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At luxury fashion house Maison Chloé, minds were focused on the first collection of new Creative Director, Gabriela Hearst, which was just hitting the stores. Chloé's CEO, Riccardo Bellini, had recruited Gabriela, known for her commitment to sustainability through her own brand, to epitomize the Maison's new responsible purpose. Riccardo, along with Sustainability Director Aude Vergne, had been swift to accelerate Chloé's purpose-led transformation in an industry that materially contributed to the planet's environmental and social problems. They had focused particularly on the social aspects of ESG in order to impact the environmental ones. But the "S" was definitely harder than the "E." The case explores the transformation steps put in place across Chloé's supply chain, design, governance of the sustainability transformation, and B Corp certification application. Transforming in less than two years was a sprint, and the stress had taken its toll. The case closes asking whether the transformation would make a difference: Would lower impact products be welcomed by consumers, and was Chloé doing enough to ensure the continuing desirability of luxury in rapidly changing times? For luxury-focused classes, the case emphasis can be on discovering what it takes to become a purposeful luxury brand.

Few leaders will deny the importance of cybersecurity in their company's digital offerings. And yet, too often, security is an afterthought, addressed only after a product has already been designed. New research reveals three reasons why this happens, along with four steps leaders can take to change the behaviors of their development teams and move them toward a mindset of designing for cybersecurity.

Work on a space mission involves extended periods of labor in confined spaces, a tight integration of overlapping personal and professional time, and limited physical social interactions with colleagues similar to the home-based work environments that many hybrid and remote employees are experiencing. The authors found that a focus on routine can help and offer three strategies for building routines that can benefit remote individuals and their teams.

Founded in 1998, Tencent Holdings Ltd. (Tencent) is a pioneer in value-added internet services in China and was listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in June 2004. Tencent's messaging and social networking platforms, WeChat and QQ, are leaders in internet instant messaging. Its business also includes the cloud, industrial internet, and interactive entertainment. The number of employees increased from a few dozen to over 40,000 in 2019, more than half of whom are technicians. They have an average age of 31 years, and 39% of them have a master's degree or above. To facilitate the reasonable and efficient internal talent flow, Tencent established an internal talent flow mechanism called the Huoshui Program (HSP) in 2011. Over the years, many employees and departments have benefited from this program. However, some employees still worry that they will receive an unfair performance rating from their current department before they transfer despite Tencent's continual efforts to improve the job transfer rules. Therefore, many employees choose to apply for the HSP after the annual or semi-annual performance review period. The key questions of this case are: Will this challenge somewhat suppress the vitality of the HSP? What other challenges does Tencent face in implementing the HSP? What efforts are needed in the future to make the HSP more effective?

In 2020, Amazon, the $386 billion online retail behemoth, built an eight-story shelter for women and families experiencing homelessness on its expanding headquarters in Seattle, Washington. The shelter, operated in partnership with a non-profit organization known as Mary's Place, was designed to address what had become a searing problem for Seattle and many other wealthy American cities: although urban areas like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco were thriving economically from a recent influx of major tech companies and their well-heeled, well-educated work forces, poorer populations in these cities were being simultaneously hit by the declining availability and surging cost of what was once affordable housing. Amazon's partnership with Mary's Place was a novel experiment in addressing this problem at its core, using some of the firm's own resources to fund and create attractive living space for families struggling with homelessness. Yet, critics of the firm argued that its apparent charity was misplaced. Rather than trying to fix homelessness, many held, Amazon and other tech giants should stop acting in ways that were only making the problem worse. Hitting Home: Amazon and Mary's Place is an opportunity for students to understand the problem of homelessness in American cities and to investigate business's role in both causing and addressing it.

In 2021, Greg Bush, Jr., owner, president, and CEO of KFA, Inc. is working with his leadership team to plan for the future. KFA provides consulting services on software and project management needs for infrastructure projects. Bush and his team have just debuted a new product, PHAZE, which offers a low-cost option for the industry. He's exploring several options for growth - selling PHAZE in the developing world, targeting smart city projects, or focusing on KFA's core consulting business now that the Biden infrastructure bill has been signed into law. Which path should he choose?

Virginia-based Aspetto Inc. integrated fashion into its ballistic clothing, which was considered the lightest and strongest in the world. Its customers included the United States Air Force, the United States Marine Corps, the US Department of State, and various law enforcement agencies, as well as civilian consumers. By October 2020, demand for body armour in the civilian market in the United States was increasing, given the growing number of mass shootings in the country. Intending to grow the company through innovation, the two co-founders had to decide whether to prioritize the civilian market or the military market for body armour. How could they ensure growth through innovation? What strategic growth plan would allow them to do this?

Through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, LKQ Corp. became the leading aftermarket auto parts distributor in the U.S. by the early 2000s. Beginning in 2012, the company began similarly consolidating the European marketplace. However, by 2017, the company still lacked a meaningful presence in Germany, which was the largest automotive market in Europe. Stahlgruber AG, the largest German distributor, became available as an acquisition opportunity. Senior LKQ management had to decide whether to participate in the sale process, and if so, how high to bid. Bain Capital, which was also making aggressive moves into the European marketplace, was likely to be the other significant bidder. On one hand, "Project Jigsaw" (named as such because Stahlgruber would be the jigsaw piece in the center of the European puzzle) represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for LKQ. On the other hand, the competitive bidding process would force LKQ to stretch financially. The case presents the challenges and opportunities presented by the Stahlgruber acquisition.

