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The case is written based on publicly available data from primary sources like the company’s annual reports and presentations and from secondary sources, as indicated in the references.

Barnes & Noble Inc. (B&N), one of the oldest and largest American retail booksellers founded in 1917, was facing a grim business situation underpinned by a fall in demand, a change in consumer preference and stiff competition. After almost a century of being in the business, B&N was experiencing a fall in market share and weak stock market performance. In 2019, the company was sold to Elliot Advisors – a hedge fund – for US$638m. With the appointment of new chief executive officer (CEO) James Daunt in August 2019, a man known for the turnaround of similar businesses, B&N expected its business’s revival and reorganization strategy to turn profitable. Its long-term strategy of beating competitors with its offerings’ sheer volume and low prices was no longer viable. The turmoil was compounded by top management crises with the repeated changes and ousting of several CEOs in a short span, alongside the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. Daunt was considering how to overcome the crisis and act fast to reposition the company and regain the loyalty of its customers. Was there more that the company could do to improve the company’s position and restore profitability?

The case can be used in strategic management and entrepreneurship classes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The case can be used in an investment analysis and management course to teach students the industry analysis technique using Porter’s five forces model.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are often very complex management endeavors. Analyzes the IT component of M&A for two financial institutions. Students are tasked with assisting Mike Farrell, the CIO of New Millennium Financial (NMF), a new company created through the merger of FinStar Financial and D&L Bank, in determining the optimal combined IT portfolio. To accomplish this task the strategic business objectives of the firm must be clearly understood and the IT projects in the pipelines of both institutions analyzed. Students must make an IT portfolio management decision and answer the question: What is the optimal IT strategy and project portfolio for NMF?

To apply a framework to manage a company's IT portfolio, i.e., understand the company's strategic context, develop business objectives that align with its strategy, assess IT investments, and develop a portfolio of IT projects that support the objectives. The framework is iterative, i.e., IT investments are assessed on a regular basis based on their performance and risk/return tradeoffs. Also to introduce a leading Web-based tool, ProSight, that helps managers organize IT portfolios.

Sara Lee Corporation's acquisition binge in the 1980s and 1990s left the company with a portfolio of vastly different businesses operating independently of one another. It had experienced rapid top-line growth, but at the same time cash flows had declined. Sara Lee ignored both internal and external warning signs until a major transformation plan became necessary. This case examines the company's multiple turnaround attempts. The learning objective of the case is to analyze “early stage” turnaround efforts by examining how the company found itself in decline, evaluating its attempts to improve its performance, and assessing the turnaround plan.

(1) Learn to identify a specific challenging moment when reading and analyzing a turnaround plan; (2) address the implementation problems of an early stage turnaround and discuss exit options; (3) evaluate when a change of long-held beliefs and decades-long strategy by a company is warranted; (4) evaluate Sara Lee's marketing strategies in light of the disappointed retail and wholesale customers; and (5) show the similarities in traits between turnaround managers and high-growth entrepreneurs.

After decades of successful expansion, The Reader's Digest Association's products were mature. With an average readership age for the flagship Reader's Digest magazine of 50.3 in 2004, efforts to develop new products had so far failed to entice a significant number of younger customers. Following a financial downturn in 1996, positive financial results remained illusive. Several major changes instituted by Thomas O. Ryder, CEO since 1998, including acquisitions, re-capitalization, restructuring and systematic re-engineering of the corporate culture, had proven mildly successful, but RDA, as well as the entire publishing industry, faced a persistent decline in profitability. Could RDA fulfill its stated mission to create “products that inform, enrich, entertain and inspire people of all ages and cultures around the world”, and could it do this by continuing to rely on the 80-year old Reader's Digest magazine?

The case was compiled using secondary research, including the following sources, all of which are cited in the References List section of the case: Company annual reports, press releases and company websites and news media, podcasts, video recordings, websites of trade associations and other public domain sources.

This case highlights the decisions facing Moderna, Inc. (Moderna) related to pricing of its COVID-19 vaccine in the European Union (EU) in July of 2021. The CEO, Stéphane Bancel, must balance the need for improving shareholder returns with the call to act responsibly during a global pandemic. Should Moderna raise prices or hold prices constant? What other options might be available to the CEO?

At the authors’ institute, instructors use this case in a second-year marketing elective in pricing at the MBA level. Within the elective, the case enables a discussion on concepts of value realization through pricing and leadership decision strategies. The case may also be used in at the Executive MBA level, in a course of strategic leadership.

