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This case explores the accounting treatment for embedded derivatives of China Evergrande Group (HKEx: 3333). It had been the second-largest property developer in China by property sales and largest by land reserves and borrowing size. On 24 September 2020, a suspicious "letter" was widely circulated on the Internet. The stock price plunged. The "letter" was purportedly sent by Evergrande to the Chinese government, urging the approval of a "listing plan" which was crucial in the "reorganization plan" of the Group. Back in December 2016, Evergrande used this plan to attract new "strategic investors" (SIs) to inject capital. To attract SIs, Evergrande and the SIs had agreed that if the reorganization could not be executed by 31 January 2021, the SIs could exercise either one of the two rights. One right was to demand Evergrande to repurchase their shares. Another right was to demand Evergrande to compensate 50% of their shares. Later the SIs invested RMB130,000mn in total, instantly enabling Evergrande to alleviate liquidity strains and continued to expand aggressively by leverage. Was the RMB130,000mn properly accounted for in financial statements, despite RMB2,500mn of "financial derivative liability" throughout 2017 to 2020? Should the two "rights" be treated as "options" in accounting?

In May 2022, streaming entertainment company Netflix lost customers for the first time in more than 10 years. Once a first mover in the streaming landscape, Netflix was facing competition from Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and others. A key component of Netflix's prior success was its unique "freedom and responsibility" culture, in which the company eschewed hierarchical decision-making, performance reviews, and vacation and expense policies. Employees were expected to maintain high performance or else get cut from the "dream team." While some employees reported appreciation for Netflix's culture, others described it as "cutthroat." Given the company's performance in spring 2022, was Netflix's "no rules rules" culture still an asset or was it now a liability?

Jasmine Crowe founded Goodr to redirect food waste to people in need. Now a profitable enterprise, she's searching for Series A funding and encountering pushback. Scaling and contract concerns are also at the forefront of her mind, but so are her values. Feeding hungry people is at the core of her mission, but potential backers tell her the company is better off without doing so. She thinks, too, about how her race may be holding her back from funding opportunities.

A recent master of business administration degree graduate, had discovered a problem with inventory management in her family's business. Agrawal Kitchenware Distributors (Agrawal), a wholesaler and distributor of kitchenware items, appeared to be well-off according to its financials, but when she had toured the company's warehouse, she discovered several problems with the inventory, and there was no management system that could identify, track, or resolve the inventory problems. Because Agrawal was a family business, the changes needed to be acceptable to both brothers who owned and managed the business, and the changes needed to be fairly simple to implement and maintain. What inventory management technique would be suitable in these circumstances?

An investor in NIO Inc. (NIO), an electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer based in China, contemplated the role NIO played in the EV market in China and the world, as well as the differences between NIO's business model and the business models of other EV makers. Specifically, NIO had built and operated a network of battery-swapping stations and often included complimentary swaps with vehicle purchases. Also, NIO was able to sell a car without a battery pack as long as the customer paid for a subscription service. Further, to fund the venture, NIO and other entities had established Wuhan Weineng Battery Asset Co. Ltd., which owned the batteries that were leased out under the battery-as-a-service (BaaS) model. The investor realized that it was important to understand the implications of these streams of revenue and how they affected NIO's stock valuation.

Carlsberg Breweries A/S (Carlsberg) had developed from a local to a global player in the brewing industry, having focused on growth in emerging economies in Europe and Asia. This growth path was against the background of economic transition and political change in Russia-from optimism about opportunities in the new market economy in the 1990s, to increasing regulatory obstacles, political authoritarianism, and increasing local competition in the 2010s. In 2022, Carlsberg, more than other West European consumer goods companies, was exposed to Russia when Russian military forces invaded Ukraine in February. This created complex operational and ethical challenges the company had to address with urgency. The company's annual general meeting was coming up, on March 14, and by then the executive board had to communicate to shareholders concerned with both the company's financial performance and its international reputation-as well as to Carlsberg employees across Europe (including both Russia and Ukraine) and the increasingly impatient Danish media-what steps the board would take to address the crisis.

Health care was one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy, but administration costs accounted for a growing share of health care spending. The administrative burden for health care in the United States was far higher than in other countries-was this an area ripe for transformation, and greater efficiency? While a typical credit card transaction might process immediately, health insurance payments could take many weeks to process. A primary care physician in the United States, for instance, might have to spend $20 or more to submit a single bill and collect payment, far more than the comparable cost in other countries. This case study explores the structural factors that contribute to high administrative costs in health care, from regulatory compliance costs, to the large number of unique contracts between insurance companies and providers, to the complex contractual requirements-and multiple provider manuals and updates. For this sector, what was holding back the innovation and efficiency that had evolved within the traditional finance ecosystem? Would health care billing emerge as the next big disruption target-and what pathway would offer innovators the best chance of success?

