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Teaching Case

Risk management.

Dive into the online game ‘The Fresh Connection’ together with your students for an immersed case study on Risk Management.

Case by: Ed Weenk, EngD, Michiel Steeman

In ‘The Fresh Connection’, students are challenged with a Corona-related supply chain issue: a juice company that struggles to source its Vitamin C from China. Accompanied by a Harvard-style Teaching Case , students are challenged to come up with recommendations to solve the issue. The learning outcome is for students to have an understanding of Risk Management principles.

Recent events, from the war in Ukraine to the Covid-19 crisis, highlight how fragile global supply chains can be. When disruptions hit locally, whether in manufacturing or distribution, the effects can spread fast and wide. For instance, at one point, 75% of U.S. businesses grappled with supply chain issues, according to Fortune. Now, we face a crucial question: How can we better safeguard against these disruptions and quickly address issues in the value chain?

What’s included in this FREE online teaching case?

• Harvard-style Teaching Case on Risk Management and Covid-19
• Class discussion points
• Introduction video about ‘The Fresh Connection’
• Access for both students and teachers to the interactive online game ‘The Fresh Connection’ (watch only)
• Comprehensive teaching notes

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Please read the privacy policy for inchainge to learn more of how inchainge process your personal data., meet the authors.

Ed Weenk, EngD

Maastricht School of Management

EADA Business School Barcelona

My professional passions are sustainable operations & supply chain, managers & management, projects & project management, training & teaching and business simulations & experiential learning.

My latest book, “Mastering the circular economy. A practical approach to the circular business model transformation”, was published in May 2021 by Kogan Page. Previous books are “Mastering the Supply Chain. Principles, practice and real-life applications” from 2019, available in English and Dutch and “The Perfect Pass. What the manager can learn from the football trainer”, from 2012, published in Dutch, English and Spanish.

Michiel Steeman

Windesheim University of Applied Sciences

Annona Deep Tier Impact Finance bv

Supply Chain Finance Community

GSRD Foundation

In 2012 I launched The Cool Connection, a business simulation and training tool that bridges the physical and financial supply chain by bringing together finance, sales, procurement and supply chain in a virtual decision-making environment.  From 2009 to 2012 I was elected into the Executive Committee of Factors Chain International, a worldwide organization with more than 300 members in over 65 countries. I hold a Master’s degree in Financial Economics from Erasmus University in Rotterdam. My working experience includes a variety of roles for Deutsche, NIB Capital, NMB-Heller such as relationship management, risk management and marketing. In my last role at ING, I was member of the board and responsible for product development and strategy for leasing and factoring with operations in 14 countries and almost 3000 employees. My further interests include traveling, hiking, mountaineering and of course my family as a proud father of three daughters.

Related resources

Teaching Case Webinar: Managing Risk to Global Supply Chains

Masterclass: how to get the richest and most engaging in-class value chain experience for your students, privacy overview.

Enterprise Risk Management Case Studies: Heroes and Zeros

By Andy Marker | April 7, 2021

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We’ve compiled more than 20 case studies of enterprise risk management programs that illustrate how companies can prevent significant losses yet take risks with more confidence.   

Included on this page, you’ll find case studies and examples by industry , case studies of major risk scenarios (and company responses), and examples of ERM successes and failures .

Enterprise Risk Management Examples and Case Studies

With enterprise risk management (ERM) , companies assess potential risks that could derail strategic objectives and implement measures to minimize or avoid those risks. You can analyze examples (or case studies) of enterprise risk management to better understand the concept and how to properly execute it.

The collection of examples and case studies on this page illustrates common risk management scenarios by industry, principle, and degree of success. For a basic overview of enterprise risk management, including major types of risks, how to develop policies, and how to identify key risk indicators (KRIs), read “ Enterprise Risk Management 101: Programs, Frameworks, and Advice from Experts .”

Enterprise Risk Management Framework Examples

An enterprise risk management framework is a system by which you assess and mitigate potential risks. The framework varies by industry, but most include roles and responsibilities, a methodology for risk identification, a risk appetite statement, risk prioritization, mitigation strategies, and monitoring and reporting.

To learn more about enterprise risk management and find examples of different frameworks, read our “ Ultimate Guide to Enterprise Risk Management .”

Enterprise Risk Management Examples and Case Studies by Industry

Though every firm faces unique risks, those in the same industry often share similar risks. By understanding industry-wide common risks, you can create and implement response plans that offer your firm a competitive advantage.

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Banking

Toronto-headquartered TD Bank organizes its risk management around two pillars: a risk management framework and risk appetite statement. The enterprise risk framework defines the risks the bank faces and lays out risk management practices to identify, assess, and control risk. The risk appetite statement outlines the bank’s willingness to take on risk to achieve its growth objectives. Both pillars are overseen by the risk committee of the company’s board of directors.  

Risk management frameworks were an important part of the International Organization for Standardization’s 31000 standard when it was first written in 2009 and have been updated since then. The standards provide universal guidelines for risk management programs.  

Risk management frameworks also resulted from the efforts of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). The group was formed to fight corporate fraud and included risk management as a dimension. 

Once TD completes the ERM framework, the bank moves onto the risk appetite statement. 

The bank, which built a large U.S. presence through major acquisitions, determined that it will only take on risks that meet the following three criteria:

• The risk fits the company’s strategy, and TD can understand and manage those risks. 
• The risk does not render the bank vulnerable to significant loss from a single risk.
• The risk does not expose the company to potential harm to its brand and reputation. 

Some of the major risks the bank faces include strategic risk, credit risk, market risk, liquidity risk, operational risk, insurance risk, capital adequacy risk, regulator risk, and reputation risk. Managers detail these categories in a risk inventory. 

The risk framework and appetite statement, which are tracked on a dashboard against metrics such as capital adequacy and credit risk, are reviewed annually. 

TD uses a three lines of defense (3LOD) strategy, an approach widely favored by ERM experts, to guard against risk. The three lines are as follows:

• A business unit and corporate policies that create controls, as well as manage and monitor risk
• Standards and governance that provide oversight and review of risks and compliance with the risk appetite and framework 
• Internal audits that provide independent checks and verification that risk-management procedures are effective

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Pharmaceuticals

Drug companies’ risks include threats around product quality and safety, regulatory action, and consumer trust. To avoid these risks, ERM experts emphasize the importance of making sure that strategic goals do not conflict. 

For Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline, such a conflict led to a breakdown in risk management, among other issues. In the early 2000s, the company was striving to increase sales and profitability while also ensuring safe and effective medicines. One risk the company faced was a failure to meet current good manufacturing practices (CGMP) at its plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico. 

CGMP includes implementing oversight and controls of manufacturing, as well as managing the risk and confirming the safety of raw materials and finished drug products. Noncompliance with CGMP can result in escalating consequences, ranging from warnings to recalls to criminal prosecution. 

GSK’s unit pleaded guilty and paid $750 million in 2010 to resolve U.S. charges related to drugs made at the Cidra plant, which the company later closed. A fired GSK quality manager alerted regulators and filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 2004. In announcing the consent decree, the U.S. Department of Justice said the plant had a history of bacterial contamination and multiple drugs created there in the early 2000s violated safety standards.

According to the whistleblower, GSK’s ERM process failed in several respects to act on signs of non-compliance with CGMP. The company received warning letters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2001 about the plant’s practices, but did not resolve the issues. 

Additionally, the company didn’t act on the quality manager’s compliance report, which advised GSK to close the plant for two weeks to fix the problems and notify the FDA. According to court filings, plant staff merely skimmed rejected products and sold them on the black market. They also scraped by hand the inside of an antibiotic tank to get more product and, in so doing, introduced bacteria into the product.

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Consumer Packaged Goods

Mars Inc., an international candy and food company, developed an ERM process. The company piloted and deployed the initiative through workshops with geographic, product, and functional teams from 2003 to 2012. 

Driven by a desire to frame risk as an opportunity and to work within the company’s decentralized structure, Mars created a process that asked participants to identify potential risks and vote on which had the highest probability. The teams listed risk mitigation steps, then ranked and color-coded them according to probability of success. 

Larry Warner, a Mars risk officer at the time, illustrated this process in a case study . An initiative to increase direct-to-consumer shipments by 12 percent was colored green, indicating a 75 percent or greater probability of achievement. The initiative to bring a new plant online by the end of Q3 was coded red, meaning less than a 50 percent probability of success. 

The company’s results were hurt by a surprise at an operating unit that resulted from a so-coded red risk identified in a unit workshop. Executives had agreed that some red risk profile was to be expected, but they decided that when a unit encountered a red issue, it must be communicated upward when first identified. This became a rule. 

This process led to the creation of an ERM dashboard that listed initiatives in priority order, with the profile of each risk faced in the quarter, the risk profile trend, and a comment column for a year-end view. 

