Darden Case Collection最新文献

{"title":"Shanghai Disneyland: Authentically Disney and Distinctly Chinese","authors":"E. N. Weiss, Gerry Yemen, Stephen E. Maiden","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3056413","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3056413","url":null,"abstract":"Excellent service operations understand the unique challenges of managing services and experiences. The Walt Disney Company's value proposition, or purpose, is to create a magical experience for customers. To deliver on that, service and employee systems must be designed in a manner that work together. After years of planning, construction, employee training, and marketing outreach to its largely Chinese guests, Shanghai Disneyland (SDL) finally opened its doors on June 16, 2016. Certain classic Disney elements had been customized for China, and others reflected the traditional Disney brand. The Walt Disney Company had done its homework—but the \"unknowns\" needed to be identified and remedied. Had the Walt Disney Company tailored its service offerings appropriately to the target market, and what adjustments, if any, were needed? This material lends itself well to exploring a storied service company on numerous dimensions—operational performance and strategy, service trade-offs, attribute maps, and many general management issues across functions, especially whether the company has been able to understand Chinese cultural differences in such a way that profitability will occur faster than in its other non-U.S. locations. Instructors may choose to use the case as a capstone to \"The Walt Disney Company: Mickey Mouse Visits Shanghai\" (UVA-OM-1545), which is set on the verge of SDL's opening. \u0000Excerpt \u0000UVA-OM-1568 \u0000Oct. 11, 2017 \u0000Shanghai Disneyland: Authentically Disney and Distinctly Chinese \u0000After years of planning, construction, employee training, and marketing outreach to its largely Chinese guests, Shanghai Disneyland (SDL) finally opened its doors on June 16, 2016. During a six-week preopening trial period, one million visitors rushed to enter the largest Walt Disney Company (DIS) global theme park. A staggering 70 million people in China tuned in to view the grand-opening ceremony live on TV or via digital streaming. Through the first seven months, close to six million people purchased tickets to SDL. While SDL was off to a promising start, DIS had learned from its previous global ventures that continuous improvement and flexibility to cater to local tastes were imperative to sustain and maximize success. Certain classic Disney elements had been customized for China, and others reflected the traditional DIS brand. Disney had done its homework—but it was the “unknowns” that needed to be identified and remedied. Had DIS tailored its service offerings appropriately to the target market, and what adjustments, if any, were needed? \u0000Authentically Disney and Distinctly Chinese? \u0000Seven months into operations at SDL, the question top of mind for many was: How had the property performed? The answers to that question depended upon who was asked and in what forum (public or private). According to SDL management, they struck a winning balance in the goal DIS Chairman and CEO Robert A. Iger had to make SDL “authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese.” \u0000. . .","PeriodicalId":390041,"journal":{"name":"Darden Case Collection","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123323637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Target Data Breach: Accounting for Contingent Liabilities","authors":"Justin J. Hopkins","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3056408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3056408","url":null,"abstract":"This is a flexible case that provides for discussion about the form and content of 10-K reports, managerial discussion and analysis, non-GAAP reporting, and accounting for contingent liabilities. What is unique is that Target included lengthy disclosures about the data breach, but many questions remain because the breach occurred shortly before year end. Further, the instructor can compare the contingent liability of $17 million reported in the 2013 10-K to the $201 million costs incurred by Target related to the breach as of the 2015 year end. \u0000Excerpt \u0000UVA-C-2390 \u0000Oct. 6, 2017 \u0000Target Data Breach: Accounting for Contingent Liabilities \u0000It was December 19, 2013, and Josiah Thrasher had just hung up the phone. His grandmother was very worried about the news disclosed that day that millions of credit cards were stolen from Target Corporation (Target) because she loved shopping at Target and was not sure what the news meant for her. Was she at risk of fraud? Thrasher was not sure what it meant for himself, either, as Target was a publicly traded company (NYSE: TGT) in his portfolio of investments. Thrasher figured it was worth the time to get to the bottom of the story. \u0000He read the press release Target issued, which indicated that 40 million credit and debit cards