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In 2019, the three Do sons, Nam, Hoa and Giang were shocked when their parents, Mr Hanh and Mdm Nghi, announced that they would hand over the joint running of their two companies-Dai Viet (DV) and Chien Thang (CT), to them. Since 1999, the Do family had consecutively founded and operated multiple sanitary- and porcelainware factory businesses that included Mdm Nghi's CT in 2002, and the family's DV Group, in 2013. CT and DV were vastly different in their employee base, organisational cultures, and operational processes. Unfortunately, given their proximity at work, cracks soon appeared when family disputes started affecting company operations, and vice versa. This disrupted decision-making at times and escalated to the point of shouting matches in front of employees. Eventually, by early 2019, Mr Hanh and Mdm Nghi were adamant that the brothers had to learn to work with one another to eventually merge and manage the two companies together. Giang however, being the only son who had worked with his father through complex financial and operational challenges, felt the crushing weight of responsibility bearing down on him. He wondered if the two companies ought to be merged despite the cultural, operational, and personal differences. Alternatively, he could hire professional consultants to help iron out the various issues in both companies. The most drastic measure would be to consider selling one of the companies. If so, which of the two companies should the family sell? Their parents had worked hard to grow DV and CT-what would they think if their sons sold off the embodiment of their legacy in the sanitary- and porcelainware industry?

Eric Hughes, advertising sales manager at Regional Broadcast Network (RBN), needs to avoid a takeover by increasing revenue from ad sales. Currently, ad plans are created for advertisers by combining ad spots from a fixed inventory of shows, making an effort to meet requirements such as a preferred split of prime/non-prime shows and views (impressions) in target demographics. Ad plans are priced using rate cards (RCs) based on industry norms, and are often discounted to meet budget requirements. Revenue is not usually optimized using this system because the RCs do not accurately reflect the value of inventory. In this case, which builds on "TV Advertising Pricing at Regional Broadcast Network (A)," Hughes uses the full historical sales dataset to conduct a multivariable regression analysis and better understand what drives the price of a plan. Students are challenged to create their own analysis and rationale, and to develop a guide for pricing each advertiser's plan. This case set presents emerging best practices in maximizing revenues in the ad industry. Students are given supplementary Excel workbooks containing sample data and use the Solver module and regression analysis to complete the assignment. This case set is suitable for use when teaching pricing analytics, decision analysis, statistics, quantitative analysis, or operations management. It may be used with a graduate, undergraduate, or executive education audience.

GlassHouse Research identified accounting red flags at Catalent. Fiat Lux Partners countered most of GlassHouse's claims. Who was right? This update explores the aftermath of the short seller duel.

APA Technologies, a startup in the trucking industry, faced a significant challenge with its innovative product, the Tyro - an automatic tire inflation device. Founders Brad Miller and Jeffrey Howell, Stanford mechanical engineering students, developed Tyro to enhance safety and reduce maintenance costs in commercial trucking. However, they encountered a critical ethical and strategic decision when a potential design flaw was identified, presenting a safety risk. This dilemma tested their commitment to product integrity and customer safety. The case study details APA Technologies' journey from inception to facing this pivotal decision. Highlighting their user-centric design approach and rigorous testing procedures, it reflects on the company's ethos of prioritizing product quality and safety. The founders' philosophy of continuous improvement through customer feedback and iterative development is underscored. The narrative explores the implications of the recall decision, not just financially, but also in terms of customer trust and company reputation. It presents the founders' analysis of the risks and benefits, reflecting the complexities of ethical decision-making in a competitive business landscape. Additionally, the case study delves into strategic challenges such as managing financial strains, navigating market penetration, and considering partnerships. It illustrates the balance between innovation, ethics, and strategic growth in the tech startup ecosystem.

