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When Etsy proceeded with an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2015, it was the second U.S. company to go public as a certified B Corporation. Etsy's status as a B Corporation meant that social responsibility was ingrained in its mission. However, as an online marketplace for artisanal goods, Etsy faced a number of challenges. Principal among them was the launch of the new online store "Handmade" at Amazon, a direct attack on Etsy. Etsy had a core base of merchants and buyers, but Amazon had significantly more as well as a higher level of financial security than Etsy. Etsy's fast growth had also put pressure on its merchants' ability to offer larger quantities of handmade goods. Many merchants were pressing the company to allow sales from large-scale manufacturing, a path the company had eschewed since its start. Could Etsy find a way to successfully confront these challenges while maintaining its B Corporation ethos?

In February 2016, Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive officer, challenged a U.S. Federal Court order for Apple to assist the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a case involving suspected international terrorism. The government wanted Apple to provide the FBI with access to encrypted data on an Apple product, the iPhone. Cook's refusal to acquiesce to the government's demands drew strong public debate, pitting the proponents of national security against those in favour of customers' digital privacy and security. The case invoked an ethical dilemma faced by management in issues involving right-versus-right decisions. Which right should Cook choose? What are the ethical dilemmas involved in making this decision? How should Cook resolve the dilemma?

Student spreadsheet for case UV7138.

In December 2015, Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, celebrates the world premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens - only the latest in a string of big bets that he has overseen. Disney pursues a 'tentpole strategy' that revolves around at least eight big-budget movies each year -- most from its acquired labels Pixar, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm. In fact, Disney produces nearly twice as many tentpole movies as any other major Hollywood film studio, but fewer movies overall than all but one of its rivals. Box-office failures can be extremely costly, since Disney (unlike its rivals) chooses not to enlist the help of financing partners. Is Disney Studios pursuing the right number of tentpoles as well as the right mix of new versus existing properties, under the right financing structure? And will the tentpole strategy pay off-in the short and long run?

In late 2014, Diamond Developers was building Dubai's first large sustainable city, which was a mixed-use community designed to set new standards in environmental sustainability in the Middle East and beyond. As the project neared completion, the company's co-founders needed to decide how to measure the development's sustainability performance. Existing sustainability rating schemes had faced heavy criticism and were not easily applicable in Dubai's desert climate. The co-founders therefore needed to determine whether the company should adapt one of the existing measurement systems or design its own sustainability performance measures. Regardless of the measurement system the company chose, the co-founders needed to decide how to define, measure, and manage sustainability as part of a unique real estate development project.

As of April 2012, TerraCycle had witnessed exponential growth over the past few years due to its unique value proposition of creating a line of consumer products out of trash. With continued global expansion, the firm's biggest challenge was how to move forward while staying true to its mission to eliminate as much waste as possible from landfills, make fun products that consumers liked, and turn a profit. Operationally, TerraCycle was losing money on every domestically manufactured product and was regularly late on delivering its shipments to a major retail customer. All signs indicated that the company should move some of its manufacturing to an offshore location; however, TerraCycle had built its reputation on its strict adherence to the principles of sustainability, and such a move could cause a significant public-relations problem. There was little time to act, as orders from Walmart and Target were piling up. Should the CEO move some of TerraCycle's production to China?

Project Teams: A Structured Development Approach is a seven-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Vittal S. Anantatmula, professor at the College of Business at Western Carolina University. The author provides a model of successful teams, examining a key aspect of the model in each chapter. He explores how the development, process, and management of teams works. He compares traditional teams with virtual global teams. He considers the attributes of productive team members and suggests traits of high-performance teams. Each chapter begins with objectives and a preview of concepts covered. Each chapter contains discussion questions. In Chapter 1, Significance of Teams (18 pages), the author examines the key elements of teams. He considers the nature of groups, defines the characteristics of teams, and lists six types of teams: project, production, service, action/performing, management, and parallel. He differentiates between groups and teams, including a formal structure, timeframe, and common goal. He explores project teams, their elements, and their importance. He presents a model of efficacy and outlines approaches to successful teams, such as defining roles, creating cohesiveness, and providing regular updates.