According to Warner, the key factors of success for ERM at Mars are as follows:

• The initiative focused on achieving operational and strategic objectives rather than compliance, which refers to adhering to established rules and regulations.
• The program evolved, often based on requests from business units, and incorporated continuous improvement. 
• The ERM team did not overpromise. It set realistic objectives.
• The ERM team periodically surveyed business units, management teams, and board advisers.

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Retail

Walmart is the world’s biggest retailer. As such, the company understands that its risk makeup is complex, given the geographic spread of its operations and its large number of stores, vast supply chain, and high profile as an employer and buyer of goods. 

In the 1990s, the company sought a simplified strategy for assessing risk and created an enterprise risk management plan with five steps founded on these four questions:

• What are the risks?
• What are we going to do about them?
• How will we know if we are raising or decreasing risk?
• How will we show shareholder value?

The process follows these five steps:

• Risk Identification: Senior Walmart leaders meet in workshops to identify risks, which are then plotted on a graph of probability vs. impact. Doing so helps to prioritize the biggest risks. The executives then look at seven risk categories (both internal and external): legal/regulatory, political, business environment, strategic, operational, financial, and integrity. Many ERM pros use risk registers to evaluate and determine the priority of risks. You can download templates that help correlate risk probability and potential impact in “ Free Risk Register Templates .”
• Risk Mitigation: Teams that include operational staff in the relevant area meet. They use existing inventory procedures to address the risks and determine if the procedures are effective.
• Action Planning: A project team identifies and implements next steps over the several months to follow.
• Performance Metrics: The group develops metrics to measure the impact of the changes. They also look at trends of actual performance compared to goal over time.
• Return on Investment and Shareholder Value: In this step, the group assesses the changes’ impact on sales and expenses to determine if the moves improved shareholder value and ROI.

To develop your own risk management planning, you can download a customizable template in “ Risk Management Plan Templates .”

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Agriculture

United Grain Growers (UGG), a Canadian grain distributor that now is part of Glencore Ltd., was hailed as an ERM innovator and became the subject of business school case studies for its enterprise risk management program. This initiative addressed the risks associated with weather for its business. Crop volume drove UGG’s revenue and profits. 

In the late 1990s, UGG identified its major unaddressed risks. Using almost a century of data, risk analysts found that extreme weather events occurred 10 times as frequently as previously believed. The company worked with its insurance broker and the Swiss Re Group on a solution that added grain-volume risk (resulting from weather fluctuations) to its other insured risks, such as property and liability, in an integrated program. 

The result was insurance that protected grain-handling earnings, which comprised half of UGG’s gross profits. The greater financial stability significantly enhanced the firm’s ability to achieve its strategic objectives. 

Since then, the number and types of instruments to manage weather-related risks has multiplied rapidly. For example, over-the-counter derivatives, such as futures and options, began trading in 1997. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange now offers weather futures contracts on 12 U.S. and international cities. 

Weather derivatives are linked to climate factors such as rainfall or temperature, and they hedge different kinds of risks than do insurance. These risks are much more common (e.g., a cooler-than-normal summer) than the earthquakes and floods that insurance typically covers. And the holders of derivatives do not have to incur any damage to collect on them.

These weather-linked instruments have found a wider audience than anticipated, including retailers that worry about freak storms decimating Christmas sales, amusement park operators fearing rainy summers will keep crowds away, and energy companies needing to hedge demand for heating and cooling.

This area of ERM continues to evolve because weather and crop insurance are not enough to address all the risks that agriculture faces. Arbol, Inc. estimates that more than $1 trillion of agricultural risk is uninsured. As such, it is launching a blockchain-based platform that offers contracts (customized by location and risk parameters) with payouts based on weather data. These contracts can cover risks associated with niche crops and small growing areas.

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Insurance

Switzerland’s Zurich Insurance Group understands that risk is inherent for insurers and seeks to practice disciplined risk-taking, within a predetermined risk tolerance. 

The global insurer’s enterprise risk management framework aims to protect capital, liquidity, earnings, and reputation. Governance serves as the basis for risk management, and the framework lays out responsibilities for taking, managing, monitoring, and reporting risks. 

The company uses a proprietary process called Total Risk Profiling (TRP) to monitor internal and external risks to its strategy and financial plan. TRP assesses risk on the basis of severity and probability, and helps define and implement mitigating moves. 

Zurich’s risk appetite sets parameters for its tolerance within the goal of maintaining enough capital to achieve an AA rating from rating agencies. For this, the company uses its own Zurich economic capital model, referred to as Z-ECM. The model quantifies risk tolerance with a metric that assesses risk profile vs. risk tolerance. 

To maintain the AA rating, the company aims to hold capital between 100 and 120 percent of capital at risk. Above 140 percent is considered overcapitalized (therefore at risk of throttling growth), and under 90 percent is below risk tolerance (meaning the risk is too high). On either side of 100 to 120 percent (90 to 100 percent and 120 to 140 percent), the insurer considers taking mitigating action. 

Zurich’s assessment of risk and the nature of those risks play a major role in determining how much capital regulators require the business to hold. A popular tool to assess risk is the risk matrix, and you can find a variety of templates in “ Free, Customizable Risk Matrix Templates .”

In 2020, Zurich found that its biggest exposures were market risk, such as falling asset valuations and interest-rate risk; insurance risk, such as big payouts for covered customer losses, which it hedges through diversification and reinsurance; credit risk in assets it holds and receivables; and operational risks, such as internal process failures and external fraud.

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Technology

Financial software maker Intuit has strengthened its enterprise risk management through evolution, according to a case study by former Chief Risk Officer Janet Nasburg. 

The program is founded on the following five core principles:

• Use a common risk framework across the enterprise.
• Assess risks on an ongoing basis.
• Focus on the most important risks.
• Clearly define accountability for risk management.
• Commit to continuous improvement of performance measurement and monitoring. 

ERM programs grow according to a maturity model, and as capability rises, the shareholder value from risk management becomes more visible and important. 

The maturity phases include the following:

• Ad hoc risk management addresses a specific problem when it arises.
• Targeted or initial risk management approaches risks with multiple understandings of what constitutes risk and management occurs in silos. 
• Integrated or repeatable risk management puts in place an organization-wide framework for risk assessment and response. 
• Intelligent or managed risk management coordinates risk management across the business, using common tools. 
• Risk leadership incorporates risk management into strategic decision-making. 

Intuit emphasizes using key risk indicators (KRIs) to understand risks, along with key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge the effectiveness of risk management. 

Early in its ERM journey, Intuit measured performance on risk management process participation and risk assessment impact. For participation, the targeted rate was 80 percent of executive management and business-line leaders. This helped benchmark risk awareness and current risk management, at a time when ERM at the company was not mature.

Conduct an annual risk assessment at corporate and business-line levels to plot risks, so the most likely and most impactful risks are graphed in the upper-right quadrant. Doing so focuses attention on these risks and helps business leaders understand the risk’s impact on performance toward strategic objectives. 

In the company’s second phase of ERM, Intuit turned its attention to building risk management capacity and sought to ensure that risk management activities addressed the most important risks. The company evaluated performance using color-coded status symbols (red, yellow, green) to indicate risk trend and progress on risk mitigation measures.

In its third phase, Intuit moved to actively monitoring the most important risks and ensuring that leaders modified their strategies to manage risks and take advantage of opportunities. An executive dashboard uses KRIs, KPIs, an overall risk rating, and red-yellow-green coding. The board of directors regularly reviews this dashboard.

Over this evolution, the company has moved from narrow, tactical risk management to holistic, strategic, and long-term ERM.

Enterprise Risk Management Case Studies by Principle

ERM veterans agree that in addition to KPIs and KRIs, other principles are equally important to follow. Below, you’ll find examples of enterprise risk management programs by principles.

ERM Principle #1: Make Sure Your Program Aligns with Your Values

Raytheon Case Study U.S. defense contractor Raytheon states that its highest priority is delivering on its commitment to provide ethical business practices and abide by anti-corruption laws.

Raytheon backs up this statement through its ERM program. Among other measures, the company performs an annual risk assessment for each function, including the anti-corruption group under the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer. In addition, Raytheon asks 70 of its sites to perform an anti-corruption self-assessment each year to identify gaps and risks. From there, a compliance team tracks improvement actions. 

Every quarter, the company surveys 600 staff members who may face higher anti-corruption risks, such as the potential for bribes. The survey asks them to report any potential issues in the past quarter.

Also on a quarterly basis, the finance and internal controls teams review higher-risk profile payments, such as donations and gratuities to confirm accuracy and compliance. Oversight and compliance teams add other checks, and they update a risk-based audit plan continuously.

