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A deep sense of foreboding filled Dr. Jim O'Connell and his team at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) in October 2014. The Boston mayor's office had just announced the closure of the 64-year-old bridge that provided the only passage to the island in Boston Harbor housing the city's largest homeless shelter. It did not have a long-term contingency shelter plan in place and the city's other shelters were full. With winter fast approaching, O'Connell, who at the time had been providing health care to Boston's homeless population for over a quarter century, feared some of the city's dispossessed would die on the streets from cold. BHCHP would be hard pressed to provide them the medical care they needed. To implement his solution-reopening the Boston Night Center-O'Connell had to overcome the disinterest of BHCHP's traditional allies in the homeless service provider community, who for a number of years had been channeling their energies away from sheltering toward permanent housing solutions. The Boston Night Center's reopening helped achieve an unprecedented feat for the City of Boston: Not a single homeless person died from the elements that winter, the harshest in the city's recorded history. How did O'Connell work with stakeholders to accomplish his goal? What could he do to maintain support for the Boston Night Center and the reestablishment of homeless services on the island?

Dr. Jonathan Woodson faced more formidable challenges than most in his storied medical, public health, and military career, starting with multiple rotations in combat zones around the world. He subsequently took on ever more complicated assignments, including reforming the country's bloated Military Health System (MHS) in his role as assistant secretary of defense for health affairs at the U.S. Department of Defense from 2010 to 2016. As the director of Boston University's Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy starting in 2016, he devised a National Digital Health Strategy (NDHS) to harness the myriad disparate health care innovations taking place around the country, with the goal of making the U.S. health care system more efficient, patient-centered, safe, and equitable for all Americans. How did Woodson-who was also a major general in the U.S. Army Reserves and a skilled vascular surgeon-approach such complicated problems? In-depth research and analysis, careful stakeholder review, strategic coalition building, and clear, insightful communication were some of the critical leadership skills Woodson employed to achieve his missions.

Michael Cox, a third generation producer of eggs based in the small town of Summers, Arkansas, converted production in 2007 from conventional caged white eggs to specialty eggs bearing the marketing attributes of organic, cage-free, free-range, and pasture-raised. Although he did this to secure contracts with better margins, in 2016 there was a glut of conventional white eggs on the market and that was depressing prices. Because of this, consumers were switching from expensive specialty eggs to the cheap white eggs. Now a key contract that Cox had with CCF Brands for the output of 150,000 hens laying certified USDA organic cage-free eggs was expiring. Faced with selling the eggs at a loss on the open market, Cox must decide what to do. In this case students can study a number of basic and advanced managerial accounting concepts, including relevant and irrelevant costs for short-term decision making, break-even analyses, sell or process further, and when to drop a product. Students will build a table for marginal revenue and marginal cost for egg production. This analysis is more advanced because the hens do not generate revenue evenly of the production cycle while the variable costs are relatively even. This case is well suited for an undergraduate or graduate course in managerial accounting covering short-term decision-making. Although receiving light treatment in the instructor's manual, the case could also be used to study longer term business strategy.

It was June of 2006, and Amanda Walsh, interim CFO, was soundly criticizing herself for not seeing the bigger picture of what had gone on during the previous 18 months at Vanderville Plastics Company (VPC). Two prior years' financials were still in "draft" form with auditors' statements showing that the firm might not be a going concern. Peter Giroux, the CFO who hired her, had kept Amanda from having any interaction with the company vice presidents, the board, or the owners, maintained a tight grip on both the human resources and payroll operations, and refused to provide details when she questioned him about any aspect of the financial operations. Then, in January of 2006, close to a million dollars in bonuses were paid to senior management and employees, despite the company's precarious cash flow position. Not long after the bonus payment Peter resigned unexpectedly. Today's phone call from Ken Duffy, one of the owners, made all the pieces fit together. Duffy had called for clarification about the sudden decrease in the company's accrued liabilities. The call ended abruptly when Amanda told him that bonuses were paid for performance in the previous 2005 fiscal year. His shocked reaction on the phone made it clear that the owners had not authorized the bonus payments. Amanda started to think about the succession of events since she came to VPC to better understand what this all meant, what was likely to happen next, and what she should do. The case exposes students to the day-to-day life of a professional accountant employed in a small business. COSO considers opportunistic behavior from senior management to secure incentive compensation by using adjusting journal entries the most likely way for fraud to occur. Looking at the events surrounding the payout as they unfold through in the day-to-day life of Amanda should help students develop the professional judgment and skepticism required to better interpret the oral assertions made by management,