belonging to customers who had shopped at Target stores from November 27 through December 15, 2013 had been compromised. The next day, Target issued two press releases. The first reassured customers that they would not be responsible for any fraudulent charges to their cards, and the second was a more personal message from the CEO, Gregg Steinhafel, which confirmed Target's commitment to its customers and offered a 10% discount for all shoppers on December 21 and 22. “That seems generous,” Thrasher thought, but he wondered who would shop at a store that had just been hacked. The next several days were busy for Target's public relations group, and it continued to issue security updates throughout December. \u0000What bad luck to be on the receiving end of the largest hack of a retailer in history, right in the middle of the busiest shopping season of the year! Luckily for Thrasher, though, Target's stock had barely budged (Exhibit 1). While the Internet was full of discussion about the breach, very little of it related to the costs Target was likely to incur. Target had just filed Q3 results on November 27, 2013, and would not file year-end results until March because, as a retailer, it had a fiscal year that ended on an unusual date. The current fiscal year would end on February1. Thrasher would have to wait until then to figure out the extent of the financial damage caused by the data breach. \u0000. . .","PeriodicalId":390041,"journal":{"name":"Darden Case Collection","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122276432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Panic of 1857, Nationalism, and Secession (A)","authors":"R. Bruner","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3050048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3050048","url":null,"abstract":"This case considers the association between a financial crisis and regime change. The setting for this case is 1861, when Virginians debate the question of secession from the United States, and when northwestern Virginians contemplated secession from Virginia. The proximate financial crisis was the Panic of 1857.<br> <br>Excerpt<br><br>UVA-F-1802<br><br>Rev. Nov. 6, 2019<br><br>The Panic of 1857, Nationalism, and Secession (A)<br> <br>On April 17, 1861, a convention chartered by the Virginia state legislature voted to approve an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 88 to 55. The ordinance would be submitted to a referendum of voters for ratification on May 23. It was adopted following stormy debates. In the five months before, seven Southern states had seceded from the Union. For a chronology of events, see Exhibit1. Exhibit2 gives a map of seceding states.<br> <br>On April 22, 1861, two delegates to the convention, John S. Carlile and Waitman T.Willey (see Exhibits3 and4), distributed a call for a convention of citizens in northwestern Virginia (see Exhibit5). Carlile had argued that the decision to secede was illegal. Willey asserted that the Virginia Convention had not represented the full diversity of views in the Commonwealth, particularly of yeoman farmers in northwestern Virginia. How would Carlile and Willey carry their appeals to the citizens of their region? <br><br>The events leading up to the wave of secession decisions were complicated and spread over decades. Yet the impulse toward secession accelerated in 1857, when a Supreme Court decision and civil unrest polarized the nation both related to slavery. And the year also marked the panic of 1857 and economic turmoil that some observers also said influenced the path to secession. <br><br>. . .<br>","PeriodicalId":390041,"journal":{"name":"Darden Case Collection","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133894027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Digiplex: Future-Ready Data Centers","authors":"Y. Grushka-Cockayne, Gerry Yemen","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3050051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3050051","url":null,"abstract":"This case is based on DigiPlex, the largest data center provider in Scandinavia. The company plans to build another data center just outside of Stockholm, Sweden. The case asks students to evaluate a project plan and use the data to diagram the critical path. The case opens with DigiPlex chairman Byrne Murphy at the negotiation table with the key anchor customer needed in order to get his newest project off the ground. The project has already been delayed 41 weeks, and Murphy learned that its client might want to postpone the handover another several weeks. Murphy had long trusted critical path analysis during moments where key decisions needed to be made around both engineering problems and economic questions in projects. Murphy had to decide how much more risk and expense they would be taking if the target delivery date changed. In order to answer that question, Murphy referred back to the critical path to rethink it. \u0000Excerpt \u0000UVA-QA-0880 \u0000Oct. 3, 2017 \u0000DigiPlex: Future-Ready Data Centers \u0000With negotiations running