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Even though they have gotten better at meeting the iron triangle of cost, time, and scope, many projects still do not achieve the strategic benefits-especially those that are nonmonetary-desired in most contemporary projects. Given that no one is specifically accountable for delivering these benefits, it should be no surprise that these projects are largely unsuccessful. We consider multiple possible candidates for this role of accountability-the CEO, the project manager, the sponsor, and the program manager-and find none of them acceptable, thereby necessitating the formalization of a new role: a project owner. The project owner would be accountable for delivering the strategic benefits desired from each project. In this article, we describe the responsibilities of the project owner at each phase of the project, the sources for candidates to fulfill this role, and the training needed for project owners to find success. We conclude with a case study of an organization that has taken this route and discuss the advantages and challenges that resulted from its strategic organizational change initiative.

This research examines current applications and potential capabilities of a wide array of social media applications such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others within the context of B2B supply chain operations. Specifically, we use social media affordances (SMA) as a framework to explore how social media is used in B2B supply chain settings. We report finding based on a survey of 209 professionals in supply chain areas. These findings include the extent to which social media and different social media tools are used in B2B supply chain operations, the impact of company size on social media use, the areas in which social media is used, the perceptions of social media, and other relevant issues such as social media policy and security. Based on these findings, this study provides a discussion regarding the current and future use of social media in B2B supply chain operations.

Big data analytics have transformed research in many fields, including the business areas of marketing, accounting and finance, and supply chain management. Yet, the discussion surrounding big data analytics in human resource management has primarily focused on job candidate screenings. In this article, we consider how significant strategic human capital questions can be addressed with big data analytics, enabling HR to enhance overall firm performance. We also examine how new data sources that help assess workforce performance in real time can assist in the identification and development of the knowledge stars that contribute to firm performance disproportionately as well as help reinforce firm capabilities. But in order for big data analytics to be successful in the HR field, regulatory and ethical challenges must also be addressed; these include privacy concerns and, in Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We conclude by discussing how big data analytics can facilitate strategic change within HR and the organization as a whole.

Modern economies are characterized by the rising role of nonmarket actors (e.g., regulatory agencies, social activists, labor unions, media) that are gaining influence over the behavior of for-profit firms. These nonmarket stakeholders use their clout over industry players to impose innovations that require costly changes in business practices or technological trajectories while lacking firm-level economic justification. How should a company respond when it is pressured to adopt a new practice or change its products, while the economic calculations suggest that this is going to be a pure cost? Our study suggests alternative strategic responses to imposed innovation pressures and explores the factors determining the choice of an optimal strategy. Grounding the argument on the outside-in approach to pursuing imposed innovations, we propose a framework of organizational responses to external pressures to innovate, with varying degrees of firm engagement and different levels of cooperation with other industry actors. We also present a decision tree approach, allowing organizational decision makers to analyze the contextual determinants and ultimately arrive at the most appropriate, context-determined strategy.

Today's disruptive innovations are driving the creation of numerous billion-dollar startups. Venture capitalists focus on these potentially disruptive technology startups and fund them furiously, advancing their speed of growth. The idea is to scale fast and seek huge returns for investors. Terms that define this type of aggressive scaling have recently developed in Silicon Valley. Unicorn is defined as a venture with a value of $1 billion while a decacorn describes startups with a value of $10 billion. Another recent term is blitzscaling: funding a venture for extremely fast growth and prioritizing speed over efficiency in an environment of uncertainty. While blitzscaling is being used heavily by investors in Silicon Valley, we look at exactly what comprises this new phenomenon and how it is used in practice. We examine the concept, its stages, and its prevalence before reviewing the different examples of how the strategy has been implemented for success (the good), cases of its failure in practice (the bad), and the extreme cases of ethical compromise by ventures (the ugly). From these cases, we draw specific lessons that if understood and appropriately addressed would help new ventures effectively implement the strategy.

Business models and business model innovation-and particularly their opportunities-have been a popular topic recently, but we find the extant literature on the subject lacking. The risk and uncertainty aspect typical of business models has not been sufficiently addressed. We draw upon the existing literature and triangulate results with an extensive expert group interview to identify 28 risk and uncertainty factors, creating a checklist that can be used as the first step in an integrative business model risk management process for existing and new iterations. With an established process for managing and identifying risk in business models, managers can make more conscious and well-informed decisions.

