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Rather than trying to sell standardized products or services to the biggest possible set of buyers, B2B companies need to develop ways to help specific customers achieve better outcomes. Instead of describing their solutions, companies first need to understand customers'specific challenges, objectives, operating practices, and competitive environment, then create offerings to deliver value within a customer's specific business context and culture.

How should companies launch products in times of uncertainty? Should they "wait and see"until uncertainty resolves -or commit to a full-scale launch and ride it out? Conventional wisdom says being early to market is the right choice, but that is not always the case. Many companies can benefit from a mixed, "act and see"approach.

The fear of robots eclipsing human power in society, in particular the workforce, has persisted for decades despite the moderate progress of artificial intelligence systems. For professor and robotics researcher Ken Goldberg, a hybrid human-machine workforce is much more likely to take shape, and in many industries, it has already begun.

Research shows equity incentives introduce bias in executive recommendations and strategic planning. To counter this, boards should consider three key steps in assessing corporate risk.

Our 2018 Strategic Measurement research shows that companies using machine learning to optimize business processes and decision-making have distinct advantages over those that aren't investing in ML. By using ML technology to make KPIs more predictive and prescriptive, these data-driven companies are redefining how to create and measure value.

In the 2018 Digital Business Report, MIT SMR and Deloitte find that digitally maturing organizations encourage distributed leadership and a healthy appetite for experimentation.

Vittala International Institute of Ophthalmology (Vittala), a not-for-profit organization was involved in providing free/highly subsidized eye care to the rural and the economically underprivileged population in the state of Karnataka, India. The case describes the challenges faced by the founder and his family in building the state-of-the-art institution and sustaining it through its difficult initial years. They had to build awareness of avoidable blindness, make eye care accessible and affordable, and develop the right networks and alliances, all within limited resources. Unlike certain eye care issues such as cataract, Vittala focused on retinal eye care problems that required periodic monitoring and treatment. Diagnosis required sophisticated and expensive equipment, which had to be made available in far-flung small towns and villages, and that posed difficulties. To address the challenges, the organization and its founders executed pioneering innovations in organizational arrangements and processes. The case closes with the dilemma facing Krishna, Director of Vittala, which was to examine how the social enterprise could enhance the revenue streams to increase Vittala's reach in providing eye to the economically disadvantaged citizens. He needs to consider issues like creating the right balance of paying and non-paying patients to ensure sustainable operations, consistent quality of care, keeping technology updated, and attracting and retaining medical staff with right skills and values. The case is significant as it highlights what is required to make healthcare accessible and affordable to the poor, and how policy measures can be executed at the ground level through appropriate organizing efforts. It describes how the founder inculcated a system of values to keep the family members together, thus contributing to the effectiveness and sustainability of the social enterprise.

Launched in East Africa, M-KOPA is an innovative pay-as-you-go solar system that provides reliable energy to low-income households. To serve these customers profitably, M-KOPA's solution relies on digital innovation and the integrated adaptation of every element business model, including a new profit model akin to the data-driven platform models of the likes of Amazon and Tencent. The founders' challenge was how best to continue growing their for-profit business in the face of new competition, while staying true to M-KOPA's social mission and values.

Set in March 2018, the case follows ride-sharing company Uber as it develops and launches a new product called Express POOL. This product offers a reduced price to riders willing to carpool, walk a short distance to/from their pick-up and drop-off points, and wait a few minutes before being matched to a driver. Two weeks after the launch of Express POOL in six U.S. cities, Uber's product managers discover that if riders are made to wait five minutes to be matched to a driver-rather than the standard two minutes-rider cancellation rates increase, but Uber's costs per ride are reduced. Together with data scientists, engineers, and product operations specialists, the product managers must decide whether to keep rider wait times at two minutes or increase wait times to five minutes in the six newly launched cities. The decision is complicated by the fact that Uber's data science team normally places a five-week moratorium on changes to any new product, to allow robust data to be collected on its performance. This case is paired with a supplementary dataset from Uber (HBS No. 619-702). In advance of the class discussion, students can analyze the data and draw their own conclusions about the trade-offs of maintaining the standard wait times or increasing them.

St. Camillus is a fictional non-profit hospital in rural Maine facing a serious budget deficit. As Director of Marketing, Victoria Stern is building a team to modernize the hospital fundraising efforts. An interview with a promising candidate who is also a digital native forces her to confront shifting attitudes toward issues of data and privacy across generations against the backdrop of continued cybercrime and data breaches within the healthcare industry. Students grapple with the tension between data as "useful" or private within an organization. In this context they explore the ethical issues they will face around data security and data governance in their roles as managers.

