Operation Walk Canada (Operation Walks) was a private not-for-profit orthopaedic surgical mission organization based in London, Ontario. Its purpose was to provide total hip and knee replacement surgeries to patients in low- and middle-income countries, such as Guatemala. who had little or no access to orthopaedic care due to social, political, and economic factors. For two years, the COVID-19 pandemic had forced the mission to temporarily pause its work, leaving behind an ever-growing waiting list of patients who needed life-changing surgical care. However, the tremendous burden of the pandemic, coupled with existing gaps in the health care services in Canada, resulted in an overwhelming need for support that went beyond the organization’s capacity. For the organization to meet this demand, the team members needed an effective and sustainable strategy that would maximize its ability to meet the orthopaedic health care needs of the population. Operation Walk must now consider key challenges before returning to Antigua, Guatemala, in the spring of 2022.

In 2021, the head of cold storage for North America at A. P. Moller–Maersk (Maersk) was assigned the challenging task of meeting cold-storage requirements for a key client. Increasing demand for frozen food, coupled with many consumers adopting “hoarding” behaviour after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, heightened pressure on already-strained cold-storage facilities across the United States. To show the value of adopting Maersk’s end-to-end logistics services, the head of cold storage and his team had to develop a flexible operational plan for the client. The task was especially difficult in such a hot market, but gaining the trust of this client was critical for Maersk’s goal of establishing a strong hold in the US cold-storage market.

In 2022, retail media was one of the fastest growing segments in digital advertising. A retail media network (RMN) allows a retailer to use its assets for advertising. Retailers set up an advertising business by allowing marketers to buy advertising space across their different channels, such as their website or mobile application as well as physical stores or other properties the retailer owns or partners with. The value proposition retailers offer advertisers is to potentially generate more effective advertising and to drive sales, by leveraging their exclusive data that includes customer behavior and transactions (both online and offline), allowing advertisers to close the loop from ad exposure to purchase across channels. This note provides an overview of retail media networks in 2022. First, it describes the role played by each key player-retailers, brands, and consumers-as well as the main drivers behind the dramatic growth of RMN in the last few years. Then, it describes the main challenges for retailers who aim to seize the RMN opportunity. Third, it positions the RMNs within the broader context of digital advertising, identifying key challenges and open questions in this industry.

In January 2022, MitiMeth was a Nigeria-based innovative social enterprise that produces handcrafted products made from natural fibres-agricultural waste and aquatic weeds-that are otherwise considered to be waste or a hazard to the environment. MitiMeth added value to this material by transforming it into well-designed furniture and home furnishings, storage boxes, lamps, kitchen and dinner ware, stationery, and souvenir items. Mitimeth's initiative of transforming this environmental nuisance into marketable products provided work for more than 600 people from over twenty-five communities in Nigeria. Despite challenges in exporting from Nigeria, MitiMeth had made good progress in reaching international markets. MitiMeth had already gone through several challenges, and the COVID-19 pandemic only added to the difficulties the enterprise had experienced. Mitimeth needed a plan that ensured MitiMeth's long-term sustainability.

By the end of 2020, Ambuja Cement Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of Ambuja Cements Ltd., based in Mumbai, India, had been uplifting its communities through social development goals for the past 25 years. The specific focus of its activities had been water harvesting, agriculture development skills training, health, and education. However, the foundation faced the consistent challenge of measuring the impact of its corporate social responsibility projects with reference to the social development goals selected by the company in terms of performance or improvement at the village level. In December 2020, the vice-president of Ambuja Cement Foundation needed to determine which measurement the foundation should use to measure the performance of its community development programs and its alignment with the social development goals. Should it go along with the existing measurement tools or adopt a new model to measure performance and impact?

