This case introduces Aaron Johnson, a formerly at-risk youth who spent three years in prison, and who now faces many daunting tasks related to building his career: securing his first job, gaining admittance to the University of Virginia's (UVA's) McIntire School of Commerce (McIntire), getting an internship, and networking his way to a full-time offer. Johnson has just been offered a very appealing role in the Advanced Technology group at Opportune Delivery Services (ODS) as a financial analyst, but the salary offer came in lower than he expected, and he must decide whether he should accept the offer, try to negotiate, or look for a job someplace else. This case was designed to be taught in courses for non-MBA audiences that explore aspects of financial and social capability, such as storytelling, the power of creating connections and networking, the challenges that previously incarcerated people face when reentering society and looking for a job, and salary negotiation.
This exercise and its accompanying handouts, designed to be used in courses for non-MBA audiences that explore aspects of entrepreneurship, guide students through the development of their very own business plan. From researching and deciding on a business concept, to developing prospective customer profiles and understanding target markets, to creating financial and operations projections, this set of materials helps students step by step as they build a deliverable, functional business plan over the course of multiple class sessions.
Oscar Ramirez, an employee at the Whole Nine Yards Construction & Landscaping Company, has been assigned to manage the remodel of Mayor Lawrence's family estate, which locals call ""Lawrence Lair."" One member of his team is his nephew, Martin Fuentes, who is in need of both summer work and a mentor. In this case, Fuentes is running late to work because he stayed up late the night before trying to compute several descriptive statistics using the temperature data he's collected from his uncle's ion machine. He tries to figure out the quickest route to work given the traffic light cycles. Once Fuentes makes it to work, he's introduced to Mayor Lawrence, who asks him to calculate several probabilities about his upcoming debate and his likelihood of winning the next election. This case is designed to be taught in a math literacy course for non-MBA audiences. Although it can be used alone, it was created as the fourth in a module of five cases total. It builds on the learnings in "The Living Roof" (UVA-G-0654) and is followed by ""How to Become a Minus"" (UVA-G-0655).
Oscar Ramirez, an employee at the Whole Nine Yards Construction & Landscaping Company, has been assigned to manage the remodel of Mayor Lawrence's family estate, which locals call ""Lawrence Lair."" One member of his team is his nephew, Martin Fuentes, who is in need of both summer work and a mentor. Francesca Hugo, the head architect for the project, is addressing two major redesigns to her original blueprint that the Lawrence family has requested: the roof of the house now needs to include both a turret and a garden-a living roof. Hugo runs into Fuentes as she's considering how to handle these redesigns and asks him to shadow her as she works. Hugo explains to Fuentes the role of measurement in mathematics and the different attributes of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) figures. When Ramirez joins them in figuring out the additional costs of the turret and the living roof, Fuentes also tries to calculate everything so he can help his uncle and the architect solve the problems they are facing. This case is designed to be taught in a math literacy course for non-MBA audiences. Although it can be used alone, it was created as the third in a module of five cases total. It builds on the learnings in "It's All in the Signs" (UVA-G-0653) and is followed by ""What Are the Odds?"" (UVA-G-0655).
Oscar Ramirez, an employee at the Whole Nine Yards Construction & Landscaping Company, has been assigned to manage the remodel of Mayor Lawrence's family estate, which locals call ""Lawrence Lair."" One member of his team is his nephew, Martin Fuentes, who is in need of both summer work and a mentor. When Fuentes arrives at Lawrence Lair for one of his final days of work, Poppy Lawrence, the mayor's wife, asks him to accompany her on her errands. As the two make their way to different department stores, Fuentes tries to convert numbers he notices into algebraic expressions and equations. At the end of the day, Fuentes receives a text from Ramirez telling him to hurry back to Lawrence Lair, and Fuentes needs to figure out how quickly he has to drive in order to make it back in time. This case is designed to be taught in a math literacy course for non-MBA audiences. Although it can be used alone, it was created as the fifth in a module of five cases total. It builds on the learnings in "What Are the Odds?" (UVA-G-0655).
Oscar Ramirez, an employee at the Whole Nine Yards Construction & Landscaping Company, has been assigned to manage the remodel of Mayor Lawrence's family estate, which locals call ""Lawrence Lair."" One member of his team is his nephew, Martin Fuentes, who is in need of both summer work and a mentor. After showing Fuentes the machine he's been engineering, Ramirez explains positive and negative (signed) numbers to his nephew. Then Fuentes accompanies Ramirez to his first meeting with all the contractors for the Lawrence Lair project, where Ramirez learns that there are two potential setbacks. Fuentes takes the opportunity to try to help his uncle by crunching the numbers to find solutions. This case is designed to be taught in a math literacy course for non-MBA audiences. Although it can be used alone, it was created as the second in a module of five cases total. It builds on the learnings in "A Universal Language" (UVA-G-0652) and is followed by ""The Living Roof"" (UVA-G-0654).
