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Leaders increasingly characterize the workforce as being broader than an organization's employees, encompassing all of the people and groups that contribute to achieving the company's business objectives. The shift is challenging leaders to redefine who and what constitutes their workforce and to develop new management practices and organizational structures.

New digital technologies and advances in hearing aids could help people hear more clearly, but hearing aids could cost thousands of dollars-and Medicare didn't cover the cost of the devices. This case study discusses the disruption to the U.S. hearing aid market in the United after the Biden administration created a new regulatory pathway for the sale and service of over-the-counter hearing aids, without a prescription. How would the five companies that had long dominated the market adjust to the change? How would new competitors like Apple develop retail strategies for Bluetooth-based products, and provide support and troubleshooting services?

This case study follows Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) through its Culture Journey (2018-2021), an initiative to rebuild the corporate culture as part of a broader turnaround strategy. The airline was stricken by twin tragedies in 2014 - the disappearance of Flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean and the downing of Flight MH17 in Ukraine. Such devastation would have bankrupted any airline, and MAB was particularly vulnerable as it has been battling financial difficulties for years. Having undergone numerous restructurings, nationalisation, and leadership turnovers, the airline's decision to embark on a culture transformation was unlike that of previous restructuring plans. Unique to the approach were the unconventional ideas of Dato' Mohd Khalis Abdul Rahim, Group Chief Human Capital Officer, including engaging a religious teacher to boost employee morale, singing the national anthem at company events, and the composition of a corporate song. These efforts to reset the corporate culture were reinforced by a series of neuro-linguistic programming workshops, as well as upskilling and reskilling programmes. While the Culture Journey started to bear fruit, MAB was hit by the strong headwinds of COVID-19 and the eruption of the Ukraine-Russia war. The silver lining was the reopening of Malaysia's international borders in 2022, followed by the rebound of the travel industry and surging passenger traffic volumes. By early 2023, MAB was in its strongest financial position in years. The airline also won a national HR award for the success of its human capital development effort, an integral part of the Culture Journey. However, the road ahead to rebuilding its reputation, repositioning it as a premium airline, and recapturing market share in a highly competitive industry was still long and arduous. The question remained: could the airline sustain its revitalised culture in the post-pandemic world?

On September 9, 2022, Singapore Management University (SMU) President Lily Kong launched the SMU Sustainability Blueprint at her fourth President's State of the University Address to an audience of over 600 faculty, staff, students, and guests. While paying attention to sustainability was not new for SMU, this focus intensified from 2017, when plans were put in place to considerably reduce energy and water consumption, as well as waste, so that the whole of SMU could achieve a carbon neutral campus by 2030. In 2020, when the SMU 2025 Strategic Plan was announced, Sustainable Living was highlighted as one of the three strategic priorities of the university. In the following year, the SMU Sustainability Taskforce was formed, entrusted with crafting the Blueprint, which would chart actions in concerted ways across four key strategies supporting the Sustainability Living priority: Cultivate a Greener University, Develop Change Agents Through Sustainability Education, Drive Impactful Research, and Foster Resilient Communities. By September 2022, SMU had made considerable progress in its sustainability journey, but these efforts had also come with their share of challenges. Among the many difficulties encountered were tough decisions over ensuring that all the buildings were energy-efficient green buildings, fossil fuel divestment, interdisciplinary collaboration in the curriculum development for sustainability education, and the coalescence of disparate research efforts across the different schools. Attempts to build resilience within the SMU community during the COVID-19 pandemic - a period of disruptions, uncertainties, and stress - had not been easy too. Looking ahead, Kong contemplated: What else could she and all at SMU do to accelerate and deepen the university's sustainability progress? What trade-offs would have to be made to achieve an ideal state of sustainable living?

Ravi Arora, Vice President (Group Innovation), Tata Sons Private Limited, and his Group Innovation team initially faced difficulty when introducing the concept of open innovation to the Tata Group. They tried to ease the staff into embracing it by getting them to share problem statements, learn from other companies which had already adopted it, and form InnoClusters among Tata companies which collaborated in diverse areas. The team subsequently organised monthly thematic eHackathons in which staff could propose ideas to solve business challenges on specific themes posted by senior management. In the course of organising the eHackathons, Ravi's team encountered several issues such as administrative difficulties and mismatched expectations. The central question in this case study is whether eHackathons and internal crowdsourcing in general are employee engagement devices or serious initiatives by organisations to obtain solutions to innovation problems. The question centres around the number of ideas that become full-fledged solutions, since only very few, less that 10 percent, are actually implemented. This begs the question of whether employee sourcing of ideas can ever be an effective source of innovative solutions. Hence the case is titled 'ideas and not solutions' to reflect this vast chasm between idea generation and solution implementation, while still celebrating the winners from each eHackathon.

This exercise examines three different family enterprise scenarios to open a conversation on what makes them successful. We look at how there is no strategy that fits all for family businesses, but there are strategies that can influence both the business and the family in positive ways in order to establish and cement legacies.

