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This case study was prepared through secondary research. The secondary data was collected in electronic format from the internet. Archived data from the company sources as well as other resources available online was used. Financial reporting about Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer) was done using data from the company’s annual reports.

This case discusses US-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s successful rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine under the leadership of its Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla (Bourla). In March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, leaders of pharmaceutical giants worldwide were in no way prepared to find a cure for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. On the other hand, Bourla stood up like a true leader and sought to do something to address the problem. Bourla’s huge gamble paid off. In December 2020, the Food and Drug Administration approved the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer. Pfizer was ready with 50 million vaccine doses for global distribution.

This case is intended for use in MBA/MS level programs as part of the curriculum on Effective Leadership and Decision-making, and Crisis Management.

• Identify challenges of operating a start-up business. • Understand the social enterprise and role of gender (women entrepreneurship). • Assess the responsibility of unskilled women entrepreneurs and the challenges faced by them. • Describe business and marketing strategies adopted in market segmentation and product promotion. • Discuss strategies adopted to sustain a small business.

Yola EcoSentials (YES) was a social enterprise originated from the American University of Nigeria, Yola, capital city of Adamawa, Nigeria. It was established in September, 2012. It started with the mission to improve the environment, reduce waste and empower women. It engaged in production of hand bags, wallets, table mats and iPad bags from the recycled waste items such as nylons. YES was founded and spearheaded by Charles Reith (Chief Executive Officer). YES faced certain major challenges in expanding its business, namely, maintenance of quality products and accountability of business operations including personal income savings plan and source of new customers. Moreover, YES was having a serious concern of project sustainability because of the availability and division of insufficient raw materials to operate their business. To overcome these challenges, in December 2016, YES planned to devise its growth strategy to operate their business run by local women in Yola, Nigeria.

Undergraduate and graduate early stage programme.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

In October 2004, Mr. Richard Sands, CEO of Constellation Brands, evaluated the potential purchase of The Robert Mondavi Corporation. Sands felt that Mondavi's wine beverage products would fit into the Constellation portfolio of alcohol beverage brands, and the opportunity to purchase Mondavi for a highly favorable price was quite possible due to recent management turmoil at that company. However, should it be purchased, strategic and operational changes would be necessary in order to fully achieve Mondavi's potential value. In making a decision, students need to consider the attractiveness of the wine industry, its changing structure, its share of the overall market for beverages, and rival firms' strategies. As rival bidders may emerge for Mondavi's brands, Constellation must offer a price that demonstrates its serious intent to acquire Mondavi.

There are a range of business evaluation methods that can be applied to determine the value of a business. Ultimately, the valuation of a business is what someone will pay for it when the sale transaction is completed. When determining the value of their own business, business owners are often influenced by how hard they have worked to start and build up the business, what the business represents and their projections for the future (Hawkey, 2017). This case provides an opportunity for students to consider exit strategy planning and how to establish a fair market price for a business, how to consider the value of good will and, in particular, the value associated with running an environmentally conscious bakery operation. The trend toward environmental responsibility and green practices in the small business community has started to have an impact on the value of small companies (Inc. 2021). Finally, the case raises the issue of the personal values of the owners and the related implication of finding a buyer with similar values and interests for a bakery business.

This case was field researched and the company and individuals are not disguised. One of the authors interviewed the two owners of The Royal Bakery. There were three interviews over a six-month period. The interviews were audio recorded. An ethical review for this research was completed at the co-authors’ institution, and a case release was signed.

The Royal Bay Bakery presents Dave Grove and Gwen Snyder who, with over 30 years in the bakery business, had started to consider next steps toward retirement. Royal Bay Bakery was profitable and growing. As they prepared to retire and sell the business, they were unsure about how to maximize the value of the business. They also wanted to find a buyer who would recognize and continue their business commitment to environmental and social sustainability.

This case may be taught in a class on exit strategies for small family businesses in the context of a small business course. This case is appropriate for both undergraduate seniors and graduate students. The case may be used to help students understand small business valuation, family ownership and exit strategies and environmental practices in small businesses. Instructors may choose to emphasize specific conceptual tools, including SWOT analysis, and business valuation. The case may also be used to reinforce applications of exit strategy for small, family-owned businesses.

