Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a holding company that invests in many diverse businesses. The most significant of those are property and casualty insurance businesses, although the company owns businesses in the railroad, utilities, energy, and finance industries as well. The case focuses on accounting for investments at Berkshire Hathaway. The company adopted the new US guid
This technical note helps explain what leadership really is, explores some of the factors that influence leader effectiveness, and introduces the basics of how people can begin to develop as leaders. It is an introduction to a very big topic area, but provides simple definitions and explanations of complicated concepts.
This case follows Nate Jamison as he determines which business entity to form for his growing City Moving Company (City Moving) in Washington, DC. From the start, Jamison operated City Moving as a sole proprietorship while he bootstrapped the business. Eventually he was able to get his own truck and hire two steady employees, and the three hope to formalize a business partnership to expand City Mo
This case represents an amalgam of commonly reported experiences people have when interacting with others from different social class backgrounds and positions of power. The A case takes the perspective of Dan Marlow, who grew up with access to financial and cultural resources and has built his own construction company. He has just fired Robby Gomez, an otherwise great worker, for chronic lateness
This case represents an amalgam of commonly reported experiences people have when interacting with others from different social class backgrounds and positions of power. The A case takes the perspective of Dan Marlow, who grew up with access to financial and cultural resources and has built his own construction company. He has just fired Robby Gomez, an otherwise great worker, for chronic lateness
This case asks students to review 10 columns of financial data drawn from 10 different companies and to match each with an industry in a list of 10 industries.
Readers are given specific steps to take when digging themselves out from under the frustrating experience of identity theft.
This case provides instructors with an opportunity to discuss some of the fundamental aspects of a typical public company's shareholders' equity financial reporting and financial disclosures. As such, students are provided with information pertaining to PepsiCo's common stock, preferred stock, stock repurchases, cash dividends, stock splits, and GAAP earnings per share (EPS) versus non-GAAP EPS. I
An investor, Janice Zhuk, examines Tesla's quarterly safety data that includes the number of miles it took to register one accident among Tesla cars driving with autopilot versus those without autopilot. The data set is small, so the validity of any statistical analysis may be compromised. The data allow one to run a simple t-test comparison of means. Because of the small sample size, the case inv
This is a Spanish translation of the May 11, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1085. This case deals with the means by which a company's board assess its strengths and weaknesses, identifies the skills and experience it needs, derives a list of suitable candidates, conducts "due diligence" in the process of narrowing in the list, and invites desirable candidates to join the board.
This is a Spanish translation of the May 10, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1083. This is the first case study of 12 in the Jack Wright series of cases on corporate governance. This first case describes the process by which Wright came to be asked to join the board of Mega Corporation. The case requires students to consider the pros and cons of board membership and decide whether they would recommend Wri
This is a Spanish translation of the May 13, 2011, version of UVA-OM- 1090. This case deals with the issues of the corporation's organizational structure and capital structure. Jack Wright and the Mega Corporation board must consider a proposal to eliminate a large number of subsidiary companies to simplify the organization and another proposal to issue corporate bonds, the proceeds of which would
This is a Spanish translation of the May 16, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1093. This case finds Jack Wright and the Mega Corporation board having to deal with a conflict situation involving a director and a "sticky situation" that has emerged from another board on which the director sits. The discussion must deal with both the director's dilemma on the other board and Jack's responsibilities as chair o
This is a Spanish translation of the May 13, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1089. There are many aspects of relationships between the board and management that are determined on a best effort basis. That is, the rules and by-laws of the company cannot prespecify the detailed workings of the intersecting interests. Our system of capitalism depends on the good faith efforts of all concerned to derive effec
This is a Spanish translation of the May 16, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1091. In this case, for which case 10 in the series provides a coda, Jack Wright and the Mega Corporation board must deal with external pressures regarding the company's recent poor financial performance and the threat that a large amount of cash on hand might lead to a hostile takeover.
This is a Spanish translation of the May 11, 2011, version of UVA-OM-1086. This case study augments the chapter on board meetings. The purpose of meetings are illustrated as are Jack Wright's reactions to the flow of his first board meeting with Mega Corporation.
Rachel Moore was an optimistic, cheerful, friendly woman who had recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in business management. She had used scholarships and grants while working 30 hours a week to make up the difference in tuition, and had graduated debt free?becoming the first in her family to earn a college education.
After moving to start a full-time job a marketing manager at a marketin
Cecilia and Luke were recently married and were beginning to build a life together. Although they were complete opposites, they had been able to work through their differences and have a good relationship.
Luke was a musician who did not have a day job. Although his music was able to provide him with an income, it was not steady or reliable. Cecilia, on the other hand, had a steady job working as
Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan are widely regarded as two of the greatest basketball players in NBA history. Both led their teams to championships, and both were named MVP and All-Star multiple times. But Bryant, the "Black Mamba," and Duncan, the "Big Fundamental," had very different styles of play and ways of interacting with their teammates, coaches, and fans. This case offers an overview of these
Tessa Lyons was a rising star at Facebook. She had been the project manager in charge of news feed integrity for a little over a year, stationed at the front lines in the battle against misinformation and "fake news." However, in early 2019, she faced an ethical dilemma that could define her tenure at the company and perhaps her career: whether to ban Alex Jones and the content from his platform,
This case covers the initial public offering (IPO) of the Siemens subsidiary Healthineers. The March 2018 offering of the health care technology firm was heavily anticipated on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and was Germany's largest IPO in more than 20 years.