Project Teams: A Structured Development Approach is a seven-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Vittal S. Anantatmula, professor at the College of Business at Western Carolina University. The author provides a model of successful teams, examining a key aspect of the model in each chapter. He explores how the development, process, and management of teams works. He compares traditional teams with virtual global teams. He considers the attributes of productive team members and suggests traits of high-performance teams. Each chapter begins with objectives and a preview of concepts covered. Each chapter contains discussion questions. Chapter 2, Development of Project Teams (25 pages), describes two approaches to team motivation: task-related, focusing on the project's purpose, and people-related, focusing on creating a cohesive team. The author discusses the characteristics of each approach and explores how a team's structure affects the team's success. He categorizes structure into functional, projectized, and matrix, and presents advantages and disadvantages for each. He considers team members and the impact of social, behavioral, and cultural issues, especially on communication. He reviews basic information on generational groups, like veterans and Generation X, and considers how these groups work together in teams.

Project Teams: A Structured Development Approach is a seven-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Vittal S. Anantatmula, professor at the College of Business at Western Carolina University. The author provides a model of successful teams, examining a key aspect of the model in each chapter. He explores how the development, process, and management of teams works. He compares traditional teams with virtual global teams. He considers the attributes of productive team members and suggests traits of high-performance teams. Each chapter begins with objectives and a preview of concepts covered. Each chapter contains discussion questions. In Chapter 3, Project Team Processes (25 pages), the author explores how teams operate. He presents two models of team development. He differentiates between management and leadership, and outlines how to develop each. He lists factors that support team performance and ways leaders can support the team. He describes these factors as a process of causals, means, and effects. He emphasizes how communication can reduce uncertainty and provides a model for supportive communications. He shares insight on communicating with senior executives. He also looks at how technology can support and enable communication.

Project Teams: A Structured Development Approach is a seven-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Vittal S. Anantatmula, professor at the College of Business at Western Carolina University. The author provides a model of successful teams, examining a key aspect of the model in each chapter. He explores how the development, process, and management of teams works. He compares traditional teams with virtual global teams. He considers the attributes of productive team members and suggests traits of high-performance teams. Each chapter begins with objectives and a preview of concepts covered. Each chapter contains discussion questions. In Chapter 4, Managing Project Teams (31 pages), the author reviews concepts in team leadership. He considers the power culture and team decision-making. He describes the task, socioemotional, and destructive roles of team members and how each affects delegation. He reviews influences on decision-making and proposes a six-step process from gathering information to monitoring results. He examines team conflict and ways to resolve it. He also reviews negotiations. He discusses the drivers of team motivation and links team behavior to stages of team development. He reviews the relationship between project success and the team manager's skill sets and attitudes. The chapter ends by comparing leadership and management.

Project Teams: A Structured Development Approach is a seven-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Vittal S. Anantatmula, professor at the College of Business at Western Carolina University. The author provides a model of successful teams, examining a key aspect of the model in each chapter. He explores how the development, process, and management of teams works. He compares traditional teams with virtual global teams. He considers the attributes of productive team members and suggests traits of high-performance teams. Each chapter begins with objectives and a preview of concepts covered. Each chapter contains discussion questions. Chapter 5, Productive Global Project Teams (23 pages), explores virtual global teams. The author explains the risks of such teams, including challenges such as diversity, lack of informal communication, and conflict management. He explores how the global nature of the team affects the project structure. He also highlights potential obstacles for knowledge sharing in a global team setting. He outlines success factors for global teams, such as communications, culture, and leadership. He summarizes the relationship between culture and leadership in a Global Project Success Model. The chapter ends by comparing elements of success for traditional and virtual teams.

