This field-based case chronicles how Embraer, a recognized market leader in Brazil’s regional aircraft industry, designed and developed an almost entirely new aircraft, the E2-190. Given the success of the E1-190, a project to redesign that successful product was a bold move. Yet the E2 project excelled. It surpassed industry expectations, including being under time and under budget, and it logged
This course applies and builds upon the concepts of financial management introduced in FIN 3403 and FIN 4424 courses via cases and lectures.
The realities of boardroom dynamics can often reveal a different story than how things appear on paper. Boards need the right dynamics and culture to effectively carry out their responsibilities. At their best, boards can catch budding issues before they negatively impact the firm and can partner with management to lead through change, like they did with Indra Nooyi's transformation of PepsiCo. Gi
The General Electric Company's (GE's) iconic Appliances division enjoyed a significant role in the company throughout the 20th century, representing one of the most recognized engines of the GE brand. By the 21st century, however, GE had changed its focus to technology and infrastructure businesses, and GE Appliances' contribution represented less than 5% of GE's revenue and profit. Recognizing GE
For exam simulation led by Professor Rajkumar Ventatesan.
This case, a follow-up to "ConocoPhillips Confronts a Crisis: What's the Message? (A)" (UVA-S-0347), explores ConocoPhillips' ongoing struggle with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The company decided to act and talk to the market via a call where the executives would speak to the company's position, but as the situation continues to worsen and COVID-19 shows no signs of going away, ConocoP
In 2011, the Tahija family foundation, Yayasan Tahija, in Indonesia, was considering various options in continuing its philanthropic work. Throughout its existence, the foundation had supported projects in education, health, social services, environmental conservation, and other areas, and had a reputation as one of the leading philanthropic foundations in Indonesia. Its projects included, among o
In late January 2020, Fuqing city officials approached Bin Lin, CEO of diaper manufacturer DaddyBaby, with a request that came straight from China's central government: In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, could Lin refit his manufacturing facilities to make 800,000 masks a day? And could he do so within two weeks? The local province had a severe mask shortage, and the region's largest diaper maker
In 2017, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) voted to issue tax-exempt municipal bonds through a competitive bidding process. An associate at Citibank's (Citi's) Debt Capital Markets group must define Citi's bid for the bonds. During the investor lunch, the MBTA promoted that a portion of the issuance would include the first tax-exempt sustainability bond. Green bonds were a rela
This field-based case explores what happened when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world's oil market. ConocoPhillips, a global leader in energy exploration and production, had withstood many oil price cycles in its time, but COVID-19 caused a crash that sent prices plummeting and investors scattering.
Ellen DeSanctis, the senior vice president of corporate relations for ConocoPhillips, needed to co
At the request of local and national government officials, Bin Lin had just agreed to manufacture face masks to help contain China's nascent COVID-19 crisis. Lin was the founder and CEO of Chinese diaper manufacturer DaddyBaby. In late January 2020, he found himself working with a team of government efficiency specialists who would ensure that—within the space of two weeks—his diaper factory could
What tangible use does artificial intelligence (AI) have in a typical business setting? In this fictional case, Viviana Valenty, chief technology officer of e-commerce company Corellia, must decide how to incorporate AI in Corellia's business model to satisfy its main investor. She considers potential use cases for AI in each of Corellia's five departments: finance, customer service, marketing, op
This case, a follow-up to "Yayasan Tahija and Venture Philanthropy: The Eliminate Dengue Project (A)" (UVA-E-0427), continues the story of the Tahija family foundation, Yayasan Tahija, as it continues to work to craft solutions to Indonesia's societal problems.
After much deliberation, Yayasan Tahija's leadership decided that the work to eliminate dengue fever was too important to abandon. The f
The well-known net present value (NPV) rule advocates accepting all investment projects that have a positive NPV. The NPV rule makes economic sense since positive-NPV projects are expected to create economic value. But what should a manager do if the total investment capital needed to fund the available positive-NPV projects exceeds the budgeted capital available? This note illustrates and discuss
This is a Russian translation of the March 16, 2021 version of UVA-QA-0923. UVA-QA-0923H2 is only available in English.