ERM Principle #2: Embrace Diversity to Reduce Risk

State Street Global Advisors Case Study In 2016, the asset management firm State Street Global Advisors introduced measures to increase gender diversity in its leadership as a way of reducing portfolio risk, among other goals. 

The company relied on research that showed that companies with more women senior managers had a better return on equity, reduced volatility, and fewer governance problems such as corruption and fraud. 

Among the initiatives was a campaign to influence companies where State Street had invested, in order to increase female membership on their boards. State Street also developed an investment product that tracks the performance of companies with the highest level of senior female leadership relative to peers in their sector. 

In 2020, the company announced some of the results of its effort. Among the 1,384 companies targeted by the firm, 681 added at least one female director.

ERM Principle #3: Do Not Overlook Resource Risks

Infosys Case Study India-based technology consulting company Infosys, which employees more than 240,000 people, has long recognized the risk of water shortages to its operations. 

India’s rapidly growing population and development has increased the risk of water scarcity. A 2020 report by the World Wide Fund for Nature said 30 cities in India faced the risk of severe water scarcity over the next three decades. 

Infosys has dozens of facilities in India and considers water to be a significant short-term risk. At its campuses, the company uses the water for cooking, drinking, cleaning, restrooms, landscaping, and cooling. Water shortages could halt Infosys operations and prevent it from completing customer projects and reaching its performance objectives. 

In an enterprise risk assessment example, Infosys’ ERM team conducts corporate water-risk assessments while sustainability teams produce detailed water-risk assessments for individual locations, according to a report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development .

The company uses the COSO ERM framework to respond to the risks and decide whether to accept, avoid, reduce, or share these risks. The company uses root-cause analysis (which focuses on identifying underlying causes rather than symptoms) and the site assessments to plan steps to reduce risks. 

Infosys has implemented various water conservation measures, such as water-efficient fixtures and water recycling, rainwater collection and use, recharging aquifers, underground reservoirs to hold five days of water supply at locations, and smart-meter usage monitoring. Infosys’ ERM team tracks metrics for per-capita water consumption, along with rainfall data, availability and cost of water by tanker trucks, and water usage from external suppliers. 

In the 2020 fiscal year, the company reported a nearly 64 percent drop in per-capita water consumption by its workforce from the 2008 fiscal year. 

The business advantages of this risk management include an ability to open locations where water shortages may preclude competitors, and being able to maintain operations during water scarcity, protecting profitability.

ERM Principle #4: Fight Silos for Stronger Enterprise Risk Management

U.S. Government Case Study The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, revealed that the U.S. government’s then-current approach to managing intelligence was not adequate to address the threats — and, by extension, so was the government’s risk management procedure. Since the Cold War, sensitive information had been managed on a “need to know” basis that resulted in data silos. 

In the case of 9/11, this meant that different parts of the government knew some relevant intelligence that could have helped prevent the attacks. But no one had the opportunity to put the information together and see the whole picture. A congressional commission determined there were 10 lost operational opportunities to derail the plot. Silos existed between law enforcement and intelligence, as well as between and within agencies. 

After the attacks, the government moved toward greater information sharing and collaboration. Based on a task force’s recommendations, data moved from a centralized network to a distributed model, and social networking tools now allow colleagues throughout the government to connect. Staff began working across agency lines more often.

Enterprise Risk Management Examples by Scenario

While some scenarios are too unlikely to receive high-priority status, low-probability risks are still worth running through the ERM process. Robust risk management creates a culture and response capacity that better positions a company to deal with a crisis.

In the following enterprise risk examples, you will find scenarios and details of how organizations manage the risks they face.

Scenario: ERM and the Global Pandemic While most businesses do not have the resources to do in-depth ERM planning for the rare occurrence of a global pandemic, companies with a risk-aware culture will be at an advantage if a pandemic does hit. 

These businesses already have processes in place to escalate trouble signs for immediate attention and an ERM team or leader monitoring the threat environment. A strong ERM function gives clear and effective guidance that helps the company respond.

A report by Vodafone found that companies identified as “future ready” fared better in the COVID-19 pandemic. The attributes of future-ready businesses have a lot in common with those of companies that excel at ERM. These include viewing change as an opportunity; having detailed business strategies that are documented, funded, and measured; working to understand the forces that shape their environments; having roadmaps in place for technological transformation; and being able to react more quickly than competitors. 

Only about 20 percent of companies in the Vodafone study met the definition of “future ready.” But 54 percent of these firms had a fully developed and tested business continuity plan, compared to 30 percent of all businesses. And 82 percent felt their continuity plans worked well during the COVID-19 crisis. Nearly 50 percent of all businesses reported decreased profits, while 30 percent of future-ready organizations saw profits rise. 

Scenario: ERM and the Economic Crisis  The 2008 economic crisis in the United States resulted from the domino effect of rising interest rates, a collapse in housing prices, and a dramatic increase in foreclosures among mortgage borrowers with poor creditworthiness. This led to bank failures, a credit crunch, and layoffs, and the U.S. government had to rescue banks and other financial institutions to stabilize the financial system.

Some commentators said these events revealed the shortcomings of ERM because it did not prevent the banks’ mistakes or collapse. But Sim Segal, an ERM consultant and director of Columbia University’s ERM master’s degree program, analyzed how banks performed on 10 key ERM criteria. 

Segal says a risk-management program that incorporates all 10 criteria has these characteristics: 

• Risk management has an enterprise-wide scope.
• The program includes all risk categories: financial, operational, and strategic. 
• The focus is on the most important risks, not all possible risks. 
• Risk management is integrated across risk types.
• Aggregated metrics show risk exposure and appetite across the enterprise.
• Risk management incorporates decision-making, not just reporting.
• The effort balances risk and return management.
• There is a process for disclosure of risk.
• The program measures risk in terms of potential impact on company value.
• The focus of risk management is on the primary stakeholder, such as shareholders, rather than regulators or rating agencies.

In his book Corporate Value of Enterprise Risk Management , Segal concluded that most banks did not actually use ERM practices, which contributed to the financial crisis. He scored banks as failing on nine of the 10 criteria, only giving them a passing grade for focusing on the most important risks. 

Scenario: ERM and Technology Risk  The story of retailer Target’s failed expansion to Canada, where it shut down 133 loss-making stores in 2015, has been well documented. But one dimension that analysts have sometimes overlooked was Target’s handling of technology risk. 

A case study by Canadian Business magazine traced some of the biggest issues to software and data-quality problems that dramatically undermined the Canadian launch. 

As with other forms of ERM, technology risk management requires companies to ask what could go wrong, what the consequences would be, how they might prevent the risks, and how they should deal with the consequences. 

But with its technology plan for Canada, Target did not heed risk warning signs. 

In the United States, Target had custom systems for ordering products from vendors, processing items at warehouses, and distributing merchandise to stores quickly. But that software would need customization to work with the Canadian dollar, metric system, and French-language characters. 

Target decided to go with new ERP software on an aggressive two-year timeline. As Target began ordering products for the Canadian stores in 2012, problems arose. Some items did not fit into shipping containers or on store shelves, and information needed for customs agents to clear imported items was not correct in Target's system. 

Target found that its supply chain software data was full of errors. Product dimensions were in inches, not centimeters; height and width measurements were mixed up. An internal investigation showed that only about 30 percent of the data was accurate. 

In an attempt to fix these errors, Target merchandisers spent a week double-checking with vendors up to 80 data points for each of the retailer’s 75,000 products. They discovered that the dummy data entered into the software during setup had not been altered. To make any corrections, employees had to send the new information to an office in India where staff would enter it into the system. 

As the launch approached, the technology errors left the company vulnerable to stockouts, few people understood how the system worked, and the point-of-sale checkout system did not function correctly. Soon after stores opened in 2013, consumers began complaining about empty shelves. Meanwhile, Target Canada distribution centers overflowed due to excess ordering based on poor data fed into forecasting software. 

The rushed launch compounded problems because it did not allow the company enough time to find solutions or alternative technology. While the retailer fixed some issues by the end of 2014, it was too late. Target Canada filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2015. 

Scenario: ERM and Cybersecurity System hacks and data theft are major worries for companies. But as a relatively new field, cyber-risk management faces unique hurdles.

For example, risk managers and information security officers have difficulty quantifying the likelihood and business impact of a cybersecurity attack. The rise of cloud-based software exposes companies to third-party risks that make these projections even more difficult to calculate. 

As the field evolves, risk managers say it’s important for IT security officers to look beyond technical issues, such as the need to patch a vulnerability, and instead look more broadly at business impacts to make a cost benefit analysis of risk mitigation. Frameworks such as the Risk Management Framework for Information Systems and Organizations by the National Institute of Standards and Technology can help.  