Project Teams: A Structured Development Approach is a seven-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Vittal S. Anantatmula, professor at the College of Business at Western Carolina University. The author provides a model of successful teams, examining a key aspect of the model in each chapter. He explores how the development, process, and management of teams works. He compares traditional teams with virtual global teams. He considers the attributes of productive team members and suggests traits of high-performance teams. Each chapter begins with objectives and a preview of concepts covered. Each chapter contains discussion questions. Chapter 6, High Performing Project Teams (25 pages), focuses on the experience of team members. The author explains how organizational structure develops, and suggests the organization will affect the team's hierarchy and operation. He outlines project, proposal, and portfolio teams, and lists success measures for each. He explains that success depends on the team's dedication, unity, spirit, harmony, and trust. He recommends that a team create a charter to define their systems and expectations. He presents how to create environments to help teams succeed. He mentions considerations for technology in teams and briefly explores issues of team maturity.

Project Teams: A Structured Development Approach is a seven-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2016 and written by Vittal S. Anantatmula, professor at the College of Business at Western Carolina University. The author provides a model of successful teams, examining a key aspect of the model in each chapter. He explores how the development, process, and management of teams works. He compares traditional teams with virtual global teams. He considers the attributes of productive team members and suggests traits of high-performance teams. Each chapter begins with objectives and a preview of concepts covered. Each chapter contains discussion questions. In Chapter 7, Sustaining Effectiveness of Project Teams (4 pages), the author reviews concepts in team structure, development, and management. He suggests how organizational structure and culture affect a team's structure. He argues that an organization must support teamwork to have effective teams. He emphasizes that team management and leadership need to handle conflicts and obstacles, as well as guide team members. He identifies unique challenges for global teams. He suggests that teams use a charter to outline goals, practices, expectations, and metrics. He also reviews the success factors for the project, the project team, and the organization.

Dr. Juan Caicedo was educated in general medicine and surgery at Universidad Nacional de Colombia and practiced transplant medicine in Bogota. He determined that he would need to go to the United States to advance his training, and ultimately was awarded a fellowship in transplant surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. During his three years as a fellow, Caicedo was struck by the number of Hispanic patients on the kidney transplant waiting list. Not only were Hispanics the highest growth group on the transplant waiting list, they also waited longer for transplants and died while waiting at higher rates than non-Hispanic whites or African-Americans. Caicedo also was alarmed by Hispanic patients' lower utilization of living donors for transplantation-they were underrepresented not only as live donor transplant patients, but also as donors. As he neared the end of his fellowship in 2006, Caicedo wondered if the Hispanic population encountered unique barriers to transplantation and living donor usage, and began to think about creating a program to address these barriers.

Launched in 2012, Grab began in Malaysia as a third-party e-hailing taxi dispatching mobile application. The company expanded at a remarkable speed and by 2015, the app had been downloaded more than 4.4 million times, averaging seven bookings per second. A year later the app had over 13 million downloads, serving 30 cities across six countries in Southeast Asia. The app's functionality too had expanded to include an array of locally suited transportation booking options beyond just taxi services, such as car-pooling, ride-sharing, private vehicle hire and more. Valued at about US$1.5 billion in 2016, Grab was one of Asia's most successful start-ups. The company's business model was aligned with its social mission to improve the safety and accessibility of transportation, along with improving the lives of its passengers, drivers and the community. End-users benefited through improved transportation options, where safety, certainty and speed were guiding principles of the company. However, long-term success was far from guaranteed. Technological and social change was always afoot. The sharing economy, of which Grab was a part, was hyper-local, social and mobile - and above all - extremely competitive. Uber, its main rival, was a larger, technologically savvy global player offering nearly identical services in the region. However, Grab's local roots could prove to be a competitive advantage in navigating Southeast Asia's many complicated and highly fragmented markets, which faced significant regulatory uncertainty in the on-demand transportation industry.

Netflix adopted an aggressive growth strategy to establish itself as a global force in the video streaming industry. To solidify its position as an industry leader, Netflix invested heavily in the production of in-house content. In January 2016, to deal with slow growth in the domestic market, the company announced an aggressive expansion of its services into a total of 190 countries, thereby giving Netflix coverage over nearly the entire world. International expansion did not come without its challenges. Netflix faced regulatory compliance issues in its targeted markets, competition with domestic competitors, and the need to satisfy local preferences. Was the enormous cost of such an aggressive expansion strategy the right direction for the company?

