In January 2012, the government of India faced significant challenges to achieving three key objectives of high growth, inclusive development, and improved governance. The economy was experiencing a growth slowdown, persistently high inflation, and infrastructure and energy deficits. Policy reforms were hampered by several recent corruption scandals, widespread citizen protests against corruption, and disagreements with coalition partners. Could India make the right decisions needed to lift hundreds of millions of citizens out of poverty?

In this case, a property company, a water privatizer, and municipal engineers explore the causes of and solutions to a severe water shortage in Mexico City, a great global capital. The protagonist is a real estate investor doing due diligence on the magnitude of the crisis, the impact on the firm's operations, and the likelihood of resolution. Due diligence includes interviews with city water officials and global-scale water privatizers. This case is an excellent introduction to city scale infrastructure issues on a global level. A related case, "Water Shortage and Property Investing in Mexico City," HBS No. 210-085, contains more real estate finance and less water infrastructure finance material than this case does.

A recent MBA graduate has just received a one-year business assignment as a business development and marketing advisor to work with the Vietnam Handicraft Initiative (VHI), a vocational training and employment center for people with disabilities, located in Central Vietnam. Her job is to assist the VHI to increase its productivity, become sustainable and strengthen the capacity of the organization through improved business and marketing plans. Within the first four weeks of her arrival, she needs to detail her assessment of the VHI and provide key recommendations and focused work objectives for the remaining 11 months of her placement. She expects that the many cultural differences encountered along the way will provide a real challenge in accurately assessing the VHI and developing a detailed work plan.

Previous decades were characterized by relative stability and predictable economic growth. But in the new climate of volatility, unpredictability, complexity, and ambiguity, leaders must accept imperfection and uncertainty. Rather than respond to new situations according to scripts, expectations, and external standards, leaders should exercise self-awareness, creativity, and improvisation. Leadership is defined not by creating perfect plans, but by responding to unscheduled events and learning from them. As this article suggests, leaders must prepare themselves by accurately perceiving their unique mix of talents and flaws. Only then can they effectively leverage their ability to lead and move past conformity and the projection of superficial strength.

Nations across the world are commonly said to be facing leadership crises in sectors such as government, business, religion, and education. One phenomenon in the context of leadership decline is the rise of followers. Partly, this rise stems from long-term historical shifts away from dominance and hierarchy and towards democracy and increased rights. But recent technological changes also account for it, with social media and the Internet placing more power in the hands of common people. Paradoxically, during the last thirty years while leadership has been in decline, the leadership industry has flourished, and there is a proliferation of leadership centres, programs, workshops, books, and consultants claiming to teach people how to lead. After describing the current leadership crisis, this article uses the examples of political opposition to Vladimir Putin and more cooperative, restrained CEOs to illustrate the decline in traditional norms of leadership.

In recent years, professional service firms have seen considerable senior talent (often women with children) leave work. Many of these individuals leave their career due to the unwillingness of their employer to provide them with the flexibility to achieve a work-life balance. Virtual teams — often the answer to this problem — are those in which not all members are physically assembled; they share complementary skills and are enabled by technology such as the Internet and telephone. This format, which is especially suitable for individual, knowledge-based work, is on the rise due to employee demand. The lifestyle-driven virtual team model allows practitioners to be selective about their hours and projects, increasing employee satisfaction. Employers benefit due to virtual teams leveraging the best talent more easily and workers facing fewer office-related distractions. Unique challenges, however, include the absence of non-verbal communication, working across time zones, difficulty of building rapport, overreliance on e-mail and telephone communication, and managing conflict at arm’s length. After describing the paradigm of lifestyle-driven virtual teams, this article outlines the best practices: institute strong leadership, choose the right team members, set expectations from the start, implement strict protocols, use proven processes, manage timelines and budgets carefully, establish meaningful project milestones, encourage interaction, communicate more efficiently, and minimize team conflict.