Ivan and Lana Kuznetsov are a dual-career couple and parents to four young children. Having immigrated to Canada from Russia in 2012, they are both in the process of rebuilding their careers. Ivan already has what can be considered a successful career, with local credentials, experience, and a good professional network, but he is not quite satisfied and considers making a change. Lana's career in Canada is in its early stages. As a recent college graduate, she is only beginning to realize her dreams and is working in an entry-level part-time position. When Lana receives a full-time job offer that will require her full attention and energy, the couple need to decide whose career to prioritize, as one of them will have to focus on the family. Over a person's lifetime, multiple career choices are made that are also related to their other life roles. Each spouse has different reasons and motivations for the vocational choices they make that affect both of their actions throughout their lives. In a situation of conflicting goals, where both spouses cannot work full-time, and one of them has to make a sacrifice, each option has potential benefits and risks.

In March 2021, a group of junior investment banking analysts at the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., an American multinational investment bank, told senior management that they were suffering burnout from having to work 100-hour weeks. Nearly a year since the start of the pandemic, this workplace culture crisis heightened the importance of senior leadership prioritizing employees' mental and physical health. In addition, it drew attention to the importance of person-organization fit and to the changing labour market. A top-ranked undergraduate business student recently received a full-time job offer from Goldman Sachs. After learning of critical incidents of employee burnout at the firm, she was considering whether the company culture aligned with her values and whether she would be a good fit there.

In December of 2020, the head of product development at QualityKiosk Technologies Private Limited (QualityKiosk) was grappling with a significant issue. QualityKiosk provided application quality assurance, business automation, digital experience management, and data analytics services to financial services companies across India. Krishna had to recommend the way forward for the company's latest product-Anabot, a new information technology (IT) journey analytics platform. The Anabot platform could provide its clients with quick insight about any IT incidents in the client's technology services. It also provided around-the-clock intelligence to the client's team handling those incidents. In its first year of sales, the customer journey analytics platform had been adopted by five major clients, generating over ₹20 million in revenues for QualityKiosk. However, between May and August 2020, none of over fifty potential clients who had expressed an interest in the Anabot product had proceeded to make a purchase. For the entire Anabot product team, anxiety was increasing about the future of their product. In an upcoming product review meeting with the company's chief executive officer, the head of product development would be required to present his recommendations for the future of the Anabot platform.

This case set is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. Taylor is a senior product manager at Catalise, a start-up that develops artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic technology for mental health disorders. When Taylor is promoted to this position, her first project is to manage the launch of Catalisten, an AI-based software that diagnoses major depressive disorder by analyzing patients' speech patterns. Company leaders expect Catalisten to be the company's new blockbuster product and expedite its launch to ensure a competitive advantage. As Taylor onboards onto the Catalisten team, she learns that the product, which is nearly complete, misdiagnoses female patients at significantly higher rates than male patients. When Taylor raises the concern to a team member, she is pushed to "bury" the algorithm's discrepancy in order to protect the product launch time line. In this A case, Taylor's challenge is to convince Catalise's chief product officer to delay Catalisten's launch to address the AI software's gender bias. This case set is intended for use at the MBA level in courses in business innovation, entrepreneurship, engineering, technology product development, tech ethics, and leadership and ethics. It could be taught to advanced undergraduates who have developed a foundation in GVV, ethical decision-making, or computer science.

This case set is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. Taylor is a senior product manager at Catalise, a start-up that develops artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic technology for mental health disorders. When Taylor is promoted to this position, her first project is to manage the launch of Catalisten, an AI-based software that diagnoses major depressive disorder by analyzing patients' speech patterns. Company leaders expect Catalisten to be the company's new blockbuster product and expedite its launch to ensure a competitive advantage. As Taylor onboards onto the Catalisten team, she learns that the product, which is nearly complete, misdiagnoses female patients at significantly higher rates than male patients. When Taylor raises the concern to a team member, she is pushed to "bury" the algorithm's discrepancy in order to protect the product launch time line. In the A case, Taylor's challenge is to convince Catalise's chief product officer to delay Catalisten's launch to address the AI software's gender bias. In this B case, students follow Taylor as she approaches her chief product officer about delaying Catalisten's launch and addressing the product's bias. This case set is intended for use at the MBA level in courses in business innovation, entrepreneurship, engineering, technology product development, tech ethics, and leadership and ethics. It could be taught to advanced undergraduates who have developed a foundation in GVV, ethical decision-making, or computer science.