CreditAccess Grameen Limited (CAGL) was a successful company serving the credit requirements of the niche customer segment of lower income households. It was registered as a non-banking finance company microfinance institution (NBFC-MFI) and focused its loan book on a specified category of customers defined as inclusive customers. Given the nature of vulnerability of the customers, the segment as well as the organizations serving it, were open to several risks that went beyond the risks faced by mainstream banking and financial services companies. These included political risks as well as social risks, as evidenced in the Kolar crisis and the Andhra Pradesh (AP) crisis discussed in the case. CAGL had weathered many crises that hit the organization and sub-sector either due to regulatory over-reach or macroeconomic factors. CAGL was able to resiliently sail through this crisis given its flexible repayment systems, where the customer could choose the schedule. It recognized that the model of group guarantees was no longer effective, but nevertheless kept the system intact for the purpose of aggregation of transactions. The COVID-19 pandemic posed a challenge to group meetings and aggregation, as lockdowns and social distancing threatened the basic premise on which the Grameen model was built. CAGL was able to innovate even during this crisis - it leveraged its operational technology and focused on retaining customer loyalty and stickiness. With all these under the belt, CAGL was now ready for the next leap forward. With the transition of ownership from promoters to investors, CAGL had also moved from having a social orientation (sometimes at the cost of financial efficiency) to being an investor-driven corporation with social objectives. It therefore had to clearly delineate its commercial and social activities.

This case is based on a four-month-long ethnography conducted during January-May 2020 in the research lab of an established IT-BPM (Information Technology - Business Process Management) services organization (ITSO) situated in Bengaluru, India. It focuses on the dilemmas facing this research lab garnering AI expertise as it operates under a larger service-based organizational environment. The case deals with the important themes in current times: project life cycle of an AI project, the various roles for such emerging technology projects, and the strategies of the Indian IT firms implementing these projects. The case brings out perspectives of technical and managerial work roles at ITSO as they engage in IT-BPM services augmented using emerging technologies like AI. Furthermore, it tries to bring out crucial dilemmas facing ITSO's AI Research Lab. These dilemmas stem from the fact that while this lab's stated objective was to further research expertise around AI, its sustenance depended on executing AI projects emerging from ITSO's mainstream IT-BPM services offered by its ODCs. This case tries to bring out the challenges faced by the research lab and its key members as they try to navigate through these dilemmas. It also provides opportunities to discuss the challenges facing the Indian IT sector as it transitions into AI technologies and projects.

In 2016, MakeMyTrip, a prominent player in the online booking of travel space in India, moved to acquire arch-rival Goibibo (GI) to consolidate market share, build complementary synergies, and enable profitable growth. MMT was a leader in the online travel and premium hotel booking segment. GI penetrated the economy hotel segment and acquired redBus (RB) to diversify into the online bus booking space. Due to the merger, the processes of policies of the three entities in various aspects of business had to be aligned for smooth operations so as to capitalize on the expected synergies of the separate entities. Key priorities during a merger are in engaging and retaining critical talent and aligning human resource management policies and practices, including employer branding, talent acquisition (internal and external), performance management, benefits and policies, and separation and exits. Strategic talent decisions and cultural alignment can significantly influence the capabilities and performance needed of the workforce after a merger and acquisition (M&A). An integration project team had been commissioned for this and was expected to make recommendations to achieve this standardization. The case examines the challenges of identifying all aspects of people systems and processes that influence organizational culture. Alignment and standardization of the disparate organizational policies of the merging entities and communication of the final policies and practices require balancing organizational and employee needs and expectations. The case highlights the need to prioritize the integration of functions based on strategic organizational requirements.

The case describes the problems in agricultural practices in the north-western states of India and the efforts of a non-governmental organization, CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development (CESD) and CII Foundation (CIIF), to address those problems. Through the journey of the CIIF team in learning about the problem and piloting the solutions, the case describes the nature and scale of the problem of crop residue burning (CRB) after harvesting the paddy crop. The case explains the decision-making pattern of farmers and the factors that compel them to adopt the unsustainable practice of CRB. The case sensitizes students to the adverse impact of such unsustainable agriculture practice not just in the local ecology but also in the air quality of the nearby region of Delhi NCR. The students can not only learn about the various technical solutions but also about non-technical aspects such as how successful collaborations between various governmental and non-governmental stakeholders can help address the problem of crop residue management (CRM). The pilots on a smaller scale (select villages) by CIIF also generated valuable data about the key considerations of farmers in choosing CRB over the eco-friendly alternative CRM solutions. The students are expected to use this data to objectively arrive at the CRM option best suited for a particular farmer. The data presented in the case allows for the learning and application of various multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques such as analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and decision tree analysis.

Supplement to case IMB893.

