This case captures the problems concerning cash flow and working-capital management typical of small, growing businesses. At the end of 2020, Roger and Christine Barton have completed their third year of operating Nelson Nurseries, a $1-million-revenue woody-shrub nursery in central Virginia. While experiencing booming demand and improving margins, the Bartons are puzzled by their plummeting cash
This is a Spanish translation of the December 16, 2019, version of UVA-OB-1307.
This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values.
This B case contains a video and a transcript of an interview the case authors conducted with Ricardo Martinez on July 15, 2019, concerni
This is a Spanish translation of the March 23, 2020, version of OB-1306.
This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values.
In 2009, Ricardo Martinez, management assistant at Premium Capital Investment Advisors (PCIA), was asked to fabricate some of the information to
This case examines the financial performance of Bob's Baloney, a leader in the ultrapremium bologna market. While the business appears to be doing well with respect to most of its stakeholders, its largest equity investor has recently expressed strong dissatisfaction with the company's financial performance. Students are invited to examine the financial statements and ratios associated with the bu
The US-China trade war in 2019 led to major shifts in global trade and supply chains, highlighting the recent trend in deglobalization. This case discusses the patterns of international trade and capital flows across the two countries, determinants of trade imbalances, and the role of national savings, policies, institutions, and exchange rates. The material allows for an examination of several fa
This case set follows Eric and Holly Nelson, founders of Special Hope Network, a nonprofit organization providing holistic therapy services for children with intellectual disabilities and their families in Lusaka, Zambia. Eric, a pastor, and Holly, a special needs teacher, had previously adopted three children with Down syndrome and moved to Zambia to form this enterprise. They worked hard to over
This case set follows Eric and Holly Nelson, founders of Special Hope Network, a nonprofit organization providing holistic therapy services for children with intellectual disabilities and their families in Lusaka, Zambia. Eric, a pastor, and Holly, a special needs teacher, had previously adopted three children with Down syndrome and moved to Zambia to form this enterprise. They worked hard to over
This case set follows Eric and Holly Nelson, founders of Special Hope Network, a nonprofit organization providing holistic therapy services for children with intellectual disabilities and their families in Lusaka, Zambia. Eric, a pastor, and Holly, a special needs teacher, had previously adopted three children with Down syndrome and moved to Zambia to form this enterprise. They worked hard to over
When Karl Quist, a resident of Charlottesville, Virginia, looks at the rate increases in his unsubsidized, individual-market Affordable Care Act (ACA) health care insurance premiums in November 2017, he realizes that they have nearly tripled from the year before and that he will have to spend over $35,000 during the year in premiums for coverage that will entitle him to a benefit only after he has
How do brands travel? As firms expand globally, they must manage how their products and services are perceived across borders, peoples, and cultures. This can be thorny when what a firm offers has no immediate interpretation by an international audience, like selling ice cream to a nation that consumes little dairy. It can be even worse when a company's key products are likely to elicit negative r
Reviewing content at scale had become a challenge for social media firms, and really for any business that worked to keep its public image truthful and accurate. Between public outcry and seemingly unending media investigations, government regulators were becoming increasingly concerned and putting pressure on regulators to evaluate content and privacy issues in social media.
During congressiona
Capital markets facilitate the appropriate exchange of money. For lenders and borrowers, the interest rate is the primary pricing mechanism that markets use in this exchange. For borrowers deemed to have higher credit risk, lenders add a risk premium to the interest rate to compensate for higher risk. Credit risk is the risk that the borrower will default on (not pay) the payments agreed upon in t
This case looks into how to effectively engage audiences through social media marketing. Specifically, the case addresses how entrepreneurs can use Twitter to generate community awareness through tweets and retweets. It also provides information about Twitter's history, format, and publicly available data analytics.
This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values.
After joining an international environmental consultancy firm, Ma Jun, a journalist in the People's Republic of China, was increasingly interested in environmental issues. Wanting to do more than report on these issue
This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values.
After joining an international environmental consultancy firm, Ma Jun, a journalist in the People's Republic of China, was increasingly interested in environmental issues. Wanting to do more than report on these issue
This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values.