Health insurer Aetna considers cybersecurity threats as a part of operational risk within its ERM framework and calculates a daily risk score, adjusted with changes in the cyberthreat landscape. 

Aetna studies threats from external actors by working through information sharing and analysis centers for the financial services and health industries. Aetna staff reverse-engineers malware to determine controls. The company says this type of activity helps ensure the resiliency of its business processes and greatly improves its ability to help protect member information.

For internal threats, Aetna uses models that compare current user behavior to past behavior and identify anomalies. (The company says it was the first organization to do this at scale across the enterprise.) Aetna gives staff permissions to networks and data based on what they need to perform their job. This segmentation restricts access to raw data and strengthens governance. 

Another risk initiative scans outgoing employee emails for code patterns, such as credit card or Social Security numbers. The system flags the email, and a security officer assesses it before the email is released.

Examples of Poor Enterprise Risk Management

Case studies of failed enterprise risk management often highlight mistakes that managers could and should have spotted — and corrected — before a full-blown crisis erupted. The focus of these examples is often on determining why that did not happen. 

ERM Case Study: General Motors

In 2014, General Motors recalled the first of what would become 29 million cars due to faulty ignition switches and paid compensation for 124 related deaths. GM knew of the problem for at least 10 years but did not act, the automaker later acknowledged. The company entered a deferred prosecution agreement and paid a $900 million penalty. 

Pointing to the length of time the company failed to disclose the safety problem, ERM specialists say it shows the problem did not reside with a single department. “Rather, it reflects a failure to properly manage risk,” wrote Steve Minsky, a writer on ERM and CEO of an ERM software company, in Risk Management magazine. 

“ERM is designed to keep all parties across the organization, from the front lines to the board to regulators, apprised of these kinds of problems as they become evident. Unfortunately, GM failed to implement such a program, ultimately leading to a tragic and costly scandal,” Minsky said.

Also in the auto sector, an enterprise risk management case study of Toyota looked at its problems with unintended acceleration of vehicles from 2002 to 2009. Several studies, including a case study by Carnegie Mellon University Professor Phil Koopman , blamed poor software design and company culture. A whistleblower later revealed a coverup by Toyota. The company paid more than $2.5 billion in fines and settlements.

ERM Case Study: Lululemon

In 2013, following customer complaints that its black yoga pants were too sheer, the athletic apparel maker recalled 17 percent of its inventory at a cost of $67 million. The company had previously identified risks related to fabric supply and quality. The CEO said the issue was inadequate testing. 

Analysts raised concerns about the company’s controls, including oversight of factories and product quality. A case study by Stanford University professors noted that Lululemon’s episode illustrated a common disconnect between identifying risks and being prepared to manage them when they materialize. Lululemon’s reporting and analysis of risks was also inadequate, especially as related to social media. In addition, the case study highlighted the need for a system to escalate risk-related issues to the board. 

ERM Case Study: Kodak 

Once an iconic brand, the photo film company failed for decades to act on the threat that digital photography posed to its business and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2012. The company’s own research in 1981 found that digital photos could ultimately replace Kodak’s film technology and estimated it had 10 years to prepare. 

Unfortunately, Kodak did not prepare and stayed locked into the film paradigm. The board reinforced this course when in 1989 it chose as CEO a candidate who came from the film business over an executive interested in digital technology. 

Had the company acknowledged the risks and employed ERM strategies, it might have pursued a variety of strategies to remain successful. The company’s rival, Fuji Film, took the money it made from film and invested in new initiatives, some of which paid off. Kodak, on the other hand, kept investing in the old core business.

Case Studies of Successful Enterprise Risk Management

Successful enterprise risk management usually requires strong performance in multiple dimensions, and is therefore more likely to occur in organizations where ERM has matured. The following examples of enterprise risk management can be considered success stories. 

ERM Case Study: Statoil 

A major global oil producer, Statoil of Norway stands out for the way it practices ERM by looking at both downside risk and upside potential. Taking risks is vital in a business that depends on finding new oil reserves. 

According to a case study, the company developed its own framework founded on two basic goals: creating value and avoiding accidents.

The company aims to understand risks thoroughly, and unlike many ERM programs, Statoil maps risks on both the downside and upside. It graphs risk on probability vs. impact on pre-tax earnings, and it examines each risk from both positive and negative perspectives. 

For example, the case study cites a risk that the company assessed as having a 5 percent probability of a somewhat better-than-expected outcome but a 10 percent probability of a significant loss relative to forecast. In this case, the downside risk was greater than the upside potential.

ERM Case Study: Lego 

The Danish toy maker’s ERM evolved over the following four phases, according to a case study by one of the chief architects of its program:

• Traditional management of financial, operational, and other risks. Strategic risk management joined the ERM program in 2006. 
• The company added Monte Carlo simulations in 2008 to model financial performance volatility so that budgeting and financial processes could incorporate risk management. The technique is used in budget simulations, to assess risk in its credit portfolio, and to consolidate risk exposure. 
• Active risk and opportunity planning is part of making a business case for new projects before final decisions.
• The company prepares for uncertainty so that long-term strategies remain relevant and resilient under different scenarios. 

As part of its scenario modeling, Lego developed its PAPA (park, adapt, prepare, act) model. 

• Park: The company parks risks that occur slowly and have a low probability of happening, meaning it does not forget nor actively deal with them.
• Adapt: This response is for risks that evolve slowly and are certain or highly probable to occur. For example, a risk in this category is the changing nature of play and the evolution of buying power in different parts of the world. In this phase, the company adjusts, monitors the trend, and follows developments.
• Prepare: This category includes risks that have a low probability of occurring — but when they do, they emerge rapidly. These risks go into the ERM risk database with contingency plans, early warning indicators, and mitigation measures in place.
• Act: These are high-probability, fast-moving risks that must be acted upon to maintain strategy. For example, developments around connectivity, mobile devices, and online activity are in this category because of the rapid pace of change and the influence on the way children play. 

Lego views risk management as a way to better equip itself to take risks than its competitors. In the case study, the writer likens this approach to the need for the fastest race cars to have the best brakes and steering to achieve top speeds.

ERM Case Study: University of California 

The University of California, one of the biggest U.S. public university systems, introduced a new view of risk to its workforce when it implemented enterprise risk management in 2005. Previously, the function was merely seen as a compliance requirement.

ERM became a way to support the university’s mission of education and research, drawing on collaboration of the system’s employees across departments. “Our philosophy is, ‘Everyone is a risk manager,’” Erike Young, deputy director of ERM told Treasury and Risk magazine. “Anyone who’s in a management position technically manages some type of risk.”

The university faces a diverse set of risks, including cybersecurity, hospital liability, reduced government financial support, and earthquakes.  

The ERM department had to overhaul systems to create a unified view of risk because its information and processes were not linked. Software enabled both an organizational picture of risk and highly detailed drilldowns on individual risks. Risk managers also developed tools for risk assessment, risk ranking, and risk modeling. 

Better risk management has provided more than $100 million in annual cost savings and nearly $500 million in cost avoidance, according to UC officials. 

UC drives ERM with risk management departments at each of its 10 locations and leverages university subject matter experts to form multidisciplinary workgroups that develop process improvements.

APQC, a standards quality organization, recognized UC as a top global ERM practice organization, and the university system has won other awards. The university says in 2010 it was the first nonfinancial organization to win credit-rating agency recognition of its ERM program.

Examples of How Technology Is Transforming Enterprise Risk Management

Business intelligence software has propelled major progress in enterprise risk management because the technology enables risk managers to bring their information together, analyze it, and forecast how risk scenarios would impact their business.

ERM organizations are using computing and data-handling advancements such as blockchain for new innovations in strengthening risk management. Following are case studies of a few examples.

ERM Case Study: Bank of New York Mellon 

In 2021, the bank joined with Google Cloud to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to predict and reduce the risk that transactions in the $22 trillion U.S. Treasury market will fail to settle. Settlement failure means a buyer and seller do not exchange cash and securities by the close of business on the scheduled date. 

The party that fails to settle is assessed a daily financial penalty, and a high level of settlement failures can indicate market liquidity problems and rising risk. BNY says that, on average, about 2 percent of transactions fail to settle.

The bank trained models with millions of trades to consider every factor that could result in settlement failure. The service uses market-wide intraday trading metrics, trading velocity, scarcity indicators, volume, the number of trades settled per hour, seasonality, issuance patterns, and other signals. 

The bank said it predicts about 40 percent of settlement failures with 90 percent accuracy. But it also cautioned against overconfidence in the technology as the model continues to improve. 

AI-driven forecasting reduces risk for BNY clients in the Treasury market and saves costs. For example, a predictive view of settlement risks helps bond dealers more accurately manage their liquidity buffers, avoid penalties, optimize their funding sources, and offset the risks of failed settlements. In the long run, such forecasting tools could improve the health of the financial market. 

