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It's 2008 and Spanish food retailer Superado is on course to miss its financial targets. According to company policy, this means that Superado should withhold all bonuses for the year. But the company has an unbroken tradition of paying out bonuses and treating its workforce well--and it enjoys low staff turnover and high productivity as a result. In this fictionalized case study, based on a Harvard Business School case by Zeynep Ton and Simon Harrow, CEO Luisa Fernandez faces a dilemma: Should Superado reward its employees for maintaining outstanding productivity in an economic crisis, or should it save its resources as a buffer against worse to come? Daniela Beyersdorfer, Vincent Dessain, and Zeynep Ton present this fictionalized case study with expert commentary provided by Nicolas Hollanders and Marcos Barberan.

Illustrates the use of activity-based costing in a nonprofit organization. At issue is whether the organization's services are priced appropriately.

Raises the issue of whether to use profit centers for the schools in a university and, if so, what issues need to be resolved.

Based loosely on the classic Bill French case, with which some instructors may be familiar. Requires a fair amount of number crunching, exposing students to the uses and limitations of breakeven analysis, particularly when there are several programs or services and some fixed costs that are common to all of them. Also addresses some of the organizational behavior issues that young, well-educated people encounter when they attempt to put their education to work in real situations.

Contrasts two approaches to managing an outsourced activity in a municipality: input oriented versus results oriented. Also address outsourcing risk, and demonstrates that high risk outsourcing needs to be managed differently from low-risk outsourcing.

A nonprofit that has grown from a "family business" into a large, multimillion dollar entity with a resulting need for more professional management. Case is set at the time of a change in leadership from a CEO who appears to have run the organization more in terms of his charisma than as a professional manager. The new CEO, who has come out of the organization's ranks (and is married to the CFO) now must assess the kinds of changes he will make, given that the organization is facing some large deficits.

Raises several issues related to cost accounting in nonprofit organizations. Students must (a) decide on a cost object, (b) decide on cost centers, (c) determine which cost centers should be service centers and which should be mission centers, (d) determine how some costs should be redistributed among cost centers, (e) decide on means for allocating service centers to mission centers, and (f) compute rates for clients "passing through" various cost centers.

Describes two situations that require different approaches to pricing decisions. Illustrates an important point about pricing and also about the measurement of costs: different purposes require different pricing principles and therefore different cost constructions. Situation #1 requires an estimate of full costs. Situation #2 requires an estimate of differential costs in order to obtain the breakeven number of units, but the breakeven number is by no means the whole story; management had also to consider the going rate for the service and the possibility of generating income.

Highlights some of the issues around the role of an endowment fund and the impact of SFAS 117 and 124 on it. Provides a good vehicle for discussing the issue of revenue recognition with respect to endowments, and identifying the role of restricted versus unrestricted income.

Requires students to assess the nature of cost behavior in the context of preparing a budget for a public school. Also has costs classified by programs, so students can see how a program budget can be used in setting priorities and making tradeoffs. The nature of the interactions among the various elements makes the case a good one to use with a spreadsheet package. The case circumstances are such that there is virtually no way to achieve a balanced budget.

A process rather than a numbers case that focuses on the relationships within a state government, and their impact on the way the budget is developed. One issue is the role of the Director of the Office of Fiscal Affairs and his relationship with the Secretaries and the budget bureau. A related issue is that the governor does not see the budget as high priority, has delegated considerable budget responsibility to his staff assistant and doesn't deal with his Secretaries directly, doesn't consult his fiscal staff about the effect of new programs, and hasn't met with the Director of the budget bureau since he has been in office.

Permits a deep discussion of the problems of arriving at sound pricing policies in a municipality. The focus is on equity (arriving at prices that are fair to those who pay them) and motivation (for example, providing incentives to conserve water). Two types of equity are involved: generational equity and consumer equity. The case also can be used to explain how a growing community can address its need for new infrastructure.

A relatively simple case on the subject of flexible budgeting for a snow-removal program, but raises enough issues concerning the use of the reports that it can easily be used for an entire class session. Provides a nice lead-in to somewhat more complex variance analysis cases.

Combines a somewhat tricky quantitative analysis (including the computation of present value) with a more strategic assessment of outsourcing risk. Can be paired with Cittá di Forenna (TCG207) to contrast low risk outsourcing (which this case is) with high risk outsourcing.

Requires students to identify several reasons for a variance between budget and actual, and to make the appropriate calculations. There are several related issues that must be considered (such as pricing, staffing, and supply costs) that serve to complicate the analysis. Takes variance analysis to a more sophisticated level than the Town of Bellington (TCG225) case.

Raises a variety of issues associated with a program evaluation: conflicting data, the role of upfront targets, the importance of models of causality, and the appropriate time frame. It also has a political dimension. The available data are somewhat conflicting. Some performance measures suggest that considerable improvements took place since the introduction of the program, but it is not clear that the program is the cause of these changes. There also is the question of whether the resources devoted to the program could be used better elsewhere.

Addresses the use of a balanced scorecard (BSC) in a public school setting. Raises questions of who the customer is, what BSC elements are most appropriate, and how success can be measured for the different elements. Also addresses the issue of cooperation among the affected parties, such as teachers and parents.

Concerns a budgeting system that is unresponsive to senior management's needs. Several changes are needed to align the system with the organization's new strategy. The case can be taught on either a technical or a conceptual level (or both), depending on the instructor's interests and his or her goals for the course.

A complex case with many issues. Students must prepare a managerially oriented flow chart that will show key decision points, which students can then be analyzed, using data in the case, to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the program.

In June 2012, Best Buy was in crisis. In 1996, Best Buy overtook Circuit City as the world's leader in consumer electronics retailing; however, 18 years later, Best Buy now found this position threatened. With $51 billion in revenues, it was still the biggest CE retailer, but sales were flat and profits had collapsed. Meanwhile, Amazon's sales in Best Buy's categories were growing at more than 50% p.a. and its total sales, at $48 billion, were approaching those of Best Buy. As Wal-Mart cherry-picked popular items for steep discounts and Amazon encouraged consumers to compare prices using smart phones, Best Buy was becoming a showroom for lower cost retail models. International expansion was struggling and domestic sales of digital televisions were cooling. Although the popularity of mobile devices suggested easy growth, many devices were sold by telephone service providers, creating increased retail competition. To add to Best Buy's problems, on April 10, 2012, CEO Brian Dunn resigned after an investigation into his personal conduct. On June 7, 2012, Dick Schulze, the firm's founder, who had navigated the company through many strategic changes since 1966, also decided to leave and "explore all available options" for his 20.1% stake in the company. Best Buy had seen off many competitive challenges in the past. Would it be able to fend off these challengers and maintain its position?