In the summer of 2022, the Lyric Opera of Chicago (Lyric), a major opera company, is facing a deepening challenge. Lyric has seen ticket sales decrease, declining from 54% of revenue in 1998 to 33% by 2018. Since 2010, the primary source of this decline has been a loss in subscribers--high-value patrons who attend several operas per year. This subscriber lack is concerning not just for the lost ticket sales but also because subscribers are far more likely than single-ticket buyers to make gifts (a stream that now constitutes 51% of Lyric's revenue). As it plans to counter this downward trend, Lyric's marketing team has two questions to answer: First, the team must decide which audiences to focus on to fill its empty seats--past subscribers, "opera-primed" lookalikes of past subscribers, more diverse audiences closer to Chicago's urban core, or millennials; then, once the team chooses a target audience, it must determine how Lyric should address that audience with its product, customer experience, and opera programming choices.

By 2021, Manvendra "Manny" Saxena had acquired three small California street sweeping firms through a search fund and had combined them under the umbrella company PowerSweeping. Consistent with the search fund model, his goal was to streamline PowerSweeping's operations, help it grow, and then one day sell it at a high valuation. That was easier said than done. The three firms that made up PowerSweeping played in two different sweeping subindustries--municipal and construction--which used different equipment, served different types of customers, and had different revenue characteristics. The firms also employed both non-unionized and unionized workers from two unions, which limited Saxena's ability to integrate them. As Saxena generated a strategy, he also faced increased fuel, repair, maintenance, parts, and labor costs in the post-COVID environment, as well as intense competitive pressure from ASC, the largest street sweeping conglomerate in the United States. ASC was eyeing a roll-up merger through California and had made an offer to buy PowerSweeping--though the offer was less than what Saxena believed was its actual value. How could Saxena quickly streamline PowerSweeping and stave off inflation and competition long enough to unlock the company's true value for himself and his investors?

In 1898, two Black entrepreneurs from Durham, North Carolina-barber John Merrick and medical doctor Aaron McDuffie Moore-put pen to paper and founded the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association (the Mutual). They would soon be joined by a third partner-an energetic young salesman named Charles Clinton Spaulding. This "triumvirate" faced long odds. While there was a long tradition of Black mutual aid societies-religious organizations that charged dues and paid members a small sum in the event of a death or emergency-operating a for-profit insurance company catering to the Black community presented several challenges. By the 1890s, an increasing number of Southern Blacks had the resources to afford a basic life insurance policy, but few had experience buying life insurance or knew why it was necessary.

In late 2021, Darius Adamczyk, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell is considering the changes he has made to the company since he took over the top leadership position in 2017. The company he had inherited from his predecessor, David Cote, was seen by most as a high-performing, successful operation. Rather than rest on that success, however, Adamczyk had made a series of major moves-spinouts, exits, mergers, and reorganizations to refocus and reposition Honeywell. Against the backdrop of the breakup of GE, which many considered to be Honeywell's peer, Adamczyk wonders if he has done enough to prepare Honeywell to compete in the 21st century.

In 1970 Chile became the first country to elect a Marxist president through open, multi-party elections in Salvador Allende. In his first year as president, Allende nationalized the copper industry, Chile's largest export industry that was developed and owned by US multinationals. The nationalization was politically popular, and Allende ultimately refused to provide compensation. The US administration of President Richard Nixon saw Allende's government as a political and ideological threat both in the context of the Cold War, and to the economic interests of the "First World" at a time of rising resource nationalism and political activism in the so-called "Third World."

David Heath and Randy Goldberg founded Bombas in 2013 to serve two missions: to deliver the "best socks in the history of feet," and to donate socks (the most requested item in homeless shelters) to Americans experiencing homelessness. Eight years later, Bombas had established itself mostly through online marketing as a preeminent direct-to-consumer sock maker, and had introduced lines of underwear, T-shirts, and slippers as well. Bombas was also one of America's most visible buy-one-give-one companies, with over $250 million in annual revenue and 50 million pairs of socks donated. As it grew, however, the company faced mounting challenges. What pace of growth would best allow Bombas to reach new customers while maintaining focus on its social mission? How could the company attract the talent necessary to manage such a complex online operation? And with a sprawling network of 3,500 Giving Partners of varying sizes around the U.S., was it time for Bombas to simplify its giving program?

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a rise in "reshoring" sentiment in the U.S., Hester Pharmaceuticals had to decide whether to build a new plant for its new oncology drug Akrozumab in Germany or in the U.S., or whether it should hire a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) to produce the drug.

