen Lodge in Alberta, Canada, needed to fill two vacancies at the Front Desk. He faced several challenges because of a tight labour market and the never-ending cycle of staff turnover in the hospitality sector, especially in a resort town. Although the general manager was confident that the hotel had many good human resource management practices, he wondered whether he could apply a more systematic long-term approach to human resource planning, recruitment, and selection. Was it time to review the company’s overall approach to human resource management?

Queues (or waiting lines) are common in modern life. We wait in lines at the campus cafeteria, to board an airplane, in the emergency room, and when we call a company for customer service. We even wait for applications to be initiated and processed by our smartphone processors, and our online orders wait to be fulfilled at companies’ warehouses before being shipped to us. How long we wait in line depends on several factors and parameters. It may depend on the number of servers working and the amount of time it takes to serve each individual customer (the system’s capacity) or on how many customers arrive at any given time (the system’s demand or flow rate). Most importantly, queues form due to random variations in arrival patterns and service times.

Hospitals frequently deal with congestion and blockage that affects patient flow and increased costs. In 2018, at University Hospital, part of South West Health Centre, patient flow in the medical surgical intensive care unit seemed to be highly susceptible to congestion, and this was creating ripple effects throughout the hospital and leading to increased costs. The complexity of patient flow presented an opportunity to build a discrete-event simulation model to provide insights regarding the patient flow, costs, and opportunities for improvement. But how could the hospital’s management use a simulation model of patient flow to determine alternatives to optimize both patient flow and costs?

Spreadsheet for product 8B19E007.

Spreadsheet for product 9B19E007.

Striving for Great Place to Work (GPTW) culture enabled Hella India Lighting Limited (HIL), a company that manufactured automotive lighting, to recover from huge losses and become profitable. Although the company’s German management had decided to stop further investment in India after the setback of the 2008 recession, in 2018 HIL became the number one Hella location worldwide. It was also recognized as one of the best places to work at the national level in the automotive industry and ranked 20th in the 2018 GPTW Great Mid-Size Workplaces category. To achieve these milestones, HIL focused on effectively implementing existing policies and periodically upgrading and focusing policies around employee welfare; thus making way for strategic human resources (HR) management. Valuing its employees as equal to its customers, HIL’s main focus was employee engagement. The transformation led to successful GPTW survey results, which encouraged HIL management to revise the HR team’s 2020 target: their new task was to secure a position among the top 10 companies of the GPTW survey by 2020.

Using raw, uncut footage, this video case asks students to evaluate the effectiveness of the first contact that took place in November 2016 between representatives from two technology companies—iQmetrix and Straker Translations. The two firms are contemplating a business partnership in which Straker will provide iQmetrix with translation services. First contact calls generally precede every business partnership and are normally completed only after the respective business-development or sales representatives have prepared for the call by learning the basics about the other side’s organization—in particular, whether there is a good fit between what the buyer needs and what the supplier can provide in terms of quality, cost, and capabilities of service.

Founded in 1989, Orpea Group (Orpea) was a French nursing care company that had successfully expanded into 10 European countries with a network of about 700 facilities. In early 2016, Orpea opened its first establishment in Asia in the Chinese city of Nanjing. Seeing an increased demand for elderly care in China, the Nanjing government encouraged the company. However, Orpea was facing several challenges, including cultural and legal differences between China and Europe, as well as competition with local companies. Orpea needed to determine how best to test the company’s Nanjing facility in the Chinese market and whether or not to pursue further expansion in China.

In 2017, Chinese clothing manufacturer Qingdao Kutesmart Co. Ltd. (Kutesmart) had been transformed into a customer-to-manufacturer platform company, where customers could order individualized products directly from the makers over the Internet. Since 2000, Kutesmart had been upgrading its information system as its business strategy evolved, and the company had become a widely known, successful case study of mass-customization-based manufacturing in China. However, as the company leaped forward into the age of digitization and globalization, its founder faced a number of questions: How could Kutesmart extract more value from its data resources and technology? The company was assessing and pursuing a platform strategy; could this strategy help Kutesmart take its business to the next level? What were the opportunities and challenges?