APA Technologies, a startup in the trucking industry, faced a significant challenge with its innovative product, the Tyro - an automatic tire inflation device. Founders Brad Miller and Jeffrey Howell, Stanford mechanical engineering students, developed Tyro to enhance safety and reduce maintenance costs in commercial trucking. However, they encountered a critical ethical and strategic decision when a potential design flaw was identified, presenting a safety risk. This dilemma tested their commitment to product integrity and customer safety. The case study details APA Technologies' journey from inception to facing this pivotal decision. Highlighting their user-centric design approach and rigorous testing procedures, it reflects on the company's ethos of prioritizing product quality and safety. The founders' philosophy of continuous improvement through customer feedback and iterative development is underscored. The narrative explores the implications of the recall decision, not just financially, but also in terms of customer trust and company reputation. It presents the founders' analysis of the risks and benefits, reflecting the complexities of ethical decision-making in a competitive business landscape. Additionally, the case study delves into strategic challenges such as managing financial strains, navigating market penetration, and considering partnerships. It illustrates the balance between innovation, ethics, and strategic growth in the tech startup ecosystem.

APA Technologies, a startup in the trucking industry, faced a significant challenge with its innovative product, the Tyro - an automatic tire inflation device. Founders Brad Miller and Jeffrey Howell, Stanford mechanical engineering students, developed Tyro to enhance safety and reduce maintenance costs in commercial trucking. However, they encountered a critical ethical and strategic decision when a potential design flaw was identified, presenting a safety risk. This dilemma tested their commitment to product integrity and customer safety. The case study details APA Technologies' journey from inception to facing this pivotal decision. Highlighting their user-centric design approach and rigorous testing procedures, it reflects on the company's ethos of prioritizing product quality and safety. The founders' philosophy of continuous improvement through customer feedback and iterative development is underscored. The narrative explores the implications of the recall decision, not just financially, but also in terms of customer trust and company reputation. It presents the founders' analysis of the risks and benefits, reflecting the complexities of ethical decision-making in a competitive business landscape. Additionally, the case study delves into strategic challenges such as managing financial strains, navigating market penetration, and considering partnerships. It illustrates the balance between innovation, ethics, and strategic growth in the tech startup ecosystem.

APA Technologies, a startup in the trucking industry, faced a significant challenge with its innovative product, the Tyro - an automatic tire inflation device. Founders Brad Miller and Jeffrey Howell, Stanford mechanical engineering students, developed Tyro to enhance safety and reduce maintenance costs in commercial trucking. However, they encountered a critical ethical and strategic decision when a potential design flaw was identified, presenting a safety risk. This dilemma tested their commitment to product integrity and customer safety. The case study details APA Technologies' journey from inception to facing this pivotal decision. Highlighting their user-centric design approach and rigorous testing procedures, it reflects on the company's ethos of prioritizing product quality and safety. The founders' philosophy of continuous improvement through customer feedback and iterative development is underscored. The narrative explores the implications of the recall decision, not just financially, but also in terms of customer trust and company reputation. It presents the founders' analysis of the risks and benefits, reflecting the complexities of ethical decision-making in a competitive business landscape. Additionally, the case study delves into strategic challenges such as managing financial strains, navigating market penetration, and considering partnerships. It illustrates the balance between innovation, ethics, and strategic growth in the tech startup ecosystem.

Supplement for product W35261.

The Transocean (A) and (B) cases provide snapshots of two points in time in the company's history - the first in 2009 after a period of superior earnings and the second in 2023 after several years of poor performance. The two cases describe the same public company [NYSE: RIG] at two points in time characterized by vastly different financial and economic circumstances as well as different sets of senior executives. The cases highlight how different the same organization can appear within a relatively short 20-year period marked by the global financial crisis in 2007-2009, a major oil-rig explosion in 2010, a waning outlook in 2014, the slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and a potential economic recovery.

Pharmabrew manufactured and distributed generic medicines to third-party pharmaceutical companies. Anna Nielsen, the company's CFO, had long been listening to unit managers complaining about the budgeting process, as they found it time-consuming and believed it did not add value to the business. Anna decided to change the process and hoped the unit managers will complain less. Unfortunately, John Christensen, the head of sales, fell ill during the budgeting process, and Martin Andersen, his assistant, had to take over. A few weeks into the year, Pharmabrew was in trouble. Deliveries were late, raw materials needed for production were unavailable, and clients were angry. What led to this situation?

