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Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, the automotive industry was facing the most profound transformation in its history. Two primary factors were propelling a case for radical change: seamless connectivity due to rapid software development and the desperate need for environmentally friendly energy solutions. Covid-19, along with the energy crisis experienced in different parts of the world in 2021, simply accelerated this transformation. To future-proof itself and remain on the frontier of these profound changes, Toyota - one of the world's largest automotive companies - had committed to transforming itself from an automotive company into a mobility company. To do so, it created "Woven by Toyota" to establish a strong lead in industry transformation and innovate new technologies and software development. Daisuke Toyoda, son of Toyota's president, Akio Toyoda, had been named senior vice-president of this subsidiary, and his role included executing the Woven City project, a test course for accelerating Toyota's mobility product development. Daisuke was given the task of developing and implementing the Woven City project strategy and was determined, along with his team, to make this high-stakes living laboratory successful. By the end of 2022, Daisuke knew many important steps had already been taken in the creation of Woven City, yet as the project gained visibility and progressed beyond its conceptualization phase, important challenges had to be addressed and key choices made to bring this radically innovative project to life.

Zipline delivers medical products via unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). With its expansion to Ghana in 2019, Zipline became world's largest medical drone-delivery service, reaching over 25 million people. Founded in 2014 by Keller Rinaudo (CEO) and Keenan Wyrobek (CTO) in Half Moon Bay, California, Zipline is different from its Silicon Valley peers and has big ambitions: to serve 700 million people in need of medical supplies by 2024. The case study sheds light on the company, its drone technology and its new approach to the delivery of medical supplies. It also illustrates the difficulties ahead as it expands operations.

Deep tech involves applying emerging technologies to address big challenges such as using mRNA technology to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. But taking advantage of deep tech can be a challenge for incumbent companies. The authors share a three-step framework to help leaders identify and execute their deep-tech engagement strategies. Using the European steel industry as an example, they describe the factors companies should consider when choosing an approach to deep tech in their own industries.

In October 2022, Quigley-Simpson & Heppelwhite CEO Carl Fremont considers how the advertising agency will integrate artificial intelligence tools into the business.

This case describes the decarbonization strategy of Arcos Dorados-McDonald's largest independent franchisee, operating in 20 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean-and how the company measured its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including those generated directly by the company and by all of its suppliers. Set in May 2022, the case also describes the challenges faced by the company to understand the composition of its carbon footprint, as well as the actions it has taken to reduce it. Under CEO Marcelo Rabach, Arcos Dorados was focusing on reducing its carbon intensity. While the company had made progress in reducing carbon emissions from its operations, it now needed to develop a plan to address emissions in its supply chain, which directly impacted the composition of its menu. Options to reduce the carbon impact of menu items included replacing (or mixing) the beef used in sandwiches with less carbon-intensive ingredients; shifting sales toward chicken-based meals; adding plant-based menu options; and increasing the share of sales driven by coffee and ice cream. The plan should align with the company's double-digit growth strategy while also controlling costs to maintain profit margins. Confronting these challenges, what was the best product mix and prioritization for these alternatives? Which products should get more resources to develop and market? How should the company forecast demand for these products? And how could they ensure that their efforts to reduce their carbon intensity would avoid hampering the company's growth, especially given its context of fierce competition and macroeconomic and social disruptions?

How to implement blue ocean strategy? What are the organizational and management risks and how can a leader attenuate those risks to build execution into strategy successfully? The case "Blue Ocean Strategy Implementation: Real-life Learning and an Interactive Game" brings the implementation principles of blue ocean leadership to students, entrepreneurs, and executives alike in a comprehensive and effective way. First, it introduces two different real-life examples of successful and failed blue ocean strategy implementation. It sets the ground for learning key frameworks of blue ocean leadership for strategy execution: tipping point leadership and fair process. Aided by the accompanying lecture slides, the foundations of strategy implementation are taught in depth by addressing four types of organizational hurdles in strategy execution - cognitive, resource, motivational, and political - and how tipping point leadership allows organizations to overcome them fast and at low cost, while fair process builds trust, commitment, and voluntary cooperation deep in an organization. Finally, principles and concepts of tipping point leadership and fair process are applied through an interactive game, creating an engaging and lively classroom experience with deep learning. The interactive game is online, with professors receiving free access to it.

