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Founded in May 2008 in India, Indus OS (previously known as Firstouch) understood the latent language needs of 90 per cent of Indian consumers, a need that prevented users from switching from their basic-feature phones to smartphones. Through incremental innovation of the open Android system, Indus OS launched the world's first smartphone operating system that had the ability to function in 12 of India's regional languages. Through strategic partnerships formed in 2015 with some of the leading smartphone manufacturers in India, by May 2016 Indus OS had become the second most popular operating system in the Indian market, following Google's Android and leading Apple's iOS. Moreover, Indus OS had firm strategic growth plans, not only for India but also for international markets like China and Bangladesh. The remaining critical issue was whether Indus OS could sustain its advantage over rivals or whether it was likely to be acquired by a large multinational corporation, a fate common to other successful start-ups in India.

In July 2014, the president and co-owner of Sunshine Fresh Inc. (Sunshine), a food service manufacturing company in Totowa, New Jersey, needed to make a decision about the best location for the company's new West Coast expansion. Sunshine had built a strong reputation on the U.S. East Coast for high-quality refrigerated kosher pickles. Among Sunshine's most valued clients were several casinos located in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. Recently, a food purchaser for one these casinos casually mentioned to Sunshine's vice-president that his casino's customers in Las Vegas would love to have Sunshine's pickles too. This brief exchange led to an expansion plan that required Sunshine to choose a location for its West Coast operation. The company's managers had visited several cities in the Western United States to explore their options, and had carefully weighed the pros and cons of the two main contenders-Los Angeles, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada-against five essential criteria. Now, they needed a firm decision: Which metropolitan area was the best location for Sunshine's new pickle plant?

In 2013, Street League Skateboarding, a professional skateboarding league founded in 2010, just concluded its annual Street League World Tour. The growing action sports property had purchased time on ESPN2 to air its events, and though ESPN was the most-watched sports television network in the U.S., Street League President Brian Atlas had become impatient with the network's lack of support. Atlas planned to meet with network representatives in the coming months to discuss their 2014 contract, but was recently approached by FOX Sports, which had just launched the new FOX Sports 1 cable television network and was working to sign sports properties. Atlas considered Street League's relationship with ESPN, the league's finances, and attempts to raise capital. For a new action sports property such as Street League, what business model made the most sense?

In 2013, Rio de Janeiro's main international airport, Galeão, was set to be privatized through a 25-year term concession. The Brazilian government set a minimum bid value of $4.8 billion for the airport. Five consortia submitted bids, surpassing the minimum bid value by at least 36 percent. The winning consortium of Singapore's Changi Airport and the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht surprised everyone by offering to pay R$19 billion, almost four times the minimum bid. The case lays out the assumptions used in arriving at the minimum bid value and discusses where the additional value might be coming from. Case number 2097.0

Focused ultrasound (FUS) technology is an early stage, noninvasive therapeutic technology with the potential to transform the treatment of many medical disorders by using ultrasonic energy to target tissue deep in the body without incisions or radiation. The technology had the potential to improve outcomes and decrease costs by serving as an alternative or complement to surgery, radiation therapy, drug delivery, and immunotherapy.

The case begins with Ed Bastian, Delta's CEO, reflecting on his one-year anniversary. Ed took over at Delta following its successful recovery from the 2008 "great recession" and then experienced multiple challenges, including: pilots demanding and receiving increased pay and multiple instances where thousands of flights were cancelled due to information technology issues. Delta Air Lines also faces a shift toward a more diverse population in the United States, and increased competition from rapidly expanding airlines from the Middle East such as Etihad Airways, Emirates, and Qatar Airways. More recently, European ultra-low cost carriers such as Norwegian Air Shuttle or Iceland's WOW have entered selected transatlantic routes, connecting the U.S. East Coast to Europe. Historically, Delta had focused more on activities associated with aircraft operations and maintenance, and customer service. However, Delta Air Lines' recent problems suggest a need to focus on Delta's technology infrastructure and human resource management. In considering everything going on internally at Delta and in its industry, CEO Bastian wonders-what other challenges have been overlooked?

This case highlights the initial challenges faced by LG Display when they opened a TFT-LCD Module Plant in Wroclaw, a small city in southern Poland approximately 340 km away from Warsaw. The Polish plant was important for LGD because it offered significant cutbacks in distribution costs. Furthermore, the geographical adjacency to target markets gave LGD a head start compared with the main competitors. The company had positive return on investment expectations from this plant. Soon the company started facing low employee productivity and high employee turnover due to cultural clashes between Korean managers and Polish workers. The results were exactly opposite to the initial expectations and the dream of making the polish plant a workplace of joy was shattered. This case shows the pressure faced by Ji-Hyung Kim, LG Display's country director of Poland plant, to improve the working culture of the plant in the next one year as his reputation and promotion was at stake. This case talks about some of the ideas that were considered to increase the cultural sensitivity among the two groups of employees and increase the employee engagement at work based on the employee satisfaction and engagement survey results and exit interviews.