ERM Case Study: PwC

Consulting company PwC has leveraged a vast information storehouse known as a data lake to help its customers manage risk from suppliers.

A data lake stores both structured or unstructured information, meaning data in highly organized, standardized formats as well as unstandardized data. This means that everything from raw audio to credit card numbers can live in a data lake. 

Using techniques pioneered in national security, PwC built a risk data lake that integrates information from client companies, public databases, user devices, and industry sources. Algorithms find patterns that can signify unidentified risks.

One of PwC’s first uses of this data lake was a program to help companies uncover risks from their vendors and suppliers. Companies can violate laws, harm their reputations, suffer fraud, and risk their proprietary information by doing business with the wrong vendor. 

Today’s complex global supply chains mean companies may be several degrees removed from the source of this risk, which makes it hard to spot and mitigate. For example, a product made with outlawed child labor could be traded through several intermediaries before it reaches a retailer. 

PwC’s service helps companies recognize risk beyond their primary vendors and continue to monitor that risk over time as more information enters the data lake.

ERM Case Study: Financial Services

As analytics have become a pillar of forecasting and risk management for banks and other financial institutions, a new risk has emerged: model risk . This refers to the risk that machine-learning models will lead users to an unreliable understanding of risk or have unintended consequences.

For example, a 6 percent drop in the value of the British pound over the course of a few minutes in 2016 stemmed from currency trading algorithms that spiralled into a negative loop. A Twitter-reading program began an automated selling of the pound after comments by a French official, and other selling algorithms kicked in once the currency dropped below a certain level.

U.S. banking regulators are so concerned about model risk that the Federal Reserve set up a model validation council in 2012 to assess the models that banks use in running risk simulations for capital adequacy requirements. Regulators in Europe and elsewhere also require model validation.

A form of managing risk from a risk-management tool, model validation is an effort to reduce risk from machine learning. The technology-driven rise in modeling capacity has caused such models to proliferate, and banks can use hundreds of models to assess different risks. 

Model risk management can reduce rising costs for modeling by an estimated 20 to 30 percent by building a validation workflow, prioritizing models that are most important to business decisions, and implementing automation for testing and other tasks, according to McKinsey.

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The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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ETH Risk Center

Risk case study challenge.

Stay tuned for the next Risk Case Study Challenge!

A Unique Opportunity to Think About Innovative Solutions

The Risk Case Study Challenge 2022

Our corporate partner for the Spring 2022 was Credit Suisse. The cases revolved around the topic of User Experience (UX) in online banking. See the educational objectives below.

Educational objectives

Familiarise oneself with

• the challenges of usability testing and user experience in online banking,
• relating app design to backend programming,
• trading, building a portfolio and related banking fees,
• programming for the finance industry,
• digitalization in finance, its risks and opportunities,
• challenges of financial information communication to individual customers.

Be in contact with industry experts and conduct interviews on the topic of building a digital finance product, online trading of financial assets and product development, accounting for the interaction with a user.

Discover the transfer of scientific knowledge to practice supported by ETH lecturers.

Improve presentation skills in a business setting.

Performance assessment

80% of the grade is based on a written technical report (5-10 pages) and a final presentation produced by the team.

20% of the grade is individual, based on the student’s active participation in class and an executive summary of the project’s output (business style, 1 page).  

Download our course Download flyer (PDF, 4.3 MB) vertical_align_bottom

Read more here on the ETH News.

The Risk Case Study Challenge allows student teams, supported by Risk Center and ETH faculty, to explore real-world, risk-related cases and develop solutions.

Students apply their knowledge, logic, creativity, and problem-solving skills to solving cases with an emphasis on evidence and applications. Typically, the cases are complex, contain ambiguities, and may be addressed in more than one way. They bring together students from different departments, allowing them to experience interdisciplinary cooperation.

The course is worth 3 ECTS credits and is offered as an elective in the ETH MTEC curriculum as well as in other ETH MSc Programs. It is open to MSc and MAS Students from D-MTEC and from other ETH Departments.

Students work in groups of 4 under the supervision of a Case Manager at the corporate partner's. Additionally, they are coached by Risk Center lecturers and receive expert inputs from ETH faculty.

General Objective

• Learn to think "like a scientist", with emphasis on evidence, in order to solve real-world problems.
• Engage in active inquiry and in-depth discussion and coordination within the groups and across groups and with Case Managers.
• Combine and aggregate information from various sources under a time constraint.
• Process your findings and present the outcome to a diverse audience of risk-management professionals.

As a student, you acquire  a practical understanding of

• Risk management and risk modelling in the particular field of your case,
• Relevant tools and applications,
• Coomunication with risk professionals.

In addition, you are coached by Risk Center lecturers on specific aspects of the relevant disciplines, as well as on communication and presentation skills.

Basic Seminar Features

Application Deadline: February 15, 2021

Your application consists in a CV (max 2 pages) and motivation statement (max 1 page). The selection is based on your interest in risk topics, learning motivation and backgrounds. Each group will comprise students from different backgrounds.   

Send the application to Hélène Schernberg .

The schedule and Industry Partner will be announced shortly.

This course is offered at D-MTEC in the MSC and MAS Master programms. The course is also open to all ETH Master Students from Departments related to the Risk Center. The seminar will also be open for selected doctoral students.

Students from other Departments have to contact their Study Office for approval of ECTS.

The Risk Case Study Challenge gives you the opportunity to interact with the corporate partner. 

The kick-off meeting and the final meeting usually take place on the partner's premices. Because of the current COVID-19 pandemic, this may not be the case in the Spring 2022.

Case managers: During the Challenge, you interact and conduct interviews with the corporate partner's employees (case managers) according to a jointly defined process. The frequency of meetings will vary depending on the nature of the cases. You are responsible for managing the interactions with your case managers. 

Faculty support: You will also, if needed, meet ETH faculty regarding the scientific aspects of the cases. Here again, you are responsible for organising the interactions.

Impressions of past Case Studies

" I also liked the topic because it is a real problem that people in the industry are working on and we had the chance to taste this practical approach " (Nikolas, PhD Student BAUG)

" I will recommend the project to other students. Getting first-handed insights into risk management from a practical point of view was an enriching experience " (Claudia, MSc GESS)

" The group size is ideal for such a task and for communication within the group as well. Having members from diverse disciplines allows us to learn from each other " (Diya, MSc ERDW)

" Great opportunity to develop soft skills that are often overlooked when studying technical subjects (presentation skills, communication skills, ability to discuss with the management, receive feedback and implement it, teamwork) " (Franscesco, MSc MATH Statistics)

" I enjoyed to be part of the risk case challenge of this year. It was a great opportunity to me to study the supply chain topic from the Insurance company perspective " (Ambra, PhD Student MTEC)

Final Session of the Risk Case Study Challenge 2018

BFF5021 - Case studies in risk management

Prepare your students to navigate business challenges by immersing them in real-world scenarios.

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Help students learn by doing with over 50,000+ cases featuring real-world business scenarios spanning across multiple areas of business.

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Student build confidence and critical thinking skills while learning to express their ideas and convince others, setting them up for success in the real world.

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Case Teaching Seminar

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Key strategies and practical advice for engaging students using the case method.

Frequently Asked Questions

What support can I offer my students around analyzing cases and preparing for discussion?

Case discussions can be a big departure from the norm for students who are used to lecture-based classes. The Case Analysis Coach is an interactive tutorial on reading and analyzing a case study. The Case Study Handbook covers key skills students need to read, understand, discuss and write about cases. The Case Study Handbook is also available as individual chapters to help your students focus on specific skills.

How can I transfer my in-person case teaching plan to an online environment?

The case method can be used in an online environment without sacrificing its benefits. We have compiled a few resources to help you create transformative online learning experiences with the case method. Learn how HBS brought the case method online in this podcast , gather some quick guidance from the article " How to Teach Any Case Online ", review the Teaching Cases Online Guide for a deep dive, and check out our Teaching Online Resources Page for more insights and inspiration.

After 35 years as an academic, I have come to the conclusion that there is a magic in the way Harvard cases are written. Cases go from specific to general, to show students that business situations are amenable to hard headed analysis that then generalize to larger theoretical insights. The students love it! Akshay Rao Professor, General Mills Chair in Marketing at the University of Minnesota

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HBS Case Selections

OpenAI: Idealism Meets Capitalism

• Shikhar Ghosh
• Shweta Bagai

Generative AI and the Future of Work

• Christopher Stanton
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Copilot(s): Generative AI at Microsoft and GitHub

• Frank Nagle
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Innovation at Moog Inc.

