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Claritas Genomics was formed in January 2013 when BCH spun out its Genetics Diagnostic Lab into a fully commercial entity. Claritas offered over 100 genomic tests to detect a range of conditions, including autism and intellectual disabilities, and was developing new tests that provided clearer and more relevant information for physicians to use in treating patients. Claritas wanted to increase the speed at which genomic research discoveries occurred and translate this research into better diagnostic tests. To achieve this, it planned to collaborate with other children's hospitals through a research network it was developing. BCH was the company's majority owner, and Life Technologies (Life), a major manufacturer of sequencing equipment and services, was a minority owner. By the end of the year the CEO of Claritas Genomics, Dr. Patrice Milos, had to put Claritas in a position to grow and needed to have in place the software and IT platforms-the databases, search tools, and other programs-that would help the company reach scale.

Despite being the richest country in the world on a per capita basis, for analysts Qatar belongs in the group of emerging markets considered "frontier markets." This case analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the development strategy of this small country as set forth by Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who ruled from 1995 to 2013. In 2013, for the first time in Qatar's history, Emir Hamad passed on control of the government to his son Tamim peacefully and Tamim, as Emir, promised to continue with the development strategy of economic diversification set forth by his father. Yet, it is not clear if the ambitious investments in infrastructure, education, tourism and real estate Emir Hamad made were enough to steer the economy away from its dependence on gas exports.

Some potentially painful cost reductions will have to be made at the Ivy State University Business School, so the business manager has been asked to develop a list of initial cost cuts. To visualize how the budget's major line-item costs have behaved, he uses a set of graphs to understand and be able communicate to the directors of the various operating units what resources or activities need to be curtailed in order to reap the largest financial cost savings.

On January 12, 2007 a prominent Chinese blogger protested against Starbucks' presence in Beijing's Forbidden City. The blogger stated, "This is not globalisation but an erosion of Chinese culture." The blog post signalled the start of an avalanche of criticism as Starbucks came under attack for operating a café inside China's Forbidden City. The effort to remove the iconic western brand from the centre of the Forbidden City quickly became global news. Initially the story grew only within China's Internet space, but once translated into English it became global front-page news in a matter of days. Starbucks quickly found itself on the receiving end of criticism for inappropriately operating a café in the middle of a cultural and historical centre. What should the company do?

IBM's Corporate Citizenship office created a social and organizational innovation in public education through a business-school partnership. IBM's Stanley Litow was the key architect in designing Pathways in Technology Early College High School, known as P-TECH. The open enrollment high school located in New York City's Brooklyn was launched in 2011 through a joint partnership between IBM, City University of New York (CUNY), and the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE). The innovative design incorporated career and technical education (CTE), STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and early college. Students could graduate with an associate degree (essentially, two free years of college) and be "first in line" for jobs at IBM. The school was already seeing remarkable results; one third of the inaugural class entered P-TECH below grade level and nearly all students were promoted to the 10th grade and more than half of them took college courses before the end of their sophomore year. This case explores the motivation behind P-TECH (a growing skills gap), how it was developed along with the challenges, and the attention generated by the unique school design.

In 2009, after six years of operation and two negative audits, the president of the Canada Border Services Agency is thinking about initiating a reorganization to improve the way the agency is operated. Formed in 2003 from three government departments, the agency has been responsible for a range of activities represented by 90 acts and regulations that cover, for example, border security, immigration, food and plant inspection, intelligence and tax collection. Since its founding, the agency has grown substantially in the number of employees, who are spread out across the country in eight regions; some of them are in unions that are expert in the use of the news media to protect their members' interests. The lack of up-to-date communication equipment and the complexity of the organizational structure have resulted in an increased response time to matters that need immediate attention both within Canada and with international partners. No attempt has been made to streamline processes; every major initiative thus far has been focused on ensuring that nothing from the current workload gets dropped, processes remain intact and stronger controls are put in place. The president's challenge is to determine how to initiate anticipatory change. He has a limited term and needs to prepare a detailed action plan if he wants the changes to take effect before he leaves.

For the last year, Mountain Hardware (MH), a leading hardware retailer in the Rocky Mountain region, had evaded bankruptcy and liquidation. The week prior, John Preston, the company's CEO, learned that the acquisition offers he had expected to receive from four major companies in the industry would be delayed by several weeks. While disappointed with the wait, Preston had held out hope that his shareholders could recover some portion of their $20 million investment by selling the company. Those hopes were challenged when Preston received a call from Mountain Hardware's loan officer at Bank of the West. It seemed the business' slumping financial performance had left the company in technical default on its loan covenants and the bank wanted Mountain Hardware to pay down a sizable portion of its loan balance-far more than it could afford-to put the company back in compliance. This was the backdrop against which Preston faced a painful layoff of some of his company's highest profile employees going into the holiday season.

Helps students to understand how the characteristics of a business are reflected in its financial statements. This case consists of an exercise in which students are given balance sheet data in percentage form and other selected financial data for companies in 14 industries. The specific task assigned to the student is to use the balance sheet data along with their basic knowledge of the operating conditions and characteristics of these 14 industries to match each industry to the correct data.

