Many people take identity for granted, confident that they can prove they are who they say they are by using a driver's license or other ID card. For many millions of people, this is not the case. They possess not only no driver's license, but also no birth certificate which could be used to gain a driver's license and prove they are who they claim to be. As a result, they can sometimes appear invisible to the state, unable to receive aid or participate in critical programs. Indeed, as Nandan Nilekani argues, "unless a person can identify himself or herself and have some sort of proof of existence, you can't even talk about him owning property." This case explores the development and implementation of Aadhaar, an ambitious biometric identity system implemented in India. The system requires every Indian citizen to undergo a fingerprint and retinal scan to create a massive central database that can uniquely identify every person in the country. Supporters say such an identity management system has enormous potential to facilitate government services, reduce corruption, and enable hundreds of millions of Indians to enter the formal economy. To its critics, Aadhaar represents either an estate project that consumes enormous resources that will never reach its potential, or worse, the core infrastructure for a surveillance state that can better monitor and track many things its citizens do.

Many people take identity for granted, confident that they can prove they are who they say they are by using a driver's license or other ID card. For many millions of people, this is not the case. They possess not only no driver's license, but also no birth certificate which could be used to gain a driver's license and prove they are who they claim to be. As a result, they can sometimes appear invisible to the state, unable to receive aid or participate in critical programs. Indeed, as Nandan Nilekani argues, "unless a person can identify himself or herself and have some sort of proof of existence, you can't even talk about him owning property." This case explores the development and implementation of Aadhaar, an ambitious biometric identity system implemented in India. The system requires every Indian citizen to undergo a fingerprint and retinal scan to create a massive central database that can uniquely identify every person in the country. Supporters say such an identity management system has enormous potential to facilitate government services, reduce corruption, and enable hundreds of millions of Indians to enter the formal economy. To its critics, Aadhaar represents either an estate project that consumes enormous resources that will never reach its potential, or worse, the core infrastructure for a surveillance state that can better monitor and track many things its citizens do.

In 2011, the UK founded a new government agency known as the "Government Digital Service" (or GDS). Facing significant budget challenges, several high profile IT failures, and growing demands to "modernize" government services, the government set a mission for GDS to champion a "digital culture" in government, ideally unleashing a wave of both cost savings and innovations. By 2012, GDS had identified billions of pounds of potential savings, centralized the government's web presence into a single domain (called GOV.UK), and received wide acclaim from technology commentators. However, the leaders of GDS felt there was significantly more work to be done--not only modernizing government services, but also convincing civil service to focus more on implementation, user needs, and digital services. This case provides an overview of GDS's work up to 2012, and considers the strategy and change management questions facing the agency as it seeks to expand. Case number 2106.0

In 2015, Downingtown Area School District (DASD), a suburban school district near Philadelphia, entered its second year implementing Ivy Academy, a blended learning program in its two traditional high schools. Superintendent Larry Mussoline, having for several years worked to incorporate technology into student learning hoped that Ivy Academy would deepen student learning, provide more rigorous courses, introduce more scheduling flexibility, and change the culture among teachers in his district. In Ivy Academy, classes meet two out of every six days in-person, and students are expected to work asynchronously online during the other days. In the first year, 341 students (out of 3,800 eligible) and 19 teachers (out of 240 eligible) participated in Ivy Academy; in the second year, the program grew. However, final exam results for students participating in the Ivy Academy are mixed, and certain staff and parents remain skeptical of its effectiveness. This case explores whether DASD is ready to scale Ivy Academy and make it the primary way in which students learn.

This case is set in 2015 as a team at Match Education, a high performing charter middle school in Boston, explores new staffing and technology approaches in their quest to obtain what they term "jaw dropping" results. The team hopes to test and model for other schools solutions to specific educational problems. In 2013, the team began to think about the redesign to create a school model in which students spend significantly more time reading, more individualized attention is provided to students and families, the challenge of finding outstanding teachers is addressed, and to do so in a cost-effective manner. In their redesigned school, Match Next, students receive all of their instruction from inexperienced newly minted college graduates called tutors, who are supervised by one master teacher, called a Director of Curriculum of Instruction (DCI). In addition, the Match Next team infuses technology into instruction (e.g. students watch instructional videos and complete online activities) and operations (e.g. schools keeps track of student assessment results and select activities and problem sets from online databases). After the first year as a full-day program, results on the state test were very strong in math but below expectations in ELA (English Language Arts). The case explores questions related to designing the school model, interpreting early results, and assessing the team's ability to disseminate their model to other schools.

A New York-based hedge fund must decide whether to invest in TravelCenters of America (TA), a recent spin-off from a U.S.-based real estate investment trust. The case confronts students with the question: To what extent is this spin-off opportunity attractive from a value-investing standpoint? Historically, spin-offs have been attractive investments because of supply-demand dynamics associated with their investor base. The case is an opportunity to ask whether the same dynamics will operate for TA.

A financial analyst for Dell Computer Corporation, one of the world's largest computer systems manufacturers, has been asked by the treasurer to develop a report on the company's recent financial performance. Over the last few years, the company has realized it has lost approximately 50 per cent of its stock. Did this decline reflect industry and market wide effects or were there some emerging problems with Dell's operating performance? The financial analyst must analyse the company's financial statements and the cash flows of Dell and its competitors.