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Thanks to its somewhat whimsical yet measurement-driven culture, its unusual customer-funded business model, and its committed community of winemakers and wine 'angels', NakedWines had grown rapidly, from a standing start in 2008 to a substantial presence in three of the world's most attractive markets for wine - the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States. Now, however, in September 2014, it was becoming clear that the company's long-time principal investor WIV was no longer able to fund Naked's future growth. Assembled in the Birthday Suit conference room in the company's office in Napa, California, were the key individuals who had brought the company to this juncture. Founder and CEO Rowan Gormley, co-founder and IT Head Derek Hardy, COO and American Managing Director Benoit Vialle, Australian CEO Luke Jecks, UK Managing Director Eamon Fitzgerald, Chief Financial Officer James Crawford, Chief Winemaker Matt Parish, and board member and CEO of WIV Andres Ruff, had gathered to decide what they should do about this difficulty. They had spent the morning developing a set of criteria for choosing among the various alternative ways forward. The afternoon's agenda was clear, to determine a strategy for continuing to fund the company's growth. Should they seek a private equity investor? Should they ask their customers - the band of nearly 300,000 'angels', as they called them, whose monthly subscriptions funded Naked's winemakers - to buy a stake in the business, or even pursue an independent public offering (IPO) of the company's shares? Should they seek a trade investor? Or should they wait, doing nothing for now, and maintain the status quo until the time for one of the other moves made more sense? By the end of the afternoon, the group had agreed, they would reach a decision on a strategy for financing the continued growth of the business.

Due to its characteristics, size and impact, e-procurement has a strategic importance for public administration, since its implementation necessarily crosses many institutional barriers and paradigms of many public managers. Many nations around the world are developing or revamping their National Public e-Procurement Systems. E-procurement brings a set of new rules and dynamics that create ways of doing business with the State in a totally different fashion, with a whole new and bigger set of participants, new incentives and a radically different cost structure. This case describes the experience of Costa Rica in implementing two different approaches for national e-procurement and the implications for public policy, e-government strategy and business development. Costa Rica has become an interesting laboratory for the world, since both approaches are coexisting and operating separately. Nevertheless, the country seeks to maintain a single e-procurement platform. The choice of either one of the platforms will bring serious organizational, economic, technological and political consequences for the government. We used multiple data collection methods. The data were collected from 2009 to 2012 from primary sources, studies, consulting work, official documents and the written press. Lessons drawn can be extended to other e-government ventures.

This case, based on data collected in a longitudinal field study, presents Dr. Nathalie MajorCook, a Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) pediatrician, who in January 2012 was considering what to do about a 2-year grant-funded pilot project, which had provided an innovative patient care coordination service to 23 families of children described as technology-dependent, medically complex and fragile. Convinced that the Complex Care Coordination service is worthwhile, Dr. Major-Cook wants to move it beyond the pilot test phase to a funded, ongoing service. The case situation is a 'cliff hanger,' in that in January 2012, Dr. Major-Cook has not yet learned whether a proposal to fund this as an ongoing service will be approved. If it does not receive approval, she will face the unpleasant task of explaining to parents that this valuable service will end in a few short months. If it does receive approval, several decisions need to be made and actions taken in order to scale the service up, so that it can support about 100 families of technology-dependent, medically complex and fragile children in the region. Dr. Major-Cook also wonders if there is anything else she can do to tip the scales in favor of this decision. The case context is unique and captivating; the young patients under Dr. Major-Cook's care suffer from multiple, and sometimes rare life-threatening diseases. The new Complex Care Coordination model, entailing several new roles and a new way to exchange important information among care providers, was designed to improve the quality of healthcare service delivery, increase parental satisfaction and reduce care costs. Although the project plan specified that an electronic health record would be developed to support coordination among care team members, a fully integrated electronic health record had not yet been implemented.