Denner AG is a leading food discount retailer in Switzerland. It has 591 of its own stores and 269 run as a franchise called Denner Partner; its revenues amount to about CHF 4 billion. Historically 25% of Denner's revenue has come from alcohol and tobacco sales. Although Denner is positioned in a highly competitive market, the foundations are changing rapidly. Food retail discounters have developed over the last years, and customer expectations of performance have risen, especially since the market entry of Lidl and Aldi. Therefore, Denner is in an environment where it needs to adapt quickly and continually. Denner was acquired by Migros - the biggest food retailer in Switzerland - in 2010 with the clear goal of enriching the offer within the whole group. A second reason for the acquisition was that Migros is not allowed to sell alcohol and tobacco, in accordance with its bylaws. Since the Covid pandemic, retail and food trends seem to have changed for good. In addition, the prospect of Migros starting to sell alcohol is forcing Denner to rethink its current strategy. COO Urs Kneubühler is charged with advising and convincing the board of the best strategic direction to ensure future growth and revenues, while taking into account the opportunities and threats arising from new food and retail trends.

In blockchain consortia, different companies band together to develop, govern, and operate a shared blockchain-based system. However, many blockchain-based systems are exposed to the risk of never going live without a proper understanding of the peculiar collaboration this technological architecture entails. To understand how blockchain consortia develop and advance collaborative relationships, this article reports on an extensive analysis of online material and interviews of key members. It draws from the literature on interorganizational collaboration and digital platforms to explain the staged progression of blockchain consortia and the key features of blockchain consortia.

This case explores the development of Projet Jeune Leader, a social entrepreneurship enterprise founded by Maia Ramarosandratana in 2013 to provide comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) to middle school children throughout Madagascar. Ramarosandratana had grown the organization to have fifty-six educators reaching over 29,490 adolescents. As she thought about the next plans for scaling the work, which included partnering with the Ministry of Education to help with technical assistance to institutionalize CSE within the department's existing educational structures, what else needed to be considered? What were some of the lessons learned over the last nine years, and what other building blocks should she be thinking about?

In June 2022, Jay Monahan and his executive team at the PGA Tour were evaluating their current state of operations after some of their star golfers began to leave for the rival LIV Golf League. The PGA Tour was the dominant tour for professional golfers from around the world. But some PGA Tour professionals were critical of player compensation, including digital media rights, appearance fees, and guaranteed pay. However, the LIV Golf League was backed by Saudi Arabian funding, leading to calls of sportswashing. Should the PGA Tour change its business model to secure the players' confidence? Could the PGA Tour innovate to keep up with the guaranteed money and earning potential offered by their new competitor? How should the PGA Tour address its stakeholders?

This annually updated exercise assesses one's exposure to the rest of the world's peoples. A series of worksheets require respondents to check off the number and names of countries they have visited and the corresponding percentage of world population that each country represents. The summary of a group's collective exposure to the world's people will inevitably be the recognition that together they have seen much, even if individually some have seen little. The teaching note provides discussion questions that consider why there is such a high variability in individual profiles, the implications of each profile for one's business career, and what it would take for respondents to change their profile.

Companies with a strong legacy and established brand face the quandary of maintaining their loyal customer base while appealing to an evolving market. An empirical study of audience responses to operas that have been reinterpreted to appeal to modern tastes provides lesson for how to leverage a historically strong brand to reach new customers, without alienating loyal fans.

As interest in generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney surges, narratives about the artificial intelligence technology's potential to disrupt industries has some observers unreasonably excited or panicked. The author asserts that, given business futurists' and analysts' bad track records at forecasting the effects of technology, they should focus on the here and now rather than the long-term implications of generative AI.