almost a year behind, DigiPlex's Chairman Byrne Murphy was back at the table with the key prospect for the anchor customer needed to get his newest project off the ground. DigiPlex was the largest data center provider in Scandinavia and had plans to build another data center just outside of Stockholm, Sweden. The analysis Murphy relied on indicated that both parties had to agree to a move-in date of the first weekend of April 2015, which was coming up faster and faster. In the meeting, Murphy learned that DigiPlex's client, a large financial institution, would only move over the first weekend in April or would like to postpone the handover to January 1, 2016. At this point, Murphy asked his director of development to step outside the room with him. \u0000Murphy had long trusted critical path analysis during moments when key decisions needed to be made around both design problems and economic questions. “The barrier to entry in the data center world is credibility,” Murphy said. “It's no longer the fiber, nor power, nor financing, but rather: Do you have credibility and can I trust you with my mission-critical equipment and data in your center?” Meeting project deadlines was the most fundamental way of preserving credibility. Murphy asked his development director what was needed to do to keep the project on track. The client's move-in date was dependent on contract signing, which was already delayed. “Let's see those charts,” he said. “What is the impact if we suffer another delay?” \u0000Byrne Murphy and Critical Path Analysis \u0000. . .","PeriodicalId":390041,"journal":{"name":"Darden Case Collection","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132263015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Managing for Stakeholders and the Purpose of Business","authors":"R. Freeman, B. Parmar","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3042721","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3042721","url":null,"abstract":"The benefits or harms achieved by a business is determined in part by the choices that business leaders make. One important driver of these choices is a leader's view of the purpose of business. This note: (1) outlines the history of debates about corporate purpose, (2) calls out some myths that persist in the way that people think about corporate purpose, and (3) introduces a view of business called “managing for stakeholders” that has become increasingly influential. \u0000Excerpt \u0000UVA-E-0415 \u0000Rev. Jan. 9, 2018 \u0000Managing for Stakeholders and the Purpose of Business \u0000Introduction \u0000Business has the potential to benefit many groups such as customers with new products and services, employees with meaningful work and wages, communities as engines of growth and employment, and shareholders through investment opportunities that provide a reasonable return and fit their values. Business also has the potential to harm these same groups through faulty products, accounting fraud, environmental damage, and increased social inequality. The balance of the benefits or harms achieved by a business is determined in part by the choices that business leaders make. One important driver of these choices is a leader's view of the purpose of business. This note: (1) outlines the history of debates about corporate purpose, (2) calls out some myths that persist in the way that people think about corporate purpose, and (3) introduces a view of business called “managing for stakeholders” that has become increasingly influential. \u0000The basic idea of managing for stakeholders is that businesses and the executives who manage them, actually do—and should—create value for customers, suppliers, employees, communities, and financiers. To manage sustainable businesses, leaders need to pay careful attention to how stakeholder relationships are managed and how value gets created to ensure that all core stakeholders are receiving value for their efforts and choose to continue to support the firm. Value here is understood as things that stakeholders value, which includes financial value as well as other forms of value (e.g., upholding values, treating people fairly, and improving the world). This view is contrasted with the shareholder-centric model of business activity; namely, that businesses are to be managed solely for the benefit of shareholders, and the only value that matters is financial value. According to this view, any other benefits (or harms) that are created for other groups are incidental. \u0000. . .","PeriodicalId":390041,"journal":{"name":"Darden Case Collection","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116037032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ian Desmond's Dilemma (a)","authors":"E. N. Weiss, R. Fisher, R. Goldberg","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3034336","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3034336","url":null,"abstract":"This is the first in a series of four cases.Ian Desmond, a baseball player for the Washington Nationals team, was deciding whether or not to accept a new