Handu Group was an online fast fashion apparel brand established in 2006 with headquarters in Jinan, China. The company had successfully adjusted its business models since 2006, transitioning from an unknown seller on the shopping website Taobao into a leading enterprise that owned over 20 subsidiary brands. However, in 2015, fierce competition in the fast fashion apparel market had intensified, with an increasing number of traditional garment companies establishing online channels. Online brands without physical stores, such as Handu Group, lost their primary competitive advantage. Faced with a bottleneck in development, the founder of Handu Group had to consider another innovation in the corporate business model. Zhao was considering three options: continuing multi-brand expansion, building brick-and-mortar shops to open offline channels, or opening operating platforms to serve other brands.

In 2017, the French automaker Groupe PSA (PSA) agreed to buy loss-making Opel/Vauxhall units from General Motors Company. PSA had just recovered one year earlier from losses it had sustained since the global financial crisis. With the recovery, PSA had launched a new strategic plan with aggressive goals for sustainable profitable growth. However, PSA’s sales were continuing to drop in the important Chinese market due to fierce competition, and the newly acquired units were still making losses. The use of electric cars was on the rise, and the European Commission had proposed a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. PSA was planning to re-enter the United States, and in Britain, it was facing ambiguous Brexit negotiations, raising concerns about increased costs with importing and exporting parts and finished vehicles. In light of all of these challenges, how could PSA still reach its aggressive goals for sustainable growth?

In October 2017, the co-founder of Australian social enterprise Illumination Solar was rethinking his company’s Give Power campaign. After five marginally profitable years designing and supplying portable solar lanterns to some of the world’s most energy impoverished communities, including refugee camps, the co-founder had decided to market his products to Australian customers for outdoor uses such as camping and hiking. Under the Give Power campaign, Illumination Solar donated one solar lantern to a community in need for every solar product purchased by Australian customers. However, this strategy was not successful. The co-founder’s main goal for his company was to sustainably provide good quality solar lanterns to impoverished people in developing countries. To reach that goal, he wondered which strategy to follow; should he return to the original business model, re-structure the Give Power campaign, or come up with something entirely new to generate higher profits?

In 2013, a high-school graduate began work as a construction labourer. His upbringing included experience driving and fixing various machines, which, combined with his hard work, led to a job operating a small loader. After working with three different construction companies on big equipment, he was considering whether or not to buy his own backhoe and start his own excavation business. He had investigated the cost of buying a backhoe, operating costs, financing, and the potential demand. In late 2014, he needed to decide whether or not to proceed with his own business.

Note: This case contains language that some people may find offensive. It is left exactly as it was spoken in the real situation portrayed precisely because it is pertinent to how the situation affected those involved. "Overheard at the Office," based on a true story, presents the case of an African-American woman who works as an accountant for the league office of the team owners of one of the four major US professional sports. One day, she is yelled at offensively by a team owner, who mistook her for a players' union employee, perhaps because the players and their union staff are predominantly African-American, in contrast to the majority white team owners and their staff. She has to decide whether and how to respond. The case is designed to surface students' instinctive decision-making tendencies. Thus, it is short enough to be read and responded to in class. Students are assigned readings and assignments related to the case after class discussion in which they are encouraged to reflect on their initial responses. The case is quite flexible and would work in any course that deals with leadership, ethics, difficult conversations, decision-making, organizational behavior, human resources, implicit bias, and related topics. It is appropriate for a range of levels and audiences, including undergraduate, MBA, and executive education.

By 2019, leaders from the public and private sector had become increasingly anxious about how advanced technologies and aging global populations could affect labor markets, workplaces, and workers' lives. Some analysts forecasted that hundreds of millions of workers would have their jobs threatened by automation. Questions about how relevant stakeholders (e.g., workers, firms, NGOs) should respond to those threats created a new field of study called the "Future of Work." Comparing current forecasts to historical episodes of workers getting automated, many commentators wondered "will this time be different?" Despite so much uncertainty on the topic, many leaders concluded that they would need to collaborate across sectors to address many different challenges, such as rapid technological changes and evolving labor markets.

This case tells the story of Alain St-Pierre, fire captain and the most decorated firefighter in Montréal's history, from childhood through retirement. It describes the key points of Alain's career, his heroic feats as firefighter, his influence as lieutenant and captain, and his failures. Alain's management "philosophy" and personality traits are also discussed.

