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Dylan Smith, Co-Founder and CFO of Box, describes the various stages of founding the enterprise digital document and data storage company. At each financial raise, beginning with the very earliest family-and-friend money all the way through IPO, Smith describes the options and the thought process that went into each decision.

Tesla's board of directors proposed an unusual compensation plan for the company's CEO Elon Musk. The plan payouts were entirely contingent on achieving very ambitious market value, sales, and EBIT targets over the next ten years. If all the targets were achieved, Tesla would be one of the most valuable companies in the world, and Musk would receive the highest compensation of any CEO in US corporate history. If the targets were not achieved, Musk would receive nothing. Proxy advisors (ISS and Glass Lewis) expressed serious reservations about the plan and urged shareholders to vote against it. Should shareholders approve or reject the plan?

After two years of constant work on their start-up, "DressingRm AR," Natsumi Nakano and Bridget Ellery were at a crossroads. Two investment offers were on the table. Neither offer provided as much money as the start-up needed, and both came with constraints that made Nakano and Ellery wary. But they were running out of money, and without new investment, they'd have to shut down. Nakano still hoped that they'd eventually find an investor who appreciated the real value of their ideas and accurately perceived their competence. Ellery, meanwhile, was disillusioned after two years of unexpected obstacles. Their ideas were good, she knew, but the marketplace was uglier and more ruthless than she'd anticipated. She no longer believed that it was a meritocracy. If one more man spoke to her with a patronizing tone or hit on her during a meeting, Ellery feared she would snap. Together, they had to decide what to do.

Rajesh Exports Limited (REL), founded by Rajesh Mehta in the 1980s and based in India, was the world's largest, lowest cost gold jewellery manufacturer. REL derived more than 90 per cent of its total revenue from exporting gold jewellery to more than 60 countries; but, in 2017, REL set a goal of increasing the portion of revenue contributed by the retail segment to 90 per cent by 2030-an increase from the current contribution of 10 per cent. REL had initiated strategies to differentiate itself in the retail jewellery segment; nonetheless, analysts were skeptical about REL's ability to achieve its revenue goal. They pointed to the hindrances of severe competition in the global retail jewellery market; REL's lack of experience in retail jewellery; and the perception of low quality associated with products produced in India. Was Mehta's vision to establish REL's presence in the retail segment appropriate, and if so, how could REL overcome the barriers and establish its identity in the international retail jewellery market?

A radical change was triggered in the fertilizer industry in India in fiscal year 2015-16, following a policy directive by the government of India regarding mandatory neem-coated urea, a fertilizer component. The government's policy decision was made to restore the market dynamics by moving control of, and access to, urea from intermediaries and industries toward farmers. Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd. (GNFC) decided to leverage this policy directive as an opportunity to set up a fully-integrated value chain for the in-house production of neem oil and related product offerings. The decision to pursue an integrated value chain approach was driven by GNFC's belief that neem seed collection, a labour-intensive activity, presented a huge opportunity for the economic and social empowerment of rural women in India. GNFC launched the Neem Project, which showcased a differentiated business model to comply with the government's policy directive. By 2017, the project had benefited approximately 225,000 rural women. Although the project earned GNFC many accolades and the managing director at GNFC was confident about its potential, he was concerned about the challenges associated with scaling the initiative.

In April 2016, Alibaba Group Holding Limited (Alibaba) acquired the cash-strapped German e-commerce company Lazada Group (Lazada) to enter the Southeast Asian market and gain an additional source of revenue. Lazada's value proposition of an effortless shopping experience, combined with rising competition, had caused Lazada to over-invest in logistics infrastructure. The cash injection from Alibaba's acquisition would allow Lazada to continue to pursue its strategic imperatives while leveraging Alibaba's online experience and other resources in China. Given the competitive environment in China, was the entry into Southeast Asia through the acquisition of Lazada an appropriate strategy for Alibaba? Had Lazada made the appropriate decision to sell its company to Alibaba? How should Alibaba implement its post-merger integration in 2017?