This case focuses on what an entrepreneur who has developed and marketed a soccer board game (KickShot), should do next. The case lays out the approach of the entrepreneur, who at age 59 had considerable previous experience with tech startups, and highlights some of the challenges faced. The focal point of the case is for students to recommend future courses of actions. Specifically, should the entrepreneur continue to market the game in hopes of increasing sales and profitability or should he accept one of the two buyout offers in front of him? Students will need to link these recommended actions to the entrepreneurs' goals and objectives, including his personality. Within this context, the case highlights the need for an entrepreneur to have an exit, or harvest strategy from the very start. Given that the entrepreneur has realized his initial exit strategy by having before him two buyout offers, the case allows students to evaluate two distinct exit strategies that in many ways mirror those common for any startup, a pure cash buyout versus an offer with a smaller amount up front but a royalty on future sales. Finally, the case provides an opportunity for students to wrestle with the margin structure of online retailing via Amazon.com.

John Bonforte, the owner and president of Monmouth Rubber & Plastics, a small private rubber manufacturing company in Long Branch, New Jersey, needed to decide whether to accept an offer from a potential buyer for the business. Monmouth had been a successful company with a strong family culture since John founded it in 1964, but now in 2008 there were a number of factors that gave him reason for concern and to consider whether it was time to sell. The world economy was showing signs of slowing down. Other rubber manufacturers were forced to close down. The long term sales forecast for Monmouth was not promising. Further, the city of Long Branch, which had been in decline for years, had established a redevelopment zone for the oceanfront and its adjacent neighborhoods in 1996. The city determined that it would invoke eminent domain for properties within the redevelopment zone in need of improvement. The private homeowners and commercial business owners who were located in the designated area, including Monmouth Rubber, were compelled to negotiate with a property developer that had been contracted by the city. Many property owners refused to sell, and the case was on appeal with the New Jersey Superior Court. This created significant uncertainty surrounding Monmouth Rubber's ability to remain in its current location. At 67, John could sell the business and retire. Although his son, John Jr., had been employed by Monmouth for several years and was the firm's sales manager, there was no formal succession plan. John Jr., however, had expressed an interest in taking over the business. With a lucrative offer on the table, John needed to consider the changing competitive landscape for the industry, the weakened economic conditions, and the eminent domain. This case is suitable for courses in family business management, and it can be especially useful as an introductory case or as a second case.

Murphy Stores is a field case involving a major retailer deciding whether to allocate $7 million of its remaining (and limited) capital budget to either an investment in RFID technology to reduce merchandise theft from stores, or to invest in new energy-efficient store lighting to reduce operating costs and be better for the environment, or some combination of the two. The two alternative investments focus on making financial improvements in two different aspects of Murphy Stores' operations: decreasing "shrink" due to theft and saving on electricity costs. The case offers the opportunity to learn about retail industry operations as well as to make multiple full NPV discounted cash flow analyses. This case offers the opportunity to discuss trade-offs between selecting lower-risk capital projects and higher risk projects with higher expected returns but more variability in potential outcomes. The case illustrates the importance of sensitivity and scenario analysis in project evaluation.

