Big tech companies such as Google and Booking.com are running tens of thousands of experiments annually, and other businesses are following their lead. Here's how to use experiments in your company to better evaluate customer offerings and policies, test new ideas and innovations, develop and refine decision frameworks, and establish reliable facts in uncertain conditions and ambiguous situations.

A shift to widespread remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges, but the good news is that organizations around the world are experimenting with creative solutions to meet workers' needs. Analysis from a recent survey of HR leaders and other employees on the most meaningful actions their organizations have taken to support remote work uncovered five principles that can help leaders more effectively manage a distributed workforce.

In 2019, the founder of Anjelo’s Confectionaries, a commercial bakery in India, faced two difficult situations. The founder had created the Juicy Cakes brand to represent the company’s standard cakes, differentiating the product from the bakery’s specialty cakes and ice cream cakes; however, the Juicy Cakes name had limited exposure and lacked mass recall for consumers, as a result of poor distribution and reach. The second challenge was the unused capacity of the company’s large automated plant. Although cake sales were seasonal, the founder wanted to utilize the company’s excess capacity throughout the year. The entrepreneur founder needed to fine-tune the trade-off between a product-based strategy and a place- or distribution-based strategy. How should the founder proceed to ensure his company’s future?

In 2018, the founder and owner of the Karatu Coffee Company needed to decide what to do next with his company. He was considering several options: increasing the tourism part of the business, growing the original farm, pursuing a property development project in the capital city, or simply selling out and walking away. The company, located in Tanzania, began as a coffee farm, expanded into tourism with a remote, idyllic coffee lodge, and then brought coffee and tourism together with a bustling inner-city coffee house, which also housed a boutique hotel. The final phase of expansion included the purchase of high-quality coffee equipment and highly-prized roasting facilities to capture a larger share of the coffee value chain. The owner's decision would require insights into both the coffee industry and Tanzania itself.

Founded in 2016, Critterati was India’s first luxury hotel for pets, located in one of the most prominent residential and commercial areas of Gurgaon, India. The basic philosophy of the hotel was that pets provided unconditional love to their owners, so they deserved more than just basic care in return. The number of customers visiting Critterati over the previous three years had increased consistently from 500 in the first year to 1,200 in the second year and 2,600 in the third year. In a short time, the start-up had become a self-sustaining business. By early May 2019, the hotel’s top luxury Critterati Suite was already booked for most of June and the overall hotel was nearly fully booked for the next two months. The Critterati differentiator was an annual membership plan that had been carefully crafted to provide a package of services for one year at a cost effective flat rate. However, the number of customers who chose the membership plan was still low, at around 250, but 1,000 memberships were needed to break even. How would pet owners be convinced about the benefits of the plan? Partnering with other service providers would also increase brand awareness, but which partnerships were most important?

Historically, personal and commercial banks (P&CB) maintained long relationships with their clients who tended to do most if not all of their banking with one bank. However, by 2017, industry-wide change was well underway as switching costs had become negligible if not non-existent. New entrants were disrupting the banking industry as digitization allowed upstarts to break through long-standing barriers to entry. RBC's Cultural Transformation, intended to reposition the enterprise for the "new normal" in the financial industry, included the creation of this team of collaboration enablers (called Operations Transformation or OT) to drive efficiencies across operations within the current fulfillment operating model and importantly to envision and enable a new digital operating model where people only intervened in a transaction when there was an exception, i.e., a transaction that fell outside the technology's capabilities. OT was tasked with enabling-through collaboration and without radical surgery-the day-to-day optimization of P&CB fulfillment activities and facilitating major change in the way work was done. At the time of the case, eighteen months in, the team was seeing mixed results, which deeply troubled its leadership. Questions abounded: Was it foolish to try to enable major change through collaboration without upending the traditional RBC organization with more radical approaches? Or was the OT group not structured correctly to enable it-and if not, what changes should be made? Was a different collaboration model needed? Internally, some questioned whether the group was optimally located within the organization (as part of the back office organization structure), since the back office was often viewed as more of a servant to the front office. Others wondered if OT's internal structure was getting in the way of its purpose.

