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The case reveals how Booking.com has become the world's leading travel accommodation platform. The company has put online experimentation at the heart of how it designs digital experiences for its customers and partners. To unlock the potential of large-scale testing, the leadership team had to challenge conventional assumptions about culture, process, and the management of innovation.

In October 2016 SoftBank Group Corp., the Japanese conglomerate giant caused a significant shock to the worldwide market for venture capital and private equity by announcing the Vision Fund, the largest tech investment fund in the world at close to $100 billion. The reputation of legendary SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son depended on the success of the Vision Fund, a considerable challenge given the difficulties associated with organizing a large pool of capital, investing at scale and generating VC-style returns. By effectively anointing category leaders and deterring competitive entry, would the Vision Fund accelerate innovation or undermine the market forces that have typically produced social value by spurring rapid technological change?

Accomplice, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Boston, is raising its second fund in November 2017. Since 2009, the firm has followed a seed-led investment model, investing in tech companies at the earliest stages, often when products and business models are still experimental. The firm's partners are pleased with their preliminary returns and the deal flow they've been able to cultivate, in part by empowering local entrepreneurs to invest in promising new ideas on their behalf. The partners are confident their long-term returns will validate their investment strategy and positioning in the increasingly competitive VC market. Will investors agree?

This case traces the journey of Juan Pablo Zorrilla and Javier Velasquez as they conceive the idea for a debt-settlement business in Mexico, develop the business, and expand it to Colombia, Argentina and Spain. Zorrilla and Velasquez modeled Resuelve (Spanish for "resolve") after Freedom Financial Network, an American debt-settlement business founded by two of their fellow Stanford University alumni. The case examines issues including early fundraising challenges, gaining traction, regulation, bringing on new investors as the business grew, and expanding into international markets. Resuelve was founded in 2009 and by 2017 had grown to more than 1,000 employees and 150,000+ clients. Annual revenues topped $37 million.

Three generations of the Rubin family gathered around the dinner table for their usual Friday evening get-together. It was a perfect opportunity to discuss everything and anything about the business, the family and the world. The discussion quickly turned to the changing channels available to consumers. There had been many radical shifts before, and the family relished its agility and ability to regenerate itself regularly. Stephen's parents had arrived in Liverpool on ships from Eastern Europe and in 1932 set up a shoe wholesaler. Later, the Rubin family ventured into shoe manufacturing, first locally then became one of the first European companies to outsource production to Asia. Savvy investments, like the acquisition and divestment of a majority stake in Reebok, financially enabled them to progressively build a unique collection of sport brands, such as Speedo, Ellesse, Berghaus, Canterbury, Mitre and others. But venturing into retail with JD Sports Fashion was a radical departure from the family's B2B roots, and they still had to figure out all the implications of the move. Other topics of discussion included how digitalization and big data would impact the future of Pentland, the impact of global political shifts and the family generational transition, with the 2nd generation turning 80.

The case offers a unique perspective into franchising as a business model for growth and a reduced-risk entry path to entrepreneurship, with an application in the Singapore self-storage market. In 2011, Jes Johansen, a Swedish national, sensed an opportunity to innovate self-storage in Singapore: smaller facilities, with smaller rooms, located closer to the customer and at a higher price per m2, resulting in a smaller rental bill but much higher convenience. He had seen the concept implemented in Hong Kong by a colleague, Kevin Chang, under the StoreFriendly brand name. Jes decided this might be the opportunity he had been looking for. After convincing Kevin to become his partner, Jes set up StoreFriendly Singapore. After testing and implementing the concept in a single first outlet, proving the value proposition and getting a bit of traction, he decided to accelerate growth through an original franchise system. Over two years StoreFriendly grew to ten franchises and two owner-operated branches. In 2015, SingPost, as part of a broad logistics diversification, approached him to acquire StoreFriendly. With a catch: they wanted to own all the outlets directly...

