Nadia Chauhan took charge of Parle Agro as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Joint Managing Director (JMD) in 2009 where she had been working as a brand manager for Frooti since 2003, under the stewardship of her father, Prakash Chauhan. Under Chauhan's leadership, Parle Agro doubled its turnover to INR 50 billion between 2012 and 2017 following which, she proceeded to set an ambitious target of replicating the feat in the next five years (2022) to reach annual revenues of INR 100 billion. Within these five years, she wanted to become the dominant player in the beverage segment. The entry of major multi-national beverage companies in the Indian market presented a challenge for Parle Agro to ascend to the number one position. However, changing consumer preferences for healthy fruit drinks in different categories also provided an opportunity to experiment and expand. Reviewing the situation in 2019, Chauhan had to decide if Parle Agro should remain committed to the INR 100 billion target, upscale or mellow it down. Further, how should the company proceed - market penetration, product development, market development or diversification?

In March 2021, Nayan Parikh & Consultants (NPC) has to decide how to recover the loan that it had extended to Shrenikbhai Vimawala, Chairman and Managing Director, Shrenik Limited against a pledge of Shrenik shares. When NPC granted the loan to Vimawala a year earlier, it was to be paid back within 3 months. But, immediately after disbursing the loan, the Covid-19 pandemic caused a severe disruption of economic activities in India and Shrenik also faced financial difficulties. In view of this, NPC provided multiple extensions of time to Vimawala. But in March 2021, the pandemic had abated in India, the economy was on the recovery path, and NPC was concerned about recovering its dues. Shrenik's stock price had fallen sharply and its financial situation had deteriorated considerably.

It was March 2020 and a newly hired account executive at LinkedIn Corporation (LinkedIn) was keen to close his first major deal. His job was to help marketing teams acquire new customers and grow their businesses by leveraging the LinkedIn Ad network. He had secured a meeting with the vice-president of marketing for the video conferencing company Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (Zoom). He had just one hour to prepare for the meeting and determine the best way to position LinkedIn as a solution for Zoom to handle its growth challenges and opportunities.

In September 2019, Thomas Cook Group Plc (Thomas Cook), an iconic 178-year-old travel company based in London, United Kingdom, ceased its business after a failed negotiation to fund its huge debt of £1.7 billion (US$2.25 billion). The collapse caused about 9,000 employees in the United Kingdom to lose their jobs and made it necessary to repatriate about 150,000 holiday travellers. The company had experienced several profit warnings during the tenure of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Manny Fontenla-Novoa, who was replaced as CEO by Harriet Green, an outsider, in 2012. Between 2012 and 2014, the company’s share price rose from historic lows of about £14 to £130. However, the board unexpectedly asked Green to leave the company before completing her turnaround strategy and appointed Peter Fankhauser, an insider, as the new CEO, calling the departure a “hand-over from a turnaround specialist to a travel expert.” Despite his efforts, Fankhauser also failed to revive Thomas Cook. Who or what led to the collapse of Thomas Cook? Among the three CEOs, who should be held responsible, and on what grounds?

Ford Resource and Education Centers (FRECs) were established as a partnership between the Ford Motor Company Fund and GlobalGiving. The FREC in Bangkok, Thailand, housed eight non-governmental organizations, social enterprises, and foundations. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, just a few months after the FREC had opened in the city, FREC Bangkok and its collaborators found themselves paralyzed by the thought that all they had worked for in their Bangkok neighbourhood could be lost. With lockdowns in place, what could FREC Bangkok do to continue providing the necessary aid to community members? It might need to change the way that it served Bangkok. What would be the risks of shifting its focus? How could it mitigate those risks? How could FREC Bangkok continue to provide aid, and what would that aid look like for local residents? How could FREC address the community’s new concerns, and what would its strategy for addressing these concerns look like? Crucially, what would be the role and importance of FREC’s various stakeholders going forward?

One Pot, One Shot (OPOS) was a revolutionary cooking technique developed by B Ramakrishnan, known affectionately as Ramki, in 2015 and subsequently validated by people from various countries. In its initial two years, OPOS had remained confined to a close group of followers on Facebook. Ramki was keen to build up the OPOS business among its followers. Having established a private limited company in July 2019 to meet the legal requirements of doing business in India, Ramki set up a network with multiple revenue streams. His pressing dilemma now was to connect with the wider population and enable OPOS to have a deeper reach. He also wanted to focus on shared value creation for scaling the business and for transforming OPOS into a “for-benefit” enterprise.

