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Spreadsheet supplement for Case W34098.

When the new chief executive officer joined MX Player, the video streaming business in India was undergoing a content boom and witnessing many changes due to shifting media consumption patterns and the penetration and exponential growth of Western video streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The structure of the Indian video-streaming content and consumer market was changing, with global streaming platforms inadvertently segmenting Indian consumers according to which platforms they could afford. Western streaming platforms had thus led to a category of aspirational consumers who desired distinct content but were not yet willing or able to pay for it. MX Player provided a solution to this audience by offering high-quality compressed video content for free. But could it address the needs of a growing number of digital customers and still be successful amidst the formidable competition in the OTT market?

In 2008, Goldwind bought 70 per cent of Vensys' shares through its German subsidiary to obtain a range of strategic assets, including a professional research and development team and associated design capabilities, intellectual property rights of permanent magnet direct drive (PMDD) technology, and corresponding wind turbine designs. Over the years, the post-merger integration (PMI) process of an emerging market multinational enterprise (EMNE) and a developed country multinational enterprise (DMNE) saw many conflicts. By the end of 2021, the general manager of Goldwind Germany needed to strengthen the integration process between the two companies to facilitate its growth in Europe and elsewhere.

Tony Rao, co-founder and director of Thorne Valley Meats (Thorne Valley), must decide whether to continue working with the family-run butcher shop that has been producing his high-quality grass-fed beef jerky, or to move to a new, but untested, facility. The butcher shop has been working with Thorne Valley for years and has produced jerky that is satisfactory, but recently it has been struggling to manage its own growth, employee turnover, and pandemic restrictions. These outside forces are causing a sharp decline in the quality of Thorne Valley's jerky. The butcher shop has asked Rao if he would be willing to purchase a new piece of equipment on its behalf to help resolve the quality issues. The new processing plant, meanwhile, is located in a long-standing butcher shop recently acquired by entrepreneur Julie Martin. While Martin is passionate and ambitious, it is unclear how successful the new venture will be. She has no entrepreneurial experience and is looking to make significant changes to her product offering.

29Blinco, a Perth, Australia-based marketing consultancy, found early success by specializing in the energy transition sector, supporting resource and engineering companies working toward de-carbonizing industrial practices and enabling a clean energy future. Two years after its inception, annual revenues had grown fast, but 29Blinco had also become a victim of its own success: the business model and principles that differentiated its brand promise seemed to be holding it back from meeting growing demand for its services. The founders and directors at 29Blinco faced critical decisions about whether to compromise on their business model and principles. Could they service more clients and work without undermining what they had built and what they stood for?

In May 2021, a recent MBA graduate and retail investor, read an announcement about Monde Nissin Corporation launching an initial public offering of 3.6 billion shares at ₱13.50 per share. The company expected to raise ₱48.6 billion in the largest common share offering ever in the Philippines, while the country was still in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. However, economic and stock market conditions were expected to improve after the availability of vaccines and anticipated end of the lockdown. The investor planned to run a discounted cash flow valuation and comparable multiples analysis of Monde Nissin Corporation to determine if he should invest in the initial public offering. He also wanted to assess the attractiveness of the food industry and the merits of investing in the company, which was the market leader in all of its product categories.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Case W34797.

In 2021, the Irish whiskey segment was the fastest growing whiskey segment in the United States. US-based Brown-Forman Corporation had acquired the Slane brand in 2015 after purchasing all shares in the Slane Castle Irish Whiskey company and agreeing to invest in building a new Irish whiskey distillery and visitor centre on the historic Slane Castle Estate. Slane Distillery filled its first barrel of Irish whiskey in 2018, and the company then quickly began targeting key markets in Europe and North America.<br><br>The challenge now for Brown-Forman in the United States was building the Slane brand from scratch. The company's brand marketing team had to first identify overarching strategies that would accelerate awareness and trial for the Slane Irish Whiskey brand in the United States. Key goals included determining a point of differentiation for the Slane Irish Whiskey brand among the alternatives, and fostering a connection between the Slane Irish Whiskey brand and the North American consumer.

In 2022, Mariam Braimah, a digital designer working at Netflix, is considering the next move in her career. She has spent several years at Netflix, and in her spare time, using her savings, has founded a design-focused fellowship program and a consumer insights company based in Nigeria. Is now the time to leave Netflix and start working full time for her African ventures?