contract. Should he take a seven-year contract, and stick it out with the team for for another seven years? He was young and talented, and his star was on the rise. With strong 2013 performance statistics, he was in a good position to negotiate. Or should he take his chances on the free-agent market entering the 2016 season, and command an even better contract? This case uses decision-tree analysis and could be used in an introductory \"Decision Analysis\" course, either with the probabilities mentioned in the case or with an assignment to calculate break-even probabilities. \u0000Excerpt \u0000UVA-OM-1574 \u0000Sept. 7, 2017 \u0000Ian Desmond's Dilemma (A) \u0000Preseason, Spring 2014 \u0000In 2009, at the age of 23, Ian Desmond started playing U.S. major-league baseball (MLB) with the Washington Nationals (Nats) baseball team. Desmond proved himself to be an extremely capable and sometimes spectacular shortstop, both when playing his defensive position out in the field and when at bat seeking great hits and home runs for his team. In 2012, he won his first Silver Slugger award, which was given to the best offensive player at each position within each team, and even made the National League All-Star Team. \u0000By preseason spring 2014, Desmond was 28 and had played full time under contract with the Nats for four years (from 2010 to 2013). Nats management had just offered him a seven-year, $ 107million contract extension with an average annual value (AAV) of $ 15.3million. He had to decide whether to accept this offer or turn it down in favor of a potential two-year contract that had not yet been negotiated. MLB rules permitted a player to entertain offers from other teams once he had completed six full seasons with his original team. The four years Desmond had already played under contract, combined with a yet-to-be-negotiated two-year contract would get him to the requisite six years and allow him to enter free-agent status in 2016. The proposed seven-year contract, however, would bind Desmond contractually to the Nats for most (if not all) of his remaining peak career years—at least until he was 34, at the end of the 2020 season. See Table 1 for details. \u0000. . .","PeriodicalId":390041,"journal":{"name":"Darden Case Collection","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128143271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Goldman Sachs Goes to Rikers Island","authors":"Elena Loutskina, M. M. Frank, Gerry Yemen, Stephen E. Maiden","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3027024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3027024","url":null,"abstract":"Yi Hua, the leader of an impact-investing initiative at Goldman Sachs, was examining a new financial arrangement in a proposed public-private partnership called the Rikers Island Social Impact Bond (SIB). The proposed SIB was the result of a partnership between Goldman Sachs, the New York City (NYC) Department of Correction, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and three nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—MDRC, Osborne Association (Osborne), and the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera). The investment that Goldman Sachs was considering would finance the implementation of a cognitive behavioral therapy program for teens (aged 16 through 18) incarcerated at Rikers Island. The goal of the program was to lower the likelihood of those teens returning to jail following their release (i.e., recidivism). If predetermined outcome-based metrics, which focused on lowering recidivism, were reached, the NYC government would repay Goldman Sachs its contributed capital along with a return. The case helps students develop an awareness of the growing innovative financial structure that attracts private capital to finance governmental efforts to address social issues: SIBs. Alongside SIBs, the following related issues could be discussed: financial and social returns, models of investing for social impact, measuring social impact, private-sector financial resources used for public benefit, and private debt vehicles. This case can be used as an introduction to SIBs in an MBA course or in undergraduate electives dedicated to impact investing, public-private partnerships, or other related courses covering the role of business in society. The material can also be used in executive education around issues of cross-sector collaboration to address social issues. \u0000Excerpt \u0000UVA-F-1807 \u0000Rev. Dec. 13, 2017 \u0000Goldman Sachs Goes to Rikers Island \u0000Yi Hua, the leader of an impact-investing initiative at Goldman Sachs, set her coffee down and fished through her briefcase. She had a long day ahead of her. Hua had joined the Urban Investment group of the firm in the wake of the Great Recession. At the time, in 2009, the firm wanted to bolster efforts to partner with governments and not-for-profits to provide financial resources to aid development in underserved American communities. The Urban Investment group's goal was to develop opportunities for financial and social