This case examines Facebook's corporate governance by reviewing information in the company's proxy statement. Students become familiar with the nature and type of information in proxy statements. They also learn how to examine various facets of executive compensation and corporate governance such as the use of stock options and restricted stock to compensate executives, dual class share structures
This case is used in Darden's required first-year course, "Strategic Thinking and Action."
In 2015, Steve and Heidi Crandall, the founders of Devils Backbone Brewing, LLC (DBB), were looking back on eight years of unanticipated success and significant growth. DBB had created a destination, a brand, and beer that drew people from all over, and it was the largest craft brewery in its region. The en
Brands make promises to consumers, but where do these promises come from? How do brand teams decide what promise to make? This is where the brand essence statement (BES) comes in. It is a document, picture, video, or some other communication vehicle that captures, usually in words and visuals, the intrinsic nature and indispensable quality that makes the brand unique, compelling, and meaningful to
It was a scorching summer day in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Nate McFarland, director of communications at Generation 180, was losing sleep. One month ago, Generation 180, a nonprofit organization, had launched its first nationwide initiative, "Keep It Cool" (KIC). The objectives of KIC were to leverage consumer participation in encouraging retailers to reduce energy waste and to spread the ide
Program- and project-management best practices are typically implemented when a corporation aims to work efficiently and effectively to deliver its projects to the customers on time and to maximize shareholder value. In comparison, when looking at either the public or government sector, projects are typically funded primarily by taxpayer dollars, and reporting requirements and overall level oversi
Dan Nickerson, a private wealth manager at a big firm, had just begun taking on his first set of clients when one of them asked his advice on whether he should add bitcoin to his investment portfolio. Nickerson noticed that the price of one bitcoin had risen from $276.30 in March 2015, to $20,089.00 in December 2017, and closed on March 2, 2018, at $10,977.40. This represented an almost unprecede
This case uses the Vantiv, a US credit-card-processing company, acquisition of Worldpay, Britain's largest payments processor, to discuss broader themes in the payment space. Payments are a crucial function of financial institutions because of their sheer volume and revenue potential. Fintech has enabled more ways for financial institutions and consumers to make payments and has the potential for
A scholar in the area of organizational behavior has just learned that her paper on gender diversity has been accepted by a top management journal. She is looking forward to today's class because her new paper, which she had assigned as reading for class, could serve as a test run to discovering what kind of response her research would elicit from practical-minded business students. But instead sh
Master limited partnerships (MLPs) are limited partnerships that trade on public exchanges in the form of units, similar to common stock. MLPs have several advantages relative to traditional C corporations (C-corps) that have resulted in their frequent use to finance energy-infrastructure assets. The general partners (GPs) retain control of the assets placed in the MLP, can drop down assets to the
Note: This case contains language that some people may find offensive. It is left exactly as it was spoken in the real situation portrayed precisely because it is pertinent to how the situation affected those involved.
"Overheard at the Office," based on a true story, presents the case of an African-American woman who works as an accountant for the league office of the team owners of one of the f
Diogenes pioneered the use of technology to support trustees and boards in their role as fiduciaries of employee retirement funds. Typically, a multinational corporation with operations in 30-40 countries may have hundreds of pension plans, each with their own characteristics. Common among all of them is the opportunity to demonstrate conformance with globally recognized fiduciary best practices.
This case introduces Ron Snyder, CEO of Crocs, Inc., in 2007, a few years after Crocs went public on the NASDAQ in the largest shoe offering ever. Investor excitement at the time had been palpable—the company had garnered a 48% premium above its initial offer price. Since that time, the stock had grown sixfold to its high just last month, at the end of October.
Only a week ago, on November 1, the
Individuals' judgement of probabilities—the likelihood of different events to occur, or the attribution of likely causes to what has occurred—is plagued by numerous biases and errors. This note focuses on Bayesian updating and the base rate neglect, and also provides a brief overview of other biases, including overconfidence, reversion to the mean, the law of small numbers, the conjunction fallacy
Well suited for MBA and undergraduate marketing programs, this case uses product positioning and placement during the early growth stages of a start-up's brand in the food industry to unfold circumstances that allow for an analysis of the firm's positioning and food marketing decisions. All products are plant-based foods distributed nationally in the United States. Seeking to target mainstream tas
In 2017, Peter Tang must prepare the economic analysis of a proposal to insource production of certain parts currently purchased by the Tower and Lattice (TAL) division of Akron Crane Works (ACW), a world leader in heavy lifting machinery. The primary motivations for the proposal were rising costs due to vendor price increases and long vendor lead times. The TAL division believed internal producti
After two years of constant work on their start-up, "DressingRm AR," Natsumi Nakano and Bridget Ellery were at a crossroads. Two investment offers were on the table. Neither offer provided as much money as the start-up needed, and both came with constraints that made Nakano and Ellery wary. But they were running out of money, and without new investment, they'd have to shut down. Nakano still hoped
Well suited for MBA and undergraduate marketing programs, this case uses product positioning and placement during the early growth stages of a start-up's brand in the food industry to unfold circumstances that allow for an analysis of the firm's positioning and food marketing decisions. All products are plant-based foods distributed nationally in the United States. Seeking to target mainstream tas
The CEO of an investment management firm must decide what to do about inappropriate actions by two different employees. While both employees are strong performers, their actions implicate the values underpinning the firm's culture.
