This case captures the roller-coaster ride of India's first multinational pharmaceutical company that after winning several accolades lost its way only to eventually plead guilty for the unethical practices it had resorted to in fulfilling its growth aspirations. Tracing the strategic choices of the company since its inception until it ceased to exist, the case covers the reign of several different CEOs. It enables examination of the drivers of a firm's strategic choices at the point of decision making, and serves to illustrate the dynamic aspects of leadership. Among others, it highlights the role of aspirations as a driver of firm's choices and the difficult tradeoffs that are inherent to aspiration-driven strategies. Demonstrating the negative repercussions of an aspiration-led strategy as well as the challenges a firm's leadership faces as they seek to re-define the aspirations, it serves as an intriguing story of the dark side of aspirations. The teaching note provides a set of discussion questions and pre-reads that can be assigned to the class, and suggests a detailed teaching plan that is divided into five pastures.

Chocolate Remedies tells the story of an African American couple working together to build their own retail business specializing in sales of high-quality, hand-made, chocolate truffles. The case follows their path as they launch two coffee shops that fail after five years of slow growth and limited revenue, leaving them in debt. The couple returns to corporate positions and rebuilds their financial security. Next, they decide to invest their savings to develop a retail chocolate business. They establish a retail location but watch sales plummet after the first year, leading them to move to a new location and seek a business model that will bring them success. The case addresses the following topics. • The factors involved, personal as well as financial, in the decision to build rather than buy a business. • The relationship linking market research and analysis, to their choice of location, as it impacts the success of a retail business. • The importance of product lines, sales channels, and accurate financial monitoring in crafting a business model that produces revenues and profits.

SIGFOX is a provider of infrastructure services to the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) industry. The company has a homegrown solution to the problem of high energy consumption networks. Their low power consumption wide area network (LPWAN) will unleash the IoT industry by allowing companies to build viable solutions using IoT. Just as with operating systems, an infrastructure is only as valuable as the solutions that are available on them. A basic challenge needing to be overcome before gaining traction within IoT is that their infrastructure must become widely available. In one approach, the company can get third parties to buy their technology and use it to provide coverage. In the second approach, SIGFOX has to raise capital and do its own expansion of the infrastructure. In addition, they have also chosen a mixed approach: to deploy and operate by themselves in a minority of countries (France, Germany, US) and to deploy/operate via partners (SIGFOX Network Operators) in the rest of the world.

New research shows that companies really are failing faster than they used to: In particular, digital companies are far more vulnerable to quick imitation than are companies that own factories, products, and supply chains. Vijay Govindarajan and Anup Srivastava, of Dartmouth's Tuck School, offer three strategies for firms looking to boost their longevity: First, companies could incorporate both technology and physical products into their business models. Second, they could strive for models that include strong network effects (think of Facebook's 1 billion users and the hassle that jumping to a rival platform would create for them, because of all the "reconnecting" they'd have to do). Third, they could increase their focus on continuous innovation--attending to the long term so that they'll still be around after the short term.

When researchers tracked the performance of 444 celebrated U.S. CEOs, they discovered that companies run by MBAs underperformed the rest. The reason? The MBAs were more likely to engage in risky strategies. And while those strategies led to temporary gains, which increased the CEOs' compensation, they hurt the companies in the long run.

The case tells the story of Familitet, a small social enterprise in Ryazan, Russia, and its CEO, Tatiana Gschwend. In the post-Soviet world, where institutions are still very traditional, Familitet fills certain gaps. By offering classes in family and perinatal yoga, speech therapy, and social skills; organizing workshops on marital and parental psychology, breastfeeding, and anthropology; and offering the support of a midwife, Familitet has made its mark as a trail blazer. The case describes events that took place in 2015, when Familitet was experiencing the impact of the economic crisis caused by Western sanctions. That same year, the company had been approached by a Kazakh company wishing to explore the possibility of opening a franchise - an opportunity that could be advantageous to Familitet both during the crisis and over the long term. Tatiana and her team had to decide how to respond to the crisis by adapting their business model in Ryazan and choosing the optimal business model for the Kazakh market.