Well suited for MBA and undergraduate marketing programs, this case uses product positioning and placement during the early growth stages of a start-up's brand in the food industry to unfold circumstances that allow for an analysis of the firm's positioning and food marketing decisions. All products are plant-based foods distributed nationally in the United States. Seeking to target mainstream tastes and low price, tensions among the three pillars of the brand's marketing strategy, which are quality, accessibility, and sustainability, leave the case open to explore uncertainty, positioning, marketing mix, and consumer behavior. The A case opens with Josh Tetrick, Just's founder and CEO, facing an obstacle to the brand around accessibility. Target delisted all Just products in its stores after receiving an unverified, anonymous letter claiming that some of the products were unsafe and mislabeled. Although it only accounted for a small percentage of sales, losing Target affected Just's ability to meet its distribution goal to reach price-conscious consumers where they shopped and its greater goal to build a food system where everyone could eat well.

Well suited for MBA and undergraduate marketing programs, this case uses product positioning and placement during the early growth stages of a start-up's brand in the food industry to unfold circumstances that allow for an analysis of the firm's positioning and food marketing decisions. All products are plant-based foods distributed nationally in the United States. Seeking to target mainstream tastes and low price, tensions among the three pillars of the brand's marketing strategy, which are quality, accessibility, and sustainability, leave the case open to explore uncertainty, positioning, marketing mix, and consumer behavior. The B case brings in another twist as Just announces plans to publicly launch a meatless product line.

The CEO of an investment management firm must decide what to do about inappropriate actions by two different employees. While both employees are strong performers, their actions implicate the values underpinning the firm's culture. The case is designed to surface students' instinctive decision-making tendencies. Thus it is short enough to be read and responded to in class. Students are assigned readings and assignments related to the case after class discussion in which they are encouraged to reflect on their initial responses. The case is quite flexible and would work in any course that deals with leadership, ethics, difficult conversations, decision making, organizational behavior, human resources, crisis management, and related topics. It is appropriate for a range of levels and audiences, including undergraduate, MBA, and executive education.

Intuit, was the market leader in tax-filing software. Its software program, TurboTax, assisted 29 million users versus just seven million each for the tax software programs of rival firms H&R Block and TaxAct. But Intuit's total revenues had fallen in 2015, and in order to help the tech company boost its 2016 sales, it would need to decide on an effective advertising-testing technique. Should it look the relatively new phenomenon of applying neuroscience to marketing research-neuromarketing?

Tony Gascon, general manager for magnetic resonance (MR) value stream operations at GE Healthcare, was preparing for the monthly meeting with the supply chain and inventory management teams, during which they would revise their forecasts for the next quarter. After the meeting, aggregate production schedules based on the forecasts would be locked and pushed to the factories. As Gascon was about to head to the conference room, an e-mail with some startling information came from GE's chief productivity officer. A corporate review revealed that the components of each MR machine traveled more than 260,000 miles before final installation. A full mapping of the supply chain exposed an elaborate logistics structure with myriad technical challenges. Due to this complexity, producing precise forecasts would be more critical than ever, since any uncertainty would be amplified. As the teams met, they explored ways to simplify the structure and reduce the number of miles each machine traveled despite production facilities on three continents, global supply sources, stringent regulatory guidelines, increased competition, and the complexity in the creation and transport of the components. Based on their discussion, Gascon challenged the teams to improve the accuracy of their forecasts, and to better match supply with demand. What steps could they take to simplify/consolidate the logistics structure to make it more efficient? How could they leverage the emerging additive technology to disrupt the supply chain?

