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The case spotlights Kwame Spearman's career-shifting decision to leave a NYC-based consulting job to return to his hometown of Denver, Colorado, and take over an iconic independent bookstore, The Tattered Cover. The case lays out ways Spearman envisions a new approach to retail. It highlights challenges that can face individuals when they step into a substantive leadership role for the first time. It also examines how local businesses respond to significant threats from online and big box retailers.

The case explores Google's accelerator programs and its efforts to support underrepresented start-ups that are ready to scale. Students will understand Google's approach to (1) building accelerator programs, (2) selecting which startups to participate, and (3) leveraging the resources of Google and its parent, Alphabet. The case also provides an overview of the specific accelerator programs, curriculum, and benefits, which are helpful for students and future entrepreneurs who may be considering accelerators as a path to scale.

When Peter Moyo was appointed as chief executive officer (CEO) of Old Mutual Emerging Markets (Old Mutual), one of South Africa's largest and oldest financial institutions, in 2017, the chair of Old Mutual, Trevor Manuel, and the Old Mutual board were optimistic, as Moyo seemed like the ideal candidate. However, less than two years into his tenure, Moyo's employment was terminated owing to a conflict of interest and a breakdown of trust between Moyo and the chair and board. From the moment he was suspended, Moyo made the dispute very public, and appeared to be orchestrating a media campaign against Old Mutual and the directors, especially Manuel. A protracted and bruising legal battle ensued, and many corporate governance lessons were learned. It was now incumbent on the board to identify and appoint a new CEO of Old Mutual. Given the local and international environment, and in view of internal and external challenges, they needed to consider what kind of CEO would be appropriate for Old Mutual; what criteria they should set for this crucial position; and what the right timing and communication process would be around the new CEO's appointment.

In late May 2020, the two founding and managing partners at Redhill Capital, in the Pearl River New City district of Guangzhou, China, were considering various reasons why the year was developing far differently than they had expected. The two-year-old venture capital firm's limited partners and investees were all shocked by the dire developments, as was the entire country and the whole world. Earlier that year, rapidly spreading outbreaks of COVID-19, which had started in Wuhan, in China's Hubei province, had led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, and many countries were closing down their borders. With the world seemingly plunging into a deep depression, the two founders of Redhill Capital were wondering about the future of their venture capital firm, which normally invested in medical technology and biotechnology. How should the company's strategy be adjusted to survive the crisis and take advantage of new opportunities in the rapidly changing world?

This case supplements the "PittaRosso: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Pricing and Promotion" case, and provides major highlights on what happened at the company since the first case.

The appeal of coworking spaces declined sharply once the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But new research suggests that such workspaces will become even more important and more popular in the post-pandemic world than they were before, not just for entrepreneurs and freelancers, but for large companies. The author points to five benefits that both companies and their employees can gain when remote workers are given the option to choose where they do their work.

Set in 2019, this case describes the challenges faced in the adoption of DfMA (Design for manufacturing and assembly) concept by Singapore's construction industry. Use of DfMA increased productivity manifold, requiring less time for completion and less manpower, in addition to providing a safer and healthier work environment. The transition entailed a significant shift in the way different stakeholders such as developers, consultants, architects, contractors, vendors and the government operated in the domain, as the design and construction processes using DfMA were more akin to factory production and manufacturing industry than to the prevalent construction industry. Consequently, the existing ecosystem in the industry was not suited to the new technology and lacked supportive services and economies of scale. In addition, Singapore's easy access to low-cost migrant labour from regional countries had made the labour-intensive methods far more lucrative for the developers and contractors. In particular, the case presents the journey of two avant-garde companies - Teambuild, and LHL in their quest to adopt Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) and Mass Engineered Timber (MET), two lead DfMA technologies in their projects, supported by Building and Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore. BCA, as the key enabler for proliferation of DfMA technology, provided support to organisations keen to adopt it by subsidising training programs and co-funding technology adoption. However, despite a few landmark successes, the majority of the industry was risk averse and preferred to continue with the cheaper and conventional construction method that they were well-versed in. Going forward, it was important to create additional value and better interfaces for the stakeholders in order to bring down their associated tangible and intangible transaction costs.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 209059.

Advent International, one of the world's leading private equity firms, must decide whether to acquire Walmart's subsidiary in Brazil or not. Although Walmart Brazil is losing cash at a rapid pace, Advent thinks it has a solid plan to recover the company's finances. However, there are several execution risks associated with the deal and local analysts are skeptical about the possibility of a quick turnaround.

