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In January, 2007, TJX reported that it had suffered from a computer intrusion. The company was sure neither of the identity of the perpetrators nor of how many customers were affected. A deeper analysis revealed that the intrusion had started earlier and affected more customers than previously thought. Ensuing investigation concluded that TJX was collecting unnecessary information, keeping it for too long and employing obsolete and insufficient safeguards. TJX denied any wrongdoing but implemented most of the recommended remedies to strengthen their security.

Information Technology Security.

The case adds value for management students at all levels, as well as for practitioners. Work experience is not a requirement, as the case will expose some of the fundamental concepts pertaining to the scenario described. Assignment questions are designed from the perspective of teaching this case to a business student audience. The case could certainly be adjusted to fit the needs of students in more technical disciplines.

Set in October 2008, the case begins with the dilemmas facing Mr Ramanuj as he and his team from E-Infra Solutions prepared to address the damages caused by a major virus attach at OrangeInc headquarter at Bangalore, India. The virus attack destroyed all the important organizational documents residing on the computer systems and brought its business to a standstill. The catastrophe indicated the need for a comprehensive information technology (IT) security solution which was earlier overlooked by OrangeInc's management.

To teach the basic concepts of information security, in particular malware, and its impact on the business. To introduce the concepts and the importance of security awareness program. To teach the importance of IT infrastructure technology, process and procedures.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

This case is an abridged version of UVA-F-1115. This version is intended for use with audiences requiring less source documentation than is available in the unabridged version. The teaching note, however, contains all the source documentation in an appendix.

Human Resource Management and Public Sector Management.

The target audiences for the case study are BSc, MSc and MBA students and management trainees and executives who are interested in learning the human resource (HR) practices, policies and strategies adopted by the world’s largest commercial employer to ensure complete satisfaction and contentment of their employees and their employee’s family which, in turn, motivates them to contribute more efficiently and effectively for the organisation. Even senior management teams could be targeted in executive education programmes as this case discusses time-tested HR practices, policies and strategies which have been sparsely discussed so far and hence can be expected to provide insights to senior corporate managers.

India has and is undergoing sweeping economic changes lately. There are several organisations that have supported this positive change. Of these, one such organisation, which shouldered the infrastructural burden of the transportation sector in India’s growth story, was the 160-year-old Indian Railways (IR), the world’s largest commercial employer. IR’s profit over the past few years was a far cry from its loss-making days, which tempted the government of India to consider privatisation in 2001. The transformational turnaround would not have been possible but for IR’s employees. After celebrating IR’s 160th anniversary in 2013, the case organisation wished to revisit its HR practices to understand its recent economic transformations and to strategise how they can improve and sustain maximum efficiency in future. The objective of this case study is to understand the “people side” of IR by explaining its current HR practices and to investigate and identify changes over the years so that changes then can be implemented in the context of HR practices for the future. Hence, the case attempts to explain the role of HR management in IR’s turnaround strategies. Resistance exhibited by IR staff towards its recent initiative of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation across India due to fear of job losses and insecurity is also discussed in the case. Teaching note for this case study explains existing people management frameworks published in the research literature to class participants by applying it to the case company. In addition, the teaching note also discusses how chief personnel officers (CPOs) of IR can pursue the change initiatives among the employees with least resistance. Changes/initiatives that can be imbibed by the CPOs in the existing HR practices to overcome the resistance exerted by the employees and to improve the existing system are also discussed.

This case study’s primary objective is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the HR practices being followed in IR, the world’s largest commercial employer. The case also attempts to assess the ERP system initiative by IR and analyse how it can be imbibed into the existing IR’s HR system. In short, the case study attempts to answer the following assignment questions which form the learning objectives of this case study: What are the HR practices that are being followed in the world’s largest commercial employer? How are the HR practices followed helpful in the retention of employees? How can IR pursue the change initiatives, especially ERP implementation, among the employees without any resistance? What are the changes/initiatives that can be imbibed in the HR practices to improve the existing system?

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

An industry adage held that “there are two types of rental car companies: those that lose money and Enterprise.” The company that would become Enterprise Rent-A-Car was started in 1957 in St. Louis, Missouri, by Jack Taylor. Taylor set up Enterprise offices in neighborhoods rather than at airports because he believed that Americans would welcome a local option for renting cars when their own vehicles were being repaired. In 2010 Enterprise had more than 6,000 rental locations in the United States and a fleet of 850,000 cars in service. Its parent, Enterprise Holdings (comprising Enterprise, National, and Alamo brands) accounted for nearly half of the car rental market and was more than twice the size of Hertz, the number two competitor. Enterprise's competitive advantage was the result of the combination of its practices in hiring, training, compensation, organization, customer service, IT, and fleet management, among others.