Canada’s economic axis was originally domestic, running east to west. Later, with the North American Free Trade Agreement, it ran north to south. Now, Canada is in free trade negotiations with the European Union and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and has a bilateral pact with Japan. This article, by a former senior policy advisor to the prime minister of Canada, begins by examining Asia’s economic miracle, including China’s rise and Japan’s generation of the largest increase in wealth creation in world history. It then describes the proposed but somewhat uncertain Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would include various Pacific nations, as well as Canada and the United States. It argues that the top priority for Canada should be a bilateral free trade agreement with Japan and that three issues should guide Canada’s actions: a) Canadian manufacturers can become part of Japanese global manufacturing by producing specialized parts; b) Japanese banks, trading firms, and manufacturers have entered into alliances and networks to invest in new technology, share production, transfer technology, and enter new markets; c) Japan, which invented lean production and just-in-time production, is aggressively transforming global supply chains and Canada could become a North American gateway for container flows from Europe and Asia. In describing the global economic climate, this article shows the economic shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the importance of leveraging the new opportunities therein.

Canada ranks 17th out of 24 OECD countries on productivity. Many consider productivity to mean “working harder for less pay,” but a more accurate definition would be “output per hour of work” or “combined output from labour and capital.” General disinterest in and misunderstanding about productivity impedes necessary actions being taken to fix Canada’s looming crisis. As this article explains, reasons for Canada’s productivity deficit include its abundance of small businesses, which generally invest less in R&D; Canadian governmental and private-sector under-investment in information technology; unfavourable taxation; and inertia due to unions’ demands. Yet there are various opportunities for Canada to boost productivity, including implementing more government policy that addresses barriers to competition and growth and promotes technology and education investment; researching opportunities in the private sector and applying them in the public sector; and investing in teams, processes, and equipment. This article, based on interviews with business executives who have overseen significant change, finishes by detailing various enablers of productivity, including technology investment; strategic leadership; better workplace cultures with a stronger sense of teamwork and increased training; and an entrepreneurial mindset.

Increasingly, commercializing new technological innovations means drawing on multiple inventions spread across various firms. In multi-invention contexts (such as smartphones), a single person or company rarely invents and patents all the components of a commercially viable product. Success requires that companies choose the right business model, manage their patent strategies, and align their business model and company strategies. Firms must choose between integrated business models (assembling as many complementary technologies and commercialization assets as possible within the firm) and non-integrated business models (combining inventions with those of others through component or licensing market relationships). <br><br>After selecting a business model, firms need to implement a patent strategy, which can be broadly categorized as either a) proprietary, where the firm seeks to stake out and defend a proprietary market advantage; b) defensive, where the firm may not wish to use patents to gain a competitive advantage, but needs to not be put at a competitive disadvantage by other firms’ patents; and c) leveraging, where the firm relies on using a patent’s power to prevent others from using the invention, thus enabling the firm to collect revenue, influence a technology, or close business deals. The article concludes by highlighting the importance of firms developing and aligning patent strategies with business models from the beginning, not merely on an ad hoc basis.

China is facing a shortage of workers as its demographics and role as the “factory of the world” change. Though set to remain an export hub, China is climbing the value chain and its middle class is growing, so that “Made in China” will turn into “Sales in China.” Since the economic crisis, Asian markets have shown resilience for three reasons. Firstly, Asia is diversifying its trade base, with less dependence on Western trade and more domestic and intra-Asia trade. Also, economic diversity has stabilized the region, due to the presence of developed financial centres like Hong Kong, sophisticated manufacturing bases like mainland China, and low-cost manufacturing, such as in Vietnam and Bangladesh. Finally, the region is well financed, with such rapid economic growth that the Asian middle class is expected to account for over 40 per cent of total global consumption by 2020. A global talent imbalance exists due to high unemployment in mature markets and talent scarcity and rapid economic growth in Asian markets. Opportunities in this scenario include the chance for foreign universities to attract more Chinese students, a role for the subsidiaries of multinational enterprises to develop capable talent for Chinese operations, a prioritization of Chinese-language schools, and a strengthening of relations with China in the key area of trade engagement.

In October 2011, Zhang Yuping, founder and chairman of Hengdeli, the largest Swiss watch retailer in the world, wondered how to work more closely with its key suppliers-Swatch Group, Richemont Group, LVMH Group, and Rolex Group-to maintain strong growth in the Greater China region. Specifically, how could Hengdeli manage the relationship with these suppliers to ensure getting more supply in a market where demand outgrew supply? How could Hengdeli balance the needs of these competing suppliers without being overreliant on one or two suppliers? How could it continue to expand its retail network to enhance its value and position? How could Hengdeli rationalize the portfolio management to maximize the return in the long-term?

