Maestro pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of international pizza giants who had been operating in the country for nearly two decades. That was when Maestro found itself locked into a costly, seemingly relentless, multi-year marketing and pricing war with the market leader at the time; Domino's pizza. This series of cases (from A to H) chronicles Maestro's journey from inception up to 2020 and the various challenges it faced. This multi-part case study provides students with the opportunity to reflect at key inflection points for Al Omran and his team as a result of the competition with Domino's and changing market conditions.

Maestro pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of international pizza giants who had been operating in the country for nearly two decades. That was when Maestro found itself locked into a costly, seemingly relentless, multi-year marketing and pricing war with the market leader at the time; Domino's pizza. This series of cases (from A to H) chronicles Maestro's journey from inception up to 2020 and the various challenges it faced. This multi-part case study provides students with the opportunity to reflect at key inflection points for Al Omran and his team as a result of the competition with Domino's and changing market conditions.

Maestro pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of international pizza giants who had been operating in the country for nearly two decades. That was when Maestro found itself locked into a costly, seemingly relentless, multi-year marketing and pricing war with the market leader at the time; Domino's pizza. This series of cases (from A to H) chronicles Maestro's journey from inception up to 2020 and the various challenges it faced. This multi-part case study provides students with the opportunity to reflect at key inflection points for Al Omran and his team as a result of the competition with Domino's and changing market conditions.

Maestro pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of international pizza giants who had been operating in the country for nearly two decades. That was when Maestro found itself locked into a costly, seemingly relentless, multi-year marketing and pricing war with the market leader at the time; Domino's pizza. This series of cases (from A to H) chronicles Maestro's journey from inception up to 2020 and the various challenges it faced. This multi-part case study provides students with the opportunity to reflect at key inflection points for Al Omran and his team as a result of the competition with Domino's and changing market conditions.

Razorpay, a payments solution providing company in India, has recently achieved Unicorn status. They had entered the payments industry with the goal of democratising digital payments. However, they diversified their services and started offering capital support and neo-banking services to their customers. Demonetization had accelerated digital payments adoption in India and COVID-19 gave a fresh boost to the digital payments. With this, Razorpay's revenue had grown 3X in Financial Year (FY) 21 and were expected to increase by 2X in FY 22. They were evaluating their approach as they were planning to expand into other markets. The case revolves around the salesforce management and product development processes followed by Razorpay. The crux of the case is how a payments company diversifies its business and changes its organisational structure and processes as it evolves, and how they can keep growing going forward.

The Morales couple, Carlos and María, and Andrés Córdoba, shareholders of the twenty-year old Colombian mining company Carbostar, wanted to step down from the day-to-day management of the company in March 2018. To do so, they considered three options: selling the entire Company to Carbones de Panamá; partnering with Carbones Julius, which was willing to buy 45% of the shares as long as the founders participated in an aggressive expansion plan by increasing debt; or selling 60% of the shares to Maklan, a coal producer and supplier of heavy machinery in the industry, which could accept a generous dividend policy given its financial muscle. As the majority shareholder (with 75% of the shares), Carlos Morales was not convinced about allowing third parties to manage the company he had founded. He secretly longed for one of his children to take over the company in the future. His wife María (Andrés' sister) held 12.5% of the shares. Her interests lay in receiving an income from the business and she had no preconceived ideas on whether it was convenient to open up to third parties. Andrés Córdoba held the remai ning 12.5% of the shares. He was interested in creating a family office with the resources from the total or partial sale of Carbostar. As the financial expert of the group, he was responsible for advising his partners on their course of action. Andrés' challenge, which will be the task for students, is to find the option that best balances the disparate interests of his partners.

Spreadsheet supplement for "Carbostar: To sell or not to sell? That is the question".

Mary Gadams, founder and CEO of RacingThePlanet, has managed to stage sporting events in some of the world's most inhospitable locations for the last 20 years. New challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, have arisen. How can this small company navigate the global racing market, international regulations, COVID responses, and more?

On July 1, 2020, the co-head of the logistics and planning department at Marico Ltd., based in India, was reviewing reports on various issues related to stock inventory and warehousing. After studying the reports, he found that both lost opportunity and warehousing costs for the company were high. Compounding the problem was the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which had added pressure to the company’s impending cost pressures. Initially, Marico Ltd. had thirty-three warehouses. However, after the Government of India introduced the Goods and Service Tax in 2017, various state taxes across the country were eliminated. The new law revolutionized the logistics industry and allowed Marico Ltd. to reduce the number of its warehouses to twenty-five. Could the company further reduce the number of warehouses without adversely impacting service levels?

