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Activist shareholders are often seen as villains by managers and boards. Their demands for strategic and organizational shifts-which can feel personal to managers-often challenge the soundness of a company's strategy. However, leaders who treat activist shareholders solely as a risk or an annoyance are making a mistake. Although they may be aiming to protect their companies, they're missing out on an opportunity to tap one of the few free resources companies have to bring about value‑creating strategic change and build stronger business models. To better respond to-and take advantage of-the campaigns of activists, leaders must learn to think the way they do. Most activists tend to follow a predefined process to identify and engage target companies. This article presents the three main components of the activist playbook-linking performance failures to organizational weaknesses, developing a plan of action, and creating a narrative in support of change-and describes how managers can anticipate and respond to activist campaigns.

An increasing number of companies are using the E-liability carbon-accounting method as an important tool for tracking progress toward reducing global emissions in their supply chains. The system does not require formal accounting for downstream emissions-those occurring after a company sells its products to immediate customers, for several good reasons. Certain companies, however, are accountable for disclosing downstream emissions generated by consumers' use of their products. Three principles govern accountability: (1) Downstream accountability is limited to companies whose products are directly used by end customers. (2) Accountability for B2C companies is limited to cases where a reasonable causal link exists between product-design decisions and the downstream emissions generated by consumers. (3) Companies are accountable for disclosing emissions produced per unit of use, not for total emissions. This article presents the principles and explains how and to what standards of reliability the companies should disclose downstream emissions.

Too many companies are failing to innovate. One reason, say the authors, is the polarized approach companies take to innovation. At one end of the spectrum, corporate R&D efforts tend to focus on product refreshes and incremental line upgrades that generate modest growth for lower risk. At the other end, venture capitalists favor high-risk "transformational" innovations that seek to upend industries and generate outsize returns. But there's a better, middle, way. This article presents the growth driver model, a framework that partners corporations with outside investors to identify and develop innovation opportunities, drawing on corporate resources and talent and externally recruited entrepreneurs. The authors illustrate the model with a detailed case study of how it revived innovation at Cordis, a large medical technology device maker.

Although most managers believe that they give each of their team members equal attention, respect, and consideration, four decades' worth of empirical research says otherwise. Studies show that nearly all bosses have-or are seen to have-in-groups and out-groups. Employees on the wrong side of these divides experience a reduction in engagement, satisfaction, commitment, citizenship, innovation, and performance. Bosses usually argue that any differentiation is unintended and that their reports are reading too much into minor disparities. Both claims might be true. However, it is the view from below that counts. Perceived unfairness is real in its consequences. Managers should first acknowledge these issues and then work hard to head off or repair conflict. Those who don't may lose key contributors they'd prefer to retain, exacerbate the challenges presented by underperformers, ruin team performance and morale, and hurt their own reputations. Start by regularly reviewing your treatment of team members. Ask yourself: Did I seek everyone's company? Did I acknowledge their capabilities? Did I assist their growth? If you are routinely answering no for certain subordinates, they need more attention from you. When a relationship has already gone off the rails, it's important to rectify the problem: Prepare for a direct conversation, engage empathetically, and then make a plan for how you'll interact with one another in the future.

The newly appointed CEO of Highstreet Properties has doubts about several members of the top team she has inherited. She's trying to drive a turnaround, the company has a complicated matrix structure, and some team members seem opposed to her strategy. She's debating replacing several of them, but she's worried about making too many changes too quickly, upsetting her board, and bringing in too many former colleagues.

Four new books explore how AI can help-and hinder-our productivity: Co-Intelligence, by Ethan Mollick; The Singularity Is Nearer, by Ray Kurzweil; The Mind's Mirror, by Daniela Rus and Gregory Mone; and Slow Productivity, by Cal Newport.

When the front man of Hootie & the Blowfish ditched pop music to make country records, he was taking a big risk. Nashville didn't welcome crossover artists, and an African American hadn't had a country hit in years. In this interview Rucker describes why he prevailed, how he's dealt with racism, and what still gets him excited.

The newly appointed CEO of Highstreet Properties has doubts about several members of the top team she has inherited. She's trying to drive a turnaround, the company has a complicated matrix structure, and some team members seem opposed to her strategy. She's debating replacing several of them, but she's worried about making too many changes too quickly, upsetting her board, and bringing in too many former colleagues.

The newly appointed CEO of Highstreet Properties has doubts about several members of the top team she has inherited. She's trying to drive a turnaround, the company has a complicated matrix structure, and some team members seem opposed to her strategy. She's debating replacing several of them, but she's worried about making too many changes too quickly, upsetting her board, and bringing in too many former colleagues.

