In August of 2018, Tania Tetlow is inaugurated as President of Loyola University New Orleans, in the midst of turmoil. Prior to her start, the university was given a final warning to land a balanced budget by year's end by its accreditors or risk facing probation. It is now up to Tetlow to see through a transformation already wracked with turmoil, with an eye toward necessary cost-cutting and future growth. How should she steady the ship financially; build trust with the administration, Board, faculty and staff, and student body; manage a group of consultants brought in by her predecessors; and communicate to these groups about the potential reality on the horizon? More fundamentally, how will she see Loyola through the risk of probation just months into her tenure?

This case traces the rise of John F. Kennedy from a wealthy family in Boston to president of the United States. The case describes how Kennedy, as a young man, lived a privileged life in the shadow of his older brother, Joe. When Joe was killed in World War II, Jack was thrust into politics, first running for a seat in the House of Representatives then as a senator for Massachusetts. As the youngest U.S. president in history, the case chronicles his rise to power, the changes he instituted as president, and his role in defusing the Cuban missile crisis. The case ends with JFK's legacy after he was assassinated at age 46.

In 2021, public accelerator program Start-Up Chile, which ten years earlier had created a global buzz, might be losing its competitive edge to similar programs or one-year visas for digital nomads offered by other countries. The case follows SUP's CEO, Angeles Romo, as she considers how Chile could remain appealing to world-class entrepreneurs in a post-pandemic world and how to ensure SUP's impact on Chile's economy.

Megan Murday, the founder of Metric, an environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) analytics startup, must decide which customer segment to target as a beachhead market. She received positive feedback from a Swiss venture capital (VC) firm, indicating their immediate interest in using Metric's software. However, Murday also considered private equity (PE) firms, impact investors, and startups as potential beachhead markets. PE firms had a large market size and a high willingness to pay, while impact investors were already aligned with Metric's mission. Startups were socially conscious and forgiving of early-stage challenges. This case provides background on the burgeoning ESG sector and the various standards and metrics being proposed to standardize reporting.

By July 2016, the Aldrich Capital Partners team had spent over two years trying to raise their inaugural growth-equity fund. They had pitched to over 140 investors, but none had committed. Managing Partners Mirza Baig and Raz Zia each had extensive experience in the growth-equity space, but they did not have an investment track record together. Investors seemed hesitant to commit to a "blind pool" of capital with a new team. Now, the partners were contemplating an investment in a company code-named "Hollywood." The deal had several risks and was not a perfect fit with their investment thesis, but the partners wondered if this deal could prove their abilities and strategy to investors. Should Aldrich invest in Hollywood?

The case opens in September 2021 as Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, co-founders of Bazaar technologies (Bazaar), the Pakistani high growth B2B e-commerce marketplace, are contemplating whether the year-and-a half old startup should also venture into offering financing to its customers, the thousands of mom-and-pop stores around Pakistan. Since its founding in mid 2020, the company has been growing its core business full throttle and also launched a digital ledger app to help with customer acquisition. Meanwhile, the co-founders are growing the team and geographically expanding Bazaar's operations beyond Karachi. Jawaid and Jangda need to weigh the pros and cons of branching out to financing and decide, with so much going on, whether this is the right time for such a move. The case provides a background on Pakistan, its retail and e-commerce space to then talk about Bazaar's founding story and its founders' ambitious mission to create a generational story in and for Pakistan. The case then talks about the company's pillars: technology, warehousing and logistics, and culture in detail and provides details on its day-to-day operations. Next, the case chronicles the company's growth both product -wise and geographically. Bazaar is trying to take a stake and solidify its place in the booming $170 billion retail market in the world's fifth-most populous nation which is yet to see much deployment of technology, and is in hypergrowth mode with a number of competing priorities. The co-founders need to decide if venturing into financing now is a good idea and whether it would take away from the company's sharp focus on the B2B business and its culture that the co-founders so passionately built. The decision is made more complicated, because the company has the funds to deploy and many think that financing will also fuel the growth of the core business.

