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Glossier's proclaimed strategy was "born from content, fueled by community". The digital-first, direct-to-consumer beauty brand had experienced rapid growth, with sales up 600% in 2017 and a customer portfolio that grew by threefold. But, its founder, Emily Weiss, was not complacent. Instead, she dreamed of creating the world's first socially-driven brand that inserted its community into the buying experience so that the company was merchandising people, their opinions, and their content, just as much as they were merchandising products. As her team debates marketing strategies for 2018, they recognize the opportunities and challenges associated with managing Glossier's rapidly scaling brand community. While the community's support had emerged organically in the past, the team was now debating whether the company's next phase of growth would need to be fueled by a greater emphasis on paid peer-to-peer sales representatives, professional influencer marketing, paid media, and a physical market presence.

The case describes the position of Marks & Spencer (M&S), a leading high-street retailer in the UK. The retailer decided to enter China's retail market in 2008 is based on perceived synergies between the company's products and an increasingly affluent Chinese middle class. Upon entry, M&S encounters myriad challenges that are not part of its original strategic calculations: errors in basic shop keeping, an evolving Chinese retail environment, and the emergence of e-commerce. M&S's difficulties in China among foreign retailers are not unique, however. Numerous high-profile retailers, such as Tesco, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Asos, find China's retail market inhospitable, leaving shortly after entry. Although M&S experiences challenges similar to those these firms faced, it also encounters a shifting retail landscape that even some experienced local retailers find difficult. After eight years in China experimenting with different business models and deteriorating financials, M&S faces a key decision: should it stay or leave?

In Hong Kong as elsewhere in the world, Uber operates in a grey area. Thousands of passengers are using Uber service in the crowded city on a regular basis; many drivers make money through Uber by providing quality service and idle vehicles. On the other hand, taxi drivers have voiced strong oppositions to Uber on the ground of unfair competition and unlawful businesses, and staged several protests that were widely reported. Officially, Uber service is illegal in Hong Kong, as the government clarified explicitly that Uber drivers broke the law by offering car hiring services without any license or third-party insurance. The public is often puzzled: Uber seems such a nice thing that benefits both passengers and drivers, especially because the traditional taxies have such a poor quality and are often unavailable during peak hours. Why shouldn't we allow a healthy competition from a new and promising business model that seems to benefit everybody except the competitors? Isn't competition a good thing in general? So the question is, should the government allow Uber to operate legally? This case enables the instructor to go through the uniqueness of the taxi industry and the necessity to regulate the traditional taxi industry. The case provides evidence of what will happen if the industry is deregulated. Once the uniqueness of the industry is illuminated, the instructor can guide the students to discuss whether Uber's new business model is able to overcome the two major problems of the traditional taxi industry: adverse selection and tragedy of the commons. This case can be used for courses that cover public policy at both MBA and the UG levels. It can also be used for an economics course. Finally, the case can be used to discuss the new business models.

The Katerra case takes a deep dive into the opportunities to leverage disruptive technology in the global construction industry. The case analyzes the history of Katerra, a technology-driven offsite construction company and walks through each of the company's major strengths and opportunities.

Buying a company is a high-stakes and complex process, and involves an in-depth review of hundreds of pages of legal documents. This white paper gives a full listing of these important documents and what each document should detail - along with practical guidance on what relationships, responsibilities, and information these documents will spell out. In addition, there are recommendations on which aspects of these documents warrant closer scrutiny, and practical suggestions to keep legal fees from escalating needlessly.

How much information is enough, when it comes to investor reports? For early CEOs, this white paper offers practical advice and best practices on the preparation of these reports. The best reports, the white paper argues, focus on essential information, presented in a clear and transparent manner. This information would include key performance indicators, for instance, but also capture operational details that might not be included in the standard financials. The white paper lays out a clear format for writing these reports, with details on what to include in the main body of the report as well as the appendices.

