In February 2019, the associate product owner of the Branch Rapid Labs at the Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) was asked to provide his knowledge and expertise to develop the final iteration of a new customer onboarding process. The new model developed for Scotiabank, one of Canada's Big Six banks, was named Project Fusion. Working closely with cross-functional teams, the associate product manager was advising his product team on how to best proceed after the completion of the final round of user testing trials. With all user trials on the latest prototype completed, he had a significant amount of feedback to analyze and results to implement in the project.

The Case describes how Penny Wise, the newly appointed managing director of 3M Canada, drew on her personal leadership style, experience and character to keep the Canadian organization strategically relevant through a significant restructuring and the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2020, the chief innovation and strategy officer (CISO) of Amsterdam-based Koninklijke Philips NV (Philips), a global leader in health technology, was surveying the distance that Philips had traversed in its transition from products to platforms. The CISO faced three managerial dilemmas: How could he transform the long-standing functional orientation at Philips into a multidisciplinary alignment? How could he ensure that Philips's customer-facing teams moved from a transactional mode to a relational mode? And how could he motivate employees to deal with a burning platform when they did not see one?

In only his third year at McKinsey, Gregory Davis has been assigned to a select group tasked with advising General Motors (GM), one of the largest companies in the world by revenue, on how to reorganize their entire North American operation. As part of the Sales & Marketing team, Davis has been paired with Claude "Bud" Moore, Buick's assistant zone manager for Chicago. A humble, unassuming man with little corporate experience, as well as the least senior of the GM team liaisons, Moore was generally considered the weakest link within the reorganization engagement. As a result, the Partner leading Davis' team has instructed him to "work around" Moore and dedicate his time to other issues. One day, however, Moore approaches Davis about a presentation he must give to GM's president and senior corporate management team in just ten days' time, a presentation for which he is woefully unprepared. Davis must decide between helping Moore-explicitly ignoring instructions from senior members of his firm-and perhaps knowingly letting Moore, his client, fail.

In March 2021, online education platform edX considers how to achieve financial sustainability without compromising its mission to provide universal access to high-quality education.

This case outlines the rise of Spire Global, a young space company using CubeSats to provide weather data and weather prediction services. In addition to tracing the evolution of a space startup from novel idea to publicly-traded company, the case also examines the broader questions posed by the success of Spire and similar space companies: what are the potential costs and benefits to the privatization of remote sensing satellites? What new possibilities are enabled for both governments and private entities by private remote sensing companies? How does the incipience of companies like Spire challenge the established weather data regime? What's the significance of highly-popular special purpose acquisition companies?

There is an important constraint that can be used to regulate mobility in competitive labor markets - the existence of a deeply felt rivalry between employers. Rivalry denotes a stable antagonistic relationship between companies, as exemplified by Apple and IBM in the 1980s. Analyzing data from the Palio di Siena (an ancient horse race in Siena, Italy), this article shows that direct moves between rivals are rare, accounting for less than 2% of all career moves in this context between 1743 and 2011. Rivalry constrains not only direct but also indirect moves to the ally of a rival or the rival of an ally. This article presents a framework describing how managers can harness rivalry: mapping rivalry, managing rivalry to capitalize on its positive aspects, and leveraging rivalry to adjust the level of competitive intensity.

The general manager of Lidu Liquor Co. Ltd. (Lidu) was considering the next phase of the company's marketing plan. From 2016 to 2018, unit sales had risen from ¥80 million to ¥300 million, largely due to Lidu's unconventional marketing programs. But by mid-2019, national and domestic brands had noticed Lidu's success. With competition increasing, Lidu's future growth might not come as easily. The general manager wondered how best to modify the company's immersive experiential marketing plan so that Lidu could stay ahead of the competition.

At the very end of 2019, Jay Prakash Pal, divisional electrical engineer (Traction Distribution) for the Sealdah division of Eastern Railway in India, was asked to prepare a consolidated report for revising the contract demand with power distribution companies. Over the last six months, demand charge penalties had been imposed on multiple occasions for two power stations under his jurisdiction (Barasat traction sub-station and Sonarpur feeding post), as the monthly maximum demand had crossed the existing contract demand for these stations. He would have to provide a revised contract demand value to minimize the annual expenditure due to a demand charge penalty for the next year. While proposing the new contract demand, he would also have to ensure that the cost arising from the unutilized portion of the minimum guaranteed demand would be minimal.

