In February 2021, Amazon announced 2020 operating profits of $22,899 million, up from $2,233 million in 2015, on sales of $386 billion, up from $107 billion five years earlier (see Exhibit 1). The shareholders expressed their satisfaction (see Exhibit 2), but not all were happy with Amazon's meteoric rise. Many traditional retailers in the United States were going bankrupt, while major competitors such as Walmart and Best Buy were forced to invest aggressively in online retailing to prevent their market share from eroding. Every retail sector appeared to be under threat, fueling anxieties that Amazon and America's other tech giants were becoming too big and powerful. These anxieties were only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Amazon grew rapidly, while most traditional retailers foundered. Amazon's increasingly clear ambitions in healthcare and autonomous vehicles were also causing concern. In early 2021, Amazon was drawing criticism from across the political spectrum in the United States, with calls for it to be broken up. The European Union was also investigating its practices. Meanwhile, on February 2, 2021, Amazon reported that company founder and CEO Jeff Bezos would step down from his role and become executive chairman of the board. Andy Jassy, the leader of Amazon Web Services (AWS) would become the new CEO. How would Jassy navigate the many challenges to come and continue Amazon's record of success?

Case A, the subject of this particular teaching note, traces Gazi's personal and business journey, and contains ample material to evaluate Gazi as a person, as an entrepreneur, and as a leader. Ostensibly, the case issue is the degree to which Gazi should now scale up from the approx. €10 million of current revenues, but this issue is best set aside until the B case discussion. In fact, the B case includes substantial bottom-up information from each of Gazi's key managers allowing this scale-up question to be tackled from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives. The A case raises much more the question what does it take to be a successful and exemplary entrepreneur, and how, when, and from where such capacities are acquired. The case lends itself not only to a detailed discussion of Gazi's entrepreneurial capacities and their origins, but also prompts participants to ask themselves to which degree they themselves exhibit such capacities, and whether they can and should embark on an entrepreneurial career.

The Gazi B case focuses on two issues: First, it provides a bottom-up perspective on each of Gazi's main lines of business, namely, the Avis/Budget car rental and other vehicle and leasing businesses, in-bound tourism, outbound tourism and ticketing, conference and event business, and cruise ship landings. Detailed plans are presented for each of these business lines and can be contrasted with plans and figures presented in the A case which provided a top-down perspective. The two perspectives remain far apart. Gazi's top-down vision is to have overall company revenues of €100 million within five years; bottom-up estimates range from €50 million overall downwards. The case invites a debate of how to reconcile these two disparate perspectives. It allows students to understand that the real issue behind these disparate growth goals is to decide first and foremost on the overall corporate business definition and scope, and whether the previous pattern of continuous diversification is sustainable in the long run. Also worth debating is whether Gazi's focus on top line revenue growth, and on employee projections, should not be tempered by a parallel concern for the bottom line, for example profitability. The second in the B case is to decide on a possible brand name to replace Albanian Experience for the incoming tourism and conference business. This existing brand's credibility and utility has been overtaken by a substantial de-facto expansion of tourism destinations to include virtually all of the Balkan area, Greece to the south and parts of Italy to the north, as well as destinations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Although the corporate scope and focus issue and the branding issue appear to be separate, they are of course related. A new brand name must be found which if possible reflects the overall business scope as well as the new tourist sources, destinations, and USPs.

Ostensibly there are two issues to be resolved: How to organize for the future, and the future roles and responsibilities of Gazi himself as the organization embarks on its next step of substantial growth. The larger issue behind these apparent issues is how to find the right balance in the future between the two extremes of a top-down strongly led, fast, entrepreneurial organization (as at present), and the growing need to institutionalize and decentralize the organization with both strategy and leadership pushed to levels below Gazi-all the while retaining an entrepreneurial culture and speed. Such new balances go beyond organizational structure and involve processes, systems, culture, people, and leadership. All are open for discussion in the C case.

CODE2040 was founded by Tristan Walker and Laura Weidman Powers to create pathways to success for blacks and Latinos in the technology and entrepreneurship sector by providing mentoring and coaching for students beginning their careers. Over the course of the case Weidman Powers wrestles with finding funding for the organization, growing and building a team in a mission-driven organization, and also with her limitations as a first-time CEO. In addition, the team discovers how to take advantage of the changing conversation in the technology industry for minorities, and how they are able to use the dynamic market conditions to drive their efforts.

