In 2008 Joe Justice saw the announcement for the Progressive Insurance X Prize-a $10 million prize aimed at the (im)possibility to build a 100 miles per gallon (mpg) car to road-legal safety specifications. Joe persuaded his wife to use their college grad savings of $5,000 to pay the registration fee. He started the work alone but blogged about what he was doing and what he was learning. Through social networking tools like Facebook and WordPress bloggers who shared his interest learned about his project. Some of these people joined Joe in his endeavor to tackle the challenge. Only three months later, Wikispeed had been formed. It counted 44 members in four countries, and had a functioning prototype which was entered in the X Prize competition. In 2010 they came in 10th in the mainstream class, outrunning more than one hundred other cars from well-funded companies and universities around the world. Following the press reaction to the success of team Wikispeed in 2011 they were invited to showcase their concept car at the Detroit auto show, the largest motor show in the world. Their car, the SGT01, was put on display in Cobo Hall right next to Ford and Chevrolet. Wikispeed was contacted by more than a hundred people who were interested in joining the team as well as in ordering the prototype. By 2013, more than five hundred people had joined team Wikispeed. They had also sold nine prototypes. The immediate issue of the case study is the decision whether the team should use a pair of existing axles, cut and welded them together to the right length for the next iteration of their prototype or develop their own pair of axles from scratch. More fundamentally, this case study looks at the way team Wikispeed used tools from the world of software development, such as modularity, which they call object-oriented architecture, scrum, and extreme manufacturing (XM) to organize their innovation efforts.

In mid-2008, the senior vice-president of Global Supply Chain at Elizabeth Arden in New York City was troubled with the challenges that lay before him. He had been hired to make sweeping changes to the company's management of its supply chain, and he had already made a significant impact in forecasting, inventory control and service performance. His next move would require a radical consolidation of suppliers, make dramatic changes to inventory management, have a far-reaching impact on product development and require major lead time reductions. Given such a disruptive move, would current suppliers be able to meet expectations? Could the company's current employees keep up with the pace of change expected? How many would have to be let go, and what would this do the morale of the workforce? Were significant results to shareholders really achievable? How much money would be saved, where would the savings come from and when would they be realized? The senior vice-president was determined to execute the re-engineering in a manner that would best address all these concerns.

On September 26, 2013, the chief executive officer of the world-leading pasta manufacturer, the Barilla Group, was challenged with a precarious situation. A day earlier, during an interview on an Italian radio show, the company chairman made a series of anti-gay remarks when asked why the company did not feature advertisements with gay families. Social media exploded with negative comments and numerous equality themed pictures creatively featuring pasta. U.S. late night television shows mocked the company, and various equality rights organizations around the world called for a boycott of its products. Competitors also issued statements and ads extolling their respect for diversity. Everyone - customers, news media, competitors and organizations supporting diversity - were looking for an explanation. The company desperately needed to devise a strategy to publicly respond and avoid the negative long-term consequences of a damaged brand name, decreased market share and ultimately lost revenues.

Advantage Food & Beverage (AF&B), a sales and service vending machine company, has added an Avanti kiosk division and hired a sales representative to devote all their time to selling the kiosk service to businesses within a specific geographic market. In the first year of the kiosk operation, AF&B hired and fired three sales representatives while acquiring seven Avanti customers. A management review uncovered issues with the selling process and the lack of presentations to prospective customers. AF&B's owner pondered the relationship between the personal selling process and AF&B's current compensation approach for sales representatives. How could AF&B's compensation approach be changed to meet senior management's new emphasis on presentations, and how would the various options impact AF&B's profit and loss statement?

On June 27, 2012, the storied British bank Barclays admitted that it repeatedly attempted to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) over a four-year period from 2005-2009. In its settlement, Barclays agreed to pay $453 million in fines and penalties to bank regulators in the U.K. and U.S. The media decried Barclays' rate-rigging efforts as "the scandal of all scandals" and bemoaned the spread of "Wall Street sleaze." By late 2012, dozens of other banks did indeed face LIBOR-rigging inquiries by regulators in various countries. This case delves into the scandal, exploring how the rate-rigging worked, who knew what when, and how the blame was laid, allowing students to explore the social and situational pressures involved in the rigging of the LIBOR.