Student Spreadsheet for Exercise W25028

This case follows Maxine Waters, chairwoman for the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, as she faces the stock market phenomenon in early 2021 surrounding GameStop. The morning of February 17, 2021, Waters was leading a hearing on allegations of manipulation in the market for GameStop stock. A few weeks prior, the company's stock surged from around $40 a share to nearly $400 over the span of a few days. Then, on January 28, the stock plunged from nearly $500 to $120 in under 90 minutes. Given the importance of her role as chair of the Financial Services Committee, Waters wanted to carefully consider the trade-offs and potential unintended consequences of any new regulations. Financial oversight required a broad understanding of the social value of financial markets. With that understanding in hand, one could better assess the social implications of any new regulations.

In early December 2020, the sales controller for Star Medical Equipment, Brazil, was working on the sales forecast for 2021. Sales in 2020 had been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but ultimately recovered, and the company had ended the year with about 7 per cent growth over 2019. Predicting the market demand for 2021 was uncertain, as the pandemic was not over and newer strains of the virus were afflicting different parts of the world, again and again. What was certain was that freight costs and transfer prices would increase significantly in 2021. If the sales controller attempted significant sales growth, the organization's gains could be high; its success was uncertain, while a reduction in profitability was certain. He had to decide whether he should play it safe and follow global business guidelines to increase profitability or gamble with ambitious sales and market share growth plans for 2021.

The case series presents the governance and leadership challenges and opportunities the Royal Dutch Rowing Federation (Koninklijke Nederlandse Roei Bond, or KNRB for short), which is a not-for-profit top sports federation. The series presents eight years of the KNRB's history starting with the aftermath of the Bejing 2008 Olympics, then reviews the preparation to the London 2012 Olympics and concludes with the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics. The much improved results obtained by the rowers in Rio confirm that, by that time, the KNRB was back to effective functioning and great performance. A detailed account of how an organizational turnaround is led by the board, let alone by the board of a major sports federation, is rare. Given the problems faced by major sports federations over the last decades the case shows that these problems indeed have their roots in governance failure.

The case series presents the governance and leadership challenges and opportunities the Royal Dutch Rowing Federation (Koninklijke Nederlandse Roei Bond, or KNRB for short). The KNRB is a not-for-profit top sports federation. A series of astonishing scandals have afflicted top sports federations over the last number of years (International Cycling Federation, Russian Ministry of Sports and the FIFA scandal which led to Sepp Blatter's infamous demise). The case series illustrates the role played by poor governance in allowing and being ultimately responsible for such scandals, good governance considerably reducing the probability of their occurrences. The series presents eight years of the KNRB's history starting with the aftermath of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, then reviewing the preparation to the London 2012 Olympics and concludes with the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics. The much improved results obtained by the rowers in Rio confirm that, by that time, the KNRB is back to effective functioning and great performance.

In November 2020, after the world's largest online shopping festival, also known as Singles' Day or "11.11 Global Shopping Festival" in China ended on a high note, the express delivery industry was again confronted with issues of burgeoning packaging waste and increasing carbon footprint from parcel deliveries. Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, a logistics arm of Alibaba Group, the largest e-commerce company in China, had been mitigating the impact caused by rapid e-commerce and logistic development. An e-commerce logistics platform, Cainiao led the industry to embark on nationwide green campaigns and launched digitalisation initiatives, including the introduction of e-shipping labels, smart packing, sorting, and parcel routing algorithms. On a broader scale, Cainiao had also built smart warehouses, and deployed robots and autonomous vehicles that contributed to lower ecological footprint. Yet, much remained to be done and at a significant cost. What else could Cainiao do to promote going green, keeping in mind that there was an economic cost associated with all such initiatives?

