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Mark Kim, CFO of DC Water, believed building green infrastructure in Washington, DC, was an innovative way to improve the performance of the city's aging sewer system and save money. In considering the options to fund a pilot program, Kim was especially intrigued by a new financing structure: social impact bonds (SIBs). Partnering with Eric Letsinger of Quantified Ventures, they built on SIBs to develop an Environmental Impact Bond. This case discusses the risks and potential rewards of financing the pilot through a new structure at the intersection of public policy, finance, and science, the costs and benefits of employing green infrastructure, and the potential investor base for the new financial product. It also challenges students to consider the use of private capital to finance social outcomes.

In early 2018, Blackstone announced that John McCormick would succeed Tom Hill as President and Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM), the largest fund-of-hedge funds in the world by a sizeable margin. As new CEO, McCormick must decide on strategic growth options for the firm as its traditional FOF business is maturing and growth in its nearly $80 billion in assets under management (AUM) is plateauing. In the recent past, BAAM had expanded into other investing businesses, making direct investments, seeding early-stage hedge funds, taking general partner stakes in investment management firms, and offering alternative investment products to retail investors. To determine the appropriate path forward, McCormick must assess whether BAAM has a competitive edge in each of these platforms, as well as if further expansion could create internal conflicts of interest within BAAM and, more broadly, Blackstone.

In early 2018, Nestlé announced the sale of its U.S. candy-making division and a select collection of twenty of its confectionery brands, including the Nestlé Crunch Bar, to Ferrero SpA for $2.8 billion. Under the terms of the Nestlé acquisition, each of the purchased confectionery brands was permitted to use the Nestlé parent brand name for one year after the close of the sale. After that time, the Nestlé Crunch Bar would be rebranded as Crunch Bar with an endorsement from its new parent brand, Ferrara Candy Company, a division of Ferrero SpA. As the Nestlé Crunch Bar brand transitioned to its new owners, it was time for some serious brand analysis to assess its brand equity and plot a course for its future growth. How strong/weak was the brand? What were its sources of brand equity that could be leveraged in brand storytelling? Which types of messages might attract new consumers to the brand and what might work to cause infrequent users to purchase more often? Did the product itself need to be changed? Were there brand extension possibilities? Luckily, an old consumer research study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar conducted by Professor Gerald Zaltman was found on the shelves at Harvard Business School. The study used an innovative market research methodology developed by Professor Zaltman, the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), which had proven to be useful to brand managers hoping to better assess and understand their brands. The research methodology and raw data from Professor Zaltman's ZMET study on the Nestlé Crunch Bar are presented in the case as tools to help students assess and understand the brand equity of the Nestlé Crunch Bar and map its future strategic course.

Established in 2007, by early 2014 SoundCloud already boasted the second largest number of active music listeners among all streaming services and was recognized as the go-to platform for new artists. Yet, its founders Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss were questioning whether the firm should continue to focus on serving as a lab for emerging musical artists. They were wondering if the firm should instead enter the booming mainstream music-streaming market.

In January 2017, the owner and founder of Storehouse Tea based in Cleveland, Ohio, was considering the company's next move. Storehouse Tea focused on providing organic, fair trade certified teas, and the founder was committed to operating her business in a way that would have a positive impact in the world by providing work to local refugees. However, she wondered how she could scale this impact. Among her options, she could introduce product extensions, pursue geographic expansion, target larger accounts, or hire additional employees. But which avenue for growth would best allow Storehouse Tea to further its core mission?

Cipla Limited was a pioneer in inhalation therapy in India, and was globally acclaimed for its range of inhalers for obstructive airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In 2014, the company wanted to take inhalation therapy to the masses, especially in the rural and semi-urban areas of the country. This required strengthening its reach at the general practitioner level (among primary care physicians) and extending optimal medical care to patients who were otherwise sub-optimally treated. The company proposed a further increase to the sales and marketing budget, but the head of Cipla Limited's respiratory division had a different viewpoint. He proposed establishing a lateral structure of doctors as knowledge experts to urge practitioners to adopt inhalation therapy, as he had done in a successful trial in Delhi. The company was looking forward to implementing this second option across the country, but there were various issues to resolve with such an unconventional approach, and challenges were anticipated in the plan's implementation and expansion.

