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Josh Williams is a Student at the NAU who has driven buses on campus and wants to improve the transportation on campus. He is convinced that purchasing a new type of bus that is more fuel efficient, has larger capacity, better designed for boarding, and has a longer life is worth the higher purchase cost. He sets out to prove it by creating a discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis. Since many of the estimates for the DCF analysis are uncertain, he decides to perform a Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) analysis. Students are asked to step into Josh’s role and perform the analysis.

Josh Williams was a Student in the authors’ MBA program. Both authors teach in this program and one author was the Advisor for Net Impact and worked with Josh to present his idea to the university administration. The authors have changed a name or two but otherwise, the case describes a real situation in a real organization without disguise.

The authors have used this case in a first semester MBA-Applied Management course, Decision Modeling and Simulation. Students already have experience with DCF analysis and have been introduced to MCS. With this case, students apply MCS at the conclusion of a three-week module on predictive analytics. Students have run at least two MCS models and have become comfortable with the software. The case would also be appropriate for a senior-level undergraduate course such as business analytics or management science. It might also be useful for other courses that include the MCS modeling technique learning objectives such as project management.

This case provides an opportunity for students to perform an MCS analysis. MCS is useful when many of the inputs to a DCF analysis (or any model) have been estimated and the modeler is concerned that the estimates are uncertain and could perhaps be a range of values. MCS can be used to understand the effect of this uncertainty on NPV which in turn may affect the decision. The case could also be used without MCS focusing just on the DCF analysis with deterministic sensitivity analysis.

This compact case is based on secondary, published information about the Kiva organization, both in book and article format, listed in the reference list at the end of this teaching note. In addition, the authors accessed the Kiva website using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. This allowed to view Kiva’s webpages when they were a startup organization.

Kiva’s co-founder, Jessica Jackley, is offered $10m by the corporate social responsibility director of a large technology firm. Students discuss why Jessica hesitates to accept the $10m and explore the meaningful application of a nonprofit’s mission statement and the concepts of mission creep and mission drift. The case can be read in class for immediate discussion or assigned outside of class. Ultimately, the students decide and defend whether Jessica should accept the $10m on behalf of Kiva. In the strategic management sections, students were split 35% accept and 65% do not accept which produced a rich discussion.

This compact case has been used in several sections of the capstone strategic management course composed of senior, undergraduate and business majors. This case is used early in the course as an application of the mission and values chapter. This case could also be used in management courses in entrepreneurship, nonprofit organizations and principles.

The discussion questions relating to the case focus students’ attention on breaking away from the intuitive/emotional “boom mentality” driving their business decision and ask them to focus more on analytical decision criteria to support their “go” or “no-go” decisions.

The authors interviewed one of the partners of Burned-N-Turned several times and read the partners’ brief business plan for the food trailer.

Partners are wrapped up in the “boom mentality” in the Bakken oil fields in 2011 and jump into their decision to open a food trailer restaurant to serve the oil field workers and others. But have they omitted important considerations for their business decision?

The study is appropriate for undergrad strategic management courses. The authors have tested the compact case in three sections of capstone senior-level strategic management courses.

This compact case provides a relatively large data set that students explore using visualization and a Tableau dynamic dashboard that they create. Students were asked to describe what the data set contained in relation to employee attrition experience of Baca Beverage Distributors (BBD). The application and managerial questions are set in human resources and a company that is facing high attrition during the pandemic.

BBD shared their data and problem scenario for this compact case. The protagonist, Morgan Matthews, was the authors’ contact and provided significant clarification and guidance about the data. Both the company and the protagonist have been disguised. Some of the job positions have been rephrased. All names of employees, supervisors and managers have been replaced with codes.

During the 2020–2022 pandemic years, BBD experienced, like many companies, a higher than usual employee turnover rate and Morgan Matthews, Director of People, was concerned. Not only was it time-consuming, expensive and disruptive but the company had prided itself on being a good place to work. Were they hiring the right people, people that fit the company culture and people that fit the positions for which they were hired? The company had been using the Predictive Index [1] when on-boarding employees. In addition, there were results from self-reviews and manager reviews that could be used. Morgan wondered if data visualization and visual analytics would be useful in describing their employees and whether it would reveal any opportunities to improve the turnover rate. Before seeking a solution for the high turnover, it was important to step back and learn what the data said about who was leaving and the reasons they gave for leaving.

This compact case can be used in courses that include visualization using Tableau and dashboards. As it is a compact case, it requires less preparation time from the students and less class time for discussion. The case is for students who have been recently introduced to business analytics, specifically visualization and data storytelling with Tableau. For this reason, significant guidance has been provided in the case assignment. The level of the case can be adjusted by the amount of guidance provided in the case assignment. Courses include introduction to business analytics, descriptive analytics and visualization, communication through data storytelling. The case can be used for all modalities – in person, hybrid, online. The authors use it here for visualization and dynamic dashboards but using the same data set and compact case description, exploratory data analysis could be assigned.

Supplementary material for this article can be found online.

Risk literacy matters for business students. A significant aspect of decision-making is accurately evaluating the risks involved in a decision. Research shows that many people are challenged to understand simple, health-relevant risk rates and probabilities. It also shows that many people are functionally innumerate, even educated people like doctors. While there is much academic work in health aimed at understanding how to communicate health risks to patients, an important personal area for business students, there are many industries and organizations where understanding risk is important for business students’ careers. This case provides opportunities for business students to practice these skills.

This is a secondary-data, compact case. The impetus for the case was a blog and the data gathered is primarily from Aviation Safety Net, Worldbank, Airlines.org, International Air Transport Association and Statista.com.

