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Gaining the ability to make better investment decisions via ROV analysis isn't as complex as many business managers think

Spreadsheet Supplement for Case W28030

When Jack Sim turned 40, it was the height of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, which had decimated half his wealth. The Singaporean entrepreneur found himself wanting to live a more meaningful life, and decided to devote his remaining years to promoting the need for clean sanitation. He first set up the Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS), and buoyed by its success, he went on to found the World Toilet Organization (WTO). Given that the topic of sanitation is awkward and not one to generate interest among the public at large, Sim opted to use humour, specifically toilet humour, to attract attention and gather support for his cause. In the process, he often drew upon his expertise as a consummate salesman to persuade people to agree with him that clean toilets could be a status symbol - not unlike branded handbags. Sim also found that in trying to enlist governments to aid his movement, he had to understand how bureaucrats work and tailor his strategies accordingly, such that the probability of getting their support would be raised. But while he had perfected the art of using humour to make the unsanitary topic as commonplace and ordinary as the weather, with the world still buffeted by COVID-19, the Ukraine war, and sky-rocketing inflation, how could he continue to sustain people's interest in this cause?

No hierarchies, no superiors, circles, roles, and complete transparency. That was the secret to Liip's success after it moved from a pyramid to a holacratic structure. In starting the high-tech digital agency in 2007, the co-founders were clear that the firm's employees belonged at the centre of all activities, projects, and decisions, and they enjoyed enormous freedom, trust, and responsibility. If employees were not doing well, customers and the company itself were not doing well. The company gained speed, flexibility, and agility with this management system. By 2022, Liip had expanded to six Swiss locations, and its employee number had jumped from 130 to more than 200. Holacracy was integral to operations, and every staff member could explain exactly how holacracy worked. Liip had been a pioneer in implementing holacracy, and while it had experienced steady growth, it had also faced many challenges.

Established in 1984, Cirque du Soleil (CdS) reinvented the circus, creating one of the industry's most iconic creative brands. In 2015, Guy Laliberté, CdS's leader, sold the organization to a private equity consortium led by Texas-based investment group TPG, Chinese real estate developer Fosun, and Quebec financial investor Caisse de Dépôt. This ownership change introduced a strategic shift and a renewed focus on the Chinese market - a market in which CdS had attempted to establish permanent operations with limited commercial success since 2007. The case, which is set in June 2020, focuses on the period between 2015, when the ownership change took place, and June 30, 2020, when Cirque filed for protection from its creditors under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ("CCAA") in Canada and Chapter 15 in the United States so that it could restructure its capital. It explores the company's decisions regarding market entry and product selection and the challenges it encountered.

Gerald Weiss left Wall Street for the promise of a CFO position at a well-established corporation. He was given a 10-year options package with a guaranteed floor of $12 million and unlimited upside. To ensure the entire package would be worth at least $12 million after 10 years, Gerald negotiated a special provision, which gave him the ability to "gross-up" his options twice over those ten years. If the stock price fell substantially, Gerald would be awarded more options (at-the-money) to bring the entire Black-Scholes value of his package back up to $12 million. Because of the company's culture of informality, the deal was agreed to with a handshake from the CEO, witnessed by the current CFO and the VP of human resources, but not written down. When the stock price actually fell, and Gerald asked to revalue his options package, the company reneged on the deal. Teaching Objective: To generate discussion about the benefits and pitfalls of mega-option grants, the issue of revaluing options, and the conflict between adhering to company culture and protecting the financial interests of the employee.

Workplace toxicity leads to a host of negative mental and physical health outcomes, particularly for women of color. Leaders can better support these employees and build a more equitable culture with the guidance offered here, starting with sharing more feedback, shifting organizational processes, and valuing contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

The case titled ""Scaling Niramai: Disrupting Breast Cancer Detection using Artificial Intelligence"" describes the relentless efforts of Dr. Geetha Manjunath, the founder of Niramai, to improve early-stage breast cancer detection in women. India was plagued by a lack of medical facilities, poor access to early-stage cancer screening programs, and a lack of awareness of breast cancer in rural areas. These were the primary causes of the high rate of death due to cancer among women, of which breast cancer was a major contributor. The case study explores the different stages of Niramai's journey and poses the key question of what Niramai should do to scale its innovative and crucial offering for marketplace success. Manjunath, a healthcare research scientist, developed an innovative thermal-analytics-based solution to detect early-stage breast cancer. Niramai's innovative product received global recognition; it was the only Indian start-up to be listed on the global business data intelligence platform CB Insights. She had the noble vision of providing an affordable early-stage breast cancer solution to women, especially the underprivileged in the hinterland of the country. Manjunath considered her start-up to be much more than merely a business. The company raised US$7 million from investors for business expansion and growth. Given the potential upside, the opportunities to raise funds and scale globally created a plethora of dilemmas and challenges for Niramai's senior management team. It was a challenge for Niramai to simultaneously balance social impact and financial goals. The case ends with Manjunath and her team contemplating various options to scale Niramai. From an analysis of the case, students will appreciate the need for an organization to develop a framework that helps it analyze the company's current situation, identify opportunities, and make key strategic decisions to boost growth.

The case is centered around the 2021 Telangana Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) elections, held against the backdrop of a known unknown: the COVID-19 pandemic. While the project planning was diligent, the team faced several unknown unknowns during the execution of the project. The case study enables readers to create a framework for risk management and associated strategies within the project management context.

This case gives an overview of Elon Musk's career arc through the lens of the 2003 founding of Tesla and its growth through 2022. Background information is included on Tesla's unique strategic decisions, its operational and reputational struggles and successes, and the broader evolution of the electric vehicle market, emissions regulations, and green technology developments. The case also contains information on Musk's early life and endeavors beyond Tesla, with a focus on his management style and the implications for Tesla's success and his aim to influence human civilization for the better.

