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In early 2018, the chairman and chief executive officer of FOTILE, based in Ningbo, China, announced a change in the company's mission statement from "Enable people to feel better about their homes" to "For the happiness of millions of families." The previous year had seen impressive growth, with sales exceeding ¥10 billion. After only 22 years in operation, FOTILE had become a leading brand, comparable to such prestigious names as Siemens, in the high-end sector of kitchen appliances in China. More importantly FOTILE was hailed as a distinct enterprise, driven by a grand vision, a unique mission statement, and core values based on Confucianism. The FOTILE Confucian Way was embraced with enthusiasm by its employees and close business partners, and was broadly recognized by the Chinese business communities and the general public. However, the chairman understood that FOTILE was still a long way from being a great company, not only in terms of business success but also in transferring positive energy to society and helping people become morally admirable. Although he was deeply absorbed in FOTILE's past achievements, he was also wondering about FOTILE's future international expansion, to North America in particular. Would FOTILE's products be competitive in North America? Would that continent adopt the FOTILE Confucian Way?

This case begins with post-deposition thoughts of Sean Burns, a 23-year veteran of Takata Corp. The lawsuit that gave rise to the deposition was brought as a class action on behalf of people who alleged Takata's airbags caused them economic damages and/or personal injuries. In 2003, Takata learned that an inflator had ruptured in a driver-side airbag it had developed and manufactured. Another inflator ruptured in 2004, three in 2007, and more from 2008 through 2010. Throughout this time, Burns worked in concert with employees in other functional areas at Takata to determine the root cause of the inflator ruptures. He had led the team that developed the propellant inside the inflator and was part of the team that developed the inflator design that came under scrutiny. In addition to their deep concerns with safety, Burns and his Takata colleagues were confronting the complex type of situation that arises for a company facing potential liability for a defective product. Eventually, more than 40 million vehicles in the United States and over 100 million globally were recalled due to concerns with airbags manufactured by Takata.

In mid-2019, the owner of Ireland Renovations was contemplating the future of his renovation and construction company that operated in London and Middlesex County in Ontario, Canada. The owner's youngest son was interested in working for the business, but the owner wondered whether the company could afford to hire him. His son had previously worked for the company part-time and had shown an interest in helping his father grow the business. The owner decided to project and analyze cash budgets for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 to determine whether hiring his son would be a feasible option.

Since its expulsion from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore had transformed itself from a third world island nation into a vibrant city-state with one of the highest levels of GDP per capita in the world. However, sluggish demand among Singapore's major trade partners began testing the nation's export-driven growth model. It was also becoming clear that the Singaporean government could no longer focus single-mindedly on economic growth. Was Singapore facing a mid-life crisis? If so, how could the government revive optimism in the nation's future?

GitLab is arguably one of the world's largest "all-remote" companies. Started in 2011 and with more than 1,000 employees at present, it has no physical offices and all employees, including the entire C-Suite, work remotely from all parts of the world. The case highlights the value created for companies and employees from the adoption of the all-remote model. It also sets up a debate for how GitLab should customize organizational processes related to communication, coordination, and socialization as the firm scales up.

In May 2017, SoftBank announced the official launch of the Vision Fund - which promptly became the largest technology-focused investment fund in the world, with nearly $100 billion in capital under its management. Reports from a few months prior hinted that SoftBank was weighing a billion-dollar investment deal with WeWork, a commercial real estate company that specializes in shared office spaces. The official launch of the fund was proceeded by a series of multi-billion dollar investments in WeWork, eventually bringing the company's post-money valuation to $42 billion. The development of the Vision Fund had key implications for the late-stage venture capital industry. Moreover, Soft Bank's investments in WeWork raise important questions regarding investment decision-making, asset valuation, and issues surrounding corporate governance.

Primark was a low-cost, fast-fashion clothing retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom. The company's low-priced clothing enticed consumers, but it also attracted criticism for exploitative labor practices in the low-cost economies where Primark's manufacturing was outsourced. However, Primark believed that it created jobs in low-cost economies, and its low prices were the result of efficient initiatives such as no online presence and limited advertising. Experts suggested that the absence of an e-commerce division was a strategic mistake. In October 2019, the company's chief executive officer was challenged with synchronizing Primark's low-cost strategy with its sustainability initiatives and deciding on the company's online presence.

