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By 2008,Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings PLC (ASHH), a leading Sri Lanka hotel group had established a reputation for operating iconic resorts, in particular, its resort at Kandalama in the central highlands region of the country. Heritance Kandalama, the resort, had evolved after a troubled beginning to gain international recognition for its social, ecological and environmental best practices. In large measure, this was due to the emergence of a set of people management practices that had evolved an organizational culture with values that supported these best practices and enabled the resort to survive, notwithstanding ongoing civil conflict in Sri Lanka. In 2007, ASHH launched a strategic drive into hotel management services in India. A major element of the group's brand equity was its core competency in sustainable and community-sensitive development, much of which it had acquired through the Heritance Kandalama resort experience. A key challenge for ASHH: Can the group's philosophy of sustainable development be successfully implemented in India's hospitality industry? How could ASHH use the Kandalama experience to manage hotels in the culturally and socially diverse towns and cities of India?

After 20 years of rapid expansion, the last six months of 2007 saw Starbucks jolted by a decline in share price of 50 per cent and a decrease in customer visits. Its share price was hovering around $19 to $20. By mid-2008, it had declined to $18. Its fiscal first-quarter profit in 2007 rose by less than two per cent, and in January 2008, it announced the closing of 100 U.S. stores. In July, the number was increased to 600. The case was written to encourage classroom discussion and research into the company policy and marketing practices in order to discover the means for a possible turnaround of the company.

In September 2001, Tony Fernandes left his job as vice president and head of Warner Music's Southeast Asian operations. He reportedly cashed in his stock options, took out a mortgage on his house, and lined up investors to take control of AirAsia, a struggling Malaysian airline. Three days later, terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center. Despite the negative aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, by 2003, AirAsia had demonstrated that the low-fare model epitomized by Southwest and JetBlue in the United States, and by Ryanair and easyJet in Europe, had great potential in the Asian marketplace. Now, Fernandes had to make plans to ensure that AirAsia maintained its momentum while considering the influx of new entrants into the low-fare segment of the airline industry in Asia.

Post-Apartheid South Africa has been characterized by high levels of crime, but also by sustained increases in the income levels of the previously disadvantaged black community. Cash is the preferred method of payment for new entrants into an economy, but it is also an attractive target for criminals. Deposita has seized the business opportunity presented by this tension, and developed an automated banking machine, basically an "ATM in reverse." As soon as businesses feed their cash into the machine on their premises, information about the deposit is relayed via a cellphone network to the Deposita database. With the realization that Deposita offers a cash management system that not only eliminates the time, cost and inaccuracies of manual cash counting, but also gives businesses remote visibility into the movement of cash, interest in Deposita grew rapidly, both within South Africa and internationally. The case highlights the systemic nature of innovation, technology-enabled innovation at the base of the pyramid, hyper-mediation, and the tension between product and geographic expansion as the owners of Deposita redirect their strategic focus to the entire cash value chain in South Africa or to international markets or both.

In July 2008, the co-founders of TripIt, a free online travel organizer that aggregated travelers' bookings from many top travel Websites, had recently secured $5.1 million in new financing. While the co-founders believed that their company offered travelers a unique service, they felt growing pressure from investors to show that the company could grow revenues and achieve profitability. To be profitable, TripIt needed not only to grow its user base but also generate more traveler itineraries, which was critical to obtaining advertising revenue from travel suppliers and intermediaries. The online travel industry was a hyper-active industry and while TripIt was breaking new ground, the threat of competitors was very real.

Why do shares in NEC Electronics, a publicly listed subsidiary of Japan conglomerate NEC trade at a discount to their fundamental value? Can Perry Capital, a U.S. hedge fund, restructure this subsidiary and generate significant returns? This case provides students with an opportunity to analyze Perry's decision to invest in NEC Electronics. In doing so, it asks for the reasons that NEC might take actions that destroy value and shift value away from NECE's minority shareholders. The events covered allow for a discussion of how ownership concentration constrains restructuring alternatives, how hedge fund investors might confront controlling shareholders, and how the mispricing of agency costs can give rise to ownership structures that allow for minority shareholder expropriation.

