Founded by an entrepreneur in 2007, Hillberg & Berk was a successful Canadian company in the affordable designer jewellery industry. After being funded through the Dragons’ Den television show in 2009, the entrepreneur and her team grew the company to achieving more than $10 million in annual sales. The company had focused its growth in its home province of Saskatchewan and into the neighbouring province of Alberta, but in late 2016, it faced a turning point. The entrepreneur wanted to capitalize on the success of the company’s signature Sparkle Collection and grow its other product lines by building customer loyalty. As Hillberg & Berk was no longer a small company and not yet a large company, the entrepreneur knew that how she managed her company’s strategy would have significant implications for its ability to maintain sustainable growth.

Ramco Systems Limited (Ramco) was a leading information technology (IT) product company and a pioneer in India, where the majority of IT companies were focused on services. It created three world-class products that drove its growth: a cloud-based enterprise resource planning system, a human capital management system, and aviation software. In 2016, the company was enjoying impressive growth, making profits, and acquiring new clients from around the world. At this point, the chief executive officer had to decide how to balance more rapid innovation with product stabilization. He needed to build structures, processes, and a corporate culture that would enable Ramco to continue to grow. At the same time, he needed to consider the ways new technologies were changing clients’ requirements for newer product features—such as the use of mobility or cloud computing. Should the company adopt a mobile-only or mobile-also strategy? Should it incorporate features from social-media platforms as product features? Should it provide its products via software installed at clients’ premises, or should products be available on the cloud, via software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscriptions?

Next India Traveler (NIT) was a travel and tour operator based in Chandigarh, India. The young start-up had been in business since 2012. It offered both inbound and outbound tour and travel packages that covered all the major tourist destinations in India and the Asia-Pacific region. NIT’s motto was to provide its clients with best-in-class services for all aspects of travel and tourism, all under one roof. <br><br>An upcoming meeting with a venture capitalist firm was crucial to NIT’s future plans for growth, and the investors would certainly want to have a clear idea of the company’s value. Thus, before making his pitch to the venture capital firm, NIT’s owner wanted to perform a valuation of his start-up. Unfortunately, the lack of long-term data and a proven methodology for valuing relatively new companies meant the owner faced a considerable challenge in terms of identifying the most appropriate model for the task.

In mid-2016, the chief executive officer of Tesla, a U.S. manufacturer of electric cars, was interested in acquiring SolarCity, a U.S. solar power manufacturer and distributor. Both Tesla and SolarCity operated in young, high-growth industries; however, despite their high growth rates, both companies were also losing money every year. Both companies had similar products and could be a strong strategic fit. The chief executive officer needed to convince Tesla's shareholders that SolarCity would be a good acquisition target and then determine a fair price to offer.

Faced with declining market share and sales, Natura, Brazil's second largest brand in the cosmetics, fragrances, and toiletries market, expanded its customer reach by moving from a direct-sales company to a multichannel company. In 2014, Natura added online catalogs, physical stores, and drugstores to its well-established direct-selling model, but the results were disappointing. Between 2014 and 2016, three different Natura CEOs attempted to lead the company in the strategic transition to focus less on the direct sales consultants and more on reaching the end consumers directly with multiple channels and touchpoints. On October 2016, the company's board appointed its former commercial vice president, João Paulo Ferreira, as the most recent CEO. Ferreira's challenge was to find the right balance between the direct-selling and other channel formats to market Natura, thus enabling it to thrive in the face of intense competition in the beauty and personal care market in Brazil.

This is a collection of four caselets that aim to provide a rich discussion around why experimentation in business is important and how it can be properly designed to improve short-term tactical and long-term strategic decisions. Specifically, this document presents four different business problems that could be resolved with proper experimentation techniques. The decisions range from the initial evaluation of whether an experiment is needed to how it can be designed, implemented, and evaluated to how it can be improved and sustained. This case would be best used alongside the technical note ""To Understand Consumer Behavior, Think Like a Marketplace Scientist"" (UVA-M-0950), as learnings from that note can be leveraged and applied to tackle the issues here. Ultimately, this reading allows MBA students and industry professionals alike an opportunity to practice being effective designers, analyzers, and proponents of experimentation.