This case describes how Tongwei Group, a China-based global leader in both aquafeeds and photovoltaics, created a fast-growing new market for green energy and a model for sustainable economic development by integrating high-yield aquacultural ponds with water-based PV plants in eastern and central China, regions where utilizable land resources were scarce and demand for electricity was high and ever increasing. The Chinese government's increasing restrictions on coal-fired power plants to achieve its carbon emission targets led to the urgent need for green energy development in the country, especially in eastern and central China, where population and industrial activities are concentrated. Yet most solar companies ignored the pressing demand for clean energy in these regions because of the shortage of utilizable land resources there. Tongwei rose to the challenge by combining high-yield fishponds with water-based solar farms and rolling them out in these regions, overcoming the regions' perceived unsuitability for solar energy development. This innovative approach created a burgeoning new green energy market, which not only increased clean energy production in eastern and central China, but also multiplied income for fish farmers and the regions' tax coffers, providing a sustainable socioeconomic development model that addresses green energy objectives and economic development goals simultaneously. This case provides an illustrative example of ""nondisruptive creation"", a new concept crafted by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in their book Beyond Disruption (2023). By going into geographical areas other companies eschewed, Tongwei created a new market of profitable growth and a thriving new business without disrupting the existing solar energy industry.

This note provides a comprehensive exposition to the topic of dynamic pricing (whereby the fee customers are charged is time-dependent). It covers the motivation for firms to engage in dynamic pricing, provides a typology of the main formats dynamic pricing can take, and is replete with examples that showcase how dynamic pricing is implemented in practice. The connection between dynamic pricing and price discrimination, as well as algorithmic pricing, is also presented. The note further highlights potential pitfalls firms might experience when running dynamic pricing schemes and offers ways for them to avoid or mitigate those risks.

While design thinking has gained popularity in product innovation, scholars argue that design thinking can also trigger and sustain organizational innovation. This study investigates the adoption of design thinking in the Design+Innovation unit at PepsiCo. It reveals nine design thinking practices that enable organizational innovation: valorizing personal attitudes and desires, engaging stakeholders in the design discourse, leveraging the design unit as an agent of change, fostering abductive reasoning, empowering decision making through prototypes, crafting proof points, absorbing external viewpoints, searching for co-conspirators, and aligning personal and organizational purposes.

Typical programs aimed at changing corporate culture to more effectively address organizational challenges often fail to have a lasting effect. Taking a skills-based approach, however, can lead to positive changes in behavior that endure, particularly when it comes to cultivating soft skills like perspective taking. The author explains key attributes of the skills-based approach to culture change and how organizations can leverage it to speed adoption and improve performance in the long term.

The course overview note for the elective course Mastering Consulting and Advisory Skills (MCAS).

In March 2022, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Auchan Retail Group (Auchan), a top French retailer, faced a serious dilemma. As head of a €30 billion, privately held company, the CEO had to choose between staying the course and leaving Russia, one of Auchan's top three markets, in the aftermath of the business turnaround and explosive geopolitical tensions that followed within two weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Public backlash had already forced more than 300 companies to exit or scale down their operations in this large emerging market. In this context, as he prepared for an interview with a popular French newspaper, the CEO had to decide how to best to address this dilemma: should Auchan follow the crowd or stay the course?

The case is about Birkenstock, the renowned German shoemaker, and two turning points in its 248-year history: the owner's decision to bring in a professional CEO in 2012, and the sale of a majority stake to a French-American investment firm in 2021. Founded by German cobbler Johann Adam Birkenstock in 1774, the company had always been 100% owned by the same family and managed by a single descendant, a tradition upended in 2002 when Carl Birkenstock, the CEO and owner, handed over his shares and job to his three sons. Ten years later, unable to agree on strategy and with tensions rising in the family, the brothers decided to bring in a professional CEO to put the struggling shoemaker back on its feet. Under the new manager, sales of Birkenstock sandals increased to such an extent that the company attracted the interest of investors. Meanwhile, one of the sons sold his shares to his two brothers, who then instructed the CEO to find a buyer. Offered the opportunity to become billionaires overnight, they sold the company to a private equity firm backed by the world's largest fortune and owner of LVMH, Bernard Arnault.