Founded in 2012, the END fund focused on eliminating five Neglected Tropical Diseases that accounted for 80% of the tropical diseases affecting nearly 1.5 billion people worldwide. Its roughly $25 million/year annual budget was fully committed when it got news that the British Government would be cutting back its funding for the sector, putting at risk nearly 50,000 people for a tropical disease (visceral leishmaniasis-VL), which the End Fund was currently not addressing. The case question is whether the End Fund should redirect its resources to VL. The case highlights the difficult decisions that nonprofits have to make balancing resource stretch and mission focus.
Founded in 2012, the END fund focused on eliminating five Neglected Tropical Diseases that accounted for 80% of the tropical diseases affecting nearly 1.5 billion people worldwide. Its roughly $25 million/year annual budget was fully committed when it got news that the British Government would be cutting back its funding for the sector, putting at risk nearly 50,000 people for a tropical disease (visceral leishmaniasis-VL), which the End Fund was currently not addressing. The case question is whether the End Fund should redirect its resources to VL. The case highlights the difficult decisions that noprofits have to make balancing resource stretch and mission focus.
The Freedom Fund founded in 2013 to end modern slavery had raised more than half its intended target (by 2025) of $200 million. In 2021, impressed by its decentralized-partnering style of operations, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott awarded the Fund a gift of $35 million over 5 years. The beauty of the gift was that it came with no strings attached. It was completely unrestricted for use the way the company's management and staff deemed fit. Nick Grono, the organization's first CEO was wrestling with the question of how to put the money to best use.
The Freedom Fund (B) case describes the management's plan of how to use the windfall of $35 million granted by philanthropist Mackenzie Scott. The case also describes the process by which the decisions were arrived at.
In March 2020, Second Harvest Heartland, one of six Foodbanks serving Minnesota, was caught in the COVID-19 emergency with considerably more people exposed to hunger and food insecurity. Its management team led by CEO Allison O' Toole and COO Theirry Ibri alertly managed the crisis by improvising and implementing new programs. In August 2021, with signs of the crisis behind them, they had to decide which of the adaptations they should keep, and how to go back to addressing their original mission of ending hunger.
In May 2019, amidst of an ever-worsening trade war between the U.S. and China, President Donald Trump added Chinese telecom giant Huawei to the Department of Commerce's "entity list," essentially forbidding American firms from doing business with the company. Huawei, along with another Chinese telecom firm, ZTE, seemed poised to lead the globe in 5G technology, a step-wise shift in mobile communications that would be rolled out everywhere from Beijing to Beirut to Boise over the early 2020s. In the last year of Trump's presidency, a group at the State Department led by Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Energy, and the Environment, former Silicon Valley business leader Keith Krach, embarked on a global campaign to challenge the market dominance of Chinese firms. The Clean Network initiative, which recruited countries and companies into commitments to abide by a set of shared principles in technology adoption and practices, began with 5G but Krach and others had ambitions well beyond. The controversial program to some heralded a new era of multilateral, democratic governance of the internet and to others augured a "splinternet" where market participants and countries had to choose between the U.S. and China. Whatever the view, the competitive landscape for 5G was different at the end of 2020, and participants had to understand how and why.
In the wake of George Floyd's killing in May 2020, and widespread protests for social justice in the United States, OneTen was formed by a coalition of 40 large companies to provide one million jobs for African-Americans in 10 years. The case describes the background of the labor market in the U.S. and specifically the disparity in opportunities for Black Americans, which was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It describes the effort by government agencies and particularly a nonprofit-YearUp-to address the labor market gaps. The case asks students to analyse the underlying problems and formulate recommendations. The case allows students to understand and distinguish between a system level problem and one that manifests itself at an organizational level. It calls for action planning at an organizational level but one calling for considerable coordination and collaboration across the entire labor supply eco-system.
In 2019, the People's Republic of China (PRC) turned seventy-years-old and became the longest active authoritarian regime in recent history. By then, China was the world's second largest economy by GDP (after the United States), and a high-technology industrial powerhouse, with ambitions to bring connectivity infrastructure to developing nations. By the time China's fifth generation leader Xi Jinping took office in 2012, the Chinese Communist Party had presided over decades of unprecedented economic growth while maintaining a monopoly on political power. By 2021, Xi showed no signs of choosing a successor or stepping down after the customary two five-year terms. Despite promising more and deeper market reforms, the PRC at 70 appeared to oversee an increasingly complex economy and society with a party-state expanding its presence into nearly every aspect of civilian life. The world sought to make sense of China's changes and especially the apparent resurgence of the party-state. What would China's conservative turn mean for its future and its role in the world?
In May 2018, Malaysia's 14th General Election saw a change of power that many thought they would never witness in their lifetimes. The political party that had ruled Malaysia for 60 year was kicked out of office by a 92 year-old challenger, Mahathir Mohamed, who had also been its leader and longest serving prime minister. These surprising events seemed to involve a financial scandal of historic proportions. The ousted Prime Minister, known as Najib, was associated with a sovereign wealth fund, 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), that had, with the aid of Goldman Sachs, borrowed 7 billion USD in global capital markets, all of which was squandered and some in remarkable fashion. An unknown young Malaysian of Chinese descent, Jho Low, had siphoned billions into his personal accounts, throwing parties for celebrities from Bangkok to LA. Was the Malaysian experience an idiosyncratic event in the trajectory of global capital markets or were its lessons more generalizable? The case explores illiberal actors in global financial markets and the dynamics of accountability in sovereign borrowing.
Gupta Media is a Digital Marketing firm started in 2005 that places advertisements and marketing promotions for its clients in digital media, mainly social media such as Facebook and Google. Over the years it had built its expertise in promoting music labels, artists and music festivals. Because its media placements were carefully optimized, it was able to return a high degree of performance on the marketing dollar for its clients. The case focuses on how to optimize performance for two such clients, the Governors Ball Music Festival in NY and Fender Play (a musical instrument company). The case ends with the question of whether such performance marketing techniques can be applied to consumer packaged goods (Red Bull) sold through indirect distribution.
Gupta Media is a Digital Marketing firm started in 2005 that places advertisements and marketing promotions for its clients in digital media, mainly social media such as Facebook and Google. Over the years it had built its expertise in promoting music labels, artists and music festivals. Because its media placements were carefully optimized, it was able to return a high degree of performance on the marketing dollar for its clients. The case series (A), (B), and a data intensive Excel Spread sheet focuses on how to optimize performance for two such clients, the Governors Ball Music Festival in NY and Fender Play (a musical instrument company). The case ends with the question of whether such performance marketing techniques can be applied to consumer packaged goods (Red Bull) sold through indirect distribution. The case series provides students hands-on experience with "performance marketing" data and teaches them how to make data driven digital marketing budget allocation decisions.