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The case introduces IPOs in Hong Kong from the perspectives of both issuers and investors. Hong Kong was a popular choice among many local and nonlocal companies for listing. It ranked as first globally in terms of total proceeds raised for 5 out of 10 years between 2011 and 2020. The case is set in the fourth quarter of 2020, when the Ant Group entered Hong Kong for its IPO. Students take on the role of Lin Wong, head of the investment team of a new investment fund under Next Capital Investment Limited. Students have the opportunity to learn about IPOs from various perspectives: as pre-IPO investors in a fund's investment that is ready to go public, as retail investors to subscribe for high-profile IPOs in the market, and as potential cornerstone investors to subscribe for a portion in the global offering of an IPO.

In February 2020, Pan-China Consulting Services Co. Ltd. (Pan-China) was entering its third decade in operation. Pan-China's founder was reviewing the firm's evolution and discussing several key opportunities with his team. Over the previous two decades, the company had shown solid performance in providing financial and capital markets advice to over 200 companies. It had generated strong returns for its key investors, who ensured that every deal was financially secured by the company's auditing, financial, and consulting expertise. However, the founder and his two senior advisers had to make some decisions. Should Pan-China participate in a new round of private placement investment? Should it consider investing in a second opportunity? Which fund issuance would be the best fit for Pan-China? Was its consulting and investment business model sustainable?

In 1989, Tracy Edwards, at age 26, led the first all-female crew in the prestigious and grueling 59,264-kilometre (32,000 nautical mile) Whitbread Round the World Race. Edwards had developed a deep love for sailing in general and for the Whitbread Round the World Race in particular. However, she soon found that it was impossible, as a woman, to participate as a fully integrated member of a crew. Hence, she sought to organize an all-female team to compete in the race. She located, bought, and restored an old racing yacht, which eventually was christened Maiden. The idea of a team of women racing in the Whitbread Round the World Race was unthinkable to many men in and around the world of yacht racing, so the backlash was predictable and intense, and the hurdles to successfully complete the race seemed insurmountable. This six-part case series chronicles the myriad challenges faced by Edwards and her colleagues before and during the race, including rampant sexism and misogyny. Each of the six cases sets the stage for the next challenge Edwards has to overcome.

Supplement to case W21294.

Supplement to case W21294.

Supplement to case W21294.

Supplement to case W21294.

Supplement to case W21294.

In January 2020, Ashwani Gupta took over as COO at Nissan Motor Corporation, and several weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic began. Nissan's Business Continuity Plan (BCP) had been key to the resilience of Nissan's supply chain. It had enabled Nissan to recover from past supply chain disruptions, mainly natural disasters, sooner than its competitors. This case describes the BCP, within the context of Nissan's production methods, organizational principles and current financial position. It relates how Gupta managed the rapidly-evolving restrictions that the coronavirus pandemic required as it spread from China to other countries where Nissan's assembly plants and suppliers were located. Based on his experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, Gupta considers how to improve the BCP. This case also covers a specific situation in India, where Nissan had to quickly find an alternate supplier for a unit of dashboard gauges. The team in India developed four options that can be evaluated by students.

In November 2020, Henry Wilde, co-founder and CEO of Acelero, Inc., must decide whether to change his company's program model for delivering early childhood education to low-income children. One of the only for-profit Head Start providers in the United States, Acelero provided direct services through neighborhood childcare centers and operated a consulting arm to improve the services of other Head Start centers. The company had developed a reputation for excellence and was profitable, pleasing its investors. However, Senior Vice President of Family Engagement Lori Levine urged Wilde to change the company's process for interacting with parents. While Levine's preferred model had the potential to drive deeper social impact, it was not yet a proven success and did not have the potential to make Acelero's business more profitable. Further, if the new model failed, Wilde risked losing the credibility that he and his team had build in the early childhood education field over the company's 19-year history. Wilde and Levine had piloted the model at a single Acelero center, and the early results were promising. At the conclusion of the case, the CEO must decide whether to scale the program model to other centers, or whether to stay the course with his company's existing operations.