Historically, personal and commercial banks (P&CB) maintained long relationships with their clients who tended to do most if not all of their banking with one bank. However, by 2017, industry-wide change was well underway as switching costs had become negligible if not non-existent. New entrants were disrupting the banking industry as digitization allowed upstarts to break through long-standing barriers to entry. RBC's Cultural Transformation, intended to reposition the enterprise for the "new normal" in the financial industry, included the creation of this team of collaboration enablers (called Operations Transformation or OT) to drive efficiencies across operations within the current fulfillment operating model and importantly to envision and enable a new digital operating model where people only intervened in a transaction when there was an exception, i.e., a transaction that fell outside the technology's capabilities. OT was tasked with enabling-through collaboration and without radical surgery-the day-to-day optimization of P&CB fulfillment activities and facilitating major change in the way work was done. At the time of the case, eighteen months in, the team was seeing mixed results, which deeply troubled its leadership. Questions abounded: Was it foolish to try to enable major change through collaboration without upending the traditional RBC organization with more radical approaches? Or was the OT group not structured correctly to enable it-and if not, what changes should be made? Was a different collaboration model needed? Internally, some questioned whether the group was optimally located within the organization (as part of the back office organization structure), since the back office was often viewed as more of a servant to the front office. Others wondered if OT's internal structure was getting in the way of its purpose.

This brief note provides a description of the A3 report, a classic problem-solving methodology associated with the Toyota Production System. A3 thinking may be used for many activities, including problem solving, proposal writing, and status reporting. The six elements of an A3 report are described briefly.

This case uses the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) to set the stage for unfolding an analysis of economics and values in the decision to divest tobacco stocks and bonds from the internally managed portion of the CalPERS portfolio. Written from public sources, it offers a discussion about fiduciary responsibility for long-term retirement security and investment policies around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies for the public pension fund. The material includes financial data that further allows calculations and discussion on tobacco investments outperforming the broader market. This A case opens with the CalPERS investment committee having made a decision to recommend removing tobacco investment restrictions. The CIO reflects on whether supporting investment in tobacco firms conflicts with CalPERS's member health and health care mission. Did supporting continued divestment mean CalPERS was putting its own social priority and ideals ahead of its clients' investment goals? The case data should lead most to conclude the fund was breaching its fiduciary duty.

This case uses the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) to set the stage for unfolding an analysis of economics and values in the decision to divest tobacco stocks and bonds from the internally managed portion of the CalPERS portfolio. Written from public sources, it offers a discussion about fiduciary responsibility for long-term retirement security and investment policies around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies for the public pension fund. The material includes financial data that further allows calculations and discussion on tobacco investments outperforming the broader market. The A case opens with the CalPERS investment committee having made a decision to recommend removing tobacco investment restrictions. The CIO reflects on whether supporting investment in tobacco firms conflicts with CalPERS's member health and health care mission. Did supporting continued divestment mean CalPERS was putting its own social priority and ideals ahead of its clients' investment goals? The case data should lead most to conclude the fund was breaching its fiduciary duty. This short B case can be handed out in class. This deepens discussion around ESG, the investment fund's duty, and retirees' frustration. Despite the CalPERS investment committee's recommendation to remove restrictions on investing in tobacco stocks, the board of administration decided to broaden limitation and extend the ban to externally managed portfolios in December 2016. Two years later, opposition to CalPERS's divestment strategy took the form of a campaign to run for a seat on the board of administration. This was followed with the appointment of another CIO who strongly supported ESG investment strategies.