ExtraCarbon was a company focused on the sorting stage of India's unorganized waste management industry. The company was founded in 2013 with owners' capital and some investments from friends and family. In October 2018, one of these friend investors expressed a desire to exit the venture. Although ExtraCarbon had made steady progress since its founding, the company did not have enough money to buy out the investor's stake, and the company's valuation was too low for the investor to benefit from leaving the venture. The investor complained that the founders had never taken his advice to scale up the venture more quickly, which would have benefitted all stakeholders by providing a better valuation and attracting more investors to the company. The incident led the founders to review their current scale of operations and make more ambitious growth plans for the company, including setting an ambitious revenue target of US$6 million by 2021. The challenge was to identify resources and ways to achieve this target. What strategy would help the company reach its target in a largely unorganized industry?

On August 19, 2014, Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was faced with an agonizing decision: should she quarantine a densely populated township of Monrovia to halt the spread of the Ebola virus disease? The disease had been ravaging the Republic of Liberia for months but until now, had been isolated in the countryside. Now, the deadly virus was spreading, unchecked, and threatened the 1 million inhabitants of Monrovia, the capital city of the Republic of Liberia. At 5pm she would meet with military and health advisors to hear their recommendations. This case describes the rise and spread of the Ebola virus disease in Liberia and the actions taken by all levels of government, NGOs, volunteers and the community that led to a quarantine within the West Point township. The case is presented in three parts to allow faculty to pose the question, "Should President Sirleaf impose a quarantine?" (A case) before asking students to reconsider the question in light of the community's response to the government and security force actions (B case). An epilogue describes how the West Point community engaged in a peaceful and effective resolution.

On August 19, 2014, Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was faced with an agonizing decision: should she quarantine a densely populated township of Monrovia to halt the spread of the Ebola virus disease? The disease had been ravaging the Republic of Liberia for months but until now, had been isolated in the countryside. Now, the deadly virus was spreading, unchecked, and threatened the 1 million inhabitants of Monrovia, the capital city of the Republic of Liberia. At 5pm she would meet with military and health advisors to hear their recommendations. This case describes the rise and spread of the Ebola virus disease in Liberia and the actions taken by all levels of government, NGOs, volunteers and the community that led to a quarantine within the West Point township. The case is presented in three parts to allow faculty to pose the question, "Should President Sirleaf impose a quarantine?" (A case) before asking students to reconsider the question in light of the community's response to the government and security force actions (B case). An epilogue describes how the West Point community engaged in a peaceful and effective resolution.

On August 19, 2014, Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was faced with an agonizing decision: should she quarantine a densely populated township of Monrovia to halt the spread of the Ebola virus disease? The disease had been ravaging the Republic of Liberia for months but until now, had been isolated in the countryside. Now, the deadly virus was spreading, unchecked, and threatened the 1 million inhabitants of Monrovia, the capital city of the Republic of Liberia. At 5pm she would meet with military and health advisors to hear their recommendations. This case describes the rise and spread of the Ebola virus disease in Liberia and the actions taken by all levels of government, NGOs, volunteers and the community that led to a quarantine within the West Point township. The case is presented in three parts to allow faculty to pose the question, "Should President Sirleaf impose a quarantine?" (A case) before asking students to reconsider the question in light of the community's response to the government and security force actions (B case). An epilogue describes how the West Point community engaged in a peaceful and effective resolution.

Digital initiatives often suffer from poor governance when it comes to providing structure and governance to digital transformation projects, from finding alignment between business processes to assigning ownership for change efforts. Executives need to rethink their governance approach for digital transformation in a way that prioritizes active enablement over control. Seven key governing principles linked to successful digital business transformation can help.

An innovative collaboration between the central bank, civil prosecutor's office and the police combine to reduce counterfeit currency.

An innovative collaboration between the central bank, civil prosecutor's office and the police combine to reduce counterfeit currency.