John Branca, attorney to pop musician Michael Jackson, must negotiate a series of deals on behalf of his client in order to safeguard his financial interests and creative license during a period of rising stardom.

In December 2018, US-based Virgin Galactic LLC (Virgin Galactic), a commercial space tourism company founded by Sir Richard Branson, launched its first successful crewed test spacecraft. The company's goal was to launch suborbital space tourism in 2019. However, experts and critics voiced concerns that Virgin Galactic's space tourism program could have adverse environmental and health effects. A prominent astronaut also considered Branson's space program to be a marketing gimmick aimed at ultra-rich consumers. Branson believed that Virgin Galactic caused less environmental pollution than conventional air travel and with time would become affordable. Could Branson make space tourism a feasible reality in the long term? Was Branson right to claim that space tourism would become affordable over time? Should he pursue multiple business opportunities, such as intercontinental space travel and supporting research and development projects, along with space tourism?

HCL Technologies Ltd. (HCL) was one of the big four information technology (IT) companies in India. The infrastructure services division (the company's flagship revenue generator), had phenomenal growth over the years. However, by fiscal year 2015-16, the division was facing growth challenges. Market dynamics, including competition size and capability, client expectations, and the technology landscape, were all changing. The company was trying to build its corporate entrepreneurship function to prepare itself for adapting to these emerging challenges. The HCL enterprise technology office (ETO) exploration team had been chartered by the company to bring new technologies and breakthrough solutions into the organization. The company was looking forward to shifting away from its dependence on its traditional IT infrastructure outsourcing business and toward new technology domains.

Tata Motors Limited, an Indian automobile manufacturer, had been struggling with decreasing market share and profitability, which was affecting the company's share price. After the appointment of a new chief executive officer in 2016, the company undertook several reorganization programs to revive its financial health and improve its market share. However, it still registered heavy losses in the first nine months of fiscal year 2018-19. Was there more that the company could do to improve the company's position and regain lost investor confidence?

Student spreadsheet to case W20009

Takata Corporation was a business-to-business firm based in Japan, whose logo once symbolized safety. In 2013, however, the company mishandled its airbag recall crisis, which was Japan's largest automotive safety recall. The crisis led to the largest corporate bankruptcy filing of a Japanese firm and impacted Japanese banks involved in a collateral-free syndicated loan. How could the company have better managed the crisis?

Carla Thomas, the owner of Boulevard Sandwiches, is preparing to meet with Alan Philips, the new manager of Boulevard Sandwiches, Inc., Unit No. 2, in mid-December 2017. The primary purpose of this meeting is to finalize the 2018 operating plan for the location, as well as to conduct sensitivity analysis related to the assumptions included in the budget. Thomas has decided that, due to the growth of her business, she can no longer continue to manage the operation as she did when there were only a couple of locations, so she is in the process of implementing a more formal and extensive planning and budgeting process. This case may be used as a stand-alone case on budgeting, or it may be paired with "Boulevard Sandwiches, Inc. (B)" (UV7971) in a module on budgeting and strategic profitability analysis or flexible budgeting.

Alan Philips has just completed his first year as manager of Boulevard Sandwiches, Inc., Unit No. 2. Actual profit for the year was well below budgeted profit. Philips is preparing for a meeting with Carla Thomas, the owner of Boulevard Sandwiches, Inc., to discuss the 2018 operating results and Philips's performance for the year. In December 2017, Philips had met with Thomas and had accepted the 2018 budget as aggressive but achievable. Now, he must convince Thomas that he did a good job during his first year as manager and that he deserves a bonus. This case can be used alone or after "Boulevard Sandwiches, Inc. (A)" (UV7969), which focuses on preparing the 2018 budget for Boulevard Sandwiches Unit No. 2.

After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to: understand how to identify customer pain points by using customer experience mapping and the Jobs to Be Done framework; identify hypotheses to measure and improve the customer experience; articulate the logic for creating a quantitative metric for the quality of the customer experience; understand how business executives can lead the development of machine learning analytics models.

As this case opens in 2019, CEO Daniel Skjeldam and his team have successfully reinvigorated Hurtigruten, a storied but struggling Norwegian ferry and cruise operator, and have established it as the leading provider of polar expedition cruises. They now face a critical decision: should they expand beyond the polar regions and begin operating expedition cruises extensively in warm waters? The case introduces students to relative cost analysis; illustrates how a market can be structurally unattractive despite a current boom; and explores the logic of expanding from one segment of a market into other segments.

