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A strong reputation is widely acknowledged to be the most valuable asset of a firm, and sustainability has become an important component of corporate reputation. Many stakeholders, from customers to investors to employees to purchasing managers, report that sustainability is an important factor in their decision-making processes. However, sustainability messages have become ubiquitous-almost table stakes-for most large firms. In such an active marketplace, especially for firms who have not pursued leadership positions, it is difficult for companies to use sustainability to create meaningful differentiation from competitors and thus benefit from their investments. There is often a major gap between stakeholder perceptions and firm performance. Firms that integrate sustainability into their culture and business practices are better able to integrate sustainability messaging into mainstream communications

The maritime industry is widely seen as less permeable to innovation than other industries. However, the industry is now recognizing that demands for increased environment protection can only be achieved by more innovation. This study demonstrates that environmental innovation has played a significant role in changing the industry's innovation paradigm. It has also been transformed over time.

"Returnships"--internship-like programs for professionals who've taken time--give employers access to a vast pool of experienced, mature talent.

A large global study examines the factors that stock analysts consider most important when issuing buy, hold, or sell recommendations. The considerations that are deemed significant vary widely from region to region.

Seeing matters through your counterpart's eyes is key to successful collaboration with outside stakeholders. Four strategies companies can use to make this an organization-wide skill.

Want to improve your relationship with a partner--in your personal life or at work? You can strengthen it if you spend more time moving physically in the same direction.

The global vice chair of public policy for Ernst & Young discusses how emerging multinationals can address talent shortfalls in rapid-growth markets. The problems start, she says, with senior leadership teams that lack international experience. Often they are driven to poach talent from rivals, inviting high turnover and salary inflation. Instead of focusing so much on the "science" of talent management--the best practices of Western companies that have been internationalizing for decades--executives need to pay attention to the "art": a commitment to inclusive leadership. They must value difference as opposed to merely tolerating it, encouraging discussion and actively engaging conflicting points of view.

For 10 years the president of the University of Pennsylvania--the first female president of an Ivy League university--Rodin has been president of the Rockefeller Foundation since 2005. When she joined the foundation, the trustees were already focused on its 100th anniversary, in 2013. An anniversary inspires a sense of pride and unity, Rodin says, making it an ideal time to ask people to think together about why their work matters and how it should move forward. A way to begin that process is to trace the historical trends that have affected the organization and project how they might continue.

A visual representation analyzes the 12,000 articles HBR has published over the past 90 years--a detailed time line of the most influential ideas that have shaped management thinking over the years.

The case starts in 1973 when Pina Bausch stood at the turning point of her professional career: the transition from being a celebrated dancer to becoming a choreographer. Reflecting on what made Pina Bauschs career as a dancer exceptional, the case then elucidates Pina Bausch´s leadership and working style during her years as artistic director at the Tanztheater Wuppertal. Not only did Pina Bausch become famous for her artistic work and creative productivity, but also for her way of leading people and making them grow long-term. Her capability of leveraging the diversity of her dancers - the collective genius - made her choreographies inherently innovative and ground-breaking. Demanding highest performance, she created one of the most successful companies worldwide. She died 2009, leaving behind a dedicated and outstanding dance theater.

The Ecobank case is a pan African strategy/business development case with strong elements of Human Resources and talent management issues as well as governance and organizational design. The case is an inspirational story about a group of visionary people from 14 West African countries who in 1984 - with limited resources - decide to create a pan African bank to further the development of Africa. Today, Ecobank has 8.3 million customers, 18,000 employees and a footprint that covers 32 African countries - more than any other bank. In July 2012 Ecobank was named "Best Bank in Africa" by Euromoney for the second year in a row. The case covers the three expansion stages of the bank, and the strategy it has employed in managing rapid growth both organically and through cross border acquisitions. It has a unique approach of "acting locally, while being one bank" which is strongly reflected in its governance systems and organizational design. And it has above all been phenomenally successful in attracting and developing local talent - perhaps the most scare resource of all in Africa. Learning objectives: This is an inspirational story that should be "told" rather than "read." Because of this, the written case is intentionally very short, but supported by video interviews with senior Ecobank executives. A total of 86 minutes of video (of which 28 minutes is designed to be watched by students before the session) structured in 12 "modules" gives the instructor great flexibility in how to use the case in class. The case and video modules can be used to demonstrate: strategy and business development in an African context. How to manage organic growth and growth through acquisitions across borders. Human Resources - how to attract, retain and motivate talent in an emerging market. Organizational design as an organization grows. Governance issues in emerging markets.

Iceland has two unique features. First it has one of the most unique landscapes in the world. A country twice the size of Switzerland, it has only 300,000 inhabitants and thus most of its regions are sparsely inhabited. Second, it also has access to significant amounts of "green energy" in the form of geothermal and hydroelectric power and in the future, possibly wind. Further in Iceland green energy is comparatively inexpensive. These two attributes have set in motion a major debate - should Iceland accelerate the development of its green energy resources by attracting more power intensive industries to locate in the country and perhaps export some of its power to Europe or should it slow the rate of power development and focus on preserving its unique natural resources and build up its tourism industry? This case addresses these two alternatives. It is built around two specific decisions - whether the government should build the generating facilities that would provide the electricity for a fourth aluminum smelter and whether to accept a new plan written by the national electric company to aggressively embrace additional development of its energy resources. Case Number 1968