Endeavor Global was a nonprofit that for 15 years had worked to nurture entrepreneurship in emerging markets by selecting local high-impact entrepreneurs for mentoring and aid in scaling up their businesses from committed local business leaders. In summer 2012, Endeavor received an invitation to replicate its model in Miami, Florida, and the Endeavor board was meeting to debate the value of such a move. At issue were questions of organizational mission and the relevance of Miami, as well as branding, funding, and focus. The invitation had come in the midst of a major expansion effort by Endeavor into new emerging markets and threatened to disrupt those efforts and tax a new hybrid funding model which Endeavor was implementing. Founder Linda Rottenberg with the support of her board must determine the implications of possibly opening in Miami on Endeavor's resources and mission? How could Rottenberg justify to overseas affiliates a choice to invest in a first-world city?

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER -Marketing category, ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition</strong></p><br>In 2012, HCL Infosystems Ltd. is a reputable computer hardware firm and a major player in the Indian desktop market. Due to changes in consumer behaviour, the desktop market is shrinking and demand is shifting towards laptops, where HCL has a miniscule presence. At the same time, the desktop market is witnessing the emergence of a new form of devices called all-in-ones (AIOs). HCL needs a significant presence in AIOs to retain its position in the Indian PC market. The company was an early entrant in the Indian AIO market in 2007 and sought to capture a niche market for its premium range, but did not succeed and withdrew its product line. The category has, in the last four years, grown in the mass market segment and HCL needs a successful relaunch of the HCL Beanstalk AIO in the face of intense competition from multinational competitors who have a head start. The problem is compounded by the fact that the HCL brand is losing market share and that the company lacks the financial resources to invest heavily in brand building. HCL’s management believes that the Beanstalk needs to capture eight per cent of the retail segment of the Indian AIO market in order to be able to gain the same share in the business-to-business market, which is slower to adopt new technologies.

In an environment of heightened shareholder activism in Canada, this case investigates the hypothesis that, compared with their male colleagues, women are the more likely champions of tough issues at the board. Interviews with five female directors provide insight into each of their board battles. Through the detailed enactment of their respective stories, the preconditions prompting their championing efforts and the process of how they engaged their fellow directors are presented, providing the opportunity to identify the commonalities and differences between them. Details of the final outcomes are not presented in the case to encourage the students to think through potential finales. Actual outcomes are provided in the teaching note.

The president JH Men's Apparel, a men’s apparel company in China, is considering the options available to his firm in light of the price war initiated by his competitors who are copying his company’s sweater patterns and selling the sweaters at a lower price point. Several of his biggest customers have demanded a price reduction to match the prices being offered by these competitors. In the face of such fierce competition, the president realizes that the multiple options available to his company boil down to a fundamental strategic choice between competing on the basis of cost leadership or of a differentiated, branded product line. He needs to make a decision and start implementing the strategy promptly.

Over the past decade or so, Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Ltd (KS&DL) - an Indian public sector enterprise - has observed a significant fall in its signature product's brand image, Mysore Sandalwood. The company now aims to rebuild its overall image by launching their new, Mysore Sandals Millennium, soap in January 2012. Millennium is a super-premium luxury soap offering that has taken three years of research and development and is targeted at the top-end consumer segment. It is priced at US$12.60 for a bar - making it the most expensive Indian soap on the market - where the premium range is available for as low as US$0.35 a bar. Will KS&DL succeed in marketing a product priced at a level that makes it unaffordable to most Indians? How can the company best go about executing and communicating its strategy to make this launch a success?

Four GlaxoSmithKline employees were accused of bribing Chinese health care workers to prescribe the company's drugs. The accusations brought to light the questionable incentive structures of the Chinese health care system and the pressure on companies to adhere to local customs while still observing local laws.

In 2013, Chinese investigators detained four GSK employees for allegedly bribing health care staff to sell GSK pharmaceuticals. A month later, GSK's Asia Pacific regional president, Abbas Hussain, said the company would help identify corrupt practices. Two days later, GSK's CEO, Andrew Witty, called the allegations "shameful" and said the company would use the opportunity to "make changes."