This three-stage simulation game exposes participants to dilemmas of collective value creation and individual value capture in alliances. In pairs, the participants decide whether to collaborate with one another in assigning engineers to a project of developing autonomous vehic
This three-stage simulation game exposes participants to dilemmas of collective value creation and individual value capture in alliances. In pairs, the participants decide whether to collaborate with one another in assigning engineers to a project of developing autonomous vehicles. The participants play one of two roles: they are either executives for Autonomous Motors (AM, a car "hardware" compan
This case is designed to introduce general management students to applied digital transformation at the program level. The Griffin program is a midsized but high-stakes program in the US Special Operations Command focused on intelligence gathering and analytics. This case describes how the team and its lead used agile to refocus the program, working to drive valuable outcomes for stakeholders.
The course addresses principles in determining investment vehicles for individual and institutional investors. The course focuses on investment information sources, features of various securities instruments, as well as strategies and techniques for portfolio construction, management and protection.
Anna White, process engineer at Acme Funding (Acme), a mortgage-loan-processing company, is considering a redesign of the loan-closing process. She is evaluating a centralization/decentralization system called "pods," similar to manufacturing cells, as a process redesign. Data is given for the student to analyze the implications of this approach and suggest alternatives. Students must calculate
This note describes a collection of 26 teaching case studies and 5 expository notes on the history of financial crises from 1720 to 2008. The note also summarizes a semester-length course design based on these materials. The purpose of this collection is to advance pedagogy and research in the field of financial crises.
This case uses the impact of the global pandemic on the concentrated meatpacking industry to explore management of supply chain disruptions. COVID-19 had created massive problems at Tyson Foods, with high infection rates among workers, plants closing, and farmers unable to deliver livestock to processing plants. This translated into shortages at grocery stores. Then the president of the United Sta
4 Cases to be used by teams for analysis and recommendation presentation
In August 2004, Interbolsa's risk management committee had to decide upon a request to double the authorized quota for repurchase agreements (repos) on Interbolsa's own stock. Two months earlier, Jorge Arabia had joined Interbolsa, the largest stock brokerage firm in Colombia, as CFO. In this role, he had a seat in the risk management committee.
Arabia had noticed that these repos carried large a
In August 2004, Interbolsa's risk management committee had to decide upon a request to double the authorized quota for repurchase agreements (repos) on Interbolsa's own stock. Two months earlier, Jorge Arabia had joined Interbolsa, the largest stock brokerage firm in Colombia, as CFO. In this role, he had a seat in the risk management committee.
Arabia had noticed that these repos carried large a
Susan, a first-year analyst at a trading firm, is the only woman among a tight-knit group of 30 analysts, now that Paulette has just been promoted to associate from third-year analyst. She and the rest of the analysts are summoned to an HR meeting because one of the male analysts has been putting Post-It Notes with drawings of penises in Paulette's workspace. All the analysts know who the offender
Susan, a first-year analyst at a trading firm, is the only woman among a tight-knit group of 30 analysts, now that Paulette has just been promoted to associate from third-year analyst. She and the rest of the analysts are summoned to an HR meeting because one of the male analysts has been putting Post-It Notes with drawings of penises in Paulette's workspace. All the analysts know who the offender
Sticks Kebob Shop (Sticks), a small restaurant chain headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia, is interested in opening its fifth quick-service restaurant, and the executives have narrowed their search to four targets. But before selecting the site, they want to get a better sense of who Sticks’ customers are, which location will attract the best customers, and how best to connect with customers. Although they have a rough idea of their customer base from anecdotal evidence, they decide to collect survey data to confirm their hypotheses. Will the demographic and psychographic assumptions they gathered from talking to people in stores align with the survey answers? And what will the data tell them about where to locate their next store, and about which marketing channels and messages would be most effective in promoting it?
This exercise aims to provide a rich discussion around marketing research. Specifically, this exercise presents 10 mini-scenarios that could be resolved with proper marketing research techniques. This exercise can be used as a midterm exam or an in-class exercise to summarize and discuss different marketing research techniques, along with their pros and cons.