The case is designed to surface students' instinctive decision-making tendencies. Thus it is short enough to be read and responded to in class. Students are assigned r
Kris Alexander is a newly appointed partner at the private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. Alexander is preparing an exit proposal for one of Kohlberg's portfolio companies, the TeeGolf Company. Alexander believes that TeeGolf has a great opportunity of selling for a purchase price that would achieve a return equal to or greater than the firm's target IRR of 25%. However, Alexander was concerned about
Kris Alexander is a newly appointed partner at the private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. Alexander is preparing an exit proposal for one of Kohlberg's portfolio companies, the TeeGolf Company. Alexander believes that TeeGolf has a great opportunity of selling for a purchase price that would achieve a return equal to or greater than the firm's target IRR of 25%. However, Alexander was concerned about
This is a Spanish translation of the Nov. 15, 2005 version of UVA-F-1482. In June 2002, a managing director of an "active investor" hedge fund is considering the possible gains from increasing the debt capitalization of The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. Wrigley has been conservatively financed, and at the date of the case, carries no debt. The tasks for the student are to: ?Estimate the potential chang
This is a Spanish translation of the Dec. 19, 2002 version of UVA-OM-1060. This problem set focuses on process-analysis calculations, including throughput, capacity, cycle time, and utilization. See also UVA-OM-1059 and UVA-OM-1061.
This is a Spanish translation of the Dec. 19, 2002 version of UVA-OM-1059. This problem set focuses on process-analysis calculations, including throughput, capacity, cycle time, and utilization. See also UVA-OM-1060 and UVA-OM-1061.
Jane Wolford has it all: a dynamic, lucrative career in investment banking, two beautiful young children, and a loving, successful husband. Yet the balancing act of being effective in all of these roles (banker, mother, wife) is substantial and stressful. When a deal falls through, client interactions don't go as planned, and childcare is late, any semblance of control she might have felt disappea
You are the owner/editor of your own publishing firm, Davis Press. You encounter a dilemma when, in 2010, you are given the opportunity to publish a novel set in the Islamic holy city of Mecca. Given the angry fallout after the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, the Iraq War, and the controversy of Qur'an desecration at the US naval base prison at Guantanamo Bay, publishing the no
This case provides the opportunity for a comprehensive analysis in a service operations strategy course. It touches on subjects including the customer value proposition, profitability, employee management, customer management, robust people versus robust process, queue management, and staffing models.
This case can be used as a basis for discussing the "Four Truths" from Francis Frei and Anne Mor
This case is used in Darden's "Economics of Water" elective.
It was spring 2009, and George Hawkins had only recently taken the position of CEO and general manager of DC Water. He was trying to turn around the public institution overseeing the failing infrastructure of Washington, DC. He had a conviction that urban living (with a high concentration of people in one location) was one way to build
When proposing new or modified economic policies, it is important to understand the distributional implications of such policies. Do they potentially affect everyone in the same way? Or can we expect different impacts for different segments of the population? The specific factors model is a canonical model that is very well suited to address distributional questions related to a range of economic
After Amazon.com announced it would acquire Whole Foods, shares of supermarkets in the United States were hit hard; the same was true for grocers in Europe, as investors there worried about the possibility of Amazon moving beyond US borders in the grocery space. Because little had been said regarding the motivation behind the acquisition, the CEO of a large organic-foods supermarket group in Europ
This technical note is employed in MBA, executive education, and undergraduate courses that cover the art of persuasion. It is used in the core Management Communication course at Darden. Employing the canons of rhetoric devised by Aristotle and his classical contemporaries, the objective of the note is to provide students with a clear and usable map to guide them as they seek to understand the dyn
This technical note is used in management communications or strategic communication courses in MBA or executive education programs where students are learning to develop their ability to persuade others through oral and written communication. It includes a framework for assessing the various skill sets that characterize accomplished communicators and guidance for both extroverts and introverts on