• Brian J. Hall
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Innovation at Google Ads: The Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL) (A)

• Linda A. Hill
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Juan Valdez: Innovation in Caffeination

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UGG Steps into the Metaverse

• Shunyuan Zhang
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Metaverse Wars

• David B. Yoffie

Roblox: Virtual Commerce in the Metaverse

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Timnit Gebru: "SILENCED No More" on AI Bias and The Harms of Large Language Models

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Hugging Face: Serving AI on a Platform

• Kerry Herman
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SmartOne: Building an AI Data Business

• Karim R. Lakhani
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Honeywell and the Great Recession (A)

• Sandra J. Sucher
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Target: Responding to the Recession

• Ranjay Gulati
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Hometown Foods: Changing Price Amid Inflation

• Julian De Freitas
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Elon Musk's Big Bets

• Eric Baldwin

Elon Musk: Balancing Purpose and Risk

Tesla's ceo compensation plan.

• Krishna G. Palepu
• John R. Wells
• Gabriel Ellsworth

China Rapid Finance: The Collapse of China's P2P Lending Industry

• William C. Kirby
• Bonnie Yining Cao
• John P. McHugh

Forbidden City: Launching a Craft Beer in China

• Christopher A. Bartlett
• Carole Carlson

Booking.com

• Stefan Thomke
• Daniela Beyersdorfer

Innovation at Uber: The Launch of Express POOL

• Chiara Farronato
• Alan MacCormack

Racial Discrimination on Airbnb (A)

• Michael Luca
• Scott Stern
• Hyunjin Kim

Unilever's Response to the Future of Work

• William R. Kerr
• Emilie Billaud
• Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej

AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow

• Joseph B. Fuller
• Carl Kreitzberg

Leading Change in Talent at L'Oreal

• Lakshmi Ramarajan
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• Emer Moloney
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Eve Hall: The African American Investment Fund in Milwaukee

• Steven S. Rogers
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United Housing - Otis Gates

• Mercer Cook

The Home Depot: Leadership in Crisis Management

• Herman B. Leonard
• Marc J. Epstein
• Melissa Tritter

The Great East Japan Earthquake (B): Fast Retailing Group's Response

• Hirotaka Takeuchi
• Kenichi Nonomura
• Dena Neuenschwander
• Meghan Ricci
• Kate Schoch
• Sergey Vartanov

Insurer of Last Resort?: The Federal Financial Response to September 11

• David A. Moss
• Sarah Brennan

Under Armour

• Rory McDonald
• Clayton M. Christensen
• Daniel West
• Jonathan E. Palmer
• Tonia Junker

Hunley, Inc.: Casting for Growth

• John A. Quelch
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Bitfury: Blockchain for Government

• Mitchell B. Weiss
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Deutsche Bank: Pursuing Blockchain Opportunities (A)

• Lynda M. Applegate
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Maersk: Betting on Blockchain

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Yum! Brands

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Bharti Airtel in Africa

• Tanya Bijlani

Li & Fung 2012

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Sony and the JK Wedding Dance

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United Breaks Guitars

David dao on united airlines.

• Benjamin Edelman
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Marketing Reading: Digital Marketing

• Joseph Davin

Social Strategy at Nike

• Mikolaj Jan Piskorski
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The Tate's Digital Transformation

Social strategy at american express, mellon financial and the bank of new york.

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The Walt Disney Company and Pixar, Inc.: To Acquire or Not to Acquire?

• Juan Alcacer
• David J. Collis

Dow's Bid for Rohm and Haas

• Benjamin C. Esty

Finance Reading: The Mergers and Acquisitions Process

• John Coates

Apple: Privacy vs. Safety? (A)

• Henry W. McGee
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• Sarah McAra

Sidewalk Labs: Privacy in a City Built from the Internet Up

• Leslie K. John

Data Breach at Equifax

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Apple's Core

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Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple

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Apple Inc. in 2012

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Iz-Lynn Chan at Far East Organization (Abridged)

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Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit

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HubSpot and Motion AI: Chatbot-Enabled CRM

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GROW: Using Artificial Intelligence to Screen Human Intelligence

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Arup: Building the Water Cube

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(Re)Building a Global Team: Tariq Khan at Tek

Managing a global team: greg james at sun microsystems, inc. (a).

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Organizational Behavior Reading: Leading Global Teams

Ron ventura at mitchell memorial hospital.

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Anthony Starks at InSiL Therapeutics (A)

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Wolfgang Keller at Konigsbrau-TAK (A)

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Midland Energy Resources, Inc.: Cost of Capital

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Globalizing the Cost of Capital and Capital Budgeting at AES

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Cost of Capital at Ameritrade

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Finance Reading: Cost of Capital

David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (A)

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Coach Hurley at St. Anthony High School

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Shapiro Global

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Kathryn McNeil (A)

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Carol Fishman Cohen: Professional Career Reentry (A)

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Alex Montana at ESH Manufacturing Co.

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Michelle Levene (A)

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John and Andrea Rice: Entrepreneurship and Life

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Partner Center

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How to Identify and Support At-Risk Students with Case Management Principles

Schools immerse students in more than just academia — they teach students how to operate in the world, work alongside others, and embrace diverse cultures and points of view. Without these invaluable skills, students may struggle to thrive later in life, no matter their careers. At-risk students face multi-faceted challenges while navigating the school system and may require additional support from staff outside the classroom.

Below, we will discuss what makes a student “at risk,” how to identify an at-risk student, and what educators can do to help them navigate these challenges and achieve balance.

What are at-risk students?

At-risk students face a higher likelihood of struggling in educational settings or dropping out of school altogether. Risk factors for these students can be internal — such as learning disabilities, developmental delays, and behavioral or mental health issues — or circumstantial — including socioeconomic influences, racial inequity, inadequate housing, or unstable relationships.

Because the risk factors for each student are so varied and nuanced, student support teams must be prepared to approach each scenario with an informed, compassionate plan. Case management services and software can help more  educators, guidance counselors, social workers, and parents  work together on behalf of these students. Below, we describe how taking a case-management approach to the student body can improve a school’s academic success, graduation rates, counseling services, and student well-being.

How to identify at-risk students

When a student is considered at-risk, it’s often due to factors outside the classroom setting. In fact, the factors affecting a student’s performance are likely to be identified before the student is labeled “at risk,” such as a sudden drop in academic performance. The definition of “at-risk” students is determined on the state or district level, usually with clear criteria for evaluation.

According to the  Glossary of Education Reform , these criteria often include:

• Physical disabilities and learning disabilities
• Prolonged or persistent health issues
• Habitual truancy, incarceration, or delinquency
• Family welfare or marital status
• Parental educational attainment, income levels, employment status, or immigration status
• Households in which the primary language spoken is not English

With so many different types of challenges, at-risk students require a unique, personalized support plan.

How to help at-risk students

Only by addressing each student’s unique needs with compassion and grace can educators help students thrive in and out of the classroom. Helping at-risk students  isn’t just about helping them graduate  – it’s about ensuring each child can access the resources they need to cultivate safe, enriched lives with a trusted support network. All of a student’s needs likely can’t be met by one individual, requiring a team effort that includes referrals, mentoring, community resources, and frequent follow-ups.

Address any outstanding needs a student may have beyond academics.

At-risk students are often identified first by their teachers who interact with them every day. While a student’s academic success is a strong indicator of their need for support, it is usually a symptom rather than a cause. Teachers, guidance counselors, and staff members who interact with these students regularly are in a unique position to gain their trust. These staff are more likely to notice early warning signs, ask questions, and receive honest answers when a student seems to be struggling.

Disturbances at home can cause major disruptions to academic performance during school hours. Whether a student is experiencing  major changes in their family life , financial struggles, long-term health issues, or behavioral and mental health problems, programs and resources likely exist to help alleviate those stressors so they can focus on their studies. Regularly check in with individual students to get an understanding of their life outside the classroom if you suspect they may be having trouble.

Utilize an all-hands-on-deck approach.

Students may be facing a particular struggle, or several all at once, that is disrupting their school work. These issues often cannot be resolved by one person and require teamwork from the adults tasked with helping these students progress in their studies.

If a student would benefit from financial support, educators can address their concerns with school faculty and social services teams.  Students with developmental or learning disabilities  may need to work with student success teams and receive supplemental instruction. If a student’s home life is causing them physical or mental harm, educators, counselors, and other mandatory reporters may need to work with social work teams and the student’s parents.

The solutions to students’ risks are as varied as their potential causes. By working together to identify, document, and resolve these issues, the adults in their lives can address many problems at once to improve the student’s overall well-being.

Engage parents when possible.

Educators’ relationships with at-risk students are critical to meeting those students’ needs, and the same goes for their parents. Outreach ensures students and parents don’t feel alienated, antagonized, and unsupported. Whenever possible and appropriate, make sure guardians are informed, engaged, and open to receiving help.

