Alexandre Tombini, the governor of the Central Bank of Brazil, faced a difficult situation in July 2015. Inflation was in the double digits, well above the target rate of 4.5%, and unemployment had increased from around 4.5% a year prior to nearly 8%. Any actions Tombini took to control inflation would most likely exacerbate unemployment, at least in the short run. To further complicate matters, Tombini's office was not independent of the executive branch of Brazil's government, and Tombini faced the possibility that any of his actions that were not aligned with the priorities of the current administration could cost him his job. This case follows classes on fiscal and monetary policy in normal times and is the first class in a sequence on macroeconomic challenges-in this case, stagflation-high inflation and high unemployment. Students are pushed to consider why macroeconomic stabilization involves such acute and unpleasant tradeoffs during episodes of high inflation and unemployment. Students use the IS/LM AD/AS model as a reference.

Paritosh Desai joined Target.com in 2013 as VP of Business Intelligence, Analytics & Testing to explore how the retailer could use its relatively small but thriving e-commerce arm to drive sales and win customers. The case explores the technological and organizational challenges Desai faced and the trade offs he considered in his four-year journey to develop the larger retail business into a data science organization.

Snap Inc.'s chairman must decide how to address investor concerns about the company's unprecedented plans to issue only non-voting shares in its upcoming IPO. The case is set in early 2017 following the public availability of Snap's IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It describes the company's meteoric rise from its conception by its young founders in 2011 to its multi-billion dollar valuation. When Snap filed for its long-anticipated IPO that could value it at more than $20 billion, it described its plans to go public with three share classes providing public investors shares with no votes on matters customarily put to a shareholder vote and allowing its two co-founders control over such matters. The case details the checkered history of multiple share class structures, highlights arguments for and against them, and explores the potential implications for index funds. Investors managing over $3 trillion sent a letter to Snap Chairman Michael Lynton and Co-Founders Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy asking them to reconsider the share structure just one day after the company's S-1 was made public. As controversy mounted and with the IPO possibly just a month away, Lynton must decide how to respond to the investors' letter.

Snap Inc.'s chairman must decide how to address investor concerns about the company's unprecedented plans to issue only non-voting shares in its upcoming IPO. The case is set in early 2017 following the public availability of Snap's IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It describes the company's meteoric rise from its conception by its young founders in 2011 to its multi-billion dollar valuation. When Snap filed for its long-anticipated IPO that could value it at more than $20 billion, it described its plans to go public with three share classes providing public investors shares with no votes on matters customarily put to a shareholder vote and allowing its two co-founders control over such matters. The case details the checkered history of multiple share class structures, highlights arguments for and against them, and explores the potential implications for index funds. Investors managing over $3 trillion sent a letter to Snap Chairman Michael Lynton and Co-Founders Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy asking them to reconsider the share structure just one day after the company's S-1 was made public. As controversy mounted and with the IPO possibly just a month away, Lynton must decide how to respond to the investors' letter.

This case asks students to step into the role of Adalberto Flores, co-founder and CEO of Kueski, one of the first companies to develop a proprietary algorithm for online loan approval in Mexico. Mexico lacks a standardized credit scoring system, making it difficult for many Mexicans to get approved for a loan or credit card. This, together with the fact that Mexicans generally do not trust traditional banks, makes Mexico an attractive opportunity for fintech companies. Growth, however, could require fintech companies to partner with traditional banks. Students assume the role of Flores to think about the benefits and risks associated with a partnership between Kueski and traditional banks. Students are also challenged to compare the structure of U.S. financial services markets with the Mexican structure and consider the implications on the sustainability of fintech companies in the two markets. The teaching note analyzes the Mexican financial market and the benefits and threats it holds for fintech companies, and outlines a framework for evaluating the risk associated with partnerships.