CareMore Health System-a physician-founded care delivery system and health plan-had developed and refined an innovative care model for at-risk seniors enrolled in Medicare managed care (i.e., Medicare Advantage) plans. CareMore's President, Sachin Jain, and his colleagues believed their model achieved the elusive goal of improving outcomes while reducing costs. A key mandate for Jain was to scale the CareMore model beyond its current 75,000 Medicare Advantage members in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Virginia. One approach to scaling was to maintain a focus on Medicare Advantage but expand into new geographic markets. Alternatively, CareMore could focus on serving new populations. For example, CareMore had recently started serving Medicaid (i.e., younger, low-income) patients in Tennessee and Iowa. This case allows for a discussion of whether diversifying to serve these new populations was the key to ensuring CareMore's successful growth or a distraction from its core competency of caring for seniors.

This supplement to CareMore Health System (A) discusses the company's early experience introducing its managed Medicaid model in the Des Moines, Iowa market. It also provides an update on the Memphis program discussed in the (A) case.

In 2017, the owner of Onnie Jewellers in Leamington, Ontario, and her daughter were preparing for their annual summer promotion event. Held in mid-August, the invitation-only summer promotion event at the store had become hugely successful and very popular with Onnie' Jewellers' clientele. The owner and her daughter were reviewing data from the previous year's event and discussing potential changes that would improve the customer's shopping experience.

In 2016, the chief operating officer (COO) of InteraXon Inc., a Toronto-based technology start-up in the health and wellness sector, needed to put together a revised supply chain that was consistent with the company's new strategic plan. InteraXon's flagship product was a lightweight headband called Muse, aimed at measuring the wearer's brain activity. The COO needed to keep in mind two major requirements of the new plan: a) the company would be relocating the production of Muse from China to the United States and b) it needed to quickly scale up its manufacturing and marketing operations. What plan of action should the COO develop?

Early in the 21st Century the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government estimated that their oil reserves could run out in a 150 years. They began efforts to diversify the UAE economy into clean industries--tourism, technology and renewable energy--and signal that the country was pivoting away from an oil-based economy toward one that would grow and thrive as an environmentally aware, sustainable, low-carbon economy. Masdar City, a UAE marquee initiative designed to be the world's first zero-carbon city, was an important pillar of this economic diversification. Dr. Al-Jabar, Masdar City founder, envisioned it as a commercially viable "green-tech" cluster including an economic free zone relying on solar energy and other renewable resources that could serve as a model for sustainable urban development regionally and globally. This bold effort was not as straightforward as anticipated and planned. The case documents the wide variety of surprises--technological, financial and environmental challenges--that obstructed the initiative's progress, as well as the invaluable learning that unfolded as the Masdar City initiative evolved. The case provides an opportunity to explore the UAE's business climate, the role of government in economic development, challenges inherent in building an industry cluster, and limitations due to scarce talent resources.

In March 2017 David Stevens was taking questions in an open meeting with a local school board to discuss tax abatements for a new chemical plant. Stevens was the project manager for a proposed new chemical plant. The chemical plant was a joint venture (JV) between U.S. based Allied Chemical and Arachem Group, a Saudi Arabia chemical company. Stevens and the JV partners had been working on the plant location decision for more than two years. A final investment decision would be made in 2017 or 2018. The partners initially looked at more than 50 sites, primarily in Texas and Louisiana. The partners had narrowed the decision down to a site in Louisiana near Baton Rouge. Before an investment decision could be made the JV partners required tax abatements from the local government commissioners and the school board. As the meeting continued, Stevens thought about how the various stakeholders in the project and how the community response should be incorporated into the project investment decision.

Two Australian entrepreneurs, Anna Amphlett and Andrew Ferris decided to start a new venture to produce, market and distribute high quality premium wine in Tasmania, an island off the southern coast of Australia. Amphlett and Ferris developed a business plan for a winery business based on a new brand to be called Kangaroo Tail. Amphlett and Ferris were retired executives each with more than twenty years of experience at Constellation Brands Inc. and Treasury Wine Estates. After a year of experimentation Amphlett and Ferris finally settled upon a blend that yielded wines with the right aroma, taste, and color. They negotiated a loan requiring them to provide the bank with a business plan and projected financial statements. They are unsure whether the wine operation will be a profitable use of their capital.

Supplement to case TB0499. Two Australian entrepreneurs, Anna Amphlett and Andrew Ferris decided to start a new venture to produce, market and distribute high quality premium wine in Tasmania, an island off the southern coast of Australia. Amphlett and Ferris developed a business plan for a winery business based on a new brand to be called Kangaroo Tail. Amphlett and Ferris were retired executives each with more than twenty years of experience at Constellation Brands Inc. and Treasury Wine Estates. After a year of experimentation, Amphlett and Ferris finally settled upon a blend that yielded wines with the right aroma, taste, and color. They negotiated a loan requiring them to provide the bank with a business plan and projected financial statements. They are unsure whether the wine operation will be a profitable use of their capital.

