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Axis Bank is India's third largest private sector bank. In April 2009, Shikha Sharma, an outsider was appointed as its CEO. She took over from a person who had overseen ten years of rapid growth at the bank. The selection of an outsider as the new CEO surprised many inside and outside the bank. Sharma changed the bank's hierarchical culture, strengthened the core team by appointing new talent where needed, sought to build its core processes and infrastructure, and filled several gaps in its business portfolio. Despite these changes, the stock market continues to undervalue Axis Bank compared with its chief rivals. In light of this, Axis Bank needs to figure out what more it needs to do to ensure that the market values the franchise correctly.

Axis Bank is India's third largest private sector bank. In April 2009, Shikha Sharma, an outsider, was appointed as its CEO. She took over from a person who had overseen ten years of rapid growth at the bank. The selection of an outsider as the new CEO surprised many inside and outside the bank. Sharma changed the bank's hierarchical culture, strengthened the core team by appointing new talent where needed, sought to build its core processes and infrastructure, and filled several gaps in its business portfolio. Despite these changes, the stock market continues to undervalue Axis Bank compared with its chief rivals. In light of this, Axis Bank needs to figure out what more it needs to do to ensure that the market values the franchise correctly.

Lakshmi Mittal, CEO of Mittal Steel, a UK-based company with Indian roots, took advantage of a weakened Arcelor that had successfully won a bidding war for Canadian steel company Dofasco, with an unsolicited bid to buy the company. Mittal's plans for acquiring Arcelor were initially thwarted by concerted opposition from Arcelor's board and several European governments. To Mittal's further surprise, on May 26, Arcelor orchestrated a merger with the Russian steelmaker Severstal. Although the proposed merger did not offer Arcelor shareholders as much value as Mittal's deal, Arcelor had structured the deal in such a way that it did not require shareholders' approval. Mittal wondered how he should respond to the Severstal deal. Did it make sense to continue pursuing Arcelor or should he look for other ways to expand his steel empire?

In spring 2007, Alcoa CEO Alain Belda was concerned about the company's market position in light of increased competition from developing markets. China's recent entry into the aluminum market was affecting both supply and demand. Furthermore, downstream and upstream product was coming on-line from other parts of the world, including Russia. As a result, Alcoa had lost its historical market dominance and stock premium. Belda was convinced that for Alcoa to regain its leadership position, the company would have to increase efficiencies by expanding its scale, diversification and reach. The acquisition of a large competitor presented the best opportunity to achieve this goal and, as a result, he was particularly intrigued by Canadian rival, Alcan, because its assets would complement Alcoa's portfolio and enhance its reach. Further, Alcan had sold off non-aluminum assets, essentially making it a pure play in aluminum. That and its access to relatively cheap Canadian hydro power made it an even more intriguing acquisition opportunity for Alcoa. However, another major competitor, Rio Tinto, was also interested in Alcan; the company was in play.

In spring 2007, Alcoa CEO Alain Belda was concerned about the company's market position in light of increased competition from developing markets. China's recent entry into the aluminum market was affecting both supply and demand. Furthermore, downstream and upstream product was coming on-line from other parts of the world, including Russia. As a result, Alcoa had lost its historical market dominance and stock premium. Belda was convinced that for Alcoa to regain its leadership position, the company would have to increase efficiencies by expanding its scale, diversification and reach. The acquisition of a large competitor presented the best opportunity to achieve this goal and, as a result, he was particularly intrigued by Canadian rival, Alcan because its assets would complement Alcoa's portfolio and enhance its reach. Further, Alcan had sold off non-aluminum assets, essentially making it a pure play in aluminum. That and its access to relatively cheap Canadian hydro power made it an even more intriguing acquisition opportunity for Alcoa. However, another major competitor, Rio Tinto, was also interested in Alcan; the company was in play.

The case explores the collateralization of intellectual property in a loan agreement between a highly leveraged apparel company and a large US bank. Leveraging intangibles in the credit market is a new practice that has significantly grown over the past few years. However, estimating their liquidation value is not directly intuitive, since intangibles are highly illiquid assets and have uncertain future cash flows. Can banks reliably secure corporate loans by intellectual property, and how can they alleviate the challenges in estimating a loan-to-value ratio for this collateral?

