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In 2005, Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm specializing in growth equity, was one year into their ownership of Amscan, the market leader of designed, manufactured, and distributed decorated party goods and accessories. However, Amscan's primary customer, party retail store Party City, was making aggressive moves to backwards integrate and cut into Amscan's profit pool. Even if Party City failed at its attempt, it could cause significant damage to the business, and subsequently hurt Amscan's top line. The Berkshire team needed to figure out a path forward. Should they try to invest in or buy Party City to thwart efforts that would potentially erode both businesses? If they did, should Party City remain a standalone company or should it be merged with Amscan? Would Party City even come to the negotiating table? These questions, plus additional complications with investments from overlapping funds left the Berkshire team in a difficult situation.

This case presents the phenomenal rise of Ant Financial Services, which started as Alipay, and has since grown to become the world's largest Fintech company. Seeing itself as a Techfin rather Fintech company, Ant Financial leverages cutting edge technology to provide accessible finance to the underserved SMEs and individuals. This case highlights the dynamic evolution of its business model and its ecosystem. The case also brings up the key challenges that Ant Financial has to deal with, i.e., the intensely competitive Fintech landscape, the viability of its ambitious strategy for inclusive finance, and the transferability of its success beyond China.

In November 2014, questions were raised about American electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors Inc.'s (Tesla's) accounting practices, which did not follow the generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP). Tesla's third quarter 2014 financial statements showed a loss of almost US$75 million when using U.S. GAAP standards, compared to a profit of over $5 million when using its own non-GAAP standards. The accounting discrepancy between the two systems was due mainly to the allotment of vehicle buybacks, stock-based compensation, and regulatory credit sales. Tesla's share price had risen to $242 from its initial public offering of $17. Had the company's non-GAAP adjustments influenced investors' perception of Tesla's performance and, therefore, the resulting stock price? Specifically, was it reasonable to state that Tesla had been profitable in the third quarter of 2014? Were Tesla's non-GAAP adjustments appropriate? How could the adjustments between Tesla's GAAP and non-GAAP numbers be explained? What would Tesla's performance look like if the financial statements were adjusted for the resale value guarantee, regulatory credits, and stock-based compensation?

Enel has transformed from the Italian state-owned energy monopoly into a global leader in renewable energy and shared value creation. Through its open innovation model, the company has catapulted to the cutting edge of electric mobility and distributed power generation, partnering with the likes of Google and Tesla. Under the leadership of Mr. Francesco Starace, the company has gone through a significant change in organizational culture and structure, committing to 100% renewables while placing an emphasis on growth in middle-income countries and capturing new revenue sources from energy management services. At the same time, Starace has had to balance stockholder pressure for short-term earnings with a legacy of coal and gas fired power plants against its futuristic vision.

In early 2016, RWE, a utility that operates nuclear power plants in Germany, came under scrutiny from regulators and the media over the adequacy of its provisions for costs of decommissioning and dismantling (D&D) its nuclear power plants. Accounting standards required utilities to record the present value of projected D&D costs as a liability. However, there were many uncertainties associated with these estimates given the actual cash outlays would be incurred decades into the future. In addition, German government bond rates used to discount projected future costs had fallen to record lows, and RWE, as well as its competitors were struggling with depressed electricity prices. Would RWE's provisions be adequate to cover the future costs?

In March 2017, Elsa Pekmez Atan (MBA 2004), was wondering about the future of Enpara.com, a digital-only banking platform of QNB Finansbank. Since its launch in October 2012, Enpara had been successful in attracting over 600,000 customers by appealing to digital savvy, middle-class customers that QNB Finansbank was lacking for a long time. By the end of 2016, it accounted for 16% of QNB Finansbank's deposits. With the support of the top management, Atan was able to run Enpara as an independent company. However, as Enpara grew there were increasing pressures to integrate with the parent company. While Atan believed that this would destroy the unique culture and positioning of Enpara, senior management was wondering whether to spin it off or merge it with the parent company.

On June 15, 2015, the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning to win the National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup. It was the Blackhawks' third league title in six seasons. In previous years, the off-seasons immediately following Stanley Cup victories had been challenging. The general manager was typically forced by the NHL's salary cap to change key components of the championship rosters. In late June 2015, the situation differed from in the past. Two superstar forwards were locked into identical eight-year contracts worth US$10.5 million per year beginning July 1, 2015. However, significant macroeconomic events around the world had unfolded rapidly, specifically in Canada and the United States, where the NHL operated. How would these macroeconomic forces shape the future of the NHL and the Blackhawks?