A government's impact on the economy is not limited to taxes, spending, and monetary policy. As any manager can attest, regulations dramatically impact the way managers think about production. An effective regulatory environment will allow both new and existing firms to grow and innovate. Burdensome regulations can lower economic productivity and employment, and are associated with higher levels o
Having just moved from the sales department to the marketing team at a start-up, Lisa is confronted with a dilemma. Part of the reason she switched departments was to improve the strained relationship between the two departments. Her first assignment is to call competitors, pretending to be a customer, to get their pricing information. Lisa doesn't want to lie, but feels a responsibility to her ne
Having just moved from the sales department to the marketing team at a start-up, Lisa is confronted with a dilemma. Part of the reason she switched departments was to improve the strained relationship between the two departments. Her first assignment is to call competitors, pretending to be a customer, to get their pricing information. Lisa doesn't want to lie, but feels a responsibility to her ne
This is a Japanese translation of the March 17, 2020 version of UVA-GEM-0175. 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, institut
These fictional caselets, some of which are based on lived experience, present dilemmas and ethical issues in the financial field. The situations include an investment-banking firm executive deciding how to handle an investment tip; an executive struggling with whether to push her tech start-up client to a lucrative IPO or to follow her company's directive to push a merger instead; an employee ask
Britannia Chemicals was under pressure from investors to improve its financial performance because of the accumulation of the firm's common shares by a well-known corporate raider, Sir David Benjamin. Earnings had fallen to 180 pence per share at the end of 2017 from around 250 pence per share at the end of 2016. The Merseyside Works's manager thus believed that the time was ripe to obtain funding
This note, written to accompany "The NBA, China, and Social Media: What Are the Rules of the Game?" (UVA-E-0459) but useful in tandem with other cases, charts the history of freedom of speech in the United States. The US Constitution did not originally include the Bill of Rights (which contains the 1st through 10th Amendments), but after more than 200 years of legal and philosophical shifts, expre
This course covers the valuation and application of a wide variety of fixed income securities. Fixed income securities include Treasury notes and corporate bonds, floating rate notes, callable bonds, among many others, issued by public or private entities.
Alyssa Harris was the CEO of TechTeen, a Washington, DC, nonprofit. Like many organizations during summer 2020, TechTeen issued a statement supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. A valuable board member expressed concern, threatening to resign over the statement, which escalated discussions among staff and volunteers.
The case considers how Harris should manage and respond to these issues.
The protagonist, the CEO of Juul Labs (Juul), an e-cigarette company founded to help smokers quit cigarettes, is trying to negotiate a merger with Philip Morris International (PMI), the behemoth tobacco company, in the face of bad press about e-cigarettes and Juul in particular. If Juul and PMI merge, Juul would have access to PMI's wide distribution network, a necessity for expanding into interna
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.
Maria Pérez has been working at IBB, one of the largest investment banks in Latin America, for only a few months, when she is confronted by a dilemma. She is working with her mentor and boss, Veronica Muñoz, on an acq
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.
Maria Pérez has been working at IBB, one of the largest investment banks in Latin America, for only a few months, when she is confronted by a dilemma. She is working with her mentor and boss, Veronica Muñoz, on an acqu
As the cofounder and CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey had spent the better portion of his life rapidly growing the company from a niche natural grocery store in Austin, Texas, into the premier natural-foods grocer in the United States. Highly regarded as industry leader, Whole Foods contributed to the explosion in health-conscious eating sweeping the country.
But not all good things lasted forever
In this fictionalized case, the protagonist is the director of talent and recruitment at Amazon and had been in charge of developing an artificial intelligence (AI) hiring tool that could shape the future of recruiting practices throughout the world. However, she begins to question the ethical implications of this tool. While the employees hired via this AI tool were performing exceptionally well,
In July 2019, Bruce Miller, CEO of Investure, LLC (Investure), an outsourced chief investment office (OCIO), is preparing a proposal for Franklin and Marshall (F&M), a small liberal arts college located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with an endowment of $350 million. F&M recently began a search to find a new endowment manager in hopes of improving its investment returns and access to alternative ass
Use of Case studies to understand this industry
Using the fictional situation of two brothers facing the challenge of managing a commodity business in central Africa, this note explores different metrics for risk and related considerations for investors. The note considers measures of volatility, including the difference between systematic risk
Despite the important role that assumptions about intentions play in our judgments of others' actions and how we respond to these actions, most of us haven't thought much about the accuracy of the inferences we make, the ways our decisions about "what he meant to do" or "why she did that" might be unintentionally biased, or the potential negative effects that result when inferences about intention
This public-sourced case describes Deutsche Bank and what leaders called its most fundamental transformation in decades to frame a discussion on how the current CEO, Christian Sewing, chooses to reshape the global bank. Notable were plans to reduce Deutsche Bank's footprint in investment banking and reorganize management. The material offers a short history of prior restructuring efforts that allo
This course applies and builds upon the concepts of financial management introduced in FIN 3403 and FIN 4424 courses via cases and lectures.