This case is suitable for courses on corporate finance at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level that cover banking, financing, security design, capital structure, or capital markets. The case covers the events that led to the collapse of Bear Stearns's (Bear's) hedge funds in July 2007 and traces management's response to the situation through January 2008. These events include macroeconomic factors that fueled the housing boom, the growth of securitization, structured products, and credit default swaps, and the maturity mismatch of financial institutions' funding strategies. The case provides a rich setting for students to understand the increasingly interrelated nature of banking activities, which poses large systemic risk to the financial sector. Two key questions are posed: "What factors were responsible for the collapse of Bear's hedge funds?" and "Was the response by Bear's management adequate in light of the collapse and the credit problems that ensued?" John Corso is a hedge fund manager with large cash balances in a prime brokerage account at Bear. In January 2008, he receives a call from a senior Bear executive reassuring him that the firm is in good hands following a shakeup of top management. The previous summer, two Bear hedge funds collapsed as a result of their investments in collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that were backed by subprime mortgages. As a longtime client of Bear, Corso must evaluate whether the steps taken by management have been sufficient to resolve its credit problems or whether now is the time to remove his funds from the firm.

Examines a struggling IT outsourcing project from the perspective of the IT services provider--Hrad Technika. When used in conjunction with Tegan c.c.c. (9-609-038), it provides an opportunity to see both sides of the issue. When Hrad enters into a contract to create a new accounts payable system for Welsh toy distributor, Tegan, the outsourcing firm from the Czech Republic views the project as another step in its progression towards delivering higher value services. Unfortunately the project goes poorly, and Hrad is left with the decision of how to rescue the relationship and avoid a similar problem in the future. The case allows the examination of how to manage an outsourcing project and permits a general discussion about IT outsourcing.

Considers the development of Amazon Web Services (AWS), a division of Amazon.com, Inc., specializing in the provision of web-based storage and computing services to web developers. The case focuses on the issues facing Andy Jassy, the head of AWS, in 2008 as AWS faces increased competition from established technology giants, such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM. Students are asked to consider whether entry into web services by Amazon, which had established its brand in retail, represented a prudent move by the company. The case provides an opportunity to highlight the benefits of AWS' variable pricing for developers and to determine where overlaps exist between Amazon's core retailing business and AWS. Students are also provided with an opportunity to discuss operational diversification and its limits within the AWS context.

A group of six university students wondered if they should proceed with Pack-iTS, an entrepreneurial venture. Pack-iTS would be a healthy lunch preparation and delivery service serving some of the elementary schools in London, Ontario. The students must analyze the marketing, operating and financial aspects of the business venture to determine the promotion strategy and financing requirements before making a decision as to whether to proceed with the new venture.

Tesco PLC, the largest retailer in the United Kingdom, was pondering India. India's booming economy and absence of major retail chains provided opportunity to both domestic and foreign firms. Entry of foreign retailers, however, was limited by restrictions on foreign direct investment (FDI) in retailing. India had gradually been removing its restriction on FDI in other sectors but had not done so in retailing because of concerns about the fate of small retailers. Removal of FDI retailing restrictions was inevitable, prompting many large Indian industrial groups to hastily enter the retailing sector before global retailers could. In 2006 Reliance Industries, the largest business group in India, explained that its strategy was to establish "a pan-India footprint of multi-format retail outlets" with large rural hubs to purchase produce and dairy products directly from farmers as part of its "field-to-fork" control of the supply chain. This posed a substantial problem for the global retailers. They could enter the market now with constraints on their investments and hence on their organizational forms, or they could wait for further relaxations of the FDI regulations. India was Tesco's last remaining major market opportunity-Tesco had to decide whether to enter the market, how to enter it, and when to do it.

MTN, a very successful South African wireless telephone company, began in 1994 with the founding of the cellular telephone company M-Cell. In May 2008, MTN entered into exclusive discussions with Reliance Communications Ltd., the second largest wireless company in India, regarding possible business combinations including a merger. The two companies operated in different markets had somewhat different strengths. MTN was experienced in entering new national markets and in efficiently building infrastructure while Reliance Communications was experienced in serving very poor customers in rural areas. Regardless of whether the two companies agreed to some sort of combination, MTN had to deal with challenges in its ongoing operations and evaluate new opportunities in emerging markets. This case explores various issues influencing MTN's analysis, with a focus on non-market factors including taxation, government regulation, and political barriers to financing.