Health Services Software (HSS) was a software company specializing in software for hospitals. Founded by a health care team with first-hand knowledge of the issues facing hospitals, HSS had first mover advantage. At the onset of HSS's operations, hospitals had capital funding that allowed them to acquire the software with five-year licensing agreements. Five years later in 2016, as the licences were expiring, the hospitals no longer had the capital funding and could not afford a large cash outlay from their operating budgets for a new five-year licence. In light of the change in funding options for the hospitals, HSS was considering whether to move to an annual-subscription-based software. But before the team could establish the prices for the software, they needed to better understand the company's cost structure. HSS hired a consultant to conduct the costing exercise.

In May 2019, Cheryl Leong, Head of Fraud Analytics and Data Management at Moss & Associates, a mid-sized New York accounting firm, was tasked with fraud detection in annual reports. Besides helping clients present financial information to stakeholders, accounting firms had to ensure there were no misrepresentations. The incidence in companies reporting material falsehoods had risen in recent years and regulators were pushing accounting firms to detect those instances earlier. Companies had been using qualitative text to mislead stakeholders of their financial wellbeing. Leong was working on a data analytics platform that would replace the time consuming task of manually going over executive statements and management discussion & answers (MD&A) sections. Several text mining techniques were available within the system to break text down for classification. With the fraud detection tool ready for launch, she wondered whether she had adequately addressed the challenges of analysing text in annual reports. What steps should she programme the tool to take? How successful it would be?

This case series describes the startup of Farm to School of Park County, an emerging nonprofit organization in the US state of Montana. Case (A) describes the community, the need, and the origins of Farm to School in Livingston, Montana. The leaders of Farm to School face a budget crisis and need to evaluate four options to decide whether, when, and how it should become an independent organization. As Case (B) begins, Farm to School has decided to enter into a fiscal sponsorship agreement with the local community foundation. The next task for the organization's leaders is recruiting founding board members. They need to decide whom to ask and how to do it. In Case (C), the board develops a strategic plan and establishes committees. However, the board members and leaders start to feel fatigue in the face of the demands of a startup organization, leading to questions about what is truly strategic and how work will get done. The Farm to School organization in Case (D) has just issued its first annual report, filled with meaningful accomplishments. The leaders of the organization begin to plan to build an organization that will outlast them and the founding board members.

World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) develops and presents scripted hero-versus-villain storylines featuring its wrestlers at hundreds of live events, on several weekly television shows, on its own over-the-top streaming service, and on social media, to millions of fans around the globe. In January 2018, buoyed by the $800-million-dollar company's strong prospects for further growth, WWE's chief brand officer Stephanie McMahon and her husband, Paul 'Triple H' Levesque, a WWE wrestler who also serves as the company's executive vice president of talent, live events, and creative, are discussing whether to add Ronda Rousey, who has made a name for herself as a judoka at the Olympics and as a mixed martial artist in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), to WWE's roster. Should WWE try to sign Rousey, and, if so, what kind of offer makes the most sense? And is WWE well positioned for further success in the world of entertainment?

This case explores the various challenges that Senreve faced in hiring and retaining talent as a rapidly growing organization. The case first describes how the two co-founders developed a vision for their company, created a score card to use in their hiring process, and codified the values they wished to embody as an organization to assess cultural fit. The case illustrates how the co-founders applied their hiring philosophy through three vignettes. The first vignette addresses an early opportunity the pair had to hire a co-founder, who brought a unique set of skills and experience, but lacked other important qualities. The second vignette illustrates a situation in which the co-founders had to decide what to do with an employee who had made important contributions to the firm, but whose role no longer fit with the needs of the company as the company had evolved. The final vignette lays out a dilemma the co-founders faced when they found themselves in disagreement when evaluating a candidate for a key role at the company.

This case presents the logic and execution underlying the launch of Data.gov, an instantiation of President Obama's initiative for transparency and open government. The process used by Vivek Kundra, the federal CIO, and his team to rapidly develop the website and to make available high-value data sets for reuse is highlighted. The case recounts Kundra's experience at the state and local government levels in developing open data initiatives and the application of that experience to the federal government. The case demonstrates the benefits of making government data available in terms of both engaged citizens and the potential for new innovations from the private sector. Potential drawbacks of open access including security and privacy issues are illustrated. Issues related to the role of government in releasing data and the balance between accountability and private-sector innovation are explored.

SM-315 Michelin Group is told from the perspective of Florent Menegaux, COO of Michelin, and other senior leaders at the company. Michelin had recently undergone a company wide reorganization, and Menegaux was tasked with how to maintain the company's relevance and competitiveness in a changing global marketplace, particularly as customer needs and expectations around service were becoming more specific and demanding. Given that Michelin was a large French company with a long operating history, Menegaux and others pondered what would the best approach be to implementing changes throughout the company to adapt to a more digital and customer-centric business landscape while still preserving and embracing the company's rich culture and proud history. One necessary element was the need to hire more "entrepreneurial" talent from outside the company (as opposed to the company's tendency to promote from within) in order to pursue several initiatives outside, but still related to, the core tire business.