The Canadian city of Toronto had one of the largest housing affordability problems of any city in the developed world. One company trying to address this problem was Dream, one of the largest real estate groups in Canada. In 2021, Dream had just launched a new system for impact investing, along with two new investment vehicles to connect investors with environmentally and socially beneficial projects. A first mover in impact investing among Canadian real estate firms, Dream wrestled with the question of how to use the language and concepts of impact investing to solve Toronto and Canada's housing affordability crisis. How could Dream work with federal, provincial, and local governments to make housing more affordable? How could it scale impact across the real estate industry to increase affordability? How could Dream also integrate other aspects of impact, like environmental sustainability, into its approach without losing focus on affordability? Students will consider the case of a single large Dream development in Toronto as they evaluate these questions.

In early 2021, BlackRock-the world's largest asset manager with $9 trillion in assets under management (AUM)-sought to become a leader in promoting environmental and social sustainability. Over the previous ten years, CEO Larry Fink had written an annual open letter to CEOs, pushing them to view sustainability and climate change planning key components of any long-term strategy. He had built an investment stewardship committee to attend portfolio company shareholder meetings and implement these goals. He had also recruited a team of prominent impact investors to BlackRock to lead a new impact investing fund. Now, as the new fund came of age, both the fund's managers and BlackRock's senior leadership faced difficult choices. At the fund level, they needed to define how to implement their two main selection criteria-intentionality and additionality-in choosing the fund's next stocks. At the company level, BlackRock's leaders wrestled with the question of just how much impact BlackRock could have on the companies it invested in, when well above half of BlackRock's AUM were invested passively.

In 2017, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) faced the first big investment decision in its new Scaling Solar project. Founded in 1956, IFC was an international investment body with national governments as shareholders, whose mission was to promote economic development. It achieved this primarily through debt financing, which allowed the organization to use covenants to exercise close stewardship of its investments. Beginning in the late 1990s, the organization's mission had evolved to foreground environmental and social sustainability in its development projects. Scaling Solar, launched in collaboration with the World Bank, would be one of IFC's marquis projects in promoting a sustainable energy future. In this case, students will review the history of IFC (a pioneer in the burgeoning field of impact investing), explore the uses of debt as an instrument for development financing, consider how sustainability fits into the impact investing framework, and evaluate a potential new investment in solar power in Zambia.

In 2018, Thailand's Bank of Ayudhya (known as Krungsri), was considering whether to participate in the first issue of a new financial instrument from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), known as a gender bond. Building on the success of the Green Bond program at promoting investment in sustainable businesses, IFC intended the Gender Bond to encourage local banks to lend to woman-owned businesses. IFC was offering Krungsri substantial investment support with the bond, but getting the new instrument past Thai regulators and making sure that the proceeds were used properly presented substantial risk for the bank. Should Krungsri pull the trigger on its first Gender Bond?

During the 1980s, leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and the private equity (PE) firms responsible for carrying them out revolutionized both investment and management in the U.S. Between 1980 and 1989, buyout activity in the U.S. surged from $1 billion per year to $60 billion. There was widespread agreement that the PE industry created enormous value, but who exactly was it creating that value for? PE firms claimed that LBOs not only benefitted investors, but also the target companies, which became leaner and more focused as PE firms turned them around. But critics argued that on balance, the PE industry left target companies foundering under mountains of debt as investors realized huge returns. In this case study, students will grapple with PE's complex legacy while learning its history. The case will trace PE's two main ingredients (the limited partnership and the LBO), examine the auspicious conditions of the 1980s that brought them together, and discuss the experiences of two very different early players in the PE field-KKR and Bain Capital.

In August 2019, the leadership of Hester Pharmaceuticals (Hester) had a problem. Italy promised to be a key market for their new breakthrough oncology drug Akrozumab, but for almost two years, its single-payer healthcare system had been unable to agree with Hester on a price. With only a few years before a competing drug to Akrozumab was due to hit the market, company leaders felt mounting pressure to compromise with Italian negotiators. At the same time, they realized that compromising on a low price might jeopardize the higher prices Hester had already negotiated with other European nations, if these countries bought up extra supply from Italy or referenced Italy's low price when they renegotiated their own prices the following year. Should Hester settle for a low price, stall for more time, or walk away? This case introduces students to the process of bringing new prescription drugs to market and the factors that go into pricing drugs in both single-payer and multi-payer healthcare systems. Students will wrestle with the complex strategy behind pricing their drugs internationally.

In 2019, Board Chair and third-generation shareholder Helen Fullerton was preparing for a meeting to discuss Ohio-based Hayden Saw Company's (Hayden) future as a family business. As the company entered its fifth decade, the Hayden family was dealing with three distinct pressures. First was the question of how to represent shareholders equitably in a way that would enable the family to move past its history of friction and estrangement. The second question was how to ensure a talented pipeline of family members working at the company as the family dispersed across the U.S. Third and relatedly, was the question of how to ensure informed family representation on the company's board to support its independent directors. To address these pressures, Fullerton had commissioned a family business consultant to generate a series of proposals. The consultant had come back with comprehensive ideas for a shareholders' council, a family office, family employment tracks, and a shareholder director process. Now it was time for Fullerton to review the proposals and decide how to move forward.