The case is set in May 2021 and talks about a Singapore-based small-medium enterprise decision science company called Blackbox (BB) and how it used conversational AI, human-centered design, and a technology innovation partner to design and develop a chatbot that helped its clients understand data insights with the language of everyday conversations. BB generated vast data through opinion surveys and complex market analyses for its clients. While dashboards and reports provided a glimpse into that data, these tools did not necessarily help clients make immediate data-driven business decisions. Analysts would spend time on the phone answering simple and often repetitive questions to explain the key findings. BB decided to build a chatbot that could handle natural language queries independently to reduce the time of live support calls and allow even non-specialized users to access data insights directly. The CEO, David Black, and his team, led by Chief Operating Officer, Saurabh Sardana, embarked on designing a conversational data platform to provide improved services to clients at scale. However, how could BB execute this idea efficiently without an internal technical team specializing in building chatbots? How could the company avoid the pitfalls of typical commercial chatbots that fail to engage users? How could Black and his team design a conversational data platform that efficiently imitated human-to-human conversations, which clients could use independently? Could this new platform help the company become a differentiator in the market?

A three-year-old Singapore based start-up, focused on manufacturing and marketing industrial renewable energy storage batteries, is planning to migrate from lab- scale production of storage batteries to industrial- scale production. The company's CEO is facing a major managerial dilemma. Should he outsource the manufacturing of batteries, should he manufacture batteries inhouse or should he take the joint venture (JV) route? The choices he makes in resolving this dilemma can make or break the business he has built so far.

In 2019, an entrepreneur and Ivey Business School graduate was facing a critical decision regarding how best to maximize the growth of his new product, The Chosen One card game. The entrepreneur had recently created and launched his Jewish-themed satirical card game in Los Angeles, California, after playing the adult-themed and highly popular Cards Against Humanity. Buoyed by initial small-batch sales, he secured deals to sell his product through various online and traditional retailers, but he had to decide how to grow sales and revenue. He had a limited marketing budget and was facing uncertainty regarding production quantities. There were various potential digital and physical distribution options for his product to maximize growth and long-term profitability. Each option had both benefits and drawbacks in terms of profitability, required marketing support, alignment with the target segment, access to consumer data, and production demands. The entrepreneur had to evaluate all options and choose the most suitable channels to distribute The Chosen One card game.

In May 2021, the founder of Yardstick Educational Initiatives Private Limited, a provider of experiential learning programs in India and the United Arab Emirates, was facing various business challenges. The company was started in India in 2008 but had been increasingly focused on the more profitable Middle East market since 2012. Attempting to stay current with technology advancements in educational products, it made considerable investments to develop new products and enhance its flagship learning product, the Yardstick Experiential Learning Program. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 caused a major setback for the company. Cash flow issues and reduced working capital were forcing the founder to decide which client segment to continue serving and which products to support. With only three months left in the peak sales season before the next academic year, the founder had to make important decisions.

The case highlights the challenges encountered by Laura Williams, founder and owner of Williams HR Law, a firm based in Toronto, Ontario, providing a full range of legal services on labour, employment law, and human resources (HR) matters. Demand for the firm's services grew exponentially in 2020 following the tragic death of George Floyd and due to the ongoing workplace challenges encountered during the global pandemic. Williams faced decisions regarding the best and most sustainable ways to address increasing demand. She had solidified her reputation in the marketplace as an "advocate-of-choice" and was mindful of ensuring that her growth decisions did not negatively affect her brand or impact the organizational culture she had proudly developed. She was committed to ensuring that her growth aligned with her purpose-to provide best-in-class legal support that enabled clients to make informed decision-making and diffuse workplace issues before they escalated.

This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. Gia is an early-career data analyst at an industry-leading social media company. When she is asked to prepare a research report presenting analysis of user data, Gia is confronted with a challenge. After conducting thoughtful research and reviewing previous reports, she is troubled by data suggesting that her company's flagship product is negatively impacting young users. Her supervisor advises her that acting on these concerns is futile and may lead to consequences for her prospects at the company. Despite this warning, Gia wants to raise these concerns to her superiors, but she is unsure how to do so effectively. This fictionalized case addresses ethical issues around social media, data, and young users, as well as strategies for early-career employees to voice concerns to superiors.