The Nest and Allpa Peru Case focuses on the issue of making supply chains transparent beyond the factory walls through to the artisan level. Retailers in the home fashion industry are increasingly under pressure by customers and investors to provide complete value chain transparency to demonstrate that they are acting responsibly in moving toward sustainability objectives in both environmental and equitable work practices. While many retailers are taking increased responsibility for sustainable and equitable work practices in manufacturing factories, artisan work carried out beyond the factory walls is difficult to track and most often left unmeasured. This gap in the fashion industry's capability to create full transparency throughout the value chain prohibits retailers from being able to certify that they have full value chain transparency. Nest provides a methodology for companies to understand and manage their artisan work compliance with ethical work practices. Nest works with retailers and their suppliers to create management practices to measure and manage artisan work to enable full supply chain transparency. As the push for sustainability in terms of environmental and equitable work practices increases both from customers and industry practitioners, there is a need for designing and building a credible method for how to measure and manage the artisan work process. The case illustrates that for each fashion company to build this process themselves would be prohibitively costly both in terms of time and financial investment. Nest is an organization that is working toward providing a means for companies to ensure that equitable work practices are followed for artisan work. The case examines how Nest fills this gap, describing how Rebecca van Bergen, CEO of Nest, and her Compliance Team, led by Sarah Otto, provide a credible process for designing, tracking, and certifying compliance of artisan work.

This case series describes the decision of King's Flair International (KFI) on whether to venture into the nanofiber business. KFI grew from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the kitchenware and household products market to a successful pioneer in developing and implementing a "virtual manufacturing system" led by the company founder, Alex Wong, with his adventurous and entrepreneurial personality. KFI's innovative product design and engineering, along with its celebrated virtual manufacturing (VM) system, enabled it to enjoy steady growth over three decades starting in 1989, and it was listed in 2015 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As Wong constantly challenged the company's status quo, he became aware of nanofiber material and its potential. However, he also knew that the nature of the nanofiber business was very different compared to KFI's existing business-a dilemma emerged. In case (A), students will assume the role of the Founder and CEO of KFI and decide whether the company should venture into the nanofiber business. During the process, students will gain insights into how the founder grew KFI by developing and managing its core competencies, and in particular how the virtual manufacturing system played a pivotal role in realizing KFI's core competencies. In case (B), students will take the role of Gigi Wong, Executive Director of the company and the Founder's daughter, to decide how the nanofiber business could be implemented in KFI.

This case series describes the decision of King's Flair International (KFI) on whether to venture into the nanofiber business. KFI grew from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the kitchenware and household products market to a successful pioneer in developing and implementing a "virtual manufacturing system" led by the company founder, Alex Wong, with his adventurous and entrepreneurial personality. KFI's innovative product design and engineering, along with its celebrated virtual manufacturing (VM) system, enabled it to enjoy steady growth over three decades starting in 1989, and it was listed in 2015 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As Wong constantly challenged the company's status quo, he became aware of nanofiber material and its potential. However, he also knew that the nature of the nanofiber business was very different compared to KFI's existing business-a dilemma emerged. In case (A), students will assume the role of the Founder and CEO of KFI and decide whether the company should venture into the nanofiber business. During the process, students will gain insights into how the founder grew KFI by developing and managing its core competencies, and in particular how the virtual manufacturing system played a pivotal role in realizing KFI's core competencies. In case (B), students will take the role of Gigi Wong, Executive Director of the company and the Founder's daughter, to decide how the nanofiber business could be implemented in KFI.

Raymond Green, Chief Researcher at Amber Global, a global energy think tank, believes that climate change could be slowed by consumers switching to electric vehicles (EVs). He analyses the lithium-ion (li-ion) battery industry's origins and its ascendance to an ecosystem that encompasses diverse actors such as lead firms (key li-ion battery manufacturers), upstream suppliers of raw and processed minerals, and downstream complementors of battery management system (BMS) providers and charging stations. In particular, governments play integral roles as members of the li-ion battery ecosystem in which their unique ties with lead firms have led to the rise of diverse ecosystems across the countries of Japan, South Korea, and China. Consequently, the government and lead firms co-lead and also co-develop the specific li-ion battery ecosystem to align the set of multilateral actors to materialise the value proposition of high-energy and low-cost li-ion batteries for the end-user. How has the emphasis of the different governments influenced the rise of the diverse li-ion battery ecosystems and therefore, the alignment of the diverse actors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and how would it effect the emergence of the specific li-ion battery ecosystem as a winner in the future?

Over two decades old, Effet Boomerang is an advertising agency based in Quebec, Canada. In recent years, it has found it harder to win client contracts, which has been partially due to changes in the industry. This has left its co-founder and president examining her options for repositioning the agency. This case provides an interesting opportunity to introduce students to internal and external analyses by having them examine how a small firm may leverage its strengths to effectively adapt to a changing industry.

