Starting in 2016, Big Apple Circus weathered many storms in its 38 seasons as one of the most recognized nonprofits in New York City. Will Weiss, the managing director, has seen his share of chaos in the Big Apple for four years. After a slight rebound after the sharp drop in ticket sales during the …
In the first months of the financial crisis of 200708, a loan servicer is faced with a real estate financing decision. Should you approve a three-year bullet loan to a long-time client, a legendary Texas developer? The real estate developer, who downsized his business shortly before retiring, seeks financing for his only project: residential or …
In January 2012, the Jane Addams Hull House Association, one of Chicago’s oldest and largest social services and possibly the best known, announced that it could close in the spring due to financial difficulties. Just days later, the 122-year-old organization stunned the philanthropic world when it laid off its employees without notice, declared its intention …
When James Woolsey, a Washington lawyer and longtime Capital Hill associate, became director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1993, he inherited a bomb that would soon be made public. A joint CIAFBI investigation had revealed that Aldrich Ames, a former employee of the agency, had sold secret service secrets to the Soviet Union. Ames …
It took Knight Capital Americas LLC 19 years to become the largest market maker on the New York Stock Exchange, but on August 1, 2012, it took just 45 minutes for an information technology (IT) problem to wipe out the company: a change in the company’s software caused it to lose more than $ 450 …
In August 2013, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched a bribery investigation into JPMorgan’s Princeling hiring practices in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China. The Hong Kong investment bank hired the daughter of a senior official of the China State Railways Group (“CRG”) in 2007 and the son of the chairman of …
By the mid-1980s Asda was one of the UK’s most successful retail companies. In 1991, the chain of 200 grocery stores experienced disorientation, a demoralized workforce, declining profits, rising debt, falling stock prices, and facing bankruptcy. This case describes the company’s downfall and features Archie Norman, a talented young executive who was hired to restore …