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Rohit Gupta, the oldest third generation member of a family business, has to decide whether to continue working for the business, towards which he has a strong sense of loyalty and responsibility, or follow his dreams and venture out on his own. Both alternatives have strong positive and negative implications. Rohit jointly headed the Western India unit of his family business, Ketan Logistics Limited (KLL). His grandfather had set up KLL, a logistics provider, in 1986. Over the years, the company expanded its fleet, acquired a license to operate freight trains, and diversified into ocean freight services and the transportation of large industrial equipment and food products. By 2014, it had become an integrated, multimodal logistics provider to business customers. KLL's operations were divided into four geographic zones, each headed by one of the second generation family members, i.e., Rohit's father and uncles. KLL took several measures to professionalize operations, such as deploying enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, adopting a code of conduct and organizing employee training and workshops. After graduating from college, all the third generation members of the family, except one, joined KLL. Some of them, like Rohit, had high aspirations and wanted to make changes at KLL, but their attempts invariably met with strong resistance. This led to frustration among some next generation members who had considered venturing out on their own at different points in time. Rohit also had a business idea, which he shared with his old friend Amit Goyal who also belonged to a business family. Goyal liked the idea instantly and offered to invest in the new venture. Rohit was emotionally attached to his father and other family members and did not want KLL to suffer as a result of his exit. He also had to consider his own hopes and future. He would not easily get an opportunity again to launch his own venture. Rohit was facing a tough decision dilemma.

It was 18 February 2016 and Loo Wee Ling, Practice Associate Professor of Law at Singapore Management University, had just received a communication about a case of cheating in the School of Law where she taught. GK, a 32-year-old Russian national, was mid-way through his final year of the Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) programme at SMU, when he embarked on a course of action that resulted in his being convicted of two offences under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act and sentenced to two months' incarceration in a Singapore prison. Worried about not qualifying for legal practice in Singapore, he had tried to save his grades by hacking into the learning management system of a law module using his law professor's userid and password which he had obtained by stealth using a USB keylogger plugged into the common computer in the classroom. His fear of doing badly in the final examinations of the Law of Property module led him to delete the online answer scripts of all his course-mates in the hope of being able to retake the examination. This proved to be his undoing as discovery of the deleted scripts led to investigations that traced the hacking back to him. GK committed crimes which led to dire consequences for himself. Loo was interested to have her students analyse, from an ethical perspective, what exactly is wrong with GK's actions?

Planning and Organizing Business Reports: Written, Oral, and Research-Based is a three-chapter book written by Dorinda Clippinger, a consultant, writer, and former lecturer in management at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. Her book is intended for managers and MBA students and gives guidance on planning, writing, and delivering effective reports. In Chapter 1, Clippinger defines business reports as organized, objective presentations of observations, experiences, or facts and emphasizes that they are intended to provide information for effective decisions at all levels of an organization. She discusses how to go about preparing reports for people for whom English is a second language and provides guidelines for ethical reporting.

Planning and Organizing Business Reports: Written, Oral, and Research-Based is a three-chapter book written by Dorinda Clippinger, a consultant, writer, and former lecturer in management at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. Her book is intended for managers and MBA students and gives guidance on planning, writing, and delivering effective reports. In Chapter 2, Clippinger explains how to best plan, organize, and outline reports. She provides a checklist that you can follow as you draft a report. Planning involves reviewing your purpose, audience, and context and making sure the structure of the report matches these factors. Clippinger also provides guidance on collaborating with a team to create a written or oral report.

Planning and Organizing Business Reports: Written, Oral, and Research-Based is a three-chapter book written by Dorinda Clippinger, a consultant, writer, and former lecturer in management at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. Her book is intended for managers and MBA students and gives guidance on planning, writing, and delivering effective reports. In Chapter 3, Clippinger outlines how to plan and guide research. She provides a checklist for a research plan and then outlines how to draft a research or project proposal, which is intended to indicate your understanding of a problem and your ability to look into it in the way you propose.

The eHomemakers project was founded in 1998 to provide skills and employment for disadvantaged women in Malaysia. The women worked from home, weaving baskets out of recycled magazines from which they could generate income. This means of self-support was particularly beneficial to stay-at-home mothers and disabled women who were unable to work. By 2011, the enterprise was struggling for viability in Malaysia, which led the founder to consider crossing the border to Singapore to explore opportunities in that country to avoid having to give up on her social enterprise altogether.

Over its 30-year history, Onex Corporation, a Canadian investment firm, had derived much of its success from the private equity sector. It did so by acquiring attractive portfolio companies, adding value to them by improving their financial and operational performance, and then selling them several years later at an attractive return. However, given the market conditions in 2015, Onex Corporation faced difficulty in successfully acquiring target companies, which was further exacerbated by the large amounts of cash on its balance sheet. As a result, the firm was forced to actively seek growth in other sectors, primarily credit-oriented investment strategies. Given Onex Corporation's growth targets, the chief executive officer and his management team needed to reconsider the lines of business their company should be involved in. How could they effectively position the company's corporate structure, internal processes, and expertise to take advantage of credit-oriented investment strategies?

