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In 2015, Sundar Pichai was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of California-based Google LLC (Google), and by December 2019 had also become the CEO of Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company. By June 2021, thirty-six vice-presidents out of 400 executives had quit Alphabet Inc., and Pichai faced criticism from the senior leadership team for his risk-averse decision-making style. Senior executives believed Pichai had made Google more bureaucratic in its operations, even though the company's size and market-based performance had improved under his leadership. In the face of this criticism, what should Pichai do? Should he respond to the criticism? Should he begin to make more risk-aggressive decisions?

Thoughtworks , a mid-sized IT consulting firm that integrated strategy, design and software engineering for their clients, with over 10,000 technologists spread over 48 offices in 17 countries, started in 1993. Thoughtworks developed a strong inclusivity culture and was anchored on three principal values: creating a sustainable for-profit organization, championing software excellence, and advocating social and economic justice for all. The organization had always embraced gender and cultural diversity and initiated multiple organizational practices to support and build inclusivity. In India, ThoughtWorks had been pioneering "Women in Tech" to promote gender diversity as the most visible inclusivity agenda. After the 2018 historic judgment repealing Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the opportunity to broaden the inclusivity domain to embrace LGBTQ+ workforce emerged. The founders and senior management had also taken public stands on the discriminatory attitude toward the LGBTQ+ community and the criminalization legislation in force in India. The organization had taken multiple initiatives and introduced progressive policies to demonstrate its support toward the LGBTQ+ community. However, LGBTQ+ inclusion was creating some dilemmas for the organization.

The case is about the continuous entrepreneurial transformation, over two decades, of a company in terms of increasingly advanced technologies and international product markets. It describes how Geely, a leading player in the global automotive industry, started in the 1980s with its founder capitalizing on a series of opportunities during the time of China's high growth. It illustrates how Geely has evolved its technological competence from low-end refrigerators to high-end electric vehicles and mobility systems by deploying growth strategies as diverse as organic growth, acquisition, and integration of businesses across countries. In the process, Geely has turned itself from a late mover and imitator to a strategic innovator and pacesetter in an industry that faces disruption in terms of technology and customer behavior. The case details the phases of Geely's development (from fridges to motorcycles, from motorcycles to cars, and from cars to EVs and mobility solutions). It tracks how Geely's founder, Li Shufu, created a highly successful enterprise in a rapidly growing home market and realigning global economy. The case recounts episodes characterized by continuous improvement and by radical departures from standard practices. Li's entrepreneurial attitude to leveraging available resources step-by-step toward successful deployment is important in turning an affinity for innovation into a competitive advantage and to benefit from China's large market, powerful stakeholders and growing income. At the end of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, several large and outsized companies that dominated the headlines about Chinese technology giants had become targets of increasing scrutiny by stakeholders in Chinese society. At the end of the case, students are asked to make a choice: Maintain the status quo of high growth; focus on incrementally increasing the quality of growth; or go for a major change?

Supplement to case 619003.

Research shows that neurodiverse employees can meet or exceed performance expectations in a supportive workplace, and effective performance feedback is a good tool for creating such an environment. In this article, the authors provide a set of research-based guidelines that can help managers use feedback as a tool that supports increased engagement and performance among all employees, but particularly the neurodiverse.

In April 2021, having just raised $70 million in a Series D funding, Francesco Simoneschi, Co-Founder and CEO of TrueLayer, was thinking about expansion plans. Should the company focus on product innovation, broadening its line-up within the 13 countries in which it operated, or should it look to grow beyond its European base? In the five years since its founding in July 2016, the TrueLayer team had made significant progress, winning customers and opening up new markets. Now they needed to chart the next stage of their growth.

In September of 2020, an international business executive at the North Dakota Trade Office was asked by a client company, Dakota Growers Pasta Company Inc., to advise it on how to increase pasta exports to South Korea. Like many other firms in North Dakota, the client faced a number of hurdles to building successful export businesses. These included limited exposure to foreign markets and limited expertise in trade-related regulations and processes, as well as logistical issues. In his role, the business executive aided local companies' efforts to develop and sustain export businesses. The client company now needed to find a new distributor to grow sales in the South Korean market, but selecting the right one required deciding which market segment to focus on first. The business executive had to determine what advice he should he give to his client company about expanding in South Korea.

In May 2019, a senior analyst and blogger for a market research firm decided to analyze the performance and pay of various top-rated cricket players in the Indian Premier League. Teams usually spent millions of dollars acquiring players through auctions, and on coaches and other key personnel, as well as promotional campaigns. The analyst had started following the player auctions, where bids on some players had run into millions of US dollars. He wanted to take a more objective and data-driven approach toward analyzing player rankings and how far players' salaries reflected their performance, something that was often ignored by the pundits. The analyst wondered if these claims were at all valid and decided to use data visualization techniques to determine their validity.

Spreadsheet to accompany product W25528.

Additional Supplement to accompany product W25528.

