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Founded by Columbia Business School classmates, Frogtek was created as a technology business with a social mission: to help micro-retailers in Latin America improve their operations through applications loaded onto mobile phones. While the market was large - 400,000 micro-retailers operated in Colombia alone - and store owners appeared interested in the service, the right approach was far from clear. The company's founders struggled with questions such as how to distribute the mobile applications and how much to charge the generally low-income store owners. In this case students work on an operational strategy for the seed-funded start-up after examining its business plan, social goals, market opportunity, and competitive environment. This case covers operational, entrepreneurial, and technological challenges in micro-retail and supply chain management in developing economies. The focus is on the "bottom of the pyramid" retail context.

Johannes Linden is the Director of the Washer and Dryer division of Fluss, a large Swiss appliance manufacturer. Soon after the company completes its revenue projections and bonus targets for the upcoming year, Linden shares some good news with his leadership team, the Global Executive Committee (GEC): an internal R&D effort to develop cheaper steel for the company's products has finished a year ahead of schedule. This will translate into a significant reduction in costs across the division. When Linden proposes readjusting revenue expectations and sales targets accordingly, he is surprised to find that the GEC does not agree with him. Among other issues, employee bonuses are involved. Linden, with a reputation for being open and knowledgeable yet sometimes intimidating, tries to convince the committee to come around to his way of thinking.

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Legacy, Transition, and Growth: The Case of BRIDGE Housing Corporation" concerns the issues that a leading regional nonprofit housing company faced after its charismatic founder, Don Terner, tragically and unexpectedly died. It covers the difficulties faced by the incoming president, who had to preserve the memory of her predecessor while charting new courses for the company. The unusual circumstances illuminate the universal problems of leadership succession in successful businesses. In particular, the case explores the challenges posed created by the growth of an aggressive and entrepreneurial housing development firm with a strong sense of social purpose. Furthermore, the case reveals that a policy of continued growth opened up several alternatives for expanding business, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

In just a decade, the Danish health care product manufacturer Coloplast underwent a major transformation from a local Danish manufacturing company to a truly multinational corporation. In 2001, Coloplast conducted all its production in-house in three production facilities in Denmark. Ten years later, the company had relocated almost 90 per cent of the production to four different countries, with the majority in Hungary and China. However, a transformation of this caliber rarely comes without challenges. Coloplast's relocation of production abroad had to a large extent been carried out through a trial-and-error process without an overarching corporate strategy. In this process, the company had experienced many challenges. Although Coloplast had by 2011 successfully identified and changed the critical issues created by the offshoring initiatives, the executive management now faced a substantial challenge in understanding what the company had learned over the last 10 years and how it could excel based on this history.

Marissa Mayer has been asked to think about factors that were impacting Google's ability to innovate and adjust its strategy so that the organization could remain one of the world's foremost leaders in technology. In an industry (and at a company) that was changing and growing exponentially, it would be difficult to pinpoint specific variables and trends. But Mayer knew that one element crucial to Google's ongoing success would be its ability to recruit the best talent available and foster an environment that would encourage that talent to generate the best ideas. As Mayer contemplated how to ensure this, she considered that women currently represented only a small fraction of Google's engineers, suggesting a missed opportunity.

GoodBelly is trying to boost its sales at grocery stores like Whole Foods Market. As a small start-up, GoodBelly must optimize the allocation of its limited marketing budget. It currently promotes through in-person demonstrations in stores, but management is concerned that these demonstrations are not effective enough to justify the cost. It is up to GoodBelly's student intern, Caroline Dickerson, to evaluate its promotional programs using statistical evidence. Dickerson will need to apply regression analysis to a GoodBelly- Excel Spreadsheet (WDI Publishing 1-429-273) to determine whether or not the company should continue its promotional programs.

For the past 10 years, Turkey has grown its real GDP at about 6% annually. This came after a huge debt crisis in 2001-02, wherein Turkey had to borrow $16 billion from the IMF and comport with its difficult conditionality. Today, Turkey is a middle-income country in search of an effective development strategy. It tends to run high inflation with a devalued currency, despite massive capital inflows and a huge current account deficit. At home, the government has carefully managed between Islamicization, democracy and secularism. And abroad, it deals with a difficult neighborhood-Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Israel (not to mention Russia, Europe and the USA). Prime Minister Erdogan is trying to rewrite the Constitution before 2014, when the next election occurs.