Soulpepper Theatre Company (Soulpepper) underwent a significant transformation under the leadership of its new co-leaders. The co-leaders not only navigated the aftermath of a crisis in 2018 that saw the immediate resignation of a well-known artistic director accused of sexual harassment but also steered the company towards a bright future aligned with an ambitious five-year strategic plan. The plan, endorsed by the board of directors, was a crucial step towards recovering from the tarnished reputation and elevating Soulpepper to global recognition, rooted in the excellence of its productions and celebration of Canadian creativity. However, as the theatre was laying down the building blocks for renewal, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, causing significant disruptions in the Canadian theatre scene and necessitating a re-evaluation of the co-leaders' strategic approach.

This is the supplemental B-case for product W33370.

On May 5, 2023, Vicky Poirier received a call from Daniel Chen, vice-president of finance at Freeze Inc. After receiving an internal tip, Chen was calling to ask her to investigate a potential case of collusion involving one of his colleagues. As president of Quantum Juricomptable Inc. (Quantum), Poirier had to discuss the issues and challenges of this potential mandate with her team before deciding whether to accept it. Quantum's investigation team, including forensic accountants, planned and performed an investigation to verify whether these allegations were true and prepared a forensic accounting report for a special committee at Freeze. The consequences of this report would be significant for the organization. How should the Freeze react to the report's findings? What were the issues and challenges underlying any decision to dismiss the wrongdoers? Should Freeze dismiss them?

This case set uses a humanitarian aid organization, Save the Children, to set the stage for analyzing a crisis and the CEO's strategy of leading through uncertainty. The case provides only the minimal information the decision-maker had at the time and gives a sense of the complexity around that fact. It introduces issues around basic communication, strategy, and crisis uncertainties that can be explored in subsequent classes. The material includes video clips of Carolyn Miles, the president and CEO of Save the Children at the time, discussing these issues; when played in class, these enrich the discussion and provide a practitioner's view of a learning experience and leadership in a difficult context. After giving an overview of Save the Children and the situation in Afghanistan in January 2018, this A case describes the text that Miles receives from the country director alerting her that the organization's Jalalabad office is under direct attack. The organization has been through indirect attacks, kidnappings, and natural disasters. Being directly attacked makes this crisis unusual, and Miles is alarmed. Miles receives a second text less than an hour later-she learns that 47 people from Save the Children are sheltering in a safe room as the attack continues. The B case provides an epilogue. At the Darden School of Business, this case has been successfully used in second-year electives in MBA and executive MBA programs. In both programs, it is taught in a course on "Leading in Uncertainty and Crisis." The material works well in a module on decision-making under pressure. It also would be useful in first-year communication strategy courses or organizational behavior courses that raise issues around managing performance and leveraging team and individual capabilities.

Jason Scott's superpower had always been his ability to connect people and ideas across industries, sectors, and geographies. After graduating from Stanford GSB, he pursued his professional North Star of finding the best entrepreneurs in the world and providing value to them as an investor at Highland Capital. After two years at Highland, Scott moved into a startup ecosystem developer role at Google. Using the resources and scale of one of the world's largest companies, Scott was eager to continue providing support to entrepreneurs across the globe. What shape would that take?

The case describes the situation of the cab sector before and after the entry of Uber in Uruguay. It presents the strategy followed by Uber after its entry and the reactions it provoked in the different stakeholders: cab owners, workers, politicians, journalists, pro-government and opposition politicians and consumers. Uber incursion into Uruguay at the end of 2015 and had a great initial success. At the same time, it generated a great deal of agitation and debate in society and in the government. Over the course of a year a series of public initiatives followed in reaction to the new situation, all of them unsuccessful. In November 2016 there were rumors in Uruguay that the Municipality of Montevideo would finally adopt a regulation for the operation of ride-hailing apps. Iván French had just been appointed the general manager of Uber in Uruguay and the beginning of the case starts from his first public appearance since the appointment. Back in the office, he reflects on the report requested by his superior, where he must take a position on the strategy followed by Uber in Uruguay, as well as his recommendations for the future: How successful was the strategy followed by Uber since its entry into Uruguay? Are there any particularities of Uruguay that would have justified an adaptation or change of the generic strategy applied by Uber to enter a country? What should Uber do from now on?

This case, a follow-up to "Light Rail in Denver?: The Private Sector and Infrastructure Development (A)" (UVA-GEM-0188) revisits Nwanneoma "Neena" Ngondai as she reflects on the work of the Denver Regional Transportation District and what actually happened after the proposed expansion of Denver's public transit system.