In June 2015, a new president and chief executive officer, Sandip Lalli, was hired by the board of directors of Keystone Excavating Limited (Keystone) to turn the company around and increase its value. In its 35 years of operations, Keystone had failed to articulate a purpose, and for the past five years it had been in double-digit decline. The economic downturn in Alberta from 2014 to 2016 had made the situation dire, and by September 2016 Lalli was going to recommend closing the company. But how should she do this? How should she tell the shareholders of this family-owned business that things were unlikely to improve and that there would be another challenge ahead? How could Keystone cease operations while retaining its legacy?

In August 2017, the Canadian country leader of Red Hat Inc., an open source software company, was reviewing the progress made by the Canadian subsidiary of the American multinational in bridging the gender gap. The subsidiary had met its target of increasing the ratio of women in its sales team from 5 per cent in August 2014 to 40 per cent in July 2017. The country leader was examining ways to leverage the takeaways from the four-year experience in reducing the gender gap in an effort to not only sustain the momentum but also go beyond gender parity.

The purpose of this case is to look at Autodesk's cultural, organizational and technological challenges as the company undergoes a recent leadership transition. The case examines the strategic agenda enacted under Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost: the company's shift to a subscription business model, the digitization of the company's internal technology infrastructure and shift to cloud computing, and the disruptive convergence of the company's construction and manufacturing end-markets. Students will also be introduced to different methodologies regarding the optimal organizational design for technological innovation and product development. Students will additionally gain an understanding of the challenges a leader of a large, complex corporation faces to improve the company's culture and become a mission-driven organization.

In February and March 2009, the US economy was in the midst of a terrifying financial and economic crisis. Between the beginning of 2008 and early 2009, four of the 25 largest U.S. financial institutions had failed, and nine of these 25 institutions had taken extraordinary steps to avoid failure -either receiving one-off government support, merging with another firm, or submitting to heightened regulation to qualify for future government support. Led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the government had to quickly devise policies to stabilize the financial system and the economy. The case explores the details of policies, and the decision making process that led to them, that Geithner and his team devised under immense time pressure to stabilize the system. The case features an extended discussion of Geithner's innovative "stress test", which would reveal the longer-term health of the country's largest banks.

Core Curriculum Readings in Finance cover the fundamental concepts, theories, and frameworks in finance. This reading presents an overview of corporate governance, focusing on for-profit businesses that are privately owned by dispersed investors-that is, not owned by a government or by a single owner. The Essential Reading covers the varied mechanisms that address two essential types of conflicts of interest that occur in corporations, both of which arise from the common feature of dispersed ownership: 1) conflicts between managers and owners, and 2) conflicts between controlling and non-controlling owners. The reading provides a foundation for further study in the general topic of corporate governance. The Supplemental Reading briefly reviews topics such as "stakeholder" vs. "shareholder" models of corporate governance, the role of creditors in governance, and the important but distinct non-finance goals served by corporate governance.

Olivia Nash, an analyst at leading hedge fund BlueShark Capital Management, had just finished listening to the hour-long earnings call for Twitter's Q4 2017 results. Was Twitter doing well? That depended on which numbers she chose to believe. According to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), Twitter had recorded a $108M net loss for 2017. But on the earnings call, CEO Jack Dorsey and CFO Ned Segal had emphasized a slightly different and much better-looking metric: non-GAAP net income of $329M. This adjusted version of net income was a measure Twitter had defined itself when it first went public in 2013. The biggest difference between the two was that Twitter's non-GAAP net income stripped out stock-based compensation expense. Olivia couldn't help but wonder: Was stock-based compensation a true expense? Why did analysts and even regulators condone non-GAAP metrics? And, most importantly, how did the reporting of these metrics impact Twitter's profitability and the way the company was managed?

This case explores the actions taken by a reporter that ultimately resulted in the impeachment and imprisonment of former South Korean President Park Geun hye due to corruption. The information for the ground-breaking story, however, may have been obtained using questionable means. The case seeks to highlight the process of mental rationalization, specifically forms of moral disengagement, like moral justification, that frequently occur before engaging in ethically questionable behaviour. Through the case, students will grapple with the difficult question of whether it is okay to do a little bad for something that might be considered a greater good. This kind of moral dilemma and related rationalization process will confront every student in some phase of their life. To be effective in ethical decision-making, it is important for students to be aware when such situations arise, to understand rationalization and related psychological processes, and to use this knowledge to make more thoughtful decisions.

