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Many leaders recognize that their organization's corporate culture needs improvement but don't know where to start. Research on unhealthy corporate cultures points to toxic leadership, toxic social norms, and work design as the three most powerful predictors of toxic workplace behavior. The authors explore evidence-based interventions, organized around these key drivers of toxic culture, that leaders and companies can use to retain employees and create a more positive workplace culture.

In 2022, Sophie Desormière arrived at French roboshuttle producer Navya, tasked with charting a new course in a challenging sector. The company, which had recently listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, was burning through cash reserves and needed to transform the promise of its technology into a credible business with a solid revenue stream. In the short term, Desormière had to decide whether, and if so under what pricing terms, to accept an opportunity that recently emerged in the U.S. However, the opportunity involved renting, rather than selling, and also required Navya to operate the service. In the medium term, the company had to navigate questions on whether to concentrate on the software technology that enabled driverless mobility or continue to juggle the hardware side of the business at the same time. Furthermore, questions remained around which market was best suited for Navya's product, and which would be ready with the right regulatory environment to turn promising use-cases into mass transit solutions when the technology allowed getting rid of the on board attendant; at that point Navya might consider re-pricing is AV technology. The form factors Navya should focus on was also hotly debated. Some questioned whether the required regulation and consumer buy-in would come too late for Navya, and whether they should therefore switch the business model to transport goods rather than people. Desormière would need to address all these issues, if the business was to arrive at its intended destination.

The case follows the debt restructuring of WorldStrides International, a travel program provider in the education market, after the onset of COVID-19. The pandemic severely impacted the travel industry, creating challenges for many companies like WorldStrides, which were highly-levered and whose debt was held by a wide range of institutional investors, including collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). By May 2020, WorldStrides needed to restructure its debt, and there are two proposals that are being circulated, one from the company's private equity sponsor and the other from a hedge fund holding some senior secured debt. This case takes the perspective of York Capital Management, a CLO manager that also holds WorldStrides's senior secured debt. Both existing proposals had aspects that would have put stress on the structure of York's CLOs at the time. This case takes a deep dive into the economics of CLOs and their internal compliance processes. With this information York's CLO team needs to suggest to their lending group whether to accept either proposal, look for other options, or sell the loans at a loss and redeploy the capital. This case can be used as a background for teaching corporate debt securitization, corporate debt restructuring, and the role of creditors that face different institutional constraints.

Indiagro is a national-level farmer produce company (FPC) primarily operating in the government-to-business (G2B) segment. The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) and the Department of Consumer Affairs have appointed Indiagro to procure 10,000 tonnes of onions from the Bhavnagar and Amreli districts in Gujarat under the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF). This case discusses the challenges Indiagro's chairperson, Padma Shri Genabhai Patel, faces at different levels of onion procurement. Since onion is a perishable commodity, this process has its own set of dynamics and complexities. The case tries to examine how Indiagro managed its supply chain operations and developed its systems and processes around these complexities. It focuses on the substantial role Indiagro plays in filling the institutional voids in the agricultural commodity markets in India. It helps understand the value created by Indiagro for its member farmers compared to when they operate individually or through the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC).

The OneMotoring portal is a one-stop gateway to vehicle-related services and an integral resource for the motoring community in Singapore. From real-time traffic updates to renewing road tax, paying transport-related fees, and supporting the entire lifecycle of vehicle ownership, the portal offers more than a hundred digital services delivered by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the government agency overseeing land transport in the country. In the early 2000s, LTA was among the forerunners in the digitalisation of public services and had battled its fair share of challenges commonly encountered by agencies embarking on a digital transformation journey. Users' lack of computer literacy, the loss of human touch in service delivery, the difficulty in authenticating user digital identity, and workforce transition were among the common pertinent issues. Through stakeholder engagement, work redesign, employee retraining, leveraging government-wide shared services, and active partnership with multiple entities, LTA had succeeded in surmounting those obstacles. While the portal continued to serve and meet most of the motorists' needs, LTA did not rest on its laurels. Moving forward to 2022, LTA saw the opportunity to push the envelope further to serve motorists better. In the pipeline was a new round of system upgrades, which included the evaluation of newer technologies to speed up the delivery of services and policy changes. With so many digital possibilities presented by technological advancements, how best could LTA reimagine the delivery of vehicle services from the future of mobility perspective?

