個案總覽

The case opens in December of 2018, with Sunil Duggal, the CEO of Dabur India (a multinational consumer goods conglomerate with a focus in Ayurvedic products) contemplating who should succeed him at the head of the company. The new CEO will have been the first since Dabur completed its transition from family management to professional management in 2002, and though publicly listed, the majority of the company's shares were still owned by the Burman family, who founded it in 1884. The case then describes how the Burman family grew the company until the mid-1990s, when professionalization began. The case explains the various obstacles and difficulties that the company overcame in the process of professionalization and explains how the family came to step back from the business. It specifies the nature of the family's involvement during Duggal's tenure as CEO, as the company expanded across the globe, and then it closes by returning to the question of what a professionalized, multinational family business should be seeking in its next CEO, sixteen years after it last confronted such a decision.

Set in 2016, Bata India versus Relaxo-Analyzing Performance compares the strategies and financial performance of two Indian footwear companies. Bata India had long been the market leader in footwear in India, but its leading market position was being challenged by Relaxo, a relatively young, upstart company. The case is framed from the perspective of an emerging markets financial analyst presented with the financial statements and operational data for both companies. The analyst has to compare and contrast the performance of the two companies based on financial ratios. Students can apply the traditional DuPont decomposition framework to drill down into the business model of the two companies. The case then allows students to use the modified (also known as additive or alternate) DuPont approach with the goal of systematically understanding the differences that arise from operating performance, leverage, and the effect of large cash holdings (in Bata). In doing so, students learn the components of the traditional and modified DuPont frameworks and how to analyze financial statements to better understand how firm performance can arise from operating and financing decisions. The traditional DuPont framework provides for a methodical evaluation of performance for each business, but it has its limits: it does not separate operating assets and liabilities from financing assets and liabilities. When the financing components are separated and reclassified using the modified DuPont framework, students can clearly observe the crucial role that financing activities vis-à-vis operating activities can have in amplifying performance.

This is a standalone reading designed to introduce students to the shareholders' equity section of the balance sheet. The reading provides the formal definition of shareholders' equity and its four main components-contributed capital, distributions, retained earnings, and accumulated other comprehensive income.

Core Curriculum Readings in Finance cover the fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in finance. This reading presents an overview of corporate governance, focusing on for-profit businesses that are privately owned by dispersed investors-that is, not owned by a government or by a single owner. The Essential Reading covers the varied mechanisms that address two essential types of conflicts of interest that occur in corporations, both of which arise from the common feature of dispersed ownership: 1) conflicts between managers and owners, and 2) conflicts between controlling and non-controlling owners. The reading provides a foundation for further study in the general topic of corporate governance. The Supplemental Reading briefly reviews topics such as "stakeholder" vs. "shareholder" models of corporate governance, the role of creditors in governance, and the important but distinct non-finance goals served by corporate governance.

In May 2018, Berkshire Hathaway announced an unprecedented loss of more than $1 billion for the first quarter of 2018. Warren Buffett blamed this loss on the new accounting rules for equity securities which he criticized. In the case 'Fair Value Accounting at Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.' students will evaluate the impact of a new rule related to the fair value accounting as it pertains to Berkshire Hathaway and Alphabet. Students will debate the topic of relevance and reliability in fair value accounting as compared to historical cost accounting and discuss the intended purposes of the balance sheet and income statement (with particular attention to net income). Students will also have a chance to review the business model of Berkshire Hathaway to debate how to measure and report the economic performance of Berkshire Hathaway.

This is a standalone reading designed to enhance students' understanding of liabilities and their measurement, presentation, and impact on a company's financial statements. The reading provides the formal definition of a liability and the conditions required to measure, classify, and record a liability on the balance sheet.

In 2015, activist hedge fund Sachem Head Capital, led by founder Scott Ferguson, launched an activist campaign at (computer aided design) CAD software maker Autodesk. The activist campaign, waged mainly in private, was over Autodesk's lacklustre financial performance, with Ferguson thinking that Autodesk's performance could improve with better cost management. Facing a proxy contest, Autodesk added Ferguson and two others to its board in exchange for a standstill agreement. Following two years of significantly improved performance, Ferguson eventually stepped down when longtime Autodesk CEO Carl Bass announced his retirement in February 2017. The case illustrates how even companies with stellar products can underperform and how benchmarking and financial analysis can help identify drivers of firm performance. The case describes how boards and investors can engage to improve governance and ultimately achieve sustainable performance objectives.

