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In mid-2016, the chief executive officer of Tesla, a U.S. manufacturer of electric cars, was interested in acquiring SolarCity, a U.S. solar power manufacturer and distributor. Both Tesla and SolarCity operated in young, high-growth industries; however, despite their high growth rates, both companies were also losing money every year. Both companies had similar products and could be a strong strategic fit. The chief executive officer needed to convince Tesla’s shareholders that SolarCity would be a good acquisition target and then determine a fair price to offer.

Instructor Spreadsheet to accompany product 8B17N011.

Student Spreadsheet to accompany product 9B17N011.

On January 18, 2016, the chief executive officer and chief technology officer of Geosoft Inc. (Geosoft) met in Toronto, Canada, with the company’s executive team and regional directors for a critical three-day strategic planning session. Geosoft was a privately held, employee-owned, mid-sized global company that worked to help earth scientists and explorers make discoveries through innovative data solutions and services. The focus of the meeting—a new technology strategy to protect Geosoft from the impact of a global economic downturn affecting its primary markets—was pivotal to Geosoft’s current and future growth. This new strategy, known within Geosoft as the digital intimacy strategy, would radically change the way the company communicated with its customers. Geosoft’s customers were located in five major geographic regions: Latin America, Africa, Australia (including Asia), Europe, and North America. Rolling out the strategy demanded seamless communication of change to multiple stakeholders in vastly differing cultures across five continents. The new digital intimacy strategy was planned for rollout in September 2016 with implementation in 2017. For the new strategy to work, communication was crucial.

Huayi Compressor Barcelona, S.L. was founded in 2013 when Huayi Group (Huayi), a Chinese state-owned enterprise, acquired Cubigel Compressors, S.A., a bankrupt Spanish industrial enterprise. While labour complications and other difficulties developed during the acquisition process, Huayi successfully managed the transition in May 2013. Despite this initial achievement, challenges related to the recovery of productivity, markets, and profitability continued. In January 2014, the general manager of Huayi Compressor Barcelona, S.L., who managed the transition, received a request to return to Huayi headquarters in Sichuan, China. From his Barcelona office, he grew concerned about several challenges: Who would be the right successor for his position? What strategy did Huayi need to consolidate its internationalization process? What knowledge could he transfer to China for future international strategies?

In 2016, the three co-founders of Coinmen Consultants LLP (Coinmen), an independent business advisory and chartered accountancy firm in New Delhi, faced a dilemma with respect to the knowledge management process at their firm. Due to the firm’s rapid growth, a change was certainly necessary, but the partners held some reservations about adopting a technological process for knowledge-sharing in their company. Would the implementation of a knowledge management system have a negative impact on the learning culture of Coinmen by providing the employees with ready-made solutions? Would it make employees dependent on technology, thus compromising their personal development? How could Coinmen ensure that the new technology would be used in combination with—not instead of— employee expertise? And finally, after a knowledge management system was introduced, should Coinmen also consider implementing a human resources information system and talent analytics?

In October 2014, Hari Krishna Exports, a US$975 million Indian diamond manufacturing company, made international news when it gave 1,268 employees a generous performance incentive of approximately US$5,700. This was part of a radical loyalty program the company had started in 2011. However, with the market dynamics of the diamond industry constantly changing, giving such performance incentives on a yearly basis would be a great challenge. Price fluctuations at every step of the process—from procurement, to polishing, to the retail markets of the diamonds—created inherent risk in the industry. Intermediaries such as diamond polishers, in comparison to miners, had less control over the upstream channels of diamond procurement, which usually comprised exploration and the mining of diamonds. What would be the ultimate engagement level of the employees? Would such performance benefits for retaining talented employees be sustainable over the long run for an export house?

In 2012, the marketing department at AkzoNobel India Ltd., a major paints company, faced a key decision concerning the possible relaunch of TileShield, a premium roof tile paint in the company’s exterior paints division. Since its inception, TileShield had led the market, especially in the southern part of India, but despite growth in the demand for roof tile paints, TileShield sales had stagnated in 2011–12. Faced with falling sales and intense competition, the company had to decide whether to maintain the status quo or draft a relaunch for the brand. The marketing department would have to make some quick decisions on value proposition and pricing.

