The Newlight Technologies case is set at the end of 2013. Newlight has been awarded the Innovation Prize for Biomaterial of the Year by nova-Institut GmbH at the Cologne International Conference on Industrial Biotechnology and Bio-based Plastics & Composites. The company has a small-scale pilot plant using enzyme catalysts to produce a bioplastic resin, PHA, which has a wide range of applications for products in the plastics industry. The pilot plant can produce enough resin to perform product trials for a number of end-users at the same time. The innovative process is the fruit of ten years' research and the result promises to be one of the first biopolymers to be economically competitive with petro-chemical based products on price and performance. The case provides details of the global industry, giving scope and scale information for businesses along the value chain, including market segmentation and resin pricing.

After a decade of establishing itself in China's foreign education market, the Canadian Institute of Business and Technology (CIBT) Education Group was finding that the market for Western-style education in major Chinese cities was becoming saturated. The enrolment rate in CIBT's MBA programs in Beijing declined sharply by 20% in 2004. Toby Chu, president and CEO of CIBT, believed that the company needed a significant change in strategy and a new business model for future growth in China. One option was to shift attention to the relatively unexplored second- and third-tier cities where less competition was expected. In 2004, Weifang University (WU) based in Weifang, an inland, third-tier city in Shandong province, was interested in collaborating with CIBT to provide vocational programs. Chu and his executive team had to respond to WU and Chu was wondering if Weifang could be a start to test CIBT's new model for education in China. Case B provides a follow up and an update.

CEO Tim Cook is contemplating the source of longer-term growth at Apple.. Since Steve Jobs' death, Cook has successfully led Apple and made it the first company to be worth more than $700 billion. Under Cook's leadership, Apple has largely released derivatives of existing products (e.g., iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, etc.). This has increased Apple's reliance on the iPhone (2/3 revenues), and Apple appears to be following a path to sell complementary products to the iPhone (Beats, Apple Pay, Apple Watch) at the same time that it is pursuing product development (Apple TV, Apple Car). The Apple Watch is the first new product category introduced under Tim Cook. As industry convergence continues, the case also looks at Apple main competitors: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung.

The case begins with Roberto Ioriatti, Vice President of Atlantic & Pacific Pricing and Revenue Management at Delta Air Lines, appreciating the diversity of the Delta workforce at the annual Delta Block Party. This is symptomatic of a shift toward a more diverse population in the United States. The party leads to a key question of the case: What should be Delta's strategic response to the changing demographics of the United States, both in terms of products and services? A secondary question of the case is this: How should Delta respond to increased global competition, especially to the threat posed by rapidly expanding airlines from the Middle East such as Etihad Airways, Emirates, and Qatar Airways?

The case outlines the growth of Google: from its beginning at Stanford, to its achieved milestones (becoming profitable, becoming an IPO) and finally to its success attracting competition and inciting government regulation-this, along with technology change, are the current challenges its CEO Larry Page must now face. With Android, Google has successfully shifted from search functionality on personal computers to search functionality on mobile devices and developed an ecosystem of services to attract users. However, Google continues to depend heavily on advertising (which makes up 90 percent of its revenues). Further, as R&D investments are increasing at competing firms, R&D productivity is simultaneously decreasing at Google. The shifting sands of competition and regulation cannot be ignored, and Google faces the prospect of needing both business as well as corporate strategy to better guide its activities.

The case dilemma centers around Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer (COO) and second in command. She is looking to take the company to the next level: not only to continued growth in mobile ads, but to dominance in the digital ad space. For this to occur, Facebook would somehow have to top Google in both display and search ads, despite only having nominal presence and expertise in display ads. Moreover, Facebook is facing the continued convergence in this fast-moving industry

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. American health care is undergoing a data-driven transformation - and Intermountain Healthcare is leading the way. This MIT Sloan Management Review case study examines the data and analytics culture at Intermountain, a Utah-based company that runs 22 hospitals and 185 clinics. Data-driven decision making has improved patient outcomes in Intermountain's cardiovascular medicine, endocrinology, surgery, obstetrics and care processes - while saving millions of dollars in procurement and in its the supply chain.