Supplement to case IN1530 and IN1533

The case discusses attempts by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd (SPH) to transform its core media business, which was battered by digital disruption. Revenues from SPH's core media business (newspaper subscriptions and advertising revenues) had fallen year after year, as had its share price. What strategy should SPH adopt for its media business and what challenges could it expect? Would digital reinvention be the best course of action and the only way to go? Was SPH mired in a "do-or-die" predicament? The case also provides a concise description of the digital reinvention of the Washington Post, New York Times and South China Morning Post.

In April 2018, the De Beers Group launched a pilot project called GemFair to create a new supply of ethically and environmentally sourced diamonds from artisanal and small-scale mines (ASM) in Sierra Leone. Whether this project would yield a meaningful supply of rough diamonds for De Beers, improve its ability to track diamonds accurately from African mines to consumers around the world, and simultaneously improve both the working conditions in mines and the prices received by local miners remained to be seen. This case is intended to be used in conjunction with and to follow another HBS case: The De Beers Group: Exploring the Diamond Reselling Opportunity (HBS #717-430).

The a2 Milk Company (a2MC) became the most valuable company listed on the New Zealand stock exchange in 2018 by capitalizing on a biochemical discovery related to the protein composition of cow's milk. Because many people find the A1 protein difficult to digest, and that protein may be related to other health problems (e.g., diabetes), a2MC sells dairy products containing the A2 protein only primarily in Australia and China. With sales of NZ$730 million in 2017 and a desire to grow, a2MC formed a strategic relationship with Fonterra, the world's sixth largest dairy company, in February 2018. But one month later, Nestle, the world's largest dairy company, confirmed that it had begun selling A2 infant formula in China and people speculated that it would start selling A2 products in Australia and New Zealand later in the year. a2MC's retiring CEO Geoffrey Babidge and newly appointed CEO Janyne Hrdlicka must decide how to respond to Nestle's entry. Can this successful entrant become an incumbent with a sustainable competitive advantage?

This case, set in October 2017, follows Danielle Sheer, general counsel for Carbonite, as she defends the company against claims of patent infringement. It provides a broad overview of the U.S. patent system and explores the impact that non-practicing entities (sometimes also called "patent trolls") can have on companies.

With one satellite aloft and in the midst of beta testing in late 2018, Analytical Space founders Justin Oliveira and Dan Nevius turned to critical questions about the pioneering startup's go-to-market, pricing, and business development strategy. Analytical Space aimed to build and operate a constellation of inexpensive satellites that would receive and relay to the ground data gathered by orbiting Earth observation satellites, thereby speeding and increasing the amount of data their operators could collect and sell to clients in the multi-billion market for information on crops, weather, and other observable changes on Earth. The cofounders now needed to select the best initial customers, validate demand for their unique data relay service, and establish pricing that would both spur adoption and impress investors ahead of their next financing round.

Marketers have long appreciated the value and power of storytelling. Stories fill brands with resonant and relevant meaning and empower brands to serve as critical elements in the lives of consumers. Mastering the art of brand storytelling is an increasingly important part of managing brands in the contemporary brandscape, as today, we live in a world filled with an ever-expanding panoply of physical and virtual media spaces and places within which to create and tell stories with and to our consumers. This technical note outlines how and why consumers respond to brand stories, illuminates the four elements that make up good stories, discusses the use of archetypal plots and characters and other storytelling appeals, and provides guidance and a template for creating resonant, relevant, authentic, and differentiated brand stories.

New Balance Athletics, Inc., a major U.S.-based athletic footwear and apparel brand, sources most of its footwear products from independent suppliers whose factories are located in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Monica Gorman, vice president of responsible leadership and global compliance, is seeking to combine data sets collected by different parts of the organization to see whether she and her colleagues in the company's order management function can make a clear connection between the corporate social responsibility (CSR) results that her function tracks at the supplier level, with New Balance's order placement practices.

Student spreadsheet for case W18857

FODY Foods Inc. (Fody) was a Canadian-based entrepreneurial manufacturer and marketer of a line of food products designed for people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a condition that affected an estimated one billion people worldwide. With public awareness of the socially sensitive condition growing, Fody's founder needed to figure out how to market the company's line of products while creating a new category in the process.

Student spreadsheet to case W19007

Student spreadsheet for case W18738