Propais is a non-profit organization founded in 1994 in Bogota by the public and private sectors and supported by 76 partner organizations. In October 2018, Maria Lucia Castrillon, general manager of Propais, was concerned about the future of the micro-franchising project (MFP) that had been active since 2012. The MFP was core to Propaís's mission of promoting "the development of micro and small businesses through strategic work, carried out jointly by public and private agents". It promoted the creation of 70 new enterprises that generated 350 direct jobs and produced over USD 1 million in annual sales. The IDB-MIF, a co-financer of the project with a total investment of USD 2,540,150, had recently announced its decision to withdraw in May 2019, generating great uncertainty about future feasibility. Propais had invested time and money to become a reference point in franchise structuring. Without MFP support both franchisers and franchisees could lose the opportunity to do business, and the potential would be lost to create five direct jobs at each franchise. Two options to keep the project going were: 1. Propaís could continue to manage the project but would need new financial resources from donors and investors, and 2. Propais could transfer its knowledge and processes to its partners (such as the Ministry of Commerce, Medellin Chamber of Commerce, private foundations or companies) so that they could in turn scale up the micro-franchise model. However, both options implied a long negotiation process and IDB-MIF support would end in just seven months. Moreover, Propais did not have enough resources to support the project alone during a transition.

In 2020, the chief executive officer of Zhida Environmental Technology, a waste management company based in Nanjing, China, was considering adopting blockchain technology into the company's work process. With the concept of Internet plus recycling, the company was committed to waste sorting and had introduced innovative household waste solutions. However, new challenges were emerging, including stagnant resident participation rates, low profit returns, competitor expansion, and limited support from the local government. Inherent blockchain technology functions such as digital token services, a transparent recycling chain, and collaborative governance mechanisms could potentially improve the company's current operations and provide a first mover position in the market. However, the chief executive officer had to thoroughly consider the decision of adopting blockchain technology: What true value could it offer and what potential challenges could arise?

Tonya Thayer, Senior Partner and leader of the Consumer Package Goods practice at Sinclair Consulting, must evaluate Alan Henderson, a Principal (junior) Partner and a key member within CPG, as the six-month update on his progress and development nears. While prior reviews have listed Henderson as being "on track" for Senior Partnership, a few points have given Thayer pause. Knowing that a setback could have major ramifications for both Henderson's career and her own reputation, Thayer must weigh what kind of advice to give to Henderson, how to deliver it, and how to formulate her review of him.

Muhammad Alagil was a second-generation leader in the well-known Alagil Family Group of businesses in Saudi Arabia and co-founder and chairman of its family office, Jarir Company for Commercial Investments (Jarir Investments). The case opens in 2021 with Alagil pondering whether or not to allow family members of the next generations aged 35 and over to spin off their pieces of the trust and set out on their own. This change would have been a massive departure from the state of mind he and his four brothers shared for the past decades: Why would anyone leave and shrink the pie? He was confident that none of the third generation (G3) would leave but he knew there was no guarantee they would stay either. He also knew that, when their time came, a portion of G4 members (the eldest of whom was 12 years old) would likely exercise that right and leave. With the sustainability of the family office in mind, would it be disastrous if some members left? The case discusses whether it was the G2 members' responsibility to entice future generations to stay and, if so, how? If not, should they at least come up with a mechanism to ensure that future generations would survive on their own?

In mid-2021, Maaz Sheikh, cofounder and CEO of STARZPLAY, a Dubai-based subscription video on demand (SVOD) provider that catered to the Middle East and North Africa region, was wrestling with how to find the right balance between continued subscriber growth and profitability. Founded in 2015, the company was the first major SVOD player in the region providing high quality and affordable Hollywood content. STARZPLAY rapidly grew its subscriber base through a business model sensitive to the varied tastes and payment preferences of households in the region and was able to maintain leadership even after global players like Netflix and well-funded homegrown companies entered the market. At the time of the case, several U.S. major studios, including the likes of Disney, Paramount, and HBO, were in talks with local operators about potential partnerships. Sheikh needed to prepare an appealing proposal, knowing full well that other regional players were likely doing the same and that these studios might decide to enter independently. He had to think carefully about the company's brand position and its plans regarding content, pricing and payment options, and marketing spend in order to fuel continued growth, while managing the increasing pressure from investors to drive the business toward profitability. Sheikh and his management team had big ambitions for STARZPLAY. What would be the plan that ensured the company continued to prosper despite the mounting competition?