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Mint Tax was founded in Vienna in 1960. By 2019, the company had approximately 80 employees and a broad client base in the areas of taxation, accounting, and payroll services. Over the previous decade, the company had experienced many successes and failures, including mergers, acquisitions, separations, firm structure changes, and financial losses. However, it had always managed to recover. Mint Tax was considering an expansion of its digital products, services, and internal processes and practices. The founder's daughter and current chief executive officer was motivated and had innovative ideas, but faced various challenges that prevented implementation of many of the company's ideas. To overcome these challenges, what steps should the chief executive officer and her team take to understand the company's strategic management patterns, identify and evaluate the company's capabilities, and develop solutions?

In January 2019, the sole proprietor and the general manager of Farm Electronics met to discuss critical options for the possible growth path of their company. Farm Electronics was a 42-year-old, small-scale electrical and electronic industrial equipment manufacturer based in Indore, India. The company's product portfolio consisted of various transformers, relay coils, power supplies, and direct-current motors, which were designed according to its customers' specifications. Farm Electronics' customers consisted of small-, medium-, and large-scale businesses from both the organized and unorganized sectors. Significant aspects of the company's value proposition included quality, timely delivery, and after-sales service. However, most of Farm Electronics' revenue came from only a few big accounts. The proprietor and the general manager wanted to expand their company's reach and were thus contemplating targeting a new set of customers.

Tetra Bio-Pharma (Tetra) was a new firm operating in a murky but promising industry-cannabinoid-derived pharmaceutical products. But, the firm had been so involved in navigating drug development and approval processes that it had lost track of its identity. The firm did not define itself initially, and with its rapid growth, shifting strategies, evolving competencies, and plethora of alliances, Tetra needed a stronger focus. Adding to the turmoil, the firm was operating within the rapidly changing global marijuana industry-essentially, uncharted waters. Given that the firm's new drugs were about to receive government approval, the firm had to determine how to build its brand.

M.M.LaFleur, a clothing company founded in New York in 2013, specialized in office wear for professional women. Specifically, M.M.LaFleur targeted a difficult-to-serve group-working women who did not like shopping. Despite the challenging customer base, the company grew steadily since its inception. Customers could shop online through the company's website or attend showrooms, pop-up stores, or trunk shows, where sales associates provided attentive personal service. However, the most successful venue for the company's sales was a feature called the M.M.LaFleur "bento box," which was responsible for 80 per cent of the company's revenue. By June 2019, M.M.LaFleur had grown from a small start-up company into a thriving business with a loyal customer base. The founder was pleased with her company's results, but wondered what her next steps should be. What could M.M.LaFleur do to continue its strong growth and momentum?

This case series simulates the quintessential "American dream:" buying and financing your first house. For most people, buying a house is the largest purchase they will experience in their lifetime. The process has both legal and economic components, and often requires that the buyer rely heavily upon a realtor to navigate all the technicalities. Along the way, the buyer may experience an emotional roller coaster with both the excitement of becoming a homeowner and the worry that comes with making a large financial commitment. Much of the worry comes from a lack of understanding, particularly when we buy that first house without any experience with such a transaction. The primary objective of these cases is to provide the key information needed to understand what is involved with the purchase and financing of a house, and to simulate the process as the students experience the cases in sequence over several class periods.

Supplement to case UV7959 This case series simulates the quintessential "American dream:" buying and financing your first house. For most people, buying a house is the largest purchase they will experience in their lifetime. The process has both legal and economic components, and often requires that the buyer rely heavily upon a realtor to navigate all the technicalities. Along the way, the buyer may experience an emotional roller coaster with both the excitement of becoming a homeowner and the worry that comes with making a large financial commitment. Much of the worry comes from a lack of understanding, particularly when we buy that first house without any experience with such a transaction. The primary objective of these cases is to provide the key information needed to understand what is involved with the purchase and financing of a house, and to simulate the process as the students experience the cases in sequence over several class periods.

Handout to case UV7961

Supplement to case UV7959

Handout to case UV7964

Spreadsheet supplement for case SMU557.

In May 2019, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) had paused rapid expansion of its massive agile organizational transformation, trying to make the existing program work better. ANZ announced the decision to take the bank agile in May 2017, moving from the traditional command-and-control, risk-based, and process-driven hierarchy to collaborative teamwork. Such decisions came after not only competitive pressures from the disruptive entry of financial technology companies but also a series of internal scandals. Would the agile transformation be a solution for ANZ to respond to these external and internal challenges? How could ANZ be successfully transformed, given its corporate culture that had been deeply rooted for over 180 years?

Saankhya Labs Private Limited (Saankhya), was a fabless semiconductor company formed in 2006 in Bengaluru, India. It provided innovative products and solutions used in consumer electronics, wireless communication, and broadcasting applications. Similar to other domestic telecommunications manufacturing companies in India, Saankhya found it difficult to penetrate the domestic equipment market. While its fluctuating fortunes had stabilized to some degree after 2016, the company continued to struggle in the face of regulatory uncertainty and competition from multinational giants, and the expected advantages of government initiatives intended to support the domestic industry had not yet materialized. In 2018, Saankhya's chief executive officer and co-founder wondered how long the company could survive under such competitive circumstances. Should it compete or collaborate with other stakeholders in the industry?