After joining an international environmental consultancy firm, Ma Jun, a journalist in the People's Republic of China, was increasingly interested in environmental issues. Wanting to do more than report on these issue
An up-and-coming staffer at a small family foundation was considering whether to recommend a corporate bond investment to the foundation's investment committee. Her exploration was inspired by an article that identified some attractive corporate bond investments, and she was examining the merits of specific bond issues from Allegiant Travel, GameStop, and Western Union. Information is provided tha
This case studies the growth of OYO Hotels (OYO) to illustrate the operational processes necessary to succeed in the service sector. The case allows for a discussion of employee- and customer-management systems, tech-driven solutions, and profit drivers. The material unfolds OYO's growth and its solution for making economy hotels discoverable and bookable online.
The case raises a series of ques
This public-sourced case describes the latest restructuring efforts by Deutsche Bank (DB) and gives a short history of prior restructuring efforts from the decade before. In July 2019, Christian Sewing, the new CEO of DB, announced a series of measures that included, among others, the elimination of global equity trading, the layoff of 18,000 employees, the creation of a "bad bank" to transfer non
Rebecca Banquette, a recently hired executive coach and Lean consultant at a staffing firm in the health care industry, has experienced a change in her Lean management philosophy and approach. Previously, she focused heavily on Lean's technical process-improvement aspects, but after a period of personal exploration and growth, she has decided to focus first and primarily on the development of peop
Beth Collins, CFO of Software Sense, an American multinational computer hardware and software developer, contemplated various ways that her publicly traded company could embrace a more long-term orientation in its quarterly reports and throughout its reporting ecosystem. Like other publicly traded companies, Software Sense faced constant pressure from investors and analysts to increase short-term
When Brian Huseman, vice president of public policy for the Seattle-based internet retailer and technology company Amazon.com (Amazon), prepared to meet economic-development officials and community leaders from Arlington, Virginia, in the wake of the company's February 2019 decision to pull a second headquarters location out of New York City, a lot was on the line.
Facing a limit on its growth in
This is a Russian translation of the January 6, 2016, version of UVA-F-1634. Given recent changes in market conditions and ongoing market uncertainty, an internal financial analyst at Heinz must estimate the company's weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Data for both Heinz and comparable firms are provided. The case provides opportunities for students to learn or practice a WACC calculation w
This case follows Kaycee, who had just returned two weeks ago from a 27-month stay in prison, as she discovers that she is the victim of identity theft. To find out what steps to take, Kaycee reaches out for advice to Marisa Berryman, a mentor at the residential facility that housed Kaycee for three months following her incarceration before she returned home. The goal of this case is to educate st
This case tracks a woman named Jodi as she dreams of going back to school in her early 30s to become a nurse. Jodi had put off higher education for 15 years after she became pregnant with her son as a junior in high school. But now, with her son only a few years away from leaving the house for college himself, Jodi wants to improve both her future and the $30,000 income she currently earns as an a
Arredondar was a nongovernmental organization (NGO) whose objective was encouraging the culture of donation in Brazil through acts of micro-donations. Any shopper could donate at the retail stores that partnered with Arredondar. The process was simple: customers could round up the total value of their purchase to the next whole value, and the difference in cents would be donated to carefully selec
A follow-on to Spyros Pharmaceutics (A): The Booklet Label Decision, this case looks at a quality issue related to the start-up of the production process. Data is given for students to calculate the effective yield and cost for the production runs.
A packaging supplier for a pharmaceutical firm proposes an innovative cost-saving measure for the next clinical trial: instead of dozens of custom labels for participating countries, the company can create one universal booklet label with a page for each.
A senior clinical-supplies manager must weigh the proposal before presenting it to the clinical team. Were the efficiency and cost savings wor
This case examines the transformation of the University of Virginia Health System (UVAHS) into a leader of operational excellence focused on both patient outcomes and health care team members' well-being with its signature quality improvement and safety program, Be Safe.
The case provides opportunities for class discussions in several areas, including managing organizational change, understandin
This case, a follow-up to "The University of Virginia Health System: The Next Generation of Quality Care and Patient Safety (A)" (UVA-OM-1608) continues to follow the University of Virginia Health System's (UVAHS's) transformation into a leader of operational excellence focused on both patient outcomes and the well-being of health care team members with Be Safe, its new signature quality improveme
This case presents a scenario wherein Hayes Humphreys, the Chief Operating Officer of Devils Backbone Brewing Company (DBB), has just attended a quarterly summit held by Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) for all 12 of the North American craft breweries in its High End business unit. It is the summer of 2018, and Humphreys has had over a year and a half to observe DBB's evolution since its acquisition by
