This field-based case describes the approach and decisions used by Harris Corporation's vice president of supply chain management and operations to establish a set of financial benchmarks. It requires students to use those benchmarks to decide what areas need focus to potentially raise the company's financial results and elevate its financial performance through specific actions within its supply-
Sam Washington is a young single mother looking to get back into the workforce six months after giving birth to her daughter, Kiki. Sam has lined up an interview for a secretarial position at Glass & Duvall, an accounting firm. The A case covers the morning of the interview from Sam's perspective, including details about what she does in the waiting room as well as her actual answers to the inter
Sam Washington is a young single mother looking to get back into the workforce six months after giving birth to her daughter, Kiki. Sam has lined up an interview for a secretarial position at Glass & Duvall, an accounting firm. The A case covers the morning of the interview from Sam's perspective, including details about what she does in the waiting room as well as her actual answers to the inter
This case focuses on how to think about personal and business ethical dilemmas. The case presents three ethical dilemmas: two hypothetical scenarios presented to Kiara in her ethics class, and one real situation in her personal life. While dilemmas one and two may be unethical but legal, dilemma three involves an actual crime. Kiara has been working as a cosmetologist at her aunt's salon for thre
Early in 2019, Wingtech CEO Xuezheng Zhang faced one of the biggest challenges of his career. China-based Wingtech, which Zhang had founded 13 years earlier, had rapidly grown into one of the world's top manufacturers of mobile phones and intelligent devices. But Wingtech didn't manufacture its products' key component: microchips. Most of the chips it used were purchased from American and European
Jason has had a string of bad luck: he was fired from his job, his car got repossessed, he had to move back in with his mother when he was unable to make rent on his apartment, and his girlfriend dumped him. He is feeling unmotivated and discouraged, but also recognizes—at his mother's insistence—that he needs to start contributing to the household. Following his mother's orders, he heads to the l
Hank Carlson, once a successful businessman and a well-respected member of his community, spent nearly two years in prison for check fraud. When he was caught, the community turned on him instantly, and his family suffered financially and socially as a result of his deeds.
Carlson did his time grudgingly, believing himself to have been the scapegoat of a Justice Department that was overcompensati
A recently hired marketing executive has been incentivized to grow sales and exploit a newly opened market. The tasks for the student are to evaluate the liberal credit and inventory support the company is extending to its distributors, and consider what information and metrics might be used to evaluate the risk and potential returns from these policies.
Articles published in academic journals are rich in research that can be invaluable for business management, operations, and strategy. But managers often consider the publications to be too theoretical and impractical. This note can help business practitioners how to approach academic articles and quickly extract relevant information they can apply in their decision-making to benefit their organiz
This short, fictional case chronicles the story of Susan Hughes, the CFO for 4 Sisters Construction Co. (4SCC), who introduces the economic profit (EP) construct to her fellow executives (and sisters) as a viable means for signaling to owners the value the company created for them that year. As such, she has also created a one-step reference table that converts their more familiar earnings before
This case examines the key issues facing MetLife, a major company in life and annuity (L&A) and—to a lesser extent—property and casualty (P&C) insurance. The case provides an opportunity to analyze the business models of insurance companies, the main risks they face, and the broad investment strategies they pursue. The case also discusses how technology (including insurtech), regulation, and risk
This technical note supports the "Shrimp Commodity Systems Learning Lab" (SCSLL) simulation (UVA-OM-1537) used in environmental sustainability or systems thinking courses. It offers detailed guidance for the progression of interactive learning experiences in the SCSLL. Through the simulation, users develop an understanding of the issues facing the shrimp industry system and how policy alternatives
Sara Hughes, the CFO at Sports Equipment, Inc. (SEI), is striving to make financial analysis more easily and uniformly done by the company's investment center managers. As such, she has presented her boss COO George Noland with a pair of tabular tools for deconstructing profit variances into three component parts. Those three parts pertain to the variance amounts due to: (1) utilizing more net ass
This set of caselets gets to the heart of the ethical issues embedded within the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced forms of automation technology in the workplace. Employee surveillance, customer privacy, replacing workers with machines and programs, using new data-mining techniques in the hiring process, and more—the multilayered dilemmas these new opportunities pr
This case considers a $10 million investment in an outpatient surgery center by a not-for-profit community hospital in rural South Carolina. A member of the purchasing department, R. D. Scott, is invited to complete a discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis of the investment opportunity to help quantify the financial costs and benefits of the project in this not-for profit context. The analysis maint
As an advertising consultant for a New York-based clothing company, the protagonist in this case wants to respect and reflect religious diversity in both promotion and publicity. An actress wearing a hijab, the head cover many Muslim women wear in public, has been included in the company's upcoming global ad campaign, sparking concerns about how the campaign will be received in France.
Takin
This case describes the meetings and development of a fictitious learning team at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. The purpose is to give students the opportunity to perform a waste audit on the learning processes of this team. The case gives students the opportunity to identify muda, non-value added activities, in a non-manufacturing environment. The case can be used i
Lisa Walker, a Wharton MBA graduate, was assigned to work in Saudi Arabia as part of her position at JPMorgan Chase. Walker has some trepidation, given Saudi Arabia's posture toward women. Initially, things were good and Walker felt respected and welcomed. After a while, however, the country's customs and dictates toward women began to wear on her. Walker encountered some resistance from male
This note explores the concept of ki, or energy. It concentrates on aikido, a Japanese martial art that channels the human body's natural energy toward balance, health, grounding, and the mental clarity required to overcome obstacles and discover new insights. Aikido is a defensively oriented martial art, designed to utilize the ki of the attack in a manner that turns that energy to the detriment
Maneerut "Nok" Anulomsombut has just been appointed COO of Garena Thailand (Garena), a fast-growing online gaming company. When damaging rumors about one of the company's applications begin spreading among Garena's Thai customer base, Nok is solely responsible for resolving the ensuing crisis. Though the rumors are unfounded, they threaten to undermine Garena's relationship with its cr
This case, a follow-up to "Nok Anulomsombut and the Thai Online Gaming Challenge (A)" (UVA-S-0326), revisits Maneerut "Nok" Anulomsombut, an accomplished and admired business leader in Thailand. Nok reflects on how she handled the urgent crisis at her young online gaming company, Garena Thailand (Garena). A rash of unfounded rumors had shaken both Garena's business stake in Thailand and Nok
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
