Warren Buffett had long been a beacon of inspiration for investors worldwide. Known for his long-term investment approach, Buffett delivered an average annual return of 20 per cent since taking the helm of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Berkshire Hathaway) in 1965. Now, at 95, Buffett was preparing to step back and pass the reins to incoming chief executive officer (CEO) Greg Abel. Since Buffett announced his retirement, Berkshire Hathaway stock lagged .....more

In April 2025, a US federal court found Google LLC (Google) guilty of illegally misusing its dominant position and maintaining monopolies in advertising technology (AdTech) markets. In its defense, the company argued that ad publishers chose Google not due to a lack of options but because its AdTech solutions were simple, affordable, and effective. While remedies for restoring competition were yet to be determined by the court, Google’s plan for business .....more

The term Sephora kids referred to young children who showed significant interest in beauty products, such as skin care and makeup. The ethics of targeting young children was debatable. At the same time, kids' interest in beauty products was expected to remain strong. Also, only one-third of Sephora kids were spending their money at Sephora (the beauty retailer owned by Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH)). In Canada, Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. (Shoppers .....more

In April 2025, newly appointed president and chief executive officer Yoshitaka Oji announced a midterm management plan for Citizen Watch Co. Ltd. The Japanese watchmaker, known for its world-leading quartz technologies and dominant position in the European and US mid-range market (US$300–$1,200), was seeking growth. Oji aimed to shift Citizen's marketing strategy from emphasizing functional benefits to conveying emotional value, targeting the .....more

A manager witnessed first-hand a customer call in which her employee was unable to answer the customer's routine questions and was slurring her speech. The manager supervised 10 customer service specialists at NorthPath, a software company based in Madison, Wisconsin. NorthPath was a high-growth software firm with a team of 100+ professionals who supported digital transformation for their clients in the health care industry. The employee, a non-exempt .....more

The case describes Sukhinder Singh Cassidy’s recent arrival as CEO of Xero Ltd., a cloud-based accounting software company, and chronicles the initiatives she undertook to quickly turn the business around through a combination of organizational restructuring, divestitures of non-core assets, and balance sheet optimization, all to ready the company for a transformational acquisition opportunity. Sukhinder and her team formulated what they described .....more

Supplement for product W49957.

In March 2023, Brigadier General Alex Fink and the United States Army Enterprise Marketing Office (AEMO) faced one of the toughest recruiting challenges in modern US history. Despite a US$335 million annual marketing budget, the Army had missed its 2022 recruitment target by 15,000 soldiers—the largest shortfall in decades. With shifting cultural attitudes toward work, identity, and service, traditional patriotic appeals no longer resonated with Generation .....more

<p style = "color:rgb(197,183,131);"> <strong> AWARD WINNER - 2025 Fox International Case Writing Competition </strong> </p><br> In January 2022, the customer insights director at Albertsons Companies Inc., in Issaquah, Washington, United States, was tasked with developing a new mobile health application (mHealth app) in response to the growing demand for accessible and personalized health care solutions. The .....more

By 2025, AI had affected many industries across the world including health care, finance, agriculture, and urban planning by enhancing productivity, accuracy, and efficiency. Breakthroughs in neural networks, transformers, and large-scale AI models—such as GPT and PaLM—enabled sophisticated language, image, and multimodal processing. However, these advances came with heavy environmental costs and economic considerations. Energy-intensive training .....more