As it approaches its 20th anniversary, Major League Soccer (MLS), the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada, has the wind in its sails. Whether it's new TV deals, the massive hiring of European and South American stars, or club and stadium expansions, the league is seeking to build momentum to compete with the major European and Mexican leagues as well as with rivals in the other professional sports leagues in North America, where the market is undergoing a radical demographic shift. However, MLS still has a long way to go to fulfill its ambitions: there is a high level of competition, the league's financial situation is shaky, its governance structure is complex, and the quality of play remains inferior to that of the major soccer leagues. This case traces the evolution of the league since its creation and draws a portrait of the business context within which MLS is seeking to make its mark.

In November 2014, the Residence Services department at MacEwan University in Alberta, Canada, needed to replace a residence assistant who was exiting midway through the academic year. The new hire would have one semester of work for the current academic year and, with good performance, was expected to return for two semesters of work in the following academic year. One of the qualified applicants had a distinguishable disability: she used a wheelchair. On the one hand, it would be easier for Residence Services to not hire her because of the various potential risks, concerns, or expected difficulties that could arise with her employment. The primary concern was her ability to respond effectively to emergency situations. A secondary concern was the impact on operational efficiency and the need to adapt work and staff routines to accommodate the use of a wheelchair. On the other hand, it was not legal to discriminate against the candidate for employment, and Residence Services valued inclusive hiring practices. The decision to hire or not hire this candidate needed to be made very soon.

The case presents the dilemma of Vivek Gupta, director Sanmarg pvt limited as he contemplates the road ahead for the 70 year old Hindi daily-Sanmarg. Headquartered in Kolkata and catering to the Hindi literate of west Bengal, Sanmarg also came out with state level editions from Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand. The 16 page daily newspaper had stayed constant in its offering and only lately had come out with an on-line version. Was this consistency a strength or did the customer seek variety? Was it time to reinvent the newspaper? Or would it be easier to tap the untapped potential of neighboring states? Digital new age media and English dailies eying the language market demanded quick action. Makeover or market expansion, what was the right path for Sanmarg?

Russia has emerged as a dominant player especially in the natural gas segment of the global oil and gas industry. Its position of power has been cemented over the last decade on a variety of fronts ranging from the execution of the first offshore project, the first LNG project, the first Arctic exploration program, and the emergence of global giants, namely Gazprom and Rosneft, that have exerted considerable influence in attracting global super majors to Russia. The case study explores the execution of the two major Sakhalin projects that were instrumental in establishing Russia's position as a pre-eminent source of natural gas. These projects were among the earliest ones on a global scale that involved multiple global partners and were executed in a forbidding part of the country, offshore Russia in the Sea of Okhotsk. Both development deals were struck when Russia was in the midst of significant economic chaos following the breakup of the USSR into constituent republics. This period in Russian history was marked by significant opportunities as well as significant risks.

When the Meta Abo Brewery Company, Ethiopia's second largest brewery based in Sebeta, Ethiopia, was purchased from the government by UK-based Diageo PLC in 2012, sustainability of raw material supply, especially barley, was a key concern. At the time of the acquisition, the Meta Abo Brewery was importing all its malt barley. Diageo wanted to push local raw material sourcing to 70 percent. In May 2012, Paul Walsh, Diageo's CEO, attended the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. During the symposium, Walsh signed a pledge to support the launch of the G8's New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (see case Exhibit 2). In the same year, Walsh signed the letter of intent committing Diageo to invest US$1.5 million scalable value chain project to source barley for the Meta Abo Brewery from about 6,000 smallholder farmers with the potential to scale up to 20,000 metric tons per year by 2016. This would still not meet all demands for the malt barley required to produce the malt needed by the Meta Abo Brewery, but it was a step in the right direction in terms of increasing local content in a market computing for inputs. The goal was clear, but the implementation details had to be worked out. How would Diageo and Meta Abo Brewery implement this bold initiative to partner with 6,000 smallholder farmers to increase both quality and quantity of local sourced malt barley? They had experience working on development projects in Africa, but would those projects provide sufficient lessons learned for this challenge?

