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Whoosh, is that all there is? On the eve of becoming a partner at a well-known consulting firm (“the stuff MBA dreams are made of”), a senior executive starts to question what he is doing with his life. Walt Shill had graduated eight years earlier from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and had worked his way up at McKinsey Consulting to become the first American partner in the Japanese office. Shill and his family move back to the United States, where he starts to question his goals. For the first time, it seems that Shill has no target to aim for. Having had reached his goals, Shill sets out on an adventure to seek his own meaning of life. He gets into good-enough shape to take a cross-country bicycle ride, which he completes. This undisguised case tells Shill's story and what he learned along the way. It ends with Shill's promise to himself to be less judgmental and to start walking through life with eyes wide open. A teaching note is available to registered faculty.

Continuous process improvement has been widely taught in business schools and has yielded real results and success in both for-profit and non-profit sectors. Though there have been many cases developed for use in business schools, few, if any, situate the topic in a military context. Further, expeditionary logistics presents managers with special problems of being removed from their supporting enterprise systems that process, track, and/or control of such logistical elements as purchase orders, inventory, distribution, receivables, and fulfillment. The authors present a case in a military setting that exposes students to the challenges of expeditionary logistics and takes them through the fundamentals of process analysis and process improvement.

The authors used a research methodology of a case study. Data were collected during field visits over the course of multiple interviews. Interviews were conducted with subject matter experts and active professionals serving in US Navy expeditionary logistics roles regarding processes and process performance.

This case can be applied to senior undergraduate or graduate-level courses in operations management, supply chain management, or logistics.

The theoretical bases adopted in this paper are supply chain management, information technology, operations management, and process improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma and Lean.

Undergraduate courses: Auditing, Leadership, Management accounting. Postgraduate courses: Leadership, Management accounting.

Auditing, Leadership, Management accounting

This case documents the journey of a professional accountancy organisation, namely, the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) and document the MIA’s journey on the establishment of digital blueprint for the accounting profession in Malaysia including some major milestone in innovating audit evidence-gathering technique by introducing e-confirm for auditing bank confirmation in Malaysia. This case highlights the significant role played by a lady chief executive officer (CEO) in embarking into the digitalisation of the accountancy profession and practice in Malaysia. While the ultimate objective of digital blueprint is to transform the accounting and auditing practices in Malaysia, the CEO has led by example by embedding digitalisation within MIA’s practices itself.

The learning outcome of this paper are as follows: to develop students’ understanding on the right attitudes, skills and characters that a successful leader should possess in contemporary business environment by focusing on dilemma and stereo-typing faced by women leaders; to develop the students’ understanding on the changes in business environment particularly the rise of digital technology that affecting the ways in which accounting functions in organisations; to encourage students to be aware that technical accounting knowledge is just one of the key success factors in the career of a professional accountant. The case offer insight into accountants’ role in digital environment and the development needed for accounting profession; to demonstrate how auditing process can benefit from the advancement in technology; and to encourage critical discussion on the development of accounting profession in Malaysia. The case aims to develop students’ critical discussion on the roles of MIA as a regulator of accounting profession and to appreciate historical development of accounting profession in Malaysia. The case also aims to encourage students to realise the existence of other professional accounting bodies, accounting practitioners and academic accountants, and together with MIA, they play significant role in shaping the accounting profession in Malaysia.

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

The case has a strong implication on the role of effective leaders in ensuring that significant efforts involved in digitalisation journal, a vital need for the accountancy professional to continue to be a relevant profession, is a success.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

Women leadership, Digitalisation, Professional accountancy organisation, Electronic bank confirmation, Malaysia

Strategic management.

Upper-level undergraduate courses or introductory MBA courses.

The need to diversify the financial risks of his scrap metal business based in Georgia led Levan to invest in a diamond trading company in the UAE. He agreed to be a sleeping partner and provide the capital to Kewon, a diamond specialist with a wealth of experience in the field, in their joint attempt to build an international network of diamond trade. Despite several difficulties faced on the way, their company seemed to generate stable returns for more than five years. Yet following the surprising discovery of multiple organizational inconsistencies, Levan decided to end the partnership with Kewon and establish his own retail jewelry store to be managed by the members of his family. Ultimately, he was confronted with two important decisions regarding both his jewelry business and the diamond company in which he had previously invested a significant amount of capital. The decisions he was about to make were of critical importance for the future of these companies and the people who managed them. By walking readers through a series of triggering events, this case offers the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of managerial actions through the application of various strategic management tools and frameworks.

Upon completion of this case study analysis, students should be able to: estimate the complexities associated with the management of a partnership-based venture in the context of emerging markets; perform a detailed diagnosis of an entrepreneurial venture, applying relevant strategic management tools and techniques; evaluate the effectiveness of managerial actions and decisions at different stages of the organizational lifecycle; and demonstrate the importance of the strategic adaptation of organizations through the deployment of viable decision-making skills.

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 11: Strategy.