Future Retail Limited (Future Retail) had a unique business model and an aggressive growth strategy that helped to make it India's largest retailing organization. In 2017, Future Retail was expanding its network of stores, but a new retail landscape was emerging, as customers were shifting to e-commerce for large purchases, due to changing lifestyles and customer preferences, while continuing to shop at small mom-and-pop stores for smaller, quick purchases. Amid such changes, how would Future Retail be able to maintain its leadership position? As it sought a larger share of the retail pie, how would it deal with an increasing customer preference toward the convenience of online ordering? How would it handle the competition from omnipresent neighbourhood stores and cart vendors?

Vincent Chin's first "temporary" job after high school was with the lawn crew of Holiday Lawn Service. Ten years later, Chin has become a trusted employee and the company's second-in-command. His boss, Sam Holiday, has decided to retire and has worked out a deal with Chin to take over the business. In preparing Chin for his new role, Holiday explains that there are important choices ahead related to capital expenditures (like lawn mowers) and their depreciation. Although Chin is determined to build on the company's success, accounting sometimes confused him, and the mention of terms like taxes and cash flow always intimidated him. Can Holiday help his successor better understand the links among accelerated depreciation, maintenance expense, salvage value, and tax liabilities to ensure that he's ready for his new business responsibilities?

The case describes the position of Marks & Spencer (M&S), a leading high-street retailer in the UK. The retailer decided to enter China's retail market in 2008 is based on perceived synergies between the company's products and an increasingly affluent Chinese middle class. Upon entry, M&S encounters myriad challenges that are not part of its original strategic calculations: errors in basic shop keeping, an evolving Chinese retail environment, and the emergence of e-commerce. M&S's difficulties in China among foreign retailers are not unique, however. Numerous high-profile retailers, such as Tesco, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Asos, find China's retail market inhospitable, leaving shortly after entry. Although M&S experiences challenges similar to those these firms faced, it also encounters a shifting retail landscape that even some experienced local retailers find difficult. After eight years in China experimenting with different business models and deteriorating financials, M&S faces a key decision: should it stay or leave?

In Hong Kong as elsewhere in the world, Uber operates in a grey area. Thousands of passengers are using Uber service in the crowded city on a regular basis; many drivers make money through Uber by providing quality service and idle vehicles. On the other hand, taxi drivers have voiced strong oppositions to Uber on the ground of unfair competition and unlawful businesses, and staged several protests that were widely reported. Officially, Uber service is illegal in Hong Kong, as the government clarified explicitly that Uber drivers broke the law by offering car hiring services without any license or third-party insurance. The public is often puzzled: Uber seems such a nice thing that benefits both passengers and drivers, especially because the traditional taxies have such a poor quality and are often unavailable during peak hours. Why shouldn't we allow a healthy competition from a new and promising business model that seems to benefit everybody except the competitors? Isn't competition a good thing in general? So the question is, should the government allow Uber to operate legally? This case enables the instructor to go through the uniqueness of the taxi industry and the necessity to regulate the traditional taxi industry. The case provides evidence of what will happen if the industry is deregulated. Once the uniqueness of the industry is illuminated, the instructor can guide the students to discuss whether Uber's new business model is able to overcome the two major problems of the traditional taxi industry: adverse selection and tragedy of the commons. This case can be used for courses that cover public policy at both MBA and the UG levels. It can also be used for an economics course. Finally, the case can be used to discuss the new business models.

Glossier's proclaimed strategy was "born from content, fueled by community". The digital-first, direct-to-consumer beauty brand had experienced rapid growth, with sales up 600% in 2017 and a customer portfolio that grew by threefold. But, its founder, Emily Weiss, was not complacent. Instead, she dreamed of creating the world's first socially-driven brand that inserted its community into the buying experience so that the company was merchandising people, their opinions, and their content, just as much as they were merchandising products. As her team debates marketing strategies for 2018, they recognize the opportunities and challenges associated with managing Glossier's rapidly scaling brand community. While the community's support had emerged organically in the past, the team was now debating whether the company's next phase of growth would need to be fueled by a greater emphasis on paid peer-to-peer sales representatives, professional influencer marketing, paid media, and a physical market presence.