個案總覽

In May of 2023, President Biden faced a crisis of debt. The debt ceiling was about to be breached, while House Republicans demanded cuts of $3.5 trillion if they were to raise the ceiling. President Biden refused. The case consists of excerpts from President Obama's and President Trump's Economic Report of the President, and from President Biden's Fiscal Budget for 2024, as well as charts and tables describing the U.S. economy.

There is a massive need for stroke treatment and rehabilitation in China. In 2018, Neusoft Medical cooperated with the State Engineering Laboratory of Internet Medical Diagnosis and Treatment Technology headed by Xuanwu Hospital to create the eStroke National Thrombolysis and Thrombectomy Image Platform (eStroke, in short). The primary objective of eStroke is to shorten the time of diagnosis for proper treatment in order to improve patient survival and reduce sequelae when the patient survives. After three years, the project is well underway but needs to scale up, as only 83 hospitals have joined, and only 13,000 patients have been served. No partner is satisfied. The project was set up as a public welfare project with an agreement not to charge users. Neusoft had hoped that eStroke's user base would grow and indirectly drive equipment sales such as CT and MRI machines. However, since eStroke does not directly generate profits, sales staff had no incentive to promote eStroke. Dr. Huang Feng, who is in charge of the eStroke project at Neusoft, plans to apply for a special marketing budget from Neusoft Medical in the annual budget review meeting to expand the scale of eStroke users rapidly. Still, the concerns and demands of various stakeholders of the eStroke platform are far more complicated than simply calling for investing more capital and increasing the workforce. How should Dr. Huang consider the claims of all stakeholders? How can he persuade the company to invest more? Will the new budget alone help eStroke expand quickly?

Based in South Africa, United Exports was a leading producer of blueberry varieties. In April 2022, the company faced an issue of competitive positioning and entry in a crowded US market. The chief executive officer of United Exports, Americas, was preparing for a strategic planning meeting where the goal was to develop actions to grow the company and expand distribution in the United States. United Exports' OZblu brand had simultaneously attempted to create year-round blueberry supplies and to shorten its supply chains by selling Florida-grown blueberries in the United States. The CEO knew he had to rethink supply chains in a post-pandemic world and in light of shifting consumer buyer behaviour realities. He had to find a way to best enter the US fruit produce e-commerce market while aligning with United Exports' values and selling proposition. The CEO needed to examine and carefully consider e-commerce models, including subscription, rapid delivery, and the online grocery landscape.

Xiaomi was a famous Chinese consumer electronics and intelligent manufacturing business group. Since Xiaomi announced its entry into the intelligent electric vehicle industry on March 30, 2021, the topic of its boundary-spanning car manufacturing had attracted wide attention. Could Xiaomi seize the cusp of new energy vehicle development and grab a piece of the pie in this fiercely competitive market? Compared with other players with different backgrounds and strengths in this industry, had Xiaomi missed the best time window to enter? In order to become a top seller, how should Xiaomi position its new energy vehicles and design its competitive strategy? Could Xiaomi easily transfer its existing advantages and resources to its new business?

The case describes the challenges facing Shlomit Schaal, MD, PhD, the newly appointed Chair of UMass Memorial Health Care's Department of Ophthalmology. Dr. Schaal had come to UMass in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the summer of 2016 from the University of Louisville (KY) where she had a thriving clinical practice and active research lab, and was Director of the Retina Service. Before applying for the Chair position at UMass she had some initial concerns about the position but became fascinated by the opportunities it offered to grow a service that had historically been among the smallest and weakest programs in the UMass system and had experienced a rapid turnover in Chairs over the past few years. She also was excited to become one of a very small number of female Chairs of ophthalmology programs in the country. Dr. Schaal began her new position with ambitious plans and her usual high level of energy, but immediately ran into resistance from the faculty and staff of the department. The case explores the steps she took, including implementing a LEAN approach in the department, and the leadership approaches she used to overcome that resistance and build support for the changes needed to grow and improve ophthalmology services at the medical center.

