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This case follows the organic growth story of ServiceNow, a workflow platform serving enterprise customers. ServiceNow found product-market fit in streamlining workflows for IT service management. It later evolved its product, engineering, and go-to-market organizations to expand first into adjacencies within IT and then into additional domains such as HR, customer service, and others. The case charts ServiceNow's path of organic growth towards $10 billion in revenue, challenging students to consider decisions around build vs. buy, organizational design, innovation investments, and the leveraging of a unified platform technology.

The case addresses the birth of Tencent Music Entertainment Group, China's music streaming leader. The case features two protagonists. One of them is Guomin Xie, a legally-trained senior executive at Sina.com, an early and highly influential Chinese internet company, employed in the period approximately from the beginning of that company's existence in the late 1990s until 2012. It was a highly challenging period for China's legitimate music market resulting in pervasive piracy. Among Guomin Xie's corporate responsibilities at Sina.com was acting as the head of Sina Music, a fledgling music streaming platform, which in turn enabled him to gain an extraordinary familiarity with China's struggling music market. Aided by his legal education and experience with China's imperfect copyright enforcement, he became consumed with a vision to create a major new company which would help kill the piracy cancer. The business model of the new company would combine streaming of legitimate music with exclusive ownership or rental of music copyrights. As the top management of Sina.com was not interested in pursuing Xie's vision, which would require major investments, he quit his job in 2012 and turned to entrepreneurship by founding China Music Corporation ("CMC"). He was faced immediately with three main challenges in his entrepreneurial career - (1) to enter into exclusive copyright agreements with music labels; (2) acquire two existing music streaming platforms; and (3) pursue fundraising. By September of the following year, he made good progress on the first two objectives, but still needed to close in on fundraising in order to complete challenge.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (Costco), the world's second-largest retailer, officially entered the Chinese market in Shanghai in August 2019. The opening day was so jam-packed with customers that the massive influx forced the company to close early, after only five hours of operations. However, after only one week, customers were lining up outside the store, asking Costco for refunds for their membership cards. The warehouse's traffic declined significantly as well. What caused this situation? Did Costco make the right decision to enter the Chinese market? Does Costco's membership system fit the Chinese market? What kinds of challenges will Costco face in the future?

Spreadsheet supplement for case A00424.

In February 2019, Tim Hortons, Canada's iconic coffee franchise, opened its first coffee shop in China in Shanghai, thereby extending its international footprint to China. To accomplish this entry, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), the parent company of Tim Hortons, formed a joint venture (JV) Tim Hortons (China) Holdings Co., Ltd. (Tims China) with Cartesian Capital, a private equity fund that had operated in China for more than twenty years. As the minority owner, RBI granted Tims China the master franchise rights, covering the use of trademarks, core products, store management procedures, and so on. Cartesian Capital, on the other hand, held majority ownership and would manage the strategy and daily operation of the joint enterprise. A veteran of Cartesian Capital was dispatched to the JV to be its chief executive officer. The fast-growing coffee market in China presented enormous opportunities, but Tim Hortons was a latecomer compared with foreign brands like Starbucks and numerous local coffee providers. In this situation, how should he best position and expand Tim Hortons in the new market?

Anthony Palomba arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2020 as a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business (Darden). As a media-management and audience-analysis scholar, Palomba had previously assigned media- and entertainment-business-based cases to students to read. However, he had no idea how to exercise the case method in the classroom. In order to understand the case method, Palomba interviewed current Darden faculty members about best practices in pre-class planning, class discussion execution, and post-class or outside-class activities. In this note, Palomba organizes and summarizes what he discovered through these interviews, and reflects on his own case-study teaching experiences. Though he wrote this note for Darden faculty who are new to the case method, it is useful for any instructor taking on the case method for the first time. Moreover, it may serve as a refresher for veteran faculty members seeking inspiration or fresh perspectives.

This case follows the formation and growth of Guild, a company founded on the mission to unlock opportunity for America's workforce through education and upskilling for working employees. By connecting employees to educational programs through its three-sided marketplace, Guild increased access to learning opportunities for employees, improved retention and employee satisfaction for companies, and drove higher numbers of learners for universities. The case explores several leadership dilemmas in the context of Guild's rapid growth and success.

CEL was a loss-making Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) with many problems of discipline, operational inefficiencies, aggressive unions, skill gaps and high employee cost. The past restructuring of the company has not led to performance improvement. At the time, CEL had already eroded its net worth by nearly 90% and was merely INR 66 Million as against a paid-up capital of INR 558 Million. A glance at its balance sheet showed a large number of qualifications reflecting the health of systems in the company. CEL was established in the year 1974 as a Central Public Sector Enterprise, under the Ministry of Science & Technology, with an objective to commercialise technologies developed by National Laboratories and Research & Development Institutions in the country. In subsequent years, it had taken up the manufacturing of a wide range of products in collaboration with various labs & institutions. CEL initially started off with manufacturing of Ferrites as its primary business. Soon afterwards, it started its two key business verticals, Solar Photovoltaics (PV) and Railway Signalling systems. CEL is credited with pioneering the growth of Solar PV in India and holds the distinction of manufacturing India's First Solar Cell in 1977 and India's First Solar Panel in 1978. Later in 1991-92, CEL supplied and installed India's first Solar Power Plants (two 100 KW power plants in Aligarh and Ghosi Districts). These plants started operations in 1993. CEL had entered into the field of Solar PV in an era when the technology was largely limited to the domain of space research and there were only a handful of organisations in the field, even globally. CEL was the fourth largest manufacturer of solar modules in the world in late 1980s. CEL has played a pioneering role in a number of other areas as well, including development of Piezo elements for various applications-Ferrite based Phase Control Modules for Radar Arrays, Cadmium Zinc Telluride Substrates for night vision devices, etc.