In the fall of 2019, Sprint's Chief Digital Officer Rob Roy reflected on the telecom's efforts to improve the effectiveness of its digital marketing campaigns. Digital media buying had long been handled by an outside agency, but in 2017, Sprint brought those functions in-house to enhance the company's ability to respond to the market in real-time. Early results suggested the plan was working, but Sprint continued to face fierce competition from its rivals. Sprint's subscriber losses mounted as it attempted to merge with T-Mobile. Could digital marketing stem the losses and win consumers' hearts?

In March 2020, as coronavirus reduced demand for air travel, an analyst was forecasting American Airlines' (American's) first quarter financial results. To develop a forecast, she needed to familiarize herself with Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-02, "Leases (Topic 842)," passed four years earlier by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. ASU 2016-02 required companies to disclose all leases on their balance sheets, but it made an exception for leases with variable payments, allowing companies to leave such leases off-balance sheet. The Wall Street Journal estimated that more than 50% of American's leases remained off-balance sheet due to the exclusion of variable leases. Should American and other companies be allowed to leave variable lease payments off-balance sheet? How did the decision to leave these payments off-balance sheet affect companies' risk profiles and valuations?

This is a supplement to the "Accounting for Leases at American Airlines (A)" case. The (B) case describes American Airlines' financial results for the first quarter of 2020, as well as the continuing effects of coronavirus on the airline industry.

The case study traces the development of FC Barcelona's Innovation Hub (BIH) and its plans to go global. It describes how factors on and off the pitch led to the launch and how the BIH is preparing the club for the future at the centre of an ecosystem that includes prestigious brands, universities, start-ups, and athletes worldwide, all linked by a culture of excellence. The case considers FC Barcelona's competitive environment and its approach to digital disruption (of broadcasting, player performance, fan engagement), the professionalization of football, and the "ambidexterity" of club strategy.

Singapore organised the 28th SEA Games in June 2015. This was the fourth time that Singapore hosted the SEA Games, after a 22-year long hiatus. It was a historic SEA Games for Singapore, as it coincided with the nation's Golden Jubilee. Everything went well from the opening ceremony to the organisation of 36 sports, with around 400 events. However, there was a sudden surge in crowd during the closing ceremony. Chairman of Opening and Closing Ceremonies (OCC), Colonel Lawrence Lim planned for a contingency to handle a possible sudden surge in the crowd and the contingency plans were activated, but the lighting condition and different decisions made by different committees impeded the flow of spectators into the Singapore Sports Hub. As a result, 500 spectators who were turned away. The questions that need to be answered are; what are the lessons to be learnt? Crowd management or more than that? Scenario planning, crisis leadership under the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) environment are some of the important lessons that can be drawn from this Case Study.

This note describes what leader character is, how leader character differs from leaders’ personality traits and universal values, and how leader character relates to an organization’s culture. Using Schein’s classic definition of organizational culture, the note explains how leaders’ strength of character can help to shape a culture of excellence. The note also follows Galbraith’s model of organizational design to relate leaders’ character to organizational-level constructs, such as strategy, structure, people, rewards, and processes.

By 2019, Facebook Inc.'s (Facebook's), popular social media and social networking service (known as Facebook) that launched in 2004, had emerged as one of the world's largest market capitalizations. Over its 15 years, the company had experienced public relation incidents that led to controversies regarding its social media business model. Most criticism related to the unethical ways the company had handled its users' personal data. By 2019, the level of mistrust from users had skyrocketed alarmingly. Many analysts questioned the company's willingness to deal with data privacy concerns, with some alleging that its business model was fundamentally unethical by design. Clearly Facebook's chief executive officer and his team needed to step back and reflect on the company's next steps.

This case focuses on the supply chain strategy of Apple Inc. (Apple). Set in early 2020, it provides a detailed description of the company's supply chain network and capabilities. Data in the case allows students to develop an understanding of Apple's source of competitiveness and to gain insights into the management of a large, complex global supply chain network that focused on the intersection of services, hardware and software. Students will obtain an understanding of the supply chain challenges faced by Apple, in the context of supporting its corporate strategy and growth objectives.