In 2011, Chile's Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Jorge Atton, was considering adopting a different policy toward regulating competition in Internet services than previously applied to voice telephony. Atton headed Chile's telecommunications regulatory agency, SUBTEL. For the past two decades, SUBTEL had encouraged the emergence of competition in telephone services in part by forcing the incumbent telephone company to give new entrants to the industry access to its customers. SUBTEL had circulated for public comment consultation document that raised the possibility of imposing "open access" requirements on the providers of broadband Internet services. This case discusses the debate over open access in Chile. This case can be used with the accompanying teaching note (HKS 878). HKS Case Number 1955.0.

Souk el Tayeb, the farmers' market, and Tawlet, the farmers' kitchen are two legal entities, the former adopting the legal structure of an NGO and the latter, an income generating company, joined by one vision namely to "celebrate food and traditions that unite communities and support small-scale farmers and producers and a culture of sustainable agriculture." Souk el Tayeb founder, Kamal Mouzawak, first launched Souk el Tayeb, a farmer's market, in May 2004 in Beirut, Lebanon. The idea was to create a communal space for farmers across the country to sell their organic produce and products. The over-arching vision was to create a platform that joined different people celebrating food, culture and traditions and in parallel promoting and supporting the agricultural sector in Lebanon. Mouzawak and his business partner were in the process of brainstorming ways to scale the impact of their social business while not compromising quality standards and meeting the ever looming challenge of financial sustainability.

This case deals with an exporting challenge faced by Ferro Industries (Ferro), a small enterprise within the steel industry in India. The company's manufacturing facility was located in the National Capital Region of Delhi. Ferro's main products were roll-forming machines, cut-to-length lines and slitting lines; the company was one of only three firms in the Indian sub-continent catering to the market for such products. This case raises two basic questions in relation to Ferro's role as an exporter: Firstly, at what stage should an importer have to pay an exporter? Secondly, should the exporter release consignment to the importer before receiving payment? The case illustrates the challenges of exporting and international entrepreneurship for a small firm, taking into account payment risk, product pricing, deal-making strategies, promotional strategy and client-management strategies. It also addresses the complexities involved in the decision-making process while exporting, as well as outlining various conflict-resolution techniques for closing a deal effectively while considering the appropriateness of taking risks.

It was also in debt and out of fashion. It had acquired a reputation as "one of the least user-friendly museums in the world." One senior figure from the museum was even quoted as saying that he didn't want children in there. Compared to rival venues, visiting the BM was like a "trip back in time" - but not in a favorable sense. In the space of nine years, MacGregor reversed its fortunes and restored its sense of pride and purpose. He raised its profile through engaging exhibitions, television shows and the Internet - but most surprisingly of all through the use of radio. He presided over a startling transformation in the image and fortunes of the BM, with net income quadrupling in nine years and donations and legacies growing eight-fold under his watch. Visitor numbers reached record highs and the BM has become a template for other museums. A cultural institution that was once in danger of becoming an embarrassing monument to British imperialism is now viewed with pride. As one commentator put it: "As an exercise in rebranding, it is surely up there with the best." The case considers the methods used by MacGregor to achieve these results and some of the key turning points, as well as the lessons for other organizations, including in the private sector. It also explores the possible complications of following a charismatic leader. Learning objectives: The case covers six key issues to do with leadership and organizational change: 1) The difficulties of changing an entrenched public sector culture, shaped by curatorial divisions and the weight of the BM's heritage. 2) The challenge of managing multiple stakeholders. 3) The various roles adopted by a leader - and changing the scope of the job. 4) The importance of finding a purpose that resonates with employees and visitors alike. 5) The process of institutional transformation and the challenge of building on MacGregor's legacy. 6) The benefits and drawbacks of charismatic leadership.

Big data is a capability that allows firms to extract value from large volumes of data. When combining two dimensions — business objective and data type — the use of big data can be organized into four main strategies. 1) Performance management involves understanding the meaning of big data in company databases using pre-determined queries and multidimensional analysis. The data used for this analysis are transactional. 2) Data exploration makes heavy use of statistics to experiment and get answers to questions that managers might not have considered. It leverages predictive modeling techniques to predict user behaviour based on past business transactions and preferences. 3) Social analytics examines the vast amount of non-transactional data, often on social media platforms. 4) Decision science involves experiments and analysis of non-transactional data, such as consumer-generated product ideas and product reviews. In addition to explaining these strategies, this article provides a list of popular big data techniques and vendors and identifies three emergent big data practices: a) integrating multiple big data streams; b) building a big data capability; and c) being proactive and creating a big data policy.