The case presents Independiente del Valle Specialized High-Performance Club, an Ecuadorian sports club focused on soccer. It competed in the third division until 2007 when a group of businessmen led by Michel Deller assumed ownership. Since then, the club has offered housing, meals, and education to children aged 13 and older in its Specialized High-Performance Center in Quito, where they learn the fundamentals of soccer and refine their skills. Applying this holistic approach to player development, the team has been the leading contributor since 2012 to all of Ecuador's youth teams and the national squad. Additionally, the club rapidly became the second-most laureated Ecuadorian team internationally with three regional trophies. The club's ability to attract, nurture, and develop talent caught the attention of international teams looking for rising stars and generated a consistent revenue flow through transfer fees. To ensure model sustainability, the Board of Directors decided never to include this income in the annual budget of the first division team to avoid short-sighted decisions that could consume the income in a few years. This commitment would be tested as Independiente increasingly competed with clubs with higher fan bases and historic sponsorship appeal, making it hard to cover the first-division team expenses through matchday income, sponsorships, and broadcasting rights. The case allows students to compare different business models in the global soccer industry and the challenges presented by a strategy for developing top football players.

Eugenia Kuyda launched Replika AI in 2017 as an empathetic digital companion to combat loneliness and provide emotional support. The platform surged in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering non-judgmental support to isolated users. By 2023, Replika boasted 10 million users, with 40% engaging in romantic partnerships with their Replikas. Kuyda's strategy of prioritizing users' emotional well-being over engagement metrics was successful: 85% users reported improved mood post-interaction. However, as users ventured into more intimate conversations with the AI, Kuyda faced a pivotal decision: Should she restrict these exchanges or embrace them as the platform's natural evolution? This choice was complicated by the need to safeguard Replika's brand, prevent misuse, while satisfying its diverse user base. The case explores the ethical boundaries of AI-human relationships and the evolving role of AI in addressing loneliness. It is suitable for courses in technology, entrepreneurship, AI, and ethics.

After a personal journey and interest in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) by Bill Gates, Gates Ventures set out to find the best way to accelerate innovation in the field of AD. In partnership with the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, Gates Ventures created the Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA) to fund innovations as a venture philanthropy fund. The AD field had seen rapid advances in therapeutics, and as such, large corporations were hesitant to take venture funding which meant potentially losing control and having other opinions on the Board. Instead, these companies were turning to other non-dilutive sources of funding. The DxA, and GV, sat at a crossroads and needed to determine where to go next to fulfill their mission.

Blockchain pioneer Stellar Development Foundation oversees one of the earliest and largest crypto networks (Stellar) and the management of its native token XLM. The foundation partnered with cross-border payments provider MoneyGram to help on and off-ramp cryptocurrencies between the Stellar Network and cash. In one case, the partnership enabled the United Nations to distribute funds to refugees.

(B2): Dharmesh Thakker confidential information for term sheet negotiation.

(B1): Matthew Scullion confidential information for term sheet negotiation.

Founded in 2014, SuperMonkey is an innovative gym brand that has disrupted the traditional gym membership model with its "pay-per-session, no annual memberships; professional coaches, no sales pitches" approach. Initially, SuperMonkey offered a unique fitness experience through shipping container gym pods before shifting its focus to group classes. SuperMonkey's gyms are lively group class spaces where clients can follow professional instructors, immersed in dynamic lighting and music. This transforms what could be a solitary and monotonous workout into an energetic and social event. By the end of 2022, SuperMonkey had attracted over 500,000 paying users and had opened or was planning nearly 200 stores in first-tier and emerging cities. However, as market competition intensifies, SuperMonkey faces new challenges, particularly regarding its pace of expansion. HILEFIT, a competitor established around the same time, had expanded to 1,300 locations by 2023. SuperMonkey must now carefully consider whether to maintain the quality of its fitness services to ensure customer satisfaction or accelerate the opening of new stores to capture a larger market share. This dilemma poses a significant test of their strategic decision-making skills.

This technical note provides the foundation for a discussion of the measurement and accounting for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It provides an executive-level summary organized around there questions: (1) How are GHG emissions measured? (2) What are the options for disclosing GHG emissions? (3) What are the options for managing and communicating emissions targets?

The World Economic Forum and the consulting firm McKinsey & Company collaborated with academics to create the concept of lighthouse factories in 2018. The concept represents a vision for manufacturing in the digital age, in which cutting-edge digital technologies are designed and deployed to enable innovative manufacturing practices to be implemented at large scale. The concept has since become a global standard for digital manufacturing. For McKinsey & Company, and other consulting firms, this vision brings significant opportunities but also requires these organizations and their consultants to obtain an in-depth and nuanced understanding of lighthouse factories and the underlying business models, practices, technologies, and cases.

This exercise provides students with an engaging two-person negotiation between an employer and a job candidate over the details of a sales role with The Peak, a small but rapidly growing news-media start-up in Canada. The Peak's co-founder and chief executive officer wants a new salesperson who is willing to take on responsibilities outside the scope of a typical salesperson and to work with little supervision. The candidate is a seasoned professional with an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to join a small start-up, where she can take more ownership over her work and liaise with the co-founders to grow the company. By role-playing as the employer or the candidate, students will determine how best to achieve satisfactory job-offer terms.