During the first quarter of the 21st century, the TV industry underwent rapid vertical consolidation.For decades, the industry had been divided into three basic levels: production (i.e., the studios that identified on-screen talent and facilitated the making of content); distribution (i.e., the TV channels that carried the content); and platform (i.e., the cable TV or satellite providers who brought the content to viewers). In the 2010s, however, an increasing number of companies in that value chain had begun to play on multiple levels. Streaming services such as Netflix were producing their own high-quality content, and both traditional TV channels and production companies (e.g., NBC, Paramount, and Disney) were circumventing the conventional value chain and building platforms to sell their content directly to viewers. This case uses a small set of examples--including the streaming service Netflix, the sports channel ESPN, and the movie channel AMC--to explore the economics of this new verticalized TV industry. It asks students how companies can create value and maximize profitability in TV.

New research shows that factors unrelated to employees' knowledge, capabilities, and behavior such as who they report to, their access to accelerator roles, and whether they take advantage of flexible working arrangements play a leading role in who gets promoted. When managers understand the circumstances that contribute to or block paths to promotion for women and people of color, they can apply proactive career management to help position employees for advancement more equitably.

When budgets are tight, learning and development is often one of the first programs to be cut but that's shortsighted, the authors contend. In this article, they explain how prioritizing ongoing employee training and upskilling benefit not just individuals but their teams and the company as a whole. They also discuss three strategies to help managers effectively allocate L&D resources and suggest approaches to help employees secure professional development funding.

The case examines how to account for risks associated with loan assets (or receivables) through financial reporting for loan losses (or bad debt expenses) in the context of the adoption of the new accounting standard, Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) model. CECL required banks to consider future economic conditions and to include forward-looking credit loss estimates in the setting of allowance for loan and lease losses (ALLL). This marked a departure from the previous standard, which is called the incurred loss model. Under that model, credit losses were recognized when it became "probable and estimable" that a credit loss had incurred based on historical data and current economic conditions. The case also explores what banks, regulators, and investors thought about the new method. Both bankers and regulators called CECL the biggest change ever to bank accounting. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called CECL accounting crazy. Financial Accounting Standards Board member Hal Schroeder indicated CECL would lead to a safer financial system and a more resilient economy. Investors and analysts were trying to figure out the new CECL method and what impact it would have on financial statements.

Captain Fresh, a tech-enabled business-to-business (B2B) seafood marketplace based out of Bengaluru, India, had been enjoying phenomenal success. Founder Utham Gowda set out to simplify the seafood supply chain in a fragmented, unstructured, and complex market. He was sure that going forward, technology would play a major role in building high-quality distribution infrastructure that would take fish from sea to plate. In January 2022, having achieved revenue growth of more than 700 per cent from September 2020 to September 2021, Gowda was faced with three equally compelling options for growth. In January 2022, he was faced with three equally compelling options for growth. The first was to set up Captain Fresh's own business-to-consumer brand; the second was to add mutton and chicken to his product offerings; and the third option was a bold proposal to go international by expanding to the United States. Another exciting strategy was expanding Fishgram, the unique proprietary marine supply-chain technology platform Gowda had built to help fishers connect directly to buyers across various geographies. There was an opportunity to monetize the platform by offering it to non-competing fishers as a software as a service. Which of three options should he choose while maintaining his original goal of easing problems in the country's fish and seafood supply chain? Should he offer Fishgram to fishers and other businesses?

Global furniture giant Inter IKEA Systems B.V. (IKEA) announced its intent to become a circular and climate-positive business by 2030. In order to achieve these goals, the company had to find ways for consumers to cycle end-of-life products back to its facilities. IKEA was implementing this process-known as reverse logistics-via international sell-back and leasing programs. It was unclear, however, if the company's efforts would be enough to make its operations sustainable. Additionally, the question remained as to whether IKEA was truly focused on sustainability and responsibility or if it was simply attempting to maximize customer lifetime value.

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is Malaysia's national private-sector pension program. It has grown into one of the largest pension funds in the world. The success of the EPF and Malaysia as a whole have brought new challenges. As life expectancy increases and the population ages, how can the EPF ensure adequate pension coverage and take care of Malaysians' increasing retirement needs? As technology replaces the need for branches and customer-facing staff, how and where should the EPF channel its valuable human resources? How should the EPF optimally invest its ever-increasing funds? These are the questions the EPF's chief strategy officer has to answer as he charts a way forward in the 21st century.

Strategic corporate philanthropy voluntary giving that builds on a company's core competencies to both effect social impact and improve its competitive position can be difficult for leaders to navigate. Based on their research, the authors have developed a framework to help business leaders determine whether a philanthropic project is a good fit for their organization. By asking the right questions, leaders can best decide what, how, and where to engage in corporate philanthropy.

Recent disruptive events like the pandemic and war in Europe have exposed businesses weakened by short-sighted leadership decisions, and many companies risk being unprepared for the new challenges that will inevitably emerge. The authors analyzed Southwest Airlines, Boeing, and GE to understand how and why successful companies sacrifice the business excellence they spent years building for near-term financial gains that ultimately harm investors, employees, and customers.