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When Ben Smith's call-center job is outsourced, he and his wife, Jane, decide to open a catering company to build on Jane's cottage business selling baked goods. They have an opportunity to cater a holiday party hosted by Ben's former employer; however, the Smiths are new to the business and are unsure of the price they should put on their labor. An out-of-state friend in the catering business recommends using his rule-of-thumb, which is doubling or tripling the cost of food and alcohol. As they prepare to launch their new venture, the Smiths assess the various costs they will incur and consider the different forms of value and risk that go into determining a pricing schedule that is both fair to their clients and profitable for Crystal Catering.

In the A case, Rose Matthews, vice president for patient advocacy at University Hospital, must decide how to handle a startling discovery about patient risk. Weeks after a patient dies, lab results revealed the cause was prion disease, a deadly condition similar to mad cow disease. Since the diagnosis of this very rare condition was not known at the time of the patient's brain biopsy, surgical instruments used for the procedure were conventionally sterilized (rather than using special methods required to kill prions) and reused in up to 100 other surgeries. Now Matthews and her team must decide an ethical communication dilemma: (1) disclose the potential, though very low risk that patients may years later develop the disease; or (2) choose to protect patients from mental anguish related to worrying about a disease they most likely will not develop. The B case reveals that the medical team decided not to disclose this news to patients, only to have the news leaked to the media by a disgruntled hospital employee. The forthcoming teaching note offers three potential teaching plans for this case depending on the desired learning objectives: (1) writing a risk or crisis communication plan; (2) setting up a two-minute role-play of an oral statement delivered at the beginning of an internal meeting or for a press conference; and (3) responding to the media leak.

In the A case, Rose Matthews, vice president for patient advocacy at University Hospital, must decide how to handle a startling discovery about patient risk. Weeks after a patient dies, lab results revealed the cause was prion disease, a deadly condition similar to mad cow disease. Since the diagnosis of this very rare condition was not known at the time of the patient's brain biopsy, surgical instruments used for the procedure were conventionally sterilized (rather than using special methods required to kill prions) and reused in up to 100 other surgeries. Now Matthews and her team must decide an ethical communication dilemma: (1) disclose the potential, though very low risk that patients may years later develop the disease; or (2) choose to protect patients from mental anguish related to worrying about a disease they most likely will not develop. The B case reveals that the medical team decided not to disclose this news to patients, only to have the news leaked to the media by a disgruntled hospital employee. The forthcoming teaching note offers three potential teaching plans for this case depending on the desired learning objectives: (1) writing a risk or crisis communication plan; (2) setting up a two-minute role-play of an oral statement delivered at the beginning of an internal meeting or for a press conference; and (3) responding to the media leak.

Service systems are inherently subject to variability, whether through customers, service providers, suppliers, or unexpected events. Yet customers demand excellence and consistency regardless of this variability. In general, there are two ways to handle this variability-through people or through processes. We use the concept of robustness to describe these two approaches, addressing when one or the other might be appropriate and discussing how and why one might transition from one approach to the other.

While some cases may focus on using social media to advance the interests of a business or brand, this case is best positioned as a springboard for exploring social media as it may coexist with or be embedded in organizational life. The case depicts a challenge for a young direct report, a relatively inexperienced manager, and the manager's supervisor when the direct report reveals a passionate political opinion on Facebook and unwittingly links it to sensitive company information. The case discussion can (1) surface diverse student views on the uses of social media as they relate to work life; (2) encourage analysis of and decision-making in the context of a tricky multilevel managerial situation involving social media use, company nondisclosure policies, and communicating guidelines; and (3) consider how issues raised in the discussion may inform students' own choices as users of social media and as managers of people who use these channels. Larger managerial, organizational, and corporate communication issues that are complicated by employee social media use may arise in this class discussion, including: managing professional boundaries between levels of employees in an organization; the porous boundaries that exist between internal and external communication; and gray areas among private, personal, professional, political, and public speech.

This case provides the opportunity for a comprehensive analysis in a service operations strategy course. It touches on subjects including the customer value proposition, profitability, employee management, customer management, robust people versus robust process, queue management, and staffing models. This case can be used as a basis for discussing the ""Four Truths"" from Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business, 6th ed. (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2012). The Four Truths are (1) you can't be good at everything, (2) someone has to pay for it, (3) you must manage your employees, and (4) you must manage your customers. Students are asked to decide the necessary service strategy and operational changes as Schindler Elevator Corporation decides how to use current trends in the internet of things.

Despite the hierarchical power structures in the military and government, as they reach more senior levels, leaders routinely operate in peer-to-peer teams. These environments require the ability to negotiate complex group dynamics-a skill which often goes undeveloped in typical hierarchies. Groups that succeed over time have three things in common: (1) they meet their performance goals, (2) their members feel satisfied that they are learning/benefiting from being a part of the team, and (3) the process the team uses to collaborate sets it up for future success. Recent research, however, suggests that only about 25% of teams meet these criteria. The rest of the teams typically experience less-than-ideal processes and a decline in performance and/or satisfaction. This technical note explores what goes wrong with teams, the ways in which conflict can both help and hurt a team, and how a team can harness the benefits and limit the liabilities of conflict.