The case opens with a recent proposal from Motherson Sumi Systems Limited to simplify the ownership structure of the group which had become complex over the years as a result of global acquisitions, among other reasons. To set the context and enable a discussion on the potential concerns with the existing group structure and the impact of the proposed restructuring, the case is divided into three sections that trace the evolution of MSSL from a small firm that got an unexpected opportunity to become a wiring harness manufacturer and progressed to a global tier-1 auto-component company with presence in 41 countries and over 135,000 employees. The first section provides the early history of the firm and its strategy that enabled it to take advantage of opportunities provided by liberalization of India's economy in the 1990s. It also provides insight into the management style of the founder, who opted to relinquish his formal executive role and take up the role as chairman. The second section provides an account of MSSL's 5-year visions, MSSL's acquisition led growth strategy that enabled it to become a global company, and the role played by the group holding company, which was controlled by the founder family, in making acquisitions and pursuing diversified business opportunities. The third section elaborates on the proposed restructuring scheme that is intended to address investor concerns about the existing group structure and the potential conflicts. Finally, this section also provides details about the latest 5-year vision plan announced immediately after the announcement of the group restructuring scheme.

The two-part case "The House of Tata: Governance Challenges" is based on one of India's oldest, renowned, and most internationalized business groups. The case provides an account of the evolution of the Tata Group with an emphasis on the developments in the last 30 years (the years following economic liberalization in 1991) and the legal tussle between Tata Sons (the Group's parent company) and its minority shareholder (SP Group). The legal battle has been keenly watched for its potential ramifications on the evolution of corporate governance in India, a country marked by controlling ownership of corporations and concerns over protection of the interests of minority shareholders. The first section of Part A of the case, Tata Group: Early History, traces the early years of the Tata Group, its management philosophy, the formation of Tata Trusts, the leadership years of its long-serving legendary chairman, JRD Tata and the emergence of SP Group as a minority shareholder in Tata Sons. The second section of Part A, Ratan Tata Years, begins with the elevation of Ratan Tata as chairman of the Group in 1991 and details the Group's transformation through the institutionalization of formal systems and processes, entry into new industries, bold global acquisitions, and radical innovations such as Tata Nano. Cyrus Mistry Years captures the key strategic choices made by the Group's next chairman, Cyrus Mistry, and his Vision 2025 for the Group. The next section, The October Shock, details the abrupt removal of Cyrus Mistry as executive chairman of Tata Sons and the subsequent controversies that culminated in him being removed as a director in all the group companies. The final section of Part A, Chandrasekaran Years, provides details of the Group strategy under its current chairman, Chandrasekaran.

The two-part case "The House of Tata: Governance Challenges" is based on one of India's oldest, renowned, and most internationalized business groups. The case provides an account of the evolution of the Tata Group with an emphasis on the developments in the last 30 years (the years following economic liberalization in 1991) and the legal tussle between Tata Sons (the Group's parent company) and its minority shareholder (SP Group). The legal battle has been keenly watched for its potential ramifications on the evolution of corporate governance in India, a country marked by controlling ownership of corporations and concerns over protection of the interests of minority shareholders. Part B of the case begins with a section titled The Legal Battle detailing the ensuing legal battle between Tata Sons and Cyrus Mistry at the company law tribunals - the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal and the NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal). This section also captures the disagreement between Cyrus Mistry and Tata Trusts regarding the former's performance as chairman, the role of the board and the role of the trusts in the governance of Tata Sons and Tata Group. The following two sections, The NCLT Order and The NCLAT Order, captures the salient aspects of the contrary rulings of NCLT (in favor of Tata Sons) and NCLAT (which supported the claims of Cyrus Mistry). The final section, Appeal to the Supreme Court, details the appeals filed with the Supreme Court of India, a new controversy between Tata Trusts and SP Group about the latter's ability to pledge their shares in Tata Sons, a settlement proposal by SP Group, and the final verdict by the Supreme Court of India in the legal battle between the two set of parties.

Kusha Ahmad is tasked with facilitating headcount reduction following the acquisition of the Societe Francaise de Biotechnologie (SFB) by Big American Pharmaceuticals (BAP), and the subsequent closure of the SFB office in Lyon, France. In accordance with regulations introduced in 2017, staff are entitled to a "rupture conventionnelle collective". With the aim of reaching unbiased and rational decisions, Kusha uses data analysis (exclusively) to identify which people to whom the offer will be made. The case follows Kusha as she develops a roadmap to take her from data to decision making. https://publishing.insead.edu/case/integration-planning-sfb-a

Case Supplement for Case IN1850

Case Supplement for Case IN1850

Milaap is a popular medical crowdfunding platform in India, enabling interaction between those who want to raise funds and those who want to donate. To achieve the critical mass Milaap had to increase the trust among the donors and ensure a higher success rate of the campaigns. Milaap provided two types of services: Do it Yourself (DIY), and Supported Campagn (SC). Milaap charged 5% of the raised amount from the DIY campaigns and 15% of the raised amount from the SC. Overall the chances of success were high in the SC. The case explores the dilemma of type of service to be prioritized.