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This case traces the history and growth of Forbes Marshall (FM), a family-owned company in India. FM provides steam engineering and control instrumentation solutions for the process industry. The company has evolved into a leader in process efficiency and energy conservation through technology tie-ups and focused investments in manufacturing and research. Their joint ventures (JV) with the world's leading names enable them to deliver quality solutions in 14 countries. Forbes Marshall's business practices and processes have combined into a singular philosophy of being trusted partners who provide innovative solutions.

For many years, Towers Watson (TW) has conducted its own research into alternative approaches to market cap investing. Philip Tindall senior investment consultant with TW was impressed by a recent presentation by the CIO of Research Affiliates (RA) about an innovative investing concept called the "Fundamental Index methodology." He thinks it might be an important innovation in applying nonmarket cap approaches, but he has some concerns about the approach and whether or not it would be appropriate for TW clients. Clients depended on TW to keep them on the cutting edge of institutional investing, but recommending an untried investment strategy and deviating from status quo investment practice could either generate outperformance relative to their investment consulting competitors, thereby attracting new clients, or it could result in underperformance and defection of their clients to those competitors.

This note guides students or Executive Education participants through an exercise to help identify growth opportunities for their business units. The 3-Circle framework consists of 10 steps that lead to a vetted growth strategy. Readers work through the first five steps to identify three potential growth ideas. They then follow the remaining five steps to develop one specific Big Idea for growth. This exercise is a condensed guide to the process described in Grow by Focusing on What Matters: Strategy in Three Circles, by Urbany and Davis.

The process of branding a product involves building awareness of and preference for the specific name of the product that is being branded. Central to the branding process is the brand positioning statement, often simply called the positioning statement. The positioning statement is a short written document that lays out how the marketer believes others should think, feel, and relate to the brand. This note discusses the process of brand positioning and how to construct positioning statements.

In mid-2008, Shai Agassi, CEO of Better Place, is in the midst of planning a paradigm shift in clean transportation. In an attempt to wean the world from using gasoline-powered vehicles, his company is playing the role of innovator and integrator for new vehicles, charging spots, and battery switch stations. The effort also requires aligning various parties, from governments to auto manufacturers to consumers. The fledgling company has made good progress in both Israel and Denmark as the first two launch locations but faces a series of decisions on the best course of action going forward. Agassi must decide how best to market in these two countries given the likely adoption challenges once the infrastructure and cars are ready, as well as decide how quickly to begin pursuing other countries (and if so, which ones). A big part of the Better Place solution relies on a novel business model that needs to be evaluated for its attractiveness and feasibility.

Nothing can bedevil a high-potential startup more than its "people problems." These problems typically result from choices that founders make as they add team members to their startup team. Three characteristics of startup teams must be aligned for these teams to function well: relationships, roles, and rewards (the Three Rs). Early decisions that founders make about the Three Rs can significantly affect their startup's direction and success. This note explores some of these choices and their long-term implications.

Midway through its current three-year plan, Li & Fung stop to assess the path it is taking in extending its distribution network business in Asia.

In 2011, Equity International made a $75 million equity investment in Bogota-based real estate company, Terranum Development and became the first institutional real estate investor in Colombia.

Jon Pastor and Lawrence Zhou were inspired by the same problem: the Internet was surprisingly unhelpful in the hunt for an apartment. The online apartment rental market was fragmented, opaque, and wrought with misinformation. The leader in this space was the website Craigslist, which was the most highly trafficked classifieds site in the world and the tenth most visited site in the United States despite introducing almost no innovations in its 15 years of existence. Having suffered as consumers, Jon and Lawrence saw this chaotic space as fertile ground for entrepreneurship. But the routes these entrepreneurs chose to take were different. "Killing Craigslist" explores the business Jon and Lawrence built to improve the online rental experience, and examines strategies to attract users and monetize their sites, all in shadow of a deeply entrenched incumbent.

In 2007, Takeda was a leading Japanese pharmaceutical company with sales primarily in Japan and the U.S. Although Takeda ranked around 15th in global sales, the pharmaceutical market had been shifting due to major industry consolidation. Yasuchika Hasegawa, the president of Takeda, was concerned about the future of the company. To counter the shrinking Japanese pharmaceutical market, Takeda had expanded its business to overseas markets. But Takeda's attempts to become a global company had been criticized as slow and not sufficiently aggressive. One reason for this was Takeda's risk-averse corporate culture. Worse, Takeda's R&D pipeline was shrinking, and patents on several of its major products were about to expire-which would inevitably lead to a decline in profits as generics entered the market. This case explores Hasegawa's plan to transform Takeda into a global pharmaceutical company in a rapidly changing market. It covers Takeda's history, industry trends, and Hasegawa's acquisition strategies.