An entrepreneur contemplated the future of her business that had evolved from a one-woman show to a team of more than 20 highly skilled and specialized coaches from around the world, including some former Cirque du Soleil performers. As chief executive officer and owner, she had taken a community-based gymnastics program and grown it into Flip Factory Inc., a company offering alternative gymnastics activities such as circus-arts and parkour. Its market was customers who wanted experiences outside of traditional competitive gymnastics. She had achieved success in building her company and, despite steep costs and meagre profits, sought further growth. Her coaches were restless to offer a broader range of programs to match their skills. Her facility was at capacity,but, with two years remaining on her lease, she was torn between renting a second location and/or building her own. Could she franchise out her programs to grow the company?

Despite the existence of large social networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, co-founders Jeff Tangney and Dr. Nate Gross believed there was a unique opportunity to create a social network specifically targeted at physicians. The two envisioned a social network that would enable doctors to find any doctor in the United States, regardless of whether they had signed up for Doximity. By combining hundreds of medical databases and journals onto a single platform, Doximity would immediately contain information on nearly every U.S. physician, including their medical school, specialty, location, phone number, fax number, and associated journal articles. In addition to locating doctors, Doximity would allow for HIPAA secure messaging between any doctors in the United States. Finally, Doximity would provide custom-curated news and research, personalized to the clinical interests on their Doximity profiles. Doctors within any geography or specialty would receive the most up-to-date and relevant information without having to read through dozens of journal articles. Tangney and Gross's vision proved wildly successful; in just two years, Doximity became one of the largest networks for U.S. healthcare professionals, with approximately 10 percent of U.S. doctors as members. By the beginning of 2014, 40 percent of U.S. physicians had signed onto Doximity's platform. "Doximity: Financing a Social Network for Physicians" examines how Tangney and Gross raised capital for their rapidly growing healthcare start-up.

In early 2011, José Manuel Villanueva and Lucas Carné, founders of Privalia, an online fashion discount store, were about to submit to the Board of Directors a strategic plan that could mark the beginning of a new phase in the company's growth. Since its inception in 2006, Privalia had grown at a fast pace: three years later, it was already profitable in Spain and expanded into Italy, Brazil and Mexico. By 2010, it had secured market leadership in every country where it operated. However, the competition grew just as fast, and the experience acquired over recent years indicated that speed and market size proved key in online fashion sales. Privalia already operated in Spain and Italy, but, if it really wanted to become a relevant player in Europe, the company needed to move into the topmost markets like Germany, France or the United Kingdom. Villanueva and Carné decided to strengthen Privalia's international expansion by venturing into the German market. Thus far, Privalia's international growth had unfolded organically, via the creation of affiliates in the countries where it had moved into (Italy, Brazil and Mexico). Now, in order to enter the German market, should Privalia set up a subsidiary or should it acquire Dress-for-Less that was up and running in a leading local market position? Villanueva and Carné did not have much time. A board meeting had been scheduled to make a final decision. They needed to design a clear growth strategy, evaluate their options and prepare an entry proposal for Germany.

In early 2011, José Manuel Villanueva and Lucas Carné, founders of Privalia, an online fashion discount store, were about to submit to the Board of Directors a strategic plan that could mark the beginning of a new phase in the company's growth. Since its inception in 2006, Privalia had grown at a fast pace: three years later, it was already profitable in Spain and expanded into Italy, Brazil and Mexico. By 2010, it had secured market leadership in every country where it operated. However, the competition grew just as fast, and the experience acquired over recent years indicated that speed and market size proved key in online fashion sales. Privalia already operated in Spain and Italy, but, if it really wanted to become a relevant player in Europe, the company needed to move into the topmost markets like Germany, France or the United Kingdom. Villanueva and Carné decided to strengthen Privalia's international expansion by venturing into the German market. Thus far, Privalia's international growth had unfolded organically, via the creation of affiliates in the countries where it had moved into (Italy, Brazil and Mexico). Now, in order to enter the German market, should Privalia set up a subsidiary or should it acquire Dress-for-Less that was up and running in a leading local market position? Villanueva and Carné did not have much time. A board meeting had been scheduled to make a final decision. They needed to design a clear growth strategy, evaluate their options and prepare an entry proposal for Germany.