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For Sid Worley, it was decision time. He had spent the last two years courting the management and the family owners of his largest competitor, and finally (and unexpectedly) they had indicated that they would be receptive to "a serious offer" to buy the company. Worley was excited and determined to buy the company, but now he faced the reality of having to come up with an offer that would work.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Case LBS296

In January 2021, Chesca Colloredo-Mansfeld (MBA '92), cofounder and executive director of MiracleFeet, a nonprofit dedicated to eradicating untreated clubfoot for good, found herself at yet another crossroad. In just over a decade, the organization, which partnered with local clinics to provide low-cost, nonsurgical solutions to one of the world's leading causes of disability, had treated just over 50,000 children in 29 countries, nailing nearly every ambitious goal to date. Notably, it had accomplished this with just over $31 million in funds raised. And with programming costs of just under $500 per child, treatment with MiracleFeet had proven to be one of the most cost-effective, high impact health initiatives in the world. But a hole remained. Over the prior decade, Colloredo-Mansfeld had faced a number of challenges. These included how best to harness the power of data to operate more efficiently and effectively, deliver the highest-quality programming, and provide meaningful data for donors that, in turn, informed the programming process in a continuous feedback loop. Indeed, Colloredo-Mansfeld had figured out how to use data to drive performance, retain and inform major donors, and manage impact but she struggled with how to scale the organization beyond the low-income model. Since inception, MiracleFeet had focused primarily on countries with poor access to health care. However, in order to solve the issue of untreated clubfoot globally, Colloredo-Mansfeld would have to figure out how to leverage data to forge a new pathway beyond low-income countries.

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its "sustainable maturation process," a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. The technology dramatically reduced the time, cost, and environmental impact (it required less energy and less wood) of making whiskey. At the same time, the technology could also be used to enhance a whiskey's taste profile which could allow producers to charge more for their products. To date, entrepreneurs Stu Aaron and Martin Janousek had proven they could produce whiskey at scale and with desired properties. Having validated the concept, they now had to decide whether to continue making whiskey themselves or use their technology to process it for others. In short, they had to decide whether to be a product-based, B2C company or a service-based, B2B company, or both? If they decided to be a service business, should they emphasis the Maturation-as-a-Service (MaaS, faster and lower cost production) or the Customization-as-a-Service (CaaS, creation of customized products with unique taste profiles) business in the short term?

Spreadsheet supplement for case 721419.

In late 2019, the Colombian company Agrícola Himalaya SA was undertaking a strategy to double its sales by 2030. The company's popular Hindú brand of teas, developed over six decades, had expanded to include not only black and green teas but also herbal teas, fruit teas, ready-to-drink products, and an iced tea line. Over the past 10 years, the company had enjoyed steady growth, distributed its products throughout the Americas, and developed a communications strategy focused on health and wellness. Now the company's chief executive officer (CEO) had to decide whether or not it was time to expand into other product categories, and if so, how. The CEO and marketing team needed to develop a brand strategy to present to the board of directors and create a new product portfolio that would support the company's growth strategy. Which channels should the company target for growth? Should it continue to grow in the same category, extend the brand to other categories, or expand the demographic mix of its customer base?

By January 2020, Microsoft Corporation's (Microsoft's) Microsoft for Health healthcare vertical had become the company's most important vertical. Microsoft's chief executive officer, Satya Nadella, wanted the company to be viewed as a strategic partner of the healthcare industry and its clients. However, several challenges remained regarding the success of this vertical: both doctors and patients were unwilling to rely on artificial intelligence (AI) for diagnostics and prescriptions, while machine learning was even less accepted. Additionally, not many companies were willing to transfer more than 10 per cent of their data to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, which raised concerns about whether or not the decision to focus on vertical versus horizontal clients represented an appropriate strategic decision. As enterprises were not shifting the majority of their data to the cloud, should Nadella reconsider his decision to focus on verticals? How could he overcome the challenges associated with the use of cloud computing and AI in healthcare? If Nadella wanted to address his clients as partners, what approach should he follow to develop such collaborative relationships?