Healthineers was one of Siemens' most successful businesses, and its management board had a keen interest in its long-term success and in th
The B case in this series picks up after the protagonist, Henry Franklin, has delivered his recommendation to use "first in, first out" (FIFO) accounting to the management of Sunshine O.J. (Sunshine). CEO Don Sanchez is impressed with Franklin's idea and asks him and his boss, Virginia Silverstein, to look into another problem at the company: inventory stockouts.
Henry Franklin works at Sunshine O.J. (Sunshine), a three-year-old, fast-growing organic orange juice manufacturer near Charleston, South Carolina. Before his employment at Sunshine, Franklin worked for about two decades in his family's business, Franklin's Hardware. Franklin learned a great deal during his time in the hardware business and hopes to use some of his insights to help Sunshine, which
Preparing for a potential interview, an MBA graduate reads extensively about Daimler AG. She learns about company's longtime presence in China manufacturing luxury automobiles and its continued investment in manufacturing and R&D capacity in that country. She also learns that the company financed part of its operations and growth in China by issuing bonds in both China and Hong Kong and wonders wh
An MBA graduate prepares for a possible interview with Caterpillar Inc. by reading about the company's longtime presence in China manufacturing heavy equipment and its continued optimism about the heavy equipment market in that country. He also learns that the company financed part of its operations and growth in China by issuing bonds in Hong Kong and wonders whether the company would return to t
This case continues the story of Bill and Elaine Jardine from "Quail Cove Farms (A): One Night and a Big Decision."
The Jardines, having moved into distribution, now face two decisions. First, they must evaluate whether they should continue to pursue each of their three channels of business (farming, retail sales, and distribution); second, they need to decide if they should shift their sales an
This technical note discusses the various financial services segments in which technology solutions have been used to solve problems, including lending, payments, wealth/investment management, insurance, and regulation. For each of the segments, the note identifies key issues facing the segment, why and how fintech might provide an answer to the challenges faced, and the potential difficulties fin
This case uses the streamlining of pharmaceutical distribution to explore supply-chain coordination. For years, supply-chain inventory information had been opaque. Then in the early 2000s, pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors were forced to shift from investment buying to inventory service agreements. Information sharing among channel partners regarding customer demand and inventories was
This field-based case uses the experiences of an equity analyst at his first job post-MBA to explore challenges of persuading a boss to support an action that the analyst determined would benefit the firm. In the A case, Fred Hill had been at his job for two years and believed he had come across a fresh idea?a long stock position in J. C. Penney (JCP). The company was misunderstood by the market,
This field-based case uses the experiences of an equity analyst at his first job post-MBA to explore challenges of persuading a boss to support an action that the analyst determined would benefit the firm. In the A case, Fred Hill had been at his job for two years and believed he had come across a fresh idea?a long stock position in J. C. Penney (JCP). The company was misunderstood by the market,
Eric Walsh, newly promoted director of aviation for Pacific National Industries, Inc. (PNI), is one week away from having to make his very first presentation to the company's COO and CFO. PNI is one of the country's largest chemical companies, and maintained four aircraft and a team of flight and maintenance crewmembers to facilitate executive travel to and from the company's many plants and opera
Service systems are inherently subject to variability, whether through customers, service providers, suppliers, or unexpected events. Yet customers demand excellence and consistency regardless of this variability. In general, there are two ways to handle this variability?through people or through processes. We use the concept of robustness to describe these two approaches. This case uses an invent
A young, female investment banker has just been unexpectedly promoted to managing director of her group—but she'll be taking her mentor's job while he is pushed out over a 10-month stint as a "senior adviser" in their group. This case offers students two decision points and opportunities to practice difficult conversations: first, what should she do, and how, when she first learns of her promotion
This is a Russian translation of the February 20, 2017, version of UVA S-0240. This document is one of three available case-based simulations used as the basis for a multisession course on design thinking. The course emphasizes deep user understanding, iteration, and a focus on the possibilities as a way to enhance value creation for stakeholders. Please refer to the course teaching guide to view
This is a Spanish translation of the June 15, 2009, version of UVA-C-2267. This case presents students with an opportunity to develop a set of performance metrics based on four strategic goal statements. The setting is a highly ranked U.S. MBA program. Students are given some basic, limited-but-sufficient contextual information about the school to get a sense of its heritage, avowed differentiatin
This is a Spanish translation of the October 26, 2011, version of UVA-OB-1026. This second part of the two-part case updated from the Knowlton Roberts case series (UVA-OB-0737 and 0738) provides an epilogue to the manager's ultimate decision of whether or not to take a new job. His decision and how it is communicated to his boss and his boss's reaction are the meat of the B case.
