Case studies

In January 2010, Benedict Clarke, general partner of a small real estate private equity venture, faced difficulty with one of his properties. When purchased in early 2007, Tulaberry Plaza was a thriving retail shopping center outside Orlando, Florida. The financial crisis and severe economic downturn forced Tulaberry's anchor tenant into bankruptcy and weakened the other tenants in the plaza. Clarke now faces pressures placed on him by his limited partners, who were shown rosy projections of the returns they would receive, and by his lender, who is presently taking most of the property's cash flow to satisfy required debt service. Clarke must devise a plan that presents the most logical and profitable way forward, while also justifying his actions to elicit the necessary support from the others involved in the transaction. The case asks students to make decisions from the perspective of Clarke, giving them an appreciation not only of the details of strategic decision-making in real estate leasing, but also of the interplay between lenders and equity partners when managing a commercial property in distress.

After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to:

• Choose the right tenant for a retail establishment, with an understanding that it may not be the one that promises to pay the most rent

• Identify the connections among commercial property performance, mortgage loan covenants, and partnership agreements, all of which can influence optimal decision-making

Choose the right tenant for a retail establishment, with an understanding that it may not be the one that promises to pay the most rent

Identify the connections among commercial property performance, mortgage loan covenants, and partnership agreements, all of which can influence optimal decision-making

Describes how four independent, community-based nonmedical centers that offered professional services and programs to cancer patients on a voluntary non-fee basis in the 1990s came together to form the Cancer Health Alliance in 2003-2004 as a separate nonprofit to help achieve more of their mission and be more sustainable.

To understand why it is so difficult for small independent nonprofits with similar missions, activities, programs, and funding to collaborate to achieve more mission. To examine how less complex nonprofit alliances begin, how they progress along an alliance continuum, and what the options are for future growth.

Four years into a five-year contract with General Motors to be the exclusive website vendor to its U.S. network of more than 4,000 dealers, CDK Digital faced a crucial contract renewal at the end of 2012. The case follows Melissa McCann, director of strategic marketing, and Chris Reed, CMO, as they prepared for a critical meeting in July 2011: a presentation to the customer relationship management (CRM) subcommittee of the Chevrolet dealer council. Although GM dealers, like all auto dealers in the United States, were independent franchisees, GM saw the renewal of CDK Digital's exclusive contract as a collaborative decision between dealers and GM. According to Ed Vogt, GM's executive in charge of the renewal, if the dealer councils said no, the contract would not be renewed.

This case challenges students to use CDK's big data and analytics capabilities to address the inherent conflict between dealers and manufacturers: when marketing to potential customers, manufacturers wanted consistency across dealer websites to maximize sales of their targeted brands, while dealers wanted flexibility to sell what they had in inventory.

After analyzing the case, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate how big data and analytics can be used to solve channel conflict

• Explain how franchisors and franchisees have different perspectives on the value of data on retail operations

• Recognize benefits of big data and analytics beyond the obvious potential improvements to marketing and operational effectiveness

• Articulate the value of data analytics for channel management

• Appraise the benefits of real-time website customization

Demonstrate how big data and analytics can be used to solve channel conflict

Explain how franchisors and franchisees have different perspectives on the value of data on retail operations

Recognize benefits of big data and analytics beyond the obvious potential improvements to marketing and operational effectiveness

Articulate the value of data analytics for channel management

Appraise the benefits of real-time website customization

This case explores how and why GM became a major user of private equity and hedge fund capital, as well as the risks and rewards of these new relationships. The Cerberus transaction, audacious in both its size and complexity, is explored in detail. What were the alternatives for GM, and what risks and opportunities lay ahead for both parties? This case investigates the benefits, disadvantages, and potential conflicts of interest that evolved as GM's many suppliers increasingly embraced low-cost, nontraditional financing from hedge funds.

To analyze the significant role that private equity and hedge funds play in providing capital to corporations, especially those in distressed industries.

Brad Powell, the newly hired senior leader of a Christian church, must lead the organization to reverse a three-decade decline and return to fulfilling its mission. Brad spent the first six months assessing the situation, building relationships, and reiterating the longstanding mission of the organization. Now, with an understanding of its history, an intimate knowledge of the immediate challenges, and a clear vision of what the organization should become, Brad is considering his strategy and next steps. As the leader of a nonprofit organization resourced by members and volunteers, Brad must lead change that produces results without compromising the mission. The B case summarizes Brad's actions and the results.

To allow students to evaluate Brad's situation and advise him on the best plan for leading change at Temple Baptist Church. To demonstrate the impact of a leader on an organization's culture, and the fit between an organization's style and its mission. To allow discussion of the paradoxes a leader must manage in changing a culture, measuring financial versus nonprofit results, leading volunteers versus paid staff, upholding mission versus tradition, and leading change with limited resources.