In 2016, Ambuja Cements Limited (Ambuja Cement) was one of the largest cement companies in India. Company operations required the use of water for cooling, dust suppression, and domestic needs, but the use of water stressed the water resources at some of the company's locations. Ambuja Cement thus identified the availability of water as a risk area for the organization and made water conservation a key element of their sustainability agenda. By virtue of its sustainability initiatives, Ambuja Cement became one of the first cement companies in the world to be certified as water positive. The company wanted to account for both the social and economic value its water conservation efforts generated. However, valuing water was a complex task involving many considerations, such as water sources and uses, the social value of water, water scarcity, and exchange rates.

On the evening of September 30, 2016, the founder and chief executive officer of Lagom Kitchen + Brewery (Lagom) surveyed his newly opened microbrewery and restaurant with pride. He had put a great deal of hard work, time, and money into this venture; in the past two years, Lagom had required an investment of US$1 million. Yet the business's Gurgaon location, within India's Delhi National Capital Region, had failed to deliver the footfall that the founder had expected. Lagom was at the centre of an information technology corporate park where more than 10,000 employees worked, and was surrounded by many business parks and malls. However, fewer companies had moved into these spaces than anticipated, which was affecting Lagom's sales. Should the founder alter Lagom's product offerings or increase the price of the menu items? Should he increase the focus on corporate customers by undertaking exclusive tie-ups, or should he increase Lagom's social marketing efforts to attract customers from nearby condominiums? Lagom's founder had only two weeks to act before the restaurant's financial situation became critical.

By 2017, Beijing Testin Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Testin), had forged partnerships with multiple large multinational companies (e.g., Microsoft, IBM, ARM, Intel). Since it was founded in 2011, Testin had served over 800,000 application developers by conducting more than 150 million quality and security tests on over 2.5 million mobile applications. It had received several rounds of financing totaling over $80 million. Many Chinese Internet companies had tried to acquire Testin, and a well-known MNC asked Testin to sign an exclusive service contract. Wang and his partners resisted such offers and were determined that Testin should maintain its neutrality. But as a five-year old enterprise, Testin's big concern was how it could "stay hungry and stay foolish."

Founded in 2003 by a fourth-generation Australian farmer, John Foss, The Chia Co recognized the demand for healthy food among different segments of consumers and aimed to provide health and wellness to the global community through the production and distribution of chia seeds. Through his creative entrepreneurial skills, Foss encouraged a new Australian agricultural industry, which had unique supply chain practices and an emphasis on sustainability and fair value for farmers. Nevertheless, by 2016, the company was facing several challenges. Some critical issues included demand that overshot supply, threats from other healthy superfoods such as flax seeds and quinoa, and lack of scientific evidence of the health benefits of chia seeds. In this context, Foss needed to determine how to make The Chia Co a world-class market leader in chia seeds and how to overcome supply and demand challenges. If superfoods really were just a fad, he also had to consider what lay in the future for The Chia Co and its products.

Club Sportif MAA (the MAA) was an iconic fitness club and athletic institution in Montreal and the oldest fitness facility in Canada. In early 2017, the club's president and general manager faced a changing market and pressure to ensure that the club evolved and remained competitive. Consumer and fitness trends had increasingly fragmented the market in this area, and the MAA membership declined since 2016. The MAA, which traditionally served a fairly exclusive clientele, needed to examine its fitness, health, and social offerings to determine how to meet the evolving needs of a wider and increasingly diverse customer base without sacrificing the character of the brand. The president needed to decide how to preserve the MAA's upmarket image while expanding its appeal. He needed to determine which market segments to target and how best to communicate the MAA's offerings to these specific groups.

In 2016, the owners of Styles Inc. (Styles), a bespoke tailoring company in Toronto, Canada, needed to decide whether to discontinue the least profitable of the company's seven clothing lines or to increase that clothing line's retail selling price. Over the previous six years, Styles had been financially successful, and customer retention was a major factor in this success. However, competition was increasing and profits were shrinking. Should the owners drop the clothing line that had the lowest margin or increase its retail selling price? If they chose to increase the price, they would need to decide on the amount of the price increase. The owners wondered whether increasing the price would still enable them to meet their target contribution margin.