In September 2013, Sanjit "Bunker" Roy was honoured with an award for his vision and leadership in addressing global problems through his novel organization, Barefoot College (Barefoot). Barefoot's mission was to improve the lives of impoverished rural residents by upgrading their existing skills with training so the villages and their residents were self-sufficient. When he started the college in the state of Rajasthan, India, in 1972, Roy never dreamed that Barefoot would be able to affect the lives of millions of people in 24 countries. Barefoot's global footprint was spreading at a rapid pace with requests for even more locations. Roy wondered whether he should freeze the organization in its present state or continue to increase its presence with a centralized headquarters. Alternatively, he could replicate the autonomous model on a smaller scale, still adherent to the beliefs, values, and assumptions that were the foundation of Barefoot College. This case won second prize at the ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition 2016 in the overall category.

The senior director of marketing for Strength Pharma, an Indian sports nutrition company, was managing the November 2016 launch of the company's whey protein supplement, Muscle-RDX. This product would be the first protein supplement approved by the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India for athletes who participated in high-endurance sports. Muscle-RDX would provide a domestic option for Indian athletes who competed in these sports and who wanted to purchase affordable supplements that delivered effective results. However, before the product launch, the senior director of marketing needed to develop demand forecasts, which would determine the most appropriate pricing strategy and package size for the new product.

Jumbo Group Ltd. (Jumbo) was among Singapore's leading food and beverage establishments. Founded in 1987, the group consisted of eight brands and operated 16 outlets-14 in Singapore and two in China. On October 28, 2015, Jumbo announced its initial public offering (IPO) of SG$22.06 million, consisting of two million retail shares and 86.23 million placement shares at SG$0.25 each. In this highly competitive market, the company's chief executive officer and chairman was motivated to list Jumbo so it would have a bigger platform and better exposure to grow faster. He hoped a softer IPO market would attract more long-term investors. Jumbo was clearly profitable, but based on its past financial performance, what would be a reasonable valuation for each of its shares? The case covers valuation using the discounted cash flow model, weighted average cost of capital, discounted dividend model, and relative valuation, as well as the computation of underpricing.

Student spreadsheet for case W16808.

Erie Thames Powerlines, an electricity distributor in Southwestern Ontario, needed to determine the suitability of the company acquiring a hybrid truck as opposed to a conventional diesel utility truck. As of early July 2016, the truck suppliers (for both hybrid and diesel trucks) and the internal accounting department had provided substantial information with which to conduct a thorough analysis. The company also wanted to include some qualitative aspects, such as the reduction of noise pollution and the positive contributions of hybrid trucks both to the company's image and to its promotion of energy efficiency. The firm needed to build an appropriate business analysis that included both qualitative and quantitative elements to support a recommendation to the utility company's board of directors in August 2016.

Student spreadsheet for case W13196.

Student spreadsheet for product 9B13D011.

Student spreadsheet for product 9B16N068.

Jumbo Group Ltd. (Jumbo) was among Singapore’s leading food and beverage establishments. Founded in 1987, the group consisted of eight brands and operated 16 outlets—14 in Singapore and two in China. On October 28, 2015, Jumbo announced its initial public offering (IPO) of SG$22.06 million, consisting of two million retail shares and 86.23 million placement shares at SG$0.25 each. In this highly competitive market, the company’s chief executive officer and chairman was motivated to list Jumbo so it would have a bigger platform and better exposure to grow faster. He hoped a softer IPO market would attract more long-term investors. Jumbo was clearly profitable, but based on its past financial performance, what would be a reasonable valuation for each of its shares? The case covers valuation using the discounted cash flow model, weighted average cost of capital, discounted dividend model, and relative valuation, as well as the computation of underpricing.