The chief human resources (HR) officer at National Pharmaceuticals (National), established in 1937 in Bihar, India, had been with the organization since 2007. The organization had been facing high employee attrition rates since 2013. Although the organization had reduced its employee attrition rate from 44 per cent in financial year (FY) 2014-15 to 25 per cent in FY 2017-18, the organization was yet to reach the industry benchmark rate of 12-13 per cent. This issue needed to be urgently resolved, as the organization would soon launch a new product range for which it required additional employees. A meeting was called with all the functional heads within HR. As the group discussed what had gone wrong and what had helped National in the past, they identified several factors that had led to the company's high employee attrition rate and noted various human linked HR policies. The group had two weeks to create an effective action plan to meet the benchmark attrition rate of 12 per cent. This plan would be presented to the board of directors. Should the company change its recruitment, selection, performance management, and training policies to create the organizational culture the leaders aspire to? Should it invest in more training and development?

In April 2019, Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC (Carl's Jr.), an American fast-food restaurant chain, faced an important decision. The company was up against strong competition from both traditional players in the fast-food market and newer competitors in the fast-casual dining market. In 2017, Carl's Jr. had stopped using the provocative ads it had become known for, and in 2018, the company ended a long co-branding relationship with Hardee's Restaurants LLC. Due in part to these changes, the company was struggling to form its own identity. Carl's Jr.'s chief executive officer needed to develop a sustainable competitive advantage in order to make the company relevant again in the minds of consumers.

SK Group was one of the largest companies South Korea. A family-run conglomerate consisting of around 120 subsidiaries and employing more than 100,000, SK was tightly knit into the fabric of Korean society. SK viewed their future success as contingent upon the strength of the societal ecosystem in which they operated. As such, the company had a long history of philanthropic giving. However, SK questioned if their donations were producing the desired impact, as many of the societal issues they, and the rest of Korean society, sought to address were not improving. In order to create a new system of generating social value, SK established the Social Progress Credit (SPC) initiative. The SPC initiative designed a measurement methodology that was used to measure the social value created by social enterprises - firms whose mission was to generate social value in conjunction with generating sustainable financial returns. Additionally, the SPC initiative provided monetary incentives to social enterprises in proportion to the social value generated by participating social enterprises. Looking to the future, SK envisioned a marketplace in which SPC's were traded among investors and credits were priced by the market. Initial results of the SPC initiative were positive, showing positive growth in social value created and financial stability of social enterprises. How then could SK convince other public and private organizations to adopt the SPC model and promote social value? Moreover, how could SK convince mainstream capital markets to make investments into society enterprises on the basis of the social value creation? More importantly, was this attempt to enrich and grow the ecosystem of social value creation making a difference?

Data protection is important to businesses, and increasingly so as the paper-based world fades into memory. Information safeguards that were sufficient in the past no longer are in the current digitized environment. It is incumbent upon companies to keep their data secure, but what constitutes reasonable protection? In this installment of Business Law & Ethics Corner, we tackle this question and proffer Draper's Catastrophe Value Curve as an assessment tool toward that end.

Historically, the decision over whether or not to consolidate was guided by bright-line rules, which outlined the minimum percentage of ownership required in a subsidiary for it to be considered controlled by a reporting entity and thus included in the consolidated financial statements (CFSs). Today, U.S. GAAP and IFRS use a principles-based approach, which is guided by the concept of control to determine whether a subsidiary is to be consolidated in the CFSs. In this context, a debate exists between managers and auditors about which subsidiaries should be consolidated. To deepen our understanding of how managers and auditors grapple with consolidation decisions, we interviewed several CFOs and audit partners to determine if they are anchored to legalistic mechanisms or if, instead, they are strategically developing ways to support the consolidation decision. Based on our interviews, we find that opportunistic transactions-criticized at the time of the rules-based approach-still exist due to the search for legalistic mechanisms that protect underlying choices influenced by economic incentives. Such results are crucial for analysts and investors to properly interpret consolidated financial performance.

Since the late 1990s, executives have been warned that explosive company growth is essential to producing superior financial performance. For executives who recognize that this contention accurately describes their situation and want to upgrade their competitive capabilities, the challenge is planning to grow fast while understanding and avoiding the risk of fast failure. In this article, we identify promising competitive strategies by studying businesses that have sought high-growth and succeeded in achieving it. The dataset consists of the fastest growing new ventures in the U.S. as selected for the Inc. 500. The results of a quantitative and qualitative analysis show that these businesses rely on different combinations of attributes related to advanced technology, market aggressiveness, and functional excellence. We discuss 12 of these attributes and look at the demographic characteristics of the Inc. 500 and their implications for new venture creation.

A decade ago, we published an article in Business Horizons about the challenges and opportunities of social media with a call to action: "Users of the world, unite!" To celebrate its anniversary, we look at artificial intelligence and the need to create the rules necessary for peaceful coexistence between humanity and AI. Hence, we now are urging: "Rulers of the world, unite!" In this article, we outline six debates surrounding AI in areas like artificial superintelligence, geographical progress, and robotics; in doing so, we shed light on what is fact and what is Utopia. Then, using the PESTEL framework, we talk about the six dilemmas of AI and its potential threat and use. Finally, we provide six directions on the future of AI regarding its requirements and expectations, looking at enforcement, employment, ethics, education, entente, and evolution. Understanding AI's potential future will enable governments, corporations, and societies at large (i.e., the rulers of this world) to prepare for its challenges and opportunities. Then, we can avoid a scenario in which we return in 10 years to write the article: "Dreamers of the world, unite!"

This article explores how an organization can use its history to define and deliver its corporate brand strategy. We specifically look at Adidas, which, having rejected its history at one stage, rediscovered and used the philosophy and ideas of its founder to provide direction for the future, legitimate strategic choices, and enrich the corporate brand. Through analysis of material evidence and interviews with senior and long-serving employees, we conceptualize the way Adidas developed a systematic approach to the use of history in its corporate brand strategy by creating the means to uncover, remember, curate, and then embed it. Combining the lessons of the Adidas case with evidence from other cases in which history was used to refocus and revitalize corporate brands, we deliver key recommendations for managers.