In 2014, the food and grocery industry in India experienced a surge in the online grocery market. Before that time, existing e-business players had largely avoided the online grocery market because of its complex logistics requirements and issues related to last-mile delivery, or reaching customers in remote areas. The rise of online grocery businesses raised concerns for brick-and-mortar stores, especially local kirana stores (corner stores), about becoming redundant in the future. With limited or no technology adoption, these kirana stores had no way of going online. Grofers came to the rescue of these local stores with a mobile commerce (m-commerce) model for groceries that promised on-demand delivery within 90 minutes. However, with very low margins in the grocery business compared to lifestyle products, in addition to last-mile delivery and returns complexities, it remained to be seen whether Grofers would be able to carve out a niche in the grocery industry with its innovative model. Considering the low entry barriers and the easily replicable business model, how viable and sustainable was an m-commerce business like Grofers?

EMMICO has just acquired one of its suppliers and is rapidly shedding employees as it goes about trying to integrate the companies and the supplier's legacy system. The organization has asked a Tauber Institute for Global Operations intern team to seek solutions to the operations problems facing the newly organized company. The team is tasked with increasing the company's economic value index by increasing inventory turns and eliminating an external warehouse. They have a tough road ahead.

Yoyo Wallet, a technology start-up headquartered in London, United Kingdom, developed a mobile application for smartphones to facilitate in-store payments and loyalty data collection. Inspired by the success of Starbucks' loyalty-integrated mobile application, Yoyo Wallet strove to become the ultimate tool for retailers in enhancing customer experience. The company planned to enter the mobile payment industry in the United States; however, Yoyo had to compete with existing wallets (like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Android Pay), navigate through the uncertainty of the industry's future, and adapt their strategy to the competitive environment in the United States.

On February 29, 2016, an investor, who was a business school graduate, purchased one share of Tesla Motors, Inc. stock for $191.93. In doing so, the investor wondered what trading strategy should be followed over the next six months to maximize returns while minimizing risk. In choosing a strategy, he wanted to make good use of the knowledge gained from his financial analytics classes. To that end, he did not know if he should choose a buy and hold, or a stop-loss strategy with an optimal stop-loss threshold. The investor wondered how he would make this decision. Would a six month comparison of the stop-loss strategy with thresholds from 1 per cent to 99 per cent versus the buy and hold strategy resolve his dilemma?

Student spreadsheet for case W16434.

This case study focuses on how Huawei had developed and used Huawei Innovation Research Program (HIRP) as its open innovation platform, showing how the company has changed its role from a research fund provider to a research collaborator, bringing mutual benefits to university-enterprise research collaborations. The case features the challenges of managing open innovation projects, such as looking for suitable external research partners, keeping the research projects on track, and evaluating research outcomes. It also shows how Huawei has tackled the problems common to open innovation projects, including the Not-Invented-Here syndrome, intellectual property protection, industry-university communication difficulties and research output evaluation.

A newly elected city council member is facing her first vote -- an appropriations measure to increase funding for the Scared Straight program. Juvenile crime is rising in the city, citizens are concerned and want the government to do something, and the police chief is promoting the Scared Straight Program as one part of the solution. But the council member learns from a colleague at the community college that research shows the Scared Straight Program has a negative effect on youth -- causing more crime among some. How should she vote? How could she explain the research to constituents who are concerned and afraid and want action?

The net neutrality debate had implications for Internet service providers, content providers, and end users. This note aims to inform the reader of the various sides of the debate where open issues remain, and what aspects an entrepreneur, investor, or content provider-either an existing player, or a new entrant-should be aware of. From a management perspective, net neutrality rules could have major consequences on the business models of content providers, ISPs, and other businesses that depend on the transfer of data across the Internet.

In November and December of 2013, Target Corporation suffered one of the largest cyber breaches till date. The breach that occurred during the busy holiday shopping season resulted in personal and credit card information of about 110 million Target customers to be compromised. The case describes the details of the breach, circumstances that led to it, consequences for customers and for Target, and the company's response. The case then discusses the role of management and the board of directors in cyber security at Target. Target's board of directors was subject to intense criticism by shareholders and governance experts such as the leading proxy advisor Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). The case discusses the critique and defense of the board's role. The case is designed to allow for a discussion of the causes and consequences of the cyber breach and accountability of directors in cyber security.

In November 2014, The Dow Chemical Company was faced with the prospect of a proxy battle with prominent hedge fund and activist investor Third Point Management. The activist had criticized Dow's recent performance and advocated that the company split itself to maximize its potential. The activist also proposed two director candidates to join Dow's board. Third Point offered its director nominees what had come to be known as a "golden leash" incentive structure - a significant amount of incentive payment from the investor if the company performed well. Supporters and critics had weighed in on the pros and cons of such incentive schemes for corporate independent directors. Faced with the prospect of a proxy fight, Dow's board had to decide whether to invite the two directors on to the company's board knowing they came with the special payment scheme from the hedge fund.

Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun was on a fast track until the EC's antitrust concerns about open-source MySQL ignited a transatlantic war of words delaying the deal. Sun's performance suffered and its customers were approached by competitors while regulatory objections were debated and tensions rose between U.S. and EC regulators.

The chief financial officer (CFO) of Buck Auto Care Products (Buck's), a Toronto-based manufacturer and distributor of premium car care products, had to prepare for a meeting with the company's vice-president (VP) of sales and the VP of manufacturing. The staff had heard rumours that the company was for sale, but no one had received any confirmation until now. The company was founded in 1975 as a chain of car-wash stands in Toronto and Mississauga, and in order to supplement the chain's income, Buck's created a line of complementary automotive care products, which eventually became the sole focus of the business. A competitor was interested in buying the company. As the CFO prepared a response to the competitor's offer, she thought about the various issues she had to consider before coming up with a valuation.