In December 2011 the Lego Group (TLG) announced the launch of Lego Friends, the company's sixth attempt to market a product to girls. Lego Friends, which was supported by a $40 million global marketing campaign, was designed to introduce the fun of building with Lego bricks to girls, who represented less than 10 percent of Lego's audience. The company's poorly executed brand extensions and move from free-form building sets to story-driven kits had nearly cost it its independence in 2004, so the launch of Lego Friends was strategically important. However, within hours of the product's appearance it was heavily criticized for reinforcing gender stereotypes and damaging the valuable Lego brand. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO since 2004, had saved TLG and ushered in an era of sales growth with a series of successful strategic initiatives. Would Lego Friends be another addition to TLG's graveyard of failed products for girls, or would it prove popular and finally enable the company to double its sales and profits by reaching this segment?

Inspired by the experiences in Germany and Spain, Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) developed a pilot feed-in tariff to stimulate investment into solar photovoltaic systems. This case explores the factors behind the decision to promulgate a feed-in tariff, and the factors that affected the design of the tariff and its rate. Once implemented, GRU found that its design created several perverse incentives that led to some unexpected results. The actions GRU took in response to these results are addressed in the epilogue. The case can be taught as either an energy policy case or as a regulatory economics case. Regulation and management issues such as asymmetry of information between the utility and renewable industry are explored. Case Number 1963.0.

Inspired by the experiences in Germany and Spain, Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) developed a pilot feed-in tariff to stimulate investment into solar photovoltaic systems. This case explores the factors behind the decision to promulgate a feed-in tariff, and the factors that affected the design of the tariff and its rate. Once implemented, GRU found that its design created several perverse incentives that led to some unexpected results. The actions GRU took in response to these results are addressed in the epilogue. The case can be taught as either an energy policy case or as a regulatory economics case. Regulation and management issues such as asymmetry of information between the utility and renewable industry are explored.Case Number 1963.1.

India has been an emerging market that is witnessing radical changes in the lifestyles and the spending patterns of customers. There has been a significant change (post-liberalization) in terms of the manner in which consumers look at their self-concept. Exposure to western ways and lifestyles through mass media, availability of discretionary income and the impact of reference group appeals are some of the important aspects that have created interest towards products and services associated with beauty care among consumers. Customers have become used to branded creams and lotions, and several of these offerings are being advertised with strong symbolic appeals associated with enhanced self-concepts. Kaya was a brand in the beauty care category. However, the brand's offerings dealt with medically anchored services intended to enhance the looks of the customers. The brand opened up a new facet of beauty care services that was associated more with up-market and state-of-the-art hospitals, where customers opted for these services under the supervision of doctors who had specialized in cosmetic surgeries/interventions. Would the differentiation between the first-time users of a beauty parlor and the loyal customers of a parlor offer insights that Kaya would find useful? Issues related to services management as well as customer value and customer loyalty were relevant to Kaya's competitive strategies. Although the customers of a beauty parlor could be demographically different from Kaya's customers, the commonality of the benefits related to the beauty services offered were the same. The case is about how a brand that had created a category would find it useful to draw insights on brand loyalty from a related category that does not compete with it directly. Such a dimension of competitive learning is perhaps unique to an emerging market such as India.

The case traces the transformation of The Park Hotels (TPH) from being "yet another hotel" at the time of its founding in 1967 into India's first boutique hotel network. It describes how Priya Paul, the Chairperson, TPH, and her team created a uniquely Indian boutique hotel network - emphasizing intimate and personalized service, and positioning each hotel as an entertainment destination for customers. The case invites students to consider the strategic choices open to the TPH management in 2010 as they grapple with the challenges of sustaining growth, retaining the distinctiveness and individuality of each of the properties in the network even as they cope with growing competition from both global majors (Hyatt, Starwood Hotels, and JW Marriott) and the local giants (The Taj, Oberoi, and ITC Welcomgroup).