This case centers around the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) national goal of raising the happiness of its residents and visitors through ambitious government initiatives. They combined this bold national goal with an accountability structure (incentive plan) built on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), as more typically done at a company level. A key case protagonist is Ohood Al Roumi: the UAE and the world's first dedicated Minister of State for Happiness and Wellbeing. She was assigned to this role by Sheikh Mohammed, the Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Al Roumi attempted to drive national progress towards happiness in UAE society through several means: measuring happiness in the community and happiness with government services; aligning and coordinating government entities towards promoting happiness and positivity at work; and promoting happiness as a lifestyle more generally. The case details the UAE's progress through February 2018. The class discussion gives students a chance to reflect on the role of government in promoting happiness and wellbeing and how a government could go about encouraging happiness. The UAE in effect implemented a complex incentive scheme with the aim of coordinating attempts to increase happiness and wellbeing. The connection between the UAE's efforts and incentive schemes emerges in the course of the class discussion, which enables students to reflect on concrete managerial implications of the analysis.

In April 2017, the chief executive officer of Funskool India Limited (Funskool), was formulating a growth strategy to increase the company's annual revenues from ₹1.9 billion in 2016 to ₹5 billion by 2020. The Indian toy manufacturer had primarily catered to the local market while also exporting toys to developed markets. In 2006, the company expanded its line of products, set up an exclusive design department to develop new products, redesigned its advertising and promotional activities, and expanded into retail outlets. However, Chinese importers were upgrading and moving up the product segment ladder, where Funskool had a strong presence, and video games, which Funskool did not produce, were seeing exponential growth. How could Funskool augment the revenue obtained from the sale of its own brands? With Chinese competitors targeting consumers higher up the segment, should Funskool target customers in the lower economic levels? Should it enter the digital space to prevent a growth stall and catapult itself to the next stage in the growth cycle? The company needed to make some decisions and take steps to face these emerging challenges.

In the fall of 2017, Ajanta Packaging (Ajanta) was among the fastest growing glass bottle-packaging companies in India. Although the company had a large buyer base of 1,700 customers, it still earned around 50 per cent of its business from 10 key accounts, including its biggest buyer, S.F. Foods (SF), which accounted for 15 per cent of Ajanta's revenue. The position of privilege enjoyed by SF became a cause of concern for a director at Ajanta because of the client's unrealistic demands. After a $25 million order from SF with a profit margin of less than 7 per cent, a payment period of 60 days, and a very short turnaround time, the director was forced to review his relationship with his company's biggest client, and to decide whether to accept the order on SF's terms, or renegotiate the price, payment terms, and delivery schedule to benefit Ajanta.

Sheng Siong, one of the latest arrival on traditional grocers in the Singapore market, had been delivering better than average earnings. Why is this so? This case provides an interesting comparison of Sheng Siong, a largely domestic focussed, single product company, against Dairy Farm, a multi-national player in the supermarket business in Asia, and NTUC FairPrice, a co-operative. Students will learn how to make comparisons across three different formats.

Student spreadsheet for case NTU175.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 217018.

Case describes the career of the iconic French fashion designer Coco Chanel who created a transformational business during the first half of the twentieth century. The case describes how she leveraged relationships to build her fashion business and legendary luxury brand based on understated elegance. Chanel famous little black dress was accompanied by many other innovations including the use of jersey as material and her development of the Chanel No. 5 perfume. The case pays close attention to the importance of Chanel's networks among artists and European high society. It explores how she embraced the Anti-Semitism widely found in that society at that time period. During World War 2 Chanel lived in the Ritz hotel in Paris in occupied France in a relationship with a high-ranking German intelligence officer. She herself became an intelligence operative for Nazi Germany. The case ends with Chanel in Switzerland in 1945 after she had left France after the Liberation by Allied forces. This case can be used to explore multiple issues including creating and building an iconic fashion brand; female entrepreneurship; and ethical responsibility of business.

In 2017, both Flipkart and Amazon claimed leadership position in India's recently concluded key annual festive season sale, but it was too early to declare victory. Amazon continues to invest heavily in India. Competition from newer players is increasing. Media reports hint that Reliance Industries, a large Indian conglomerate, is planning to extend its e-commerce offering beyond fashion to electronics, mobile phones and even groceries. As the battle for India's lucrative e-commerce market gains pace, experts wonder--who will win? Is India a winner-takes-all market or is there space for more than one player?