The case opens in January 2022 as Hamza Jawaid and Saad Jangda, co-founders of Bazaar technologies (Bazaar), the Pakistani high growth B2B e-commerce marketplace, are looking over the performance of the newly launched "buy now, play later" feature. The traction looks promising and seems to deliver more share of wallet per customer, so the co-founders are trying to envisage how big this business could get and whether it would overtake Bazaar's core business. The case provides a background on the launch of the delayed payment feature-it seems low risk and additive to the core business and is financed by the capital previously raised. The competitive environment is bound to heat up and the co-founders need to decide how best to sustainably grow this new business while also expanding the B2B business across 15 cities in the next six months.

In early December 2014, the senior team of Pudong Science and Technology Investment (hereafter, Pudong S&T) gathered in the offices of their chairman, Dr. Xudong Zhu. Before competing its cross-border acquisition of Montage Technology, Pudong S&T-wholly owned by the Chinese state-had to reduce the government's risks in this investment. To Zhu, the best option seemed to be mixed ownership: that is, involving private shareholders in the business. But was he right? And even if he was, how should it be done?

This note surveys the international governance of global business from the nineteenth century until the present day, emphasizing and explaining its fragmented nature. In the nineteenth century a core principle of international law was that the property of foreigners could not be taken without full compensation. The expropriation of foreign direct investment by the Soviet Union in 1917, shattered existing international property law, and there was no consensus on a replacement. After World War II an International Trade Organization was envisaged alongside the IMF and the World Bank as the third leg of the Bretton Woods agreement, but the U.S. Congress refused to ratify the ITO Treaty. Various attempts by the United Nations and other bodies to create codes of conduct for multinationals failed due to divergent beliefs and policies between the West and developing countries. After 1979 there was a general relaxation of national controls over multinationals, while international agencies such as the World Bank and the IMF experienced a loss of legitimacy. The note goes on to discuss multilateral and bilateral investment treaties, the impact of the global financial crisis on tightening financial regulations, international governance on the natural environment and human rights, and the impact of digitalization on global regulation.

Most managers in an international business are likely to be involved with international joint ventures (IJVs) during their career. IJVs have a greater chance of success if the businesses involved have good advisers on their teams. However, it can be a challenge to know what advisers to hire and how best to utilize their expertise. Drawing on their extensive career experience, the authors recommend best practices for hiring and working with international joint venture advisers based on three perspectives: legal, business, and academic. The possible roles of advisers, value versus cost of advisers, and what to look for and avoid when hiring advisers are outlined and framed within specific business examples.

In March 2020, Evolko Systems Private Limited encountered several strategic and operational effects resulting from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The private health care technology company, which was based in California, United States, used artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide products and services to India's health care market. The company's chief executive officer had to mitigate risk from the pandemic using his company's business model and value offerings. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a lockdown order effective across all of India to slow the progress of the virus, affected some of the company's key business elements and had a macroeconomic impact on its operations. The chief executive officer's challenge was to explore all options to continue the business operations and to determine how to transform its physically interactive business model to one with little or no physical contact with clients.

This case, a follow-up to "Food Supply and COVID-19: Breaking the Chain (B)" (UVA-OM-1691), looks at how the global food supply chain was faring almost 18 months after John Tyson wrote that America's "food supply chain is breaking." It explores the rising prices, global shipping issues, food-industry hiring problems, and political turmoil that the coronavirus pandemic continued to leave in its wake in late 2021 and beyond.

Research into how some industrial companies have succeeded at digital transformation shows that those taking a steady, gradual approach may have the best results and the lessons learned apply across other sectors as well. The authors discuss the circumstances in which company leaders might be best served by taking a more incremental approach to digital business, and when they might choose to pursue a more revolutionary change.