This case is set in the education industry. The President of National Management University (NMU), a fictional university in Singapore, has asked a professor to assume the role of the Dean of Graduate Studies with a mandate to reverse the trend of declining enrollments at the university. The 20-year-old university was among the top five in the nation and had been offering graduate programs for a decade. It had begun to witness a decline in enrollments that was concerning from both a financial sustainability perspective and in view of the lofty growth targets set by the university board. To assist him in getting to the root of the current problem and finding a solution, the new Dean has asked for, and received, a large amount of information on the university's marketing and promotion activities and expenditures, its choice of media and venue for its spends, the speed of student enrollment and the effectiveness of its campaigns. He hopes the data will provide potential answers as to how to better spend university resources to increase student recruitment and achieve the growth targets.

Bertha Ansah had come a long way from selling confectionaries to her school classmates to owning and leading her own transportation services company. Her journey included a career in nursing, retail in arts and crafts, a stint selling generators, public health activities, and since 1999, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Pergah Transportation Limited. As the owner of a transportation company, Ansah was breaking the mold in Ghana. While it was common and expected for Ghanaian women to work, their work was largely limited to defined roles in small, often informal enterprises, primarily in agriculture or caring occupations-not transportation. Ansah was, as she described it, "always looking for something new to do." It was exactly that restlessness that had landed her in the middle of her current dilemma. In 2008, Ansah supported John Atta Mills in his campaign to become the president of Ghana. Mills was elected and envisioned great changes for Ghana's working class, especially small business owners. One of those key changes involved giving new life to Ghana's Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (Masloc)-a job Mills wanted Ansah to take on. Mills became president in 2009 and the position of CEO Masloc was vacant, so he needed to fill it to meet his electoral promises. Could Ansah give up her private business to provide the public service the president wanted for their country? It was Sunday and Ansah was still not any closer to an answer that was needed by Monday morning.

The CEO of Coconut Calendar Corporation was dealing with the challenges of managing a growing scheduling software company. After attending a CEO 'boot camp', she realized that the company would be pushed out of the market by aggressive competitors if they did not grow more quickly. She accepted an offer of venture capital funding and mentorship from a well-known investor in Silicon Valley and started scaling the company at a rapid pace. The company served a broad range of business customers, from small businesses to large corporations across several industries, and started to diversify their product offerings to include data analytics and other application services. However, Coconut Calendar had experienced decreasing profitability while trying to grow revenue and serve a diverse customer base, recording their first ever annual loss. The CEO, and students, are faced with the challenge of developing a clear strategic and customer focus in order to be positioned to pursue another round of venture capital funding and successfully grow the business to maturity in a highly competitive marketplace. Issues related to small business growth and diversity issues in the technology industry are also explored.

This case showcases the deliberations of co-founder, Erin Kelly, CEO of Ottawa, Ontario based artificial intelligence (AI) driven market research start-up, Advanced Symbolics Inc. (ASI), along with her co-founder, Kenton White. Kelly and White must decide whether their vision for the firm's culture is the right decision for their growing firm seeking to disrupt the market. Having felt excluded in the technology industry as a female employee by the industry's cultural norms which did not support workforce diversity but rather "bro culture," Kelly and White's vision was to develop a culture of workforce diversity at ASI. They have repeatedly been told by industry experts that their cultural vision - where employees' diverse needs are accommodated - will not work. Tech experts argue that it is too difficult to manage a highly diverse group of employees, and that in order to attract top tech talent, start-ups like ASI need to offer the kind of "fun" environment that tech workers expect - precisely the kind that had made Kelly feel excluded. Experts warn Kelly and White that if they pursue their cultural vision, ASI will be disadvantaged in the tech talent wars - a huge problem for a fast-growing firm with the need for rare skills. Should Kelly and White stick to their vision, or should they heed the experts' advice to make their firm attractive by offering the kind of "fun" culture expected within the industry? Their personal preferences aside, which is the better cultural direction for their firm's long-term business success? Finally, as the firm grows by adding satellite offices and remote workers, how can they develop a plan to achieve a culture that is adaptive for their promising firm?