The case deals with an Urban Cooperative Bank situated in Ahmedabad, known as Ahmedabad Peoples Urban Cooperative Bank (APUCB). The bank had come under the scanner of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during 2009 because of mismanagement. It had failed to resolve its liquidity crisis even after the Reserve Bank of India imposed restrictions. The Government then appointed an external administrator, Hemant J. Rindani, to resolve APUCB's liquidity crisis. The bank had started paying claims but had lost people's trust. The last option for Rindani was to liquidate the bank. Rindani was however contemplating on various other options to come out with amicable solutions like, merge with other branches or pump in fresh capital and restart the business.

Desai, a College Student, faced a job search dilemma. Desai applied for two internships – one with a company known for a good culture, Strategic Carrier Logistics (SCL), the other with Thijs Marketing, a company in an industry more familiar and desirable to Desai. After a number of recruitment interactions with both companies, Desai received an offer from SCL and was given two days to decide. Unsure whether Thijs Marketing would make an offer, Desai considered accepting the offer from SCL, but reneging if Thijs eventually offered a job.

The case was developed from primary sources, where “Desai’s” first-hand experience in searching for a job provides the true account of the events noted in the case. The names and demographic information for individuals were changed.

This case study is appropriate for graduate and undergraduate courses in organizational behavior (i.e. decision-making), human resources management (i.e. employee recruitment), and business ethics (i.e. ethical decision-making).

To understand how certain cultural dynamics play out in the case, the main attributes of Hofstede and Meyer’s work are first highlight. While Hofstede focuses on national culture, Meyer’s uses culture as a tool by which to gauge behavior within organizations, teams and individuals. Below the main elements of their work are highlighted. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are detailed in IM Exhibit 1. Note there are six dimensions on a scale of 0–100. The higher the number, the higher that element of that dimension. For example, the individualism score for the USA is 91, whereas China’s score is 20, suggesting that Americans are much more individualistic, whereas the Chinese are much more collectivist. Students can find where the USA, France and China, the three countries discussed in the case, stand at the Hofstede’s website noted below. For reference, these are also noted in IM Exhibit 2.

All of the information in the case was gathered using publicly available secondary sources (i.e. news articles, annual reports and executive/employee interviews). All sources are cited at the end of the Case/IM.

On April 12, 2022, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), the global leader in the personal luxury goods, released first quarter earnings for 2022, highlighting their latest acquisition, the New York City-based Tiffany & Co (Tiffany). Tiffany had performed well due to growth in demand in the USA following two difficult years because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This underscored the fact that Tiffany was still largely dependent on the US market, which was a cause for concern for CEO, Anthony Ledru, who was brought in by the parent LVMH to elevate Tiffany and exploit the high growth market for personal luxury goods in China and other parts of Asia-Pacific. LVMH’s acquisition of Tiffany had been completed on January 7, 2021, and LVMH was expecting the turnaround of the largely US-centric Tiffany to show results by shifting focus to higher-end and more iconic jewelry lines and greater expansion in China. Nonetheless, Ledru’s ability to address the China market for Tiffany was constrained by culture clashes between the company’s French owners and management team and its large cadre of US-based employees. Employees chaffed at what they felt was a rigid and autocratic management style and at the company’s insistence on limits to a work-from-home policy that was instituted in early 2020 because of the pandemic. Ledru and his top management team had to quickly overcome the internal clashes and employee issues to make significant inroads in the China market.

This case is appropriate for undergraduate and MBA courses addressing dynamics of global business, strategy and culture, such as cross-cultural management, international business, global strategy and organizational behavior. At both levels, its is found that the case will be valuable in generating a lively discussion on organizational and strategic challenges grounded in often lesser discussed issues around cultural fit. In most courses, the case should be positioned toward the end, mainly because it examines both cultural challenges (French ownership of a quintessentially American company) and strategic initiatives (how to grow the brand itself along with geographic expansion, i.e. China), assuming that the module has covered one or the other/or both at different points in the course.

Public Finance

Masters level graduate studies for public and private sector managers.