The case is based on WeLab Bank (WLB), a virtual bank in Hong Kong, and can be assumed to be set at the time of its writing in mid-2021. WLB has launched its operations in Hong Kong and introduced its initial retail banking products, with additional products to be launched soon or in the pipeline. As one of eight virtual banks in Hong Kong, a market with a very mature banking sector and extensive financial service offerings, WLB is focused on democratizing financial services in Hong Kong. For many people in Hong Kong, managing their personal finances can be a daunting task. In addition to managing their daily expenses, it can be a challenge to sort through various savings and investment products and identify the ones that can best help them reach their long-term financial goals. Hong Kong also has the most expensive property market in the world, so making a wise property investment, either as a primary residence or as a rental property also requires considerable due diligence. Yet many Hong Kong people feel they do not have access to sufficient financial advice to be able to make informed decisions, whether investing in property, selecting savings or investment products or managing their daily finances. For high net-worth individuals in Hong Kong, however, the situation is different as large deposit holdings at a local bank, for example, provides one with access to professional financial advice. Recognizing this discrepancy in financial services locally, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the defacto central bank in Hong Kong, was hopeful that the virtual banks could leverage their technology resources to provide Hong Kong people of all income brackets with improved access to financial tools to more effectively manage their personal finances. For Ms. Janice Chung, WeLab Bank's Manager for Growth Operations and Strategy, the key challenge was identifying the products and services delivered via digital channels that would best meet the needs of Hong Kong

Moksha Data, a boutique consulting firm specializing in public sector work, started in January 2017 with a handshake between friends and a shared commitment to the principles of egalitarianism, ownership, and collaboration. The Houston-based firm had built momentum since its inception, despite the obstacles posed by the pandemic. By October 2021, it had become a go-to consulting firm for non-profits and local government agencies in and around Houston. Yet, Moksha managing partner Neeraj Tandon was acutely aware that the firm faced internal and external challenges. How it responded to those challenges would determine whether the firm would sustain its momentum and what kind of a firm it would grow into.

In 2019, a decade after co-founding Nexleaf Analytics, CEO Nithya Ramanathan faced an important decision that would impact the ability of the small, but growing, not-for-profit organization to thrive for another decade. Their sensor technologies and big data analytics helped protect the planet and preserve human life by reducing pollution via smarter cookstoves and enhancing the vaccine storage process to help ensure millions of individuals across the developing world received effective vaccines. They had recently decided to relentlessly focus on these two core areas in which they faced growing competition from for-profit companies (especially in the vaccine domain), but an opportunity had arisen to expand into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) space. Although there were some similarities with their existing technology, it would be a large undertaking for the resource-constrained organization. Should they stay focused on growing their vaccine refrigeration efforts to new countries, partner with fridge manufacturers to vertically integrate their offerings, or jump head first into the NICU field which had numerous existing players (none of whom offered what Nexleaf could). Further, as a not-for-profit, should they open source their core intellectual property in the vaccine space in an attempt to become a keystone player for the entire ecosystem, increasing their ability to achieve their mission?

The case follows Ashraf Abu Issa, CEO and chairman of Abu Issa Holding (AIH), as he contemplated the fate of his company's regional expansion. AIH was a Qatari diversified holding company, whose primary business was luxury retailing and distribution. Abu Issa had set his company on a path of aggressive regional expansion since 2012, rapidly opening new stores in neighboring countries, most notably Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In July 2017, he woke up to the news that Saudi Arabia along with the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt had imposed a blockade on Qatar, cutting diplomatic relations with the country as well as closing all movements of people, goods and money between their countries and Qatar. A year into the blockade the situation was rapidly deteriorating, Abu Issa was at a crossroads: Should he wait for the blockade to end? Or was now the right time to exit and focus on the Qatari market at home? If he chose to exit, could he find a new investor to buy the business at a discount? Or should he close his shops and move as much as their inventory and staff as possible to Qatar? If he chose to exit, what would be the best way to do so?

Work that permits autonomy and problem-solving can bolster employees' cognitive skills and learning over time. While both fluid cognitive abilities and crystallized knowledge typically plateau or begin to decline with age, the authors' research finds that well-designed work can counter that effect. The authors discuss how organizations and managers can use good work design to strengthen their workforce's ability to adapt to new processes, tools, and roles.