returns and attract private capital to enable innovative solutions to complex social challenges. A legal advocate for the poor turned investment banker, Hua was excited to join the group and to put her experience to good use tackling issues she was passionate about. \u0000Now, in April 2012, Hua was examining a new financial arrangement in a proposed initiative called the Rikers Island Social Impact Bond. Before the project reached her desk, Hua had never heard of social impact bonds (SIBs), though she had heard about the world's largest prison. Referred to as “the island” or “the rock” by inmates, Rikers Island (Rikers) contained rough","PeriodicalId":390041,"journal":{"name":"Darden Case Collection","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129888409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cash Flow Statement Confessions: Department Store Retailers (a)","authors":"Mark E. Haskins","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3017468","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3017468","url":null,"abstract":"A fellow named J. T. Funk is fascinated with the fact that there were often clear winners and clear losers in the competitive retail arena, and it did not seem to matter whether a retailer was big or small, old or new because any retailer could fail. Funk wonders if there would be any clues in the retailer financial statements he has in his possession that pointed to strength or portended weakness, and if so, what were the indicators of either? \u0000Excerpt \u0000UVA-C-2397 \u0000Rev. Dec. 22, 2017 \u0000Cash Flow Statement Confessions: Department Store Retailers (A) \u0000For J.T. Funk, the holiday feast was finally over. His friends had left for a game of flag football, the food was put away, and yet for him, the real festivities would follow. He was ready to mine the proverbial gold buried within the two cash flow statements he had obtained the day before, along with the one he was about to craft. He knew most of his friends and family would probably not find such an endeavor intriguing, let alone fun. But for Funk, the construction and deciphering of corporate cash flow statements was as inviting as working a crossword or Sudoku puzzle or going on a treasure hunt, with well-honed techniques and principles at his disposal, and discovering various clues and insights along the way. With eagerness and energy that even surprised himself, he cued Queen's “We Will Rock You” anthem on his sound system, turned the volume to high, laid out the financial statements he had, fired up Excel on his laptop and was ready to roll. \u0000The Reeling World of Retail \u0000Funk had always found the retail business fascinating. Modern day malls were really no different from the open-air street bazaars of ancient times and places. With goods to offer, prices to set, and promotions to employ, he was fascinated by the fact that there were often clear winners and clear losers in the competitive retail arena, and it did not seem to matter whether a retailer was big or small, old or new because any retailer could fail. He had heard his parents reminiscing about the Montgomery Ward catalog, the local Western Auto store, the weekly trips to the A&P grocery store, and the soda fountain at the Woolworth dime store. None of those establishments remained in any town he could recall having visited. \u0000. . .","PeriodicalId":390041,"journal":{"name":"Darden Case Collection","volume":"153 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130662329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pied Piper and Autonomous Vehicles","authors":"R. Freeman, B. Parmar, Jenny Mead, Nicole Puhl, Bhaskar Mahajan, S. Boes, Guillermo Bravo","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3017469","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3017469","url":null,"abstract":"Pied Piper's first driverless car had been in an accident and had killed a 26-year-old jogger. Pied Piper felt a deep sadness for the victim's family, and was disappointed and alarmed because the company had optimistically thought driverless cars would eventually lead to total elimination of driving fatalities. The company needed to decide if the car's algorithm was responsible for this death and, if so, what the plan of action should be. \u0000Excerpt \u0000UVA-E-0413 \u0000Rev. Sept. 26, 2018 \u0000Pied Piper and Autonomous Vehicles \u0000Clara Sloan was in her new semiautonomous car as it drove down California Route 101 when she hit typical morning traffic. The car changed the arrival time to 10 minutes later than she had planned. She hoped to make it to her office in Mountain View, California, by 11:00 a.m. for a meeting with her team. Sloan worked at Pied Piper, a growing tech firm that had earned its stripes in Silicon Valley after creating an impressively fast compression algorithm for eventual use in a wide array of applications, including the most anticipated products of artificial intelligence, drone racing, and autonomous vehicles (AVs). \u0000Promoted to senior product manager of Pied Piper's AV