Paul Hamann was senior vice president of The Night Ministry, a Chicago-based not-for-profit organization. In October 2003 he received a phone call from the wife of the Reverend Tom Behrens, the founding president and the public face of the organization. She told Hamann that Behrens had suffered a massive stroke and that doctors were unsure of his prognosis. Behrens had been walking the streets of run-down Chicago neighborhoods since 1976, looking for people in despair, listening to their needs, and offering them a helping hand and a consoling presence. In the intervening twenty-seven years, he had built The Night Ministry into a well-known organization that helped thousands of adults and youth every year. No succession plan, if one existed, had ever been conveyed to senior management. Now Hamann was unsure when or even if Behrens would be able to work again. If Behrens returned to work, would he be able to continue to lead the organization? If not, who would lead The Night Ministry going forward, even if it were just for the near term, and who would make that decision? How would the community and major donors react to a new leader?

Understand Founder's Syndrome and why it is unique to the nonprofit industry

Upon completion of this case study, students should be able to apply lessons learned in core readings, analysis and discussion to a specific case study dealing with a current, real-world situation, specifically: critically assess Livestock Wealth’s case facts and present and justify their point of view – based on attentive reading, critical analysis and engagement – about the company; use a range of strategic tools such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis, PESTLE analysis and the Ansoff matrix to thoroughly evaluate Livestock Wealth’s internal and external business environment for developing strategic options for business growth and improvements to marketing strategy; use strategic thinking to develop a range of creative solutions to guide the company’s business growth and improvements to marketing strategy; and assess their own growth and development in terms of personal preparation and organisation, collaboration, critical thinking, decision-making skills, participation and problem-solving.

By February 2022, Ntuthuko Shezi, the founder and chief executive officer of Livestock Wealth, had turned his idea of “crowd farming”, which enables anyone to invest in living farm assets and earn a profit at harvest, into a full-fledged business that was creating wealth for both investors and farmers. Underpinning this case study is Shezi’s vision of an African continent where there is “no ground that is not planted with something of value”, local economies are created in those areas, communities are wealthy, there is abundance, there is money for children to attend school and ultimately where “cows (and agricultural produce in general) are seen as money”. Shezi had grown up in a rural area with grandparents who owned a couple of cows, realizing that the cows were the bedrock of the family’s finances. Describing his business, he says, “Cattle are like a walking bank, and we see ourselves as the bank of the future, where every person who owns a cow can access financial services through Livestock Wealth, just like it has always been in Africa.” This case study describes the two key decisions that Shezi needed to make – what direction to take in terms of business growth and how to improve his marketing strategy (with a limited budget) to attract sufficient investment into Livestock Wealth to make his dreams a reality.

This case study is suitable for use for a post-graduate diploma in business, master of business administration or master’s in management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

MentorMob had sprung from the passions---for web development and for online communities---of the company's co-founders, Kris Chinosorn (CEO) and Vince Leung (COO). The company pursued the ambitious goals of reinventing the way people learn and becoming the world's utility for learning about anything. The website leveraged a crowdsourcing model for information sharing, teaching, and learning. By enabling participants to learn---and to crowdsource from each other while learning---the site sought to both engage users at different stages of learning and to develop a compelling experience unobtainable without a crowd. Chinosorn and Leung needed to prioritize in order to achieve the growth and scale needed to become world's utility for learning. What should they do next to keep MentorMob's growth on track? What issues should get their greatest attention?

The case teaches more than merely the act of prioritization of strategic goals in a startup. Walking through the issues faced by the founders will introduce students to several additional lessons and concepts about Web 2.0 firms. After analyzing the case, students should be able to:

Aurelia Dimas had been sent to investigate the various properties being offered by the State of California in the form of a sale-leaseback agreement. The opportunity was perfect for her firm, Orrington Financial Partners, which had recently expanded its fixed-income portfolio to include real estate. The wide range of offerings in the Golden State Portfolio provided both diversification and stability over a period of decades. She had spent the last week walking the halls of each and every building to see the offering first hand. Now the task of valuing the portfolio rested on her shoulders.

By reading and analyzing this case, students will be exposed to real estate valuation and understand the issues with a sale-leaseback investment. The objectives are obtained by requiring students to justify how and why they make adjustments to the cash flow forecasts provided to them by a real estate advisory firm, explain their methodology for arriving at a specific value for a piece (or a portfolio) of commercial property, and debate the pros and cons of a sale-leaseback structure.

With so many team-driven activities for students in the fast-paced, high-pressure environment of a business school, students need to have an opportunity to discuss the issues and dilemmas that may arise. Harry's difficulties in mastering finance cause some members of the team to feel frustrated, because they have to spend so much time helping him. When the members pressure the others to spend less time with Harry, other problems arise in the team dynamics, involving such issues as trust, participation, team performance, and quality of learning. Students need to explore alternative ways to improve the situation.

Entrepreneurship; tourism and hospitality.

Junior or senior-level business students as well as graduate-level (MBA and/or EMBA) classes in entrepreneurship, small business management, strategic management, international business or international economics.

Cuban tour guides working for the communist Castro Government dream of working for themselves or leaving for the USA. Their story is contrasted by a visit to Cuba as told by a US business professor.

To compare entrepreneurship under capitalism that is slowly relaxing their communistic rules, to learn more about the island of Cuba and its potential for tourism and new venture creation, to understand the legal, social, political, historical and cultural barriers to entrepreneurship, to hypothesize or brainstorm potential new ventures for Cuba.

Teaching notes; photos also available upon request from the author.