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This case helps individuals learn about different types of investment strategies. It presents three different people with varying risk tolerances and investment objectives and provides information about the investment strategies they adopt.

Pharmaceutical companies have historically relied on their ability to research, develop, manufacture, and sell drug products. Developing a successful drug is a complex and lengthy process, with no guarantee of success, and the total cost of approving a new drug is estimated at $2.5 billion, and rising. This technical note offers an overview of changes in the biotechnology industry related to drug development, focusing on M&A, the milestone model, and venture capital.

Managers at the Chinese state-owned hydropower development company Jiuzhaigou Hydropower Development Co. (JHDC), in Sichuan Province, were considering using photovoltaic (PV) power generation in the wake of carbon-emission regulations. After JHDC was founded in 2003, it built five hydropower stations, its original and traditional power-generation mode. When China proposed its double-carbon policy, JHDC's general manager realized it was time to explore new approaches to electricity generation, and the breeze and sunshine of the Jiuzhaigou Valley led him to consider wind and PV power. Following a lengthy discussion among its board of directors and shareholders, JHDC made a strategic decision to expand its capacity by embracing new methods of electricity generation. Now the key question was, What was the best strategy for JHDC, as a traditional utility company, to adopt this new technology?

In 2021, the Vancouver-based Universal Outreach Foundation (UOF) collaborated with the Rocky Mountain Soap Company (RMS), a Canadian natural beauty products company, to launch a soap-making venture for Liberia Pure, a business established by UOF and owned by and for Liberians. RMS then contributed a one-time donation to support the distribution of soap during Global Handwashing Day. This case highlights the different forms and levels of sustainability associated with corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects. Students consider how to make CSR a strategic advantage for the firm, rather than relying on regulatory incentives or emotion to ensure continued corporate support. It further looks at the sustainability of the impact on the recipients after the firm leaves.

Instructor spreadsheet for case W34754.

Workforce controversies are increasing due to automation, layoffs, changes to work arrangements, and employees’ focus on their own values and priorities. Leaders can avert conflicts by identifying goals and interests and sharing them with employees, including them in decisions, and giving them strategic roles and responsibilities.

Banca Comunitaria Banesco (BCB) was the microfinance business unit of Banesco Banco Universal (BBU), the largest private bank in Venezuela. By 2016 BCB was one of the leading microcredit institutions in Venezuela, serving more than 85,000 people in more than 8,000 low-income neighborhoods throughout the country, with 10% market share. However, there were concerns about the sustainability of BCB's inclusive business model and distribution channel. Serving BOP customers (80% of the Venezuelan population) posed several challenges. Venezuela was facing an economic and social crisis, combined with a decreasing GDP and skyrocketing inflation rates, a scarcity of essential goods, the plunging purchasing power of its population, and raising security issues, all of which had an overall negative impact on BCB customers' businesses. In this context BCB had to streamline the use of BBU's banking operative platform, build synergies and apply stricter customer risk assessment to gain financial viability. The necessity to be more cost-efficient went hand in hand with the need to evaluate new service models, that combined technological and human factors, to broaden BCB's reach and customer satisfaction and its social impact. Some questions needed to be addressed: Should BCB try to preserve the current omnichannel in place? Should BCB risk reducing its presence in the barrios and adopt a cost-efficient alternative as mobile banking technology?

The Carzaty case starts at a pivotal point in the start-up's story. It is 2021 and co-founders Hassan Jaffar and Marwan Chaar are preparing to scale up their online used car business they started in Oman. With the backing of investors, they are confident that threefold growth will be realised within a year. At this juncture, an exit offer from a Mexican unicorn company is added to the mix. The friends are torn between their own expansion plans versus the opportunity to exit. The students are invited to put themselves in the founders' shoes to decide which path to take-should they accept the offer or stay on course and maximise the potential of their business themselves?

This case looks at the ELYSIS joint venture and the commercialization of its technology for eliminating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the electrolysis process in aluminum production. Although Alcoa developed the ELYSIS process, its commercialization is the result of a partnership between aluminum producers Alcoa and Rio Tinto Aluminium (RTA). This partnership was made possible by Apple, which acted as an intermediary, and is supported by the governments of Quebec and Canada. The use of ELYSIS technology has the potential to significantly reduce GHG emissions from aluminum production and to help companies affected by new GHG emission regulations. The success of the technology, however, depends on its widespread adoption, which involves replacing a production method that is over 130 years old.

This article presents principles and practical guidelines for how managers can succeed in growing the intelligence of their organizations by harnessing the complementary strengths of humans and artificial intelligence (AI). Organizational intelligence is the ability of collectives of intelligent human and digital actors to solve problems and adapt. Six principles for human-AI collaboration in organizations are explored-addition, relevance, substitution, diversity, collaboration, and explanation-and how they play out in leading organizations is discussed. Finally, practical guidelines are outlined for how leaders can enable their organizations to successfully make the change.