The fiduciary duties of loyalty and care, the corporate opportunity doctrine and the business judgment rule are introduced in the context of three vignettes drawn from decided cases that explore: a classic test of loyalty when one partner elects to take advantage of an opportunity the partnership may also be able to pursue (Meinhard v. Salmon); the care and procedure directors should employ when approving a merger or sale of the company (Smith v. Van Gorkom); and the board's role and process in hiring, firing and severance decisions (Ovitz at Disney).

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Oikos Sustainability Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. competes in the fast casual segment of the restaurant industry. Its founder and current co-CEO has always emphasized not only good tasting food but also a commitment to sustainability through the mission statement: “Food with Integrity.” The company has positioned itself as a differentiator, using both food quality and a commitment to sustainability as factors that isolate it from its competitors. However, in 2012, the company faces a number of challenges from increased competition and rising food costs. As a result, a hedge fund investor has recently called for shorting the company’s stock. The co-CEOs must decide on the best course to confront these challenges as the company’s stock price is in a free fall.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Inclusive Business Models Award, European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition and Best case, ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition</strong></p><br>In February 2009, the additional director at the Child In Need Institute (CINI) received the most challenging assignment that CINI’s board of governors had ever given him — to prepare a comprehensive proposal recommending whether the organization should continue as a non-government organization (NGO) driven primarily by donations and grants, or should venture into social business. He had a month to give his recommendations. CINI was a reputable 37-year-old NGO from Kolkata (Calcutta), India, with a mission of “sustainable development in education, protection, health and nutrition of child, adolescent and woman in need.” Over the years, CINI had fought child malnutrition through health clinics and educating mothers, and had provided shelters and a path to betterment for street children. Despite recognition at CINI that donor funding was becoming scarce, any proposed social business was controversial because it ran the risk of alienating existing donors and replacing CINI’s existing purpose with a profit motive. This case has global relevance, as the challenges that CINI met in 2009 are faced by thousands of social enterprises across the world.

In January 2013, the CEO of the Russian automotive company Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ) was pleased with the results of the recently implemented changes to the company's product-market strategy and the related organizational processes. He believed that this series of radical changes could help GAZ further cement its domestic market leadership position and at the same time allow it to complete a dramatic turnaround that had resulted in the company's most profitable year ever. He was now planning the launch of the third generation all-new Gazelle Next light transport truck, which he believed would take the company to a new level of competitiveness and revenue growth in Russia, and even more importantly, in other emerging markets.

La Presse, a French language newspaper in Montreal and the largest French language newspaper in North America, published an article summarizing the judgment of a trademark infringement case involving Lassonde Industries, a large Quebec conglomerate with sales of almost Cdn$760 million, and Olivia's Oasis, a small Quebec manufacturer of health and beauty products with sales of Cdn$250,000. Initially, Olivia's Oasis had successfully defended itself and it was awarded damages and costs by the courts. However, Lassonde appealed, which resulted in Olivia's Oasis having to pay its own legal costs - a judgment that could bankrupt the small company. By the end of the day, thousands of readers and members of the public had reacted via social media with such vehemence that Lassonde felt pressured to pay Olivia's Oasis' costs. The issues are related to the management of a company's reputation and the potential impact of negative public reaction in the long term.

This document provides a step-by-step guide to the sequence of tasks involved in the strategy development process including the eight activities necessary for strategic planning.

This case is used in Darden's "Digital Marketing" course elective. It explores the experience of a niche search firm whose founder attributed her ability to open her recruiting firm to LinkedIn and the new model of recruiting it created. LinkedIn Corporation had been one of the most successful companies in the digital media space, with more than 4,000 employees and a market capitalization of over $25.5 billion in August 2013. But few people knew how LinkedIn had grown and how it had become profitable. LinkedIn had multiple unique aspects to explore: its focus on professional--not simply personal--social interaction, the company's B2B components, and also its marketing positioning from user experience to targeting and growth strategy.

Ford Motor Co. develops and commercializes a green technology that replaces a traditional and scarce resource with an abundant bio-material. The pilot project becomes hugely successful, and, within the company, the idea of expanding the use of bio-material gains considerable momentum, but implementation and customer acceptance prove to be a challenge. Two members from the company's research and engineering division work together to overcome these obstacles and move the company toward a vision of sustainability that involves more than just fuel economy and cost reduction.