In 2022, Manuel Wiechers, the CEO of Iluméxico, a for-profit social enterprise that provided off-grid solar energy services in rural Mexico, was finalizing his presentation for the company's upcoming board meeting. In the 12 years since Wiechers had co-founded Iluméxico, the company had scaled significantly largely due to government subsidies. However, the company's outlook changed drastically in recent years, as the government's programs that had supported Iluméxico's expansion and service delivery had been paused. Wiechers needed to decide what Iluméxico should do: should they double down on a new government bid that had unexpectedly resurfaced and borrow to finance the implementation of this potentially massive contract? Or should Iluméxico scrap the business-to-government (B2G) model altogether and focus on growing a profitable business-to-customer (B2C) business, perhaps by offering new services, like Internet access, to some of their existing customers? Or should they instead put Mexico on pause and expand in other countries where governments supported off-grid solar power? The future of his company was at stake, as was the energy access of tens of thousands of the most marginalized families in Mexico.

While India had made significant progress against diseases like polio and tetanus, the pandemic revealed marked differences in COVID-related illness and death among the country's most vulnerable. Urban-rural and other societal divides added to long-time disparities in access to health care, and public resources could be overwhelmed. Could a new national health plan and digital health mission allow India to innovate on health care, with the goal of creating high-quality affordable health care for all? This case explores a multi-stakeholder, collaborative approach to understanding and leveraging new technologies that could integrate a complex, fragmented health care system. This ambitious effort would involve harnessing mobile technologies and expanding broadband access to provide critical digital health solutions for India's large rural population. And this effort would capitalize on best practices and lessons elsewhere in the digital health ecosystem-allowing India to leapfrog the shortcomings of national health information systems that had emerged elsewhere in the world.

Using recycled or repurposed materials to make a new product can be a good sustainability strategy, but how can marketers increase the appeal of such goods to consumers? An experiment by two marketing scholars reveals that this appeal can be stimulated by explicitly telling just a little of the product's history and letting consumers spin the rest of the story.

In 2021, when GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Limited was the second largest global polysilicon manufacturer. It made and sold polysilicon in mainland China used in the production of solar energy equipment. In September 2019, GCL-Poly's wholly-owned and major subsidiary, Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon was engaged in an engineering, procurement and construction contract (EPC Contract) valued at CNY1.9bn (USD0.3bn). The EPC Contract involved a granular silicon project and engaged a state-owned enterprise (SOE) lead contractor and a subcontractor. But the majority of the holding company's directors claimed they were unaware of this EPC Contract and the contract sum, and they did not announce it to the public and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK). The company's former auditors, Deloitte, raised concerns on the commercial rationale of the EPC Contract, including the validity of the prepayment of CNY510m (USD79.8m) made to the lead contractor. Due to outstanding audit issues and resignation of Deloitte, the company did not release its annual results for year-end 31 December 2020 by the 31 March 2021 deadline. On 1 April 2021, the company's shares were suspended from trading. After the company terminated the EPC contract, on 26 April 2021, the company received a refund from the lead contractor at CNY495.28m (USD77.5m) for the prepayment. The EPC Contract and the prepayment were approved by Jiang Wenwu, the former ED of GCL-Poly's holding company and GM of Jiangsu Zhongneng. According to Jiangsu Zhongneng's relevant internal policy, Jiang also breached the company's internal policy. At the end of October 2021, the SEHK accepted GCL-Poly forensic accountant's report, internal control recommendation, and the new auditor's financial results. The company's shares resumed trading and SEHK and other regulatory bodies did not take disciplinary action towards the company.

In this case, students take on the role of the president of Kansas State University (K-State), a public university located in Manhattan, Kansas. In response to an offensive tweet from a university student, many Black athletes at K-State are demanding action be taken against the student, saying they will not participate in any sporting events until something is done. Other stakeholders at the school are opposed to the athletes' actions, arguing in defense of free speech. A public response cannot be delayed any longer. Acting as the president of the university, students must decide what to do. Students are therefore asked to read the case in class and immediately write down their answers to questions about how they view the students' demands, about what the university president should decide and do, and about how best to communicate with the various key stakeholders. Ultimately, whatever is done next will be highly scrutinized and will likely have long-lasting consequences for the athletics department, the university as a whole, and the president's and potentially others' individual reputations. This makes the case useful for helping students simulate real-time, concrete decision-making about difficult situations with major implications.