This case focuses on Cisco Systems' innovative probe-and-learn approach to using social media to launch its ASR 1000 Series Edge Router. The company had decided to eschew traditional print and TV media in marketing the new product and had decided instead to focus its efforts entirely on digital marketing and social media to attract the attention of its target market. The case discusses Cisco's bold plan to launch the ASR 1000 Series “virtually, visually, and virally” and the digital tactics employed by the Cisco Systems marketing team to accomplish this ambitious goal. Business marketers normally adopt a more serious and traditional approach to marketing its products but in this case Cisco had decided to buck that trend by exploring digital tools and social gaming avenues which its target client—the technical community—were increasingly frequenting. Cisco's challenge lay in whether this new approach and resultant value proposition would resonate with its technical audience and give the ASR 1000 Router the kind of publicity it needed to have. The case is set at a time when social media was burgeoning as a promising way to engage consumers more deeply with brands and products, but marketers were still experimenting with the tools and tactics of social media for marketing.

Understand the relevance of social media for product launches as a function of contextual factors such as nature of product, media habits, and company credibility. Learn about the applicability of social media for business marketers in terms of its uniqueness, advantages and challenges. Recognize the relationship between campaign objectives and the value proposition for the product. Understand the evolution of social media marketing from a probe-and-learn approach to a strategy-driven process. The initial test and learn approach must be enhanced and become more strategic in the future.

Shows how a regional family company threatened by national competition must make changes to its structure and way of doing business or face extinction or sale.

After a massive storm hit the northern Illinois service area of electric utility Commonwealth Edison on July 11, 2011, more than 900,000 customers were left without power during a hot, humid summer. ComEd crews and reinforcements from more than a dozen other states worked for days afterward to restore service. Meanwhile, the company's months-old social media strategy faced its first major test. The eChannels social media team, part of ComEd's customer operations division, worked around the clock to respond to posts from customers on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. At a time when the company faced public debate and criticism over its plan to raise electricity rates, in part to invest in smart-grid upgrades, engaging directly through social media was a way to strengthen relationships with customers and the general public, consistent with an important corporate goal: “Keep the lights on and information flowing.”

After discussing the case, students will:

• Develop an appreciation for the role social media can play in shaping a company's reputation

• Understand how companies can use social media to engage customers directly in order to protect their reputations

• Understand the role these interactions with customers can play during a crisis situation

• Recognize the added reputational risk when a company's core business is directly impacted by a natural disaster

Develop an appreciation for the role social media can play in shaping a company's reputation

Understand how companies can use social media to engage customers directly in order to protect their reputations

Understand the role these interactions with customers can play during a crisis situation

Recognize the added reputational risk when a company's core business is directly impacted by a natural disaster

In March 2007 C. James Prieur, CEO of insurance provider Conseco, was faced with a crisis. The front page of the New York Times featured a story on the grieving family of an elderly woman who had faithfully paid for her Conseco long-term care (LTC) policy, only to find that it would not pay her claims. Her family had to pay for her care (until her recent death), which unfortunately resulted in the loss of the family business. The family was now very publicly pursuing litigation. For a company that depended on thousands of employees, investors, and independent agents who sold the insurance plans, this reputational risk was a serious threat. On top of this immediate crisis, all signs in the industry were pointing to the fact that the LTC business itself was not viable, yet over the years Conseco had acquired a number of LTC insurance providers. Students are asked to analyze not only what Prieur’s priorities should be in addressing the immediate crisis but also the risks inherent in the LTC industry and how this might affect Conseco’s success as a business moving forward

After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to:

• Analyze the risks in the long-term care insurance industry

• Distinguish the various types of risk that caused a company’s crisis and recognize the potential for contagion

• Brainstorm how the risks faced by Conseco could have been avoided or better contained

• Recommend the first steps C. James Prieur and the Conseco leadership team should take to rectify the New York Times article crisis

Analyze the risks in the long-term care insurance industry

Distinguish the various types of risk that caused a company’s crisis and recognize the potential for contagion

Brainstorm how the risks faced by Conseco could have been avoided or better contained

Recommend the first steps C. James Prieur and the Conseco leadership team should take to rectify the New York Times article crisis

On October 22, 2004, junior trader Mary Lucas was browsing through the recent trading activities of a few convertible bonds the firm held. First Convergence Inc. was a hedge fund specializing in convertible arbitrage founded by three Wall Street traders in 2002. Prior to starting at the firm, she had known little about convertible bonds. Now she stayed late almost every day in order to learn as much about the business as possible. Suddenly, she noticed something unusual about the trading of a convertible bond issued by Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE:CFC). Although the average daily trading volume on this bond had been only three thousand during the previous month, it had shot up to fifty thousand in the last three days. Lucas remembered this particular bond. In fact, First Convergence was actually holding a slightly different convertible bond (known as the liquid yield option note or LYON) issued by the same company. On August 20, Countrywide had offered to exchange the new convertible bond for the original LYON. First Convergence had accepted the exchange offer, thus ending up with the new convertible bond. At that time, Lucas was asked to help evaluate the offer, so she was familiar with the features of both bonds. “What's happening?” she asked herself. She quickly checked the recent price movement on Countrywide's stock. The stock had plunged 11.5 percent on Wednesday, October 20, after the company announced earnings below analysts' expectations. On the same day, trading on the convertible shot up. These two events must be related. But how? Is there a potential investment opportunity?

Understanding various features of a convertible bond; identifying and exploiting an arbitrage opportunity