DD Traders was the Asian branch of DEMDACO, a privately held company that wholesaled unique gift products, which were marketed and distributed to the specialty retail channel in the United States (as well as some international markets). Carolyn Glasow recognized an opportunity to leverage a quantitative approach to sourcing future allocations across vendors that would also improve the short-term demand transparency that was provided to the company's key business partners, which could lead to increased bargaining power for price negotiations and production lead-times. This was a recurring issue for Glasow and her sourcing team: how should she allocate product purchases among the various manufacturers that bid for the opportunity to supply products to DD Traders?

GameStop has effectively utilized a business model based on retailing new and used electronic games. The case allows the instructor to develop the strategies that GameStop used to consolidate its game retail business in the country. The case provides the instructor with the opportunity to explore the peculiar target market segments in the electronic gaming industry. Finally, the instructor can explore competition and future expansion into different markets, where the environments are not similar. Management responses to the following questions regarding company growth are further explored: 1) Can you continue your aggressive store growth? 2) What about digital downloading? 3) Will the used business continue to grow?

Britney Spears is one of the most successful female recording artists in contemporary music, world-wide. Herein, we analyze how Britney Spears and her team of employees rely on social media applications to communicate around this pop icon, and create and maintain her celebrity brand image. Specifically, we look at the use of social media during the launch of her single 'Hold It Against Me' and the associated album Femme Fatale in early 2011. The interplay of postings on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook-combined with comments on her webpage, BritneySpears.com-can be seen as a prime example of social media usage to support new product introductions.

In order to provide the highest quality services at lower costs, global firms have shifted their customer service functions offshore. Despite the apparent advantages of offshoring services, customers tend to object to the practice based on concerns about private/personal information being sent overseas. Additionally, executing service exchanges with overseas providers can be challenging because of perceived communication difficulties and cultural differences. The purpose of this article is to offer managers of firms that offshore services a clearer understanding of consumer concerns and provide guidance for alleviating these concerns. Specifically, suggestions are proffered regarding how to (1) minimize communication and cultural misunderstandings between customers and service providers, (2) assure customers that personal/private information is secure, and (3) restructure service activities to alleviate customer dissatisfaction. Unless such customer concerns are successfully identified and addressed, companies may not benefit from pursuing a services offshoring strategy.

Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) strategies are widely recommended for established firms to solve growth- and economic performance-related problems that they encounter in highly competitive business environments. However, relatively little empirical light has been shed on practical CE strategy processes and how they function in the everyday lives of organizations. The case study presented herein addresses this underexplored issue by describing how one long-established firm in dire economic circumstances renewed its strategy, as related by an interview with the company's managing director. The analysis draws on the theoretical ideas of corporate entrepreneurship models and focuses on practical activities within the strategic renewal process: What did the case firm actually do to compensate for decreasing turnover and to improve its longer-term position in the market? The findings underscore the progressive, proactive, and impermanent nature of CE strategies; further, they suggest that firms need clients and other external partners with equally ambitious business objectives in order to successfully implement their CE strategies.

This article examines the explosive growth of competency-based, or behavioral, selection programs within organizations. Recognizing this trend, many job applicants have learned to position themselves for selection by leveraging competency-based selection program concepts and psychological factors that influence résumé screening processes and interview decision outcomes. Specifically, there is a growing trend for job applicants to submit behaviorally-focused résumés-that is, résumés which emphasize behaviors required for success in positions-to gain interviews for job opportunities. These behaviorally-focused résumés may position applicants as the 'right' candidates for job opportunities, even if they are not truly the 'right' candidates for the jobs they seek. As such, it benefits employers to familiarize their hiring professionals with behaviorally-based résumés and competency program theories. Understanding these concepts and the psychology of behaviorally-focused résumés helps hiring professionals evaluate behaviorally-focused résumés more accurately, and minimizes résumé prescreening and selection mistakes.

Every day, managers face the risk of lawsuits being filed by their workers. Lawsuits are disruptive, time consuming, expensive, and often completely unexpected/unanticipated. To better prepare for this undesirable occurrence, managers must understand the risks involved. Three metrics-frequency, severity, and range-elucidate the risks of employment lawsuits and illustrate how these may vary from one state to the next. Risk management tactics can be deployed strategically to handle the variety of risk present in various locations. These tactics create a defense-in-depth strategy with layered multiple-hurdles to stymie employee depletion of corporate assets. Rather than live in perpetual fear, employers can more successfully manage the risks of worker lawsuits.

Spreadsheet Supplement for case UV5654.