Course Video Cases · Weeks 1–5

How to use the video cases

The chapter reviewers explain the frameworks. This supplement adds the course videos' concrete decisions, operating mechanisms and tensions. “Weeks 1–5” is the course coverage label; the chapter labels below identify the downloaded textbook references, which span Chapters 1–9. The videos are supporting sources, not recovered instructor quiz questions. Timestamps identify approximate places to revisit the evidence.

Most notes paraphrase accessible English captions. Caption errors in names were checked against the course text; unverified numbers and current-status claims are omitted. The two-euro shirt experiment is treated separately: Czech captions were saved, English automatic translation was rate limited, and selected English on-screen frames were inspected. The unavailable Chapter 8 video and the uncaptured final community testimony in the Yangil talk remain coverage limits.

Chapter 1 · Taylor Guitars: responsibility across the supply chain

The sawmill account adds a sharper ethical sourcing dilemma to the reviewer's discussion of ebony, livelihoods and ecological waste. Bob Taylor describes exploring a partnership to acquire a Cameroon sawmill, then discovering concerns about under-the-table payments, company arrangements and wood sourcing. These concerns threatened the purchase because the operating practices did not meet the buyers' standards.

The decision was not simply whether an acquisition might earn money. Taylor says that declining to buy while continuing to purchase ebony from an ethically problematic supplier would leave the underlying problem unresolved. His proposed response was to take responsibility through ownership and operate legally and ethically, including compliance relevant to Cameroon and the United States. This is the speaker's retrospective account, not a claim that ownership always solves supply-chain harm.

Compare two managerial responses: distancing the enterprise from an uncomfortable supplier versus changing the conditions under which its essential input is produced. The case connects purchasing, partnerships, legal compliance and governance. Its lesson extends beyond environmental efficiency: knowing that harm exists can create a responsibility to act. Auto-captions garble part of the Spanish exchange, so the English discussion supplies the limited decision account here.

Source: A Sawmill in Cameroon, 00:09–01:26 and 02:05–02:49.

Chapter 2 · Chocolate: technology, power and cooperative benefits

The chocolate-history animation connects changes in products and production with changes in power. Cacao served cultural and exchange functions before European demand, sweetening and mechanized processing changed its market. Colonial plantations and coercive labor accompanied expansion. The cocoa press helped make new forms of chocolate possible; accessibility and production growth did not establish that producer livelihoods or labor conditions were fair. The video links its historical story to later supply-chain abuses. Its dated production and child-labor estimates are not treated as current statistics.

Divine's documentary makes cooperative governance tangible. Farmers describe elected representatives at local, regional and national levels, equal voting, reliable purchasing practices and the value of transparency. Democratic organization is an operating arrangement: participation requires structures, repeated communication and accountable representatives, rather than only a cooperative label.

Women describe opportunities to hold leadership positions and develop income-generating activities outside the cocoa season. This livelihood diversification can reduce dependence on one seasonal source and help households support education and health. The film also describes school infrastructure, water access, learning supplies and support that helps attract teachers to remote communities. A school may charge no tuition while families still face other barriers to learning.

Producer ownership in Divine connects farmers to downstream decisions and profit distribution. Separate the mechanisms: fair purchasing, community premiums, democratic voice and equity ownership are related but not identical. The documentary's ownership percentages and membership totals describe its historical period, so the learning focus is how these arrangements redistribute influence and benefits.

Sources: The history of chocolate, 00:22–03:42; Divine Inspiration, 03:00–05:59 and 12:02–17:44. The short Cosmic Calendar clip, 00:03–00:29, reinforces the existing chapter's compressed-timescale illustration and adds no separate management case.

Chapter 3 · ACU: remove barriers and align ownership with service

The ACU interview adds concrete examples of financial inclusion. Member ownership aligns service users and owners, reducing the familiar tension between extracting returns from customers and benefiting investors. Equal member voting separates governance voice from the amount of money a person has in the institution. Profit strengthens the institution and its service mission rather than being treated as its only purpose.