This case describes the commercial development of natural resources via public-private cooperation. The case can be used to illustrate how natural resources can be well managed and beneficial to national economic development. With a specific focus on oil and gas, the case can be used to explore integration across project development, gas production, market development, and government relations. The role of the Dutch government as regulator and marketer provides a basis for discussing government involvement in natural resource development. The case also illustrates the complexity of major gas projects involving multiple countries and markets.

Crypton Future Media, a music software company based in Sapporo, Japan, developed Hatsune Miku (HM), a singing voice synthesizer software program (Vocaloid). Users entered lyrics and melodies to create songs, which were then sung by Hatsune Miku, a 16-year-old female virtual singer featured on the software packaging.<br><br>Initially targeting professionals, HM unexpectedly caught on among amateurs who produced music, lyrics, artwork and videos, which they shared via websites such as YouTube, Nico Nico Douga and Crypton’s Piapro. Users often worked collaboratively, and by March 2014, Miku had over 110,000 released songs, 170,000 uploaded videos, 1,000,000 created artworks and nearly two million Facebook “likes.” Miku’s popularity led to international media coverage and numerous new business opportunities for Crypton. She held sold out “live” concerts worldwide, starred in her own video game series produced by SEGA Games and was “hired” to advertise for companies including Toyota, Google and Domino’s Pizza.<br><br>Six years after the initial launch, Crypton and its chief executive officer were faced with a series of challenges related to the future development of their virtual idol and the businesses that grew around her.

In 2015, Penn West Petroleum Ltd. (Penn West), a large Canadian oil company, made multiple acquisitions that led to a buildup of goodwill (i.e., the purchase price was higher than the net book value of the acquisitions). When the economic environment worsened, there was concern that this goodwill had been impaired. The concern deepened as economic factors improved but Penn West’s stock performance continued to be poor, indicating that the market believed that the company was potentially overvalued. A review of Penn West’s accounting practices revealed irregularities, and industry analysts — as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — began to question the value of the company’s goodwill. It was becoming clear that Penn West had been overly optimistic in its forecasts regarding revenue streams from its properties. Would the company be able to move forward? How?

AyurVAID is a chain of Ayurveda (traditional Hindu medicine) hospitals founded by Rajiv Vasudevan, who moved to entrepreneurship after 16 years in the corporate sector and identified Ayurveda’s potential for root-cause diagnosis. AyurVAID provides Ayurveda-based healthcare to treat non-communicable diseases and chronic diseases, which together comprise two-thirds of the Indian healthcare market. Ayurveda’s system of root-cause diagnosis and subsequent disease management results in no side effects, but most Ayurveda companies are content to operate in the wellness sector and to provide Ayurvedic formulations in the over-the-counter consumer market. AyurVAID hospitals are positioned differently, catering to people with lifestyle diseases and offering long-term solutions to many chronic diseases. Over a period of 10 years, AyurvVAID’s approach has led to rapid growth for the hospitals; however, the founder and chief executive officer wants to identify the most appropriate strategy for AyurVAID. Should it focus on strengthening its position as a multi-specialty hospital, or should it explore specializing in India’s large and growing market for the treatment of diabetes?

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive plc, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors Limited, announced bond issue worth US$500 million. The proceeds of this issue were to be used to refinance costlier outstanding bonds. The company was able to raise new debt at substantially lower interest rates than its outstanding debt as a result of its sustained good performance, which led to strong company fundamentals and improved credit ratings. Students will analyze the various motivations for such a financial strategy, whether it will lead to cost savings or cash flow savings and, if so, the extent of the savings.

In 2007, Eastman Chemical (Eastman), a global specialty chemicals company based in Kingsport, Tennessee, was set to launch Tritan, Eastman's latest specialty plastic. The development team was excited about Tritan because it demonstrated heat resistance and durability properties that might allow Eastman to compete in the lucrative polycarbonate plastics market. But the decision had not been made regarding which applications Eastman should target first with Tritan.