This case details the setting up and growth of a high technology venture, Shanakt Consulting, in India. The company is founded by skilled academicians who had limited experience in setting up and managing a business. Shanakt's innovative RFID technology can be useful across several industries including mining, healthcare, heavy industries, and aviation, among others. RFID is the precursor to the Internet of Things, which is considered by many to be the next big wave in the field of networks and communication. Being in a promising but niche domain, with few competitors, Shanakt is likely to face a positive scenario for its business. However, the events in the Shanakt story do not unfold as planned, causing its management to arrive at crossroads. Shanakt toys with several business models including refining its products to target a particular industry, providing training kits, and manufacturing and developing prototypes. It has to decide on its future course of action.This case provides a detailed view, through the eyes of a technology startup, of the internal thought processes and strategy, and the external environment in a developing country that influences the growth of a new venture. It also sheds light on interactions of the startup with public sector firms, an important part of the Indian economy. Moreover, it highlights the impact of management team composition, and strategic decision making on the performance of such a firm

In 2011, the CEO of Atos, Thierry Breton, announced an unprecedented move for the company. The global information services giant would become a 'zero' email company with the objective of eradicating internal email use and replacing it with blueKiwi - enterprise social network software. This case serves to teach the challenges and key lessons behind the social collaboration transformation in a large organization where 76,000 employees switched to a new mode of collaboration. The approach of how to become a zero email company is detailed, highlighting the importance of the first-order and second-order change. The case helps to understand what it takes to shift organizational culture and employee mindset, as well as what challenges and barriers need to be overcome to make such an important step on a large organizational scale.

A global manufacturing company needing to upgrade its IT to support rapid growth decided to pilot an enterprise system (ES) implementation in one of its European businesses. This was unsuccessful, but a second attempt in Australia, drawing on the many lessons learnt was regarded as successful. Subsequently, 14 implementations proceeded all over the Asia Pacific region and elsewhere in Europe with excellent outcomes. But the next implementation of the ES into a recently acquired business in New Zealand (NZ) proved problematic. The NZ management team and users were highly critical of the system and appeared to strongly resist its implementation. Cutover was eventually mandated and did occur, but the business almost failed because of problems with the new system. Following months of complaints and lobbying, the CIO in Head Office dispatched a small experienced team to NZ to review the situation. This case raises two fundamental challenges of IT management. It supports discussion of the many issues associated with the implementation of new systems and technologies, deepening appreciation of the challenges (particularly social, cultural and political) of IT implementation. It also supports learning about the phenomenon of resistance to change in the context of IT implementation

The E. Phillip Saunders College of Business (COB) Dean at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) discovers that his RIT-issued laptop has been stolen from his home. He notifies Dave Ballard, a member of the College of Business IT staff. Ballard, still acutely aware of two recent incidents in which laptops containing thousands of Social Security numbers were stolen from the RIT campus, hopes the Dean's laptop does not contain personally identifiable information. If so, the incident would need to be reported to the New York Attorney General's Office, and RIT would be required to pay for a credit monitoring service for individuals whose identity may have been compromised. The case provides an opportunity for students to examine processes that should be triggered when an information security incident occurs. The case describes incident response processes that were triggered at RIT and technologies that were used or could have been used by COB IT staff to track the laptop and protect its contents. In discussing the case, students can consider how the theft of a computing device exposes an organization to risks of inadvertent disclosure of information in different categories (such as private, confidential, internal, or public), and students can derive useful guidelines for effective information security incident response.

Before she joined Analysis Group, the author worked at a small economic consulting firm that--like most other firms in the industry--closely tracked and measured the profitability of each office and each practice area. That approach, she observed, created a lot of internal competition and divisiveness. In addition, the compensation model was formula-based and data-driven, largely determined by who was selling new business. Analysis Group uses a much different model: It determines partners' compensation without relying on formulas; it doesn't obsess over false precision about who sold what business; and pay isn't strictly a function of billable hours. Instead, extensive, informed discussion of each person's contributions to the firm leads to a decision about what pay seems fair. For one thing, Samuelson writes, in a professional services firm it's not always clear who deserves credit for a specific action. She is convinced that the firm's unconventional model is one of the reasons its culture is so strong.