For decades, Gera Developments (Gera) was a boutique family-owned real estate development firm in Pune, India. But since 2000, managing director Rohit Gera had turned the company into a dynamic innovator in housing solutions for urban Indian families. Over the 2010s, Gera had multiplied its area under development threefold; it had introduced its new ChildCentric vision of family housing villages (which incorporated children's academies in skills from swimming to singing into the real estate complex); and it had expanded its operations from Pune to the nearby state of Goa. Meanwhile, Rohit's brother Nikhil-a California resident-had invested company funds in several construction projects overseas in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2020, the company stood at a crossroads. With Rohit beginning to envision the end of his managerial career, Gera had several key decisions to make: Should it double down on ChildCentric, introduce new age-differentiated offerings to serve its customers throughout their lives, or return to a more commoditized style of real estate development? To what extent should Gera cast in its lot with Nikhil's U.S. projects? Should the company consider other avenues for international expansion? And to whom would Rohit pass the torch of Gera's leadership-his daughter Diya, or an outside professional manager?

In 2020, The Honor Foundation (THF), a nonprofit dedicated to helping U.S. military special operators to transition into civilian careers, was facing a series of strategic challenges. THF had been founded in 2013 by former Navy SEAL trainee Joe Musselman, who observed a disturbing pattern: once special operators left the military in their mid-30s or 40s, they tended to end up in jobs in which they were overqualified, underpaid, and unfulfilled. Musselman attributed this to fundamental disconnects between the world of special operations, whose members had unique and deep skill sets but little experience articulating them in the civilian world, and the world of business. THF's programs gave transitioning special operators space to reflect on what they wanted out of their transition, and hard skills for interviewing, resume writing, and networking. Over seven years, its three month program had grown to serve over 200 transitioners per year on three campuses plus a virtual campus. But in early 2020, THF was not yet serving America's largest contingent of special operators: the U.S. Army Special Forces. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, THF CEO Matt Stevens was evaluating how best to incorporate Army special operators and fulfill THF's mission of serving all the U.S. special ops community. Should THF build another physical campus? Should it use its virtual campus to incorporate Army special operators instead? Or should it take on government funding to scale quickly? Students who read this case will evaluate this strategic problem while becoming familiar with the unique skills of the Special Operations Forces community.

With the economy in a freefall, MetricStream is losing customers, hemorrhaging cash and struggling to make payroll. Several board members are threatening to quit. Others are pressing to sell the company even at dismally low valuations. It's 2008 and lightning has struck for Shellye Archambeau once again. As CEO of MetricStream, she had spent the last seven years turning a tech startup on life support after the dot-com bust into a market leader of governance, risk, and compliance software for businesses. As a black female CEO, Archambeau is no stranger to adversity. Becoming a leader had been her goal since high school and she had achieved it through decades of hard work and skillful decision making. Now she faces her most critical leadership decision. She calls a meeting with her board chairman, Gunjan Sinha, to discuss the best path forward: Sell MetricStream while offers are on the table, or try to save it by looking for a big customer of the company's risk management software against the backdrop of the financial crisis? Both options have dire consequences. Valuations are plummeting by the day. Cash is disappearing by the minute. Archambeau and Sinha need to decide and act swiftly.

This case describes Uber's global market entry strategy and responses by regulators and local competitors. It details Uber's entry into New York City (New York), Bogotá (Colombia), Delhi (India), Shanghai (China), Accra (Ghana), and London (United Kingdom). In each instance, the case includes information about Uber's strategy in that market, existing regulations on taxis and transportation in each market, the reactions of competitors and regulators, and regional information. The case allows for instruction related to competitive strategy, global expansion, nonmarket strategy, regulation, market economics, supply restrictions, and related topics.

In 2020, Chileans would head to the ballot box to decide their country's future. Many international observers credited Chile's decades of neoliberal governance with turning the country into Latin America's "Tiger," a prosperous, diversified economy on its way to becoming the continent's first developed country. But in October of 2019, a mass protest movement ground the country to a halt and shocked its political class, showing the world a different Chile-one defined by inequality, social distrust, and a young generation of political activists. As Chile prepared to vote in the fall of 2020 on whether to adopt a new constitution, could it sculpt a more equitable society while remaining "the exception" on a continent known for its political instability? Or would Chile's prosperity go the same way as its neoliberal experiment?

This supplemental case tracks the results of the Colman and Taubman-Dye class action suit against Theranos as well as Theranos' other legal challenges, and chronicles the final demise of the company in 2019.