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The case focuses on China's 'furious five' smartphone makers - Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, and OPPO/Vivo, charting the history of the industry and the changing dynamics of the global market. It explains the emerging market context in which these companies operate, its distinctive features, opportunities and challenges, and the various ways they have triumphed over established global brands. The case provides a detailed introduction to the respective Chinese smartphone makers and their products. It discusses their current strategies and how they were influenced at the formative stage by the background and experience of the respective founders. It examines their development trajectories to shed light on their global strategies in the future. Given its dynamic growth and intense competition, China's smartphone market offers an ideal setting to analyse the competitive heterogeneity of firms in an emerging market context.

Plans for a $3.5 billion crude oil pipeline in 2014-17 from the Bakken formation of North Sakota and Canada to a transfer point near Chicago, linked to an existing pipeline to the major refining and export faculities on the US Gulf Coast, run into trouble when the developer, Energy Transfer Partners, encounters a "roadblock" on a section of federal land that is within a reservation of the Flat Rock Sioux tribe of Native Americans. The case charts how the conflict escalated from the local to the global level.

The case goes back in time to the 'golden age' of Absolut when contemporary artists like Andy Warhol and Keith Haring painted the unusual bottle to the amazement of the global arts community. The nearly accidental collaboration with artists in the glorious years turned the brand into a must-have aspirational drink to be consumed at chic bars and art fairs. Based on the vivid recollections of Vadim Grigorian (INSEAD MBA '00J), the case uncovers the awakening of new paradigm, the brand as acultural agent of contemporary art in consumer society. In his retelling of these events, hitherto unknown, the marketing executive recaptures the essence of Absolut during its hey day from the mid-1980s to 2011 in an exquisitely told and unusual account of cultural engagement.

The case explores the murky world of tax havens and hidden wealth. The so-called 'Panama Papers', 'Paradise Papers', 'Swiss Leaks' and 'LuxLeaks' are essentially digital dumps that exposed where the the ultra-rich had for decades stashed their billions to evade paying taxes. Academics such as Gabriel Zucman have mined these revelations for insights about global wealth inequality. Their research and that of investigative journalists have put public policymakers under pressure to make laws to "regain control over globalized financial capitalism" as economist Thomas Piketty calls it, arguing that the continued legality of tax havens puts at stake the basic social contract on which democracies are founded, and that the resulting shortfall in tax revenues deprives advanced economies of resources for nation building for future generations.

Inspired by C.K. Prahalad's "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid", Novartis was exploring ways to build a sustainable business for the BOP in India that would improve access to healthcare for the poor while being financially profitable, unlike Novartis's traditional philanthropic and corporate social responsibility approaches. To succeed, it had to answer a series of strategic questions: Which BOP patients should be targeted to best achieve the social and financial goals of the programme? Which diseases should it cover, and with what types of products (patent-protected, generics, OTC)? Which stages of the patient journey should the programme address? Which stakeholders should be targeted? What communication channels should be used? What should be the programme scale? Where to 'house' the social business group in the Novartis organization?

To support a new digital strategy launched in 2014 in response to multiple sources of disruption, ING Netherlands restructured in 2015 into an agile organization. Agility is based on speed, flat, collaborative and customer-centric design principles. In October 2017, ING was considering rolling the agile organization to Belgium in view of a merger of the two countries operations. On the one hand, agility was proving very effective to respond to disruption. But on the other hand, there were signs of tensions in the organization, some resulting from agility, some from the change process itself. The case puts participants in the shoes of Herman Tange, a tribe leader, in October 2017 as he ponders his recommendations about the future of the agile organization model to his new CEO. Herman wants to discuss three options.

This case elucidates the need for water for businesses, with a focus on beverage companies. The global scarcity of water as a resource and the conflicts that surround its usage is elaborated. The water footprint of the cola companies and two other major companies of Nestle and Unilever are highlighted along with the strategies they have used to try and circumvent the problem, since they rely extensively on water as it is the main ingredient in their final products. The case also provides rich data to discuss and analyze the risks associated with water usage be it financial social, reputational etc.

This case provides the opportunity for a comprehensive analysis in a service operations strategy course. It touches on subjects including the customer value proposition, profitability, employee management, customer management, robust people versus robust process, queue management, and staffing models. This case can be used as a basis for discussing the ""Four Truths"" from Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business, 6th ed. (Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2012). The Four Truths are (1) you can't be good at everything, (2) someone has to pay for it, (3) you must manage your employees, and (4) you must manage your customers. Students are asked to decide the necessary service strategy and operational changes as Schindler Elevator Corporation decides how to use current trends in the internet of things.

After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the Chaudhary Group, a billion-dollar conglomerate in Nepal decides to play a pivotal role in re-building the country. The Group's philanthropic arm (Chaudhary Foundation) works with stakeholders and develops a blue print for short and long- term relief measures. The management needs to address several questions as they navigate the foundations' course. What element of relief work should the foundation focus on? Should they go beyond addressing the immediate need for shelters and adopt a more holistic development plan? How should they acquire technical expertise and organize themselves to successfully execute this effort? The case focuses on how businesses can drive entrepreneurship and disaster management efforts and be agents for social change in the emerging markets grappling with institutional voids. How should they work with the government in this endeavor? How do they ensure an alignment of these efforts to the group and foundation's long-term focus areas and objectives?

This B case is a supplement to the Chaudhary Group: Rebuilding Nepal case. Having successfully spearheaded relief work in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake the Chaudhary Foundation envisions creating a more comprehensive and sustainable development model. They are keen to build a model village that integrates components of shelter, education, skill development and livelihood creation and affords residents a basic standard of living. What should the blueprint of this sustainable ecosystem include? Who are the stakeholders they should collaborate with on this effort? Can this model be replicated at scale across the country?