When Jay Cohen started his online casino business in the twin-island Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda (hereafter referred to as Antigua), he was excited by the prospects for his new entrepreneurial venture. At the time, Cohen, a U.S. citizen, did not plan to set in motion forces that would ultimately lead to a decades-long trade war between the U.S. and Antigua, resulting in the first e-commerce trade dispute ever to come before the World Trade Organization (WTO). And even seasoned observers were surprised by the scope of the WTO's ruling against the U.S. in 2013. In this ruling, the WTO, seeking to compel the U.S. to comply with its previous rulings in favor of Antigua, authorized the Caribbean nation to revoke intellectual property rights (IPR) for U.S. firms in important sectors, including software, music, and Hollywood movies. If Antigua implemented such a retaliatory measure, this action would establish a precedent that, if followed widely by other nations, could jeopardize the entire U.S. economy.

Founded in 1974, TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) was an independent, not-for-profit research institute which focused on environment issues that affected Indian society and the world at large. TERI's mission was to develop innovative and sustainable interventions and cost-effective solutions that may be translated to action. TERI's competencies spanned the areas of training, outreach, research, and information. In keeping with its mission of being a knowledge-based agent of change, in June 2016, TERI decided to rechristen DSDS as World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS). This was done to expand the profile of participants, increase its geographic reach and shift the location of the event, if required. It was also decided in 2016 to hold the annual event in October instead of February. The challenge confronting Dr. Verma was to come up with an effective event promotion strategy to enhance the WSDS' outreach program and generate significant revenues for TERI without compromising on the preferred choice of partners.

The case uses the backdrop of a bitter battle between Nelson Peltz, the activist shareholder and founder of Trian Partners and the management of Procter & Gamble. The battle focused on the future strategic direction of the company. While Nelson Peltz identified a host of concerns ranging from poor brand management and innovation failures to weak corporate governance and P&G's insular culture, the management of P&G countered that it had a sound strategy in place that it was executing and that the initial results were indeed quite positive. The case explores the major strategic questions that P&G confronts at the time of the battle. It offers a wealth of information about trends in the fast moving consumer goods sector globally allowing for a nuanced discussion of strategic options available to competing firms. Combined with a discussion of management imperatives at P&G, the case provides the basis for the key decisions that the reader is expected to make regarding the proxy battle.

IBM needed a win. Facing flattening sales and increasing analyst concerns, the century-old giant that had reinvented itself so often before was in search of market game-changers. The company believed they found such an opportunity in 2014 when employee Jerry Cuomo and other IBM technologists dug deeply into the secure and decentralized ledger that powered cryptocurrency Bitcoin.2 Similar to open-source software, IBM saw widespread potential for blockchain technology outside of the currency it powered. But seeing a technology's promise is different from monetizing it at scale. How could IBM distinguish blockchain technology from the cryptocurrency for which it was known and attract large clients to adopt IBM's approach to the emerging technology? If successful, what could be next for IBM blockchain?

The case provides a discussion of the birth and evolution of Ryanair in Europe. It paints a rich picture of the avenues of competitive advantage that the company had built in its march toward dominance among the low cost carriers segment of the aviation business in Europe. The early segment of its history provides a very useful discussion to explore fundamental concepts in strategy such as competitive positioning, activity maps, low cost strategies, and tradeoffs. The later half of the case describes the transformation of Ryanair from a pure low cost provider to more of a value added company that seeks to enhance the overall customer experience within the constraints of a low cost model. It closes with a set of issues that surface when Ryanair undertakes the massive shift in its strategy to become a more customer friendly airline company. The later half of the case is an ideal vehicle to reinforce the concept of tradeoffs in strategy and the need for strategic clarity around what a company will do and what it will not do.

Swartzberg knew his expansion model was working but wondered if the strategy of partnering with insurance companies was not limiting the potential of South-Africa-based Vitality Group. Swartzberg was concerned about the possible limitations of this model and wondered if the time had come for Vitality to acquire a license and go it alone as a fully-fledged insurance company in a new market. According to Swartzberg, "We are an insurance company; however, we sell our intellectual property internationally. So far it's going well and we are successful. Our dilemma is whether we should have our own license in a country, take the risk ourselves, and get involved in capital investment? Or should we continue with our existing business model of offering intellectual property to partners and expand along with them?"

