In June 2017, Legrand, a global specialist in electrical and digital building infrastructure which was a serial acquirer, announced it had signed an agreement to buy Milestone AV Technologies, a leading designer and manufacturer of branded audio-video products. This case describes Legrand's approach to screening, pursuing, and integrating targets as well as the criteria used to evaluate if a deal is successful.

In January 2017, the senior leadership team at Edwards Lifesciences were preparing for the quarterly earnings call that would cover the fourth quarter of 2016. They faced questions about what types of information they should disclose on the call, as well as during other key investor relation events that take place throughout the year.

In the spring of 2018, the Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Financial Planning at Harvard Business School considers potential refinements to the School's financial management practices. He faced questions about whether the metrics that had been used to evaluate financial health were appropriate and about whether key processes that worked well in the past should be reexamined.

In early 2015, Amy Hood, CFO of Microsoft, and the rest of the senior leadership team faced a set of fundamental choices. The firm had opportunities to serve customers in ways that would be associated with higher growth but lower margin. Some of these opportunities involved a shift from perpetual licensing to subscription sales. Whatever choices are made must be articulated to investors and employees.

In the fall of 2016, the senior leadership team of Boston Public Schools prepared a report indicating that costs were expected to grow faster than revenues for many years to come. They faced questions about whether the projections would be believed and about how to present, prioritize, and implement potential reforms that would help balance the budget.

In March of 2015, General Motors announced the details of a newly-established capital allocation framework. This framework provided a target for return on invested capital, guidelines for capital structure choices, and policies related to payouts. Senior managers face questions about how these policies should be implemented and what impact they might have.