In 2011, the UK founded a new government agency known as the "Government Digital Service" (or GDS). Facing significant budget challenges, several high profile IT failures, and growing demands to "modernize" government services, the government set a mission for GDS to champion a "digital culture" in government, ideally unleashing a wave of both cost savings and innovations. By 2012, GDS had identified billions of pounds of potential savings, centralized the government's web presence into a single domain (called GOV.UK), and received wide acclaim from technology commentators. However, the leaders of GDS felt there was significantly more work to be done--not only modernizing government services, but also convincing civil service to focus more on implementation, user needs, and digital services. This case provides an overview of GDS's work up to 2012, and considers the strategy and change management questions facing the agency as it seeks to expand. Case number 2106.0

Argentina's macroeconomic crisis of 2001-02 is a classic case of the interaction between exchange rate policy, fiscal policy, banking and external finance. It makes for a highly engaging teaching case because of its many layers. It was at one level a product of the hard peg of the Argentine currency to the dollar, and the loss of competitiveness with changing international conditions. The proximate cause of crisis was a run on reserves and bank deposits and dramatically country risk premium. But these symptoms were also intricately linked to fiscal policy, to IMF policy, to financial conditions and to Argentina's underlying political economy. The case is designed as a simulation, focused on the key moment of end-November 2001, with roles of Domingo Cavallo (Minister of Finance), the Argentine industry association, representatives of households, and the IMF. Students have to get inside the role to understand and defend the position of each group, drawing on tailored background material for each role. Case number 2086.0

This case was written for the EC course "Managing with Data Science." The course provides MBA students with no programming experience an introduction to the field of data science and its applications in business. Students learn to (1) carefully articulate the business ask, (2) reason carefully from the ask; through metrics and models, and outputs; and (3) evaluate outputs from models to (4) develop a plan for action. In this case students explore the challenges of using sentiment analysis to monitor and understand public perception around brands. Technical topics include building a filtering classifier using naive Bayes and sentiment analysis.

The Medium Corporation seeks to change how people author, consume and engage with content on the Internet. Founded by Ev Williams, co-founder of Blogger and Twitter, the company developed a digital publishing platform and set of social network tools that allow people to spend substantive time with weighty issues facing society, business and politics. Fighting the trend of quick engagement with short-form content on the Internet, Medium wrestles with how to deliver an experience that advances important topics with ease, flexibility, and meaning, while working to build a large and successful company. The challenges of building a successful digital media company, balancing tool development with content curation, and developing a successful monetization model are the core topics facing the firm's leadership team.

Shirdi Infratech Pvt. Ltd. was in the wooden furniture manufacturing business and dealt with a wide range of diversified products such as modular kitchens, furniture, and doors. With its normal profit margin, the firm was growing, but not at a rate that satisfied the owner. At the same time, the business faced personnel management issues. The dilemma began in 2015 when the owner learned that one of his top performers had potentially leaked confidential information to a competitor and was offered employment by them. The owner recognized this employee's importance, as well as the critical timing of the project he was working on. In light of this, would the best option be to retain that employee or let him go? The owner was also concerned about social capital management, and how to use the employee's intellectual skills to develop others in the organization.

Following the announcement of the merger of the Turkish Economic Bank (TEB) and Fortis Bank AS, Varol Civil, TEB's CEO, is faced with the task of executing the merger of these two entities. First, all parties must agree to the economic terms of this merger; a process that is challenging due to the complex ownership structures of these banks. Second, Civil and his team must find a way to combine the operations of the banks. With meaningful overlap between the two franchises the potential for cost savings and synergies is significant. However, the risks involved are also significant.

This case explores the strategic decision-making process of premium power tools manufacturer Hilti in 1999, when the company was considering implementing a fleet management system in the construction industry. Fleet management would involve a shift from selling power tools to leasing them as a service. For Hilti, it represented an entirely new business model, which would substantially differentiate the company from its competitors. While fleet management had the potential to significantly improve the customer experience, Hilti was already a successful firm under its extant model, and had to decide whether the restructuring of its business model was worth the risk.