Set in 2022, the case describes the partnership between Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) and The Social Kitchen (TSK), a social enterprise, to launch Unilever's flagship alt-meat brand 'The Vegetarian Butcher' (TVB) in Singapore. With a focus on 'future foods', Unilever planned to double the number of products that delivered positive nutrition and minimised environmental impact by 2025. Its vegan foods portfolio comprised nearly 700 products, with TVB as its most significant addition in the high-growth space of plant-based nutrition. UFS's tie up with TSK was driven by its aim to create social impact by helping people make healthier and sustainable lifestyle choices. Furthermore, positioning TVB as a 'brand with a purpose' could help it stand out in the highly competitive plant-based food space. TSK, a well-established social enterprise, provided UFS with an appropriate and credible platform to launch TVB in the city-state. The restaurant at Singapore's Jurong Bird Park, a popular tourist attraction, opened in partnership with TSK, proved to be a cost-effective platform for creating social media impressions, brand awareness and consumer interest. The full menu integration enabled TVB to experiment and develop new products for the taste palate of the locals. However, TSK comprised only one restaurant so far. Was that sufficient to launch TVB successfully in the highly competitive Singapore market? Should the company also look at other alternate food service channels to widen TVB's visibility? Moreover, did the venture generate adequate returns on the investments made by Unilever? Did the brand partnership with TSK and the related social media buzz generate enough sales leads to justify the collaboration moving forward? Most importantly, were sales and profitability in the short-term good enough criteria to assess the long-term intangibles such as a 'socially responsible' brand image and goodwill?

Neeraj Gupta, Principal Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), led the IFC team tasked with assisting the Indian government to structure water sanitation Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects along the Ganga River. India depends heavily on the river to support its agriculture and manufacturing sectors. Additionally, the river also held religious significance for Hindus. However, inadequate sewage treatment infrastructure had caused the river to become severely polluted. In the past, initiatives launched by the Government of India to clean up the river had been unsuccessful. In August 2011, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) was established to help states reduce pollution and implement environmentally sustainable development. However, the lack of expertise and financing made progress slow and external support and advice from the World Bank and IFC was sought. In 2015, a team from the World Bank Group consulted with various stakeholders to understand the problems faced. This time, instead of using the traditional Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Model, Gupta introduced the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) PPP model to address the concerns of both the government and private sector investors. The PPP structure would allow the government to save on the capital outlay as well as engage private sector expertise. The HAM structure allowed for sharing of risks between the private sector partners and the government. The HAM model was successfully trialled in a few pilot projects and Gupta hoped that it would pave the way for more similar projects along the river.

At the beginning of 2020, a few weeks before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, André Goerke, the Head of Value Chain Management at Lonza - a leading pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing company based in Switzerland - had just completed the merger of two global business units into a new biotech business unit of the company. After returning from a wonderful day of snowboarding, André received a phone call from his friend Juan Andres that would change his professional focus for the next two years. Juan had become the Head of Technical Operations at the US biotech start-up Moderna - which was working on various early-stage drugs using the novel mRNA technology. The world had been watching with sorrow as cases of COVID-19 appeared in Europe, and stock markets across the globe were in free fall. After learning of these mounting concerns about a pandemic, Moderna had immediately started sequencing the COVID-19 virus. It was convinced that it had an effective and safe mRNA sequence that could serve as a vaccine against the virus. But it had not been able to manufacture anywhere near the volume necessary to fight a global pandemic. Hence, Juan asked André if Lonza could set up a global supply chain and be Moderna's active ingredient partner to manufacture hundreds of millions of mRNA vaccine doses a year. André sensed that this was an incredible opportunity, but there were several risks involved, including counterparty, technology, legal, regulatory, supply chain and HR risks. From multiple angles, this looked like a mission impossible for Lonza, especially since manufacturing was expected to start by the end of 2020.

