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Case Supplement for Case SMU948

Case Supplement for Case SMU948

A career professional at a major consumer goods company, Kym Lew Nelson is hoping to negotiate a promotion to vice president, which would make her one of the senior-most African American women in the organization. But when Nelson's white German boss arrives in the United States to discuss the promotion, the conversation quickly takes a turn for the worse, when the boss confronts her with comments that are insensitive in multiple ways that touch on race, gender, and culture.

After graduating from Stanford Graduate School of Business, Nicholas Heinrichsen and Christopher Coleman launched Carlypso, a peer-to-peer marketplace for selling used cars. Carlypso hoped to disrupt the $400 billion used car market by making it easier and more convenient for both sellers and buyers. However, Carlypso ran into difficulty trying to scale its operations, and pivoted to a reverse auction model, where Carlypso worked with leasing and rental companies to make the inventory that was selling at non-public auctions available to its customers. The new model showed some initial promise, but once again, scaling operations was a challenge. Carlypso worked with lenders who were lenders who were unable to finance subprime borrowers, which drastically reduced the size of the addressable market. After struggling to find product-market fit on their own, the founders of Carlypso sold the company to Carvana. After three years of working at Carvana, the pair is ready to try a new entrepreneurial endeavor.

The case describes how Odebrecht's board of directors handled the issues raised in the (A) case and continues the story of the Group's efforts to restore its reputation and return to growth after admitting its role in Latin America's largest-ever corruption scandal. The case covers the Group's filing for, and emergence from, a court-supervised reorganization while coping with an ongoing feud within its founding family, as well as changes in the Group's leadership and governance as it attempts to regain financial stability and complete another round of changes to its compliance and internal control systems. The case concludes with the outgoing CEO's announcement of the Group's new name-Novonor-and its newly defined purpose and vision for its future.

In early 2019, the founders of Anomalie, an online direct-to-consumer provider of bridal gowns, have just agreed to an $13.6 million Series A investment from a Silicon Valley VC. They are considering three major initiatives as they move forward. (1) To scale their very successful organic acquisition process that already engages 25% of the brides-to-be in an active discussion, (2) to automate their largely manual offering that allows the bride to design her own dress, or (3) to invest heavily in technology to support their unique strategy of buying direct from the factories in Suzhou, China bypassing both the distribution and retail channels.

This two-part case covers the discussions and events that took place in 2004 at the family, board, and executive levels at Molson Inc. (Molson). At that time, there was a debate between two strategic orientations: the merger of Molson with A. Coors & Co. (Coors) or the outright sale of Molson to a competitor. Case A focuses on the interactions between key governance actors, including the chair, Eric Molson, the deputy chair, Ian Molson, the chief executive officer, Dan O'Neill, and other members of Molson's board of directors. Molson's status as a publicly traded family-controlled firm raises issues such as the importance of family support, the name of the entity resulting from any transaction, and the extent of family involvement in its governance. Case B provides additional details regarding key events that followed the May 5 board meeting.

This case contains two briefs, one for each person in a two-party negotiation. They are relatively short in length and can be read in class just prior to a mock negotiation. This learning activity is appropriate for teaching negotiations skills to a broad audience, including undergraduate and graduate business school students, adult learners in a variety of settings, and in a corporate university.

Supplement to the (A) case that offers an assessment of the August 2019 Markopolos report on General Electric.

After a period of poor stock-market performance, conglomerate Chestnut Foods (Chestnut) faces the acquisition of its stock by an activist investor. The new investor demands the sale of Chestnut's high-growth division, which contrasts with the CFO's turnaround plan to expand this same division. To disentangle the way forward for Chestnut, students are invited to grapple with the risk-adjusted performance of each division and the estimation of division-specific hurdle rates. Students learn to appreciate the importance of using risk-adjusted hurdle rates in establishing appropriate investment policy. This B case is typically taught after having discussed the A case (UVA-F-1736), but this is not necessary. At the Darden School of Business, they are taught in separate years, as independent cases, and the A case has a separate teaching note (UVA-F-1736TN). The B case is set one month after the A case and focuses on the performance of product groups within Chestnut's poorly performing Instruments division. The case is designed as an opportunity to hone skills in performance evaluation.

This case provides updates on Deborah Lovich's decision and how she navigated her work and family responsibilities over the following decade.

This case provides further updates on Deborah Lovich's decision, as well as reflections from her family and mentors on her path.

The SuperApps series of cases presents student-entrepreneurs with some of the difficult non-operating problems they are sure to confront in their startups. This fictional case features Clara Ladoucette, a recently graduated startup CEO who is struggling to raise her next round of capital. The case is built around a relatively simple storyline and case facts but includes quandaries around ownership, control, and the fraught transition from bootstrap to business. It makes students think about just how hard this process is, and anticipate questions they must answer to attract big money into their small startup. It is a "Mini Case" in three parts, with all of the essential facts and financial information to judge the characters and company but without gratuitous detail. Though short, it captures many of the most difficult questions confronting early-stage entrepreneurs. SuperApps was written for graduate and undergraduate business school students who are exploring their own entrepreneural ideas or simulating the startup experience. It is an appropriate addition to courses in entrepreneurship, business law, startup legal documents, and early-stage corporate finance. With student assignments beforehand, the three segments of the case can be taught in two ninety-minute classes.

