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Ron Burkle is an activist investor and stockholder of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BN). In September 2010, through his company, The Yucaipa Companies (Yucaipa), Burkle filed a “Definitive Proxy” to challenge BN’s slate of board-of-director nominees at the upcoming stockholder meeting. The proxy was made in response to a ruling against Yucaipa by the Delaware Chancery Court concerning a lawsuit that challenged Barnes and Noble’s poison-pill provision, which prevented outsiders from becoming majority stockholders. Burkle disagreed with BN’s founder, chairman, and owner of the majority stake in the company, Leonard Riggio, concerning BN’s long-term strategy. While Burkle wanted the company to cede ground to Amazon in the digital reader marketplace and instead concentrate on BN’s physical stores, Riggio believed that the Nook eReader should be the centrepiece of the company’s strategy. Riggio had to respond to the Yucaipa proxy in the short term and come up with a plan of action to retain control of the company in the long term.

Ron Burkle is an activist investor and stockholder of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BN). In September 2010, through his company, The Yucaipa Companies (Yucaipa), Burkle filed a "Definitive Proxy" to challenge BN's slate of board-of-director nominees at the upcoming stockholder meeting. The proxy was made in response to a ruling against Yucaipa by the Delaware Chancery Court concerning a lawsuit that challenged Barnes and Noble's poison-pill provision, which prevented outsiders becoming majority stockholders. Burkle disagreed with BN's founder, chairman and owner of the majority stake in the company, Leonard Riggio, concerning BN's long-term strategy. While Burkle wanted the company to cede ground to Amazon in the digital reader marketplace and instead concentrate on BN's physical stores, Riggio believed that the Nook eReader should be the centrepiece of the company's strategy. Riggio had to respond to the Yucaipa proxy in the short-term and come up with a plan of action to retain control of the company in the long term.

Chanel, the iconic haute couture house, founded by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel in 1913, came to embody its founder's philosophy, taste, and style and set a distinctive and influential tone for women's fashion. Coming to prominence during the height of cultural modernity in the 1920s and 1930s, Chanel's designs wrapped high and low cultural references into beautiful yet practical clothing and jewelry for women of Europe and the Americas. In their articulation of clean, classic lines, her designs set a standard for women's fashion and clothing, relevant from 1910 through to the 1960s. She created several iconic but understated staples of many women's wardrobes, such as her signature cardigan and suit, the quilted handbag with a chain-link strap, which left its wearer's hands free, and "the little black dress," all of which continue to be part of women's wardrobes today in some shape and form. Chanel died in 1971 leaving the future of the brand and its leadership uncertain.

Crown Investment Corporation (CIC) of Saskatchewan and its partners, Mosaic Corporation and CIBC, have decided to sell a fertilizer plant that they jointly own. Now, CIC and its associates have to come up with a value assessment and mode of sale. Using different valuation methodologies, students are to determine the plant's value.

Godrej, a fast-moving commercial goods (FMCG) company in India that was historically known for its refrigerators in the Indian market, contemplated launching a new product for rural markets. Chotukool was an unconventional cooling solution targeted at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) segment in India. More than 80 per cent of the Indian population did not own a refrigerator and 50 per cent earned less than US$2 per day. The study tracks Godrej’s journey of disruptive innovations from the conception of the idea to the marketing challenges faced by the company. It also focuses at length on how the organization planned to execute two parallel business models, with one aimed at the consumers of traditional refrigerators and the other simultaneously targeting current non-consumers. The case focuses on the management challenge of innovating across the value chain in order to succeed at social innovations.

After reading some confusing management texts for an Executive MBA course he is taking, a manager falls asleep. He dreams that he is standing before a beautiful classical-style building, within which a man sits on some stones, chatting with three younger men. The manager is drawn to the seated figure and, to his delight, realizes that it is Socrates. He approaches him with a longstanding preoccupation and a discussion ensues regarding what 'leadership' really is.

As the head of the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in China, En Li was shepherding a $1 billion R&D investment in China. So far he had been able to attract a large number of Chinese-born but US-trained scientists to play a critical role in establishing the site. How sustainable was this strategy, and what were the key things he had to do right to establish a globally integrated R&D unit in China?

Termination of WorldSpace India operations in 2009 was a part of restructuring efforts of the Maryland, U.S.-based parent company that had filed for bankruptcy in October 2008. As of June 30, 2008, WorldSpace Inc. (later 1 WorldSpace) had listed debt of US$ 2.1 billion and assets of US$ 307.4 million and had sought bankruptcy protection to help raise fresh funding to repay its debts. The parent's two regional satellites, AfriStar and AsiaStar, and related ground assets had been acquired by U.S.-based Liberty Media, which also owned 40 per cent of satellite radio service provider Sirius XM Radio . The termination of WorldSpace raised a series of questions regarding early mover disadvantages, business ideas and pricing strategy. Analysts further extended the arguments to draw parallels with the likes of Iridium to question strategic decisions relating to the service-hardware mix, service provision and pricing, power of complementors, power of substitutes and overall, the consumers' willingness to pay for incremental choice.

There are not many families in the world that can claim continuity of existence for over 76 generations in either business or otherwise. Families that manage such a feat tend to have strong roots of values and culture that are in line with the basic principles of trusteeship - to preserve and grow wealth (both material and spiritual) for the benefit of future generations. This case is based on the history of and current challenges faced by such a family, the Mewar dynasty from India.