division a year ago, Sloan and her team had chalked up some wins, most notably by accomplishing more than 70,000 miles of AV test drives with no accidents. On two occasions, the Pied Piper car had collided with a utility pole and a fire hydrant, but no humans or other cars were involved. Despite its success, Sloan knew that her team faced fierce competition from Ford, Lexus, and even Tesla (she had bought her Model Z before she joined the group) in bringing AVs to market. A rumor had swept through Silicon Valley that Ford was a year away from launching the next Fusion equipped with an autonomous feature. The race to launch the first mass-market AV program was on, and Sloan's development team was not about to lose that honor to what it called “a pack of programmers” from Detroit, Michigan. \u0000The stakes regarding this morning's meeting could not have been higher. Sloan and her team had just learned the night before that Pied Piper's first driverless car had been in an accident that had killed a 26-year-old jogger. News of the accident and outrage over the death of a well-loved community member were appearing on social media sites. Sloan felt a deep sadness for the victim's family, and was disappointed and alarmed because like so many others she had optimistically thought driverless cars would eventually lead to total elimination of driving fatalities. But the technology and its various complexities were still in a nascent stage; just yesterday, Sloan had read in a Business Insider article that in 2016 AVs were still “sort of in the Wild West of self-driving cars' ethics.” Nonetheless, Sloan and her team needed to decide if their car's algorithm was responsible for this death and, if so, what the plan of action should be. \u0000. . .","PeriodicalId":390041,"journal":{"name":"Darden Case Collection","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114279355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An Introduction to Zero-Coupon Risk-Free Bonds","authors":"Michael J. Schill","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3010601","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3010601","url":null,"abstract":"This note introduces students to the basics of bonds and the time value of money through the simplest of financial contracts—the zero-coupon risk-free bond contract. The note covers the concepts of present value, yield to maturity, and bond pricing conventions. The note is appropriate as a companion for the Bond Trader simulation. A demo for this simulation is available at https://forio.com/simulate/darden/bond-trader-demo/. \u0000Excerpt \u0000UVA-F-1799 \u0000Rev. Sept. 7, 2018 \u0000An Introduction to Zero-Coupon Risk-Free Bonds \u0000One of the central principles of finance is that things that pay identical amounts have identical values. This principle is called the “Law of One Price.” The Law of One Price implies that one can value one financial contract by observing the value of another financial contract with similar expected return and risk. A related concept used in finance is that of “home cooking.” In financial markets one can “home cook” a version of a prevailing contract by combining existing financial products to create a “home-cooked” version. As such, the “home-cooked” version has the same value as, say, the “store-bought” version. \u0000As an example of this concept, suppose that you often buy chicken teriyaki sandwiches at a local food truck called the Big Kahuna. Your brother Rupert, an enterprising young man, has figured out how to exactly replicate the Big Kahuna chicken teriyaki sandwich. What is the value of Rupert's “home-cooked” exact replication of the Big Kahuna sandwich? Since the two sandwiches are identical, the sandwiches have the same value according to the Law of One Price. In finance, we will determine the value of a financial contract by observing the value of an identical replication of that contract that we can “cook up” by combining other contracts that are traded in security markets. \u0000In this note, we explore some first principles of pricing financial contracts using the Law of One Price. Although debt contracts go by many names, to simplify the discussion in this note we will use the term “bond” to denote any market-traded debt contract. Because the principles used to value simple contracts also apply to complicated contracts, we begin with the simplest of financial contracts—the zero-coupon risk-free bond contract. “Zero-coupon” bonds are simple promises to pay a certain amount at a specific point in time without any promise of making interest payments (or coupon payments) along the way. Zero-coupon bonds are simple IOUs. “Risk-free” bonds are promises that have certainty in the contracted payment. A risk-free promise of $ 1,000 is a sure promise that the payment will be made (there is no possibility of default or failure to make payment). \u0000. . .","PeriodicalId":390041,"journal":{"name":"Darden Case Collection","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130267610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}