Velong is a supplier of kitchen equipment and backyard grills for major global brands and store brands of large western retailers. In light of the COVID-related disruptions to the global supply chains, and the evolving trade tensions between China and the Western countries, Velong's global customers were pressuring the company to move 30% of its manufacturing from China to other locations. Velong was considering a number of countries to shift its manufacturing-India, Vietnam, Turkey and Mexico. At present, none of these countries seem to be able to match the cost structure and manufacturing quality that the company is able to achieve in China. Velongs co-founders, Jacob Rothman and Iven Chen, need to decide soon how to formulate a strategy to deal with the challenge.

Nathalie grappled with the divergent views in her head and from her team, evaluating a range of options: Persisting doggedly, halting completely, pausing temporarily, decelerating prudently or reconsidering and crafting a new strategy. The case discusses the cost of perseverance and provides an opportunity to explore the qualities of a CEO facing difficult choices in the face of public and private criticism during a global crisis.

In September 2021, the chief human resources officer of the video intelligence firm Wobot.ai saw a negative review on the online platform Glassdoor, which accused her of being a figurehead who achieved her leadership position only because she was the founder's wife. Despite her numerous professional achievements, including being recognized as one of the 2019 "Shepreneurs: Women to Watch" by Entrepreneur India magazine, the chief human resources officer was shaken by the demeaning sexist remark in the glaringly public review that threatened her personal brand and the company's reputation. The review had already deterred one potential applicant from joining the organization. The chief human resources officer considered the review a personal attack and wanted to defend her personal brand identity. She was also eager to call out offensive stereotypical remarks that could create a hostile workplace environment. However, the Wobot.ai leadership team was wondering which response strategy would be the best approach for the organization.

This technical note provides a general overview of cloud computing and how businesses are using it to achieve their digital goals. Specifically, this note outlines the different service models that cloud computing supports, including Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, and Software-as-a-Service. The note also details some of the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing, and it reviews the cloud computing industry and some of its top players.

Fostering psychological safety isn't enough to succeed at innovation if managers don't pay particular attention to creating conditions for healthy debate. If leaders can balance psychological safety with open, honest debate, they gain the benefits of both. The authors describe the factors most important to establishing this balance and outline what leaders can do to create a high-performance learning and innovation culture.

In April 2022, Sergi (CEO) and Aureli (COO), co-founders of Worldcoo, a Catalan social impact tech startup that offers fundraising solutions for Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) projects through a round-up donation system, are considering options for scalability and growth. Since the "redondeo solidario" (solidarity roundup) was launched in 2017, the startup has contributed funding to over 620 (2021) projects of local and international NGOs, making it the leader in rounding-up donations in Spain. For Worldcoo, one of its key successes has been the establishment of B2B relationships with diverse merchants and payment service providers (PSP). With constant negotiation and searching, the startup has developed partnerships with large retailers such as Condis and Eroski supermarkets, and MasterCard. In spite of the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis that affected physical retail, the company managed to increase revenues from €1.2 to €2 million in 2021. With scalability in mind, Sergi and Aureli aim to reach €5-€5.5 million in revenue by 2022, which presents challenges and opportunities for Worldcoo's strategy.

"AMB and ProLogis: A Momentous Proposition" provides a sequel to the story of AMB's experience in the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) that is outlined in case RE134: AMB Property Corporation: Navigating Treacherous Waters. It is now October 2010, the world economy is recovering from the GFC, and AMB Property Corporation (AMB) encounters an unusual opportunity. It has the chance to acquire ProLogis (PLD), AMB's top (and much larger) competitor. Ahead of the GFC, PLD had borrowed heavily to fund risky speculative development; now, post-GFC, the consequences of PLD's hunger for return persist, and the company is no longer the darling it once was among REIT investors. PLD's ailing stock price has created a possibility that the top two industrial REITs could merge (together ""NewCo"") to become the world's largest industrial REIT. NewCo would control over $44 billion of assets, boast a global footprint of nearly 600 million square feet of real estate, and own a significant presence across the world's prime logistics corridors. Hamid Moghadam, AMB's co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, sees significant benefits from a merger. He believes savings in corporate G&A, coupled with lowered financing costs, can exceed $100 million per year, and anticipates the deal to generate further synergies by deepening NewCo's customer relationships and providing a valuation boost for PLD's fund management business. However, Moghadam also recognizes the complexities to executing a successful deal. AMB would need to absorb PLD's lower credit rating, higher debt load (which came with a higher interest rate), and assets in lower quality markets that AMB had long avoided. Moghadam also knows that the starkly different cultures at AMB and PLD would make the integration process challenging, while also complicating the negotiation of deal parameters-especially whether to pursue a ""merger of equals"" or a traditional acquisition. Moghadam knows that AMB needs to pursue an opportunity with

The case opens with the current crisis for Amazon because of its alleged use of sensitive and confidential business information from third-party sellers on its platform to develop competing products under Amazon's private label (PL) brands, a practice at odds with the company's stated policy. Such allegations not only hurt Amazon's reputation as one of the largest e-tailers but also brought to light a larger debate about the right way to launch PL brands. Although Amazon claims to have prohibited its employees from using nonpublic, seller-specific data, it agrees to have used aggregate customer data like other brick-and-mortar stores to improve customer experience. However, the third- party sellers feel that Amazon's unfair practice of using their private information has hurt them, decreasing their return on investment and compromising their product innovations. Russell Grandinetti, who currently runs Amazon's international consumer business, faces the following dilemma: Should Amazon continue its PL brands? Because PL brands are important for Amazon's business, Grandinetti must find ways to build synergy with third-party retailers while developing Amazon's PL brands. Grandinetti needs to address these concerns in the next shareholder's meeting.