This case tells the story of Alain St-Pierre, fire captain and the most decorated firefighter in Montréal's history, from childhood through retirement. It describes the key points of Alain's career, his heroic feats as firefighter, his influence as lieutenant and captain, and his failures. Alain's management "philosophy" and personality traits are also discussed.

This case tells the story of Alain St-Pierre, fire captain and the most decorated firefighter in Montréal's history, from childhood through retirement. It describes the key points of Alain's career, his heroic feats as firefighter, his influence as lieutenant and captain, and his failures. Alain's management "philosophy" and personality traits are also discussed.

In this case, lessons from the Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative illustrate key principles of collaborative action and the importance of using data to achieve SMART goals. In 2015, the Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative (CBC) was a network of seven agencies in Chicago, Illinois, serving 12,000 low-income residents. Each of the agencies had early childhood, school-age children, and adult education programs. At the prompting of the Chicago Community Trust, they came together to (1) benchmark their education programs outputs and outcomes; (2) learn and share best practices through developing a common set of metrics and measurements and implementing these measurements into a case management software system; and (3) share the costs of the case management software system to be used for program evaluation and continuous quality improvement. Three aspects of CBC are particularly noteworthy. First, there are no joint program activities or clients among these agencies. Their exchange is limited to sharing data and other information. This makes CBC distinct from collaborations formed to begin a program or to advocate for a policy. Second, the group requires each agency to enter data on a timely basis and to set SMART goals based on the data reports. The agencies are held mutually accountable for their work to achieve their own SMART goals during the year and report on progress. Third, CBC used monetary incentives to ensure that data entry and SMART goal action remained a priority for each agency.

This case is based on the professionalization and governance challenges faced by Touchdown Footwear Limited (TFL), a mid-sized Indian footwear manufacturing family business. TFL was set up in 1965 in the southern Indian city of Mangalore by three brothers, Ramnath, Krishna and Ganesh Pai who had inherited their father's rubber trading business. Initially, TFL made flip-flops and catered to the local market. Over the years, it had expanded the product portfolio to include school shoes and other non-leather footwear. By 2016 TFL had a pan-India presence with some exports to African markets. In the early years, the three brothers managed all the functions of the business. When the next generation came of age and joined the firm in the 1970s and '80s, they took up various roles based largely on business exigencies. By 2016, TFL had a turnover of INR 16.19 billion but lacked professional management and a clear strategy. In the absence of an appropriate structure, systems and processes, decision-making was ad hoc. Inefficiencies and wastage were evident across the organization, and working capital was under severe strain. The firm suffered from a deficit of governance at both the family and business systems. The lack of clear policies and processes delayed many crucial decisions. Earlier attempts to professionalize the business had failed to achieve the desired results as family members lacked clear policies to follow and were unable to change their mindset. Furthermore, when the fourth generation began to enter the business, there were questions about their level of commitment and discipline. TFL required transitional change on multiple fronts to sustain the business but there was lack of clarity on the roadmap for the future.

This case is set in 2018, when Veriown, a pay-as-you-go Internet connected solar service provider, was preparing to launch in its first and potentially the most important market - India. Steve Johanns, the founder CEO of the company had pinned his hopes on the success of this launch to establish the viability of Veriown's business model, its scalability within India, and expansion into sub-Saharan Africa. Established in 2016, Veriown's primary objective was to bridge the infrastructural gap in energy that existed in developing countries by providing a safer and cleaner alternative to kerosene, a non-renewable fossil fuel that was detrimental to health and the environment. Besides energy, Veriown aimed to facilitate digital connectivity and access to financial services to help enable socio-economic development and financial inclusion of the impoverished rural communities. Empowered by a strong team, and supported by global partners, Veriown had developed an advanced solar energy-based solution that brought electricity, the Internet and micro-finance services together on the same platform, and followed the 'pay-to-consume' model of the kerosene transactions that consumers at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) preferred. It had also tied up with local companies with expertise in distribution and installation of solar energy solutions in rural India for on-ground support during the launch. However, despite all the planning, Johanns was concerned about the operational capability of Veriown in meeting the high consumer demand of the market. He wondered if its service levels and frequency would be able to keep up with the demand, and effectively resolve any issues as and when they appeared. In addition, would the company be able to scale up soon after the launch, if required? Would leveraging its partners' networks curtail the extent of control Veriown could wield over customer experience on the ground?

