In 2007, Best Buy was the leading electronics retailer in the United States with more than 941 stores, revenue totaling $31 billion, and a market cap of $21 billion. In 2005, Best Buy had adopted a new business model, culture, and customer-segmentation template called Customer Centricity. This move created volatility in the price of Best Buy stock because of the higher-than-expected employee costs that went with this new way of doing business and the difficulty of executing the old and the new business models simultaneously while the new model was rolled out. Best Buy responded to Wall Street's short-term focus in a myriad of ways. It first asked for investor patience, and stressed the strong operating results achieved in Best Buy stores operating under the new model. But in June 2007, after the stock dropped again, the CEO knew he had to decide whether to open more Best Buy stores, increase the company's dividend, or increase the stock-repurchase program.

UPS had become a global public company, with a market cap of $74 billion, more than 428,000 employees, $47 billion in revenue, and operations in more than 200 countries. A recognized leader among package-delivery companies, its growth had been above industry averages and had historically been through geographical expansion. In 1998, UPS changed its business model to Synchronized Commerce and adopted a new growth strategy called the Four Quadrant Model, hoping to expand its market space by transforming itself into a logistics-solutions company. But eight years after these changes, UPS was generating only 17% of its revenue from its nonpackage deliveries, with only $2 million of its operating profit coming from the new businesses. In the company's 2006 Annual Report, the UPS chairman and CEO acknowledged the disappointing results and realized that these results required a response to the public market.

The Home Depot case is a great story. It's about entrepreneurship, growth, CEO leadership, and the dramatic impact, good and bad, a CEO can have on a company's growth culture, strategy, and performance. Home Depot had faced market growth challenges for the last seven years as it tried in numerous ways to reignite its growth engine. The case explores the growth strategies of CEOs Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, and Blank's successor Bob Nardelli, a former GE executive. After examining Home Depot's growth history, the case challenges students to devise a growth strategy for the company under a new CEO.

With Method standing at number seven on Inc. magazine's list of the 500 fastest-growing companies in 2006, cofounder Adam Lowry is searching for a biodegradable cleaning cloth to expand Method's line of "green" household products. Sustainable design principles have been a guiding force in Method's strategy, and being biofriendly is critical. So is sourcing in the United States. But only China can manufacture the corn-based cloth Lowry has in mind, and there is no way to certify that the product is free of genetically modified organisms. Lowry has to balance his firm's fundamental commitment to environmental sustainability against the fact that some retailers refuse to carry products containing GMOs.

Shaw Industries, a leading U.S. global manufacturer of floor coverings, produced EcoWorx technology to create a carpet tile that is PVC-free and able to be recycled, upon return to the company, as a carpet tile of equal quality and performance. Using green chemistry, the company has created a sustainable business innovation that cut costs, improves revenues, positively influences health and the environment, improves the brand, and enhances Shaw's strategic positioning going forward. The case explores drivers of change toward sustainably designed floor coverings and EcoWork as example of innovative change using sustainability framework.

This minicase is one of 10 in a set of short cases written to illustrate the business benefits companies realize through adopting sustainable business strategies. This case describes the supply chain management and internal changes by Swiss firm Rohner, a commercial fabric manufacturer, as it transformed its strategy from conventional production to benign fabric based on the application of cradle-to-cradle design. The case illustrates the way firms can turn sustainability ideas into growth and differentiation opportunities.

This minicase is one of 10 in a set of short cases written to illustrate the business benefits companies realize through adopting sustainable business strategies. This one features Shaw Industries, a leading U.S. global manufacturer of floor coverings, which developed EcoWorx technology to create a carpet tile that is PVC-free and able to be recycled, upon return to the company, as a carpet tile of equal quality and performance. Using green chemistry, the company has created a sustainable business innovation that cut costs, improves revenues, positively influences health and the environment, improves the brand, and enhances Shaw's strategic positioning going forward.

Although breast milk is recognized by doctors, public health officials, and scientists as the best first food for an infant, it is not pure. Many synthetic chemicals released into the environment, intentionally or not, can be found in breast milk. Chemicals such as famous "bad actors" like dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), as well as less well-known substances such as flame retardants (polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs), have been detected in human breast milk around the world. Many of those synthetic chemicals are known or suspected causes of cancer, and they have been linked to other health problems such as diabetes, reproductive disorders, and impaired brain development. The health benefits of breastfeeding far outweigh the possible negative effects of chemical contaminants in breast milk, but the presence of those chemicals remains a cause for concern among health officials, individuals, and the companies whose products or manufacturing process release toxins into our environment.

