個案總覽

In fall 2021, start-up Rivian was poised to begin delivery of its first electrical vehicles (EVs) to external customers after several delays. The company had over 70,000 preorders for its R1T (pickup truck) and R1S (SUV) models. On November 11, the company went public, raising approximately $12 billion in the largest US IPO since Facebook. Early investors were bullish on Rivian. The company's success would depend in part on the availability of charging stations. Rivian had plans to establish two networks of chargers in the United States and Canada. Rivian Adventure Network would be a network of Level 3 DC fast chargers, while Rivian Waypoints would be Level 2 AC chargers. The company had announced that it wanted to establish these networks in locations near national parks and locales it expected its customers to visit. Rivian was targeting consumers who were outdoor enthusiasts. The case describes EV charging options and challenges students to determine where Rivian should locate its charging stations, how many were needed, and what types were best to serve consumers traveling the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway. Ultimately, this is not simply a problem seeking an "optimized solution" given predicted demand, but one that will fundamentally shape emerging consumer behavior. This case is taught in Operations Management, a required first-year course at Darden School of Business. It can also be used in a second-year elective course that explores the major issues and managerial concepts relating to strategic management of the operations function in today's global economy. The set includes a series of short video interviews with the case protagonist.

This public-sourced case uses the California housing crisis to analyze economic policy in an environment featuring a rising cost of living and shrinking affordable housing options. The case discusses policy options as well as the role and incentives of the private sector in helping develop more affordability. In the case, economist Renee Bowen examines the tradeoffs involved in government intervention in housing markets. This includes understanding the causes of the state's rising costs of living, evaluating whether California needed more affordable housing, and assessing policy options to address high housing costs. Three big-picture questions are considered: Should the state government intervene to address housing affordability? What interventions might be most effective? And what would caution against government invention?

The case explores the momentum investment strategy of AlphaArchitect, a boutique asset management firm. The protagonist, Wes Grey the CEO of AlphaArchitect, is preparing a potential client presentation for Lochen Capital, a multi-family office. Lochen has traditionally focused on value-investing and as a result the presentation needs to compare and contrast the two styles. The case introduces students to the simplest of quantitative investing strategies, momentum. Additionally, students explore AlphaArchitect's approach to implementing the theoretical momentum strategy in practice through their ETF product.

The case examines the short selling of GameStop by hedge fund Citron Capital. The valuation case for short selling GameStop is explored, along with the actual market mechanics of short selling a stock (i.e., rebate rates, securities lending collateral, and loan recalls). In addition to the costs, additional risks of short selling, including the potential for a short squeeze, are introduced.

The (B) case offers a detailed account of Wendell Weeks's innovation strategy at Corning, and how his approach played a critical role in the COVID-19 pandemic. It illustrates the company's philosophy of making long-term investments in promising new technologies and products well before others believed their time was ripe.

In early June 2020, several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, a business analyst was evaluating how COVID-19 had changed business and markets and whether these changes would be permanent. Already, a part of the business world had shifted to a working-from-home mode, while executives were evaluating financial strategies to help cope with the changes caused by the pandemic and assessing supply chains that had been disrupted. This case provides an opportunity to discuss key themes such as risk management, globalization, lessons from previous crises such as the global financial crisis (GFC), and the role of banks during the pandemic, as well as the role of the Federal Reserve in mitigating the economic destruction that COVID-19 had inflicted.

On March 11, 2020, The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic. The pandemic brought production, trade, and businesses to a grinding halt, as governments closed borders and implemented lockdowns and restrictions; it also caused scrutiny of global supply chain strategies. While some US companies had already begun shifting outsourcing away from China during the US-China trade war amid the recent trend of deglobalization, the pandemic deepened concerns about overreliance on importing strategic goods, including pharmaceutical products and personal protective equipment (PPE), from China. This case starts with the pandemic development, explores public health and economic responses to the pandemic in China and the United States, and examines changes in policy and public opinion toward outsourcing in China. It provides a basis for understanding China's social and economic institutions through the lens of pandemic controls and the changing landscape of China's supply chains. The case has been successfully taught in a second-year MBA elective on growth and business in emerging markets in a module examining country-level endowments, trade, and risks, as well as in a course on China in the global economy. It can also be used for EMBA or executive education classes on China in the context of global business, trade, and supply chains. Issues discussed include questions about Chinese institutions and social norms, the effects of the pandemic, fiscal and monetary policies on employment, inflation and GDP growth. The materials provide a framework for making decisions on global outsourcing and the changing relationship between China and the United States.