The SuperApps series of cases presents student-entrepreneurs with some of the difficult non-operating problems they are sure to confront in their startups. This fictional case features Clara Ladoucette, a recently graduated startup CEO who is struggling to raise her next round of capital. The case is built around a relatively simple storyline and case facts but includes quandaries around ownership, control, and the fraught transition from bootstrap to business. It makes students think about just how hard this process is, and anticipate questions they must answer to attract big money into their small startup. It is a "Mini Case" in three parts, with all of the essential facts and financial information to judge the characters and company but without gratuitous detail. Though short, it captures many of the most difficult questions confronting early-stage entrepreneurs. SuperApps was written for graduate and undergraduate business school students who are exploring their own entrepreneural ideas or simulating the startup experience. It is an appropriate addition to courses in entrepreneurship, business law, startup legal documents, and early-stage corporate finance. With student assignments beforehand, the three segments of the case can be taught in two ninety-minute classes.

The CEO decided to hold off on announcing anything before including everyone, all 1600 employees in Roche Diagnostics, in engaging in the strategy development process, in getting their views on where the company should play and how it should win in the future. Frank Desiere, VP Strategy and Business Development, Roche Diagnostics CPS now faced a dilemma. After all of the discussions and decisions made in 2017 based on the approach he facilitated, how was he going to engage 1600 people in developing the strategy, when the strategy had already been developed?

Frank Desiere, VP Strategy and Business Development, Roche Diagnostics CPS and his team including Guido Bartalena, Head of Strategy, Roche Diagnostics CPS had together created a 6 months journey called BOOST or Building our Organization's Strategy Together of engaging 50% of the organization (through volunteer sign-ups). BOOST comprised 58 interactive workshops that ran between February and June 2018 across all CPS's main sites and several additional locations. The workshops were facilitated by 72 senior leaders from across the organization and 803 employees took part in the sessions, both from within CPS and from other Roche Diagnostics business areas. Over 11,300 ideas were generated during the program and Bartalena's team qualified and clustered all of them, to ensure that every contribution was considered. However Bartalena was now faced with a critical fork in the road. How was he going to incorporate these ideas into the overall strategy, and how would it be communicated back to the community?

In April 2019, Sylvarella CEO Sylvia Coparella must assess the impact of the company's Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program on her company's overall sales. To do so, she must review analyses of both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar sales data and compare the results to the company's sales prior to the program implementation. At the same time, she must consider the program's impact on intangible factors within her company, including organizational culture, equitable compensation, and employee morale. Coparella must determine whether to continue the BOPS program, continue the program with significant changes, or discontinue the program and instead implement a different omnichannel retail program.

In April 2019, Sylvia VP of Store Operations Axley Vega must review an analysis of her department's sales data to determine the impact of the company's Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program. BOPS implementation created significant problems for the store operations team, including an increased workload for store associates without additional compensation, difficulties managing the fulfillment demands of the program, and declining customer satisfaction. As she prepares for a meeting with CEO Sylvia Coparella and VP of E-commerce Charla Limont, Vega must determine whether BOPS has helped or harmed her department. She must also decide whether to recommend the program continue, continue with significant changes, or discontinue.

In April 2019, Sylvarella VP of E-Commerce Charla Limont must review an analysis of her department's sales data to determine the impact of the company's Buy Online, Pickup in Store (BOPS) program. The program implementation created significant problems for the e-commerce team, including difficulties with the inventory management system, a high volume of abandoned shopping carts, and disgruntled social media influencers. As she prepares for a meeting with CEO Sylvia Coparella and VP of Store Operations Axley Vega, Limont must determine whether BOPS has helped or harmed her department. She must also decide whether to recommend the program continue, continue with significant changes, or discontinue.

SA Taxi was a vertically integrated business that operated in South Africa's distinctive taxi industry. Despite being plagued by violence, informal structures, unsafe road practices and lack of government support, the taxi industry had grown to become South Africa's most common mode of public transport. SA Taxi was one of the largest companies entirely focused on serving the taxi industry. In addition to vehicle financing services, it offered insurance products, refurbishment services, and retail capabilities. SA Taxi served a mainly black-owned industry whose main participants-taxi owners, drivers, and commuters-had been historically disadvantaged. SA Taxi CEO Terry Kier understood that his company was already creating substantial impact for these constituents through financial inclusion, job creation and skills development but he knew that SA Taxi needed to do more to enhance its sustainability as well as that of the industry. By 2018, following multiple engagements with industry representatives, Kier saw an ownership deal that benefited the industry as SA Taxi's next strategic move. Although there was an alignment among the company's leadership on the need for and purpose of the deal, the transaction itself was far from clear. After consulting with internal and external stakeholders, Kier landed on three deal options. Kier and the company's founders needed to agree on the best path forward.