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In 2010 the Memphis City School District merged with the neighboring Shelby County School system under the supervision of a single board of education and superintendent. It promised much more than just administrative synergies-it was an opportunity to change a culture, as well as policies and practices that had existed for decades. By 2010 Shelby County school system had about 50,000 students, approximately 55 percent white and 37 percent economically disadvantaged. The Memphis student body, which numbered around 100,000, was about 85 percent black and 87 percent economically disadvantaged. In 2010, residents from within and outside the city each contributed about 50 percent of the tax revenue for the two systems, but, based on enrollment, two-thirds of the budget was allocated to Memphis City schools. Pitt Hyde and the Hyde Family Foundation saw the merger as a once-in-a-lifetime fresh start for public education in Memphis and he was determined to do what he could to make sure the merger realized its potential. Many interests, practices and players were deeply entrenched in the Memphis schools. But Hyde and his wife had encountered like-minded reformers-educators, government officials, business people and not-for-profit leaders who were willing to put a shoulder to the wheel. Prior to the merger, the Hydes had notched some considerable successes, starting with the legislation that permitted establishment of the state's first charter schools. They had established valuable partnerships, and developed performance standards and accountability for teachers and administrators. They had helped inaugurate pay-for-performance for teachers and a teacher evaluation system based on student outcomes. Building relationships, raising the money, getting others involved were critical steps along the way. They had brought new voices into the campaign.

The case explores the challenges facing Massachusetts General Hospital concerning the adoption of a new infection control policy, which promises to improve operational performance, patient safety, and profitability. The new policy requires coordination between different departments within the hospital, namely the Emergency Department, the Infection Control Unit, and Admission Services. Students are initially asked to assess the operational, financial and clinical implications of the new policy. They are then asked to examine different approaches to its implementation.

Mergers, acquisitions and divestments, including the carve-outs of business units or parts of them, are standard strategies used by multi-divisional organizations to adjust their business portfolios. Carve-out projects are critically dependent on their management of IT. Systems, which have been integrated in order to deliver seamless and efficient IT operations, must now be pulled apart under demanding time and compliance constraints. In 2007, Delta IT Consulting (DIC), one of France's biggest IT-service provider, sold one of its three service provider divisions, IT Product Services. This division employed about 3500 employees in 20 countries and previously generated 0.7 billion of DIC's euro3.8 billion revenues. DIC itself is a division of Delta Corporation - a French high-tech company and leading player in a wide array of businesses, industries and countries around the world. This teaching case challenges the reader to analyze and manage the IT carve-out as a critical component within the divestment project. The case includes insights into strategic and organizational challenges of planning and managing an IT carve-out project.

By 2008, this rapid growth, compounded by limited installed glass manufacturing capacity at regional levels, had caused local supply shortages. Over the last several years, VASA's progressively deteriorating service had damaged its former reputation for excellent service. The case explores how to reverse a disappointing delivery service that led to angry customers complaining about unfulfilled orders, late deliveries, and accusations from transportation companies that held VASA responsible for these delays. Also these accusations resulted in deterioration in relationships with transportation companies that had done business with VASA for more than 25 years. VASA's CEO, evaluated the following options to recover its reputation: 1) take total control of distribution to customers by developing a VASA-owned delivery service; 2) reverse the situation with transportation companies by requiring them to develop delivery service management capabilities; or 3) replace these transportation companies, partially or totally, with more sophisticated logistic service providers.

In mid-March 2011, the vice-chairman of National Bank Financial had to decide what price to recommend to his Maple consortium partners for the TMX Group Inc. (TMX). The TMX was the owner and operator of Canada's leading cash and derivatives exchanges. The vice-chairman was leading a consortium of Canadian banks that was planning an unsolicited bid in response to merger talks between the TMX and the London Stock Exchange Group. The case allows for a discussion of mergers and acquisitions and the factors behind merger waves, the mechanics of a hostile bid for a publicly listed company, the changing landscape for stock and derivative exchanges, the valuation of a target company, and the distinction between strategic and financial buyers. An Excel spreadsheet for students is available.

The case is set in Hong Kong, with a third generation leader of a successful newspaper facing market challenges as the newspaper's niche role of providing Chinese news has been eroded by the age of the Internet. Part A of the case provides the context and the current challenges: high production costs, mixed results with a new magazine business, financial pressures due to lower print sales, a strong culture of success, and start-up online business. Four potential strategies are suggested as the CEO goes to the board for a decision. Part B1 and Part B2 contain different decisions from the board (one for making an acquisition and one for driving organic growth). This allows participants to work in small groups on different change agendas and plans.