Throughout 2021, excitement about the metaverse as the next generation of the internet experience had been building steadily. The buzz reached a fever pitch in October 2021, when the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced that the company was changing its name to Meta and that it would spend $10 billion to build "the metaverse." Nike had been exploring opportunities in this new virtual environment with several experimental probes, including its purchase of a virtual sneaker company called RTFKT, partnerships with game platforms Roblox and Fortnite, the creation of blockchain-based digital sneakers called CryptoKicks, and moves to protect its brands and logos by filing for trademarks for its virtual sneakers and logos. In its early metaverse initiatives, Nike had employed a "probe and learn" strategy to evaluate the metaverse as a new channel for customer engagement and to create new digital revenue streams. However, it was now time for Nike to define a cohesive metaverse strategy that would help drive its business goals. To do this, Nike's digital team needed to understand how each of the metaverse initiatives would help Nike to grow revenue, build brands, and promote its thought-leadership position as an innovator. The team then needed to prioritize these initiatives by assessing their risks, rewards, and reversibility. Finally, it needed to define a roadmap to scale and enhance each initiative. In charting its course in the metaverse, Nike also needed to consider whether the timing was right to place big bets on metaverse platforms and assets, given the high level of uncertainty about the evolution of this emerging space.

Google Cloud Platform offers BigQuery ML, a popular cloud computing resource for developing data models. This note provides information about creating, evaluating, and deploying data models with BigQuery ML.

On July 1, 2020, the co-head of the logistics and planning department at Marico Ltd., based in India, was reviewing reports on various issues related to stock inventory and warehousing. After studying the reports, he found that both lost opportunity and warehousing costs for the company were high. Compounding the problem was the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which had added pressure to the company's impending cost pressures. Initially, Marico Ltd. had thirty-three warehouses. However, after the Government of India introduced the Goods and Service Tax in 2017, various state taxes across the country were eliminated. The new law revolutionized the logistics industry and allowed Marico Ltd. to reduce the number of its warehouses to twenty-five. Could the company further reduce the number of warehouses without adversely impacting service levels?

A year of political turmoil, capped by the violent insurrection at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, presented new challenges to many corporations, including AT&T. The telecommunications giant's efforts to influence legislation and government administrators on topics from net neutrality to potential mergers had always been political, but expansion of the company's political activism to encompass subjects outside of telecommunications in recent years had brought additional scrutiny from customers, legislators, and, increasingly, employees. Corporate statements in support of social justice based on race, gender, and sexuality had raised questions about the company's political donations to candidates expressing policy preferences running counter to these values. The violent protests at the Capitol, which threatened the peaceful transition of power between presidential administrations, brought AT&T's political activity under fire once again. AT&T had strong lobbying relationships with many members of Congress that had objected to the election results and had even made political action committee (PAC) contributions to 98 of their campaigns. As the vote tallies and political donations came to light the next day, the company needed a plan to navigate the tense situation. Fictional protagonist Iyanna MacGregor, the top aide for AT&T's executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, was responsible for drafting AT&T's public statement and strategic political positions for the new Congress, set to take office in conjunction with the new presidential administration a few weeks after the insurrection events on January 6. It was essential for MacGregor's strategy to address whether and to what extent AT&T would continue to interact with various governmental actors, particularly the members of Congress who had attempted to undermine the democratic process.

Supplement to case 222012.

This case explores the reasons why Wirecard AG (Wirecard, FRA: WDI) could have concealed its fraudulent accounting practices for more than a decade. As a German payment processor and financial services provider founded in 1999, Wirecard became listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2017 and one year after that, became a constituent stock of the DAX index. From 2017 when Wirecard was listed, the stock price rose from around EUR50 to almost EUR200 during its peak in 2018 with a market capitalization of more than EUR24bn. Despite its size and reputation, Wirecard was first alleged by whistleblowers about its fraudulent practices in early 2018. In-house legal team and news media started to uncover more and more truths later on. It was revealed that Wirecard had not properly obtained licenses for most of its overseas operations. For instance, the business addresses were faked, so as the cash at banks, revenues as well as profits. Not until KPMG issued a special audit report in April 2020 did the regulatory authorities take investigative actions. During June 2020, Wirecard's stock price fell to below EUR2, and below EUR1 two months later. The case seeks to highlight the accountability of different parties to the corporate governance failure, namely the management, board of directors/supervisors and audit committee, external auditors, and regulators. Through the case, students will grapple with the practical questions of how to understand and evaluate the effectiveness of corporate governance of a large-scale organization in multi-national setting.

