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This case, which follows up on "The Evolution of a Practitioner to Leadership (A)"

Will Cohen, the case protagonist, has recently been promoted to Bank of America's market sales executive for the mid-Atlantic region. In this position, he finds himself struggling with some of the conversations, personal interactions, and general dynamics he has had with his direct reports. Cohen had had a wildly successful decade-plus experience in wealth and investment advising for several large companies, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co.. He had then been recruited to lead the Bank of America private bank team in Charlottesville, Virginia, where, again, he and his team had been enormously successful and effective, leading to his position with the mid-Atlantic region. However, in this position, Cohen had been somewhat disheartened by the workplace ethic, which included lethargy and complacency. He often wondered about his leadership skills, which was a totally new concern for him. After a recent difficult conversation with a team member, Cohen worried about how he was handling the challenges of his new position. His goal was to drive performance while at the same time encouraging the growth of his team members and creating a culture of teamwork, collective ownership, trust, and creativity. He just was not sure he was executing these goals successfully.

The protagonist in this case, founder of a successful, privately held tabletop board gaming company, has to make some tough decisions about whether to move forward with two of the company's board games. Recent years had seen a renaissance for board games and their audience, and the board game market, driven primarily by millennials, was estimated to be worth roughly $12 billion dollars by 2023. The decision is whether to print a second run of Taming the East or to publish a new game, Sixth Panzer Army. Both games had controversial elements. Taming the East, despite its wild success, had been the focus of some criticism because it involved maintaining a player's empire through often unsettling means: ruling through intermediary and puppet governments, adopting imperialist and colonialist tactics, and putting down rebellions, particularly in Asian countries, through suppressive, often strong-arm tactics. Although a bit more of a traditional game, Sixth Panzer Army nonetheless involved World War II combat and battles and prominently featured German soldiers, including some SS troops, many of whom had, in reality, been convicted of war crimes. It also referenced some horrific events, such as German soldiers massacring American POWs, and included war crimes as a playable event. While the gaming industry was no stranger to controversy, with a number of well-intentioned and even popular games attracting criticism for violent, sometimes atrocity-laden themes, this was still a tough decision. The protagonist, already conflicted about the nature of both games, will have to explain the decision to commission a second print of Taming the East, and likewise no doubt face criticism about going ahead with Sixth Panzer Army. The public and the gaming press would weigh in about the final decision, and not necessarily in a kind or understanding way.

Alisha Bhandari, vice president of operations at a successful and well-respected global supplier of paints, coatings, specialty materials, and optical products, had watched during her 10 years at the company a subtle disintegration of workplace culture. Her own observations, coupled with a recent employee survey, had revealed an overall mindset of complacency, lack of motivation, inflexibility, and a general malaise and unwillingness to be flexible to new ideas in the company. Some managers admitted to being fearful of suggesting changes and a distaste for deviating from the normal routine or even considering embracing anything innovative. Bhandari had also noticed greater stress and tension in various departments, and believed that this was already affecting company performance. She worried that the more motivated employees might be lured away by competitors and general malaise would grow larger and more problematic. For the sake of workplace efficiency, employee mental health, and the future success of the company, Bhandari knew that things needed to change, but she was uncertain what steps to take and strategies to put into place.

In early 2014, recent Stanford University graduate Tyler Shultz was in a quandary. He had been working at Theranos, a blood-diagnostic company founded by Elizabeth Holmes, a Stanford-dropout wunderkind, for almost a year. Shultz had learned enough about the company to realize that its practices and the efficacy of its much-touted finger-prick blood-testing technology were questionable and that the company was going to great lengths to hide this fact from the public and from regulators. Theranos and Holmes were Silicon Valley darlings, enjoying positive press and lavish attention from potential investors and technology titans alike. Just as companies like PayPal had revolutionized the stagnant payments industry and Uber had upended the for-hire transportation sector, Theranos had been positioned as the latest technology firm to substantially disrupt yet another mature sector: the medical laboratory business. By the start of 2014, the company had raised more than $400 million in funding, and had an estimated market valuation of $9 billion. Shultz's situation was exacerbated by the fact that his grandfather, the highly respected former US Secretary of State George Shultz, was on the Theranos board and was one of Elizabeth Holmes's biggest supporters. But Tyler Shultz worried about the customers he was convinced were receiving highly unreliable and often inaccurate blood-test results. With so much at stake, Shultz wondered how he should proceed. Should he raise his concerns with the firm's investors? Blow the whistle externally? Report to industry regulators? Go away quietly? This case and its subsequent four brief follow-up cases are based largely on interviews with Tyler Shultz, and outline the dilemma he faced and the various steps he would take both to extricate himself from his unsavory position and let the public know the full extent of the deception at Theranos. Five optional handouts are available to instructors to further discussion after the case has

Case Supplement for Case UV8435

Case Supplement for Case UV8435

Case Supplement for Case UV8435

Handout for Case UV8435

Case Supplement for Case UV8435

A consultant experienced in developing predictive models for his clients to improve business operations, Everett Blake, was working with the Richardson Eye Care and Surgery Center (RECSC), which wanted to explore ways to improve its no-show rate, classifying a "no-show" as an appointment not kept without 24-hours' notice. After running variables through an XGBoost model, Blake's company had identified predictive variables, which included age and gender. However, Blake was uncomfortable with these two variables, fearing that, if they were used to identify potential no-shows (and consequently not get follow-up calls about their appointments in the future), this could be considered discriminatory and might lead to a different quality of care for different groups of patients. With this in mind, Blake had to decide what his recommendation to RECSC should be.