Over the course of the 2010s, the rapid advancement of mobile technologies and the rise of online freelancing platforms seemed to portend a radical transformation of labor markets into on-demand, flexible talent pools. Even though several Fortune 500 companies-including Microsoft, Samsung, and General Electric-embraced digital labor solutions, enterprise adoption lagged far behind smaller businesses and startups. Despite the promising potential benefits, concerns persisted about navigating labor regulations, ensuring appropriate vetting, and guaranteeing the quality of work. Sarah Tang, the newly appointed Vice President of Enterprise at Freelancer, Ltd., took on the challenge of crafting the growth strategy, operations, and sales of Freelancer's services to Fortune 500 companies. What it would take to convince more enterprises of the potential of on-demand freelance labor that could help them hire skilled freelancers in volume or in multiple countries simultaneously? What did the future hold for open work practices between enterprises and digital labor markets?

On March 15, 1848, the governor of the Bank of France, Antoine d'Argout, faced the potential collapse of his institution. A cascade of agricultural and industrial shocks, rising food prices, spikes in unemployment, and currency outflows struck at the heart of the French economy. At the same time, France, and Europe more broadly, had dissolved into armed revolution. The French king's abdication in February, alongside the already teetering financial system, resulted in massive bank runs that toppled a substantial part of the Paris banking system. Dramatic monetary contraction and the collapse of credit markets choked off sources of economic growth. Across Europe, proposals for action polarized three broad coalitions-liberals, radicals, and conservatives-each of which differed about the pace and extent of democratization. With the provisional French government lacking legitimacy and even facing bankruptcy, a state bailout seemed unlikely. Faced with the threat of financial collapse and anarchy in the streets, d'Argout contemplated the situation. What had caused the crisis at the Bank of France and in the French economy? What was the connection between financial and societal distress, and could they be treated separately? How would conservative, liberal, and radical advisers interpret the crisis and suggest remedies? Given this analysis, how should d'Argout try to save his bank? Would tactical reforms save the Bank, or should d'Argout make wholesale changes? The tasks for students are to plot the causes and course of the crisis and to consider the difficult policy tradeoffs.

Supplement to case UV7966 On March 15, 1848, the governor of the Bank of France, Antoine d'Argout, faced the potential collapse of his institution. A cascade of agricultural and industrial shocks, rising food prices, spikes in unemployment, and currency outflows struck at the heart of the French economy. At the same time, France, and Europe more broadly, had dissolved into armed revolution. The French king's abdication in February, alongside the already teetering financial system, resulted in massive bank runs that toppled a substantial part of the Paris banking system. Dramatic monetary contraction and the collapse of credit markets choked off sources of economic growth. Across Europe, proposals for action polarized three broad coalitions-liberals, radicals, and conservatives-each of which differed about the pace and extent of democratization. With the provisional French government lacking legitimacy and even facing bankruptcy, a state bailout seemed unlikely. Faced with the threat of financial collapse and anarchy in the streets, d'Argout contemplated the situation. What had caused the crisis at the Bank of France and in the French economy? What was the connection between financial and societal distress, and could they be treated separately? How would conservative, liberal, and radical advisers interpret the crisis and suggest remedies? Given this analysis, how should d'Argout try to save his bank? Would tactical reforms save the Bank, or should d'Argout make wholesale changes? The tasks for students are to plot the causes and course of the crisis and to consider the difficult policy tradeoffs.

On July 3, 2018, the president of AIESEC in Lebanon was pacing around the lobby of the conference venue before the morning plenary session. As one of the world's largest youth-run organizations, AIESEC developed the youth of the world by sending them on cross-cultural exchange programs. The Lebanon chapter of AIESEC was established in 2011 and grew steadily in its early stages, until it began struggling with commitment and motivation problems at the leadership level, which spilled over to its members. Members who were once attracted by the promise of personal and professional development were leaving the inactive organization, which was no longer contributing to their growth. Lack of motivation and volunteer turnover were also causing a shortage of leadership candidates in the organization's pipeline, which was having a serious impact on the long-term sustainability of AIESEC in Lebanon. From this conference session, the president of AIESEC in Lebanon hoped to address two main questions: How could member's commitment be improved at AIESEC in Lebanon? What processes could be put in place to track the volunteer management changes?