The theoretical basis for this case is a focus on strategic positioning as related to Porter’s generic strategies. The case describes GameStop’s previous differentiation approach, executed through physical stores and knowledgeable staff. With technological shifts and the introduction of digital downloads, this strategy is less effective. The case requires students to consider how GameStop might revise its generic strategy based on the new competitive landscape in which it operates.

In writing this case, the research team conducted thorough analysis through primary data collection in stores as well as secondary data collection through the use of market research tools, such as IBIS World, MergentOnline, S&P Net Advantage, and academic journals, trade magazines, and websites.

With high uncertainty shown by stakeholders about the future of GameStop coupled with falling share prices, the company must find a way to stay in play given the rapidly growing digital gaming market. As it planned to close at least 150 of its 7,500 stores, the company was starting to take measures to reduce operational costs and restructure to sectors that best fit consumer interests. GameStop’s core competencies were no longer aligned with market conditions, and its executives were now questioning where it could expand the organization’s operations as they focused on finding untapped areas of the market that have an opportunity for a new competitive advantage. Given its unique market share in gaming memorabilia and trade-in values, students are tasked with finding GameStop’s existing competitive advantages or identifying potential new ones that can be leveraged in a technology-driven industry.

This case could be taught at either the graduate or undergraduate level strategy course. At the undergraduate level, it would be best taught when discussing industry life cycle or competitive dynamics. At the graduate level, MBAs could discuss competitive dynamics facing GameStop and how it might find areas for future strategic growth.

John Caldwell, president of Kio-Tek (KT), presents his company's business plan to a group of 30 venture capitalists at the November 2001 annual meeting of the Portland Venture Group. John's presentation is included in the case as an exhibit. The case begins with a brief overview of the meeting and John's presentation. The body of the case describes the question and answer period immediately following John's presentation.

Included in the case is a set of exhibits that John has handed out to the audience as supplemental information. These exhibits provide additional information on marketing, management, and financial issues facing the company and John refers to them throughout the question and answer period. The VC's ask John a variety of questions in an effort to determine whether KT is an attractive investment opportunity

After completion of the case, students will be able to understand the following: how to understand financial statements, income statements and cash-flow statements with the help of ratios; understand the concept of shareholding pattern along with different entities, namely, non-promoters, foreign institutional investor, domestic institutional investor and others; financial ratio analysis with traditional DuPont and extended DuPont analysis; understand the differences between comparable firms; how to analysis return, risk, covariance, correlation, market risk and capital assets pricing model (CAPM) and how to suggest an appropriate investment strategy.

The case presents company background and financial statements of four companies listed under departmental stores in India, namely, Vmart retail, V2 retail, Avenue Supermarts (known as DMart) and future retail. Students are asked to determine, which company is performing better to make a recommendation for investment. Students learn the tools of financial ratio i.e. profitability, efficiency, liquidity and market-based ratio along with the traditional DuPont decomposition and the extended DuPont analysis. Students also learn how to measure stock return, standard deviation, covariance, correlation, market risk and CAPM.

This case is suitable for management accounting, financial analysis and security analysis and portfolio management courses at the post-graduate or graduate levels. The case can be used in similar courses such as in financial statement analysis courses or security analysis and portfolio management courses.

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: 1 Accounting and finance.

Development of legitimate teaching cases demands cases be factual, that is that they use “real people, real companies, real situations,” and, usually, present time. Rarely, do cases deal with historical happenings in which lives, as well as fortunes, could be lost to achieve desired ends. History provides rich material on which to build teaching cases with the added advantage of acquainting students with the past and the influence the past has in shaping the future. Answers to the question of “Why use historical teaching cases” are related to the more general question of “Why study history.” Both questions are addressed.

This case features a county planning director as he approves or turns down a permit application for the Harvest Wind Farm Project, located in Klickitat County on the Columbia Plateau in Washington State. The utilities involved and Klickitat County stood to benefit through new revenue generation and a favorable federal construction grant associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and certain landowners stood to make substantial royalties. However, other landowners were also worried about declining property values, environmental groups had raised objections to the effect of turbines on the pristine Columbia River view, and uncertainty about health effects had recently become more of an issue. Nationally, “wind turbine syndrome” and “shadow-flicker” effects had been linked to wind farm operations. Given these concerns and the uncertainty, would the gains to stakeholders justify signing off on the project?