ZOLOZ, a biometrics platform within the Chinese technology provider Ant Group, served more than one hundred million overseas users with its advanced biometrics identification technology. In 2018, ZOLOZ's general manager was appointed to promote the company's facial recognition technology overseas, extending the company's global ambitions. ZOLOZ aimed to not only increase its user base but also promote the growth of electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) processes. The company successfully expanded to the Philippines and planned to enter other Southeast Asian countries, helping users open accounts remotely. ZOLOZ's general manager needed to decide how it could continue to expand the use of facial recognition technology to the rest of Southeast Asia.

This case follows Shan Kadavil, the co-founder and CEO of FreshToHome, as he assesses the growing diversity of investments being made by his team. FreshToHome is a technology-enabled platform that connects fishermen directly with customers, eliminating intermediaries and guaranteeing product quality and traceability. To achieve their mission, the company has invested heavily in advanced technology and operations to optimize the supply chain, reduce waste, and offer competitive prices. This case highlights the balancing act required by Kadavil as he aims to maintain the company's core mission while fostering growth and adapting to an ever-evolving competitive landscape (including both online players and traditional offline retailers and local vendors) FreshToHome must also navigate logistical issues and cultural differences when expanding geographically into new markets.

Mosaic, a multidisciplinary research platform bringing together researchers and academic collaborators, graduate students, industrial partners, and government decision-makers to accelerate innovation and creativity, recently received two proposals. One was from the University of Locarno, an academic partner, to organize a creative workshop; the other was from ExCom Canada, an industrial partner, to organize a co-design session for its employees. Both organizations wanted their workshops to be held the following week, and Mosaic's co-directors didn't know which proposal to accept. Moreover, ExCom's partnership agreement would expire that year, and it wished to discuss its renewal during the co-design session. It was a difficult choice: the co-directors worried that Mosaic would be less able to attract academic partners if it focused too heavily on industrial activities. On the other hand, industrial partners might lose interest if it focused too heavily on academic research. The key question was thus this: how could Mosaic maintain a balance between academic and industry-specific research while sustaining the interest of researchers?

This case examines the accounting implications of a customer incentive deal between Plug Power (Plug; an industry-leading manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cells) and Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon; Plug's major customer). Alexis Reed is an analyst struggling to understand the implications of the negative annual revenue reported by Plug for fiscal year 2020. This extremely rare occurrence was caused by the interaction between the accounting rules for reporting payments to customers and those for reporting share-based payments. Plug incentivized Amazon to purchase fuel cells by offering stock warrants for every $50 million purchased by Amazon, up to a total of $600 million in purchases. Payments to customers are typically a reduction to revenue, and share-based payments with performance criteria must be measured at fair-market value when it becomes likely that the performance criteria will be met. An unexpected run-up in Plug's stock price caused the fair-market value of the stock warrants given as customer incentives to exceed Plug's expectations. Ultimately, the value of Plug stock awarded to Amazon drastically exceeded the invoice price of Amazon's purchases. The setting provides an opportunity to discuss Plug's motivations in offering these lucrative sales incentives, as well as to explore the definition of revenue, the accounting rules and implications for payments to customers and share-based payments, and the role of non-generally accepted accounting principles (non-GAAP) measures in executive compensation and earnings calls. This extremely rare case of negative revenue serves as a dramatic and intriguing starting point for class discussions. This case is taught at McIntire as the capstone case in an introductory master's-level Financial Accounting course and within the revenue recognition module of an advanced Financial Statement Analysis course for undergraduates.

