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Describes a negotiation where lives are truly at stake, where key lessons on persuasion and the role that identity might play in a negotiation are on display through an effort by a frontline negotiator from OneLegacy, the US's largest organ procurement organization. As the CEO outlines the core strategy and philosophy of this non-profit organization of negotiators in the backdrop of an extremely challenging negotiation between the frontline staff and the family of a recently deceased person. Provides insight into various negotiating situations where classical value creation and claiming are less directly applicable, and where team diversity can generate productive benefits.

Describes a negotiation where lives are truly at stake, where key lessons on persuasion and the role that identity might play in a negotiation are on display through an effort by a frontline negotiator from OneLegacy, the US's largest organ procurement organization. As the CEO outlines the core strategy and philosophy of this non-profit organization of negotiators in the backdrop of an extremely challenging negotiation between the frontline staff and the family of a recently deceased person. Provides insight into various negotiating situations where classical value creation and claiming are less directly applicable, and where team diversity can generate productive benefits.

In October 2015, Google restructured into Alphabet, a holding company, which analysts said would facilitate innovation among its diverse subsidiaries. But when news reports surfaced revealing struggles within Alphabet companies including Nest, the smart thermostat maker, observers began to wonder if the reorganization made sense after all.

This case, set in January 2024, discusses the entrepreneurship journey of Serene Lim, the co-founder and CEO of Vibefam, a tech management system for boutique fitness studios. In the Singapore gym and fitness sector, besides the large chain studios, there were many smaller studios that offered niche activities to consumers. These studios often did not have automated booking services, relying instead on pen-and-paper records. Lim felt that she could develop an app to streamline the booking process for these studios and their clients. In 2021, Lim assembled a team comprising members with a common passion for entrepreneurship and possessing the relevant business and technological expertise. After several online interviews with potential customers, the team pivoted away from building a system based on social features. The team then built a prototype booking app to gain actionable feedback from both studio operators and users. Most of the early adopters loved the product and quickly converted to paying customers. While Lim was proud of Vibefam's achievements thus far, she was constantly thinking about how best the startup could expand.

In December 2023, the 60-year-old weight management industry stalwart WeightWatchers announced the launch of WeightWatchers Clinic, which incorporated GLP-1s , a new class of prescription weight-loss medications, into the company's portfolio of products and mobile app experience. The company's embrace of prescription medications for weight loss represented a bold strategic evolution. Since its inception, WeightWatchers had promoted peer-to-peer support coupled with science-based behavior modifications for weight loss, rooted in the idea that weight management was fundamentally about establishing healthy diet and exercise habits. While the company's core business would continue to center on behavior modification, WeightWatcher's new CEO Sima Sistani believed an expanded "toolkit" could be a game-changer for people for whom the company's traditional weight-loss program was inadequate and who required other kinds of support. Sistani, a Silicon Valley veteran, had stepped into the CEO role at a critical moment for the company. Revenue had been declining for years due to slowing member subscriptions, a lackluster digital app, and increasing competition from a host of players. Now, a year and a half into her tenure, revenues continued to trend downward. As she looked ahead, Sistani pondered how to strike the right balance between investing in the "core" business and growing the nascent clinical offering. She recognized that, for the iconic company, there was a delicate balance to be struck between ramping up new products and services and winding down legacy offerings such as weekly in-person meetings, while also fortifying the digital app. She wondered if there were synergies that might offer new avenues for growth in a dynamic market.

At the end of 2023, the Swedish startup H2 Green Steel was mid-way through construction on an integrated steel plant in Northern Sweden that would use abundant local hydro power to create Europe's first commercial-scale green steel. Their goal was to help European manufacturers to decarbonize their upstream (Scope 3) inputs, and they had successfully negotiated offtake contracts with the big European car companies. Their aspiration did not stop there, however. Maria Persson Gulda, chief technology officer at H2 Green Steel, was already thinking about how to take their green steel technology to other regions, and for use by other kinds of customers. They could play a critical role in addressing a core cause of climate change, but achieving this would require that they scale up their technology as rapidly as possible. How should that be done?