Formed in 1997, Star Alliance was the first global airline network or constellation. Its aim was to shift the airline industry away from a network of loose bilateral agreements between individual airlines to a more comprehensive network of multilateral agreements between members. A wave of deregulation in the industry in the 1970s and 1980s, which opened free travel between countries, led to the creation of three major global constellations: Star Alliance, Oneworld, and SkyTeam. These networks conferred many benefits on their members, such as cost sharing, loyalty program management, and increased flight load. However, in early 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had devastating effects on the airline industry. The focus of airline alliances thus shifted from greater connectivity between members to survival in the new global landscape. Would this strategy help airlines survive the COVID-19 crisis? Was group-based competition needed to thrive during a pandemic? Their main concern was whether or not the powerful frameworks they created would be able to help member airlines survive this crisis and regain their pre-pandemic financial stability.

In 2019, the global airline industry generated revenues of over US$880 billion. One year later, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, demand had fallen to half of its previous level and airlines faced tough challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic was a new and severe crisis. The responses of airlines and their alliances depended on the fundamental economics and structure of the industry. To devise new strategies for their futures, global airlines had to consider the economics and market structure of their industry. Would the fundamental economics of the airline industry be forever affected? Would the industry return to a "new normal" at some point?

Isaac Park was only six weeks into the role of leading all technology operations for Primal Leadership Solutions, a global leadership advisory organization that offered consulting services and executive recruitment. The lifeblood of the business was its database, which contained the critical and comprehensive information for all of the organization's past and current projects as well as its employees, clients, and recruits. The legacy system had to be replaced by a single, efficient, and reliable database. Although implementing a new database sounded straightforward, about halfway through implementation, pandemonium had broken out. The project's leader was asked to step aside, and Park was asked to step in as the new leader. Park knew that going back to the old system was not the right answer; it was imperative that the company find a way forward. Both Park's own credibility and the credibility of the project were on the line.

In 2016, the University of Calgary (U of C) was celebrating its 50th anniversary with a variety of events, such as the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which brought visiting scholars from across the globe. At the same time, Alberta, ON, had been hit with significant forest fires, and many residents that were evacuated from northern communities had moved into U of C residences. The campus was alive with activity when its information technology (IT) systems were encrypted in a ransomware attack. The university's emergency response team had to act quickly to identify and isolate the root cause of the problem and to decide how to contain it, whether to pay the demanded ransom, and what to tell members of the university and the wider community. The university's response to this threat and its management through the crisis would ultimately shape the IT team and future investment decisions.

inFeedo leveraged its understanding of artificial intelligence (AI), NLP, and machine learning (ML) techniques to develop a chatbot named Amber. With CEO sponsorship within client organizations, Amber engaged with employees at pre-defined periods as a "virtual assistant of the CEO." The aggregated chat sentiment provided employee engagement analytics to the leadership team. The platform predicted disengaged employees and identified the attrition risk. Besides, compared to the annual engagement surveys, the broad-based sentiment analysis was more effective in reporting employee engagement. Employee engagement measurement involves massive spending by organizations. However, these engagement surveys are costly, face delays in translating information to action, and lack actionable insights for the practitioners. The case touches upon issues such as the use of "Amber" as a replacement for the conventional practices within HR, the changing role of HR, the efficacy of the use of AI in transactional HR work, ethics of using AI, and challenges of instituting a culture change within the HR divisions. Can leveraging AI help the function break out of its "administrative" image and emerge as a strategic contributor to the organization's direction-setting exercises? Additionally, the ethics around the use of AI-based chatbots and the resulting data analytics present challenges to both the users and the advocates of this new system.

