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The so-called "infrastructure finance gap" was a problem in Nigeria as in many parts of the world. Infrastructure projects like power plants and dams were very large capital investments that could generate long term consistent cash flows, but their financing and delivery involved multiple risks and uncertainties. If funds for infrastructure development came from traditional international sources like the World Bank or African Development Bank, those lenders would worry about foreign exchange, interest rates, and political risk and would almost always seek sovereign guarantees (payment guarantees from the federal government). Such assurances and guarantees were hard to come by, difficult to negotiate, and project inception could take decades. In this context could pension funds or private equity-type structures be viable alternative sources of financing for infrastructure? By 2017 Nigeria had reformed its pension administration system so that pension funds could both accept significant amounts of retirement funds from workers and, manage and invest those funds in a transparent and safe structure. One of the asset classes in addition to government bonds, equities, and corporate bonds that was authorized for investment by pension funds was infrastructure debt securities. Until recently, few Nigerian infrastructure securities had strong enough credit ratings to be investable by cautious pension funds. Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) hoped to break that logjam by supporting infrastructure issues denominated in local currency with credit assurances taking the place of sovereign guarantees. Other entities took different approaches to raising capital for infrastructure in this market. Africa Plus Partners (Africa Plus), for example, proposed a fund structure with features of American private equity. It was not yet clear if this type of fund arrangement would be as attractive as debt for pension fund investors.

The experience of being an entrepreneur was a childhood dream for Falguni Nayar. The opportunity to build Nykaa.com, a woman centered business, with a multi brand retail format in the beauty and wellness space , and the fact that she was doing it with her daughter Adwaita ( HBS MBA 2013) made it both exciting and meaningful. Still, she was the founder and with that came control over the most important decisions. While she sought advice from many people, Nykaa, like Adwaita, was her baby. How should she structure the organization and the team to best deliver the results she wanted?

The case describes how 30-year old Freddy Macnamara (CEO) launched Cuvva, a start-up in the UK car insurance industry in 2014, which pioneered mobile-only car insurance via a pay-as-you-ride application. Initially targeted at drivers who wanted to drive someone else's car (Cuvva for Sharers), it then developed mobile-only insurance for owners willing to buy insurance only for the rare occasions that they used their cars (Cuvva for Owners). As the Cuvva model gains traction with customers, its impact is tracked by incumbents such as Admiral, that begin developing rival products. The case chronicles Cuvva's origins, milestones, and competitors in the UK car insurance industry up to early 2017, as well as explaining the economics of car insurance.

The case discusses different steps which Mastercard has followed in its digital transformation journey. They involve opportunity framing, creating innovation pathways, finding digital transformation opportunities, and innovation with partners within adaptive ecosystems. With the objective to stop competing with other payment processing firms (like Visa or Amex) and start competing with cash, Mastercard has moved from an undifferentiated processor of payments to a builder of unique technological platforms.

The case presents the "leapfrogging" opportunities for Latin America brought by the digital revolution and innovation. It examines the region's economic and commercial achievements made possible by the huge penetration of mobile vs fixed broadband. In addition, digital transformation is helping to address social issues such as financial exclusion, unemployment and healthcare. Also, by improving transparency in the system, digital has the potential to reduce corruption, one of the biggest obstacles to doing business in Latin America.

The U.S. Intellectual Property (IP) Ecosystem is one of the most robust and dynamic in the world -- and has been for centuries. The bedrock of this system is the "patent," a legal document that allows its holder exclusive commercialization rights of a part of the "idea space" granted through the patent. Strong legal protection of IP has made the U.S. a destination of great thinkers and innovators worldwide in order to enjoy this legal protection of their valuable insights. A new threat, however, looms. The same legal system that has protected IP has been used to create an organizational form known as a "Patent Troll." Patent Trolls amass patents for the sake of opportunistically extracting rents from firms producing and commercializing products. In this Industry Note, we describe the origin, evolution, costs, benefits, and future outlook for Patent Trolling in the United States.

Brand valuation, the art and science of calculating the economic value accruing to a firm from its use on an intangible brand asset, yields frustratingly inconsistent, discrepant, and therefore, controversial results. While it is widely accepted that brands are long-lived assets that can contribute significant value to firms over time, there is no consensus on how to value them. This note outlines several different methods for valuing brands and exposes readers to the commercial methods most used by firms. It discusses the opportunities associated with valuing brands as well as the challenges.

This data set is a supplement to the People Analytics at Teach For America (A) case.