The case features Taste Good Limited (Taste Good), a fictional Hong Kong-based company in the beverage industry. The board of directors has just instructed Alice Chan, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), to prepare pro forma financial statements for the coming four years, which will be presented to institutional investors. In addition, the pro forma financial statements would help the board assess the company's gearing level for the coming years. Taste Good is required to comply with debt covenants arising from its bank borrowing. One of the covenants states that the firm's gearing ratio shall not exceed 40% for two consecutive years. If such a covenant is breached, there is high risk that the loan will be called for immediate repayment. Using the assumptions in the case, students should assist Alice to draft the pro forma statement of profit or loss and the pro forma statement of financial position. Working on the case will provide students with hands-on experience in performing financial projections and teach them to critically assess the validity of the given assumptions.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Case HK1371

The case begins in January 2016. Alvin Chan, CEO of Neeuro, reflects on the company's three-year journey to bring their proprietary wearable technology EEG (electroencephalography) headband to market. The headband was meant for use alongside Neeuro's mobile applications to improve the brain health of users by reading and interpreting their brain signals. Chan and his co-founder Eddie Chau had long-standing connections and working relationships with government agencies and government-linked research institutes. Neeuro was a start-up, but through open innovation, they were able to access resources and technologies outside of their firm, and quickly build up their technical capacity. Chan forged a positive connection with A*STAR, the Singapore government-linked group of research institutes. Neeuro's co-founders leveraged their understanding of the surrounding ecosystem, and were able to navigate issues coming out of the scientific community and complex licensing and contracts. Neeuro received two technical capacity-building grants, embedding A*STAR researchers into the company to develop technology in-house and publish a White Paper detailing the scientific background of Neeuro's technology. They reached patent licensing agreements with A*STAR that boosted their product development cycle, and with the aid of A*STAR's scientists working with them, Neeuro enjoyed a smooth transfer of technology.

This case traces the rise of Jackie Robinson from the poor streets of Pasadena, California to one of the most famous people in America after he overturned the color barrier in baseball. The case describes how as a youth he excelled at basketball, football, baseball, and tennis. As a minor league baseball player, he was approached by the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers to step on the field as the first Black player in major league baseball. His bravery and grace in the face of taunts and threats made him an inspiration and role model for millions. Later in life, he became an entrepreneur and social activist. Students will learn how Jackie Robinson navigated life's choices to leave a lasting impact on the world.

Based in China, Envision was one of the world's leading Greentech companies. Chief Executive Officer Lei Zhang had set the goal of achieving carbon neutrality across the company's global operations and supply chain by 2022 and 2028 respectively. As part of its longer-term goal of finding ways to match the supply of renewable energy with demand more efficiently, the company was also pursuing a Smart City project in Singapore as well as building the world's first net-zero industrial park in Inner Mongolia. In face of the many opportunities afforded by the fast-changing energy sector, with constraints on its human as well as financial resources, was Envision taking the best actions for the future? And will they be enough to combat the "climate crisis" that humanity is facing?

The OneTen case study examines the nonprofit organization's origin story. Its founding team includes a roster of corporate superstars-Ken Chenault (former CEO of American Express), Ken Frazier (former CEO of Merck), Charles Phillips (chair of Infor), Ginni Rometty (former CEO of IBM), and Kevin Sharer (former CEO and chair of Amgen). In May 2020, soon after the murder of George Floyd, this group came together to form a nonprofit that would partner with companies, talent developers, and Black talent, with the goal of hiring one million Black people in the U.S. into jobs with family-sustaining wages over the next 10 years. Equally important is an emphasis on the promotion of talented Black employees within existing companies. The case is set in late 2020, just after the hire of OneTen's first CEO, Maurice Jones; it explores how the organization was established, structured, and staffed, and how it has so far built its partnerships.

This technical note describes an up-to-date data repository containing balance of payment, exchange rate, and aggregate macroeconomic data in a standard format used by case studies written by members of the Business, Government & the International Economy (BGIE) group at Harvard Business School.

Set up in 2008, VidyaGyan was a residential school for children in grades 6-12 from low-income rural families in Uttar Pradesh in northern India. It was the brainchild of Shiv Nadar and Cabinet Secretary T.S.R. Subramanian, who recognized the enormous potential hidden in the poverty-stricken districts of this state. Nadar and his daughter Roshni hoped that the VidyaGyan effect would self-multiply; that students would inspire not just their family, but their street, their village, and their entire community - creating "spirals of inspiration" that would transform rural India. Regardless of their future career plans, the foundation had decided to fund the college education of any student who scored above 93% in their grade 12 exams and many students received offers from universities in the US and other countries. Having opened the door to the world, Nadar and Roshni wondered was it fair to ask the students to turn their backs on the opportunities in front of them and return home to the rural countryside?

This note introduces a leadership communication competencies framework as part of the embodying executive presence model. The model can be leveraged in the education and development of leaders seeking to improve their skills associated with having impact and influence, enhancing their persuasive capabilities, and their ability to inspire others.