Students will need to know basic capital budgeting techniques to value UrsaNav and its divisions. Students must determine which cash flows are relevant and determine an appropriate return on investment. Some of the issues that need to be addressed include: how to handle taxes in a discounted cash flow analysis when valuing an S Corp. where incentives depend on current (known) tax provisions and future (unknown) tax provisions; how to use comparable multiples to develop a cost of capital for a DCF valuation; and how to value a firm using comparable transactions.

Case information was obtained through interviews with the owner, Charles Schue. In addition, the authors researched industry and comparable company data, along with current events relating to government consulting.

UrsaNav is a US-based, international provider of advanced engineering and information management consulting services in the naval navigation industry. After about a decade of operating and growing, the firm had become successfully diversified; however, it had also grown too large to manage effectively. Thus, the company was spun-off into three separate segments: Tagence, Geodesicx and UrsaNav. These segments went “back to the basics,” and focused more on serving customers, with each having a more defined company focus. Is this a move that creates or destroys value? How could it create value for the firms’ founders?

This case is intended for an advanced undergraduate or an MBA corporate finance class or an entrepreneurship elective. Students interested in analyzing whether or not decision makers within a company would want to spin-off divisions, or merge with another company, or divest a company would find this case appealing. Other students who just want to analyze whether the company has grown too much would be good candidates to do this case.

Ann Taylor was founded in 1954, and its classic black dress and woman's power suit were staples for years. In 1995 Ann Taylor LOFT was launched to appeal to a more casual, costconscious consumer. Under Kay Krill's leadership, the division began to outperform the original flagship. When Krill was promoted to President/CEO of Ann Taylor Stores Corporation in 2005, she was challenged with rebuilding the Ann Taylor brand - (i.e., meeting the “wardrobing needs of the updated classic consumer”) while maintaining the image and market share of LOFT. By mid-2008, an additional problem appeared: the macroeconomic climate was posing considerable uncertainty, especially for retail businesses. Krill was firmly committed to long-term growth. However, given the 2008 situation, what could she do to unleash what she believed was the firm's “significant untapped potential”?

This case provides comprehensive coverage of a firm's decision to undertake an IPO and the process of going public. The case follows the sequence of events from the company's incorporation in 1999 through the completion of an IPO in September 2005. In addition to raising capital, the TRX IPO case also includes consideration of another motivation for going public. At the time of its incorporation in November 1999, TRX attempted to go public but in the ensuing dot-com collapse, the IPO was never completed. In response to the failed IPO, TRX president and CEO, Trip Davis, turned to strategic investors to raise $20 million in a note convertible into equity at $11 per share. Although Davis had hoped the strategic investors would provide guidance and business opportunities for TRX, they never materialized. By 2004, he had come to believe that the largest strategic investor, Sabre, Inc., was not working in TRX's best interest. Thus, the IPO is motivated by a twofold purpose: to raise money and to provide for a strategic reorganization of the firm's ownership structure.

The case illustrates an entrepreneurial voyage and venture creation and through it helps in identifying the reasons and causes for that venture's failure. It also enables discussion on the importance of planning a venture, more importantly; financing, managing, growing, and ending a venture and on how to avoid the pitfalls that befall such enterprises. This case can be used in Entrepreneurship courses as well as MBA, PGP and Executive Education programmes on Entrepreneurship.

In the fall of 2014, Chad Kartchner, senior manager of marketing and product management at Honeywell Aerospace (HA), pondered how technology could transform the way aircraft were maintained. He had heard a lot of buzz about cognitive analytics, an artificial intelligence term referring to the use of computer models and algorithms to simulate human thought through self-learning systems, data mining, pattern recognition, and natural language processing. The sheer volume of parts and the time-sensitive nature of repairs in the aviation industry made it complicated to identify problems and address them quickly.

Kartchner contemplated the options for updating HA's ground-based maintenance system. Should he emulate HA's state-of-the-art on-board system for an entire aircraft or try something new? Emulating the on-board system, which HA developed internally, would be an easy sell to leadership given internal buy-in and satisfaction with the on-board system, but he contemplated new approaches because he did not want to overlook rapidly emerging technologies. The latter could include crowdsourced features that leveraged the abundance of knowledge among HA's customers' technicians or a cognitive analytics approach. Even if he could persuade leadership to try a new cognitive analytics approach, should HA partner with an established entity or work with a relatively unproven startup who promised lower cost, better features, and quicker turnaround to develop a new system?

Students will step into the shoes of Kartchner as he leads the internal discussion on whether and how to tap into the benefits of cognitive analytic solutions for Honeywell Aerospace and its customers.