In 2021, a coalition of seven First Nations communities was exploring a potential partnership with Premium Brand Holdings Corporation (Premium Brands). If executed, this partnership would constitute the single largest investment in the seafood industry by any Indigenous group in Canada. Chief Terry Paul, the Chief of Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, had ambitious goals. He desired to develop his community to become economically and financially self-sufficient in order to free it from dependence on government funding. In 2020, John Risley, co-founder of Clearwater Seafoods Incorporated (Clearwater), shared his plans to retire with Paul and asked him to consider purchasing the company, as he believed Paul and his community would be good stewards of Clearwater. Seeing the opportunity, Paul formed partnerships with six other First Nations communities in Atlantic Canada, but they needed to secure additional funding, and sought a corporate partner to assist. While Paul searched for a partner who would be willing to eventually allow the coalition to purchase 100 per cent of Clearwater, the best offer he received was for a 50/50 ownership split with Premium Brands. Although Premium Brands was not willing to accept Paul's ownership criteria, this deal would have a significant impact for the First Nation communities. Should Paul set aside his criteria and accept the counteroffer? How could he secure this deal while maximizing the benefit for all stakeholders?

Syngenta AG (Syngenta), the Monsanto Company (Monsanto), Bayer Crop Science (Bayer), BASF SE (BASF), Dow AgroSciences (Dow), and DuPont de Neumours, Inc. (DuPont) were the only multinational firms engaged in the discovery of new agrochemical and seed technologies. Despite their fierce rivalry, the six competitors had forged strong collaborative relationships to manage the rising challenges in developing and launching agricultural innovation. A wave of unprecedented mega mergers transformed the industry into even fewer and larger firms. Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, and Corteva became the four new leaders in agriculture. As rivalry increased and innovation became even more challenged, the four competitors were pushed to reassess how they could innovate and collaborate together. Their key challenge was to determine how they could work together to develop the next wave of innovation in agriculture without compromising their individual strengths and competitive advantages.

This case describes the journey of a new CEO bringing an innovative vision and strategy to a for-profit hospital under new ownership. It shows the application of a value-based health outcome approach in this setting, focused on the strategic approach, marketing and branding customer-centricity, and leadership challenges. The case describes key drivers: insurance reimbursement and cost pressures, shareholder ROI, consultant physician and surgeon demands, and patient needs and expectations.

This case about Economic Value to the Customer (EVC) enables students to deeply analyze the positive and negative differentiation value of a product or service, and how distinct demographic segments can have disparate EVC. Additionally, it makes students aware that consumers can feel differently about various types of (equivalent) payment, e.g., $1 spent on service fees, tips, or on monthly fees for a food delivery service. Finally, the case encourages students to think about how to communicate the various aspects of value that a product/service provides.

The case describes Harvard University's consideration to decarbonize its supply chain by replacing cement with a low-carbon substitute called Pozzotive®. Developed and produced by Urban Mining Industries, Pozzotive® is a ground-glass material made with post-consumer recycled glass. A successful pilot project using Pozzotive® could jump start Harvard's initiative to reduce embodied carbon emissions, but Harvard needs credible information about the magnitude and validity of potential carbon reductions. This case illustrates the flow of emissions along a simple supply chain, from Pozzotive® to concrete production to Harvard University's construction project. Students explore the different methods of measuring carbon emissions, including the greenhouse gas protocol and the E-liability approach proposed by Professors Robert Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna. The case further features the opportunity to leverage blockchain technology to facilitate the flow of comparable and reliable emissions information.

This case explores the founding story of German enterprise software company Celonis and its early attempts to globally scale and expand into the complex U.S. enterprise software market. After achieving success co-selling with a single ERP partner with dominant market share in Europe, Celonis' founders and sales teams must learn to test and adopt different go-to-market motions and forms of incentive alignment in the larger and more strategically complex North American software market.

In this fictional case, the CEO of a global pharmaceutical company based in Belgium with operations in Moscow is contemplating what to do in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The company is experiencing pressure from shareholders, Ukrainian and Belgium government officials, and the public to follow in the footsteps of many multinational corporations and cease operations in Russia. However, since the firm provides medically necessary products, the decision isn't straightforward. How can the CEO navigate the complicated political waters of this decision and make the most humanitarian decision? Should the company exit Russia completely, or should it continue to operate but on a smaller scale? Expert commentators respond.