個案總覽

The case explores how Tata Motors, India's largest automobile company, developed the Nano, the world's cheapest car. The case focuses on the translation of Ratan Tata's (Chairman of Tata Motors) vision of a safe affordable car for the masses by Ravi Kant, Managing Director of Tata Motors into the Nano Project. The case raises questions around breaking the price - quality barrier and changing existing internal processes to accommodate revolutionary new ideas. The dilemma of success - Tata Nano was a runaway bestseller - left Tata Motors debating how large a bet they should make on the Nano and what kind of capacity commitment this requires.

William Wang, CEO of VIZIO, Inc., was proud of his company's success in providing affordable flat screen TVs. Since its founding in 2002, VIZIO had grown to over $2 billion in revenue and was one of the top three flat panel TV brands, along with Samsung and Sony. Faced with intensifying price pressure from the industry leaders and an unprecedented economic recession, Wang wondered how VIZIO could best sustain its growth and finance its business.

This case centers around a dispute between the owners and the players regarding the profitability of professional baseball teams in connection with the negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. The case describes the financial statements of the baseball club Kansas City Zephyrs, and discusses several items whose accounting treatment is under dispute between owners and players. Students are asked to resolve these disagreements and determine the team's "true" profitability. The discussion reveals the tensions in performance measurement, and illustrates the fundamental issues in accrual accounting. The case is best used as an introductory case in a course on financial reporting or performance measurement.

After 15 years of great performance, Target's faltering performance during an economic downturn led an activist shareholder to initiate a proxy fight. Target Corporation, the second-largest discount store retailer in the U.S., had competed successfully against industry leader Walmart for years by promoting an upscale discount shopping experience in comparison to Walmart's focus on low prices. This strategy worked well for Target in good economic times. The economic crisis of 2008-2009, however, caused shoppers to abandon Target in favor of Walmart. In the spring of 2009, one of Target's largest shareholders initiated a proxy fight to place his five director nominees on the board. Target won the proxy fight, but still faced questions about whether it had a strategy that could work in both good times and bad.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 109010

The case traces the rise of Enron, covering the company's business innovations, personnel management, and risk management processes. It then examines the company's dramatic fall including the extension of its trading model into questionable new businesses, the financial reporting problems, and governance breakdowns inside and outside the firm. The case offers students an opportunity to explore why Enron failed and to understand the systemic problems in governance that affected its board of directors, the audit committee, the external auditors, and financial analysts.

After years of rapid growth and stock price appreciation, New Century Financial Corporation, one of the largest subprime loan originators in the U.S., reported accounting problems in early 2007. The resulting liquidity crisis forced the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. According to the Bankruptcy Examiner assigned to investigate New Century, the company's troubles "were an early contributer to the subprime meltdown" which fueled a financial crisis in the U.S. and beyond. The case study examines New Century's business model and accounting practices and focuses on the role of management, audit committee, and external auditors in the problems at New Century based on the findings of the Bankruptcy Examiner.

This case examines the challenges in implementing fair value accounting for mortgage instruments, the role of accounting in the sub-prime crisis, and proposals for revising accounting standards given the crisis.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 109031

In August 2005, the leadership of Turkey's Dogus Group considered opportunities for its flagship enterprise, Garanti Bank, to partner with a foreign financial institution. The case describes the Turkish banking industry and Garanti Bank's position within it, and asks students to consider whether partnership makes sense for Garanti and, if so, which bidder it should select.

Chronicles the globalization of the Tata Group, one of India's largest business groups. Since 2000, many Tata Group operating companies have aggressively built international businesses, particularly through overseas acquisitions. After describing the globalization rationales and approaches of the major Tata Group companies, the case asks students to consider whether Tata Motors should pursue the acquisition of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands owned by US-based Ford Motor company.

Leading index company Dow Jones recently signed a license and joint marketing agreement with Transparent Value LLC, the creator of a new fundamentals-based valuation methodology. The agreement allowed Dow Jones to offer a family of indexes based on the Transparent Value methodology. The methodology viewed stock prices as the clearest and most reliable signals of the market's expectations about a company's future performance, and employed a Reverse Discounted Cash Flow (RDCF) valuation model to calculate the revenue required to support a given stock price for a given company. Then, the methodology applied a probability that the company would achieve the needed revenues in the next 12 months, based on its recent track record. Moreover, the methodology endeavored for specificity. For example, when possible, Transparent Value strove to determine what the company needed to do in its business activities to achieve the required revenues. Called "business performance requirements," these could include the number of new store openings, or the number of product unit sales needed, as two examples. The fictitious case protagonist, a business development manager at a leading money management firm, is looking to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) using a fundamentals-based index as the underlying index. She needs to decide whether to base her ETF products on the Dow Jones - Transparent Value indexes. The case study provides an overview of equity indexes and ETF's and a step-by-step description of Transparent Value's methodology.