In 2016, Nicole M. Jones was hired to lead The Hangar, Delta Air Lines' new innovation center in Atlanta, Georgia. Delta's leadership had intended for The Hangar to catalyze a new approach to innovation at the company. After conducting three months of research on existing corporate innovation lab and accelerator models, Jones learned that most fail to scale impact across the core business. Drawing on her learnings, she established the values, strategy, and methodology for The Hangar to ensure just the opposite. Over the next three years, Jones and The Hangar's diverse team of design thinkers, technologists, and strategists brought together partners from Delta's core business and Atlanta's start-up and academic communities to execute a number of breakthrough innovations. After Delta's debut at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, Jones was invited to share her experience of setting up a corporate innovation lab with a consortium of innovation leaders. In preparation, she and her team are conducting a post-mortem of their three-year journey and reflecting on the lessons learned from one of their earliest projects-a Biometric Boarding Pass prototype they executed with CLEAR, a biometrics identity start-up.

Founded by Mosunmola "Mo" Abudu in 2012 with a mission to bring high-quality African stories to the world, EbonyLife was the company behind many of Nigeria's biggest films and TV shows. The company began as a television channel on the Africa-wide direct broadcast satellite service DStv. By 2020, EbonyLife had produced over 5,000 hours of television content and Nigeria's top-three highest-grossing movies. With a need for greater control over its production schedules and following the end of its relationship with DStv EbonyLife launched EbonyLife ON (EL ON), an on-demand streaming service. However, EbonyLife struggled to grow its subscribers of EL ON. Abudu started to rethink whether to continue fighting to grow EL ON. Should EbonyLife focus instead on co-production deals with international media distributors such as Netflix, Sony and AMC?

Shake Shack was a fast, casual restaurant chain with a strong focus and great efforts on sustainability and corporate responsibility. Despite its stated environmental commitments, however, its core product offering-the hamburger-was extremely taxing on the environment. Between 2009 and 2021, various new alternative protein sources had emerged that were much more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Shake Shack's chief executive officer had to make some decisions. Should the company's products shift away from beef toward alternative protein sources? If so, which of these new products should Shake Shack consider and over what timeline?

Chief marketing officers are vital to international expansion--if given the right authority and limits.

A series of studies looked at how to market visually "atypical" produce--and found that honesty was the best policy.

This case explores the general observations and financial implications behind the short squeeze that had happened on the GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME), an American chain of brick-and-mortar video game stores. The company had struggled in recent years due to competition from digital distribution companies and the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the share price of GME went up due to the hope of possible digital transformation since August 2020, there had been increasingly extensive short selling activities of GME stock by many institutional investors believing the firm was overpriced. Some of those short sellers were sizable hedge funds. The case seeks to highlight the definition, underlying factors, and mechanism of short selling, naked short selling and short squeeze. The reasons for market participants to do the above, the forthcoming risks, as well as the corresponding impact to the market are discussed. The case will discuss the interaction between social media and financial system nowadays. The perspectives (including interests and concerns) of the following parties will be analyzed, namely the retail investors, hedge funds and/or market makers, brokers (especially the FinTech-enabled zero-commission brokers), and regulators. Understanding the observations and implications of the case, students will be able perform a more comprehensive analysis on how social media and new technology shape the new investment world. Students will also be able to assess their own risks in conducting trades amid a short squeeze, or in anticipation of a short squeeze.

Officially launched on January 29, 2010, Bank of Singapore had grown rapidly in reputation and assets under management (AUM) over a short span of 11 years to become one of the fastest growing private banks in Asia. As of June 30, 2021, its AUM stood at US$125 billion. With the growth of family offices in Singapore, the demand for external intermediaries, such as the external asset managers (EAMs), to manage the growing wealth on the island had risen. Singapore's AUM by asset managers reached US$2.9 trillion in 2019 and it was estimated that EAMs accounted for 5% of the total AUM. Many private banks in Singapore had announced strategic plans to strengthen their presence in the EAM business. Bank of Singapore had to quickly compete with the foreign banks who had decades of experience managing the EAM businesses in Europe and United States. What strategies could the Bank implement to propel the bank's EAM business amidst competition? This case examines the EAM business from the perspective of Bank of Singapore as a custodian bank, the value propositions of Bank of Singapore in differentiating herself to the EAMs, the challenges faced, and the road ahead.

Niccol was the CEO of Taco Bell before he became the chief executive of Chipotle, in 2018. He had watched Chipotle's launch and rise with fascination and had enjoyed its burritos and bowls. But now he saw that it needed to get its business back on track fast. Customer lines were moving slowly. Some workers didn't seem properly trained. The marketing was unmemorable. Niccol and his team focused on strengthening the company's culinary culture and harnessing the power of digital to enhance its fledgling mobile app. They reconfigured the restaurants to allow for skip-the-line pickup of online orders and created a second "kitchen" to prepare those orders, freeing the regular staff to attend to in-person customers. And they shifted marketing spend from a defensive, expensive, promotion-focused approach to social media and television, where the message has become much more resonant. Chipotle's to-go and delivery operations have been a vital source of revenue during the pandemic, with digital sales representing 46.2% of all sales in 2020.