Homestrings is an online investment platform for overseas diasporas to link financially with their home countries. The founder believes crowd-funding can become a pillar for development, but U.S. regulatory hurdles and resources constraints are substantial. The company is considering targeting non-diaspora investors, introducing new products like insurance or banking, and related expansion strategies.

A-CAT Corp., a company that produces domestic electrical appliances in a poor region of India, largely caters to the price-sensitive rural market. During the past several months, there has been an alarming dip in sales of its major product, a voltage regulator that is used for varied purposes but most commonly as a protective device for refrigerators and television sets, to protect the latter from the vagaries of load fluctuations and/or frequent power failures, which are a very common phenomenon in the region. At the same time, the production department has been complaining about shortages of spares and components. Placing orders beyond a certain limit for the vital transformers used in most of its products has also stretched the system - whereas the company previously had access to four suppliers of transformers, now there is only one. The vice president has asked the chief operations manager to look into the problem. The operations manager traces the production planning process and its reliance on accurate forecasts. The manager's job is to collect the data, analyze the data patterns, use forecasting methods, carry out back-testing and submit recommendations to management to solve the problem.

Antonio Ortega, the owner of Bebida Sol, a private-label carbonated soft drink company based in Mexico, was contemplating whether to invest in a new zero-calories soda product line, Hola-Kola. This was the first major capital investment decision Antonio had to make after his father unexpectedly passed away. Through a market study, he collected some data about the potential market size and the costs associated with this new product line. Along with these data was also the fact that the new product line might severely erode his existing regular soda sales. He needed to determine if this capital investment was worth making and would create value for his company.

Dean B. Nelson, a prominent KKR consultant, just had a meeting with the board of Dollar General about KKR's intention of taking Dollar General private. From the meeting, Nelson sensed that Dollar General was very receptive of the deal, particularly on the terms that he proposed. Nelson was excited about this potentially lucrative LBO deal, and could not wait to present it to KKR's management team. He believed that if he put together an impressive proposal, he was very likely to get a green light. He just needed to come out with convincing arguments as to why Dollar General would be a great addition to KKR's portfolio, to identify the key drivers for value creation, and to make sure Dollar General was a good buy under the proposed terms, and KKR would potentially reap handsome profits from it.

When entrepreneurs are successful in convincing venture capital firms that they are an attractive potential investment, they are presented with offers detailing many terms of the investment agreement. These are described in term sheets. Sorting through the myriad terms can be a daunting proposition for an entrepreneur. Yet, it is important for entrepreneurs to understand the terms of a proposed financing. These determine the payout the entrepreneurs will receive when the company is liquidated or sold (either to another company or to the public through and IPO), the dilution the entrepreneurs will suffer in the event of a future down round of financing, control of the board of directors, and other important matters. The Series A terms will also set a precedent for the terms of future financing rounds. This case presents a situation in which entrepreneurs receive term sheets from two venture capital firms. The two term sheets differ in many ways, and students are asked to evaluate them from the perspective of the entrepreneur.

Abridged version of one of six cases that describe the roles and responsibilities of managers at each of the hierarchical levels of management within the U.S. Stores business unit of Staples, the world's largest office supply company. Together, the cases form a complete integrated package. Explores five distinct jobs--store manager, district manager, regional vice-president, division senior vice-president, and president of the U.S. Stories business units--and, for each level, describes the key management tasks, planning, decision-making, and leadership processes and critical choices that lead to superior execution and operational performance. Provides background information on Staples' organization and strategy.

Brazil's largest dental insurer, a successful and innovative firm, has saturated the corporate market and faces stiffer competition. It must decide whether to enter a new market in Brazil or to expand into other parts of Central and South America.

During the 2013 Indian festival of colours, a young green entrepreneur and owner of Green Horizon Consulting (GHC) faced a plethora of business growth challenges. His former employee, who had quit GHC a while back to work for a major rival, wanted to return. However, the entrepreneur could not figure it out - would rehiring an ex-employee be a sound business decision? Should he take a risk and give the former employee another chance? If he did, he could look after GHC business in India, and be free to work on his plans to start a new venture in Dubai.But, his dilemma didn't end there. Being the eldest son in his family, he realized that besides the aforementioned strategies, there was also the possibility of living and working with his joint family. His father was getting old and his younger brother had joined the family business; merging the two companies (his and his father's) would allow both brothers to take care of the businesses and family between them. If that happened, he would no longer need his old frenemy. Even so, there was no doubt in his mind that relocating to Dubai would be a very lucrative move, especially as prospective clients in this region understood the language of green loud and clear. But, despite his excitement at the idea, he could not forget that there would still be all the usual (yet critical) business problems of low consumer awareness and the need to swiftly catch up to the existing competition. What other factors and options would he need to consider to keep his budding, eco-friendly company afloat and to successfully navigate the contemporary business world?

Intangible assets represent an accounting challenge due to their lack of physical substance. This note discusses the accounting treatment of intangible assets under International Financial Reporting Standards. The note examines the necessary characteristics of intangible assets, specifically, identifiability, control and future economic benefit. Also detailed are the origins of intangible assets through separate acquisition, business combination and internal generation. The initial recognition and ongoing measurement of intangibles are discussed, using both the cost model and revaluation model.