This case was a runner-up in the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) 2017 case competition. Anna Pessah, process engineer at Summit Funding (Summit), a mortgage-loan-processing company, is reflecting back on her year at the company. Pessah had been hired to improve operations at the firm-to make the core operations cheaper, faster, and of a higher quality. She had addressed two key operations: loan closings and verifications of employment (VOE). Her next tasks involved improvements at the 28 branches and reaction to a corporate-wide improvement program entitled "Project Ninja." Pessah had implemented a system called "pods," similar to manufacturing cells, in order to address loan closings. Data is given for the student to analyze the implications of this approach and suggest alternatives. Data is also given for analyzing the VOE process and deriving an approach to the branch productivity problem. Finally, the Project Ninja memo is given, and students are asked to evaluate this initiative.

What is resilience, and how is a company's resilience measured? Scholars define organizational resilience as the ability to not only survive a hardship, but also to emerge stronger and better prepared to face new challenges in the future. All businesses experience adversity, but relatively few are able to transform these experiences into a catalyst for growth. Members of resilient organizations are also hopeful and confident in their abilities to cope with hardship and view challenges as opportunities to make their organizations better. This case includes the stories of four Virginia companies that employed different strategies for overcoming difficult situations, as told by the current leaders of these businesses. Taken together, these stories provide a range of examples of different approaches to leading through and learning from adversity.

Successful teams have three things in common: (1) they meet their performance goals, (2) their members feel satisfied that they are learning/benefiting from being a part of the team, and (3) the process the team uses to collaborate sets it up for future success. Recent research, however, suggests that only about 25% of teams meet these criteria. The rest of the teams typically experience less-than-ideal processes and a decline in performance and/or satisfaction. This technical note explores what goes wrong with teams, the ways in which conflict can both help and hurt a team, and how a team can harness the benefits and limit the liabilities of conflict.

Joe Smith, senior director of merchandise management at Beautiful Bags (BB), was about to place a large order for the upcoming winter season. He had to decide how many pieces he should order of each product. But another big question whether BB should source the product from its domestic manufacturing facility, its Chinese suppliers, or some combination of the two given the timing needs, labor costs, minimum order requirements, and BB's expanding product assortment?

The financial manager at the medical devices start-up Health Haven had to work fast to break down communication barriers and gain advice from stakeholders. He needed to provide a comprehensive budget plan that met the majority of stakeholders' requests. Top of mind was taking steps to rebuild the trust he knew that almost all the stakeholders had lost.

The financial manager at the medical devices start-up Health Haven had to develop a revenue forecast that was aggressive enough to meet required performance targets, but realistic enough to be honest and achievable given a reduced budget. Hunt wanted to "lead from the middle" of his organization by providing an acceptable performance forecast on which Haven could deliver. This case is supported by a teaching note for instructors which contains links to supplemental video for students.

In 1995, Paul Shipman, CEO of Redhook Ale Brewery, and his management team prepared to enter uncharted territory by taking their craft-brewing operation public in the United States. Although there already were massive large-batch breweries that were profitable, publicly traded firms, Redhook was different: it embodied the ethos and grassroots beginnings of the microbrew movement. Still Shipman wondered about the potential of the craft-brewing industry segment.

JetBlue Airways is only five days away from entering the Boston market by establishing a presence at Logan International Airport. The VP of strategy for JetBlue considers the range of potential competitive responses that he might expect from such established airlines as American Airlines, so he can anticipate and prepare. As the largest major carrier operating out of Logan, American had more at risk than the other major carriers and had not yet decided how best to compete with the LCCs. How would American respond?

Amazon.com had purchased Zappos in 2009 and was making significant investments in warehouse infrastructure. By early summer 2012, Zappos, a dominant player in the crowded online retail apparel and footwear arena must decide whether to retain its warehouse complex in Kentucky, which it had maintained since 2002, or turn over the operations to Amazon. Should Zappos continue to operate as an entity external to its parent company? Or would advancements and changes in the market be disruptive enough to force Zappos to change in order to remain competitive?

This note reviews the effect setup time, batch size, and throughput time have on each other by providing everyday examples.

This third part of a three-part case provides an epilogue to the CPI initiative. One year later, the editorial office continues to see positive results.

A consultant is enlisted to help an educational publisher streamline production using Lean principles. In the B case, the group prioritizes the problems it will address and identifies how success will be measured.

Darden Business Publishing provides its own field case as a consultant is enlisted to help it streamline production using Lean principles. The case provides an overview of continuous improvement concepts applied in a service setting.