Case Supplement for Case A00392

Cliff Asness was facing a dilemma into how he would plunge his hedge fund into the hottest investment area worldwide - ESG Investing. Founder and managing principal of AQR - one the most storied quantitative hedge funds in the world - Asness knew anything less than a big splash was not an option. To this end, Asness was planning to launch a liquid equity long-short fund he hoped would appeal to ESG sensitive clients. Shorting was unheard of in the ESG space, but Asness knew that it could send a new, and powerful message, on carbon neutrality - and ESG weighting more broadly - that he hoped ESG investors were ready to send. He would soon find out just that...

BUA Group must decide between investments in cement, road building, power generation, or sugar. Private businesses are important to economic development in Africa. Students must assess the competitive nature of each of these industries, the magnitude of capital investments and recurring costs and revenues, and the skills required to lead in each of these sectors. Additional considerations include federal and government policy to either regulate or stimulate each of these industries, the competitive set, and the relative size and impact of risks and uncertainties in each industry.

This case is set in 2020. In the latest credit cards sub-sector report from the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) survey by the Institute of Service Excellence (ISE) at the Singapore Management University, OCBC Bank's credit card business was ranked last again in terms of customer satisfaction, while an analysis of two key customer loyalty metrics, namely 'likelihood to use the credit card again' and 'likelihood to recommend their card', saw the bank faring only slightly better for the former, but again ranked last for the latter. Given these findings, Tammy Ang, an analyst at ISE, had been tasked with preparing a business consulting pitch for OCBC Bank's credit card business. Using her skills in business analytics, Ang hoped to use the data to provide useful insights for the bank to improve its customer loyalty performance.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Case SMU032

The leading digital platforms control access to an increasing share of the world's data and because innovation is increasingly data-driven, entrepreneurs and enterprises may find it difficult to seize new opportunities. Keeping the engine of innovation running will require policy makers to consider providing access not only to capital but to data as well.

The Board of ICICI Bank was meeting on January 30, 2019, to decide the action to be taken against the Bank's former MD & CEO, Chanda Kochhar, in response to an independent investigation report that found her guilty of violation of the Bank's code of conduct pertaining to conflict of interest. The non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank, Girish Chandra Chaturvedi, must decide the possible actions the Board might consider against Kochhar. Punitive action against Kochhar would be a reversal of an earlier decision of the Board to allowing Chanda Kochhar to resign without any cause (Termination Simplicter). Maintaining status quo on the decision could hurt the credibility of the Board and the reputation of the Bank. While evaluating the choices, Chaturvedi must maintain professional integrity and be fair to Kochhar. He had to frame the justifications for the choices he would put before a possibly divided Board.

In 2019, two fatal plane crashes plunged Boeing in an unprecedented crisis, setting off a maelstrom of controversy about Boeing's corporate practices and the safety of the 737 MAX - the recently redesigned version of its most successful commercial jetliner. Within weeks, the MAX was grounded worldwide, and Boeing faced financial, legal, regulatory and reputational pressures. All while under intense media scrutiny and heightened safety concerns from the flying public. And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit the aviation industry, escalating the crisis into an existential threat to Boeing's commercial aviation business. Amid this perfect storm, Boeing executives faced one key question: How to restore Boeing's reputation as a leading aircraft manufacturer?

As a senior project manager for the Colombian office of a consulting services firm, Lucia is responsible for hiring decisions regarding junior consultants. During a recent recruitment process, Lucia found out that a candidate who achieved a perfect score on the written test had cheated, with the help of Lucia's subordinate and close friend. She further learned that this candidate was motivated to commit fraud because of the medical needs of his young daughter. This A case asks students to step into Lucia's shoes and figure out an action plan that is both developmental (rather than merely punitive) and true to her values. This case set is intended for undergraduate students taking leadership, human resources, or ethics courses. The approach is based on the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum authored by Mary C. Gentile.

As a senior project manager for the Colombian office of a consulting services firm, Lucia is responsible for hiring decisions regarding junior consultants. During a recent recruitment process, Lucia found out that a candidate who had achieved a perfect score at the written test had cheated, with the help of Lucia's subordinate and close friend. She further learned that this candidate had been motivated to commit fraud because of the medical needs of his young daughter. The A case asks students to step into Lucia's shoes and figure out an action plan that is both developmental (rather than merely punitive) and true to her values; this B case presents students with Lucia's actual solution to the value conflict. This case set is intended for undergraduate students taking leadership, human resources, or ethics courses. The approach is based on the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum authored by Mary C. Gentile.