The U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in late June is affecting some employees' decisions about where they want to live and work. As some states pass laws to ban or restrict access to abortion services, employers' responses may affect their ability to attract and retain top talent. The authors offer five actions organizational leaders can take to support and protect employees' reproductive freedom in light of some states' changing reproductive health care policies.

Ajith Rai hailed from a humble background. As a first-generation entrepreneur, over the last three decades he had built a successful automotive business under the umbrella of Suprajit Engineering Limited (SEL). Rai and his wife, Supriya, along with their three sons were a close-knit family. The two older sons were deeply involved in the family business, and the third son was close to finishing his engineering studies. Supriya, a dentist, was engaged in the philanthropic activities of Supriya Foundation, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of the business. Rai had seen many business families disintegrate for lack of governance, and hence early on in his business career, he decided to formulate a family constitution. His sole objective was to safeguard family kinship and business longevity. The case reveals not only the process adopted by Rai to formulate the instrument of family governance-the family constitution-but also his ability to focus on building the capacity of all family members. The case closes with Rai reflecting on the satisfying journey thus far and hoping that the family constitution will be comprehensive enough to take care of the conflicting scenarios that could arise in the future.

Startups are often evaluated by how well they perform on unit economics, defined as the ratio of a customer's lifetime value (LTV) to acquisition costs (CAC). A common target for unit economics, advocated by many VCs and analysts, is 3:1 (i.e., LTV/CAC=3). While there is certainly appeal to having a relatively high unit economics - and it provides the firm with a guide on how much to expend on acquiring customers - it is not obvious whether this prescribed "rule of thumb" ratio is in the firm's best interest. This note analyzes the problem by exploring how a company should go about determining the optimal amount to expend on customer acquisition. The approach proposed, in effect, calls for maximizing customer equity (the sum of lifetime values gained from all customers that are acquired less the acquisition costs incurred) and takes into account that there are decreasing returns to marketing efforts. The resulting customer unit economics (referred to in this note as CUE for short) is shown to often be lower than 3:1 - suggesting that firms have more leeway to grow while at the same time being mindful of profits.

Shanghai Forest Cabin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Forest Cabin) was a skin care product manufacturer and retailer that had focused on developing offline stores. At the beginning of 2020, however, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic stagnated offline sales activities. Half of Forest Cabin's offline stores closed at that time, and the existing stores had few customers, slowing the offline sales business. Forest Cabin rapidly initiated live streaming sales based on the digital foundation the company had built in its earlier stages. In this way, the company successfully responded to pandemic-related challenges and gained user traffic to realize revenue growth. However, with COVID-19 slowing down, people were resuming offline activities. Forest Cabin's offline stores had provided a competitive advantage to the company. But the company had been able to leverage online live streaming, bringing explosive growth and enabling the company to survive a crisis. Should Forest Cabin focus on online development or offline development going forward?

The case is set in the fall of 2022. The protagonist is Barry McCarthy, who replaced John Foley, Peloton's founder, as CEO earlier that year. Peloton Interactive, Inc. (Peloton) is a fitness and media company specializing in internet-connected exercise equipment such as stationary bicycles and treadmills. Over the 2018-2021 period, Peloton grew its revenues at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 110%. Yet, by 2022, Peloton was in crisis. Total revenues remained flat at $3.6 billion, and Peloton lost almost $3 billion that year. Its market cap had fallen 94% from a peak of nearly $50 billion (2021) to less than $3 billion (2022). Barry McCarthy's strategic intent is to pivot Peloton to a subscription-based content business. Previously, when serving as chief financial officer at Netflix and Spotify, Barry McCarthy successfully implemented a content-based subscription model. Can he achieve similar success at Peloton?

On November 2, 2021, Enrique Lores, CEO of HP, Inc., ended the first online huddle of the week with his executive leadership team. The day was an historic one for the Palo Alto-based global company: six years earlier, HP Inc. came into being after the split of the iconic hardware company into two: HP, Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. As soon as Lores, who had become CEO the year prior, took over the reins at HP Inc., he immediately began to strategize the aggressive transformation of the hallowed company from a product-oriented to a customer experience-oriented company, identifying three areas, each requiring significant innovation: 1. Evolution of core business models to adapt to changing customer needs; 2. Pursuit of adjacencies in relation to the personal computer and print businesses; and 3. Leveraging platforms (capability and asset) and software assets to create new businesses. The broad and deep change initiative that he had charted for HP would require changes in skills, talent, infrastructure, and culture. To communicate what was required of his team, shift their thinking, and achieve a better multiple on their earnings per share, Lores asked his leaders to focus their attention on three key concepts: (1) Advance the business models of HP's core businesses; (2) Disrupt using HP's core assets; and (3) Transform the processes, cost structure, go-to-market capabilities, supply chain and brand of HP. Perhaps unsurprisingly, discussions at the morning meeting centered around the need to harness the past and drive the future. Markets were changing, HP's performance was accelerating and the company was seeing new customer behaviors. In addition, there was an inflection point in the PC stack and importantly, 3D printing, where HP had a great position, was attracting a lot of interest.

