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Ben Balbale, a partner at hedge fund Matrix Capital, must decide whether to exit their investment in Rovi Corporation, a company with a diverse portfolio of patents used primarily for digital interactive guides. Rovi's shares are up over 50% from the time Balbale initiated a position in the middle of 2009.

The case explores value-driven strategy formulation and implementation by bringing to the fore issues of ethics, responsible leadership, social initiatives in emerging markets and the global-local tensions in corporate social responsibility. It examines how Bayer CropScience addressed the issue of child labor in its cotton seed supply chain in rural India between 2002 and 2008. Bayer had been operating in India for more than a century. In December 2002, the Bayer Group completed the acquisition of India-based Aventis CropScience. Bayer CropScience first learned about the incidence and prevalence of child labor in its newly acquired India-based cotton seed operations a few months post acquisition, in April 2003. The Aventis acquisition had brought onboard a well-known Indian company, Proagro, which already had operations in the cotton seed production and marketing - a new segment of the supply chain for Bayer. Child labor was widespread in cotton seed production - a traditional practice taken for granted not only by Indian farmers but also by several hundred Indian companies then accounting for approximately 90 per cent of the market share. This is a supplement to Bayer CropScience in India (A): Against Child Labor, product #9B10M061, and focuses on Bayer's formulation of a value-driven strategy, with three pillars: communication, implementation and education.

In the late 1990s, faced with a number of burning management issues, a growing inmate population, and a problem of officer recruitment, the director of the Singapore Prison Service implemented a thorough transformation process, developing a new paradigm for modern prison management which impacted the whole of Singaporean society. Case A describes the brave decisions and innovative ideas championed by the directorate, inviting students to slip into the role of senior management and discuss the pros and cons of a key management decision without knowing the outcome (Case B).

This case describes a user-centred approach to public services and is a result after a pioneering collaboration between Hongkong Post and Hong Kong Design Centre. Since operating as a Trading Fund in 1995, Hongkong Post has managed to reinvent itself as a dynamic, customer-focused and market-oriented service organisation. Leveraging its extensive retail and distribution networks and a strong brand, Hongkong Post has grown beyond the traditional postal service to providing a wide and comprehensive range of services in the logistics supply chain, at the same time diversifying into new markets. Hongkong Post recognizes that the current design of the post offices at the retail level may not be able to meet the growing needs and changing patterns of its users. The collaboration between Hongkong Post and Hong Kong Design Centre is an attempt to adopt the user-centered design research approach to public services and to apply the concept at the Mongkok Post Office with a view to understanding users' needs, providing a better user experience and improving operationally efficiency of the Mongkok Post Office. Users in this context, include both customers and post office staff. Case (A) focuses on the internal design, while Case (B) focuses on the external design.

Case Supplement for 311075.

Supplements the (B) case.

Analyst must identify role of management and actuarial judgment in measuring corporate post employment benefit obligations and assets.

The B case briefly recounts the action that investment manager James Franey takes in the matter of two U.S. Treasury bonds with identical maturity dates but widely different yields. He must decide what to do next.

Investment manager Albert Mills confronts an apparent arbitrage opportunity during the global financial crisis of 2008 when he notices an unusually low-- and briefly negative-- thirty-year U.S. dollar fixed-floating swap spread. Mills must decide if there is an opportunity, how to structure a trade to exploit it, and how much of his fund's capital to allocate. Case exposition includes descriptions of fixed-floating swaps, important interest rates and spreads (LIBOR, TED spread, swap spread), and financing arrangements, particularly repurchase agreements, that support relative-value strategies. Attention also is paid to bond math calculations that support the protagonist's analysis and decision. All quoted prices in the case are real and historical, and corresponding Bloomberg commands are provided for each as footnotes.

The D case briefly recounts the action that investment manager Albert Mills takes in the matter of an unusually low U.S. dollar fixed-floating swap spread. He must decide what to do next.

The (D) case describes aspects of the Jan 2011 report by the Goldman Sach's Business Standards Committee on how the firm might strengthen its practices with respect to clients and other stakeholders.

Financial statements before and after restatement following revelation of fraud.

The exposure of the Kanebo Ltd. fraud raises questions of Japan's preparedness to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards.

MacAfee Building Supply, a distributor of building supplies and heating and plumbing products, had grown to become the largest company of its kind in the world by incentivizing profit-maximizing behavior at the local level. John Smith, a senior manager at the company's Build subdivision, had nevertheless grown concerned that MacAfee's incentive scheme, which incentivized profits at the branch level, was actually hindering long-term global profitability by creating a lack of cooperation among branches and discouraging branch manager's investment in long-term endeavors. In this three-part case students first recommend strategies for better aligning employees to a long-term focus, and then evaluate the results of the program the company selected.

MacAfee Building Supply, a distributor of building supplies and heating and plumbing products, had grown to become the largest company of its kind in the world by incentivizing profit-maximizing behavior at the local level. John Smith, a senior manager at the company's Build subdivision, had nevertheless grown concerned that MacAfee's incentive scheme, which incentivized profits at the branch level, was actually hindering long-term global profitability by creating a lack of cooperation among branches and discouraging branch manager's investment in long-term endeavors. In this three-part case students first recommend strategies for better aligning employees to a long-term focus, and then evaluate the results of the program the company selected.

Having operated for two years in the Texas market, the company is confronting a variety of difficulties. The case looks at the organization issues of reporting relationships, control systems, and staffing.

This negotiation introduces a situation full of opportunities for hard bargaining and out-of-the-box thinking about value-creating solutions. The American supplier, Reed Oilwell, views this business opportunity as a side door into the Petroecuador supplier network. The cross-cultural elements of the relationship are important, especially in the context of the various political aspects that shape the relationship between YPEC and its major customer, Petroecuador. The negotiation illustrates the potential for a cooperative approach, but also offers the opportunity for a competitive outcome. The parties are instructed to reach a deal that satisfies their short-term goals, but their decisions will impact their ability to establish a preferred supply position in the new oilfield operations.

A Lieutenant leading a platoon in Iraq must make a complex ethical, military, and leadership decision: whether to risk his life and that of other soldiers to reenter a home rigged with an explosive and save three Iraqis. The (B) case describes the decision made and the rational behind it.

This case highlights the leadership, cultural and organizational structure dimensions of UFIDA. The case begins with Founder/Chairman Wang Wenjing's rags-to-riches story. Then UFIDA's senior and middle management of different backgrounds talk about their leader, Chairman Wang Wenjing. They voice their opinions on Wang Wenjing's leadership style, UFIDA's corporate culture and vision. This case complements the UFIDA (A) case which looks at the organization as a whole, while the (B) case focuses on the people and their values. From different angles, students can feel Chairman Wang Wenjing's management style and his personal impact on UFIDA. The company, over 20 years, has been a successful management software provider in China (its biggest domestic provider.) At the core, the key question is, "Can Chairman Wang Wenjing's leadership style, UFIDA's culture 2.0 and organizational structure, together sustain UFIDA's future growth and goal accomplishment?"

This case documents the evolution of UFIDA's management control system over a decade as it grew five-fold from a 325 million RMB to a 1.66 billion RMB company, while its staff grew by more than three-fold.