By working alongside students’ guardians, educators can address problems at the source and ensure students receive support around the clock — not just at school. If necessary, get parents involved with support programs and providers to address financial and social challenges that may impact their children. Having parents and educators on the same team can help students feel more connected to and supported by both groups.

How CaseWorthy can help

The key to offering effective support to at-risk students is collaboration. Educators, counselors, administrators, and social workers must all work together to identify students’ needs, develop solutions, and track progress toward defined goals.  Case management software like CaseWorthy’s  can help teams like these collect, organize, and share student data to keep everyone informed and on track. 

• Case notes provide staff a space to compile qualitative data, such as activity reports, changes to student behavior, or progress toward goals.
• Check-ins can track when and where students engage with prescribed programs, appointments, and activities.
• Powerful reporting with PowerBI allows school faculty to create custom reports on individual students, groups of students, or entire schools.
• CaseWorthy’s Head Start and Early Head Start Advanced Case Management functionality  was designed specifically for compliance with government initiatives to improve student progress.
• Tiers of access to our secure online portal mean members of student success teams can log in and submit data, reports, and communications to other team members from anywhere.

Whether you’re an educator, counselor, social worker, or parent, you are part of the team that can improve students’ performance, outcomes, and well-being. But you cannot do it alone.

CaseWorthy makes it easier for teams to work together on behalf of students.

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Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2017

We generated a list of the 40 most popular Yale School of Management case studies in 2017 by combining data from our publishers, Google analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption. In compiling the list, we gave additional weight to usage outside Yale

We generated a list of the 40 most popular Yale School of Management case studies in 2017 by combining data from our publishers, Google analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption. In compiling the list, we gave additional weight to usage outside Yale.

Case topics represented on the list vary widely, but a number are drawn from the case team’s focus on healthcare, asset management, and sustainability. The cases also draw on Yale’s continued emphasis on corporate governance, ethics, and the role of business in state and society. Of note, nearly half of the most popular cases feature a woman as either the main protagonist or, in the case of raw cases where multiple characters take the place of a single protagonist, a major leader within the focal organization. While nearly a fourth of the cases were written in the past year, some of the most popular, including Cadbury and Design at Mayo, date from the early years of our program over a decade ago. Nearly two-thirds of the most popular cases were “raw” cases - Yale’s novel, web-based template which allows for a combination of text, documents, spreadsheets, and videos in a single case website.

Read on to learn more about the top 10 most popular cases followed by a complete list of the top 40 cases of 2017.  A selection of the top 40 cases are available for purchase through our online store . 

#1 - Coffee 2016

Faculty Supervision: Todd Cort

Coffee 2016 asks students to consider the coffee supply chain and generate ideas for what can be done to equalize returns across various stakeholders. The case draws a parallel between coffee and wine. Both beverages encourage connoisseurship, but only wine growers reap a premium for their efforts to ensure quality.  The case describes the history of coffee production across the world, the rise of the “third wave” of coffee consumption in the developed world, the efforts of the Illy Company to help coffee growers, and the differences between “fair” trade and direct trade. Faculty have found the case provides a wide canvas to discuss supply chain issues, examine marketing practices, and encourage creative solutions to business problems. 

#2 - AXA: Creating New Corporate Responsibility Metrics

Faculty Supervision: Todd Cort and David Bach

The case describes AXA’s corporate responsibility (CR) function. The company, a global leader in insurance and asset management, had distinguished itself in CR since formally establishing a CR unit in 2008. As the case opens, AXA’s CR unit is being moved from the marketing function to the strategy group occasioning a thorough review as to how CR should fit into AXA’s operations and strategy. Students are asked to identify CR issues of particular concern to the company, examine how addressing these issues would add value to the company, and then create metrics that would capture a business unit’s success or failure in addressing the concerns.

#3 - IBM Corporate Service Corps

Faculty Supervision: David Bach in cooperation with University of Ghana Business School and EGADE

The case considers IBM’s Corporate Service Corps (CSC), a program that had become the largest pro bono consulting program in the world. The case describes the program’s triple-benefit: leadership training to the brightest young IBMers, brand recognition for IBM in emerging markets, and community improvement in the areas served by IBM’s host organizations. As the program entered its second decade in 2016, students are asked to consider how the program can be improved. The case allows faculty to lead a discussion about training, marketing in emerging economies, and various ways of providing social benefit. The case highlights the synergies as well as trade-offs between pursuing these triple benefits.

#4 - Cadbury: An Ethical Company Struggles to Insure the Integrity of Its Supply Chain

Faculty Supervision: Ira Millstein

The case describes revelations that the production of cocoa in the Côte d’Ivoire involved child slave labor. These stories hit Cadbury especially hard. Cadbury's culture had been deeply rooted in the religious traditions of the company's founders, and the organization had paid close attention to the welfare of its workers and its sourcing practices. The US Congress was considering legislation that would allow chocolate grown on certified plantations to be labeled “slave labor free,” painting the rest of the industry in a bad light. Chocolate producers had asked for time to rectify the situation, but the extension they negotiated was running out. Students are asked whether Cadbury should join with the industry to lobby for more time?  What else could Cadbury do to ensure its supply chain was ethically managed?

#5 - 360 State Real Options

Faculty Supervision: Matthew Spiegel

In 2010 developer Bruce Becker (SOM ‘85) completed 360 State Street, a major new construction project in downtown New Haven. Just west of the apartment building, a 6,000-square-foot pocket of land from the original parcel remained undeveloped. Becker had a number of alternatives to consider in regards to the site. He also had no obligation to build. He could bide his time. But Becker worried about losing out on rents should he wait too long. Students are asked under what set of circumstances and at what time would it be most advantageous to proceed?

#6 - Design at Mayo

Faculty Supervision: Rodrigo Canales and William Drentell

The case describes how the Mayo Clinic, one of the most prominent hospitals in the world, engaged designers and built a research institute, the Center for Innovation (CFI), to study the processes of healthcare provision. The case documents the many incremental innovations the designers were able to implement and the way designers learned to interact with physicians and vice-versa.

In 2010 there were questions about how the CFI would achieve its stated aspiration of “transformational change” in the healthcare field. Students are asked what would a major change in health care delivery look like? How should the CFI's impact be measured? Were the center's structure and processes appropriate for transformational change? Faculty have found this a great case to discuss institutional obstacles to innovation, the importance of culture in organizational change efforts, and the differences in types of innovation.

This case is freely available to the public.

#7 - Ant Financial

Faculty Supervision: K. Sudhir in cooperation with Renmin University of China School of Business

In 2015, Ant Financial’s MYbank (an offshoot of Jack Ma’s Alibaba company) was looking to extend services to rural areas in China by providing small loans to farmers. Microloans have always been costly for financial institutions to offer to the unbanked (though important in development) but MYbank believed that fintech innovations such as using the internet to communicate with loan applicants and judge their credit worthiness would make the program sustainable. Students are asked whether MYbank could operate the program at scale? Would its big data and technical analysis provide an accurate measure of credit risk for loans to small customers? Could MYbank rely on its new credit-scoring system to reduce operating costs to make the program sustainable?

#8 - Business Leadership in South Africa’s 1994 Reforms

Faculty Supervision: Ian Shapiro

This case examines the role of business in South Africa's historic transition away from apartheid to popular sovereignty. The case provides a previously untold oral history of this key moment in world history, presenting extensive video interviews with business leaders who spearheaded behind-the-scenes negotiations between the African National Congress and the government. Faculty teaching the case have used the material to push students to consider business’s role in a divided society and ask: What factors led business leaders to act to push the country's future away from isolation toward a "high road" of participating in an increasingly globalized economy? What techniques and narratives did they use to keep the two sides talking and resolve the political impasse? And, if business leadership played an important role in the events in South Africa, could they take a similar role elsewhere?

#9 - Shake Shack IPO

Faculty Supervision: Jake Thomas and Geert Rouwenhorst

From an art project in a New York City park, Shake Shack developed a devoted fan base that greeted new Shake Shack locations with cheers and long lines. When Shake Shack went public on January 30, 2015, investors displayed a similar enthusiasm. Opening day investors bid up the $21 per share offering price by 118% to reach $45.90 at closing bell. By the end of May, investors were paying $92.86 per share. Students are asked if this price represented a realistic valuation of the enterprise and if not, what was Shake Shack truly worth? The case provides extensive information on Shake Shack’s marketing, competitors, operations and financials, allowing instructors to weave a wide variety of factors into a valuation of the company.