What's the true test of a leader's worth? At HBR, we believe it's the results he or she produces over the long run. To see who measured up, we analyzed the performance of the CEOs in the S&P Global 1200 over their entire tenures and ranked them from best to worst. In this issue, we reveal who made the top 100. In our analysis, we tracked the shareholder returns each CEO generated, starting from day one on the job, along with the change in each company's market capitalization. We adjusted the returns for each industry and country, to offset any increase that was attributable merely to being in a hot market. Then, to account for the many aspects of leadership beyond financial success, we incorporated a measure of environmental, social, and governance performance. For this we relied on the ratings of the investment research firm Sustainalytics. Our view is that, in an era of big data and greater transparency, consumers and investors want to understand a company's culture and values, not just its share price. And as the number one CEO on this year's list, Novo Nordisk's Lars Sorensen, points out, the two are inextricably linked. "In the long term, social and environmental issues become financial issues," he says. In an interview with HBR's editors, the low-key Sorensen shares his thoughts on counterintuitive strategy, connecting with employees, and managing for a triple bottom line.

When a company connects with customers' emotions, the payoff can be huge. Yet building such connections is often more guesswork than science. To remedy that problem, the authors have created a lexicon of nearly 300 "emotional motivators" and, using big data analytics, have linked them to specific profitable behaviors. They describe how firms can identify and leverage the particular motivators that will maximize their competitive advantage and growth. The process can be divided into three phases. First, companies should inventory their existing market research and customer insight data, looking for qualitative descriptions of what motivates their customers--desires for freedom, security, success, and so on. Further research can add to their understanding of those motivators. Second, companies should analyze their best customers to learn which of the motivators just identified are specific or more important to the high-value group. They should then find the two or three of these key motivators that have a strong association with their brand. This provides a guide to the emotions they need to connect with in order to grow their most valuable customer segment. Third, companies need to make the organization's commitment to emotional connection a key lever for growth--not just in the marketing department but across every function in the firm.

The credit card giant Capital One is known for its pioneering use of marketing analytics and big data, so it might be surprising to read about its recent realization: that too much reliance on those tools had left it without a meaningful brand. The authors explain how the number one job of the CMO--to strike the right balance between promotions that goose revenue in the short term and brand-building campaigns that support healthy margins in the long term--has become dramatically harder in the age of data-driven targeting. Capital One got its own wake-up call when its CEO, Rich Fairbank, commissioned a brand equity study. The research revealed that Capital One was overwhelmingly known by consumers for just one attribute: "They send me lots of mail." Efforts to strengthen the brand and give Capital One a stronger foundation for future growth yielded five lessons--all learned and refined through conversations with other marketing executives, including Tony Pace, of Subway; Mark Addicks, of General Mills; Tariq Shaukat, of Caesars Entertainment; Russell Weiner, of Domino's; and Jim Speros, of Fidelity, as they dealt with the same tension in their very different organizations.

As digital technology has enabled shoppers to easily research and buy products online, sellers have been scrambling after them, trying to understand and satisfy their wants. Savvy companies, however, are using new tools, processes, and organizational structures to proactively lead digital customers from consideration to purchase and beyond. They are creating compelling customer journeys and managing them like any other product--and gaining a source of competitive advantage. Building successful journeys requires four key capabilities: (1) Automation, to smoothly carry customers through each step of their online path; (2) Personalization, to create a customized experience for each individual; (3) Contextual interaction, to engage customers and appropriately sequence the steps they take; and (4) Journey innovation, to add improvements that enhance and extend the journey and foster customer loyalty. In addition, the most successful companies have a particular organizational structure, with a chief experience officer overseeing a journey-focused strategist and a "journey product manager." This latter role is critical--the journey product manager leads a team of designers, developers, data analysts, marketers, and others to create and sustain superior journeys, and he or she is accountable for the journey's ROI and general business performance.