In 2017, JANA Partners decided to launch an activist campaign at struggling supermarket chain Whole Foods Market. The company had struggled for the past several years, and JANA thought the presence of new directors could help turn around its operations, while Whole Foods resisted, adding new directors and announcing ambitious new financial targets. Facing continued pressure from JANA despite the new changes, Whole Foods accepted an acquisition offer from Amazon, ending the engagement with JANA.

The case opens with Said Darwazah, chairman and CEO of Hikma Pharmaceuticals, the multinational generics company, anticipating the company's 2017 AGM and reflecting on changes made over the previous year to address concerns expressed by proxy advisors and some shareholders about Hikma's reliance on a combined chairman/CEO position, the long tenure of some directors, and the company's approach to executive pay. The case describes Hikma's origins as Jordanian pharma company founded by Darwazah's father in 1978, and traces the evolution of its governance as a private family company, then as publicly-traded company listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2005, and finally as a member of the FTSE 100, beginning in March 2015. Ahead of the 2017 AGM, Darwazah is confident that shareholders will approve changes made to the company's executive incentive plan (EIP) and steps taken to accelerate the turnover of long-serving directors, but he wonders how much longer the company will be able to continue with a combined Chairman/CEO and, more generally, how to marry the high level of governance expected by shareholders with the entrepreneurial spirit that had driven Hikma's growth and development.

Supplement to case 118034.

In 2015, Yıldiz Holding, one of the world's largest producer of confections, biscuits and crackers, was at the end of its divesture process from Ak Gida, one of the leading dairy companies in Turkey. The company had adopted a dual track process, pursuing an initial public offering (IPO) process as well as attempting, in parallel, a strategic sale to create a competitive bidding process. Ak Gida was co-founded in 1996 by the Ulker and Topbas families as a result of a joint vertical integration strategy: Ulker family, owners of Yildiz Holding, would secure milk powder, one of the main raw materials for its biscuits and chocolate production, and Topbas family would be able to create its own private label dairy products for its nation-wide hard-discount chain BIM. Following Yildiz Holding's acquisition of United Biscuits for over $3 billion in 2014, the Holding's CFO Cem Karakas and its Chief Strategy and Growth Officer Nurtaç Ziyal Afridi, were tasked with divesting of its vertical assets including Ak Gida. The duo had prepared Ak Gida for an IPO in Istanbul, while also having negotiated with multiple parties for its sale. Now, the duo needed to make a final decision: should they go forward with the listing, or should they sell Ak Gida to the world's largest dairy company, Groupe Lactalis?

Exploring Blue Harbour Group's investment in Babcock & Wilcox and its transformation into BWX Technologies.

Follow-up case detailing the changes at BWX Technologies after hedge fund Blue Harbour Group's investment.

London-based activist hedge fund PrimeStone Capital identifies a potential investment in Swiss security company Kaba. PrimeStone believes that the company is undervalued because it has been pushing back various financial targets, and thinks it can help by proposing a new, incentivized executive compensation plan. The company's performance improves, and PrimeStone needs to decide whether its presence can continue to add value or if it should exit the investment.

Noble Group, founded in 1986, was a large commodities trader based in Hong Kong and listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. In 2012, Noble shifted its business strategy towards an asset-light model. Under this model, Noble did not own mines or farms to produce commodities but built commodity sourcing capacity by working with and investing in producers in exchange for purchase and marketing contracts. Noble also worked with customers to secure supply contracts. Noble had a portfolio of 12,000 commodity contracts by end of 2014. The contracts were measured at fair value. Iceberg Research, an anonymous blog, released a series of reports starting in February 2015 alleging that Noble was too aggressive in its fair value accounting for contracts and investments in producers. Iceberg did not accuse Noble of fraud, but suggested that Noble's profits and balance sheet were highly inflated and Noble was headed for disaster. Noble defended its accounting policies and hired PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to provide an independent review of fair value measurement. PwC released a positive review of Noble's accounting. However, questions remained whether Noble's contracts and investments were overvalued. The case explores Noble's business and investigates whether questions about its accounting practices were in the past following the attestation by PwC.