Global consumer products powerhouse LSP has found enormous savings in a trial run of a new competitive bidding tool for their procurement organization known as a reverse e-auction. But when Jen Baldwin is asked to achieve the same savings from her suppliers for a product used by her own division, things turn out to be much more complex, revealing the benefits and drawbacks of using the tool to reduce prices, maintain supplier relationship and garner savings for the company.

Global consumer products powerhouse LSP has found enormous savings in a trial run of a new competitive bidding tool for their procurement organization known as a reverse e-auction. But when Jen Baldwin is asked to achieve the same savings from her suppliers for a product used by her own division, things turn out to be much more complex, revealing the benefits and drawbacks of using the tool to reduce prices, maintain supplier relationship and garner savings for the company.

Global consumer products powerhouse LSP has found enormous savings in a trial run of a new competitive bidding tool for their procurement organization known as a reverse e-auction. But when Jen Baldwin is asked to achieve the same savings from her suppliers for a product used by her own division, things turn out to be much more complex, revealing the benefits and drawbacks of using the tool to reduce prices, maintain supplier relationship and garner savings for the company.

Global consumer products powerhouse LSP has found enormous savings in a trial run of a new competitive bidding tool for their procurement organization known as a reverse e-auction. But when Jen Baldwin is asked to achieve the same savings from her suppliers for a product used by her own division, things turn out to be much more complex, revealing the benefits and drawbacks of using the tool to reduce prices, maintain supplier relationship and garner savings for the company.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated long-running retail profitability issues many of which have been plaguing the sector since the early 2000s. New research from Deloitte sheds light on the current consumer-to-business paradigm, the direction in which customer experience trends are headed, and what retailers can do to ensure their sustained success.

In January 2020, Kombi Sports Inc. was at a strategic crossroads in a changing industry. The Montreal-based firm had evolved from a niche provider of alpine performance gloves to a premium Canadian winter apparel brand. Its success could be attributed, at least in part, to its strong collaborative stance and interesting partnerships. However, increasing competition in the industry, particularly among brick-and-mortar retailers, raised questions for Kombi about how and where it should focus its efforts for future growth.

Virtual working became the norm for most organizations since March 2020, and it brings well-recognized challenges. But we know little about the impact of virtual working on managerial behavior. This article presents the results of three surveys conducted before and during lockdown to understand what changed. It shows how managers became more blinkered: turning inward, becoming task-focused at the expense of relationship-building, and finding few opportunities to develop new skills. The article offers practical suggestions for how the evolution of managerial work might be accelerated, so that managers can become more effective in this changing environment.

David Pong, co-founder and CEO of a water technology start-up, had good news to share with his team: after several rounds of pitching and evaluation, they had raised seed funding for their social enterprise, Wateroam. David had started Wateroam as a fresh university graduate with two younger co-founders in August 2014. The trio's mission was to tackle the global problem of water scarcity by providing water filtration systems to the rural poor. As a new start-up, Wateroam faced challenges in funding, product innovation, sales and distribution. Wateroam broke even in its second year of operation. In the four years since its formation, the social enterprise, which is based in Singapore, has provided people in 14 countries with access to clean water. Now, with this round of seed funding, Wateroam was poised to enter its next phase of growth and reach out to more underserved communities that were in dire need of clean water. As CEO, David had many important decisions to make. Chief among them was how he should scale up Wateroam, bearing in mind the latter's double bottom line of profitability and social impact.

The production of tea increased by 10% and the Indian economy experienced an inflation of 5.24% in 2018; the average auction price for tea had been stagnant at Rs. 140 per kg since 2013. The existing auction system was built on an archaic technology and the auction rules were constraining the system. This was triggering the buyers to move away from the auction to private sales, and thus stifling price discovery. The Tea Board of India hired consultants to redesign the auction system based on the principles of design simplicity, ease of use, and sustainability. Three areas for auction design improvement related to the type, closure, and transparency of auctions, were identified. But would they have the desired effect? The case provides an opportunity for students to discuss if the proposed interventions will work from the lens of auction as a pricing mechanism. With increase in adoption of auctions from selling search words, ad-spaces, to surplus inventory, this case should be interesting for students intending to build different pricing/business models. It is also useful for students to understand the mechanism in order to improve the existing auction systems.