HKTVmall, owned and operated by Hong Kong Technology Venture Company Limited (HKTV), is the largest online e-commerce platform in Hong Kong. Officially launched in 2015 as an "online supermarket", HKTVmall has morphed into an "online shopping mall" in just five years, serving more than 1 million consumers and almost 4,000 merchants and suppliers. The company recorded its first ever net profit in mid-2020, one year prior to the company's forecast, and became one of the few online shopping operators globally to make a profit in merely five years. Despite this success, Alice Wong, Group Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of the company, knew it was far too early to pop the champagne bottles and celebrate - as scores of dotcom businesses in the past had prospered and then subsequently gone bust, including in Hong Kong (e.g. adMart). The challenge now is how to sustain the company's momentum and even expand the business further, especially for the post-COVID 19 era. This case describes the business details of HKTV with a focus on its HKTVmall business. It traces the company's history, retail, and e-commerce environments in Hong Kong as well as the business strategies for HKTVmall. It helps students to understand, analyze, and discuss the company's key success factors, Hong Kong's retail and e-commerce competitive landscape, as well as the post-COVID 19 era for the company's development.

This technical note provides a compiled 2020 annual report for the United States of America, consolidated for the public and private sectors. It includes financial statements, accompanying notes, discussion and analysis, and a summary of risk factors. An introductory section specifies the report's overarching purpose, as well as describing the role of accounting more generally for any defined entity. This annual report is designed to enable access to objective and transparent financial information about the United States within a single document. It can serve as a bridge to a candid and complete conversation about the nation's economic and financial condition. The summary is a descriptive work, not theoretical. To increase accessibility, effort was made where possible to present and describe information in layman's terms and language.

Ford Resource and Education Centers (FRECs) were established as a partnership between the Ford Motor Company Fund and GlobalGiving. The FREC in Bangkok, Thailand, housed eight non-governmental organizations, social enterprises, and foundations. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, just a few months after the FREC had opened in the city, FREC Bangkok and its collaborators found themselves paralyzed by the thought that all they had worked for in their Bangkok neighbourhood could be lost. With lockdowns in place, what could FREC Bangkok do to continue providing the necessary aid to community members? It might need to change the way that it served Bangkok. What would be the risks of shifting its focus? How could it mitigate those risks? How could FREC Bangkok continue to provide aid, and what would that aid look like for local residents? How could FREC address the community's new concerns, and what would its strategy for addressing these concerns look like? Crucially, what would be the role and importance of FREC's various stakeholders going forward?

One Pot, One Shot (OPOS) was a revolutionary cooking technique developed by B Ramakrishnan, known affectionately as Ramki, in 2015 and subsequently validated by people from various countries. In its initial two years, OPOS had remained confined to a close group of followers on Facebook. Ramki was keen to build up the OPOS business among its followers. Having established a private limited company in July 2019 to meet the legal requirements of doing business in India, Ramki set up a network with multiple revenue streams. His pressing dilemma now was to connect with the wider population and enable OPOS to have a deeper reach. He also wanted to focus on shared value creation for scaling the business and for transforming OPOS into a "for-benefit" enterprise.

It was March 2020 and a newly hired account executive at LinkedIn Corporation (LinkedIn) was keen to close his first major deal. His job was to help marketing teams acquire new customers and grow their businesses by leveraging the LinkedIn Ad network. He had secured a meeting with the vice-president of marketing for the video conferencing company Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (Zoom). He had just one hour to prepare for the meeting and determine the best way to position LinkedIn as a solution for Zoom to handle its growth challenges and opportunities.

In September 2019, Thomas Cook Group Plc (Thomas Cook), an iconic 178-year-old travel company based in London, United Kingdom, ceased its business after a failed negotiation to fund its huge debt of £1.7 billion (US$2.25 billion). The collapse caused about 9,000 employees in the United Kingdom to lose their jobs and made it necessary to repatriate about 150,000 holiday travellers. The company had experienced several profit warnings during the tenure of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Manny Fontenla-Novoa, who was replaced as CEO by Harriet Green, an outsider, in 2012. Between 2012 and 2014, the company's share price rose from historic lows of about £14 to £130. However, the board unexpectedly asked Green to leave the company before completing her turnaround strategy and appointed Peter Fankhauser, an insider, as the new CEO, calling the departure a "hand-over from a turnaround specialist to a travel expert." Despite his efforts, Fankhauser also failed to revive Thomas Cook. Who or what led to the collapse of Thomas Cook? Among the three CEOs, who should be held responsible, and on what grounds?