Derrick and Desmon Lewis were both successful professionals in the consulting and banking industries. They were born and raised in The Bronx, New York City's poorest borough. The Lewis brothers had always wanted to give back to the community. In 2016 they launched a community foundation-The Bronx Community Foundation-dedicated to improving the lives of Bronxites. While a lot of good had been happening in The Bronx, Derrick and Desmon believed that a community foundation would help to bring the systemic and institutional change to the borough; change they felt was necessary to bring economic, health, educational, etc., equality to The Bronx. Yet, nearly four years later, they had managed to raise little from donors; headwinds included those in the community who did not support the idea of a community foundation. When COVID-19 struck New York City in March 2020, the Lewises saw an opportunity to demonstrate the need for a place-based convener organization, such as a community foundation, in The Bronx. A relief effort was launched with a host of partners, which raised $10 million to help people of The Bronx who were impacted by COVID-19. Now in late July, the Lewises wanted to build on the momentum of the relief fund to finally get support and traction for the community foundation. They had much to decide: How to raise money for the foundation, which would need to come primarily from outside of the borough; who should lead the foundation; and what should be the foundation's operating model. The Lewises believed there was a window of opportunity that they needed to seize to turn their dream of a community foundation for The Bronx into a reality. The case provides an overview of community foundations in the U.S., an overview of The Bronx, The Bronx Community Relief Effort, and the Lewis brothers' early days and their efforts to start a community foundation, the opportunity, and the challenges.

Historically, personal and commercial banks (P&CB) maintained long relationships with their clients who tended to do most if not all of their banking with one bank. However, by 2017, industry-wide change was well underway as switching costs had become negligible if not non-existent. New entrants were disrupting the banking industry as digitization allowed upstarts to break through long-standing barriers to entry. RBC's Cultural Transformation, intended to reposition the enterprise for the "new normal" in the financial industry, included the creation of this team of collaboration enablers (called Operations Transformation or OT) to drive efficiencies across operations within the current fulfillment operating model and importantly to envision and enable a new digital operating model where people only intervened in a transaction when there was an exception, i.e., a transaction that fell outside the technology's capabilities. OT was tasked with enabling-through collaboration and without radical surgery-the day-to-day optimization of P&CB fulfillment activities and facilitating major change in the way work was done. At the time of the case, eighteen months in, the team was seeing mixed results, which deeply troubled its leadership. Questions abounded: Was it foolish to try to enable major change through collaboration without upending the traditional RBC organization with more radical approaches? Or was the OT group not structured correctly to enable it-and if not, what changes should be made? Was a different collaboration model needed? Internally, some questioned whether the group was optimally located within the organization (as part of the back office organization structure), since the back office was often viewed as more of a servant to the front office. Others wondered if OT's internal structure was getting in the way of its purpose.

Historically, personal and commercial banks (P&CB) maintained long relationships with their clients who tended to do most if not all of their banking with one bank. However, by 2017, industry-wide change was well underway as switching costs had become negligible if not non-existent. New entrants were disrupting the banking industry as digitization allowed upstarts to break through long-standing barriers to entry. RBC's Cultural Transformation, intended to reposition the enterprise for the "new normal" in the financial industry, included the creation of this team of collaboration enablers (called Operations Transformation or OT) to drive efficiencies across operations within the current fulfillment operating model and importantly to envision and enable a new digital operating model where people only intervened in a transaction when there was an exception, i.e., a transaction that fell outside the technology's capabilities. OT was tasked with enabling-through collaboration and without radical surgery-the day-to-day optimization of P&CB fulfillment activities and facilitating major change in the way work was done. At the time of the case, eighteen months in, the team was seeing mixed results, which deeply troubled its leadership. Questions abounded: Was it foolish to try to enable major change through collaboration without upending the traditional RBC organization with more radical approaches? Or was the OT group not structured correctly to enable it-and if not, what changes should be made? Was a different collaboration model needed? Internally, some questioned whether the group was optimally located within the organization (as part of the back office organization structure), since the back office was often viewed as more of a servant to the front office. Others wondered if OT's internal structure was getting in the way of its purpose.