Singapore, Sept 2016. For the Jebsen and Jessen families, Asia had been an adopted land for over 120 years, not counting the years their ancestors, as Danish seafarers, had plied the treacherous Asian waters. In 1895, two of them had set roots in Hong Kong and established a first trading house, one of the original foreign Hongs in the colony. From those modest beginnings emerged a powerful group with over US$4.5 billion in sales and over 7,700 employees, with four principal entities: Jebsen & Co., based in Hong Kong; Jebsen & Jessen (SEA), based in Singapore; Jebsen & Jessen Hamburg, their global trading house; and GMA Garnet, the world leader in mining, processing, distributing and recycling of industrial garnet. The family enterprise survived many near-death experiences because of wars and revolutions, progressively evolving from a pure trading house, first establishing themselves as partners of choice for leading global companies such as Porsche or Demag, then having greater involvement along the value chain through vertical integration and diversifying their geographic footprint into frontier markets such as Indonesia and Myanmar. For the third generation, the future looked promising, but history had taught the family never to rest on its laurels. The governance structure meant that ownership and control were concentrated in a limited number of hands. Would the current leaders be able to identify, groom and incentivize those from the next generation? How could they keep the family at large involved? From the business side, how far should vertical integration and geographical diversification be pushed? How should they react to the recent slowdown in China? Was there a natural limit to CSR activities?

In 2017, Jay Desai, the CEO of Boston-based health care technology company PatientPing, had to consider a number of interrelated pricing challenges. Founded in late 2013, PatientPing sold a software platform that allowed health care providers to receive real-time notifications ("Pings") when one of their patients was admitted to or discharged from a health care facility. Pings allowed providers to coordinate with one another to reduce costs and ensure that patients were receiving the highest quality of care. PatientPing sold its platform to a range of customers, from small skilled nursing facilities to large health systems, and management had to figure out how to optimally price the platform for the company's various customer segments. Students must consider whether PatientPing's pricing, sales team, and sales process are optimal based on the unique challenges of the health care industry. Additionally, students are asked to respond to three specific sales and marketing scenarios faced by Desai in mid-2017.

This technical note explains what blockchain is, what it allows, as well as discusses its advantages and potential issues to consider further. It also provides an example of an application in which blockchain technology is used and describes regulatory and governance considerations. It can be used in a financial institutions or fintech course along with a case on digital currencies.

TELUS Communications (TELUS) acquired Public Mobile Holdings Inc., a small, money-losing, wireless carrier that operated in the lower, price-sensitive tier of the market. TELUS had not previously competed in the lower tier of the market, which had a history of low revenues per customer and low customer retention. The director of Mobility Marketing at TELUS faced the decision of what to do with this newly acquired brand. He was considering the market positioning options, brand portfolio implications, and financial impact of his decision. The options included migrating the new customers to one of the company's existing brands, continuing to operate the firm as an independent brand, or repositioning the brand to improve profitability.

In January 2017, Surbana Jurong Private Limited, a wholly-owned infrastructure consultancy of Singapore's Temasek Holdings, came under the spotlight for terminating 54 of its Singapore-based employees. Surbana Jurong said this was part of a performance review. However, the mass termination raised concerns that the company was retrenching workers under the banner of poor performance so that it wouldn't have to pay additional compensation to its former employees. According to Surbana Jurong, the mass termination was not a retrenchment exercise, but "rather, a small number of poor performers were communicated with and released." The termination episode drew negative reaction from the trade unions and the public, an open rebuke from the Manpower Minister, and a subsequent public commitment from Surbana Jurong to improve its performance management processes. What lessons could Surbana Jurong draw from this episode?

Valued at $70 billion in 2017, Uber is globally the most valuable private start-up. Uber had a tumultuous year, culminating in the forced resignation of Travis Kalanick, Uber's co-founder and long-time CEO, in the wake of several ethical and leadership shortcomings. The case protagonist is Arianna Huffington, an Uber board member, who has been tasked to guide the new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, as he addresses some of Uber's ethical shortcomings and prepares the ride-hailing company for an eventual initial public offering (IPO) within a timeframe of 18-36 months. Arianna Huffington and Dara Khosrowshahi have to address a number of critical issues, but not limited to: corporate culture; employee morale; alleged gender discrimination; non-stop negative coverage in the media; customers defecting to Lyft; driver dissatisfaction; continued and more draconian regulations by cities, counties, states, and even countries; defendant in lawsuit filed by Waymo alleging Uber stole proprietary self-driving car technology when acquiring Otto, a self-driving start-up created by a then-Waymo employee; among many other issues.

