Intervention, such as that performed via surgical procedures, is necessary when a board of directors is not functioning as it should. Unlike medical procedures, members of a board of directors have to perform surgery on themselves for change to occur. Board surgery might require resizing the board, invoking term limits, establishing conflict of interest policies, and increased emphasis on board member competencies. This article describes the symptoms leading to the need for surgery and suggests that it is better to perform elective surgery rather than letting problems reach the point of requiring emergency surgery.

Pirates on the virtual sea are supplying their illicit digital content and goods through cyberlockers and darknet markets. The deep web hosts darknet marketplaces selling a variety of wares, such as narcotics and weapons, and is testimony to the growth of illicit trade on the internet. The challenge of web sites that host digital content piracy is exacerbated through linkages to a variety of malware schemes that have created a lucrative crimeware economy. Digital thieves target unsuspecting consumers as digital bait to derive profits from a variety of malware schemes such as ransomware and malvertising. The hijacking of access to computers and their digital content in order to ransom them back to consumers or organizations is considered to be one of the leading threats of internet crime. Malvertising schemes are plaguing the internet advertising business-criminals are reaping profits by posting legitimate advertisements at content theft sites or using an army of botnets to fake advertising traffic. A variety of stratagems are evolving to curb this illicit trade, including fostering multi-lateral enforcement tactics, updating legislation to circumvent this type of crime on the internet, training digital savvy citizens, and creating private-sector remedies.

Historically, globalization has been synonymous with mega brands' expansion into international markets. However, changes in the marketing landscape-namely, growth of immigrant consumers, new and emerging branding strategies, and advancements in technology-have created a shift in the globalization paradigm, opening opportunities for small brands. Focusing on the growing number of Asian-American consumers, the authors develop a two-stage global market entry strategy for small brands entering the U.S. market. Specifically, the authors show how Asian brands can penetrate the U.S. market by serving Asian-American consumers or using them as a launchpad to reach the mainstream American consumers. The growth of small global brands signifies an important and exciting change in the branded marketplace currently dominated by Western brands.

In recent years, the number of harassment claims filed with the EEOC has declined overall, but this fact masks a frightening reality: though claims involving some types of harassment have declined, claims for other types of harassment-especially nontraditional forms of harassment-have actually increased. Therefore it remains necessary for employers to maintain a current anti-harassment program, which should consist of the following elements: (1) a clear anti-harassment policy; (2) an explicit statement of prohibited behaviors that can be considered harassment; (3) a complaint procedure that encourages employees to come forward with harassment complaints; (4) protections for complainants and witnesses against retaliation; (5) an investigative strategy that protects privacy interests of both the alleged victim and the accused offender and ensures confidentiality to the extent possible; (6) periodic management training and employee awareness programs that continue to communicate the organization's position on this issue; and (7) measures and processes to ensure prompt corrective action to stop ongoing harassment, and appropriate remedial and disciplinary actions for offenders. In this article, we provide best practice recommendations concerning each of these elements.

The phrase 'sharing economy' has grown to become an umbrella term for a wide range of nonownership forms of consumption activities such as swapping, bartering, trading, renting, sharing, and exchanging. In spite of such a wide spectrum of behaviors, there is limited practical knowledge about how individual sharing economy practices should be managed. Building on a framework that categorizes sharing economy practices based on their detailed characteristics, this article provides extensive recommendations to managers and practitioners. The article argues that each practice is a hybrid of sharing and exchange and provides several recommendations based on the nature of each practice's offering.

The number and value of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) continue to grow, with record increases in the U.S. and Asia Pacific in 2015. Yet, despite calls from academic literature for more consideration of the human and behavioral factors in such massive change, there remains an inordinate focus on the financial or quantitative aspects. We connect the newer streams of research with efficiency and growth imperatives via an illustrative analysis of ANZ New Zealand's horizontal merger with The National Bank of New Zealand. ANZ successfully completed a brand and technology merger by prioritizing the customer, addressing employees' socioeconomic concerns, providing enough time and resources to ensure efficiencies, and rebranding enriched customer services and revenues. The results were overwhelmingly positive and provide a useful template for how M&As should be executed in the future using a people-first approach.