LOLA is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business launched in 2015. What started as a company to provide women with organic and transparent material-labeled tampons via a subscription model, had, by 2019 evolved to include additional menstrual and sexual wellness products. LOLA's leadership wanted women to come to the company for all of their reproductive health needs (including information and a place to engage in conversation) from menstruation through menopause and beyond. Heading into 2020, LOLA cofounders have determined that to grow the business they need to go beyond the company's current DTC model and have products available in retail stores. The challenge, however, is finding the right retailers to partner with that will help to add value to the brand and not detract from it. The case provides background on the cofounders, the company's start, and evolution, and the challenges of moving beyond DTC.

Danish-born Bjarke Ingels is regarded as a giant in the field of architecture. He started his firm - the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) - in 2005 in Copenhagen. Fourteen years later, the firm has additional offices in New York City, London, and Barcelona and employs over 500 people. BIG is known for what Ingels calls "hedonistic sustainability," and its designs include a waste-to-energy treatment plant replete with a ski slope, and a multi-storied residential building where residents can bike to their apartments. In 2019, the firm is experiencing growth pains. Demands on Ingels and the firm's infrastructure are intensifying. Ingels and BIG's CEO Sheela Maini Søgaard, along with the firm's other partners, know the firm needs to adapt - organizationally and operationally - to be successful in the future. The case study provides background on Ingels, the creation and evolution of BIG, and the challenges the firm and its leadership face.

This case examines the leadership challenges associated with maintaining a culture of innovation in established organizations. It asks students to step into the shoes of a leader faced with making several tough decisions about when to invest (or to stop investing) in radical innovation projects. Corning CEO Wendell Weeks, who nearly bankrupted the company in the early 2000s when he overinvested in fiber optics, must initially decide if the company should enter a then-risky deal with Steve Jobs to produce the glass covers for the first generation iPhones. The case then asks students to analyze the Corning's 157-year innovation agenda that started with the development of a bulb-shaped glass encasement for Thomas Edison's new incandescent lamp. In the years that followed, Corning made investments that led to products such as PYREX cookware, fiber-optic broadband cable, LCD television screens, Gorilla Glass, and a recent bet on pharmaceuticals. At the end of the case, Weeks must decide if Corning should continue to invest in a new pharmaceutical packaging product that held enormous promise, but had already cost the company $200 million in R&D and might divert resources and attention from other key business lines.

The case takes students through the creation and evolution of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program - a public and private partnership to provide education, a network of support and capital to small businesses across the U.S.

The (B) case describes how AMC reacted to the threat from the subscription service MoviePass and provides AMC's second quarter fiscal year 2018 results.

The case examines an industry in decline as the emergence of new technologies is changing consumer behaviors and threatening to make the business obsolete. In 2018, the Hollywood film industry is facing tough headwinds. Fewer and fewer Americans are going to movie theaters, opting instead to watch movies on demand in the comfort of their own homes or on portable devices. Adam Aron, the head of the world's largest movie theater chain, AMC Entertainment, is employing an aggressive strategy to bolster the moviegoing experience by adding new amenities including plush reclining seats, reserved seating, and upscale food and beverage options. He is also placing a special emphasis on expansion overseas where the market is growing. Will his actions allow the company to successfully compete in a mature industry under assault by new digital competitors? With the growing popularity of entertainment subscription services like Netflix and Spotify, should AMC adopt a similar business model?

By 2018, it was clear that U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) had significantly contributed to the growth of green building, and over its 25-year history had become a powerful brand in the construction sector with its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard. Nonetheless, USGBC faced two significant challenges moving forward: maintaining LEED's leadership position as the green building standard in the U.S., and increasing the proportion of building stock that met the LEED standard. The case provides background on the USGBC and the evolution of its LEED standard, including how the standards are set, and green building benefits and costs.