Part A. In November 2016, Gibran Huzaifah, CEO of Indonesian firm eFishery that sells automated fish feeders for fish farmers, ponders a strategic pivot in the business-from hardware to data services. While his engineers struggle to develop a fish activity sensor to improve efficiencies and drive sales, Gibran ponders the option to develop new products to help farmers predict harvest levels (Fishbiz), signal quality to lenders (FishFax), and deploy platforms for inputs (Marketplace) and outputs (eCosystem). In addition, he is also considering whether it may be smarter to develop autofeeders for shrimp farmers, a market that is more geographically dispersed but with higher purchasing power. Part A ends by asking which direction Gibran should take for 2017. Part B. It is February 2018, and eFishery has moved into making automated shrimp feeders. Gibran seeks a roadmap to land investment funding and sees two paths to pivot into a viable platform business: 1) The "High Road of Quality Hardware" seeks a strong foundation for Marketplace and appeals to the engineering team. The CEO worries the High Road may increase unit costs, swell a bloated balance sheet, slow sales, and reinforce the firm's self-identity as a slow-scaling hardware company. It means redoubling work on the fish sensor, working with an outside firm to build a water quality sensor, and developing a P2P protocol and new data station to help the feeders talk to each other and send data to the cloud. 2) The "Low Road of Bootstrapped Disruption" seeks to get FishBiz and FishFax to market. Some sales staff share Gibran's vision, but most employees are used to hardware. Data capabilities remain weak and only major reallocations of scarce resources will make the new products strong enough to drive adoption.

Part A. In November 2016, Gibran Huzaifah, CEO of Indonesian firm eFishery that sells automated fish feeders for fish farmers, ponders a strategic pivot in the business-from hardware to data services. While his engineers struggle to develop a fish activity sensor to improve efficiencies and drive sales, Gibran ponders the option to develop new products to help farmers predict harvest levels (Fishbiz), signal quality to lenders (FishFax), and deploy platforms for inputs (Marketplace) and outputs (eCosystem). In addition, he is also considering whether it may be smarter to develop autofeeders for shrimp farmers, a market that is more geographically dispersed but with higher purchasing power. Part A ends by asking which direction Gibran should take for 2017. Part B. It is February 2018, and eFishery has moved into making automated shrimp feeders. Gibran seeks a roadmap to land investment funding and sees two paths to pivot into a viable platform business: 1) The "High Road of Quality Hardware" seeks a strong foundation for Marketplace and appeals to the engineering team. The CEO worries the High Road may increase unit costs, swell a bloated balance sheet, slow sales, and reinforce the firm's self-identity as a slow-scaling hardware company. It means redoubling work on the fish sensor, working with an outside firm to build a water quality sensor, and developing a P2P protocol and new data station to help the feeders talk to each other and send data to the cloud. 2) The "Low Road of Bootstrapped Disruption" seeks to get FishBiz and FishFax to market. Some sales staff share Gibran's vision, but most employees are used to hardware. Data capabilities remain weak and only major reallocations of scarce resources will make the new products strong enough to drive adoption.

Set in January 2019, the case follows Andreas Sohmen-Pao, Executive Chairman of the BW Group, as he reflects on a fruitful year that passed and looks forward to an exciting and equally challenging year in 2019. BW, a global maritime group operating in the oil tanker, gas carrier and offshore floating infrastructure sectors, was a third-generation family-run business. Established in 2005, BW was the result of a merger of two long-standing shipping firms - Bergesen from Norway and World-Wide Shipping in Hong Kong (the latter was founded by Andreas' grandfather, Sir Yue-Kong Pao). Like many of the preceding years, BW had its share of highs and lows in 2018 too. The highlight was the successful acquisition of Hafnia Tankers by BW Tankers, a BW Group subsidiary. The eventual merger of the two would elevate BW Tankers to become the market leader in product tanker shipping with the largest commercially-managed fleet of more than 150 vessels. However, over the past few years, the tanker market as a whole had sunk into the trough of the shipping cycle. Demand for tanker chartering was unable to keep pace with faster growth in fleet capacity, forcing tanker companies to lower freight rates and leading to depressed earnings. The shipping business was widely perceived to be risky. There were not only short-term market cycles to contend with, new and longer-term challenges surfaced every now and then - such as environmental sustainability concerns (specifically the IMO2020 regulation on curbing ships' sulphur emissions), as well as opportunities and threats from technology (e.g., blockchain, artificial intelligence and cyber-attacks). Diversification had successfully enabled BW to weather challenges in the past, and its current strategy was to actively invest in diversifying and scaling up across multiple shipping segments. Andreas had to chart the way forward for BW in the coming years - how could he best navigate the oncoming headwinds?