A unique probiotic formulation, L-39, has great promise as a pharmaceutical treatment for a common illness. When it hits a stumbling block in its latest clinical trial, Hilde Dach, the scientist leading the research at German drug maker Caliska, faces the prospect that the company may want to reimagine her product as a nutraceutical, because the regulatory hurdles would be easier to clear. Is the company merely hedging its bets to avoid big losses, or is it abandoning the possibility of achieving loftier aims and potentially bigger profits? Expert commentary comes from Jonathan Lewis, CEO of Ziopharm Oncology, and Colin Hill, president of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics.

A unique probiotic formulation, L-39, has great promise as a pharmaceutical treatment for a common illness. When it hits a stumbling block in its latest clinical trial, Hilde Dach, the scientist leading the research at German drug maker Caliska, faces the prospect that the company may want to reimagine her product as a nutraceutical, because the regulatory hurdles would be easier to clear. Is the company merely hedging its bets to avoid big losses, or is it abandoning the possibility of achieving loftier aims and potentially bigger profits? Expert commentary comes from Jonathan Lewis, CEO of Ziopharm Oncology, and Colin Hill, president of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics.

A unique probiotic formulation, L-39, has great promise as a pharmaceutical treatment for a common illness. When it hits a stumbling block in its latest clinical trial, Hilde Dach, the scientist leading the research at German drug maker Caliska, faces the prospect that the company may want to reimagine her product as a nutraceutical, because the regulatory hurdles would be easier to clear. Is the company merely hedging its bets to avoid big losses, or is it abandoning the possibility of achieving loftier aims and potentially bigger profits? Expert commentary comes from Jonathan Lewis, CEO of Ziopharm Oncology, and Colin Hill, president of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics.

A vice-president of a hedge fund must determine whether his fund will take a 5 per cent equity stake in Premier Foods Plc (Premier). At the time of the case, Premier, a publicly listed U.K. food and beverage company, was heavily indebted following a period of aggressive acquisition growth. Moreover, Premier had issued interest rate swaps on the majority of its debt. As the financial crisis unraveled, interest rates dramatically declined, and Premier's interest rate swaps appeared to be further draining the firm. Against this backdrop, the case sets its ultimate objective, which is to simulate the vice-president's analysis of the firm's debt, interest rate swaps, caps and floors before deciding whether to invest in Premier.

Ohio-based optical retailer Pearle Vision, part of the vertically integrated Italian eyewear group Luxottica, sold glasses and offered in-store eye exams. Once the largest U.S. optical retailer, Pearle Vision, with 266 corporate stores and 356 franchised stores in 2012, was struggling to compete with and differentiate itself from industry leader LensCrafters, also owned by Luxottica. Increasing competition from low-price competitors, such as Wal-Mart's optical stores, were adding further competitive pressure. The case takes place in early 2013, with Pearle Vision's new CEO announcing his plans for revitalizing the chain. Will his strategy work?

As he gets ready to release 2nd quarter 2012 results, Ron Johnson, the new CEO of department store J.C. Penney, is reconsidering the dramatic changes he initiated for the business model and brand image of his company. A new pricing scheme he put in place in February, dubbed "Fair and square", was a central component of the new strategy. The scheme initially had three pricing tiers and eliminated typical sales promotions in an attempt to simplify the shopping experience for consumers; thus moving J.C. Penney off its previous high-low pricing practice. Other components of the new strategy included a new store layout, the inclusion of several well-known brands, and having special lines designed by well-known designers. However, troubling first quarter results that continued into the summer months seemed to indicate that J.C. Penney shoppers, accustomed to receiving JCP Cash coupons and circulars advertising the week's specials, were slow to embrace the new pricing format and began leaving the retailer in droves. Under enormous pressure to turn things around as the all-important back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons were imminent, Johnson decided to make adjustments to the initial pricing scheme that were set to go into effect August 1st. Were these changes enough to turn things around? Should Johnson stay the course on the other elements of his repositioning efforts? Is Johnson's experience in setting up Apple stores helping or hurting him as he tries to achieve his goal of making J.C. Penney "America's favorite store?" (This is an abridged version of the original case, "J.C. Penney's "Fair and Square" Pricing Strategy", 513-036.)