Examines the strategy and experience of Indian private equity firm Blue River Capital. Blue River was established in 2005 to invest primarily in middle market, particularly family-run, businesses in India. Blue River caters to this niche as an active investor, providing capital and working with portfolio companies to improve their corporate governance. Describes the challenges faced by Blue River in identifying investments, performing due diligence, and working with portfolio companies and asks how Blue River should build itself into a top-tier private equity fund, particularly as more and more foreign firms target the growing Indian market.

Considers the strategy and experience of Tata Motors, India's leading commercial truck maker, as it developed a new small commercial vehicle, the Tata Ace. Positioned as a replacement for the three-wheelers that predominated as small commercial vehicles in India, the Ace create a new product category and enabled Tata Motors to access a new market segment. The company adopted tailored approaches to product design, distribution, marketing, service, and sourcing for the vehicle. After successfully targeting the niche, considers how Tata Motors might grow its presence in the segment with new models, enter new regional markets, export to developing or developed countries, and face new competition.

Deals with the hands-on management of a difficult situation facing the subsidiary of a multinational corporation (Tetra Pak) in a developing country (Argentina). The situation arises from a major economic, social, and institutional breakdown that jeopardizes the subsidiary's existence. Argentina defaulted on it sovereign debt and devalued the peso by over 200%, but it differentiated the treatment of the FX rate to be applied to various transactions, depending on the jurisdiction of creditors and debtors. Local dollar-denominated credits and liabilities were converted on a 1:1.40 ratio, while obligations held with foreign entities continued to be enforceable at the new rate of 1:3. The crisis led to the impoverishment of a large portion of the Argentine population, and to an institutional breakdown where the rule of law was shattered in the country, thus posing challenges not just related to the current situation, but also to the future of the operation. The crisis bore consequences for Tetra Pak Argentina on both ends of its value chain, involving suppliers and customers. Tetra Pak focuses its growth on developing nations where it feels there is room for a valuable business, and it attains leading market positions. Shows how the foreign firm must cope with difficult domestic situations, where the levers of control are beyond its reach. The existence of value after the crisis turns out to be a relevant consideration.

Looks at various international expansion models for a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. Lightspeed Venture Partners believed that India had tremendous potential for venture capital returns--the question was how best to tap into that potential while also growing the firm's presence in the U.S., Israel, and China. The venture firm had recently hired partners in Israel and China, and subsequently opened offices in both countries. The firm was contemplating hiring a third international partner in India and potentially opening a third foreign office. This model seemed to be working in the other two countries, but other U.S. venture firms were entering India in a more aggressive manner. Some venture firms were purchasing local firms and raising money for dedicated India funds. Others were hiring a team of two or three local investors at one time. Lightspeed partners wondered which was the best long-term solution for their firm.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case 108010

Biocon Limited was facing significant pricing pressure in their cash cow business, that primarily consisted of manufacturing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). To combat this commoditization, Biocon's leadership had chosen an innovation-led strategy. This new strategy consisted of licensing and developing proven molecules from strategic partners to leapfrog competition and create large molecule biologics in India. The company understood that its transition from an API to an innovation-led company focused on new biologics would require patience and a risk-taking mindset. Although there was some commonality in the bioprocessing aspects of both approaches, the regulatory approvals, product development paths, and market-access timelines were dramatically different--almost diametrically opposed. Analyzes Biocon's strategic decisions, as well as the risks and challenges associated with migrating from a manufacturing to an innovation-led enterprise. How would they balance short-term pragmatism versus long-term vision? Do they have the appropriate human resources to scale and innovate? Is their India-centric strategy appropriate, since 86% of their end-market demand is in the U.S., Europe, and Japan? Fortunately, early indications with their innovation-led strategy were showing positive signs and demonstrable results--such as their biogenetic insulin and monoclonal antibody launch in India. Their lead oral insulin project, with a planned $100 million budget, was meeting its milestones and deliverables. Many critical business challenges are detailed in this case. Nevertheless, given their fully integrated business model and significant manufacturing base, the odds are in Biocon's favor to overcome these challenges and lead India's biotechnology revolution.

Analyzes the globalization of Metro Cash & Carry, a German wholesaler, which has flourished in many foreign markets but struggled to gain traction in India. Considers Metro's experience in Russia and China to put the company's challenges in India in comparative perspective. Pays particular attention to the institutional obstacles for a multinational to tap into the opportunities offered by emerging markets.

In September 2006 it was revealed that the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) had been carrying out an extended investigation of its own employees, board members, and journalists outside the company. The investigation was launched in response to a series of leaks to the press that could only have come from highly placed members of the company. Fully understanding the context of the events of September, however, requires knowledge of board personalities and events that began under former CEO Carly Fiorina and continued thought the successful turnaround under her successor, Mark Hurd. As such, special focus is given to the individual board personalities and their conflicts over this time in order to fully explore the environment in which the investigation would later take place.