The push beyond traditional semiconductors signaled that Intel was positioning for new growth. The firm even sponsored an Industry 4.0 (term to highlight trends in automation and data exchange - largely centered on cyber-physical systems, IoT, cloud computer, cognitive computing, and AI - and their related productivity gains) informational series to shape the agenda around next generation technologies - and their implications. Company executives reasoned that the emerging future would be more interconnected and data-driven than ever - requiring a proactive digital convergence strategy. Robust AI capabilities (and related machine learning) were central to this design. But acquiring and developing leading-edge technology is different from winning wide-scale adoption. How could Intel develop compelling use-cases for still emerging technologies? If successful, what could be next for Intel in Industry 4.0?

This case study focuses on the creation of SingularityNET, a blockchain-based marketplace for AI. SingularityNET was conceived by Ben Goertzel, Simone' Giacomelli and David Hanson in a series of brainstorming sessions at Hanson Robotics in Hong Kong in 2017. A key goal for creating this democratized marketplace platform was to accelerate the development of artificial general intelligence, or AGI. Companies that could not afford customizing their own AI could access AI Agents that would subcontract to and collaborate with other AI agents to create customized solutions to meet specific needs. The distributed blockchain-based network allowed for stitching together clusters of narrow AIs that could mimic sections of a brain. Collectively, these clusters could eventually function like a global brain.

In an effort to help Microsoft Brazil achieve financial return and reap strategic benefits, and to help contribute to the Brazilian startup ecosystem, Frankiln Luzes, the chief operating officer, founded Microsoft Participações. Through Microsoft Participações, Luzes established the very first multi-corporate seed capital fund in the world - BR Startup Fund. BR Startup was owned by multinational corporations including Microsoft, government agencies, and financial institutions. It was established to connect innovative startups, especially those in the information technology sector, to financial investors.

An Indian hospital creates a new customer liaison role--the patient care executive--but as its rate of attrition for physicians rises in an extremely tight talent market, leaders begin to wonder whether friction between the PCEs and doctors is the problem. This fictional case study features expert commentary by Rana Awdish, Ashutosh Raghuvanshi.

An Indian hospital creates a new customer liaison role--the patient care executive--but as its rate of attrition for physicians rises in an extremely tight talent market, leaders begin to wonder whether friction between the PCEs and doctors is the problem. This fictional case study features expert commentary by Rana Awdish, Ashutosh Raghuvanshi.

An Indian hospital creates a new customer liaison role--the patient care executive--but as its rate of attrition for physicians rises in an extremely tight talent market, leaders begin to wonder whether friction between the PCEs and doctors is the problem. This fictional case study features expert commentary by Rana Awdish, Ashutosh Raghuvanshi.

Facing increased customer service scrutiny in the airline industry, JetBlue, in August 2017, announced a partnership with Gladly, a relatively new entrant in the customer service software market. JetBlue was going beyond simply using Gladly's software. The company decided to invest in Gladly through its venture capital arm, JetBlue Technology Ventures. Frankie Littleford, JetBlue's Vice President of Customer Support, stated, ""We are fortunate enough to be working so closely with Gladly that we are co-creating this [platform]together." Bonny Simi, president of JetBlue Technology Ventures group, was enthusiastic about a potential "onmichannel" approach to communicating with customers. "People just don't want to call in anymore. So we are aiming for omnichannel communication that is on at all hours, that can take advantage of AI (artificial intelligence) to resolve customers' issues as quickly as possible, and that will work with all of the important messenger apps." Picking the right customer-service platform and then rolling it out without disrupting current operations were no small tasks for any airline, but JetBlue was committed to make it simpler for its customers to communicate with the company.