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Chengdu Jwell Co. Ltd. (Jwell) was established in July 2013 as a subsidiary of Pangang Group Investment Co. Ltd., a prominent state-owned enterprise. Jwell served as a comprehensive service platform, facilitating transactions, payments, and billing for various commodities, including steel, vanadium, titanium, and chemicals. Its digital transformation journey began in 2015 with the launch of its e-commerce platforms, and currently, its warehouse management relied on a smart warehouse chain based on digital warehouse technology. However, this approach faced challenges with respect to the real-time sharing of information about cargo and financial data and the lack of adequate support for security in e-commerce transactions, which hindered Jwell's further development.

In September 2022, inspired by personal experiences, marketing executive Nicole Bezinski decided to set up GirlsTakeOver.org (GTO) after recognizing that teenage girls and young women in high schools and colleges in the United States were lacking coping mechanisms to help them manage increased stress and performance pressures. While schools received numerous new education program ideas annually, they were highly selective about which programs met the stringent criteria and were accepted. Consequently, Bezinski found herself with the challenge of proving that non-profit GTO offered students the self-management and coping benefits they needed. A high-impact proof-of-concept model was critical for GTO to receive serious consideration and acceptance by schools. Acceptance would lead to support, advocacy, and critical financial sponsorship from numerous stakeholders to enable GTO to launch and run operations in the first year. Bezinski had to finalize her proposal including the proof of concept before schools began accepting new education program applications.

Even well-meaning organizations too often come up short in investigating sexual harassment complaints, implementing preventive measures, and imposing penalties against harassers. The result? Companies leave themselves vulnerable to liability for harassers’ actions and losing valuable talent. What’s essential are a credible training program, a solid process for investigating complaints and looking for patterns, and a uniformly applied disciplinary policy for violators.

Research shows the benefits of good work friendships on personal well-being, productivity, and engagement â€" but our close relationships at work can also create a minefield for leaders if they fracture teams into cliques. Here’s how to build healthy work friendships that enhance collaboration and performance and humanize the workplace.

In March 2023, the founders of the Strategic Human Resource Leadership Journey were reviewing the program's great success across India since its launch in 2004. The initiative was intended to develop and prepare India's HR leaders for the future. With a strategic business focus, it instilled enduring personal and professional transformations in the program's participants. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 induced unprecedented changes for the program and across the world. The result was a shift toward a mix of physical and digital offerings, referred to as a "phygital" context. The program's architects recognized that there was a compelling need to modify the design of the initiative. In 2021-22, they offered a three-phase hybrid model that aimed to capture the best of both the physical and digital formats. However, participants lamented the lack of emotional connection and opportunities to develop deep relationships. How could the program leverage the new technology of the "phygital" world but sustain the emotional quality of the in-person residential format?

In June 2023, Zerodha, a leading player in India's discount brokerage industry, was at a crossroads. Founded in 2010 by Nikhil and Nithin Kamath, who were avid stock traders from a young age, the company had grown significantly by putting customers first. The pandemic and low-interest environment had provided a strong tailwind to the sector as well as the company, especially in terms of the number of customers and revenues. However, the competition was nipping at Zerodha's heels. Many start-ups offered similar technology interfaces, and some were funded by venture capital. A few were spending aggressively to court customers as well as tech employees. With a debt-free balance sheet built through several years of profitable operations, Zerodha could pursue strategies that required large spending, but the key question was: should Zerodha deviate from its time-tested strategy of being a cost leader and not following the herd in the new post-pandemic environment?

Hefu Catering Management Co. Ltd. (Hefu) was founded in 2012 as a high-end Chinese noodle chain brand. Its mission was to promote Chinese culture through Chinese fast food on a global scale. In 2018, Hefu experienced significant demand growth. To ensure a steady supply of safe, fresh, and organic foods, Hefu established a centralized kitchen in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, serving 300 restaurants in nearby cities. As Hefu expanded into North and Central China, it faced challenges in delivering fresh food from the centralized kitchen to meet the demands of all its restaurants.

As she prepared for the Hershey Company Investor Day, CEO Michele Buck knew the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI); the importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices; and that EDI within corporate social responsibility (CSR) was key to Hershey's valuable brand image, engaged employees, and effective business relationships. "Children's wellbeing is at the heart of who we are as a company. This goes back to our founder, Milton S. Hershey, who cared deeply about children." However, the company depended on cocoa beans from West Africa and had not yet honoured a 2001 industry-wide pledge to uproot child labour in global supply chains. Hershey was committed to improved practices but had not yet reached its goals. What if Hershey's largest customer in its largest market decided to drop Hershey products? What if socially conscious institutional investors decided to sell their shares? How could the CEO avoid these disastrous scenarios and reassure both customers and investors?

Motorcycle Offsetters, an aspiring startup, provided motorcycle enthusiasts with a platform to offset carbon emissions from their touring activities, contributing to the fight against climate change. Despite rapid growth, the venture faced financial instability. The founder, Andreas Gneist, aimed to devise a marketing and communication strategy to engage decision-makers in organizations offering offsetting services to a substantial motorcycle enthusiast base. Overcoming skepticism among environmental activists and countering the stigma associated with climate change efforts among deniers were pivotal challenges. Addressing these hurdles was crucial for the venture's success and financial sustainability.