The protagonist of the case is Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO. The case opens with her reviewing the company's Q3 2017 earning data in preparation for the ensuing investors' call. Notably, the company continued a strong run in the mobile ad space and significant revenues that Facebook had generated. As COO, she is looking to take the company to the next level: not only continued growth in mobile ads, but dominance in the digital ad space. For this to occur, Facebook would somehow have to top Google in both display and search ads, despite only having notable presence and expertise in display ads. In 2017, Facebook was the fourth most valuable company on the planet, with a market capitalization of almost $500 billion (just behind Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft, but ahead of Amazon).

Medicetra MedTech Company is a dental equipment distributor and senior management is deciding whether to implement a new incentive compensation program for the sales force. For many years, Medicetra had paid salespeople only a fixed salary. Although the current plan of a straight salary seemed to be working favorably towards sales force retention salespeople had limited monetary incentives to sell more, as increased sales did not directly relate to increased pay. Management is leaning towards a change to a variable compensation plan that links performance with pay and is considering three options: 1) commission; 2) quota-bonus; and 3) commission plus quota-bonus plans. Which compensation plan would induce behavioral changes that would lead to better sales force performance but, at the same time, would appear fair to other employees?

Makena Lane has a gift for producing results, even in the challenging retail context of the 2010s, but she also has a knack for "ruffling some feathers" in the process. Recruited to a Fortune 500 grocery and pharmacy retailer after climbing to Associate Principal in McKinsey & Company's retail practice, she successfully grew their high-margin yet highly competitive beauty category beyond anyone's expectations. Yet then she was passed over for promotion, receiving the feedback that her "concerning" and "abrasive" interpersonal style had made it impossible to promote her. Instead of a promotion, Lane is offered an executive coach. The case offers a uniquely in-depth (and intimate) view of how Lane approaches the one-year coaching engagement and the outputs from it, including her pre-coaching self-reflection, agreed-upon purpose and outcomes, 360 feedback, the coach's advice to her, an in-depth coach's final report, and Lane's one-pager of lessons learned. At the end of the year of coaching, Lane's boss unexpectedly departs, leaving Lane with a direct path to promotion. Senior leadership now once again faces the difficult decision of whether to promote Lane, this time based on their assessment of whether Lane has authentically transformed through coaching or just taken superficial steps to check off boxes on the way to promotion.

Longfor, a real estate company in China, treats every customer as an individual with distinctive tastes, preferences and needs; the homes it designs emphasize aesthetics, comfort, landscaping and lifestyle in a holistic way. Likewise, its organizational culture emphasizes equality and professionalism in a country where hierarchy and deference to authority are the norm. Its approach to HR (recruitment, training, evaluation, compensation, role-modeling) is completely at odds with common practice in China. The case asks: Is it possible to succeed in business with an organizational culture that is alien to the society in which the company operates? How can emotional capital be generated and embedded in a company to facilitate strategic innovation?

Innovation is a perennial management challenge. That's why, for decades, MIT Sloan Management Review has been publishing new research and insights about innovation, from business school researchers as well as from leading business executives and consultants. For this article, the authors tapped into that knowledge base. They combed through the MIT SMR archives, looking for older articles with innovation insights that today's MIT SMR readers might have missed but that still remain timely and have wide relevance. The authors winnowed their list to 12 essential innovation articles from the MIT SMR archives. They distilled key concepts from those archival articles into 12 brief innovation insights contained in this article. The insights cover a range of innovation-related topics -from managing innovative employees to innovating in different ways -and draw on work by researchers from a number of universities, including Cambridge Judge Business School, Harvard Business School, London Business School, and the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Plummeting data acquisition costs have been a big part of the surge in business analytics. We have much richer samples of data to use for insight. But more data doesn't inherently remove sampling bias; in fact, it may make it worse.

What distinguishes companies that have built advanced digital capabilities? The ability to collaborate. Research finds that a focus on collaboration -both with and without technology, both within organizations and with external partners and stakeholders -is central to how digitally advanced companies create business value and establish competitive advantage over less advanced rivals.