Despite its crucial role in corporate success, human capital has not received the rigorous study it deserves and workforce analytics has been underutilized. Workforce analytics is not about simple measurement — “counting heads,” reporting turnover, cataloguing employee knowledge and skills, reporting engagement scores, or buying analytics software. Instead, it is a systematic approach used to define workforce problems, test successful solutions, and make better decisions. This article provides six steps for maximizing the value of strategic workforce analytics: 1) Frame the central problem. 2) Apply a conceptual model to guide the analysis. 3) Capture relevant data. 4) Apply analytical methods. 5) Present statistical findings to stakeholders. 6) Define action steps to implement the solution. The authors leverage their experience at IBM and elsewhere to explain how embedding workforce analytics into companies requires the integration of timely, accurate, and multi-purpose data; a flexible and responsibe set of processes and technical infrastructure; individuals who possess the functional, statistical, and business-oriented skills needed; and adequate governance structures.

In today’s complex world, having a disruptive innovation capability is mandatory, both for growing a business and protecting existing markets. Though disruptive innovation transforms and creates markets, many of today’s executives rise through the ranks of management, where predictability is valued, and therefore lack the ability to lead disruptive innovation. This article highlights the key dynamics involved in leading disruptive innovation and proposes a five-phase model (with the acronym LEAPS) that provides the structure for understanding the ways that leaders create clarity during times of uncertainty. L – Listen: Start with yourself, not the market; be instinctual. E – Explore: Go outside to stretch the middle; appreciate ambiguity and push personal boundaries. A – Act: Take small, simple steps repeatedly; embrace continuous adaptation. P – Persist: Take the surprise out of failure; accept setbacks as a normal part of leading disruptive innovation. S – Seize: Make the journey part of the destination; the firm’s focus may change over time and luck may play a role.

Many companies want to enter emerging markets, but this requires changing their approach to innovation. Rather than innovating for Western consumers who want advanced product features, here they must innovate for the bottom of the pyramid. The first key factor in frugal innovation is affordability, and many firms have turned profits even when selling products at a fraction of normal prices. A second major success factor is understanding target customers’ circumstances, such as Nokia did in designing phones for the Indian market that withstood exposure to dust and high variations in ambient temperatures, or when the telecom firm Safaricom realized that many Africans, though using mobile phones, were not using traditional banking services and so introduced fund transfers through text messaging. A third key factor is flexible value chains, meaning firms are often required to tweak their value chains at both ends — suppliers/vendors and distributors/channels. GE showed a strong distribution model when it partnered with the State Bank of India to provide no-interest loans to rural Indian doctors in order to sell its ECG device. This article provides an analysis of and framework for these three key factors in frugal innovation.

Despite China’s rapid economic and technological development, its intellectual property rights (IPR) protection environment is inadequate. Foreign companies and Chinese technology firms like Lenovo, Huawei, and Haier are pressuring the Chinese government for stronger protection. The government, in turn, wants to enhance innovative capacity in science and technology to boost economic progress, climb the value chain, and reduce dependence on foreign technologies. Patent applications in China have dramatically increased, particularly technology patents for strategic or defense purposes. The quality of the de facto IPR system and enforcement varies across regions, being more robust in the coastal provinces and major cities. Previous studies on IPR have mostly focused on the United States and Europe, not China, yet it is crucial for firms operating in China to understand its IPR environment. This article proposes four strategies for patenting in the country.<br><br>1) Incremental patenting is a strategy for complex technological products (i.e. semiconductors, communications, computers) in regions with weak IPR protection. It focuses on the lesser known utility-model patents, which are cheaper, granted faster, and shorter in duration than invention patents. 2) Effectual patenting is for complex technological products in regions with good IPR protection. It is suited to firms with technological products of higher strategic value. 3) Augmented patenting is for discrete technological products (i.e. chemicals, biotech, pharmaceuticals, life sciences) in regions with weak IPR protection. It is ideal for products with higher economic value. 4) Foundational patenting is for discrete technological products in regions with strong IPR protection. This strategy provides the strongest IPR protection possible.