In 2010, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India, had been working for several months on an initiative to catalyze cleantech start-ups in India. This required multi-point intervention, including mentoring, acceleration, and funding. Substantially funded by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), this policy experiment aimed to address both market and government failures in developing countries like India by unlocking venture capital to clean-energy start-ups. As the project required CIIE to raise additional funding from other sources and there had so far been no venture capital funding of clean energy projects in India, the CEO wondered who he could approach for such funding, how to approach them, and how to structure the resulting fund to ensure the greatest potential support for innovative cleantech solutions.

In this article, we will discuss the concept of AI Products, how they are changing our daily lives, how the field of AI & Product Management is evolving, and the AI Product Development Lifecycle.

Hosam Arab (MBA 2009), cofounder and CEO of Tabby, a Saudi-based fintech startup, raised its Series D funding round in October 2023, four years after its inception, valuing it as a regional unicorn. Tabby's core product, a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) service, allowed consumers to split payments into four equal installments without fees. The company earned revenue by charging commissions to partnered merchants, ensuring low customer acquisition costs-a key element of Tabby's model that facilitated rapid and cost-effective scaling. However, Tabby encountered a significant challenge in Saudi Arabia, its main market, where key retailers demanded adopting a competitor's pricing model that involved charging end consumers for BNPL services instead of merchant fees. This situation forced Tabby to consider whether to adhere to its consumer-friendly approach that spurred its growth or to adjust its strategy due to competitive pressures. The dilemma raised questions about the future standard for charging end consumers and whether Tabby should conform or maintain its original model. The case details Tabby's journey from its founding to October 2023, highlighting its business model focused on indirect consumer acquisition and risk management. It also outlines how Tabby gained a competitive edge, selected and partnered with merchants, and leveraged BNPL as a tool for expansion into related products, thereby diversifying consumer monetization strategies.

In June 2023, SundaySky CEO Jim Dicso considers growth strategies. The software-as-a-service company provided software to create advertising videos, customer service videos, and other videos, like employee training modules, and had begun to pilot a new generative artificial intelligence (AI) assistant.

This case explores retailer Best Buy's decision to enter health care. Best Buy Health aims to enable care at home across three prongs: consumer health, active aging, and virtual care. A key pillar of Best Buy Health's strategy is leveraging the Geek Squad-the company's technical support agents who install technology and media products in the home-to set up remote patient monitoring devices for people with a chronic disease or those enrolled in a hospital-at-home program. Set in April 2023, the case finds senior company leaders reviewing the results of a pilot with Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System evaluating whether Geek Squad agents can safely expand timely access to care.

Nuwa Capital (Nuwa) was a venture capital firm based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The business was founded in 2020 by Khaled Talhouni and his partners Sarah Abu Risheh, and Stephanie Nour Prince (they were later joined by Nitin Reen and Victor Sunyer). Together, they had a combined experience of nearly 20 years investing in over 300 companies, including some of the Middle East and North Africa's most successful startups. In a startup ecosystem as nascent as theirs, their track record eclipsed most other firms. By August 2021, Nuwa had achieved a first close on its fund and, in response to changing market conditions, pivoted their investment thesis to earlier stage startups. One of the industries they decided to invest in was foodtech, and they had been in advanced stages of conversations with Calo, a Bahrain based foodtech player. The team was conducting their already accelerated due diligence when they received word that another investor had just met Calo and was willing to take Nuwa's spot. Promising founders like Calo's were hard to come by and Nuwa had to decide quickly. The problem was that Calo did not, on the surface, fit Nuwa's thesis. However, it had the potential to only after a pivot. The case chronicles the founding of Nuwa and describes the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and investors in the Middle Eastern startup ecosystem, and Nuwa's decision to pivot their investment thesis. The case also explores how Saudi Arabia and Dubai stimulated the development of a startup ecosystem through a multi-pronged approach. The case then describes Calo, its industry, and Nuwa's investment thesis, and explores whether Nuwa should invest in Calo.

Trina Wolfson incorporated her business, Tartan Loungewear (Tartan), on June 1, 2022. The business sold trendy loungewear with tartan accents. After Tartan's first year of operations, she and her friend, an accountant, were working together to record all accounting transactions and prepare financial statements for the year.

In March 2022, Jack Jelinek and Mikey Woolfson, co-founders and co-owners of CRANK Lite Bev Corp (Crank), were considering whether they should sell their beer (Crank Lite Lager) at the Northern Heat Rib Series (Ribfest). As an Oakville, Ontario-based brewery startup that launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, Crank had already taken on a large amount of risk, and Jelinek and Woolfson were unsure of whether they could afford to take on additional risk. However, they wished to continue growing their business to eventually get acquired by another company. Jelinek and Woolfson wanted to determine whether the Ribfest opportunity made sense from a qualitative and quantitative perspective.

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Zhongke Xinke (Beijing) Technology Co. Ltd. (Zhongke Xinke), founded in November 2016, enjoyed a high reputation in China's makerspace industry. Miao Jinsheng, the founder of Zhongke Xinke, sensed the changing environment and the development challenges of the enterprise and created the Foreseeing Unicorns Project. Jointly launched with the Jiangxi provincial government, the project supported the success of entrepreneurs and helped Jiangxi Province to discover and cultivate unicorn enterprises, creating shared value economically and socially. However, its commitment and close ties with the local government limited Zhongke Xinke's future growth to a certain extent. How could the project grow by balancing its commitment to Jiangxi Province with its need to grow outside the province (national)?