Inclusion also requires identifying the barrier. Lower-income members may need lower service charges; applicants excluded by conventional résumé screening may need community recruitment partnerships. A person without an affordable phone or data plan cannot benefit simply because online banking exists. That digital-access example distinguishes providing a nominal service from making it usable. Indigenous learning and community relationships connect internal practices with the institution's broader setting.

The interview describes B Corp assessment as a framework for reviewing practices. Its historic thresholds and rankings are unnecessary to explain the case and should not become current certification rules. The source occasionally blurs certification and benefit-corporation terminology; the course reviewer correctly distinguishes certification from legal form.

Source: Assiniboine Credit Union, 02:25–07:24.

Chapter 3 · Sustainability marketing: distinguish measurements and claims

The NYU Stern presentation uses transactional data to study sustainably marketed products. That phrase matters: the grouping concerns claims on packages, rather than an independent finding that every product has superior whole-life performance. Scanned purchases also differ from asking people what they intend to buy. The presentation's “green gap” concerns that distinction between stated intentions and observed buying.

The 2023 results illustrate how category definitions and data visibility affect conclusions. Aggregated store-brand data did not expose every product's sustainability claims, so the presenters used a conservative classification and also showed a branded-product comparison. These denominators should not be mixed. The figures belong to the studied categories and period, not every country or every product.

The communications study describes sustainability as an amplifier of core value. A product still needs to perform its main job; an environmental benefit can strengthen its appeal alongside that performance. Benefits linked to health, household cost and a buyer's personal community generally performed better in the reported research than technical environmental language without a clear connection. Certification can support a claim's credibility even when the label alone is not the strongest lead message.

This is a TBL-relevant marketing application when responsibility supports competitive appeal. It does not prove that ethical action is justified only when it increases purchases. The presentation also discusses greenhushing: avoiding discussion of sustainability amid controversy. Its proposed alternative is specific, measurable, factual communication. Claims about consumer generations and political opinions are source-period survey interpretations, not universal descriptions of people.

Source: 2023 Sustainable Market Share Index and communications, 01:00–04:55, 17:27–24:50 and 39:45–40:54.

Chapter 3 · The economics of enough: proposals for a different goal

Dan O'Neill's talk argues that GDP growth is a means whose value depends on effects on people and ecosystems. Cleanup or replacement after harm can add expenditure while well-being deteriorates. That reinforces the existing GPI/GDP distinction.

His steady-state economy proposal stabilizes resource use within ecological limits and places quality of life ahead of ever-increasing GDP. He connects this goal to shorter working time as productivity improves, income-distribution changes and reform of money creation. These are the speaker's proposals, not established course requirements or guaranteed outcomes. The monetary-system argument is simplified and should not be treated as a complete banking model. His Apollo 13 analogy emphasizes creative problem-solving with limited materials and time.

Source: The economics of enough, 00:35–01:25, 04:01–10:40 and 10:51–12:33. Planetary-boundary and survey numbers in this older talk remain historical claims.

Chapter 4 · Clothing: reveal the costs hidden by a price tag

The clothing lesson traces raw materials, processing, assembly and distribution. Two garments can have similar prices and appearance while imposing very different burdens. Supply-chain transparency makes those differences inspectable: knowing suppliers, examining their practices, checking labor conditions, addressing wastewater and chemical choices, and reporting results are distinct operational responsibilities. A buyer cannot assess a product's full cost by its shelf price alone.

The film describes industry initiatives, restricted-substance lists and consumer rating tools as ways to obtain information. Those named tools and memberships belong to the source's period; no present availability is assumed. Its persuasive claim that silence should trigger suspicion is not proof that an undisclosed company necessarily commits a specific harm. Investigation still needs evidence.

The two-euro shirt campaign supplies a small behavioral illustration. A vending machine offers inexpensive clothing, then reveals production conditions and presents buying or donating as alternative choices. Selected frames establish this sequence and the campaign's invitation to consider who made the clothing. This illustrates informed choice, not a controlled study proving that all consumers respond identically. No measured response percentage is inferred from the sampled frames.

Sources: The Secret Lives of Our Clothes, 00:27–01:38, 03:22–04:19 and 05:25–07:45; The 2 Euro T-Shirt, selected English on-screen frames around 00:26–00:45 and 01:20.