It was September 2013, and NOWaccount Network Corporation (NOW®) co-founders John Hayes and Lara Hodgson were putting the final touches on the presentation deck for their annual shareholders' meeting. Along with co-founder Stacey Abrams, the pair had designed NOW's business model three years ago, and the company was at a critical juncture. NOW offered a program-called NOWaccount-that provided working capital to small businesses by converting their trade receivables almost immediately into cash. Founded in December 2010, Atlanta, Georgia-based NOW was serving clients in nine states. With 2013 year-to-date revenue of roughly $100,000, NOW was financed with $2.5 million of founder, and friends and family equity. NOW's wholly-owned, not-for-profit special purpose entity (SPE), Trade Credit Guaranty Corporation (TCGC), purchased approved receivables, funding 90% of the invoice face values by electronic transfers into clients' bank accounts. As of September 2013, TCGC had purchased more than $13 million of small business trade receivables from more than 40 clients. Once TCGC reached a scale of approximately $150 million of funds in use for receivable purchases, the co-founders planned to tap into the securitization market for capital by issuing asset-backed securities (ABS), collateralized by a pool of receivables, much like the credit card industry. ABS would provide TCGC ongoing capital at a lower cost. The question the co-founders confronted was whether they should get to the $150 million securitization threshold by piecing together smaller pools of capital from credit unions and possibly smaller banks (a slower approach but one that did not involve dilution because it was all debt finance), or by accepting larger chunks of capital from a major global bank and a private equity firm, getting them much closer to the threshold but at the cost of significant dilution (35%) as these financiers were also looking for a combination of equity and warrants in NOW.

StriveTogether aimed to improve education outcomes by coordinating the actions of diverse community stakeholders-nonprofit service providers, school districts, government, parents, businesses and others. StriveTogether had an intense focus on collective impact-"the commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem"-and the use of data to drive decision. In the case, managing director Jeff Edmondson is faced with two dilemmas: how to attract business engagement in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, California, and how to achieve greater results in the communities that had implemented the StriveTogether framework.

In 2007, Cynthia Carroll, the newly-appointed chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, was considering shutting down mines in South Africa for safety reasons, namely worker fatalities. No company had ever done so before. Carroll felt that operating a company whose goal was anything less than "zero harm" (meaning no fatalities or serious injuries) was unacceptable. As the first woman and non-South African to lead the century-old company, many were watching her closely. Should she go so far as to make the unprecedented move of shutting down the mines? What message would that send to the company and to the mining industry? The lives of others, Carroll's reputation, and the company's performance were all on the line.

Two business-school grads are the co-founders of a technology startup that provides a mobile-based solution for automotive reviews. The case focuses on customer validation and on fitting a demand model to the aggregate sales data from the test versions of their product.

In early 2013, the head of business development and commercial operations of Arla Foods, a dairy enterprise focused on Northern European markets, is examining, in the light of a new five-year strategy, alternatives to the existing organization structure. His dilemma is to determine the best structure that can deliver the strategy, which is focused on renewed international expansion. The new structure must support the company's strategy in relation to both the existing core markets in Northern Europe and also the growth markets of the future in countries of Asia and Africa. It must ensure that Arla Foods has the right competitive stance in individual markets, which vary widely in terms of customer buying habits and retail formats. It must also ensure regular innovation of dairy categories developed from local resources and marketable globally.

In a testament to the power of social media and the effect it can have on a business, the chief executive officer of a bank adopts the habit of taking to Twitter on a daily basis to promote his company's services. But when the bank's most recent ad campaign ignites a furor among TV audiences, Twitter quickly becomes a vehicle for crucifying the bank rather than promoting it. Within a week of the ad's air date, the bank is inundated with angry tweets, Facebook messages and media criticism. It becomes clear that the bank has made a mistake and will have to act quickly to decide on an appropriate response.

China Machine Press (CMP), founded in 1952, is a leading multi-field, multi-discipline and multimedia publishing group in China with large scale, comprehensive and specialized business that integrates paper media, audiovisual media and online media, and combines research, publishing, training, printing, issuing and distribution. Currently, CMP publishes more than 3,700 new books and imports over 400 foreign books each year. In 2010, its sales volume of books and periodicals reached RMB one billion. CMP's core competitive advantage lies in its innovative business strategy and management concepts, rigorous publishing standards and high product quality. In 2007, CMP was ranked among the Top 500 Most Valuable Chinese Brands by the World Brand Lab with an estimated brand value of RMB 787 million. From 2008 to 2010, CMP had been on the list for three years in a row, and with brand value rising beyond RMB 1.66 billion in 2010. CMP started as a state-owned institution, and as part of China's publishing industry that is highly regulated by the government, it was also subject to strict government supervision. Therefore, the focus of this case study is to understand how Wang Wenbin, President of CMP, devises new business strategies to gain a competitive advantage in a regulated industry and leads the company to carry forward marketization reform.