Summit Public Schools was a very successful charter management organization with schools in California and Washington State. The students came from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, many from economically-disadvantaged households. While nearly all of its students were accepted to a four-year college, Summit's leadership discovered that nearly half of graduates had failed at college. This was unacceptable to Summit's leadership and they set out to create a new learning model that would enable its students to not only get into a four-year college but succeed there. The new learning model significantly altered the role of the teacher and brought technology to the forefront of student teaching. This new personalized student self-directed learning model was instituted to build knowledge and skills graduates needed to be successful in college. The case study describes the history of Summit and its evolution to this new learning model.

When proposing new or modified economic policies, it is important to understand the distributional implications of such policies. Do they potentially affect everyone in the same way? Or can we expect different impacts for different segments of the population? The specific factors model is a canonical model that is very well suited to address distributional questions related to a range of economic policies, as it distinguishes multiple sectors in the economy that each employ a different mix of production factors (such as labor and capital). This technical note focuses on applications of the specific factors model to international trade policies; toward the end it also explores how the model might be useful in other settings. At Darden, this note is used in the second-year International Trade elective; a variant of the same model is taught in the Global Economics of Water elective. It would also be suitable in courses covering short-, medium-, and long-run analyses of economic policy.

In 2007, the former Calgary mayor was preparing to make the case for a Community Revitalization Levy to secure financing to develop Calgary's East Village, a downtown brownfield site. The East Village had a difficult history, and economic, social, and environmental issues abounded there. All previous attempts at redevelopment had failed. After doing meticulous research, the mayor presented to Calgary City Council his idea of the Community Revitalization Levy, the first of its kind in Canada, and it was approved. Next began the momentous task of carrying out the redevelopment, and the City of Calgary could not be directly involved. The mayor had to decide how the city could ensure the success of the redevelopment of the East Village.

In January 2018, a family business advising team entered a seemingly straightforward contract with members of the Graham family, who were planning to transition their business to the next generation. The first and second generations, who founded and grew their business into a portfolio of 50 grocery store franchises across the eastern United States, were concerned about the capacity and interest of the next generation in continuing the success of the family business. None of the five cousins in this new generation had experience pertaining to the family business, and there was uncertainty about the structural changes inherent in the transition. At first glance, the problem appeared to be about transition planning, but the advising team soon learned that transition was only the surface issue. The advising process uncovered a very dysfunctional family with deeper concerns. Communication problems, borne from the culture of conflict avoidance that typified the second generation's upbringing, needed to be addressed before the family could face any transition planning with confidence. This case is intended to be used with "Advising the Family Firm: Opening Pandora's Box (B)," 9B18M048. "Advising the Family Firm: Opening Pandora's Box (A)" should be assigned prior to class. "Advising the Family Firm: Opening Pandora's Box (B)" should be distributed in class following discussion of the (A) case.

Supplement to case W18173. This supplementary case set follows a family business advisory team over the course of roughly three months, as they develop an action plan to guide the succession of the family business to the next generation. The cases elucidate the harm that an inexperienced advising team can unintentionally inflict and cover issues of family firm advising, transition planning, and family dynamics. This case is intended to be used with "Advising The Family Firm: Opening Pandora's Box (A)," 9B18M047. "Advising The Family Firm: Opening Pandora's Box (A)" should be assigned prior to class. "Advising The Family Firm: Opening Pandora's Box (B)" should be distributed in class following discussion of the (A) case.

In early 2014, Standard Chartered PLC, a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, England, announced its restructuring plan. The announcement triggered positive reactions in both stock and bond markets. Nevertheless, the eventual profitability was not what was expected. Moving forward into 2015, how would a rational investor have taken advantage of such a corporate restructuring event?

Student spreadsheet for case W18176.

ING Groep NV, a successful Dutch-based bank with operations in over 40 countries, had a very successful year in 2016. The bank had achieved strong growth in customer numbers, savings, and lending. However, digitization was disrupting the banking industry. ING Groep NV had successfully taken multiple initiatives to tackle the fundamental changes driven by the digital disruption, but its future, like that of all the other major traditional banks, remained uncertain. In March 2017, the chief executive officer announced that the bank would invest €800 million in continued digital transformation to further improve the customer experience and accelerate growth. While there was no doubt that this investment was needed, he had to decide how ING should respond to and take advantage of the radical changes caused by digitization. Which specific initiatives should he prioritize for the €800 million investment?

In December 2017, two news releases were issued by CSX Corporation (CSX) concerning its chief executive officer (CEO), who had been appointed nine months earlier based on his record of drastically cutting operating expenses. The first release indicated that the CEO had taken a medical leave of absence due to unexpected complications from a recent illness and that an acting CEO had been appointed. The next day, CSX shares dropped 7.6 per cent, erasing almost $4 billion in market value. The second release, two days later, indicated that the CEO had died. Subsequent news reports questioned the board's initial decision to hire him. The events raised issues related to unlocking shareholder value, the role of boards, and the impact of activist shareholders. Did the board do sufficient due diligence surrounding the CEO's health when he was initially hired? Was the CEO's vision and strategy more important than its implementation? Was the hiring of this CEO short-term thinking?

In early 2017, the chief executive officer of AgriSmart, a German start-up company within the Bosch start-up platform, was preparing for an important upcoming board meeting. She needed to explain why AgriSmart had deviated from its original financial plan, seek approval for its upcoming budget, and convince Bosch's board that the company deserved further funding. In preparing the company's forecasts to share with the board, the chief executive officer also needed to prepare for all possible questions from the directors regarding AgriSmart's past performance and the assumptions going forward.