In June 2012, Cheah Cheng-Hye and his colleagues at Value Partners, a Hong-Kong-based investment firm, received a copy of a short-seller report alleging that Evergrande, one of China's largest property developers, was using fraudulent accounting and paying bribes to secure business. Evergrande's stock plummeted, and Value Partners, which had a sizable holding of Evergrande stock, had to determine how to respond to the allegations. The case provides an opportunity to review Value Partners' research approach to investing in Chinese companies and to assess the merits of the Evergrande allegations.

Aditya Birla Financial Services Group is a large, broad-based, Indian financial services institution offering products ranging from life insurance and mutual funds to private equity. The company has witnessed a turnaround in recent years and regained lost market share. However, in recent years, concerns about investor protection has increased financial sector regulatory oversight specifically in the asset management and life insurance space and changed the rules of the game. Additionally, the central bank has invited new banks to apply for licenses to operate in the country. In the face of these changes, the company has to figure out what its strategy should be to realize its vision of becoming a leading integrated financial services player offering customers a menu of products that support their needs at different stages of their life.

Supplement for case 110047

A short history of Apartheid in South Africa.

Corruption is the greatest impediment to conducting business in Russia, according to leaders recently surveyed by the World Economic Forum. Indeed, it's a problem in many emerging markets, and businesses have a role to play in combating it, according to Healy and Ramanna. The authors focus on RosPil--an anticorruption entity in Russia set up by Alexey Navalny, a crusader against public and private malfeasance in that country. As of December 2011, RosPil claimed to have prevented the granting of dubious contracts worth US$1.3 billion. The organization holds corrupt politicians' and bureaucrats' feet to the fire largely through internet-based crowdsourcing, whereby often-anonymous people identify requests for government-issued tenders that are designed to generate kickbacks. Should entities like RosPil be supported, and should companies fashion their own responses to corruption? On the one hand, there are obvious public-relations and political risks; on the other hand, corruption can erode a firm's competitiveness, the trust of customers and employees, and even the very legitimacy of capitalism. The authors argue that heads of many multinational companies are well positioned to combat corruption in emerging markets. Those leaders have the power to enforce policies in their organizations and networks, and they enjoy the ability to organize others in the industry against this pernicious threat.

A large global study examines the factors that stock analysts consider most important when issuing buy, hold, or sell recommendations. The considerations that are deemed significant vary widely from region to region.

What should business leaders do about corruption? In December 2011, four HBS alumni met to debate how to engage the unprecedented protests against Vladimir Putin's corrupt government, which had erupted in Russia in response to alleged fraud in the recent parliamentary elections. A notable figure in the protests was anti-corruption blogger Alexey Navalny. Navalny used publicly available requests for tender, "crowd-sourcing", and volunteer experts to discover, expose, and encourage prosecution of corrupt dealings by the Russian government. These efforts made Navalny a cause celebre in Western media, and a popular figure with Russia's tech-savvy population. But was Navalny the right figure for business leaders in Russia to organize around? What were the risks of getting involved with a politically volatile activist?

It was June 2011 and Alexander Saint-Amand, President and CEO of Gerson Lehrman Group, the largest expert network firm globally, has found his firm once again in the midst of controversy. This controversy centered around a number of insider trading cases that had been brought against consultants working for competing expert network firms. While GLG was in no way implicated in these cases, and GLG had invested significantly in its compliance policies and controls in order to prevent the mishandling of public information, the entire industry was being impacted. Saint-Amand is faced with the challenge of deciding how best to handle this crisis.

The case describes the process of integrating environmental, social, and governance issues into valuation models and research analyst recommendations.

The case describes the challenges that UBS faced as a result of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation for tax fraud, that claimed that UBS had helped some 52,000 U.S. residents hide billions of dollars in untaxed assets in secret Swiss accounts between 2000 and 2007, depriving the U.S. Treasury of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.

The case describes the resolution of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation for tax fraud and the increasing pressure on the wealth management business.

It is 2010 and Guillermo Araoz, the equity research director at Morgan Asset Management (MAM), is considering his research budget for the year. Due to recent declines in the equity markets and MAM's sale of its mutual funds business, MAM has seen a decline in its assets under management, and consequently, in its research budget. The case describes the investment process at MAM, including how stocks are selected and portfolios are constructed, and discusses the way in which the research budget supports this process. Araoz is faced with the challenge of how best to allocate this smaller research budget without negatively impacting the firm's investment process and investment performance.

Spreadsheet supplement for case number 105082.