Mariam Naficy (Minted CEO) and Melissa Kim (Minted COO) have grown the company to become a leader in the online printed cards, independent design and art market segments. As the business has continued to scale they wrestle with simultaneously growing their existing business while also looking at expanding into new markets, all the while keeping their existing customer base engaged. The case highlights the difficult decisions management faces in deciding where to pursue growth opportunities when choices might be overly abundant while also focusing on the importance of profitability

Approximately 1.1 billion residents of India (99% of the population) had a unique biometric identity-Aadhaar-by 2017. In six years, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had achieved an unprecedented milestone in emerging and developed markets. The stated objective was to create a corruption-proof social security infrastructure that enables the disenfranchised to access benefits without any diversion to middlemen and unscrupulous elements. While initially voluntary, this scheme was made mandatory in 2017 by the GOI (Government of India). What are the positive and negative implications of this, specifically related to economic development of the majority and the privacy of the individual?

Pho Hoa is a traditional, family-owned Vietnamese restaurant in Dorchester, Massachusetts that opened in 1992. As he approached retirement in recent years, the founder-owner has scaled down his involvement in the day-to-day operations, leading to a number of operational and financial issues, including variable food quality and deficient wait staff service. The restaurant is about to transition from 1st to 2nd generation ownership, Tam Le, the son of the founder, realizes that major operational and financial changes are required to maintain the restaurant's long-term viability.

Two partners commence a rollup in the quick-service restaurant segment. They focus on operating improvements and spinning-off real estate.

This case was a runner-up in the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) 2017 case competition. Anna Pessah, process engineer at Summit Funding (Summit), a mortgage-loan-processing company, is reflecting back on her year at the company. Pessah had been hired to improve operations at the firm-to make the core operations cheaper, faster, and of a higher quality. She had addressed two key operations: loan closings and verifications of employment (VOE). Her next tasks involved improvements at the 28 branches and reaction to a corporate-wide improvement program entitled "Project Ninja." Pessah had implemented a system called "pods," similar to manufacturing cells, in order to address loan closings. Data is given for the student to analyze the implications of this approach and suggest alternatives. Data is also given for analyzing the VOE process and deriving an approach to the branch productivity problem. Finally, the Project Ninja memo is given, and students are asked to evaluate this initiative.

Student spreadsheet for cases UV7389 and UV7392.

For the last 50 years, the Economic Development Board (EDB) has been one of the key pillars of Singapore's economic success. The story of EDB's strategies through each period of Singapore's development is well documented. However, much less has been written about EDB the institution - the EDB strategy, leadership, culture, and mindset that allowed EDB to make the necessary shifts to innovate and create economic value for Singapore. This case study describes the development of EDB the institution, against the backdrop of Singapore's economic development.

Social media company Buffer wanted to establish clear company values early in its growth. One of these values was a commitment to transparency in its company practices. Buffer openly shared its business strategies and fundraising decks, among lots of other information. Even when they were hacked, the company live-blogged updates to keep their users informed as the situation unfolded. Having internally released each employee's salary and equity details with no pushback, the company now contemplated sharing compensation information transparently with the general public.

Buffer decided to release its salaries and compensation calculation formula to the public, and the public reaction was greater and more positive than they would have imagined. The company experienced both an increase in volume and a change in the kinds of inbound applications they received. As the company continued to grow, Buffer's senior leaders continued to revise the compensation formula based on feedback both internally and from the public. Particularly, they hoped to strengthen the link between pay and performance, which in the current version of the formula was incorporated using a loosely defined "experience level" component. However, defining clear performance metrics and experience levels was not an easy task.

In 2007, Jody Greenstone Miller founded Business Talent Group (BTG), a company that connected top independent professionals, including consultants and executives, with global companies for project-based work at a lower cost and with more precision than traditional consulting. From BTG's inception, Miller and cofounder Amelia Warren Tyagi believed that the way people work - and the way companies use talent - was changing for several reasons. High-end business professionals were growing weary of the commonly accepted notion that in order to succeed in one's career, it was necessary to work 60 to 80 hours per week. In addition, the increasing scope and complexity of business around the globe meant that firms were competing across multiple industries and geographies, with products and services launching at a faster pace than ever before. As such, companies demanded human capital with targeted skills and knowledge, as well as workers who could take on specific, time-sensitive projects. Moreover, improvements in technology, including the widespread use of e-mail, smartphones, cloud computing, and video conferencing, allowed individuals to work effectively from almost anywhere in the world. Given these trends, BTG's mission was "to bring together the world's top companies and independent professionals to enhance business performance and improve people's lives." Although BTG encountered some early resistance from companies that were skeptical about the idea - and quality - of independent talent, it did not take long for the BTG model to gain traction. Companies were increasingly convinced of the value proposition associated with utilizing high-end, independent business talent, and the market for independent professionals grew rapidly. Not surprisingly, this growth attracted an influx of new competition. "Business Talent Group: Growing the Market for Independent Business Talent" explores the challenges BTG faced as it pioneered the market for high-end business talent in

Rakesh Sarna, MD and CEO of the Indian Hotels Company ltd (IHCL) was faced with the challenge of leading and embedding changes in IHCL to turnaround its trajectory. IHCL and its subsidiaries, headquartered in India, were a venerable hotel chain, collectively known as Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, and colloquially referred to as Taj Hotels. Taj Hotels, revered across India for their values and renowned for their hospitality, had been plagued with performance challenges since Dec'08. It was August 2016, nearly two years since Sarna had been recruited from the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, with a mandate to revive the flagging fortunes of Taj Hotels. Having introduced a number of changes, Sarna reflects on progress made and next steps required.