Michel Default, Director of Michelin China's Personnel Department, had been responsible for leading Michelin China, a company that manufactures and sells tires, to transform its personnel function since 2017. The ongoing transformation aimed to optimize the company's personnel function to align with both the outside business environment and the needs of the internal employees, with one goal of better helping manage people's careers at Michelin. In addition to the unavoidable resistance, Michel received an email in 2019 from a key account manager seeking an unexpected promotion. The manager also hinted at possibly quitting if he did not get a convincing reply, for the new practice implemented in Michelin China required him to do additional work. Michel would not want to see the company lose the key account manager, especially when Michelin's turnover rate was increasing. Knowing that he had to achieve the right balance between employee satisfaction and company situation, Michel faced a great challenge in his own career in China.

Being a century-old family business, Li & Fung ("LF") had celebrated its evolution from a small trading company to a well-established, internationally recognized supply chain solution provider. However, the rapid advancement of internet technology and e-commerce development in recent years challenged the company's once-innovative business model. Although LF had aggressively streamlined and transformed its business, the company was still struggling to turn around. However, the recent trade war between the U.S. and China, along with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, triggered the Fung family to consider taking the company private. Case A enables students to take the role of LF's consultant to assess the motives, challenges, pricing, regulatory and financial implications of the going-private offer before making a recommendation to the company. Case B describes the actual outcome and the immediate developments of the company after taking it private. The new hindsight enables students to revisit the company's go-private decision in light of the new developments, offering students an opportunity to understand the agency conflict between the majority and minority shareholders in a listed family business. It also raises the question of whether going private is considered necessary for the Fung family. A moral dilemma would emerge towards the end, stimulating students to think about the issue of ethical leadership.

In the beginning of the 21st century, the European Union (the EU) had led the global fight against climate change with a wide array of policy measures. The EU's primary approach to climate policy had been taxation via the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), the first carbon cap-and-trade regulation. EU ETS was a market-based solution designed to reduce GHG emissions by setting an upper limit on domestic emissions. However, the effectiveness of EU ETS had been debated since its inception in 2005. Years later in July 2021, the EU proposed implementation of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a carbon border tax intended to address business competition challenges plaguing EU ETS by establishing comparable carbon costs within EU borders for imports and local goods. Nevertheless, the CBAM proposal was also met with considerable skepticism. The potential enforcement of CBAM raised several questions for cement and steel producers around the world. First, what would be the impact on their strategies and financial performance? Second, what actions could they take in response? Stakeholders in other industries that relied on cement and steel to produce their own goods pondered the same questions. In addition, several questions emerged about the potential impact of CBAM on carbon emission reductions both in the EU and in other jurisdictions. Would CBAM be effective at reducing emissions and addressing emissions leakage? How would other countries respond to CBAM and would the response affect those countries' carbon emissions reduction efforts?

How should a venture capital firm divide compensation and decision rights between its founders and its next-generation partners? Platinum Capital faced this decision in July 2020. Platinum's younger partners had just requested a piece of the firm's highly lucrative Management Company from Platinum's founders. The founders felt they were owed compensation for the risk and "lean" years they had faced when founding the firm. Yet, the high-performing new partners had other career opportunities and wanted to be "real" partners in the business. Should the founders grant the next generation access to the management company? If so, how should the firm's decision rights work in this new scenario?

In 2021, Amazon announced its market entry into Portugal with a dedicated offer. The dominant local electronics retailer, Worten, had been expecting and preparing for this move for years. The company had driven a digital transformation program and extended its e-commerce offer, which culminated in the building of an online marketplace that sold Worten products and third-party products. Over time, the marketplace extended to new categories, allowing customers to purchase a broad range of products. E-commerce had not been very popular in Portugal compared to other countries, but that changed with the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, during which Worten knew how to serve customers in a safe and quick way, and which boosted e-commerce adoption. Worten also continued to lever its dense network of physical stores across the country to provide fast delivery and service options to customers. They hoped that this high level of service would be a great differentiator against Amazon and protect Worten's leading market position.

PrideBites is a case that highlights the entrepreneurial journey of four young graduates who witnessed the dearth of cheap, good quality, and customizable pet products in the market and decided to make these customizable pet products. These founders also had to seek funds to grow their business. The case walks readers through the decisions investors make and the roles of entrepreneurs in successfully getting funds from venture capitalists. This case also provides an opportunity for students to understand Mises and Rothbard's emergence and function of entrepreneurial profit and loss, and how this informs everyday business life and experiences. It presents rich material to understand that funding a venture is more a result of a negotiation process between the venture capital firm and the entrepreneurial firm and more an art than science.