In June 2007, the chief executive officer of Telesat Canada, headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, was considering his strategy following a decision by Industry Canada to reject four out of six of its applications for satellite slots. His largest concern was the decision to award the two most important licences for the Extended Ku-band network — which the company’s largest clients, Bell Canada Inc. and Shaw Communications, were both seeking — to a subsidiary of a non-Canadian company, Ciel Satellite Limited Partnership, which was owned by SES S.A., a global corporation based in Luxembourg. The regulator’s decision had the potential to severely limit Telesat’s future revenues as well as destabilize its valuation in the midst of a sale process. The company needed a plan of action to propose a reconsideration of the allocation of licences while also maintaining its working relationship with Industry Canada.

In 2014, Shooting & Outdoor Distributor (SOD) was a Puerto Rican family-owned wholesale business selling sporting goods for hunting and fishing. After a year of working for the company, the operations manager was confronted with the arrival of a U.S. retail chain, Sports Authority (SA), to the Puerto Rican market. SA carried many sporting goods sold by SOD, as well as a number of brands under exclusive distribution agreements between SOD and its U.S. manufacturers. Even though SA was a retailer, due to its size, it had the power to negotiate better prices with manufacturers than SOD and pass those deals on to the final customer. SOD’s operations manager was considering three options for combating this competition: 1) Develop private branding for a new rifle product; 2) Open SOD retail stores not operating close to SA or to its retail clients; and/or 3) Expand SOD to other Latin American and Caribbean markets where no competition was present.

The Children’s Place was a New Jersey-based specialty retailer of apparel and accessories for children up to age 12. Starting in fiscal 2013, the company was moving from a clearance-centre model, where it sold a variety of national brands, to a made-for-outlet model that emphasized its own brands. This was necessitated by intense price competition in its market. The new strategy involved developing, coordinating and controlling its own global apparel value chain. When the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed on April 24, 2013, killing and injuring a large number of workers, products destined for The Children’s Place were found in the debris. The adverse publicity that ensued meant that the company’s top management had to re-evaluate its strategy. What should be their response?

In 1992, for the first time in India, Titan Industries Ltd., headquartered in Bangalore, India, introduced a watch brand exclusively for women — the Titan Raga. Launched to appeal to sophisticated women, it was embellished with striking symbolism from Indian culture. Its first targeted customers were progressive homemakers and those who were trying to balance work and family life but who wanted to embellish their traditional or Western attire with a beautiful, sensual timepiece. The watches were often given as gifts during festivals or occasions such as birthdays. However, the customer profile changed to the young career professional with disposable income, who often considered the watches to be too much like jewellery and affected by design flaws such as a difficult to read face and finicky clasp. By 2010, the marketing team realized that it had to revisit its branding strategy to meet this challenge and its global competitors. Should they relaunch Titan Raga as a stand-alone brand with a new brand ambassador who will appeal to this new demographic?

Alberta Ballet, composed of the Alberta Ballet professional dance company and The School of Alberta Ballet, had experienced remarkable success in North America and Europe. However, in 2014, it faced a set of unique problems. Demand for performances from the company had grown so significantly that it was no longer able to accommodate all requests, especially from smaller markets in Alberta. Coupled with increasing demand, operations were fragmented across many locations, including some very expensive leases that were set to expire in 2016. Building a brand-new facility that could house all of the Calgary operations was an option, but was it feasible with the current economic conditions? Furthermore, how could Alberta Ballet better serve secondary markets?

Asahi India Glass Limited faces a situation encountered by many growing companies after having funded its diversification from retained earnings and debt, both in rupees and foreign currency. An over-reliance on borrowed funds without a matching infusion of equity has plunged the company into losses. To reduce its need for financial leverage, the company has issued equity shares on a rights basis, which has helped but is insufficient to reduce its debt burden. The company's management is seeking alternatives to further deleverage the company's capital structure but is finding it difficult due to losses in the recent past, the adverse operating environment created by the global economic crisis and a slowdown in the major segments in which it operates.

After a decade of establishing itself in China's foreign education market, the Canadian Institute of Business and Technology (CIBT) Education Group was finding that the market for Western-style education in major Chinese cities was becoming saturated. The enrolment rate in CIBT's MBA programs in Beijing declined sharply by 20% in 2004. Toby Chu, president and CEO of CIBT, believed that the company needed a significant change in strategy and a new business model for future growth in China. One option was to shift attention to the relatively unexplored second- and third-tier cities where less competition was expected. In 2004, Weifang University (WU) based in Weifang, an inland, third-tier city in Shandong province, was interested in collaborating with CIBT to provide vocational programs. Chu and his executive team had to respond to WU and Chu was wondering if Weifang could be a start to test CIBT's new model for education in China. Case B provides a follow up and an update.