Miami-Dade County led the work to get South Florida designated a national climate resilience tech hub, the only one of 31 focused on climate change, an urgent major issue for the region in light of global warming and sea level rise. Venture capitalists saw the potential but not many investable ventures; some entrepreneurs created scalable ventures but without much regional support; economic development agencies were not yet fully building the ecosystem or just getting started. Most wanted more from government, higher education, and others. The label "climate tech hub" had to be backed by specific proposals to attract available funding. What are the gaps and missing ingredients? What actions might fill the gaps?

This case traces the life of Katharine Graham from housewife to publisher of the Washington Post. Born into a family of wealth, Graham described herself as a "doormat wife" after she married Phil Graham and stayed at home to raise their children. His unexpected death thrust her into the role of publisher, a job for which she was ill-prepared. Graham made her mark in history by publishing the Pentagon Papers, which showed the extent to which the government had misled the American people during the Vietnam War, and reporting on the Watergate break-in that eventually forced the resignation of President Richard Nixon. A role model for women and journalists, students will learn how Katharine Graham navigated life's choices to leave a lasting impact on the world.

In early 2023, Maggioncalda, CEO of US EdTech firm Coursera, launched Project Genesis to develop a strategy for incorporating GenAI capabilities into the firm's offerings, asking his teams to focus on value to the firm and cost of implementation. The team identified several projects: powering translations and modifying content format and delivery, personalized coaching, an automatic course-building tool, and the building out of new GenAI-related academic content. By early 2024, the firm had made significant progress in bringing these ideas to market, but there was still much to do. Technology was fast evolving, and Coursera needed to continuously improve its offerings. Maggioncalda wanted better branding to make personalized coaching a distinctive advantage of the firm's platform. For its course builder tool, Coursera and its university partners had to work through difficult intellectual property and branding questions. But more broadly, Maggioncalda remained alert to the risks presented by the advent of GenAI. While the firm had been an early mover, competitors were fast adapting. Was Coursera taking full advantage of the opportunities presented by the technology? What more could it do?

Capitalizing on the digitalization trend, Logy.AI captures a substantial market in the Indian and Nigerian oral healthcare space, earning a revenue of US$110,000 in FY 2023. The company's international and domestic adoption, which exceeds 200,000 within a year, demonstrates its significant influence and growth potential, while the anticipated 173% growth in FY 2024 signals a clear path to profitability, steering toward financial sustainability while expanding its market presence. Priyanjit Ghosh, Co-founder and CEO of Logy.AI, recalls the path to building Logy.AI. While driving home from a party to celebrate his team's efforts and the impact their solution had made, the exchange of ideas between the founders sparks a profound thought about Logy.AI's way forward. How do they revolutionize the oral healthcare market for their growth journey? Should Logy.AI look beyond oral care to explore AI solutions for other healthcare problems? Should they penetrate new markets with the AI-based oral detection solution they already have? What should be their growth strategy and operating model?

This case presents a comprehensive overview of the BOJ's ultra-easy monetary policy which started in 2012. After years of sustained government and central bank intervention, Japan's monetary policy has reached a critical stage. Then world questioned how the BOJ's new Governor, Kazuo Ueda can find a way to extricate the nation from years of economic inertia, stimulate domestic consumption, boost GDP growth, and stabilize inflation at a 2% threshold. And world questioned this could be achieved without damaging the global economy. On March 19, 2024, with prices seemingly on track toward the bank's goal of sustained 2% inflation, Japan's persistently weak yen and robust wage hikes offered by Japanese companies, the BOJ ended the negative rate policy (NIR) and raised interest rates for the first time in the past 17 years. The BOJ also ended its yield curve control policy (YCC) of keeping 10-year Japanese government bond yields at around 0%. It has fulfilled their roles but will continue the large-scale monetary easing (QE). The BOJ's policies have stood in contrast to other central banks, which have raised rates sharply over the past two years to combat inflation sparked by the COVID pandemic, the Ukraine war and supply chain issues

On July 10, 2023, a Snow Valley Resorts co-owner was reviewing his organization's first quarter financials for fiscal year 2022-23. Snow Valley Resorts was founded in 1993 in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, when the first of the group's four resorts, Snow Valley Resorts Manali, was built among the Himalayan mountain range with panoramic views and pleasant weather. The co-owner had set a goal to increase the organization's revenue growth rate to nearly twice the previous year's rate, but he realized several issues had to be addressed first. Technology and operations at the four resorts needed to be integrated. Communications and transactions had to be smoothened. Actions had to be taken to address various issues raised in the customer feedback. Service quality had to be improved at each of the four resorts. Overall, the ripples of customer complaints had to be converted into guest satisfaction by taking appropriate measures.