The brand management of places, such as countries, cities and regions, has received increasing attention in recent years. The associations, impressions and reputations that people have of a certain place can have a big impact in a number of areas - from tourism, to exports, to drawing talent, to securing foreign investment, to public diplomacy, and to political leadership. Consequently, a number of stakeholders may attempt to influence the perceptions that people have about a place in a way that is conducive to their goals. This background note lays the ground for instructors to expose students to the concept of a place brand, allow examining the ways in which it may be influenced, and examine the motivations of the various actors. The note provides ample examples of countries and cities that have actively tried to shape their brand identity and further exposes students to recent trends and vehicles (such as social media) relevant for the branding of places. The note raises a set of issues on this topic that can serve as the basis for a rich classroom discussion.

Jugnoo started its journey in 2014 as an autorickshaw aggregator providing ride-hailing services in India. Since then, the brand had grown and expanded to include hyperlocal services and business solutions. By May 2018, Jugnoo had five services under its umbrella that were offered primarily through applications and covered both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets. Jugnoo found itself in a very different market space from where it had started. A company co-founder wondered how Jugnoo would continue to sustain its strategy of disrupting traditional markets, given the fast-paced growth it was experiencing. How would it manage to build consumers' trust with such diverse business verticals and so much reliance on technology? With the company's growing numbers and opportunities, the co-founder wondered whether Jugnoo's use of word-of-mouth communication would continue to be possible, especially considering the aggressive communication tactics adopted by other players in the market.

After Dwyer and Gazin had bought the domain name www.witchsy.com and researched the construction of multiple-seller websites using Google, the entrepreneurs quickly realized they'd need to bring in outsiders to help. Turning to Craigslist to post ads on their required work and solicit resumes, Gazin and Dwyer eventually began engaging with various male developers willing to build the technical aspects of their site. Early on in these interactions, however, an upsetting pattern started to emerge wherein the entrepreneurs constantly felt they were faced with disrespect, condescension, and poor collaboration from their male contractors. Hoping to mitigate this treatment, Dwyer and Gazin decided to create a fake male colleague they could rope into their email interactions with outsiders. They named this "colleague" Keith Mann and gave him an email address and Twitter personality. As soon as Mann started to engage with contractors and developers over email, the entrepreneurs were amazed to see the different tone and respect that was paid to Mann. When Witchsy finally launched in the summer of 2016, Dwyer and Gazin didn't have to wait long to see markers of success-within a year, their platform already had 45,000 Instagram followers and was generating a monthly profit. Even though Mann had existed only by name over email and was put to rest shortly after the site's launch, Dwyer and Gazin looked back on their experience of building Witchsy and had to wonder, would they have succeeded without Mann? Why had they faced so much antagonism without him, and was there a way to make sense of it?

The abridged case, together with the substantial video supplements, examines the marketing challenge of repositioning Swiss watch brand TAG Heuer in the digital era. It delves into the decisions taken by Jean-Claude Biver - the newly appointed CEO of the company - in his effort to create and execute a new strategy and to position TAG Heuer as an affordable luxury brand that would appeal to both traditional customers and the new generation. It begins by highlighting recent developments in the Swiss watch industry and then focuses on Biver - a celebrated icon of this industry. It offers a snapshot of Biver's resume and a glimpse into the marketing principles that he has applied during his remarkably successful career. The second part of the case addresses the emergence of a new product category - the digital watch, which many industry executives considered to be a major threat. TAG Heuer decided to enter the digital space and launched TAG Heuer Connected, in partnership with Intel and Google. Connected (and the series 2 model TAG Heuer Connected Modular 45) turned out to be a key pillar of the company's new brand strategy. It also acted as a springboard for experimenting with unconventional sales and marketing tactics.