#10 - Searching for a Search Fund Structure

Faculty Supervision: AJ Wasserstein

This case considers how young entrepreneurs structure search funds to find businesses to take over. The case describes an MBA student who meets with a number of successful search fund entrepreneurs who have taken alternative routes to raising funds. The case considers the issues of partnering, soliciting funds vs. self-funding a search, and joining an incubator. The case provides a platform from which to discuss the pros and cons of various search fund structures.

40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2017

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The case discusses how Zilingo Pte Ltd (Zilingo), a Singapore-based B2B fashion tech platform, ended up in liquidation after a protracted crisis due to issues that led to corporate governance failure. Founded in 2016 by Ankiti Bose (Bose) and Dhruv Kapoor, Zilingo was an online fashion and beauty startup company that empowered apparel supply chain players to produce, source, and trade efficiently through its technology platform. It was one of Southeast Asia’s vaunted startups...

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MBA Case Studies - Solved Examples

Need of MBA Case Studies

Case i: chemco case.

• ChemCo is a quality leader in the U.K. car batteries market.
• Customer battery purchases in the automobile market are highly seasonal.
• The fork-lift business was added to utilize idle capacity during periods of inactivity.
• This is a low-growth industry (1% annual growth over the last two years)
• Large customers are sophisticated and buy based on price and quality. Smaller customers buy solely on price.
• There is a Spanish competitor in the market who offers low priced batteries of inferior quality.

Essential MBA GD Guide: Key Topics with Strategies Free

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• Established player in car batteries
• Losing heavily in fork-lift truck batteries
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• High quality product, but low end customers care more about price than quality
• Mismanaged product diversification in a price sensitive market
• Alternative 1: Establish an Off-Brand for the fork-lift business
• Alternative 2: Educate the customer market about product quality
• Alternative 3: Exit the fork-lift battery business
• Establishing the firm's quality image
• Increase in market share
• Increase in sales
• Cost of the product
• Protect firm's quality image in the automobile industry
• Redesigned product to reduce the cost of manufacture
• Low price to enable it to compete with Spanish producer
• Make use of the quality leadership in car batteries market
• Offer reliability testing, extended warranties etc. to promote quality image
• Set higher prices to extract surplus from these advantages
• A passive strategy, not proactive
• Recommendations: Alternative 1 is recommended in this case. Since the firm operates in an industry which has low growth, hence it can expand market share and sales only by taking the customers from other players. Hence, it needs to tackle the Spanish competitor head-on by aggressively pricing its product. At the same time, launching a low-priced product under the same brand name erodes the high quality image in the car batteries market. Hence, the best option is to go for an off-brand to target the fork-lift customers who are increasingly becoming price sensitive. This will enable the company to ward off the threat in short-term and build its position strongly in the long-term.

Case II: NAKAMURA LACQUER COMPANY

• The Nakamura Lacquer Company: The Nakamura Lacquer Company based in Kyoto, Japan was one of the many small handicraft shops making lacquerware for the daily table use of the Japanese people.
• Mr. Nakamura- the personality: In 1948, a young Mr. Nakamura took over his family business. He saw an opportunity to cater to a new market of America, i.e. GI's of the Occupation Army who had begun to buy lacquer ware as souvenirs. However, he realized that the traditional handicraft methods were inadequate. He was an innovator and introduced simple methods of processing and inspection using machines. Four years later, when the Occupation Army left in 1952, Nakamura employed several thousand men, and produced 500,000 pieces of lacquers tableware each year for the Japanese mass consumer market. The profit from operations was $250,000.
• The Brand: Nakamura named his brand “Chrysanthemum” after the national flower of Japan, which showed his patriotic fervor. The brand became Japan's best known and best selling brand, being synonymous with good quality, middle class and dependability.
• The Market: The market for lacquerware in Japan seems to have matured, with the production steady at 500,000 pieces a year. Nakamura did practically no business outside of Japan. However, early in 1960, when the American interest in Japanese products began to grow, Nakamura received two offers
• The Rose and Crown offer: The first offer was from Mr. Phil Rose, V.P Marketing at the National China Company. They were the largest manufacturer of good quality dinnerware in the U.S., with their “Rose and Crown” brand accounting for almost 30% of total sales. They were willing to give a firm order for three eyes for annual purchases of 400,000 sets of lacquer dinnerware, delivered in Japan and at 5% more than what the Japanese jobbers paid. However, Nakamura would have to forego the Chrysanthemum trademark to “Rose and Crown” and also undertaken to sell lacquer ware to anyone else the U.S. The offer promised returns of $720,000 over three years (with net returns of $83,000), but with little potential for the U.S. market on the Chrysanthemum brand beyond that period.
• The Semmelback offer: The second offer was from Mr. Walter Sammelback of Sammelback, Sammelback and Whittacker, Chicago, the largest supplier of hotel and restaurant supplies in the U.S. They perceived a U.S. market of 600,000 sets a year, expecting it to go up to 2 million in around 5 years. Since the Japanese government did not allow overseas investment, Sammelback was willing to budget $1.5 million. Although the offer implied negative returns of $467,000 over the first five years, the offer had the potential to give a $1 million profit if sales picked up as anticipated.
• Meeting the order: To meet the numbers requirement of the orders, Nakamura would either have to expand capacity or cut down on the domestic market. If he chose to expand capacity, the danger was of idle capacity in case the U.S. market did not respond. If he cut down on the domestic market, the danger was of losing out on a well-established market. Nakamura could also source part of the supply from other vendors. However, this option would not find favor with either of the American buyers since they had approached only Nakamura, realizing that he was the best person to meet the order.
• Decision problem: Whether to accept any of the two offers and if yes, which one of the two and under what terms of conditions?
• To expand into the U.S. market.
• To maintain and build upon their reputation of the “Chrysanthemum” brand
• To increase profit volumes by tapping the U.S. market and as a result, increasing scale of operations.
• To increase its share in the U.S. lacquerware market.
• Profit Maximization criterion: The most important criterion in the long run is profit maximization.
• Risk criterion: Since the demand in the U.S. market is not as much as in Japan.
• Brand identity criterion: Nakamura has painstakingly built up a brand name in Japan. It is desirable for him to compete in the U.S. market under the same brand name
• Flexibility criterion: The chosen option should offer Nakamura flexibility in maneuvering the terms and conditions to his advantage. Additionally, Nakamura should have bargaining power at the time of renewal of the contract.
• Short term returns: Nakamura should receive some returns on the investment he makes on the new offers. However, this criterion may be compromised in favor of profit maximization in the long run.?
• Reject both: React both the offers and concentrate on the domestic market
• Accept RC offer: Accept the Rose and Crown offer and supply the offer by cutting down on supplies to the domestic market or through capacity expansion or both
• Accept SSW: offer; accept the SSW offer and meet it through cutting down on supply to the domestic market or through capacity expansion or both. Negotiate term of supply.
• Reject both: This option would not meet the primary criterion of profit maximization. Further, the objective of growth would also not be met. Hence, this option is rejected.
• Accept RC offer: The RC offer would assure net returns of $283,000 over the next three yeas. It also assures regular returns of $240,000 per year. However, Nakamura would have no presence in the U.S. with its Chrysanthemum brand name The RC offer would entail capacity expansion, as it would not be possible to siphon of 275,000 pieces from the domestic market over three years without adversely affecting operations there. At the end of three years, Nakamura would have little bargaining power with RC as it would have an excess capacity of 275,000 pieces and excess labor which it would want to utilize. In this sense the offer is risky. Further, the offer is not flexible. Long-term profit maximization is uncertain in this case a condition that can be controlled in the SSW offer. Hence, this offer is rejected.
• Accept SSW offer: The SSW offer does not assure a firm order or any returns for the period of contract. Although, in its present form the offer is risky if the market in the U.S. does not pick up as expected, the offer is flexible. If Nakamura were to exhibit caution initially by supplying only 300,000 instead of the anticipated 600,000 pieces, it could siphon off the 175,000 required from the domestic market. If demand exists in the U.S., the capacity can be expanded. With this offer, risk is minimized. Further, it would be competing on its own brand name. Distribution would be taken care of and long-term profit maximization criterion would be satisfied as this option has the potential of $1 million in profits per year. At the time of renewal of the contract, Nakamura would have immense bargaining power.
• Negotiate terms of offer with SSW: The terms would be that NLC would supply 300,000 pieces in the first year. If market demand exists, NLC should expand capacity to provide the expected demand.
• Action Plan: In the first phase, NLC would supply SSW with 300,000 pieces. 125,000 of these would be obtained by utilizing excess capacity, while the remaining would be obtained from the domestic market. If the expected demand for lacquer ware exists in the U.S., NLC would expand capacity to meet the expected demand. The debt incurred would be paid off by the fifth year.
• Contingency Plan:  In case the demand is not as expected in the first year, NLC should not service the U.S. market and instead concentrate on increasing penetration in the domestic market.

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