A 2016 consumer survey in the United Kingdom revealed that five out of 10 people did not know that Coca-Cola Zero (Coke Zero) contained no sugar. Many respondents also expected Coke Zero to taste more like Coca-Cola Classic, but found the taste not similar enough. Therefore, Coca-Cola relaunched the product with an ambitious multimillion-dollar marketing campaign that followed a three-dimension value management cycle encompassing value creation, value communication, and value capture. To successfully relaunch Coke Zero and achieve the company’s objectives, Coca-Cola would need to both anticipate the challenges in each of these three phases and manage them effectively.

In mid-2014, an investor was examining Federal Bank stock and its valuation. In order to fund her children’s educational savings for the future, the investor had been looking for high-growth but undervalued investment stocks. Based on her current market analysis, she had narrowed her search to Federal Bank Limited. Could Federal Bank be the undervalued stock that the investor was looking for? What would be the fair fundamental value of the bank? The dividend discount valuation model, a technique to identify and value undervalued stocks, would determine whether Federal Bank was a potential investment target.

Spreadsheet for product 8B17A008.

Instructor spreadsheet for product 8B17N005.

Student spreadsheet for product 9B17N005.

In September 2014, F. Mayer Imports Pty. Ltd., an Australian gourmet food importer, had a narrow window of opportunity to potentially protect its budget exchange rate for the rest of that, and the following, financial year. With imports such as European butter, chocolate, and cheese, the company procured a significant portion of its product in euros. The Australian dollar to euro exchange (AUD/EUR) dropped from a high of 0.7027 in October 2013 to a low of 0.6369 in January 2014. With the AUD/EUR recently rebounding and edging back toward the company’s budget rate of 0.6900, the company’s chief financial officer needed to choose between four proposed hedging strategies.

On March 7, 2012, one day before International Women’s Day, all female staff of Birkenshire Corporation, a British organization in China, received an email from the human resources department about a pink towel gift set being given to all female employees of the company in celebration of the day. This act sparked a lively discussion among the female staff about various gender issues and cultural customs such as society’s expectations for professional women and cultural connotations of colours. The decision faced by management was whether to respond to the issues raised in the staff email thread, and, if management responded, how and when the response should be delivered.

In the summer of 2016, a real estate investment company was planning management and budgeting for apartment rental units in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a U.S. city with a large student population. The company needed to determine the various unit agreement terms—by year, by semester (fall, spring, and summer), and by month—using software to find optimal rents. Using Excel’s Solver tool, the optimal rents needed to be determined and incorporated into a projected profit and loss budget for fiscal year 2017.

In 2015, the marketing and business developer at Khao Yai Winery in Thailand wondered whether a new excise tax, which the government implemented in 2012, had led to a decrease in sales despite an overall increase in wine consumption in Thailand. Before deciding whether he should lobby the government to lower the excise tax, he tasked three interns to examine how the government’s taxes on imported and domestic wines affected the winery. The interns also needed to determine how the government policies would be affected by various elasticities—income elasticities, own-price elasticities, and cross-price elasticities.

Viacom, Inc., a New York City-based media company, owned Paramount Pictures and popular television channels such as MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. Viacom was controlled by Sumner Redstone and run by his hand-picked second in command. In 2016, the 92-year-old Redstone, facing a claim of mental incompetency because of his advanced age, stepped down from his role as executive chair of the board. This led to several issues regarding corporate governance at the company. Viacom’s board of directors faced a lawsuit from a shareholder claiming that a mentally incompetent Redstone was playing a role on the board; an activist investor accused the company of a lack of governance and poor leadership. The newly elected lead independent director needed to address the board of directors’ role in this embattled company.

Student Spreadsheet for product 9B17B003.

In August 2016, Manish Goyal, a student in his second year of the two-year MBA program at XLRI Jamshedpur, India, had to make career-related choices about which industry, company, function, and role to pursue after his MBA. He had limited previous work experience to rely on, but rather than choosing the first job that came his way or trying to join one of the more popular firms among MBA students, Goyal sought a job that best aligned with his own career objectives. Accordingly, he sought advice from three classmates on career options in the investment banking, management consulting, and fast-moving consumer goods industries. He realized that while his friends' input was valuable, ultimately he had to make his own decisions.