Increasingly, firms are integrating environmental sustainability into their business strategies. Yet, sustainability is a complex topic and many firms need to form environmental partnerships to access additional resources-in the form of investments, technologies, expertise, public image, and/or political influence-to develop competitive advantage. Environmental partnership decisions are difficult, however, because they often need to reconcile multifaceted sustainability issues with multi-level, and potentially divergent, strategic goals. To meet their intended objectives, companies should carefully consider the type of environmental partnerships and partners that can best meet their needs. Based on a review of the literature, interviews with executives responsible for environmental partnerships, and publicly available data, we find firms engage in three main types of environmental partnerships: innovation-seeking, legitimacy-building, and policy-influencing. Each type of partnership benefits from different types of resources and partner choices. Herein, we describe the advantages of each type of environmental partnership and partners that may best support them. Given that many firms develop environmental partnership portfolios, managing multiple environmental partnerships simultaneously, we also discuss the implications of our research for environmental partnership portfolios.

Although many articles discuss customer journey mapping (CJM), both academics and practitioners still question the best ways to model the consumer decision journey. We contend that most customer journey maps are critically flawed. They assume all customers of a particular organization experience the same organizational touchpoints and view these touchpoints as equally important. Furthermore, management lacks an understanding of how to use CJM as a cross-functional, strategic tool that promotes service innovation. This article proposes a solution to the unwieldy complexity of CJM by linking customer research to the CJM process and by showing managers how to develop a customer journey map that improves a customer's experience at each touchpoint. Using the case of an actual retail mall, we show that common CJM assumptions about the equal importance of all touchpoints are fundamentally wrong, and how easy it is for retail managers and strategic planners to make incorrect judgements about customer experience. This article demonstrates through a case study how customer research helped a mall's strategic management team understand which touchpoints were more or less critical to customer experience. It also shows key strategic initiatives at each touchpoint, resulting in cross-functional input aimed to advance service innovation at the mall.

Research suggests a new way for companies to use customer satisfaction surveys: Instead of asking customers what went wrong, begin by asking what went right. This can positively influence customers' perceptions, increasing their reported levels of satisfaction, the chance that they will purchase again, the amount of money they will spend, and their loyalty over time.

A new study reveals a connection between the presence of specific genes and socioeconomic achievements, such as more-prestigious jobs and higher incomes.

This two-part case traces the evolution of the Tata Group, one of India's largest and well-known business groups, from inception until date. The first case principally focuses on Ratan Tata's leadership of the Tata Group, from 1991 to 2012. Tata Group History, the first section of the case, traces the early years of the Tata Group, its management philosophy, the leadership years of its legendary chairman, JRD Tata and ends with the elevation of Ratan Tata as chairman of the group in 1991. Leading Change details the group's transformation under Ratan Tata's leadership. Passing the Baton describes the succession process that led to the appointment of Cyrus Mistry as chairman of the group in late 2012. The second case describes Cyrus Mistry's leadership of the group until it ended abruptly with his sudden removal as chairman of Tata Sons on October 24, 2016, and the reinstatement of Ratan Tata as interim chairman.

Supplement to case IMB597. This two-part case traces the evolution of the Tata Group, one of India's largest and well-known business groups, from inception until date. The first case principally focuses on Ratan Tata's leadership of the Tata Group, from 1991 to 2012. Tata Group History, the first section of the case, traces the early years of the Tata Group, its management philosophy, the leadership years of its legendary chairman, JRD Tata and ends with the elevation of Ratan Tata as chairman of the group in 1991. Leading Change details the group's transformation under Ratan Tata's leadership. Passing the Baton describes the succession process that led to the appointment of Cyrus Mistry as chairman of the group in late 2012. The second case describes Cyrus Mistry's leadership of the group until it ended abruptly with his sudden removal as chairman of Tata Sons on October 24, 2016, and the reinstatement of Ratan Tata as interim chairman.

i-flex is a unique illustration of an Indian software product company that emerged from an ecosystem dominated by software services firms. The case comprises two parts. The first part, set in late 2005, describes the company's evolution into a global market leader in the banking software industry ending with its acquisition by Oracle. The second part of the case, set in 2015, provides an update on the evolution of the company in the 10 years since its acquisition by Oracle.