This technical note forms the basis of a discussion on the economic value added of green chemistry principles. Students can learn how to increase NOPAT by increasing sales; increase NOPAT by decreasing operating expenses; reduce WACC, driving down risk by decreasing risk perceived by capital providers; and reduce invested capital. A grid showing green chemistry principals and how adhering to each might affect the bottom line provides an excellent context in which to discuss business strategies.

Implementing a sustainability strategy requires firms to consider economic, strategic, environmental, and community perspectives. Suitable for MBA, undergraduate, and executive learners, this sustainability case covers innovation, intrapreneurship, and strategy. An Excel carbon footprint analysis exercise (UVA-S-ENT-0112) accompanies the case; a technical note entitled, "Corporate Greenhouse Accounting: Carbon Footprint Analysis" (UVA-ENT-0113) is an effective complement. Frito-Lay's Arizona facility pilots a program to take its snack chip manufacturing off the grid. Decision makers discuss operating, financial, marketing, and corporate strategy as the facility calculates its carbon footprint, converts to non-fossil-fuel energy sources, and stops relying on the scarce local water supply.

Implementing a sustainability strategy requires firms to consider economic, strategic, environmental, and community perspectives. Suitable for MBA, undergraduate, and executive learners, this sustainability case covers innovation, intrapreneurship, and strategy. An Excel carbon footprint analysis exercise (UVA-S-ENT-0112) accompanies the case; a technical note entitled, "Corporate Greenhouse Accounting: Carbon Footprint Analysis" (UVA-ENT-0113) is an effective complement. Frito-Lay's Arizona facility pilots a program to take its snack chip manufacturing off the grid. Decision makers discuss operating, financial, marketing, and corporate strategy as the facility calculates its carbon footprint, converts to non-fossil-fuel energy sources, and stops relying on the scarce local water supply.

Stakeholder climate change actions worldwide have prompted companies to measure their greenhouse gas emissions and reduce their carbon footprints by decreasing energy and fuel use. In the process, they are cutting costs, decreasing exposure to severe weather, reducing energy vulnerability, and potentially opening up revenue sources for carbon credit sales in the emerging markets for carbon trading. This note is effective in MBA, undergraduate, and executive education courses on clean commerce innovation, carbon markets, sustainability, and environmental and regulatory issues. This technical note stands alone and also works as a companion note to "Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net-Zero Snack Chip" (UVA-ENT-0112). For instructors, a teaching note is available, along with a supplemental Excel spreadsheet for use in performing carbon emissions calculations.

This case serves multiple teaching purposes. It can be used effectively in an entrepreneurship course or for a discussion of entrepreneurship in the context of nonprofit organizations. Women's World Banking (WWB) is a unique worldwide financial institution that serves as an international model for the delivery of credit and management expertise to microbusinesses in less-developed economies. WWB represents the breakthrough innovation in market creation, product development, and new organizational forms discussed by Joseph Schumpeter (an economist who studied entrepreneurship). The organization is a network that operates with autonomous affiliates connected in a global web. The case focuses on the creation of the organization and its founding entrepreneur. It is a useful tool for discussing the characteristics of entrepreneurial founders, innovation, and growth challenges in the early years. It can be used effectively with the Harvard Business School case on Women's World Banking to discuss leadership succession and further challenges of rapid growth.

This minicase is one of 10 in a set of short cases written to illustrate the business benefits companies realize through adopting sustainable business strategies. SC Johnson developed its GreenList to screen chemicals and avoid incorporating hazardous and toxic materials into its household cleaning product lines. This minicase discusses the list and how the company has benefited in the marketplace by being out front with a solutions-oriented approach.

In 2002, NatureWorks LLC, a small subsidiary of U.S. agricultural giant Cargill Inc., was recognized for its development of the first synthetic polymer class to be produced from renewable resources, specifically from corn grown in the American midwest. The product held the potential to substitute a renewable feedstock for petroleum-based polymers. With this enormous vote of confidence, the company was poised to move forward from a niche market in which it was selling tens of thousands of tons polylactic acid to a mainstream one with possibly hundreds of thousands of tons in sales. But how could it position itself to do so profitably?