Chapter 4 · Sweetgreen: distinguish an offering from a viable system

The Sweetgreen report shows why a popular offering and profitable locations can coexist with company-wide losses. Direct farm sourcing and fresh preparation require a capable supply chain; employee work, technology, delivery channels and headquarters overhead also cost money. Unit economics concerns the financial performance of an individual operating unit, while the whole company must also cover shared costs.

The report describes growth, stronger existing-store sales, expense discipline, customer retention and automation as different levers. Each raises a management question: can the change reduce cost or increase value without undermining freshness, access or worker well-being? A narrow efficiency improvement does not settle all three concerns.

The source also distinguishes net income from an adjusted earnings measure that excludes specified costs. Compare what each measure includes before declaring a company profitable. Prices, restaurant counts, forecasts and quarterly results refer to the report's period and are not current facts about Sweetgreen.

Source: Sweetgreen economics, 01:09–03:34, 04:14–05:56 and 06:05–06:45.

Chapter 5 · Boldr: connect careers, clients and communities

Boldr's short film presents its Three Cs as mutually supporting purposes: careers, clients and communities. Its Junjun example concerns a provincial worker who left school to help his family and had limited opportunities for advancement. Connecting overlooked talent with global employers can create a career rather than merely another subsistence job. Professional development supports family mobility; motivated team members create value for clients; client success supports further community opportunities. Explain this causal chain rather than only naming its pillars.

The film also challenges companies that outsource labor while distancing themselves from labor conditions in their supply chains. Ethical outsourcing therefore requires accountability and transparency across organizational boundaries. A purchasing decision still affects the people performing the work.

In the longer interview, founder David Sudolsky describes distinguishing public-benefit commitments in company governance documents from B Corp certification of practices, and identifies Boldr as employee-owned. Certification and legal purpose are separate claims. He describes employees helping shape an education-oriented community mission; the founder nevertheless retained authenticity as a core value. Participation need not mean that every decision is made by majority vote.

The case includes unresolved trade-offs. Hybrid work is constrained by some clients' security requirements, creating perceived unfairness between teams. Remote entrants need intentional mentoring, and workers want better company-wide information. Sudolsky also describes slowing expansion to protect culture and sustained impact. A SET reading asks whether these commitments guide choices when faster growth would be more profitable; productivity benefits alone could also fit TBL reasoning.

Sources: Boldr economics, 00:17–02:38; mission-driven BPO interview, 02:53–04:48, 11:54–14:02, 23:17–25:06, 32:17–35:38 and 38:57–40:17.

Chapter 6 and syllabus · MAD: preserve purpose while changing delivery

MAD Travel's tourism connected visitors with community learning, local products and restoration. When pandemic restrictions stopped travel, MAD Market expanded a previously small product-sales activity. This pivot used existing community relationships and marketing capabilities rather than abandoning the enterprise's purpose for an unrelated opportunity.

The interview describes local in-house delivery and outside couriers, some trader-mediated supplies, perishable storage constraints and several ordering channels while an online platform was being developed. Some communities lacked enough surplus to sell. A credible business model must therefore connect customers with resources, partners, channels and feasible operations. Long-term agriculture and forestry programs also need time to mature.

The meaningful-pivots talk deepens the familiar seeds-versus-cash case. A community leader wanted benefits for children and grandchildren, so the enterprise redirected resources toward planting. Ube material from a food producer became a planting input, and community members developed their own chip recipe. Subsequent products extended beyond the bamboo straws initially discussed. Stakeholder listening includes respecting community initiative, rather than arriving with a finished definition of what people need.

MAD also transferred educational activities online, offered tree purchases alongside products, exchanged forest harvests for secondhand laptops and proposed hotel checkout tree add-ons. These are concrete changes to value propositions, channels and partnerships while the mission persists. An elder in another community preferred a reciprocal business partnership to temporary help: both sides contribute, benefit and have a reason to continue.

