With the enactment of the long-awaited U.S. security-based crowdfunding regulations in May 2016, early-stage private companies can utilize regulatory crowdfunding to raise funds on digital platforms via multiple nonaccredited investors. To protect such small microinvestors and maintain market efficiency, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires extensive disclosure information in filings. However, with many ventures being new, small, .....more

Spreadsheet supplement for case W34499. Weina Zhang is affiliated with National University of Singapore

Green Consultant, a Singapore-based environmental consulting firm, had worked with several financial institutions before 2023 and was aware that many were interested in expanding their loan portfolios to include more environmentally inclined clients. In January 2023, one such client, a Singapore-based small and medium enterprise (SME) named Chang & Lee Manufacturing (CLM), approached Green Consultant to prepare a business proposal on how the SME .....more

Derrin Raffey, chief financial officer at St. Thomas More College (STM) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, oversaw STM''s investment trust. With a value of more than CA$22 million, managing the trust required careful consideration of various factors, including management fees, performance, the appropriateness of the holdings, and relationships with investment managers.<br><br>At times, the trust had held investments that were .....more

In 2012, the Jamaican economy was in a crisis. It had an estimated debt-to-gross domestic product ratio of 147 per cent. To alleviate the crisis, the Jamaican government signed both an extended fund facility for US$948 million, in 2013, and a precautionary stand-by arrangement for US$1.64 billion, in 2016, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As a condition of the IMF loan, the Jamaican government agreed to an economic reform agenda with requirements .....more

Braithwaite & Co. Limited (BCL) was a leading railway-engineering public sector company in India. The company was incorporated in 1930 as the first wagon manufacturing company in India. In 1976, the Government of India (GoI) nationalized the company, registering and incorporating it as a fully owned GoI undertaking to support Indian Railways by supplying railway wagons. However, following nationalization, BCL faced growth challenges and gradually .....more

Spreadsheet supplement for case 224001.

The case examines Levi Strauss'' journey in implementing machine learning and AI into its financial forecasting process. The apparel company partnered with the IT company Wipro in 2017 to develop a machine learning algorithm that could help Levi Strauss forecast its revenues and earnings. The CFO of Levi Strauss, Harmit Singh, believed incorporating AI and machine learning into Levi Strauss'' forecasting process would make the process .....more

This case helps individuals learn about different types of investment strategies. It presents three different people with varying risk tolerances and investment objectives and provides information about the investment strategies they adopt.

Historically, the efforts of private equity firms to address leadership challenges have been limited primarily to replacing portfolio-company CEOs. Now, in an era of higher interest rates and more competition for limited acquisition targets, these firms are realizing that they need to make more-systematic investments in leadership development. The author offers a variety of prescriptions for PE firms, portfolio companies, and dealmakers, including .....more