There are not many families in the world that can claim continuity of existence for over 76 generations in business or otherwise. Families that survive over the long term tend to have strong values that are in line with the basic principles of trusteeship — to preserve and grow wealth (both material and otherwise) for the benefit of future generations. This case is based on the history and current challenges of the Mewar dynasty, who ruled part of India for 13 centuries. The family must consider the issue of succession and continuity in its palace hotel business and non-commercial activities.

It was August 2011 and Martin Cartier, senior board member, was beginning to feel the pressure of Drowling Mountain's 2010 general meeting that was coming up in two months. Drowling Mountain had historically been the ski resort of choice for the local residents of Syracuse, New York. However, the company had recorded losses for the past two years. At last year's annual general meeting, Cartier explicitly stated that he would bring the company to sustainable operations. He felt personally responsible for the company's struggles since he was the longest serving member on the board. Management had been keen on developing a new marketing plan focused on increasing sales and new pricing schemes, but Cartier thought an advance meeting to discuss the plan with select board members would be advantageous. Cartier held significant influence in the meeting coming up in October, and any recommendations that he made were likely to determine the future success of the company.

The president and chief executive officer (CEO) of a provincial auto club is assessing opportunities to grow his organization in light of industry consolidation and punitive changes in allocating of national operating costs. The auto club has diversified from automobile towing and travel services into insurance, package travel, automobile sales and service. However, his vision to the upcoming board of directors' meeting calls for a 300 per cent increase in operating revenues over next 10 years. Without a larger critical mass, the auto club cannot support its allocated costs of branded national and international products. The CEO's challenge is where are the growth opportunities.

This case focuses on a significant problem faced by county-owned Prairie Health Service’s administrators: What could be done to reduce multiple billings and other redundancies among the four divisions of the organization? The administrators’ goal was to implement an integrated records management system that would streamline the registration and billing processes for patients, thereby increasing efficiency and timeliness, as well as reduce financial losses. While this was a fiscally responsible goal for the organization, the records management software package selected by the CEO was inadequate for the task. Rather than listen to the recommendations of his division administrators who had spent considerable time researching potential software, the CEO seemed to be basing his selection decision on the personal relationship he had developed with sales representatives from one of the software firms.

This case deals with the challenges faced at L’Oseraie, a nursing home located in the northeast of France. The director of L’Oseraie had to meet her new boss and brief him on the organization’s challenges while offering suggestions. A key obstacle involved employee motivation and engagement, particularly after a recent absenteeism episode. Furthermore, the lack of health care staff in France meant that employees might need to be sourced from abroad, perhaps from Eastern Europe or the French-speaking countries of North Africa. How could the director implement a strategy that would alleviate the day-to-day problems of the nursing home?

This technical note introduces business students to the concepts of modeling discrete choice (e.g., a consumer purchasing brand A versus brand B) using logistic regression and maximum-likelihood estimation. It draws the analogy between modeling discrete choice and building a regression model with a dummy dependent variable and on an example illustrates the need for estimating the probability of a choice rather than the choice itself, which leads to a special kind of regression - logistic regression. The note presents the concepts of utility and a random utility choice model, of which the logistic regression model is the most commonly used. It shows how choice probabilities can be constructed from utilities leading to the logit model. It then presents the maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE) method of fitting the logit model to the choice data. Working through a detailed example using Solver and accompanying spreadsheet model, the note gives students deep understanding for how MLE works and how it is similar and different to the standard least-squared estimation in linear regression. The note concludes by presenting the results of estimation using StatTools, a commercial statistical software. The note avoids the use of heavy mathematical machinery but still requires rudimentary knowledge of exponent and logarithmic functions, probability, and optimization with Solver, as well as familiarity with the "standard" linear regression. Applications include building of models for consumer choice, estimating price elasticity, price optimization, product versioning, product line design, and conjoint analysis.

Spreadsheet supplement for case UV6335.

On January 17, 2005, the function head in the Health Care Business in 3M Taiwan, found himself in a meeting with the Acne Dressing project team. In 2004, the function head initiated a project team to exploit local market needs for 3M Hydrocolloid Dressing, a technology that existed in the company for many years without any practical applications. The local project team suggested applying the material for acne treatment. The product would be known as Acne Dressing. There was no standardized solution for acne treatment in Taiwan. If developed, Acne Dressing would be a brand new product in the local market. The biggest challenge would be how to change local consumer behaviors on new acne treatment products. In addition, since there were no similar products in the market, the project team only had limited information. The potential sales and volume estimation were all uncertain. If the local development were to be launched, Acne Dressing would be 3M's first product application from Hydrocolloid Dressing technology. With little previous experience in product development and no similar products existing in the market, the function head had to decide fast whether to proceed with this new product development. Should the team carry on with the project? If so, what options did the local project team have? What kind of resources and support should the local Health Care business segment seek from the headquarters for the product development? Should the local product development collaborate with other subsidiaries?

George Weston, CEO of Associated British Foods, and his top executives, are deciding how to position the company, a major agribusiness involved in a range of food and processed food categories, ingredients, consumer brands, sugar, and also clothing, in the constantly evolving global food system.