The syllabus Yangil talk adds a distinction between cash-based progress and progress defined through care for land and sea. Dionisio verbally describes a demonstration contrasting rapid, soil-carrying runoff from bare ground with slower, cleaner flow through planted soil. Its intended lesson connects restoration with erosion control, water retention and community resilience. Numerical forest, river, temperature and storm-history claims require their original evidence; they are unnecessary to explain the management decision. The final community testimony is not substantively captured in the English captions.

Sources: MAD Market interview, 03:00–11:00 and 13:00–16:00; meaningful pivots, 08:00–17:30 and 18:00–25:00; Yangil reforestation, 00:00–01:30 and 05:00–06:40.

Chapter 8 · ECHOstore: build the missing route to market

The ECHOstore interview distinguishes green-product positioning from GREAT Women's support for women producers whose goods may not all meet that positioning. Separate brands clarify their customer propositions while participating in a broader social-impact network. This is useful differentiation, not simply adding another name to the same offering.

Producer development and retail perform complementary functions. The foundation accesses grants for training and development; the stores provide market access and sales. Training without a buyer leaves an important gap. A retail relationship can also help a producer demonstrate business viability to a lender. Textile work includes documenting indigenous designs and techniques and preparing communities for orders, connecting cultural knowledge with commercial capability.

Government agencies, development organizations, producers and retailers contribute different resources. These relationships support operations no participant can supply alone. Their synergy lies in linking development, finance, cultural stewardship and markets. The second mapped Chapter 8 video was unavailable; these notes do not infer its contents.

Source: ECHOstore interview, 01:00–07:30 and 15:00–23:00. The interview describes later brand evolution; use the assigned textbook's wording when asked for its original ECHO acronym.

Chapter 9 · Velo: translate values into operating choices

Velo's interview makes “people and planet before profit” concrete: reuse existing buildings and materials, cycle where practicable, and discuss workers' needs openly. Transportation is visible, but material and purchasing choices can have larger effects. Do not generalize the interview's unsourced lifecycle percentage to every building.

Worker discretion is paired with financial viability. Pay conversations consider what a worker needs; a raise may require changing labor rates so the company can remain afloat. Flexibility around health does not mean the company guarantees every benefit. Remaining small can preserve close relationships and rapid problem-solving. Evaluate the practices together, rather than assuming a flexible policy removes all operational constraints.

Source: Velo Renovation, 01:00–07:20.

Chapter 9 supplement · Beyond Profit: value outside the selling price

The documentary contrasts surface efficiency changes with business models that address underlying harm. Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company describes fair farmer returns, local and organic supply, employment access and more expensive compostable packaging. BUILD uses training and employer connections to support people excluded from work. Public institutions can receive avoided social costs while the enterprise bears training expenditure. These are externalities: important effects not fully represented in the firm's revenue or a product's price.

Long Way Homestead connects land stewardship, wool processing and textile traceability with appreciating production work and consuming less. Its operational message challenges rapid consumption instead of relying only on a greener product label. The documentary's monetary estimates and ecological claims are source-specific accounts, not universal results. Across the cases, compare who pays, who benefits, which resources support the mission, and whether financial returns are a means or the overriding purpose.

Source: Beyond Profit: Seeking Sustainability, 02:00–08:00, 08:30–14:30 and 15:00–20:00.

Chapter 9 supplement · Whole Foods: alternatives under pressure

John Mackey's retrospective interview describes shareholder pressure and competition while Whole Foods wanted to lower prices. Lower prices could attract customers over time but initially reduce reported sales. He discusses resisting activists, remaining independent, going private with substantial debt, and selling to Amazon.

He presents the sale as a compromise that provided time and capabilities for price changes while sacrificing independence. His assessment includes investors, employees, customers and suppliers. This is a decision case about constraints and alternatives, not proof that acquisition was objectively the best outcome. It also connects with Chapter 7's decision process and Chapter 8's corporate strategy: identify the problem, compare feasible responses, anticipate consequences and assess results against stakeholder goals.

Source: Why Whole Foods sold to Amazon, 00:30–04:25. Claims about subsequent prices and wages belong to Mackey's account of that period.

Compare the decisions

A source account can show why a manager chose an action without proving the action was uniquely best. In a case answer, distinguish the speaker's account, the evidence available, and your own reasoned comparison.