After sourdough bread, countertop chive gardens, and vaccine selfies came a pandemic-era trend that everyone seemed to be in on: one daily chance to guess a five-letter word and crow about your success on social media via little green and yellow squares. From a personal game between a developer and his girlfriend to a global phenomenon in just a few months, Wordle seems poised to outlast its pandemic peers when The New York Times makes an unexpected bid to acquire it. Dissect the journey of one programmer and his viral product as he debates a 7-figure exit before earning his first dollar of revenue.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 323037.

Founded in 2017, Simply Good Jars (SGJ) was launched with the introduction of a unique salad-in-a-jar line of products. The founder, owner, and chief executive officer of SGJ was looking to build a ready-to-eat salad business with a mission of "making better-quality delicious food more attainable." The SGJ brand promoted healthy, quality ingredients and sustainability. Initially, the product was tested in various locations, including vending machines in airports and businesses, and coolers in grocery stores. After achieving early success, SGJ's founder quickly found pressure to balance growth opportunities with limited financial resources. In 2022, five years after starting the business, he had to decide whether to scale up and mass market SGJ's products or continue to serve a niche segment through the company's salad-in-a-jar business.

This case presents the evolution of Nintendo's gaming technology and discusses the history of the video gaming sector over eight generations of releases. It illustrates how industry dynamics shift over time and how different phases of the competitive life cycle place different demands upon those firms that are all vying for the top position. The case provides history and context for students to discuss an age-old question: How do firms sustain a competitive advantage over time? Based on public sources and written from the perspective of Aya Kyogoku, the manager of Entertainment Planning and Development (EPD) Production Group No. 5, the case offers a launching point into a discussion of how different product strategies can become dominant at different times, an insight that has implications for future strategies. The case also includes sales, stock prices, consumer spending, and product release data that allow for calculations and discussions of the performance of the broader market. The case opens with Kyogoku pondering the future of the entire gaming industry-one facing explosive growth-and Nintendo's place within it. She reflects on the company's need to continue to experiment and innovate and wonders where Nintendo should focus its creative spirit going forward. The case is targeted to MBA students and executives who are building a foundation for analyzing and developing competitive strategies. It is used in the required core Strategy course at the Darden School of Business, where it is employed to highlight industry evolution and the changing nature of competitive dynamics within an evolving context. It would also be suitable for any course on disruptive strategy or digital transformation.

In March 2020, Canadian-based venture Braze Mobility was experiencing growth challenges. The company had commercialized an anti-collision system to enable safe wheelchair navigation, which had been well received by the US market following a fruitful collaboration with the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The chief executive officer of Braze Mobility was now facing some big decisions. Should the company continue to expand its current export model, diversify into the Canadian market, or tap into growing online demand directly from consumers? Compounding the complexity of the problem was the departure of a key member of the team and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Braze Mobility was well positioned for growth, but its next steps would be crucial to its success or failure. Related case: Academic Entrepreneurship: Navigating Commercialization Challenges, product number W28370.

Proactive for her began amid the Covid-19 pandemic, in August 2020 as a digital platform to provide accessible, evidence-based, primary, preventive non-judgmental healthcare services for Indian women, who were often dissuaded from seeking help as premarital sex and menstrual health was considered taboo. From her research and experience, Jacob identified that it was difficult for women to find unbiased and empathetic medical professionals who respected patient autonomy. By May 2022, Proactive was a platform that provided one-on-one teleconsultations, support programs, and webinars to customized treatment. It had reached over 5,000 women and opened its first flagship clinic in Bengaluru. It raised $1.2 million in its seed round in October 2020 and $5.5 million in Series A in January 2022. Proactive experimented with new solutions and products, with patient centricity at its core but as it prepared for Series B, had to figure out what business model would allow it to build a sustainable and profitable business that addressed the core issues?

In August 2022, EnergyNow co-founder and CEO Stuart MacWilliam (MBA 2015) considers the company strategy for building solar panels to provide power in South Africa's recently deregulated energy market.