The case traces the evolution of ITC Limited (ITC) from its inception as a marketing subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT) in 1910 to one of India's most valued diversified corporations. Remarkably, despite being a dominant market leader in the socially undesirable tobacco business, ITC is regarded as a responsible corporate citizen. Even more significantly, ITC which regards itself as an "Indian" company in which BAT, its ''erstwhile parent'' is a large and important ''shareholder'', can be held out as an exemplar of the India Way - looking beyond stockholders' interests to public mission and national purpose - articulated by Professor Peter Cappelli and his colleagues at Wharton. The century long story is captured in five sections. While first section traces the early years of the company, the next four sections present ITC's evolution under its four Indian chairmen. The "Haksar Era" outlines the strong nationalist context in which BAT's stake in ITC was diluted, and the company's diversification into hotels and paperboards businesses. "The Sapru Era" describes the consolidation of market leadership in cigarettes and the company's foray into agri-business. "The Chugh Era" captures the tumultuous relationship between BAT and ITC, and the aborted takeover attempt by BAT. "The Deveshwar Era" traces his initiatives to strengthen the core businesses, diversify into new areas and embed a strong focus on social imperatives. The case concludes with questions on the company's goal to become the No. 1 FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) company in the country, and the succession challenges faced by Deveshwar.

The market for security solutions is highly fragmented with no dominant players in the market. Yash finds himself in a situation in which the Indian banking industry is just about waking up to the emerging threats of cyber security. In order to communicate the value that his products create, he will need to identify the value drivers in the banking space, calibrate this value, and come up with a pricing plan that can effectively capture this value. He will also need to make a plan to roll out his product, part of which involves identifying partners who will help make the commercialization a success.

The Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional league for Twenty20 (T20) cricket championships was started in 2008, in India. The IPL was initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) with eight franchises comprising players from around the world. Franchises acquired players through an English auction that was conducted every year; however, there were several rules imposed by the IPL. The prices of IPL players ranged from as low as $20,000 to more than $2 million for a tournament played over 7 weeks. Three of the nine IPL teams appeared in the list of the 50 highest paid sports teams in the world in a survey conducted by sportingintelligence.com in May 2012. The IPL teams had several restrictions on how much money they could spend on acquiring their players, and it was important that they spend their money wisely to put together a successful team, after gauging the true value of a player. The performance of the players could be measured through several metrics. Although the IPL followed the T20 format of the game, it was possible that the performance of the players in the other formats of the game, such as test and one-day matches, could influence player pricing. Anecdotal evidence suggests that factors such as batting strike rate, bowling strike rate, economy rate, and ability to take wickets; drive the price of players. The focus of this case is to understand the true value of a cricket player, which can be used during the player auctions.

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Partnerships between companies and non-profit causes are viewed as a key means to tackle many sustainable development challenges, and cause-related marketing (CRM) is a valuable if sometimes controversial way to align corporate and sustainability agendas. This case charts the launch and first year of the "ONE Water" brand, an ethical bottled water marketed in the United Kingdom. The money raised through sales of the product contributes to the funding of water development schemes in Africa via the Roundabout charity. The case follows the progress of the founder, Duncan Goose, and his efforts to launch an unknown brand from a new business (Global Ethics) into an already crowded and competitive market. It demonstrates that success can be derived from a combination of brave entrepreneurship, and innovative approaches to both developing relationships with others in the supply chain and to developing the marketing mix. Although the case is UK-based and reflects aspects of UK markets (such as the retailers involved or the Live8 event), the marketing of bottled water and the rise of ethical products is common across many industrialized economies and the issues raised by the case should be equally meaningful within many countries

This case introduces the application of blue ocean strategy in the context of managing a business portfolio at the corporate level. Apple created future profits and growth not by exploiting existing demand, but by reconstructing industry boundaries to create new market space and unlock latent demand. As a result, the company's value grew exponentially as the total market value of a firm reflects not only today's performance but also its future profitability. The case examines a series of blue ocean strategic moves at Apple, Inc. that transformed the company from a computer manufacturer into a consumer electronics powerhouse.

Every executive has heard about the importance of Lean as a means of eliminating waste and "fat." However, when operations are novel and complex-as in product development, research, information technology, and many other kinds of projects-cutting out the "fat" turns out to be much more challenging. To understand Lean in an environment characterized by extreme novelty and complexity, we drew on our experiences with a number of processes, and in particular Lockheed Martin's Lean implementation for the F-22 fighter aircraft. Our findings lead to a path that executives and managers can follow to become Lean without compromising innovation