This introductory case explores the venture capital (VC) and discounted cash flow (DCF) methods of valuing early-stage companies. OutReach Networks is an unusual start-up company in that it was profitable early in its development and did not have to seek VC funding to support its growth. The company has grown quickly and may soon be a candidate for an IPO. In November 2011, an experienced venture capitalist approaches the founder with an offer to invest $30 million in exchange for 30% of the company. While the founder sees some benefit from the VC's experience in preparing the firm for an IPO and the funding enabling it to scale more quickly, he cannot understand how the VC has arrived at this offer. The founder believes the funding should be worth no more than 15% of his firm. Potential reasons for the disagreement over the valuation are (1) differences in the founder's and investor's view of the company's risk, (2) disagreement over the appropriate set of comparable companies, and (3) differences in the methods used to calculate the percentage equity stake. The case is appropriate for use in courses covering entrepreneurial finance or venture capital.

Spreadsheet Supplement for UV6569

This note is used in the course elective, Strategic Post-Merger Integration. This case is taught in Darden's Global EMBA Strategy course. Well suited for MBA, Executive MBA, GEMBA, and executive education programs, this case describes the circumstances at Leica Camera, the famed German manufacturer of high-end cameras, and allows for an analysis of the firm's competitive position. Although the company decides to stop production of its R-system camera and lenses, a backlash from users surfaces. That leaves the case open to exploring the uncertainty over achievable sales volume for the R-series lenses as well as where the company fits in the market as new and less-expensive competitor products gain popularity. The case provides an overview of the competitive style of major camera and lens manufacturers and allows a discussion of core capabilities of these competitors. What products would secure Leica's future? Was there development potential for a new universal system? The case describes an issue that many organizations face today-how to decide whether components are strategically critical.

The case "Beyondsoft Co., Ltd. (A)" completed in early 2010 described the strategic path of Beyondsoft over its history of more than 10 years since its foundation in 1995, containing its major business lines and the relations with the major customers at that time, the market environment faced by the company, competitive power of major rivalry players and Beyondsoft's own resources and capabilities, as well as the future objectives set by President Ben Wang for the company. The focus was put on the development strategy Beyondsoft should choose in the next 3-5 years, given its actual external business environment and internal business conditions. This case is an extension of case (A), focusing on the strategic path of Beyondsoft during 2010-2011, the market environment at the new historical moment faced by the company in early 2012, when Beyondsoft did its IPO, including the situations of major competitors and Beyondsoft's own resources and capabilities, as well as its bushiness adjustments and future objectives designed by Ben Wang and his top management team.

Beyondsoft, a leading software outsourcing enterprises in China, began to make preparations for its overseas listing in 2004, including establishing a red-chip structure needed by overseas listing and introducing overseas institutional investors. However, a global financial crisis broke out when Beyondsoft was going to submit its listing application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2007. As a result, Beyondsoft had no choice but to temporarily shelve the listing plan and to wholeheartedly cope with the sudden crisis. Only after Beyondsoft showed steady performance and cash flow in 2009 did its listing was put on agenda again. However, the U.S. capital market was no longer as booming as it had been in the past after the peak of the crisis, making it difficult to reopen a window for the listing in the U.S. To wait patiently, looking forward to the next boom in the U.S. capital market to come soon, or to turn to other overseas markets or resolutely give up the overseas listing plan and go back to the domestic A-share market? Beyondsoft President Ben Wang fell into repeated comparisons and options. Finally, Beyondsoft chose to return to the domestic A-share market and was successfully listed at the SME board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on January 6, 2012. The cases of Beyondsoft IPO include part (A) and part (B). (A) is used mainly for classroom discussion and (B) is an after-class reference for students

Supplement for case TU0032

Founded in 2004, TGOOD is now the largest specialized developer and producer of cubicle-type transformation and distribution equipment in China, with the main products of outdoor cubicle-type power equipment supplemented by indoor switchgear cabinets, offered mainly to the railways, coal-mining and power industries. In 2001, TGOOD president Yu Dexiang led a dozen of his young colleagues to resign from state-owned enterprises and dive into the market. By 2011, by riding on the huge wave of China's railway construction and struggling arduously, TGOOD has developed from an unknown business of 20 people and RMB 8 million assets into a growing enterprise with net assets of over RMB 1.1 billion, annual operating revenue of over RMB 600 million, and employment of around 1,000. In September 2009, TGOOD became the first company in China to trade on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange GEM. At the same time, Yu Dexiang has crafted in his special way a cohesive and complementary entrepreneurial team and core employee team. In 2011, due to the stepping-down of railway minister Liu Zhijun for corruption reasons and the severe HSR accident happened in June 2011, China slowed down its railway construction, causing a great setback to TGOOD's development. This case was written at a time that TGOOD was starting to readjust its industrial structure and Yu Dexiang was pondering about the strategic directions of the company's "second starting-up" and the new task of team building.

With the rapid growth of China's economy and China's increasingly integration into the global economy in the past two decades, China's leisure clothing and garment enterprises achieved a rapid rise and became an important competitive force confronting with the foreign brands in the Chinese market. Zhejiang Semir Garment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Semir Group") was founded in 1996 and currently owns two brands ("Semir", targeted at 16-25 year olds, providing affordable casual clothing featuring "fashion and vitality"; Balabala, providing children's clothing, targeted at 3-12 year-old children in better-off families). Both brands occupy a leading position in the Chinese market. However, with the intensified market competition and changes of cost elements and new sales channels, Semir Group faces new challenges.