In January 2019, a second-year master of business administration student has come up with an idea for a new venture: sourcing products from her social contacts, using Instagram to direct traffic to her company website, and utilizing the postal service to deliver goods. Does a viable business opportunity really exist, or are there too many unknowns?

This case describes the journey of a Chinese snack food company, LYFEN, as it developed supply-chain processes and capabilities to compete successfully in a highly competitive market. It provides detailed information about LYFEN’s quality-control processes and supply-chain management practices. A particularly interesting aspect of the case is the challenges faced by the company to deliver on customer expectations for food safety and the associated implications for brand image. The question of concern for the company president was how she could keep up with a quickly expanding market while ensuring quality through supply-chain management.

In 2013, three friends from college came together to found Zenatix, an Indian energy data analytics company. Based on Internet-of-things technology, the team built WattMan, a hardware-based product that could monitor the usage and performance of electrical assets such as air conditioners and refrigerators. It saved energy costs by suggesting corrective action. Zenatix faced challenges in identifying the right target market for WattMan and matching the product features to its clients’ needs. By 2016, it had made two shifts in target markets and Zenatix had to convince investors of the potential of its latest target market, especially after adding a new control feature in WattMan III. With funds running low, this was a make-or-break situation for Zenatix.

Instructor Spreadsheet to accompany product 8B19N011.

Student Spreadsheet to accompany product 9B19N011.

In March 2019, two senior managers attending an executive education program had been assigned the task of applying their learnings from readings in order to estimate the costs of capital for Walmart Inc. (Walmart). They also needed to discuss why the cost of capital was such an important topic. The managers had with them background information, including a recent Walmart balance sheet and income statement; a U.S. Department of Treasury yield curve; Walmart’s earnings, dividend, and stock price information; historical U.S. capital market returns; interest rates; and a detailed description of a long-term Walmart bond. Based on this information, the managers needed to estimate Walmart’s cost of capital and be sure they understood why this mattered.

The international demand for rhinoceros (rhino) horns was driving the species to near extinction. But an international ban on trading the horns made it lucrative to illegally kill rhinos for their horns, which were traded on the black market. One hotly debated idea to curb rhino poaching was to legalize the trade of farmed rhino horns, which could be sustainably obtained without killing the animal.<br><br>The founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of a non-governmental organization (NGO), Helping Rhinos, opposed legalizing the trade of rhino horns, as had other NGOs. He wondered, though, whether he and his organization should reconsider that position. Legalizing the sale of sustainable rhino horns could counter the black-market demand and protect the remaining, endangered rhinos. At the next board meeting, the founder and CEO needed to recommend whether the organization should continue to oppose legalization or change its approach and advocate for multi-nation legalization. But first he needed to consider the perspectives of the various stakeholders and which decision would be in the best interest of the rhinos. How should he and the NGO proceed?

Yuser Inc. (Yuser) was a new social networking start-up based in London, Ontario. Well-established social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube had begun to restrict social media influencers’ monetization of their user base, and this had opened an opportunity for a new social media network to make three-way interactions among users, social media influencers (SMIs), and corporate sponsors completely stable and transparent. Yuser granted SMIs freedom in terms of the content they posted, allowing companies to identify influencers who helped their marketing efforts and to financially reward them using Yuser’s cryptocurrency. Rather than facilitating two-way relationships, as most platforms did, Yuser would help build triangular relationships among companies, target markets, and SMIs. However, Yuser’s business concept was complex, making it difficult for the company’s chief operations officer to pitch Yuser’s value proposition to external investors. In June 2018, she needed to find a delicate balance that would allow her to inform investors of the venture’s potential without overwhelming them in a sea of confusing details.