In 2012 Kate Spade New York's executive management believed that KSNY's brand equity could be further leveraged to benefit from explosive growth in the global luxury accessories market. Tasked to provide input on how to achieve this goal, the marketing team considered both how to expand the demographics of their customer base and how to brand any new products designed to target these new customers. Based in part on the company's own market research and interviews with President and Chief Marketing Officer Mary Beech, this case asks students to consider the course of action that would allow KSNY to preserve its established brand identity while continuing to grow sales among its loyal customer base.

This case describes the Dogs of the Dow investment strategy, value investing, and using dividend yields as a means to determine intrinsic value. It also describes exchange traded notes and a particular exchange traded note, known as the Dogs of the Dow, which tracks the performance of the 10 highest yielding stocks of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). The case provides share price data, dividend data, and financial statement data on the 30 DJIA companies to enable students to perform their own calculations.

Stella McCartney launched her own fashion house under her name in a partnership with the luxury conglomerate Kering as a 50/50 joint venture in 2001. A lifelong vegetarian, Stella McCartney does not use any leather or fur in her collections, which include women's ready-to-wear, handbags, shoes, lingerie, eyewear, fragrance, and a kids line. Stella McCartney's achievement in fashion and social awareness has been recognized on many occasions, and her commitment to sustainability is present throughout all her collections and numerous environmental and charitable initiatives. As climate change is becoming a more pressing issue, companies are pressured to embrace a more sustainable approach to their business. With fashion and luxury industries progressively rising to this challenge, what does it mean for Stella McCartney's brand's ethos to be a responsible, honest, and modern company? Is it possible that Stella McCartney's environmentally friendly positioning will not be as differentiating as before as more fashion and luxury brands are becoming environmentally conscious and starting to develop sustainable initiatives? Similarly, how are Stella McCartney's partnerships to develop ethical fashion items impacting the brand's luxury positioning and appeal?

A Japanese management consultant company seeks to relocate some of its instructors for a period of between one and three months to Singapore in order to conduct its flagship course catering to Japanese expatriate managers. It must determine which instructors to select in order to minimize relocation costs while taking into account their productivity and availability and the number of courses booked over three future months. Cost minimization is crucial due to the expensive service apartment rentals in Singapore. The firm must develop an optimization template in order to make the best possible decision.

A Japanese management consultant company seeks to relocate some of its instructors for a period of between one and three months to Singapore in order to conduct its flagship course catering to Japanese expatriate managers. It must determine which instructors to select in order to minimize relocation costs while taking into account their productivity and availability and the number of courses booked over three future months. Cost minimization is crucial due to the expensive service apartment rentals in Singapore. The firm must develop an optimization template in order to make the best possible decision.

Since 2006, Alcatel-Lucent, an international telecommunications equipment manufacturer based in Paris, France, has been conducting boot camps for its employees to provide business training and help them monetize their innovative ideas with a view to creating value for the company. The program has led to 32 projects of which two have been commercialized, three transferred to business units within Alcatel-Lucent and one spun off. In 2012, however, the boot camps were discontinued due to a cost reduction program aimed at making the company cash-flow positive. Now, in June 2014, after a change in top management and a desire to regain the innovative edge against its competition has revived the idea, the company’s director of Open Innovation & Intrapreneurship is facing three dilemmas: how to reconcile the big business intolerance for failure with failure-prone intrapreneurship, how to design a forward-looking component into intrapreneurship and how to change the design and architecture of the boot camp in its new edition.

Since 2006, Alcatel-Lucent, an international telecommunications equipment manufacturer based in Paris, France, has been conducting boot camps for its employees to provide business training and help them monetize their innovative ideas with a view to creating value for the company. The program has led to 32 projects of which two have been commercialized, three transferred to business units within Alcatel-Lucent and one spun off. In 2012, however, the boot camps were discontinued due to a cost reduction program aimed at making the company cash-flow positive. Now, in June 2014, after a change in top management and a desire to regain the innovative edge against its competition has revived the idea, the company's director of Open Innovation & Intrapreneurship is facing three dilemmas: how to reconcile the big business intolerance for failure with failure-prone intrapreneurship, how to design a forward-looking component into intrapreneurship and how to change the design and architecture of the boot camp in its new edition.

In July 2014, a Shanghai television station revealed that Shanghai Husi, a Chinese subsidiary of a reputable US-owned food supplier, was producing substandard meat products. McDonald's was one of its biggest fast food clients and had been sourcing from the supplier for more than two decades. After cutting tie with Shanghai Husi, McDonald's China and its branches in Hong Kong and Japan were forced to pull a number of products from the menu due to a severe shortage of meat and vegetable supplies. The impact of the scandal was clearly reflected in the poor performance of its sales and stock. The food scare dissipated the general belief that food produced by foreign brands was better than that from Chinese counterparts. With large foreign-owned suppliers in China no longer guaranteeing reliability, what could McDonald's China do to strengthen its supply-chain management? What lessons should it learn from the incident? Would it be better for McDonald's China to run its own food processing plants in China?