Supplement to case TB0499. Two Australian entrepreneurs, Anna Amphlett and Andrew Ferris decided to start a new venture to produce, market and distribute high quality premium wine in Tasmania, an island off the southern coast of Australia. Amphlett and Ferris developed a business plan for a winery business based on a new brand to be called Kangaroo Tail. Amphlett and Ferris were retired executives each with more than twenty years of experience at Constellation Brands Inc. and Treasury Wine Estates. After a year of experimentation, Amphlett and Ferris finally settled upon a blend that yielded wines with the right aroma, taste, and color. They negotiated a loan requiring them to provide the bank with a business plan and projected financial statements. They are unsure whether the wine operation will be a profitable use of their capital.

Supplement to case TB0499. Two Australian entrepreneurs, Anna Amphlett and Andrew Ferris decided to start a new venture to produce, market and distribute high quality premium wine in Tasmania, an island off the southern coast of Australia. Amphlett and Ferris developed a business plan for a winery business based on a new brand to be called Kangaroo Tail. Amphlett and Ferris were retired executives each with more than twenty years of experience at Constellation Brands Inc. and Treasury Wine Estates. After a year of experimentation, Amphlett and Ferris finally settled upon a blend that yielded wines with the right aroma, taste, and color. They negotiated a loan requiring them to provide the bank with a business plan and projected financial statements. They are unsure whether the wine operation will be a profitable use of their capital.

Rahama Wright and Shea Yeleen is the story of a young female social entrepreneur, Rahama Wright, who started a non-profit venture, Shea Yeleen, to train women in West Africa with a more lucrative livelihood by manufacturing shea butter to earn higher wages. The case describes the shea butter industry in Africa, the role of women in the industry, and Wright's background in non-profit and government as her rationale for starting a non-profit venture. The case outlines the different organizational forms that nascent entrepreneurs could start when creating a venture and ends with a decision point whether Wright should continue running a non-profit or if she should convert to a for-profit social venture. The case offers students an opportunity to understand the differences between non-profits and for-profit ventures from organizational, strategic, and personal perspectives.

This case brings to the fore different complexities of contract labor employment by principal employers (PE) in the Indian context, including sensitivities involved in handling contract workers' union. Regency Hospital (RH), a corporate Hospital chain in India, acquired Gedex Hospital (GH) in 2005, along with contract workers employed in the latter. In the year 1983, GH's management decided to employ contract workers for operating its support services like House Keeping, etc. Two years later, some contract workers of GH became members of the All Gedex Employees' Union. Apprehending industrial relations (IR) problems, GH decided to take them on its permanent rolls. Later on, more contract workers of GH formally became members of this Union, but GH did not concede their demand for permanency. These workers continued to work at GH and later at RH under different contractors; for they were well-trained hospital workforce. When RH acquired GH in 2005, some of the contract workers were doing the same work as was done by RH's core workers, and continued to work that way. In October 2015 all contract workers of RH went on strike. Their demands included increase in wages and absorbing them in RH's core workforce. RH argued that all that was the obligation of the contractor concerned through whom they were employed. RH's HR manager contacted the local police, which eventually helped in pacifying these contract workers leading to withdrawal of their agitation. In the meantime, the management enhanced some minor welfare benefits for them through the contractor, but no substantive relief was given. RH was pondering on action it should take, and how to prevent reoccurrence of similar complex situations. It was also considering the working environment that should be made available to contract workers so as to promote their engagement, and also avoiding any possible legal lapses on its part in handling contract labor issues.

Managers today are under tremendous pressure to uncover factors driving customers' attitudes and behavior. Unfortunately, traditional methods suffer from well-known limitations and have remained largely unchanged since their introduction decades ago. As a result, there is growing interest in brain-based approaches that may enable managers to directly probe customers' underlying thoughts, feelings, and intentions. This article provides practical guidance to managers on using these tools, focusing on two distinct uses: validation of existing insights and generation of novel insights. Throughout, we emphasize that managers should see traditional and brain-based approaches as complements, rather than substitutes, in understanding customers.

More than 40% of U.S. consumers participate in the $300 billion conscious consumer market (CCM). In the past decade, the growth of the CCM has not gone unnoticed by startups and established multinational corporations. Yet what differentiates success and failure of such forays is not fully understood. By using multi-case study design, this article explores how a range of firms have approached entry into the CCM. It develops a CCM Entry Strategies Matrix that suggests alternate market entry strategies dependent on the scope of the marketplace and the values of the target consumer segment.