Michael Belden, longtime manager of the El Cerrito brand of high-end leather products and accessories, had just concluded a presentation to the senior executive team on his plan to increase profits by 4 percent over the next year. His new boss, Sara Jensen, was not pleased and instructed him to go back to the drawing board: "You and I both know that a 4 percent profit increase just isn't sufficient. I was hoping to see an increase of 20 percent or more." Belden was deeply concerned. El Cerrito was a mature brand that catered to exclusive, high-end clientele. Would it be possible to generate the kind of growth Jensen wanted without damaging the brand's equity? This is the real story of a well-known luxury brand that has been disguised for purposes of this case. Students sometimes will correctly guess at the brand's true identity, but this does not impact the discussion. The disguised brand gives the case an entertaining twist when the brand's true identity is revealed.

In 2014, most industry experts thought that the electric-vehicle (EV) battery market was an important opportunity for battery manufacturers, which would also restructure the traditional car industry. Despite this rosy EV-battery picture, the reality was not so optimistic. Many competitors, such as Samsung SDI, LG Chemical, and Panasonic, were already in the market, which caused battery prices to decline. Ominous examples forced companies already in the industry ("incumbents") to rethink and perhaps revamp their EV-battery market value-chain strategy. The incumbents had to define sustainable courses of action as they faced numerous risks and complexities. They had to make strategic choices to overcome the industry's huge uncertainties and obstacles. It was critical to take into account conditions and constraints in resources, processes, capabilities, and macro- and micro-economic environments.

Jim Coke had been a jack of all trades since his student days. A big dreamer, Coke knew that he was on the cusp of something big. A Hong Kong resident since 2010, he wanted to dominate the coffee distribution market in Hong Kong and mainland China. After only one year, he had managed to secure the unthinkable: a coffee distribution deal with Hong Kong's leading supermarket chain, ParknShop. More importantly, he was now Jamaica Blue Mountain ® coffee's official licensee in 67 countries, including China and Hong Kong. Should he continue to obtain exclusive or non-exclusive Hong Kong distribution rights for specialty food commodities or was it time to take on China, with its population of 1.35 billion people?

The UPower founders, Jake DeWitte and Caroline Cochran, were recent graduates from MIT's Nuclear Science and Engineering Department. They chose to attend Palo Alto-based Y Combinator's accelerator program to focus on building a "mini" nuclear reactor that would produce up to ten MW of power and could fit in two 40-foot intermodal shipping containers. The UPower reactor was designed to serve the need for "off-grid" electric power. These off-grid customers were in remote locations such as mining operations, military bases, Arctic townships or even island nations. While DeWitte and Cochran were ecstatic about the progress they had made and the enthusiastic open-mindedness of Bay Area investors to backing groundbreaking and even potentially contentious "big ideas," they wondered if their investors would have the patience to finance UPower over the long term.

The Libra Foundation is exploring how to grow the food sector in Maine using the strategy of creating a food cluster initiative. Maine is one of the poorest states in the United States and the food sector is one of the largest employers. Multiple efforts in agriculture, aquaculture, and food processing exist but are not coordinated. The Foundation owns three food companies. Its CEO needs to decide what action if any the Foundation should take given the data from the Cluster Tool-a nation data set and other research on successful food cluster initiatives in other states.

The rapid growth in quantity and quality of universities in China since 1978 is the most recent evolution in a long history of higher education. From as early as the Tang Dynasty, academies existed to prepare scholars for the civil service examination, but by the Republican period, higher learning was dominated by a host of well-regarded, cosmopolitan, comprehensive universities. In 1952, these institutions were reorganized according to the Soviet model, and remained highly specialized until the resurgence of comprehensive institutions after 1978. This background note describes this history and then elaborates on the system of higher education since 2000, focusing on university governance, funding, faculty policy, admissions systems, and internationalization. It concludes by looking at the tightening of ideological control in universities in 2013 and 2014, and reflects on the potential for China to establish "world-class" universities.