In February 2014, Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion. WhatsApp, founded in 2009, was a relatively young company that employed only 50 people and earned merely $10 million in revenue in 2013. It was one of many mobile messaging services that allowed users to contact each other without paying costly text message fees. However, its popularity and growth potential enticed Facebook, a company facing many challenges and looking for opportunities to expand its user base. Facebook, the social networking website that allowed users to share information with friends, believed WhatsApp was a logical next step that would help it achieve its mission of "making the world more open and connected." When Facebook announced the acquisition, it vowed to keep WhatsApp operating independently, letting the founders control the direction of the company and allowing WhatsApp to stay true to its mission. Yet, many debated the logic behind paying so much for such a small company with limited revenue streams. Was Facebook correct to purchase WhatsApp? Even at $22 billion? How could it create value if it did not integrate WhatsApp with Facebook?

This note provides an overview of the Chinese Internet by describing its leading three companies: Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (BAT). While BAT had previously focused their respective businesses on distinct sectors of the online economy-Baidu for search, Alibaba for e-commerce, and Tencent for games and instant messaging-the proliferation of mobile devices in China introduced new territory to be conquered. By the end of 2014, BAT had each made a series of investments and acquisitions to aggressively compete with each other and with other competitors in the emerging mobile space. This note can be used as background for any discussion related to the Chinese Internet industry.

In July 2012, a senior manager in the corporate strategy team of General Electric (GE) was wondering what changes he should recommend for its strategic plans in the MENAT region (the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and Pakistan). First, the senior corporate strategist wanted to get a better understanding of how regional management had succeeded in growing its business despite the barriers it had faced, such as political instability, difficulties in dealing with family-owned firms with affiliate relationships, and institutional corruption. Second, given predictions of sluggish growth in developed markets, it was clear that GE MENAT would be an increasingly large part of GE's revenue base. The key challenge was how to continue to sustain GE MENAT's growth rate while maintaining the high corporate standards for which GE was known.

The general manager of Damaí Lovina Villas, a boutique hotel located in northern Bali, wants to strengthen the hotel's competitive position by increasing utilization rates beyond the hotel's 65% occupancy. The central question that the case poses is whether leveraging an organization's sustainability activities, and participating in a voluntary environmental program (VEP) that promotes standardization and certification, is a reasonable vehicle to do so. This case considers what sustainability means in the context of a specific company, including issues related to value creation stemming from efficiency and productivity, reputation and legitimacy, innovation and repositioning, and strategic visioning opportunity framing. It presents an assessment framework (1) to evaluate a firm's environmental and social activities, (2) to assess the sustainability activities of various VEPs, and (3) compare the two to determine whether and how a company's sustainability programs align with the choices of VEPs under consideration. The framework creates a foundation to assess whether VEPs can offer strategic competitive advantage, and at what cost. The case is intended for an MBA or advanced undergraduate course to explore issues around strategic differentiation and standardization and strategy-environment fit, as well as courses dealing with topics related to sustainable enterprise, corporate social responsibility, international management, hospitality or hotel management, and eco-tourism.

In early February 2009, executives from a U.S. wine importer, W. J. Deutsch & Sons (Deutsch), met in White Plains, New York, to try and reach a consensus on how to respond to changes in the marketplace. Wine consumers had begun purchasing less expensive wines, or "trading down," amidst a global recession in 2008-2009, reversing a five-year "trading up" trend. Inventories ballooned in the wine industry supply chain. Some producers and importers, unable to sell stocks, went into default. After an initial failure in the late 1990s to create an import brand with Casella Wines in Australia, Deutsch found success with the [ yellow tail ] brand - the number one Australian wine export and U.S. import from 2003-2008. John Casella, Managing Director of Casella Wines, suggested repositioning the [ yellow tail ] brand, priced at $4.99 - $5.99 per 750ml bottle, while Deutsch's founder, Bill Deutsch, and his son, Peter (CEO), could not agree on a strategy.

Upon becoming General Manager of Artesanías de Colombia (AC) in January 2007, Paola Muñoz faced the challenge of redefining the organization's strategy. The mission of AC, a mainly government organization with a 3 % private ownership, was to foster, promote, and market Colombian handicrafts, thus creating economic development opportunities for artisans, a low-income, mainly indigenous population. In early 2007, soon after assuming her role as General Manager, Paola evaluated the strategy, achievements, and limitations of her predecessor's 16-year-long management tenure, in order to craft her own strategy for the organization. Whereas the previous strategy focused on crafts-with a strong emphasis on the promotion of design and the positioning of crafts as very differentiated products among high-income clients-Paola wanted to discuss with her staff the pros and cons of reorienting the AC's strategy toward the artisans, through increased training, support, and capacity building especially in administrative, economic and organizational areas. The case is based on an organization that is primarily a public/ government organization with a social mission. Governments and government agencies still represent in most OECD countries between 40% and 50% of the economy. This case invites students to (1) strategy formulation in not-for-profit or governmental contexts (specifically in this case a hybrid organization with (a) a dual mandate -social and business orientations (b) in a sector in which the small focal organization promotes value creation with a vast number of producers -over 350,000 artisans in the country) and to (2) highlight the relevance and limitations of strategic management concepts and tools in such contexts. Besides a strategic management course, this case can be used in a corporate social responsibility course to illustrate the challenges of a hybrid organization, in which profit-making and social mission are complementary objectives.