Oscar Ramirez, an employee at the Whole Nine Yards Construction & Landscaping Company, has just been awarded his first major contract. Ramirez has been assigned to manage the remodel of Mayor Lawrence's family estate, which includes the design and remodeling of the family home as well as the landscaping of the surrounding land. As project manager, Ramirez is in charge of hiring and managing a team of contractors; one member of his team is his nephew, Martin Fuentes, who is in need of both summer work and a mentor. Ramirez spends his first day with Fuentes exposing him to the beauty of mathematics. Fuentes, who once saw mathematics as nothing but rote memorization and a series of nonsensical procedures, begins to see mathematics as a language that can be used to describe relationships that exist in the world around us. As Fuentes develops an appreciation and excitement for mathematics that mirrors Ramirez's love of the subject, Ramirez decides to share with his nephew a new machine that he has been designing and engineering. This case is designed to be taught in a math literacy course for non-MBA audiences. Although it can be used alone, it was created as the first in a module of five cases total. Each subsequent case builds on the material in this one. For the next case in the series, please see Safiya Sinclair, Kimberly Corum, and Gregory B. Fairchild, "It's All in the Signs" (UVA-G-0653).
The Peerless Potato Chip Company (Peerless) is a private-label, family-owned-and-operated, national potato chip manufacturer specializing in organic chips. The CEO, Kate Kelly, had been with the company from the beginning-since her uncle had first started making chips more than 25 years earlier on his farm in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia. In fact, she'd been the primary architect of its growth and expansion. For the first time since its founding, the company's profit margin had been declining steadily-to almost one-third of what it had been just seven years earlier. Kelly admitted that much of the downturn stemmed from her lax, even absentee management. As she came to grips with the situation, Kelly identified an array of missing or incomplete metrics, unquantified performance indicators, and uncontrolled variable costs that were severely impacting the company's bottom line. The case, designed for an MBA or non-MBA audience, is about management, especially of performance-indicating metrics and operating data. Students are asked to consider a number of options Kelly is looking at: determining key manufacturing data, making cuts to the product line, ""going green,"" and other potential cost-cutting and profit-generating possibilities to reverse the downtrend in profits and regain control of the company's finances.
Julia Madeline-Coho has decided to start a business-Uptown Hound-that will entertain pets while their owners are away from their homes in the medium-sized mid-Atlantic city of Greenwood. Madeline-Coho's dog Louis (or Lou, as she preferred to call him) was her motivation, along with a dinner guest, Tara Holmes, who she met in her family's house. Holmes was a Darden School of Business graduate concerned about her dog, Winnie, being home alone all day while she was working. Madeline-Coho has been doing research for her potential business and has some decisions to make, such as what services to offer these dogs and what to charge for them, and if and when she should hire any employees. Another decision was whether to expand her services to include cats as well as dogs.
This case follows Heather Grant as she begins her new role as manager of the Staunton, Virginia, branch of Loom & Ferris, a mid-sized call center specializing in printing, branding, and logos for corporate clients. As the new manager, Grant's role is to increase morale among her employees and to improve sales and productivity. She decides to spend her first week observing the call center and getting to know her new employees before making any decisions. Her arrival is not welcome to most of her employees, and she knows that because the company's sales are falling, she may have to fire some of them. Marcus Feeny, one of the employees, arrives late and unruly on Grant's first day, of which she takes notice. She recognizes him because he has the best sales numbers of anyone in the branch by far. Throughout the week, she observes Feeny to be consistently late, unkempt, and disruptive to his colleagues. His bad attitude does not go unnoticed by his colleagues. After a heated argument between Feeny and another employee, Grant calls him into her office to speak with him. She brings up his behavior and appearance at work, and he is immediately defensive and brings up his sales numbers. She recognizes that he sees himself as in the right, even though his colleagues believe that he is getting special treatment by being allowed to flout the office rules. At the end of her first week, Grant realizes that she will have to let some employees go to keep the branch afloat. She must decide the best course of action and whether or not Feeny should stay.
This case focuses on how to think about personal and business ethical dilemmas. The case presents three ethical dilemmas: two hypothetical scenarios presented to Kiara in her ethics class, and one real situation in her personal life. While dilemmas one and two may be unethical but legal, dilemma three involves an actual crime. Kiara has been working as a cosmetologist at her aunt's salon for three years, and she has just discovered illegal business activity there.
Supplement to case UV8051 Sam Washington is a young single mother looking to get back into the workforce six months after giving birth to her daughter, Kiki. Sam has lined up an interview for a secretarial position at Glass & Duvall, an accounting firm. The A case covers the morning of the interview from Sam's perspective, including details about what she does in the waiting room as well as her actual answers to the interviewer. This B case details the following day when Sam gets a phone call from the interviewer, Marva Thompson, who asks Sam to come in for a follow-up meeting. Sam is very excited and rushes over, only to find out that Marva really called her in to give her feedback about her interview, not to offer her the job. Marva recognizes that Sam did not have an accurate idea of the expectations of working in a corporate setting, and she wants to provide constructive criticism to help Sam perform better in her next interview.
Sam Washington is a young single mother looking to get back into the workforce six months after giving birth to her daughter, Kiki. Sam has lined up an interview for a secretarial position at Glass & Duvall, an accounting firm. The A case covers the morning of the interview from Sam's perspective, including details about what she does in the waiting room as well as her actual answers to the interviewer. Sam leaves the interview hopeful that she will get the offer. The B case details the following day when Sam gets a phone call from the interviewer, Marva Thompson, who asks Sam to come in for a follow-up meeting. Sam is very excited and rushes over, only to find out that Marva really called her in to give her feedback about her interview, not to offer her the job. Marva recognizes that Sam did not have an accurate idea of the expectations of working in a corporate setting, and she wants to provide constructive criticism to help Sam perform better in her next interview.