Totgars' Co-operative Sale Society (TSS) is an arecanut marketing co-operative headquartered at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada (UK) district of Karnataka, India. As on March 31, 2019, it had more than 30,000 members (including both primary agricultural co-operative societies (PACS) and individuals), total turnover of ₹5047.87 million, and net profit of ₹21.03 million. The primary objective of TSS is to undertake the marketing of the agricultural produce of its members. It has several other objectives that have direct or indirect bearing on the lives of arecanut growers in UK district. The key activities of TSS could be broadly classified into those which are directly related to arecanut marketing and the support services. Activities directly related to arecanut marketing include managing the sale yard in a regulated market, trading arecanut, manufacturing value-added products, and providing storage facilities. Support services include credit, agri-inputs, extension services, animal husbandry, rice milling, transport facilities, health services, consumer goods, and guest house. The business and service portfolio of TSS is highly diversified. The co-operative balances the interests of various stakeholders such as members, employees, traders, and state agencies. This case presents how TSS integrates various businesses and services to provide benefits to its member farmers, while creating value for other stakeholders. Several lessons can be drawn from the experience of TSS.

VA Tech Wabag, an Indian MNC firm was an industry leader in total water management. The case presents an alternative method of talent development that focuses on leveraging an individual's strengths against the practice of focusing on functional and behavioral competencies and develops training need analysis (TNA). This approach appears to be contrary to the ongoing deficit culture, which concentrates on weaknesses. The HR head of the organization resists the paradigm shift in the approach to capability development. The case addresses three principal issues. 1. Understanding the strengths-based approach to capability building 2. Clarifying the competency-based approach to talent management 3. Building leadership capabilities by understanding and leveraging individual strengths and appreciating the role of competencies in enabling success. All of this raises the question of the role of competency frameworks, the TNA approach's limitations, and synergizing both ideologies. Some specific questions raised by this case are: Is it possible to build capability by adopting either approach? What are the challenges of adopting strengths-based approach for recruitment? How can the organization leverage team strengths? Understanding these dichotomies can help L&D functions manage the best out of their talent and build effective leaders.

This case describes the rise of Mary Kay, the founder of the worldwide cosmetics company. As a young single mother, Mary Kay had to overcome many obstacles to start her business and guide it to success. Today, there are more than 3.5 million Mary Kay beauty consultants selling Mary Kay products in 36 countries. The company is still privately owned. Students will learn how Mary Kay navigated life's choices to leave a lasting impact on the world.

This case follows Christophe Weber, President and CEO of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, a leading pharmaceutical company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, as Takeda considers acquiring Shire Plc, a biotech company based in Ireland. The acquisition would turn Takeda into a top ten global pharmaceutical company; however, other pharma companies were showing initial interest in acquiring Shire, and the acquisition would require a large amount of funding. Other concerns about the bid were nonfinancial. Over the last two decades, Takeda had aggressively pursued globalization and was now a global company with two thirds of revenue raised outside Japan and a diverse management team. What was the implication of acquiring Shire? Was now the right time to take such a big step? Was the acquisition in line with the company's goals? How would the combined company be managed? Would the acquisition put an end to Takeda as a Japanese company?

This case is a follow up to HBS Case No. 721-373, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (A). Following the events of the previous case, Takeda reached an agreement to acquire Ireland-based Shire Plc. The case follows some of the achievements and challenges Takeda and its employees face following the acquisition. It outlines the company's situation in 2019 and raises discussion about its future prospects.

Despite the important role that assumptions about intentions play in our judgments of others' actions and how we respond to these actions, most of us haven't thought much about the accuracy of the inferences we make, the ways our decisions about "what he meant to do" or "why she did that" might be unintentionally biased, or the potential negative effects that result when inferences about intentions affect how we judge a behavior. Nor have we thought about steps we might take to question or correct our initial inferences, or whether we should aim to set aside inferences altogether in judging and determining the consequences of a behavior. The goal of this note is to help you think about exactly these things.

Digital collaboration tools are designed to help people work together and learn from one another by facilitating knowledge sharing. But they also provide a window into who knows and does what in the organization. People who collaborate regularly and those who collaborate sporadically have different needs and require different types of tools.