Responding to disruptive innovation may be one of the greatest challenges managers in established firms face. On the one hand, they've been warned that disruption can sneak up and destroy their business. On the other, experience tells them that disruptions can take years, even decades, to play out. And some that threaten never occur at all. Whether a company moves too early to adopt a disruptive technology or too late, it ends up wasting resources and squandering competitive advantage. In this article, the authors outline an effective way to mange the uncertain transition from an established technology, service, or business model to a disruptive one. Companies should develop hybrids, which combine elements from a disruptive technology with the current technology to create a new offering that sits between competing innovation generations: Think Prius, which combines elements from both internal combustion and electric engines. The authors identify seven types of hybrids that companies can use, depending on whether a disruption is already under way, just getting started, and/or a distant possibility.

For any enterprise to be competitive, continuous learning and improvement are key--but not always easy to achieve. After a decade of research, the authors have concluded that four biases stand in the way: We focus too heavily on success, are too quick to act, try too hard to fit in, and rely too much on experts. Each of these biases raises challenges, but each can be curbed with particular strategies. A preoccupation with success, for example, leads to an unreasonable fear of failure, a mindset that inhibits risk taking, a focus on past performance rather than potential, and blindness to the role of luck in successes and failures. Managers therefore need to treat mistakes as learning opportunities, recognize and foster workers' capacity for growth, and conduct data-based project reviews. To counter the bias toward action--and the unthinking perpetual motion and exhaustion that ensue--leaders can schedule more work breaks and make time for reflection. They can redress the tendency to conform, which stifles innovation, by encouraging workers to cultivate their individual strengths and to speak up when they have ideas for improvements. And they can develop and empower their employees to solve problems instead of turning automatically to outside experts.

One of the most powerful players in global finance, Larry Fink also stands out for his desire to change the very system that made him who he is. He has frequently spoken out about the perils of short-term thinking, especially on Wall Street, and in April 2015 he sent a letter to the world's leading CEOs urging them to ignore their activist shareholders and focus instead on the long-term health of their companies. In this interview with HBR's editor in chief, Fink expands on those ideas and talks about changing the tax code for capital gains, rethinking fiduciary responsibility, the role of government, and what makes companies great.

Most seasoned managers know how to handle formal negotiations at work: with clients over contracts, with bosses over budgets, with employers over compensation. But what about all the opportunities for informal negotiation that arise? Do you know how to recognize and seize the chances you get to position yourself for a better role, change an untenable situation, or ensure that you're getting credit for extra work? For 35 years the author has been studying negotiation and coaching executives; she has found that many people don't, and the reason is understandable. It can feel more comfortable to negotiate as an agent for your organization than it does to negotiate in your own behalf. More emotions are at play; it's often difficult to figure out exactly what you want or how to get the conversation started; and the risk of failure carries a higher cost. Sometimes advocating for oneself is seen as not being a "team player." But leaders hurt themselves if they ignore opportunities to push for better assignments, more resources, or higher compensation. Kolb counsels focusing on four steps: recognize, prepare, initiate, and navigate.

Bill T. Jones revolutionized modern dance through the company he founded in 1982 with his partner Arnie Zane, who later died of AIDS-related lymphoma. He's since choreographed over 120 works (including the Broadway hit "Fela!"). Now 63 and the artistic director of New York Live Arts, he returns to the stage for a solo performance this season.

The creators of the start-up AndFound, an online platform that connects angel investors with a curated selection of promising start-ups, have a towering advantage over similar business accelerators: The site is free. But this central tenet of the company's mission presents problems as the company looks ahead and considers options for a long-range business model to monetize its services. Expert commentary comes from Kevin Laws, COO of AngelList, a website that connects entrepreneurs with angel investors, and Jennifer Lum, an angel investor, entrepreneur, and adviser to start-ups at MIT, Techstars, and 500 Startups.

The creators of the start-up AndFound, an online platform that connects angel investors with a curated selection of promising start-ups, have a towering advantage over similar business accelerators: The site is free. But this central tenet of the company's mission presents problems as the company looks ahead and considers options for a long-range business model to monetize its services. Expert commentary comes from Kevin Laws, COO of AngelList, a website that connects entrepreneurs with angel investors, and Jennifer Lum, an angel investor, entrepreneur, and adviser to start-ups at MIT, Techstars, and 500 Startups.