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive plc, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors Limited, announced bond issue worth US$500 million. The proceeds of this issue were to be used to refinance costlier outstanding bonds. The company was able to raise new debt at substantially lower interest rates than its outstanding debt as a result of its sustained good performance, which led to strong company fundamentals and improved credit ratings. Students will analyze the various motivations for such a financial strategy, whether it will lead to cost savings or cash flow savings and, if so, the extent of the savings.

On December 29, 2014, the recently appointed chief executive officer of Target Corporation, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, needs to make a difficult decision about the company's Canadian operations. After the launch of 133 stores since 2013, Target Canada has been plagued with operational challenges, poor sales and intensifying competition and has reported deep losses amounting to over $1.36 billion. Should the company stay in Canada knowing that profitability is still many years away or exit Canada and abandon all plans for international expansion? To complicate matters further, the parent corporation is struggling in the United States and investors have run out of patience. It is evident that the company needs to change direction, but when and how to do so is the problem.

Penn West Petroleum Ltd. (Penn West), a large Canadian oil company, made multiple acquisitions that led to a buildup of goodwill (i.e., the purchase price was higher than the net book value of the acquisitions). When the economic environment worsened, there was concern that this goodwill had been impaired. The concern deepened as economic factors improved but Penn West's stock performance continued to be poor, indicating that the market believed that the company was potentially overvalued. A review of Penn West's accounting practices revealed irregularities, and industry analysts - as well as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - began to question the value of the company's goodwill. It was becoming clear that Penn West had been overly optimistic in its forecasts regarding revenue streams from its properties. Would the company be able to move forward? How?

AyurVAID is a chain of Ayurveda (traditional Hindu medicine) hospitals founded by Rajiv Vasudevan, who moved to entrepreneurship after 16 years in the corporate sector and identified Ayurveda's potential for root-cause diagnosis. AyurVAID provides Ayurveda-based healthcare to treat non-communicable diseases and chronic diseases, which together comprise two-thirds of the Indian healthcare market. Ayurveda's system of root-cause diagnosis and subsequent disease management results in no side effects, but most Ayurveda companies are content to operate in the wellness sector and to provide Ayurvedic formulations in the over-the-counter consumer market. AyurVAID hospitals are positioned differently, catering to people with lifestyle diseases and offering long-term solutions to many chronic diseases. Over a period of 10 years, AyurvVAID's approach has led to rapid growth for the hospitals; however, the founder and chief executive officer wants to identify the most appropriate strategy for AyurVAID. Should it focus on strengthening its position as a multi-specialty hospital, or should it explore specializing in India's large and growing market for the treatment of diabetes?

NTL Lemnis, a joint venture between NTL Electronics of India and Lemnis Lighting of the Netherlands, has ambitious sales targets and is considering entry into the business-to-consumer (B2C) segment. The company aims to offer energy-efficient LED products to Indian and international markets under the globally acclaimed Lemnis brand Pharox. Top management is planning a sales force structure for the consumer market and is analyzing the design of a sales force in the context of generalist and specialist structures. It is pondering the recruitment and selection strategies at NTL Lemnis so that it can hire a best-in-class sales force. What is the proper size of the sales team? Apprehensions about the effective distribution model to use to increase the reach of the company's products also persist.

The United Daily News Group, a leader in Taiwan's media, faces the imminent death of the country's newspaper industry. The founder's grandson took over as the company's chair just four years earlier, during a time when an increasing number of readers were turning to the Internet for their news. Looking ahead, he needs to sustain the company's future development while recognizing that the business of running traditional newspapers may no longer be profitable. He needs to assess the company's strengths, integrate the group's resources, improve news content, introduce digital media and, in doing so, create a new business model. He wonders how to best initiate the integration of resources and which media innovations he should introduce.

The United Daily News Group, a leader in Taiwan's media, faces the imminent death of the country's newspaper industry. The founder's grandson took over as the company's chair just four years earlier, during a time when an increasing number of readers were turning to the Internet for their news. Looking ahead, he needs to sustain the company's future development while recognizing that the business of running traditional newspapers may no longer be profitable. He needs to assess the company's strengths, integrate the group's resources, improve news content, introduce digital media and, in doing so, create a new business model. He wonders how to best initiate the integration of resources and which media innovations he should introduce.