Launched in 2019 by Indian technology giant Infosys, Helix reduced administrative costs associated with insurance claims in the US healthcare industry. The vast US healthcare industry required a seamless insurance membership experience-one that comprised administrative functions that were easily disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digitising such functions saved insurers administrative costs, saw revenue growths, and helped during erratic surges in demand. Most insurers tried incremental upgrades to digitise ageing platforms that were at least 20 years old. However, by the time the upgrades were completed, the platform was considered outdated once again. As a solution, many technology companies offered either 'one-size-fits-all' or extremely niche solutions. Noting the gap in the market for adequate solutions, Helix developed an AI-driven, 'software-as-a-service' (SaaS), modular technology. With this, independently-functioning administrative processes could be integrated into ageing systems, one process at a time. Eventually, Helix aimed to replace the client's core administrative functions. Despite its capabilities, getting client's employees to implement the Helix software into their workflow was hard. Nevertheless, the company persevered, and by May 2023, 5,000 client employees were using Helix in their workflow. Now, Vadiraj Guttal, Infosys Healthcare's AVP and Head of Platforms wondered how his team could better convince potential clients that Helix was an invaluable aid, and a truly effective partner in the healthcare insurance ecosystem.

Set in 2023, the case documents the initiatives of the Safe in India Foundation (SII), a non-profit organisation, that aims to improve workers' safety and social security in India's automobile manufacturing industry. The issue is complex and multifaceted as the industry's deep supply chain has many small and mid-sized factories comprising skilled and unskilled workers. SII's four-pillar programme - supporting workers directly, improving workplace safety in the automotive sector through systemic change, improving healthcare and compensation policy at ESIC, and spreading awareness, especially by empowering workers through knowledge - attempts to foster a safety culture in the industry and among workers. In the six years since it was established, the signs of systemic change to improve worker safety have been noticed. However, SII's leadership team wanted to scale the impact. For that, SII's Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Sandeep Sachdeva, had to consider the strategic options and trade-offs involving key stakeholders that included the automobile brands, the government, and workers, among others.

Luthra Engineering Industries (LEI), a small-scale, family-run manufacturing business, based in a small Indian city, is going through a crisis. Due to COVID-19 lockdowns, LEI had been shut for two months but has received the government's permission to re-open, albeit, if it complies with certain conditions. LEI can invite only 30 per cent of its employees back to the office amidst proper safety, leading to challenges of maintaining equity due to salary dilemmas and implementing various safety protocols. However, LEI's management are not only dealing with a pandemic looming large along but also macroeconomic uncertainty, business continuity, financial crunch, and employee motivation, equity, and safety. LEI's leaders need to make sense of this multi-pronged crisis.

In August 2020, Schneider Electric India (SE), a major Indian low-voltage switchgear company, pursued a strategic growth plan by acquiring Larsen & Toubro's Electrical and Automation business from its competitor. This unprecedented deal involved two organizations that had previously competed for the same markets and customers but would subsequently operate under one parent company named Schneider Electric India Pvt. Ltd. The new company would have two brands of the same product and different sales models. The merger would also have wide-ranging implications for the stakeholders on both the sides, which included customers, suppliers, employees, and regulators. The timing of the merger was further complicated with the integration taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent nationwide lockdowns. The acquisition brought together an Indian company and a global organization, with stark differences in terms of culture and employee policies. Therefore, the integration of two competing businesses with disparate employee policies and cultures, amid pandemic-led challenges, seemed like a herculean task for the integration team. Rachna Mukherjee, the chief human resources officer of SE, was heading the integration plan and was contemplating the many challenges that she would encounter. She knew that she would need the right approach to overcome these challenges and ensure a smooth integration of the two companies.

In 2023, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) faced a pivotal choice: whether or not to enter India's expanding shampoo hair colour market, which was valued at US$82.72 million and projected annual growth exceeding 17 per cent until fiscal year 2026. HUL's assistant brand manager, Sabhayata Singh, grappled with the absence of a hair colour offering in HUL's portfolio. The dynamic market landscape, coupled with the absence of this product, intensified the decision-making process. HUL faced the strategic dilemma of extending existing brands or creating a new one to meet consumer demands. Pricing strategies became crucial in a market where most products were priced under half a dollar. The decision not only influenced HUL's local market position but also carried implications for potential international expansion.