Coming across a blog headline, a professor is dismayed at the message: 2018 saw a sharp increase in air crash deaths. Questioning that the headline is appropriate and that the number of fatalities is an appropriate measure, the professor sets out to analyze airline safety data.

This case is intended for undergraduate or graduate students in an introductory business analytics course. The focus is on using and communicating risk rates and visualization.

Used hypodermic needles were found in Stanton Convention Centre. The Centre’s department heads suggested installing secure needle receptacles. June Patterson, General Manager, quickly learned this was a divisive issue. Heated arguments focussed on two opinions: first, the Centre owed employees a safe working environment and needles constituted a significant risk to safety. Second, other department heads believed that presence of needle boxes would diminish customers’ perceptions of the Centre. According to one, “You wouldn’t find needle boxes in nice restaurants or golf courses.” Having promised a decision by the next meeting, Patterson mulled the question over and wondered how to proceed.

This case was written based on information obtained in interviews with the manager described in the case. The manager’s name, the name of the organization, and the city where it is located have all been disguised.

The authors use this case as the first contact with cases for our incoming MBA cohort in the summer pre-session to acquaint them with the basics of case analysis. However, this compact case could be used in many management courses, graduate or undergraduate, to illustrate difficulties in management decision making for different stakeholder groups.

The concepts most central to our discussions of the case are management decision making and the influences of diverse stakeholder opinions on those decisions.

The Ivey Business School recently decided to outsource its printing to ProPrintR. Barbara Pokropek, Ivey Executive Development (IED), was faced with managing IED's outsourced printing jobs. There had been an increasing number of quality issues with the binder that ProPrintR prepared for IED's executive classes. While binder material errors may not sound like a big deal, for IED these materials are part of their branding and can lead to executive student dissatisfaction. This case describes the evolution of the current situation and challenges students to consider how to manage the situation.

The situation described in this critical incident is real, only the name of the print provider has been changed. Barbara Pokropek was interviewed and she provided the data and examples described. Ms Pokropek reviewed and provided input to revise the manuscript.

This case is intended for undergraduate core operations management classes. It can be used to discuss supplier relations and supply management. As such there are multiple dimensions to the case: importance of clearly delineating the work needed, defining performance expectations and metrics for a supplier, selecting quality tools to help measure performance, and centralized vs decentralized supply management.

The case was created via an interview of the protagonist in 2018 at the US Military Academy by the authors.

The case describes the dilemma First Lieutenant Williams faces when his platoon sergeant unexpectedly leaves. Organizational norms and accepted practices suggest Lieutenant Williams should choose the most senior squad leader, Staff Sergeant Boyer. The departing Platoon Sergeant even recommended Staff Sergeant Boyer. However, based on recent observations, Lieutenant Williams felt Staff Sergeant Boyer may not be the best fit. Instead, the lieutenant considered choosing the newest squad leader, Staff Sergeant Harrison, who seemed to be highly proficient, but had yet to prove himself. Before the lieutenant could fully weight his options, Staff Sergeant Boyer confronted him about a decision.

This case is designed for use in undergraduate courses on leadership and management. The case was not only designed primarily for teaching a lesson on organizational justice, but can also be used to integrate lessons on communication, power and influence, and decision making. Each of these elements is present in the case. The instructor can choose to incorporate them into the lesson for a more wholly encompassing lesson or choose to focus on only the organizational justice aspects at play in the case.

In January 1996, an investment manager of a hedge fund is considering purchasing an equity interest in a start-up biotechnology firm, Rocky Mountain Advanced Genome (RMAG). The asking price is $46 million for a 90% equity interest. Although managers of the firm are optimistic about its future performance, the investment manager is more conservative in her expectations. She asks an analyst to fashion a counterproposal for RMAG's management. The tasks for the student are to apply the concept of terminal value, interpret completed analyses and data, and derive implications of different terminal value assumptions in an effort to recommend a counterproposal. Little computation is required of the student. The main objective of the case is to survey many conceptual and practical challenges associated with estimating a firm's terminal value. Issues addressed include the concept of terminal value; the materiality of the terminal-value assumption; the varieties of terminal-value estimators and their strengths and weaknesses; taxation of terminal values; when to assume liquidation versus going-concern terminal values; choosing a forecast horizon at which to estimate a terminal value; the constant growth valuation model, its derivation, limiting assumptions of constant growth to infinity, and WACC > g; use of the Fisher Formula as a foundation for estimating growth rate to infinity; and using a variety of estimates to “triangulate” in on a terminal value.

The case includes theoretical references to family business, organizational culture, resource-based value and leadership.

The case combines primary and secondary data. There is ample public information about Martin Guitar including histories of the company and its instruments. These were used for background. Primary data were provided by the company in the form of customized data and interviews.. The case writer has served Martin Guitar as a consultant and also plays Martin instruments. The case writer had numerous opportunities to interview Chris and his key lieutenants.

In 2019, C.F. Martin IV (Chris) was in his fourth decade leading one of the America’s oldest family-owned companies, C.F. Martin & Co., Inc. Martin Guitar is a globally known maker of fine guitars that are prized by collectors, working musicians and amateur musicians. Chris was raised in the family business and took on the CEO’s position at the age of 30. The case describes the company’s management practices and the culture that has emerged from them. In 2019, at age 64, Chris confronted issues faced by his predecessors over multiple generations: how to prepare the company for succession, and maintain its strong performance as a family-owned company in a dynamic industry environment.

The case is designed for a management course for upper-level undergraduates.