Shanghai Zhongdan Information Technology Co. Ltd. (SZIT), established in 2017, was an e-commerce firm focusing on the flash-sales industry. Helping clothing brands clear their inventory quickly, SZIT rapidly attracted a large number of brands and successfully built a business ecosystem that included platforms, brands, shopkeepers, and consumers. To achieve success for all parties, SZIT took a series of measures to empower ecosystem members, such as helping brands build private traffic pools, providing one-stop services for shopkeepers, and reducing financial pressure for shopkeepers. These measures met the needs of different types of stakeholders and enabled SZIT to develop quickly and become a unicorn in the e-commerce industry. To continuously increase user traffic, SZIT developed the Xiang Store WeChat Mini Program to attract public traffic and ease the bottleneck of private traffic. However, SZIT now faced a new problem: determining how to balance the proportion of public traffic and private traffic.

Why can automated systems that rely on artificial intelligence be a deadly liability in situations unforeseen by the designers?

Employer branding doesn't get the same attention as consumer branding, but its a critical way to attract talent to your organization. By following five steps identifying the talent you need, tuning in to talent perceptions and preferences, defining your employer proposition, communicating your brand, and keeping your promises you can enhance your employer brand and meet the challenge of talent acquisition.

This case is designed to help students understand how to manage diverse employees with unique strengths and weaknesses. It features the Dialogue in the Dark ("DiD") China organization, a social enterprise franchise that employs visually impaired people to guide visitors as they experience daily life tasks in pitch-black. After briefly introducing DiD's origins in Germany and DiD China's founding story, this case describes how its founder, Shiyin Cai, managed the organization with an emphasis on selecting the right employees, providing training for their personal development, and giving employees opportunities to build self-confidence. Furthermore, this case explores how Cai considers the diverse perspectives of her employees and establishes personal relationships with them to develop enabling conditions that can help them thrive in both this organization and society at large. On December 16, 2021, the tenth anniversary of DiD China, Cai reflected on her past experiences. A month prior, had falsely reported to authorities that DiD Shanghai's operation was in violation of the fire code, an accusation that intensified the existing financial struggles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the ups and downs, Cai reflected on the challenges and rewards she experienced with founding DiD China. More importantly, on a personal level, she acknowledged her ongoing journey of learning and growth as a leader.

This case delves into the journey of Bosch (China) Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Bosch China") as it looked to establish a coaching culture across three distinct phases: "initiation, development, and one step further". It presents the background, challenges, reflections, and strategies entailed in this pursuit while exploring the way forward for its coaching culture as Bosch China approached the fifth anniversary of its Coach Club. In mid-2016, Bosch China introduced the "Coaching Practice of Leadership" course to facilitate its transition from traditional manufacturer to IoT-oriented tech firm while nurturing the required talents. However, the initiative met skepticism from executives right from inception. Through partnerships with external coaches, engagement of internal business executives, and operations of the coach club, Bosch China managed to get more and more employees to embrace the concept of "coaching". As the company continued its journey, industry changes and pandemic disruptions posed substantial challenges, prompting Bosch Group to scale back China investments. Faced with slashed training budgets, Bosch China internalized coaching courses. It introduced team coaching to extend the reach of coaching leadership to a broader group of mid-level managers and business divisions. While the coaching culture took shape, the company made several trade-offs, exemplified in sections like "local identity vs. global alignment", "independence vs. ICF accreditation", and "taking proactive action vs. responding to needs". After five years of exploration, Bosch China's efforts to foster a coaching culture yielded tangible outcomes. Internally, this practice garnered recognition from executives like Han Dongli, Vice President of Bosch Intelligent Manufacturing Solutions China, and contributed to business growth in the divisions concerned. Externally, it earned accolades like the Ram Charan Management Practice Award and the ICF Germany Prism Award.

Industry and Background Notes for case CB0297