As COVID-19 swept across the globe in 2020, the education sector faced unprecedented disruption. Schools and colleges worldwide shut down, forcing over a billion students and teachers to move to online learning. Investor interest in the EdTech space exploded as technology-based education solutions shifted from a "nice-to-have" to a "must-have." As one of the leading EdTech venture capital firms, GSV Ventures, which had backed industry leaders such as Coursera, ClassDojo, Guild Education, Remind, and Course Hero, was positioned to be at the forefront of the changes happening to education across the world. In light of the pandemic, GSV had to postpone and reenvision its hallmark ASU+GSV Summit - a partnership with Arizona State University and GSV that showcased the latest innovations and innovators across the global "pre-K to gray" EdTech space - that had been scheduled for March 30 to April 1. However, on the positive side, GSV Ventures was facing a surge in investor interest in its Fund II which had begun fundraising in 2019. The original target had been to raise $100 million, but there was recent discussion of increasing Fund II to $200 to $250 million. Quazzo needed to decide whether it made sense to expand the fund, and if so, what changes would need to be made internally and strategically to support a larger fund. At a higher level, Quazzo wondered whether the momentum gained in EdTech during the first few months of COVID-19 was sustainable. Would the global focus on remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic trigger systemic changes? Could this be a unique opportunity to address the massive challenges associated with inequality of access, opportunity, and outcomes?

Digital platforms have disrupted many sectors but have not yet visibly transformed highly regulated industries. This study of Big Tech entry in healthcare and education explores how platforms have begun to enter highly regulated industries systematically and effectively. It presents a four-stage process model of platform entry, which we term as "digital colonization." This involves provision of data infrastructure services to regulated incumbents; data capture in the highly regulated industry; provision of data-driven insights; and design and commercialization of new products and services. The article clarifies platforms' sources of competitive advantage in highly regulated industries and concludes with managerial and policy recommendations.

This case is about the transformation of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan (AAUM), one of the major organizations in its field. It begins with the CEO, Steve Grafton, pondering whether the all-inclusive project was totally successful. AAUM's transformation began in early 2015, when the organization was doing very well by then-current standards, yet the world was rapidly changing from a digital and social standpoint. The case summarily proceeds through specifics of the transformation on into 2021, including the period in which U.S. racial and social divides were sharpened by the death of George Floyd. The primary dilemma for students to address: Is the organization now fully relevant and is the transformation complete? The case-which is entirely factual, based on original research-applies to the needs and success opportunities of a great range of organizations, nonprofit and for-profit, because it presents dilemmas about relevant organizational transformation.

This case 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. Anni Anderson is the founder and CEO of Selah, a software and application company that aims to support users with everyday communication. Selah is a relatively young start-up that saw explosive customer-acquisition growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much to Anderson's disappointment, Selah experiences a ransomware attack on the eve of closing its largest-ever round of funding from venture capitalists. As Anderson surveys her executive team in an emergency meeting, it becomes clear that the ransomware attack jeopardizes Selah's standing not only among users but also among investors. Additionally, Anderson must communicate with Selah's staff and board of directors, not to mention regulators, industry partners, and the media. In the A case, Anderson's challenge is to organize and communicate her company's response vis-à-vis the cyberattack. In the B case, we read a synopsis of effective responses that have actually been deployed in such situations. This case set addresses cybersecurity through the lens of one manager's experience, paying particular attention to how she communicates with a broad array of stakeholders about the incident and company response. The case serves the educational interests of those aiming to train managers in areas such as crisis communication, risk management, and voicing values in matters of organizational decision-making.

This case 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. Anni Anderson is the founder and CEO of Selah, a software and application company that aims to support users with everyday communication. Selah is a relatively young start-up that saw explosive customer-acquisition growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much to Anderson's disappointment, Selah experiences a ransomware attack on the eve of closing its largest-ever round of funding from venture capitalists. As Anderson surveys her executive team in an emergency meeting, it becomes clear that the ransomware attack jeopardizes Selah's standing not only among users but also among investors. Additionally, Anderson must communicate with Selah's staff and board of directors, not to mention regulators, industry partners, and the media. In the A case, Anderson's challenge is to organize and communicate her company's response vis-à-vis the cyberattack. In the B case, we read a synopsis of effective responses that have actually been deployed in such situations. This case set addresses cybersecurity through the lens of one manager's experience, paying particular attention to how she communicates with a broad array of stakeholders about the incident and company response. The case serves the educational interests of those aiming to train managers in areas such as crisis communication, risk management, and voicing values in matters of organizational decision-making.