In November 2006, 200 German police officers raided the headquarters of Siemens AG, Europe's leading engineering company, seeking evidence pertaining to widespread bribery. The raid followed extensive investigations of Siemens' activities that originated from a bank's internal scrutiny of accounts believed to be used for money laundering. Amid broadening suspicions, the Siemens initiated its own internal investigation, identifying €420 million in suspicious transactions in its telecommunications unit. The company hired a private law firm to conduct an independent internal investigation. The law firm reported that it had identified €1.3 billion in suspicious payments since 1999 and had received "important ... new information" that could implicate high-ranking executives. This case follows the bribery investigation, touching on possible causes, the company's handling of the allegations, and potential safeguards to protect against future problems.

In 2005, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market Requip (Ropinirole) for Restless Leg Syndrome. Requip had already been approved for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Prior the FDA's approval, GSK had already undertaken an intensive promotional campaign for Requip, issuing press releases, advertising to doctors in medical journals, and advertising direct-to-consumer. In 2003 it began developing consumer awareness of RLS with an advertising campaign stating that a "new survey reveals a common yet underrecognized disorder-restless legs syndrome-is keeping Americans awake at night." While GSK explained that its campaign was simply raising awareness about RLS, others disagreed. GSK was accused of 'disease mongering,' or trying to turn normal people with ordinary experiences into patients. This case explores GSK's tactics and the distinction between raising awareness and inappropriately promoting a drug.

After hearing a talk by Muhammad Yunis, a Bangladeshi economist, about an innovative program to provide loans to beggars, Jessica Jackley Flannery became convinced that microfinance "was the coolest thing in the world." In 2004 she and her husband, Matt Flannery, went to Africa and began discussing how they could contribute to microfinance. In October 2005 they ran a pilot Internet trial with eight Ugandan entrepreneurs. The couple sent an email to people on their wedding guest list announcing the opportunity to lend-over the weekend all eight entrepreneurs were fully funded. The duo also sent out a press release that was posted on Daily Kos, and $10,000 was raised in one day. The first person-to-person micro-lending organization had been born. This case describes Kiva's operations and introduces the challenges that the organization faced as it pondered growth.

Banco Compartamos was formed in 1990 as a non-governmental organization to aid the poor in rural areas of Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico by providing microloans. In 2001 Carlos Danel and Carlos Labarthe took the organization private and then in 2007 took Compartamos public in an IPO valued at $1.53 billion. Compartamos executives received $150 million of the $450 million in proceeds. Banco Compartamos became one of Mexico's most successful banks, with an average return on equity of 40 percent since becoming for-profit. Critics, however, charged that Compartamos managed its business to benefit its investors, not its borrowers and did a disservice to the world of microfinance. This case briefly explores Banco Compartamos and microfinance approaches.

In 2006 Andy Papathanassiou was faced with a new dilemma. After 15 years of working within the racing world of NASCAR, as athletic director for HMS, he was searching for the next breakthrough to improve pit crew performance. Earlier in his career, he had successfully halved pit times and changed standards across the racing industry by introducing athletic training and transforming pit crew members into pit athletes. In doing so, Papa created a legacy in motorsports and transformed auto racing. Papa's instinct was that within the matching process of assigning pit positions existed an opportunity that would improve performance. Papa was looking for ways to elevate the system dynamic whether it be "man or the machine." The next breakthrough would most likely be less dramatic than the first, though no less important. Fractions of a second could determine whether a race was won or lost. Other contributing factors were the continued evolution of racing, new automotive technologies and NASCAR's regular changing of the rules to keep the playing field level. Learning objectives: To illustrate operational process improvement methods, like lean, and open innovative techniques that can lead to improved performance and productivity in time-based competition. The case uses the concept and illustration of knowledge brokering techniques - using old ideas to find new answers and solutions for problems and how this can be applied to improve performance. It is a platform for considering improvement approaches in interconnected time-based production or service systems. The case also questions what will be the next breakthrough in performance and promotes discussion as to whether it will be a human or technological element.

The credit crisis of 2008 placed compensation practices at publicly traded firms in the United States under scrutiny. This case examines perceived excessive pay and severance packages at several firms implicated in the credit crisis of 2008, the executive compensation provisions in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, and discusses the implications for compensation committees at public companies.

Muhtar Kent had just been promoted to the CEO position in Coca-Cola. He was reflecting upon the past leadership of the company, in particular the success that Coca-Cola enjoyed during Robert Goizueta's leadership. The CEOs that had followed Goizueta were not able to have as positive an impact on the stock value. When his promotion was announced, Kent mentioned that he did not have immediate plans to change any management roles but that some fine-tuning might be necessary.