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The case describes Lime's (the startup of dockless electric scooter sharing services) arrival in Madrid, Spain. The case looks at the strategy of the company when it launched in the summer of 2018, until the City Hall of Madrid passed a Sustainable Mobility Ordinance in October of that year, regulating the operation of the company. This case features a "role play" with two main characters: Álvaro Salvat, general manager of Lime in Spain, and Francisco José López Carmona, director of traffic management and oversight in the City Hall of Madrid. This case illustrates the entrepreneurial dilemma of "asking for permission or begging for forgiveness" faced by all disruptive entrepreneurs. It also looks at the business implications of the different strategic approaches to regulation and engagement with city officials that entrepreneurs can take. Finally, it will delve deep into the micro-mobility sector, which like many other potentially disruptive technologies, can serve a big market but is also defined by uncertainty.

The case describes Lime's (the startup of dockless electric scooter sharing services) arrival in Madrid, Spain. The case looks at the strategy of the company when it launched in the summer of 2018, until the City Hall of Madrid passed a Sustainable Mobility Ordinance in October of that year, regulating the operation of the company. This case features a "role play" with two main characters: Álvaro Salvat, general manager of Lime in Spain, and Francisco José López Carmona, director of traffic management and oversight in the City Hall of Madrid. This case illustrates the entrepreneurial dilemma of "asking for permission or begging for forgiveness" faced by all disruptive entrepreneurs. It also looks at the business implications of the different strategic approaches to regulation and engagement with city officials that entrepreneurs can take. Finally, it will delve deep into the micro-mobility sector, which like many other potentially disruptive technologies, can serve a big market but is also defined by uncertainty.

The case describes Lime's (the startup of dockless electric scooter sharing services) arrival in Madrid, Spain. The case looks at the strategy of the company when it launched in the summer of 2018, until the City Hall of Madrid passed a Sustainable Mobility Ordinance in October of that year, regulating the operation of the company. This case features a "role play" with two main characters: Álvaro Salvat, general manager of Lime in Spain, and Francisco José López Carmona, director of traffic management and oversight in the City Hall of Madrid. This case illustrates the entrepreneurial dilemma of "asking for permission or begging for forgiveness" faced by all disruptive entrepreneurs. It also looks at the business implications of the different strategic approaches to regulation and engagement with city officials that entrepreneurs can take. Finally, it will delve deep into the micro-mobility sector, which like many other potentially disruptive technologies, can serve a big market but is also defined by uncertainty.

The case describes Lime's (the startup of dockless electric scooter sharing services) arrival in Madrid, Spain. The case looks at the strategy of the company when it launched in the summer of 2018, until the City Hall of Madrid passed a Sustainable Mobility Ordinance in October of that year, regulating the operation of the company. This case features a "role play" with two main characters: Álvaro Salvat, general manager of Lime in Spain, and Francisco José López Carmona, director of traffic management and oversight in the City Hall of Madrid. This case illustrates the entrepreneurial dilemma of "asking for permission or begging for forgiveness" faced by all disruptive entrepreneurs. It also looks at the business implications of the different strategic approaches to regulation and engagement with city officials that entrepreneurs can take. Finally, it will delve deep into the micro-mobility sector, which like many other potentially disruptive technologies, can serve a big market but is also defined by uncertainty.

Initially conceived as a competitor to Bloomberg's terminals, a consortium of financial services firms launched its own secure messaging platform, Symphony, in 2014. Symphony soon expanded beyond chat to include a range of services including data integrations, bots, applications, and a web conferencing solution; by 2019 Symphony's user base grew to 400 thousand clients, larger than Bloomberg's. This case explores Symphony's options for future growth-including how to leverage the need for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the financial sector and possible expansion beyond financial services. In analyzing the firm's options, students must consider an array of challenges, including: competitive pressure within the sector and beyond its scope, changing use attitudes for communications technology, the rise of cloud computing, and a changing regulatory environment.

Without action on sustainability, the supply of cocoa beans - and hence chocolate - cannot be maintained. Barry Callebaut (BC), the world's largest B2B cocoa and chocolate company, has gone from taking little interest in "sustainable cocoa production" to embracing it fully. In 2016, it set four ambitious targets to achieve by 2025: to eradicate child labour from its supply chain, to lift more than half a million cocoa farmers out of poverty, to become carbon-and-forest-positive, and ensure 100% sustainable ingredients in all products. Recognizing that it could not bring about change in isolation, BC started a movement, "Forever Chocolate", involving multiple stakeholders. Demonstrating that sustainability must be an integral part of doing business, the case describes its progress over the first two years and illustrates the difficulties encountered. It challenges students to consider whether BC's approach constitutes "radical corporate sustainability" and what more could be done.