Beth Collins, CFO of Software Sense, an American multinational computer hardware and software developer, contemplated various ways that her publicly traded company could embrace a more long-term orientation in its quarterly reports and throughout its reporting ecosystem. Like other publicly traded companies, Software Sense faced constant pressure from investors and analysts to increase short-term financial-performance metrics, particularly in its quarterly earnings calls. Many in business were concerned about the deleterious effects of short-termism, which referred to the practice of focusing on short-term rather than long-term performance and results; these effects included less attention paid to long-term value creation and innovation, strategy, and fundamentals; less R&D investment; and the implementation of high-risk strategies that could threaten the company's health. Recently, Collins had read about and heard presentations by Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP), an initiative encouraging business leaders to reframe investor calls away from short-term reporting and toward a more long-term strategic approach and orientation. As she researched CECP's recommendations and strategies, Collins could see the benefits of this approach-but also the potential problems.

The consulting field, with its variety of different experiences and scenarios, often presents numerous challenges and conflicts for those involved. These vignettes, some based on actual situations, present a number of dilemmas in which the protagonists must determine the right course of action, often when that is not easily identifiable. These vignettes identify situations in which one's values, ethical judgment, and sense of fairness might be tested and where the road to a good resolution might not always be clear.

Tessa Lyons was a rising star at Facebook. She had been the project manager in charge of news feed integrity for a little over a year, stationed at the front lines in the battle against misinformation and "fake news." However, in early 2019, she faced an ethical dilemma that could define her tenure at the company and perhaps her career: whether to ban Alex Jones and the content from his platform, Infowars, from the Facebook news feed.

As the head pharmacist and manager of Hedrick's Pharmacy, a family-owned, independent pharmacy in Pennsylvania, Samantha Hedrick had to decide whether to continue to stock a wildly popular supplement, Memoral, a blend of vitamins, minerals, and herbs that "may support memory and cognitive function." Despite its hefty price tag ($75 a month

Olaf Tryggvason, owner of a fleet of fishing ships in a small northern Norwegian town, has been offered and has accepted a reality television deal about the fleet to create a show along the lines of "The Deadliest Catch" and "Big Shrimpin'." He now has to recommend which ships and kapteiner (skippers or captains) in his fleet should be the stars of the show. He also has to consider the various dangers and complexities inherent in making a show like this, and what responsibility he has to his employees and other stakeholders. In thinking through the decisions in the case, students will have to wrestle with how values shape their quantitative analysis and views of their moral responsibilities to employees, and how their own experiences and biases shape how they view moral issues.

As part of a biennial supplier review, Jennifer Schramm, a purchasing manager in the cocoa and chocolate division at Cardinal Foods, had been considering several different cocoa cooperatives. She wanted to (1) source high-quality cocoa in the proper particle sizes, (2) source cocoa from environmentally and socially conscious producers, (3) keep the cost of cocoa sourcing as low as possible, and (4) not increase any reputational risks to the company. Information and data from three cooperatives is given to assist in making a recommendation. From an operations perspective, the purpose of the case is to teach the dual concepts of capability and natural variability. The case can be used as a lead-in to the concept of statistical process control. From an ethical sourcing perspective, the case addresses the complexities involved in making a principled decision in a global supply chain.

This case requires students to evaluate alternative dual-share-class corporate structures that allow companies and entrepreneurs to pursue profit with purpose. The case explores Impact Makers, an IT consulting company based in Richmond, Virginia. While original founders of the firm hold all voting rights, the cash flow rights belong to two nonprofits setting the stage for a Newman's Own model of management consulting. The case discusses whether and how the alternative corporate structure aids the firm's overall strategy to attract top-quality employees, pay them competitive salaries, and provide superior service to its clients while donating 100% of its lifetime value to charitable causes, largely through partnerships with various nonprofit organizations. More importantly, the case asks students to evaluate how such a dual-share-class and dual-purpose company can raise capital to fund continued growth. The case opens with CEO Michael Pirron reminding himself of all the questions he had run through to execute a strategy to further grow Impact Makers' consulting business both through expanding a menu of services and through conquering new geographical markets. To do either, or both, the company needed a cash infusion. Internal cash was limited, as up to 40% of it flowed to charitable partners, demonstrating Impact Makers' commitment to its mission. Raising debt for a company without fixed assets was challenging and time consuming. Complicating it all was that being structured as a nonstock corporation rendered equity raising difficult. Could Impact Makers raise money to grow and stay true to community values at the same time?

The owner of the small Berlin-based Schmidt Press encounters a dilemma when she is given the opportunity to publish a novel about a Muslim woman who attempts to lead an underground movement to take control of the Kaaba, the holy sanctuary at Mecca. Given the events of the prior 25 years - such as the angry fallout after Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the upheaval in many Middle Eastern countries - publishing the novel presents a host of various ethical dilemmas, including whether Schmidt should put her staff at risk. This case discusses the ethics of a free press and challenges to the profit motive in the face of political and religious world affairs.

In this case, a senior business analyst at the online travel agency Trek-ation struggles with the decision of whether to pursue a potentially lucrative idea. Her innovation team had proposed revising the online pricing algorithm in order to use the cookies and other information from customers' web browser to customize pricing for flights and hotels. Although she wanted to increase revenue for the company and meet her targets, she was also concerned not only about the backlash if this tactic was revealed to the public but also, more importantly, about both the fairness of this practice and the violation of customer privacy norms.