Supplement to case IMB603. i-flex is a unique illustration of an Indian software product company that emerged from an ecosystem dominated by software services firms. The case comprises two parts. The first part, set in late 2005, describes the company's evolution into a global market leader in the banking software industry ending with its acquisition by Oracle. The second part of the case, set in 2015, provides an update on the evolution of the company in the 10 years since its acquisition by Oracle.

Innovations in big data and machine learning have begun diffusing into various functions at the workplace. The case touches upon the challenges of instituting a culture change within HR divisions of large organizations that might not have fully embraced technology-led hiring that is backed by solid analytics. Using the backdrop of a large IT firm (HCL Technologies), the case provides an appropriate context to debate if technology offerings such as HIREalchemy from EdGE Networks can galvanize the talent acquisition function. Can leveraging such IT help the HR function break out of its "administrative" image, and emerge as a strategic contributor to the organization's direction-setting exercises? Will such technologies dis-intermediate the recruitment function, and potentially disrupt the L&D function? While engaging the learner on these questions, the case also provides an insight into the ground realities of industry sectors such as IT/ITeS that rely on a well-oiled people supply chain.

SATTVA eTECH is an electronics company involved in design and development of embedded new products. The company designs and manufactures client's requirements ranging from nuclear control systems to industrial automation systems. The company is analyzing the three potential design orders received from clients of different industry segments. One of the managers (Samidth in the case) has been assigned the responsibility to present his independent assessment of this order selection dilemma and present the entire detailed analysis to the company's top management.

Ami Shah who works with social media promotions associated with Bollywood movies was interested in obtaining behavioral insights with a comparison between '`Gulaab Gang" and '`Queen'' (both these movies are based on themes associated with women). '`Gulaab Gang'' was a box office failure while '`Queen'' was a major hit. An attitudinal survey among the viewers of each of these films forms the behavioral input to the case study. Amidst the high visibility campaigns of films in Bollywood, Shah believed that behavioral aspects of movies is something that has not been explored much with respect to branding of films. How can these behavioral inputs on movies enable lessons to be learnt on branding? Can a framework for branding be suggested from the analysis based on the behavioral analysis?

Discussion between Coca-Cola, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focused on how Coca-Cola's supply chain knowledge could be harnessed to improve the distribution of essential medicines and health supplies in Africa. This led to Project Last Mile, a pilot project that aimed to deliver sustainable improvement in distribution of essential medicines and health supplies in Tanzania.

Thomas D'Souza, a cofounder of Trinisoft, reflected on how far Trinisoft Technologies had come in just four years. He and Nicolson, his brother and cofounder, had just purchased a new office space in Ahmedabad, India, and added several new developers to service a growing list of clients. Trinisoft's fee-for-service business model meant clients would have to be replaced as development projects came to an end. Growth required more than just replacement, and attracting new clients depended on tangible successes with current ones.

The case is about the concerns of second generation entrepreneurs in a family managed business who aspire to attain the next orbit, the next level of success in the business. Natural Ice Cream was started by the father in 1980s. The passionate ice cream maker made two small innovations; one, a product innovation in the form of using only natural ingredients. He was so creative that he could come up with 125 combinations of fresh and dried fruits in ice cream. Two, a marketing innovation in the form of selling ice cream only in exclusive ice cream parlours. Both were novel ideas of the time and became the 'Unique Selling Propositions' (USPs). The business expanded over the three decades and with the help of his sons changed the scale and adapted best practices of management. The expansion path was carefully drawn up by preserving the USPs of the business. The franchise route for expansion was used. Manufacturing remained at a central location to keep strict quality control. Having taken their business from a small dream to INR 1 billion niche brand in the artisan ice cream segment, the owners at Naturals were dreaming big. They were restless and anxious to enter the next orbit and aspired to become a pan-India and global brand.