As of mid-2016, national nonprofit Teach For America (TFA) had struggled with three consecutive years of declining application totals, and senior management was re-examining the organization's strategy, including recruitment and selection. A few months earlier, former TFA corps member Michael Metzger had spearheaded the launch of a predictive analytics team responsible for integrating strategy across TFA's recruitment and admissions continuum. Metzger believed that predictive analytics could help address TFA's recruitment and admissions challenges. Now, TFA's senior management wanted Metzger and his team to put their data models to the test. From a data modeling standpoint, what variables and models should TFA consider as it began a new recruitment season, and more generally, how heavily should TFA rely on predictive models to reverse the negative trends?

EmQuest, Emirates Group's travel distribution company, must decide what to do with its contract with the global distribution system it uses, Sabre. Since its founding in 1988, EmQuest was servicing travel agents in the MENA region by providing a connection to over 400 airlines as well as numerous other travel suppliers. EmQuest mainly relied on Sabre to provide this service to the agents, and its contract was coming to an end. In the last ten years, since the beginning of EmQuest's Sabre contract, while EmQuest grew, a lot happened in the travel industry: the Internet transformed customer habits, low-cost carriers emerged, and the Middle East experienced a boom in tourism. The conditions under which EmQuest had first signed its contract with Sabre a decade before were much different in 2017. With change happening so rapidly and impacting the fundamentals of the travel business model so dramatically, it was a real challenge to predict where the industry would be in the next decade. Yet the management needed to make a decision regarding the Sabre contract in 2017, amidst such a whirlwind in the market.

Melody McCloskey, founder and CEO of StyleSeat, discusses the earliest stages of her hair-appointment booking platform, from bootstrapping to fundraising, from a potential business model pivot to potential obstacles in the future.

By 2016, Birks Group Inc. (Birks) had largely recovered from the 2008 financial crisis and was posting profits again. Birks was a high-end designer and manufacturer of Birks-branded jewellery and a mono-brand and multi-brand retailer of luxury jewellery and watches. It operated 29 retail outlets across Canada under its Maison Birks and Brinkhaus banners and 17 stores in two U.S. states (Florida and Georgia) under the Mayors banner. After restructuring the company and rehabilitating the brand, Birks's experienced chief executive officer wondered how to take the iconic Canadian company further in a rapidly changing market. He had to decide what balance Birks should strike in pushing the brand in different markets: Canada, existing U.S. markets, new U.S. markets, and international markets. Although the luxury jewellery industry had not performed well in the digital marketplace to date, he was eager to investigate Birks's e-commerce options as well. What were the best ways to grow Birks and optimize resources and effort?

Nest Wealth Asset Management Inc. (Nest) was a new Canadian robo-adviser based in Toronto. The company competed not only against large incumbents such as Canadian banks but also against other financial technology start-ups. In April 2015, Nest's main competitor had just aligned with a significant partner that had abundant financial resources and broad market access. Nest's chief executive officer needed to consider the best option for the company's future: Should he maintain the current business-to-consumer model by maintaining a focus on scaling and expanding Nest's consumer base, or should he explore a business-to-business model by leveraging Nest's technological capability and offering technology to human advisers?

In the lead-up to the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, the coach of the Canadian men's volleyball team needed to make a final decision about the team's composition. Although the core eight players had already been selected, the difficult decisions involved choosing the supporting cast of four players from a list of seven players being considered. His decision would directly impact the team's performance at the Olympics but would also leave an imprint on the men's volleyball program, and would change the lives of the athletes. How could the coach ensure he made the most appropriate selection decision?

In 2015 Root Capital, a pioneer in the impact investing space, began to explore how to more systematically integrate impact and financial management. After much deliberation, Root Capital landed on ex-ante rating system for any potential investment which produced a proprietary expected impact. With this tool in place, Root Capital had an integrated picture of impact and financial performance for a loan, and across its portfolio. The next question Root capital faced was how to use this tool to optimize impact and financial performance going forward. This case was designed to be taught alongside Root Capital's Efficient Impact Frontier Simulation exercise.

Established in 2010, the endurance event start-up Tough Mudder experienced rapid international expansion in the years following the company's inception. By 2013, the company had developed a cult-like following and an extremely powerful brand. However, near the end of 2013, Tough Mudder's growth began to slow. Eager to turn the tide, founder Will Dean wondered what steps he could take to reinvigorate the company. "Tough Mudder: Scaling Dynamics after Early Traction" explores the challenges that a start-up inevitably faces once its initial momentum begins to slow.