This case provides students with the statement of cash flows from three diverse companies: Etsy, Inc., Akorn, Inc., and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (named in case as Alpha Inc., Beta Corporation, and Gamma Enterprises, respectively). Each company represents a different industry and stage in the life cycle and provides unique learning opportunities. The lack of any background (or identifying) information provides the instructor with several teaching opportunities.

This case introduces students to an interesting and fun example of a proxy statement issued by World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE). WWE is effectively run by the McMahon family, which provides opportunities for students to recognize conflicts of interest in related party transactions between WWE and family members, as well as how the dual class share structure can facilitate these transactions. Further, executive compensation is driven by accounting measures, allowing students to recognize the incentives managers face and the governance structures of firms that may impair a manager's flexibility in making self-interested financial reporting decisions. The class can also provide an opportunity to cover accounting for stock compensation.

The liner shipping industry transported the bulk of the world’s cross-country semi-finished and manufactured goods and was fundamental to global trade, economic growth, and prosperity. Despite its importance, the industry suffered from poor profitability. Common explanations were that shipping rates were too low and industry capacity too large. The COVID-19 pandemic also negatively affected the industry, followed by a quick recovery in the second half of 2020 that led to increased cargo volumes, and in 2021, the highest rates in almost two decades. Amid growing optimism, the question was whether the industry was on a long-term path to sustained profitability.

Located in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Cooperation Zone in Shenzhen, China, Vanke Port Apartment (Vanke Port) was the leader among China's centralized long-term apartment rental enterprises. Recently, the company had improved its cost and operational efficiency and recorded stellar performance. A key partner in Vanke Group recalled the struggles Vanke Port had encountered on its way to achieving this performance. In 2019, Vanke Port had been battling to survive, and shortly after, the business was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Vanke Port capitalized on digital technologies and carried out major organizational changes. As the company made it through the crisis and even started to thrive, the partner needed to present the lessons learned and recommend next steps to the board of directors.

Michele Buck became the first woman president and chief executive officer of the Hershey Company (Hershey) in 2017 and was elected as chair of the board in 2019. Now, in 2021, she was leading a company that was facing supply chain and legal challenges. Although Hershey was dedicated to bringing “goodness to the world,” the company was accused of having broken its 2001 pledge to uproot child labour from its cocoa supply chain. Global pressure for greater supply chain transparency and compliance with human rights increased throughout 2020, and in 2021, Hershey became a defendant in a US federal class-action lawsuit alleging harms caused by child labour. With an annual shareholders’ meeting pending on May 17, 2021, Buck had to decide how to mitigate the risks and deal with potential fines of up to US$500 million.

This case provides a three-pronged opportunity to explore a process for establishing an initial talent development plan for a growing and successful company desirous of investing in its existing managers and other potential management personnel. Students are presented with a generalized talent development framework, along with some company-specific facts and then are asked to flesh out pertinent parts of that framework in ways they see as purposeful and pertinent.

Michele Buck became the first woman president and chief executive officer of the Hershey Company (Hershey) in 2017 and was elected as chair of the board in 2019. Now, in 2021, she was leading a company that was facing supply chain and legal challenges. Although Hershey was dedicated to bringing "goodness to the world," the company was accused of having broken its 2001 pledge to uproot child labour from its cocoa supply chain. Global pressure for greater supply chain transparency and compliance with human rights increased throughout 2020, and in 2021, Hershey became a defendant in a US federal class-action lawsuit alleging harms caused by child labour. With an annual shareholders' meeting pending on May 17, 2021, Buck had to decide how to mitigate the risks and deal with potential fines of up to US$500 million.

The dematerialization and servitization of products being brought about by the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is making it imperative for platform businesses to look at consumers and suppliers from a lifetime value perspective. This technical note compares two fundamental strategic marketing perspectives: the push strategy and the pull strategy, using simple systems-dynamics and agent-based models. The models, developed using Vensim and NetLogo software, illustrate the efficacies of push and pull marketing strategies at the individual customer level. Specifically, they demonstrate the possibilities of market failure due to excessive pushing and consumer community formation.