Desi Hangover, an Indian company empowering artisans to manufacture handcrafted leather footwear, was a finalist at Lakmé Fashion Week in 2020 in the category of Circular Changemakers. The chief executive officer had a dream of establishing his company as a leading circular economy fashion brand, and now he had a chance to pitch his vision of the future. But his core team had reservations and worried about the cost and risk of transitioning fully to a circular model. Considering the journey Desi Hangover had taken since its inception, the changing needs of the market, and the unpredictability of the business economy, Desi Hangover had to come up with the right pitch for the event-one that would continue on the path to conscious fashion while ensuring growth in revenues to sustain operations.

In 2022, the leaders of In-Q-Tel (IQT) considered what was next for the unique mission-driven organization. Since 1999, IQT had one mission: to be the most sophisticated source of strategic technical knowledge and capabilities to the U.S. government and its allies. IQT played a dual role for the national security community: to both inform the Intelligence Community (IC) with technology insights and to deliver cutting-edge capabilities. Its technical team identified sectors of interest, followed by investment professionals engaging with companies that had promising applications for the U.S. government. Recent years had seen an expansion of IQT's activities through a growing team of in-house technologists, international expansion, "situational awareness" reports, new a new program help federally funded researchers commercialize promising solutions. In the context of rapidly changing (and increasingly intertwined) technology and geopolitical landscapes, the IQT team had several big questions to consider: What was the right scope and complexity for the organization? IQT had expanded office geographies and activities, but IQT faced increased requests from government partners - such as countering offers to U.S. technology companies from foreign acquirers. What was the appropriate portfolio risk? Success for IQT went beyond just financial returns - but IQT needed to find a tolerable balance of potential failure. Lastly, how could the organization recruit the right talent to accommodate this growth? Recruiting and retaining talent was increasingly difficult in a competitive labor market.

This case explores the accounting treatment of revenue recognition for a biopharmaceutical company in the life sciences sector, HUTCHMED (China) Limited (HCM, HKEx: 13, NASDAQ: HCM). As a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings Limited (CK Hutchison, HKEx: 1), HCM operated to discover, develop, and commercialize "targeted therapies" and "immunotherapies" for the treatment of patients with cancer and immunological diseases. Founded in 2000, HCM was initially a pioneer in discovering drugs aimed at creating novel therapies in China. Over the past fifteen years, HCM had created numerous drug candidates. These successes in discovering drugs had led to some collaborations with leading global pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly. Due to the business model of life science companies, commonly with the extensive use of license and collaborative arrangements with external parties, the accounting for revenue is particularly complex. Through the case, students will grapple with some practical questions. For instance, what were those specific traits as in HCM's business model? Upon identification of the traits, students will be asked about how each of these traits had impacted HCM's accounting policy on revenue recognition. In addition, what were the financial implications attributable to such accounting policy as adopted by HCM?

The state of Uttar Pradesh was India’s leading producer state of mentha. The state’s small and medium-sized enterprises and trade entities were involved in the processing, distillation, crystal manufacture, and export of mentha. After 2017, there had been a deep decline in mentha oil futures trading, which wiped out liquidity and led to several market participants withdrawing from the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX). The MCX had long been a market leader in commodities, supporting futures trading in precious metals and bullion, energy, and a few agricultural commodities—notably, mentha oil. The senior vice-president and head of business development and marketing at the MCX was exploring ways to promote liquidity and raise the volume and turnover of mentha oil futures trading. Having contributed to a brainstorming session with the product development team based on the findings of a 2020–21 stakeholder study of the mentha market, he now had to integrate his domain knowledge and trading expertise with the insights gleaned from the stakeholder’s report to devise a strategy for resurrecting the slumping mentha oil futures.