In January 2023, Adam Pierce, co-owner and operations manager of Lambton Custom Flooring (LCF), eased back in his home-office chair in Sarnia, Ontario, after another day installing flooring. He looked at his calendar: In one week he would meet with his business partner, Marlin Jervis, to discuss the coming year's strategic vision for LCF. Last year's decreased profits concerned Pierce. He questioned whether a change was necessary to offset this trend, and, with the ever-present economic turmoil, he wondered if lower profits were here to stay. Pierce was uncertain if investing in advertisements would be enough, or if he should take more drastic measures, such as expanding the business's installation services or even buying out his partner. Whatever his decision, Pierce would have to lay the groundwork for the following week's meeting.

Between 2016 and 2019, Jijihong Catering Management Co. Ltd. (Jijihong)-a well-established company in Jiangxi Province, China-encountered a plateau in its development as the number of its chain stores consistently stagnated at around 80 and never surpassed 100. To address this growth challenge, in January 2019, the general manager of Jijihong led her team to proactively adjust the company's strategy. They decided to discontinue various company sub-brands, focusing instead on a single brand (Jijihong) and a single business (spicy hot pot) within a single market (Jiangxi). Before the new strategy could produce significant results, however, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 completely altered the competitive landscape of and set new development trends in the hot pot industry, disrupting Jijihong's development plans.

In April 2021, Jo Santiago, account manager of the London, Ontario, branch of Goliath National Bank (GNB) was reviewing a request for a $400,000 long-term loan and a $50,000 working capital loan for Atlohsa Gifts (AG). AG's general manager, April White, had made the request. AG was a subsidiary of Atlohsa Family Healing Services (AFHS) and its mandate was to use its net earnings to fund initiatives for the betterment of Indigenous people. White was planning to use the long-term loan to open a stand-alone location in downtown London on Richmond Street to expand operations outside of AFHS headquarters and accommodate a surge in AG's retail and wholesale growth due to recent events. Santiago felt good about AG's successful sales and aligned with the organization's mission and vision; however, he felt unsure about White's ability to manage this level of debt.

VALR, a cryptocurrency platform and South African financial technology (fintech) company, was experiencing scaling challenges in August 2021. Launched in 2018, the start-up took on the market incumbent-a company trading in 40 countries. Within 18 months, VALR had become the market leader in terms of locally traded volume. However, this created growth pains and presented the issue of how the company could scale successfully. The company's chief executive officer, Farzam Ehsani, believed that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) was a core strength and an instrumental factor in VALR's success, but he was faced with the dilemma of how to scale it. The founding team had been able to sustain an organizational culture that advanced autonomy and risk-taking to that point, and maintained high levels of competitiveness and service. However, as the business entered a new phase of maturity, Ehsani faced the challenge of how the organizational culture could be scaled to continue fostering EO. In addition, Ehsani worried about the regulatory uncertainty that characterized the cryptocurrency industry.

In April 2023, Tage Rita, the founder and chief executive officer of Lambu Subu Food and Beverages, contemplated the company's ambitious goal of achieving a revenue of ₹100 million by 2025. There was a positive trend in demand for the company's popular kiwi wine, Naara Aaba, particularly in key markets. However, Rita had concerns regarding supply chain issues that had impeded fulfilling significant orders in 2022 due to the remote location of the production unit. In addition, the company's product portfolio solely had wines in the lower-price segments (₹250-₹700), and Rita was considering the launch of a new range of wines in the mid-price segment (₹1,090-₹1,990). The question looming was whether this was the right moment to introduce a higher-priced product. Additionally, she pondered the ideal target audience for these new wines and how their positioning should be differentiated from existing offerings. Furthermore, Rita sought to explore alternative growth strategies for the company.

In February 2020, a real estate developer from Montreal, Quebec, Canada was pursuing the development of a new residential rental tower of over 200 units in a popular Montreal suburb. As the founder of the real estate development firm Legacy Development Group, the developer had to revise and adjust his development plan several times. He faced several obstacles in the process, including work stoppage due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, zoning and regulatory issues, and changes in the real estate market. In September 2020, the developer had to re-evaluate his revised development plan in preparation for a meeting with his two partners, when the group would determine whether or not to pursue the project.