Tropical rain forest covers about 80% of the West African nation of Gabon, part of the Congo Basin and the "lungs of the world." Gabon is one of the first nations to earn revenue from carbon sequestration...as long as the rain forest remains intact. There are economic pressures for logging (and also the shared global threat of illegal logging). The federal government, along with private investors, is striving to both preserve the rain forest and also to create more jobs and capture more export value from the forest products industry as the nation transitions away from extractive industries including oil. The venture needs to bring almost all of the supply chain from logging camps to bark processing to plywood manufacture to international wholesaling in this series of public private partnerships. What are the conditions precedent for this to be feasible? What are the capital, policy, and operational decisions and inputs needed to execute this strategy successfully? What risks need to be borne by whom to get the supply chain in place and attract other capital sources? This is more than just a special economic zone with some tax and energy benefits. Among other tools, Gabon has adopted sophisticated techniques to geo-tag lumber from stump to ship, and to track the chain of custody for certified forest products. What other decisions need to be made and resources committed? Can this model grow to scale and be replicated with other agricultural or renewable value chains, in other nations? When?

Set in June 2023, the C case explores Plug Power's recovery from its financial restatements, how it benefited from government subsidies, and new strategic alliances.

Afzal Imram, co-founder of State Property, a fine jewellery retailer rooted in Singapore, had achieved a lot. Numerous celebrities, including Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, Nicole Kidman, and Emilia Clarke, had worn State Property's products. A second brick-and-mortar store had been opened in Singapore, and the company was successful in overseas sales using Net-a-Porter. Despite these successes, State Property's website traffic remained relatively low. Afzal felt that sales would greatly benefit from an increase in the company's reach online. If consumers encountered his company's website earlier in their journey, they could be directed to an online sales platform or a physical store. How could he improve the company's organic ranking in search engine results?

Large language models (LLMs) can generate convincingly human-sounding responses to queries. This ability can lead users to mistakenly attribute certain human capabilities to these artificial intelligence algorithms, namely reasoning, knowledge, understanding, and execution. Understanding how LLMs work and what their limitations are can help users identify where generative AI technology is best applied and where its outputs might be unreliable.

This case illustrates how ATRenew used digital technology to create a transaction and service platform for second-hand 3C products. ATRenew was established to " Give a second life to all idle goods. It focused initially on consumer electronics recycling (evidenced by its launch of the Aihuishou C2B platform in 2011) before venturing into the B2B business in 2017 via PJT Marketplace (a platform that aims to connect second-hand buyers and sellers) and the B2C business in 2019 by merging with Paipai, JD.com's re-commerce arm. When combining the C2B, B2B, and B2C business into one integrated platform, the company developed standard quality inspection processes, a rating system for recycled products (including mobile phones and other 3C products), as well as a C2B and B2B pricing models that considered ratings, and built operations centers and a supply chain to best serve its entire business ecosystem. These efforts also empowered its partners to get the most out of second-hand items. However, as the company grew, leading one-stop re-commerce platforms, typically highly trafficked, broke into the second-hand 3C business to divide up the pie. In May 2022, the company's management revisited the trade-off between the advantages of competing within existing market space and the advantages of developing new business for the company to achieve lasting success.

Nickel, a French fintech established in 2014, aimed to provide accessible banking services to underserved populations. Their innovative 'bank in a box' concept, requiring only an ID, a mobile phone, and €20, was distributed through local tobacco stores in France, which are an integral part of French daily life. In under five minutes, customers could acquire an International Bank Account Number and a ready-to-use Mastercard debit card. Did any bank go out of business or downsize because of Nickel? No. Instead, Nickel opened a nondisruptive new market beyond the bounds of the traditional banking industry. With it, the once financially excluded won, Nickel won, the tobacco stores won, and importantly, no one was made worse off. Nondisruptive creation is a term coined by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in their books Beyond Disruption (2023) and Blue Ocean Shift (2017) to describe the approach of creating new markets without disrupting existing industries. Nickel's success led to its acquisition by BNP Paribas in 2017 for over €200 million. But beyond financial success, Nickel's nondisruptive creation also had a profound social impact, offering cost-effective access to basic banking services and empowering marginalized individuals. In 2023, the company still thrives, serving 3 million clients and expanding across Europe.

In May 2022, Praneet Agarwal, Shashank Patidar and Shaurya Joshi-founders of WeSkill, a live, online "extracurricular" learning platform for children below the age of 14 years-were contemplating ways to sustain their business going forward. The venture, which had been launched in September 2020 when the entire world was fighting COVID-19, had traversed multiple twists and turns. The team had worked hard and enjoyed some success during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic waned, challenges began to mount. The case documents multiple issues that arise when creating a platform start-up and sustaining it over a long period. It also examines why start-ups that experience initial success may not sustain operations as time progresses.

Established in 2003 with 120 volunteers, Food from the Heart (FFTH) is a Singapore-based charity organisation founded to alleviate hunger by providing reliable, consistent, and sustainable food support to the less fortunate through food distribution programmes. FFTH's digital transformation journey began in the middle of 2018 and it went through an overhaul in 2019. Among several digitalisation projects rolling out in early 2020, one was about distributing beneficiary cards with a Quick Response (QR) code to its beneficiaries. Having no direct access to beneficiaries and needing to rely on its community partners, the beneficiary card could be a game-changer for FFTH, yet implementing these cards through its community partners would be a challenge. The case requires students to analyse the managerial capabilities of a charity organisation and discuss how change management and change leadership could digitally transform an organisation. At the end of the discussion, students will recommend a stakeholder management strategy for FFTH to continue its digitalisation initiatives with its community partners.