Alex Honnold is the world's most accomplished free climber. To many, climbing sheer vertical faces of rock- like the famed El Capitan- without a rope is viewed as not simply risky, but reckless. Honnold contrasts this sentiment by presenting his perspective on risk taking and the challenges of living a fulfilled life.

This case describes how Richard Lou, KEMET's Director of China Operations, was offered an opportunity from the U.S. headquarters to integrate the Batam Plant in Indonesia after he had led his Chinese team to successfully integrate the Shanghai Plant and the Nantong Plant. The opportunity gave Richard mixed feelings, for he was aware that the task of integrating the Indonesian plant, which had a very complicated background and had been suffering losses for many years, would be fraught-a make-or-break moment of his career. Should he rest on his laurels or rise to the challenge? Richard had to make a critical decision.

This case relates how Richard finally decided to accept the great challenge, and thus formed an integration team of experts in different functions, and got prepared in every aspect he could consider. However, on their journey to Indonesia, Richard was informed of a death-threat e-mail from someone at the Batam Plant. Should he put himself and his team at risk to fulfill the integration?

This case tells how Richard and the Chinese team decided to act. After arriving at the plant, Richard (the integration team leader), Jack Chen (the newly appointed General Manager of the Batam Plant), and other team members implemented a series of transformational initiatives, such as conducting comprehensive communications, adjusting the organizational structure, making the plant operations more efficient and controllable, training the leadership of the local team, and dealing with the business crisis caused by the strikes organized by the trade unions.

This case study discusses the entrepreneurial story of FreshFresh Trade and Commerce (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. ("FreshFresh" for short), showing the continuous improvements and innovations it has made to develop a profitable model in the fresh food industry. At the end of 2013, its two founders, Leo (Bin) Shen and Baiyuan Fang, first got the idea of creating an online platform to provide fresh food. Since then, they have constantly tested the business model of FreshFresh. After two years of effort, its model became recognized by users and capital markets. By the end of June 2016, over 700,000 users have registered, and nearly 50% of them have purchased products on its platform at least once. The repeat purchase rate (at least twice) is around 45%. In March 2016, FreshFresh announced that it had raised US$20 million in Series A financing. On June 30, the company won the 2016 Top Digital award, making it the only fresh food e-commerce platform to win a prize at that year's innovation launch ceremony for China's telecommunication, media, and technology industries. However, just like 99% of companies in this sector, it has not yet managed to establish a profitable model. In 2015, it suffered losses of around ¥20 million, representing 20% of its operating revenue. After a series of improvements, the company hoped to make a profit in the first half of 2016, and to expand its business to other cities. But when Shen receives the performance report in July 2016, he decides to abandon this plan. He imagines fresh food e-commerce to be like running a marathon, and he wonders how FreshFresh can make a profit and achieve sound development by rationally allocating its strategic resources.

This case illustrates the challenges of Peter Wong, CEO of Dow Chemical Greater China, in locally implementing Dow's global sustainability strategy around 2016 when the mainland government has only recently begun to tackle its problems of pollution and corporate responsibility. Dow's 20-year journey to embedding sustainability in global corporate strategy is reviewed in some detail, illustrating the step-by-step process of aligning resources, transforming culture, and building external partnerships to enhance the possibility that sustainability strategies yield financial gains. The case challenges students to make sense of this corporate transformation, and subsequently assess the wisdom of continuing support for commercializing a total dust containment solution when an abrupt drop in the price of coal reduced the solution's financial attractiveness to future purchasers. To make recommendations about further support, students must consider the best ways to measure and interpret a sustainability strategy's impact.

Background note for product CB0028.

This case study describes how restaurant operator Wowprime, known for its brand creativity, implemented a diversification strategy in China's mainland. Having been present in the market for 14 years, Wowprime set out plans in August 2016 to expand from 149 restaurants to 1,000 by 2022. In a market where demand for customized offerings is gaining traction, should Wowprime maintain its fixed-menu-based diversification strategy for growth, or should it focus on core brands and priority markets? The case invites class participants to step into the shoes of Wowprime decision-makers and consider strategic options to achieve the 2022 goal while taking into account resource constraints as well as local market trends.