Kumar Food Corporation (KFC) was a partnership firm founded in the state of Maharashtra in India by Neeraj Kumar in 2010. The company manufactured, packaged, and distributed pickles, papads, and spices. Kumar, who had previously worked at a multinational company specializing in food processing, quit that job to start his own venture with an investment of ₹1 million. The company flourished and, in 2017, its revenue reached ₹50 million. Kumar then wanted to invest another ₹50 million with the aim of reaching a ₹200 million revenue target by the end of 2018. The company faced cutthroat competition from existing players in the food-processing industry, and Kumar was worried that the Government of India's Start-Up India initiative to promote entrepreneurship would further add to the competition. With a limited budget for marketing and communications, Kumar could take any or all of the following routes to fulfill his expansion ambitions: enhance product category, add new markets, or increase distribution channels. Which growth strategies should the company implement to establish its Shagun brand?

LOLA is a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business launched in 2015. What started as a company to provide women with organic and transparent material-labeled tampons via a subscription model, had, by 2019 evolved to include additional menstrual and sexual wellness products. LOLA's leadership wanted women to come to the company for all of their reproductive health needs (including information and a place to engage in conversation) from menstruation through menopause and beyond. Heading into 2020, LOLA cofounders have determined that to grow the business they need to go beyond the company's current DTC model and have products available in retail stores. The challenge, however, is finding the right retailers to partner with that will help to add value to the brand and not detract from it. The case provides background on the cofounders, the company's start, and evolution, and the challenges of moving beyond DTC.

In 2010, amidst the growth of ecommerce and the emergence of new, purely online, fashion players, Zara launched its first online store, Zara.com. Since then, Zara's online business had grown at a fast pace. By 2018, 12% of Inditex Group's total sales came from the online channel. Since the inception of the first online store, Inditex leadership wanted its online and offline businesses to be integrated. However, the increase of online orders challenged some of its operations. Inditex was committed to the vision of becoming fully-integrated, fully-digital, and fully-sustainable by 2020. How could stores continue to be relevant in a world with increasing presence of online touchpoints? What should the store portfolio look like in the medium term? How should Zara use and advance the integrated model going forward? What other challenges and opportunities would arise with the increase of online sales?

In 2010, amidst the growth of ecommerce and the emergence of new, purely online, fashion players, Zara launched its first online store, Zara.com. Since then, Zara's online business had grown at a fast pace. By 2018, 12% of Inditex Group's total sales came from the online channel. Since the inception of the first online store, Inditex leadership wanted its online and offline businesses to be integrated. However, the increase of online orders challenged some of its operations. Inditex was committed to the vision of becoming fully-integrated, fully-digital, and fully-sustainable by 2020. How could stores continue to be relevant in a world with increasing presence of online touchpoints? What should the store portfolio look like in the medium term? How should Zara use and advance the integrated model going forward? What other challenges and opportunities would arise with the increase of online sales?

This article examines how Siemens's molecular imaging group incorporated design thinking principles into R&D to regain market leadership. Marked departures from its past practice included a "universe of possibilities" for lifetime customer value; multi-iteration "leapfrog concepting" ahead of prototyping; and adherence to an "innovation metric" that enabled simultaneous consideration of customer value and business cost. These elements gave rise to a dynamic capability, "creative forbearance," which supported the innovation team's unbridled creativity while building in patience for introducing new features to its product platform. This case illustrates how design thinking can be integrated in settings replete with technological and customer complexity.

Design thinking has emerged as an important way for designers to draw on rich customer insights to enhance their products and services. However, design thinking is now also beginning to influence how corporate managers bring customer data into their day-to-day strategic planning. We call this integration of design thinking into the practice of strategic management "Design-Led Strategy" and show how it complements but extends current design-thinking perspectives. Adopting a strategy-as-practice perspective, this article identifies four archetypal practices that managers can use to strategize with design-thinking content. Its findings provide insight into the practices associated with situating design thinking within organizational practice.