In 2007, Envirofit International, a 501(c) (3) non-profit enterprise from Ft Collins, Colorado, USA, teamed up with the Shell Foundation to reduce indoor air pollution (IAP) in India by selling low-cost high-performance cookstoves designed to reduce carbon emissions by at least 50 percent. IAP was recognized as a silent killer in developing countries like India and a major environmental hazard in developing countries and around the world. The simple solution to this worldwide problem was a low or zero emissions cookstove. This case describes how Envirofit developed and marketed a high performance cookstove to the base of the pyramid (BoP) households in India earning $2-$7 a day and the challenges it encountered in the process. In spite of high investments in social marketing campaigns, Envirofit's push strategy did not result in strong sales growth in the BoP market segment in India. Harish Anchan, Envirofit India's country manager, and Tim Bauer, VP Operations at Envirofit, faced the daunting task of growing sales profitably in order to make the Indian venture financially sustainable. Students have the opportunity to analyze Envirofit India's market and financial performance and suggest alternatives to improve sales based on a sound understanding of consumer behavior in the Indian BoP market.

For over half a century, most of the world's economies have enjoyed steady growth and prosperity. However, beginning in the 1980s, and continuing essentially unabated to the present, the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in developed countries has widened, with a small proportion of the population reaping an increasingly larger share of a country's economic rewards. This growing economic inequality has been particularly pronounced in the United States, but the phenomenon has also occurred in many nations, among them Germany, Japan and Sweden. This note provides background on aspects of economic inequality. It begins by describing both income inequality and wealth inequality, providing an explanation of two widely used metrics and data that show increasing inequalities over time. It then moves to the factors that might contribute to this inequality, as well to propositions of economic and social consequences that might result from the widening gap. Finally, it addresses the issue of "equality of opportunity" or social mobility.

Rocket Internet, a unique technology incubator based in Germany, invests in and develops startups in Europe and emerging markets that are versions of successful technology firms primarily located in the United States, such as eBay, Zappos, Amazon and Groupon. Fundamentally, the company seeks to reduce the uncertainty of entrepreneurial startup ventures by imitating proven business models and replicating them in other geographic regions. Rocket Internet has recently begun to expand into emerging markets more aggressively, and its chief executive officer must now decide on the best strategy to continue the firm’s global expansion.

An entrepreneur and co-founder of a private, non-deposit-taking, non-bank financial firm in Africa took his company public following a decade of phenomenal growth and strong performance. Established in an era when the traditional financial institutions would not grant credit to small and medium enterprises, the company successfully pioneered a wide variety of unique services in the non-bank financial services industry. Capitalizing on the failure of formal institutions to meet the needs of the informal sector, the entrepreneur had achieved organic growth by providing short-term loans and complementary services to customers in the neglected segment of the financial services market. The image of a high-performing company, coupled with the successful initial public offering surpassing all expectations, put tremendous pressure on the company to continue to grow the enterprise and deliver superior performance. To obtain substantial funds from the investing public, the onus is on the entrepreneur to select and pursue an appropriate strategy to keep the enterprise on a growth trajectory.

In February 2014, Burberry's chief executive officer Angela Ahrendts is preparing to hand the reins of the English luxury fashion company to chief creative officer Christopher Bailey. Under Ahrendts and Bailey's partnership, in place since 2006, Burberry's revenues have tripled to more than two billion English pounds, and operating profits have more than doubled. Ahrendts has led Burberry to become a brand that once again stands for luxury and that has a strong global and digital footprint. Yet the leadership change is met with skepticism. Is Burberry's current strategy also the right one for the future, and can Bailey continue Burberry's transformation?

This case concerns Yildiz Holding's acquisition of Godiva Chocolatier from its previous owner, Campbell Soup, and its strategy in preserving Godiva's "made in Belgium" brand position. Provenance Paradox, a problem faced by companies in emerging countries trying to establish their brands in developed markets, had not become a problem for Yildiz Holding. After patiently waiting five years and seeing the company not performing as desired, Murat Ãœlker, the chairman of Yildiz, decides to change the management structure and encourage rethinking brand positioning, channels, and communications in the U.S. market. How was the Godiva brand affected by the execution problems of previous management? Why did Godiva succeed in international markets while it declined in the U.S.? What were the implications of the change in marketing strategy to Godiva's brand image?