The 'Stranded' game is an experiential platform to learn lessons on team leadership in a situational context based on sudden changes of events. It is modelled primarily upon variables associated with contingency theories of leadership. The setting is a future dystopian world where resources are scarce and different cities are at war with each other as they compete for resources. The player (the student) has to assume the role of a leader of a team now stranded in a desert because their vehicle in the form of a van is damaged. If not repaired quickly, they may be raided by their enemies, thus delaying or diminishing the hope of escape. The team comprises three males, Bastian, Daya, and Jiro, and one female, Jessa; all, including the leader, are strangers to each other. They all have different personality traits and respond differently to tasks and instruction. During the course of the game, the player (the student), has to discover the followers' personalities, assess the availability and limitation of resources, prioritise and assign tasks appropriately so that the van is repaired on time for them to escape from the dangerous situation. The daily tasks involve repairing the van, growing food, building a shelter and scavenging for resources, namely, provisions for food and materials to repair. Meanwhile, the camp must also be guarded from the enemies who would attack and raid the camp's food and materials. The game progresses in number of days. During the nights the leader interacts with the followers to gauge the energy, motivation and temperament of the team. The leader rations the provisions and motivates the followers. At the start of each day, the leader has to choose from three different leadership styles and assign task to the followers. When the Van is restored to 100% driving condition they all can escape to safety.

The case is set the day after Grab Holdings ("Grab") announced the acquisition of its largest rival, Uber, on 26 March 2018, and traces back its evolution from a start-up struggling to gain traction in its target market to the region's first decacorn (start-up with $10 billion or more value). Within five years since its inception in 2012, Grab had established a wide-spanning footprint in 190 cities across eight countries of Southeast Asia. To keep pace with its growth, the company had moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2014. Commencing its debut in the Online-to-Offline (O2O) market with a prototype of its taxi-booking smartphone app in the company's hometown in Malaysia, Grab has come a long way. With its extensive range of personal transport service, the company has become synonymous with ride-hailing and has also forayed into other areas such as fintech and marketplace. Appropriately, in January 2016, the company rebranded itself to 'Grab', an umbrella under which all its services are now homed. When Uber, the US behemoth, flexed its muscles and posed a severe threat, Grab fought head-to-head and won over the giant by quickly altering its business model and adopting a hyper-local approach. Grab's focus on nurturing a congenial organisational culture, disruptive innovation, customer-centric services, and agility while fostering enterprising and innovative talent has helped to defend its position. While staying steady on its high-growth trajectory, Anthony Tan and Hooi Ling Tan, the founding CEO and the founding COO, respectively, want to fortify its competitive strength by enhancing its disruptive quotient while remaining entrenched in Grab's culture. How can they best go about doing so?

In April 2016, the Chinese tech giant Tencent made an ambitious foray into the enterprise market by launching WeChat Work, an enterprise social network app adopted from its immensely popular consumer app WeChat. To increase WeChat Work adoption, Tencent leveraged on the 1-billion user base of WeChat and its strong consumer IT capabilities. Despite the initial success, WeChat Work faced intense competition from many other firms, including Alibaba's DingTalk. The socialisation needs of enterprise workplace vary significantly from those of consumers. How can Tencents address these challenges? Can Tencent's strong consumer IT capabilities be as effective in driving the adoption of WeChat Work in the enterprise market?

The Diet Center (DC) was Lebanon's first nutritional company to offer food consultancy services and meal catering to the public. The company faced numerous challenges competing in an unstable local market. Despite her company's growth in sales and product development, DC's general manager was extremely frustrated with the operating results and the bottom line. In November 2014, she decided to consider migrating to an enterprise resource planning system that would integrate all of DC's operations and deliver real-time relevant financial and operational data. The sales manager of System, Applications, and Products in Data Processing (SAP) for the Middle East and North Africa region suggested that DC should migrate to the gold standard SAP business management software to reap many benefits. Should DC implement the new SAP system? Would the benefits exceed the costs? What challenges would DC face if it chooses to adopt a SAP system?

In 2016, ING Group began an overhaul of its company culture, culminating in a code of conduct dubbed "The Orange Code."