The protagonist in this case is Mrs Maribeth Ocampo a manager of a reputable non-governmental organization (NGO) that plans to devise a position on the Philippines' Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) (or more pejoratively called “pork barrel”). This NGO manager intends to tap the assistance of their local legislator to fund some of their projects. Her NGO has been working with farmers in provinces in the Bicol region and one of the recent projects of the group involves skills training for the female farmers, which aims to provide the latter with a greater variety of income source which they can tap during the lean season. Expenses associated with the project include costs of the training sessions (e.g. cost of session kits and honorarium of resource people) and assistance that will be provided to the female farmers to start their venture.

However, recent reports have surfaced which cast doubts on the accountability and transparency associated with the PDAF of the legislators. Some reports indicate the presence of commissions that NGOs must allegedly pay to the legislators in exchange for their access to the said funds, while a recent scam involves the creation of bogus NGOs that allegedly serve as conduits through which legislators can take advantage of their allocation. The NGO manager needs to decide on whether and to what extent to engage with legislators on tapping the pork barrel funds. She also needs to address the question: “What is the position of my NGO (and possibly all reputable NGOs more broadly) on pork barrel funds moving forward?”

This case aims to familiarize the manager with key public finance concepts such as discretion and accountability; and to develop her/his appreciation of the politics surrounding the public sector budget and, in particular, discretionary funds. The case is focused on Philippine legislators' discretionary funds, the PDAF. However, it can be used to discuss issues surrounding public finance concepts of transparency, accountability and citizens' engagement in the budget process in a much broader context within developing democracies.

The case revolves around the scandal surrounding the pork barrel funds of some legislators that were exposed for apparent abuse in early 2013. The scandal and its repercussions are still ongoing at the time of writing this case, so the authors expect to update this case moving forward. It aims to highlight an example of the role of public institutions and its respective challenges when it comes to critical decisions of keeping public financial a credible undertaking. It is also expected that this case will help develop an understanding of the pros and cons in the use of discretionary funds and help the student identify potential risks for abuse in public finance management with respect to these funds.

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 describes what happened when three Boston area hotels, the Hyatt Regency Boston, the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, and the Hyatt Harborside, decided, during the 2009 recession, to layoff all their housekeepers and replace them with employees from an outsourcing company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The action created a public relations nightmare for the company. In 2009 many other organizations had implemented layoffs with little reaction from the public. Students are asked to think about why the Hyatt Hotels had been singled out. Was the main problem their decision, or the communication and implementation of their decision, and what could they have done differently?

In writing this case, the research team used secondary resources such as academic journals, trade magazines and websites to inform and verify the information.

January 7, 2021, was not a good day for Goya Foods CEO Robert Bob Unanue, who has been at the helm of Goya since 2004. On that day, the nine-member board of directors of Goya censured Unanue for publicly questioning the legitimacy of the 2021 United States Presidential election. A day before, on January 6, a mob “trapped lawmakers and vandalized the home of Congress in the worst desecration of the complex since British forces burned it in 1814” (Hockstein, 2021).

Unanue was considered a follower of former president Trump and has expressed that “the country was […] blessed to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder” (Hawkins, 2020). In January 2021, Unanue appeared on Fox News and said a “ war was coming,” as Joe Biden’s election was “unverified.” These, among other words, motivated the censured by the board of Goya Foods, Inc. (Santana and Isidore, 2021).

Students are asked the following questions for discussion: Did the board of directors of Goya Foods carry its role too far by openly censuring Unanue? Did Unanue go too far by openly expressing subjective opinions and thus influencing how people view the election results? Should he have remained as CEO of Goya Foods after his words on Joe Biden’s election?

One of the authors has taught the case in the Strategic Management course for MBA students. In addition, graduate students of corporate governance, business ethics, social responsibility and leadership, among other classes, will be the target segments for the case.

1. Recognize the effects on brand image and sales when CEOs participate in political arenas and publicly discuss social issues.

2. Understand the dynamics behind ethnic family businesses, such as their governance and conflict resolution approach.

3. Assess the value of the corporate board’s management of corporations.

CCS11: Strategy