The case, which is a disguised version of real events, is set in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2013) during the long running Afghan war. Lt. Paul Rickson, a Navy SEAL Platoon Commander, is leading a team of 30 US and Afghan soldiers on a mission to clear hostile forces in Maiwand Village. After a long day of various hostile activities and clearing Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's), he faces a tough choice that is filled with various tensions. After he directs a missile attack from a drone onto an enemy position, he's ordered to conduct an on the ground Battle Damage Assessment (BDA), to confirm there are no civilian casualties. This would require some or all of his team crossing 800 meters in open territory, almost certainly drawing enemy fire. He's concerned about the real risks to his team vs the perceived benefit of a US-forces taken picture. His has to reconcile a conflicting sense of priorities, from the Rules of Engagement for his team, the directive from HQ and inputs from his team. The primary purpose of the case is to focus on lessons from his decision-making approach that might be beneficial for a young leader facing conflicting tensions, such as: a. The strategic directive to win hearts and minds, while training Afghan forces vs. the on the ground facts and circumstances facing the platoon commander and the threats to his team. b. The predictability of support systems (e.g. communications, HQ guidance, video surveillance, transport) that can have outsized impact on options and outcomes. c. How substantial risks and core values come together in deciding what to do for you and your team.

The case, which is a disguised version of real events, is set in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2013) during the long running Afghan war. Lt. Paul Rickson, a Navy SEAL Platoon Commander, is leading a team of 30 US and Afghan soldiers on a mission to clear hostile forces in Maiwand Village. After a long day of various hostile activities and clearing Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's), he faces a tough choice that is filled with various tensions. After he directs a missile attack from a drone onto an enemy position, he's ordered to conduct an on the ground Battle Damage Assessment (BDA), to confirm there are no civilian casualties. This would require some or all of his team crossing 800 meters in open territory, almost certainly drawing enemy fire. He's concerned about the real risks to his team vs the perceived benefit of a US-forces taken picture. His has to reconcile a conflicting sense of priorities, from the Rules of Engagement for his team, the directive from HQ and inputs from his team. The primary purpose of the case is to focus on lessons from his decision-making approach that might be beneficial for a young leader facing conflicting tensions, such as: a. The strategic directive to win hearts and minds, while training Afghan forces vs. the on the ground facts and circumstances facing the platoon commander and the threats to his team. b. The predictability of support systems (e.g. communications, HQ guidance, video surveillance, transport) that can have outsized impact on options and outcomes. c. How substantial risks and core values come together in deciding what to do for you and your team.

In July 2019, Evangeline Leong, co-founder and CEO of Kobe (a Singapore based start-up providing Influencer Marketing services) had a challenging task ahead of her. Her company was preparing for a campaign to build brand awareness of Jia Jia herbal tea amongst millennial consumers in Singapore. At Kobe, Leong and her team provided end-to-end influencer marketing services for clients including consultation on marketing strategies for realising brand objectives, assisting clients in identifying KPIs, execution and monitoring of campaigns, analysis of campaign results and providing recommendations. In addition, Kobe's AI driven influencer platform allowed clients to choose the most suitable influencers from a database of over 5000 influencers. Millennials in Singapore were social media savvy and often-brought products based on recommendations of influencers they trusted. Targeting this customer segment through social media was therefore a viable option. However, the Jia Jia campaign had a few limitations including a small budget and a short timeframe. Another constraint was that herbal tea was not popular with millennials. Historically Chinese herbal tea was synonymous with Singapore's culture and dated back to its history as a British settlement. However, over the past decade, bubble tea had become the preferred drink of the millennials. Leong knew she was being ambitious in trying to "sell bell-bottoms to Millennials", and she wondered if her influencer marketing campaign to rebrand Jia Jia herbal tea in Singapore could be as successful as the Levi's Jeans' 501 campaign. Could Leong turn the clock back and make Jia Jia the most talked about beverage brand in Singapore?

Countries facing the greatest risk from automation are those that have labor economies in which many jobs involve manual or routine tasks that can be easily automated. Analyzing occupations in terms of their component parts provides a much richer way of looking at jobs than estimating the effects of automation more broadly.

A successful lawyer describes an important decision she had to make as a young attorney about whether to disclose information in a contract.

The June Oven was a smart oven which was capable of identifying food and cooking it accordingly. This type of smart oven represented the next step in the long history of oven and stove development. Due to the widespread use of traditional ovens, the market for the June Oven was potentially large. The June Oven was primarily a direct-to-consumer product, available through the company's own website, but it was available through some retail stores. June faced challenges from a relative decline in retail sales, the turn to online shopping, potential smart oven competitors, macroeconomic factors such as the U.S. China trade war, and internal problems such as software malfunctions.