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Cisco Systems, Inc., the dominant global supplier of the routers and switches that formed the backbone of the Internet, was considering entry into the cloud-based education market in China through the design and marketing of an in-classroom device, the Sunbird. The new vice-president and chief technology officer of Enterprise Networking Group, Cisco Greater China, had met with a Politburo member of the Communist Party of China and State Councilor with responsibilities including China's science, technology and education policies. The vice-president had introduced Cisco's global operations and the two women had discussed partnering, technology transfer, cross branding, joint product and service development, cooperation with Chinese companies, and the IT revolution and its effect on Chinese education. How could Cisco profitably join in the Chinese education IT revolution? Cisco had never entered the educational IT equipment space in any part of the world with its own dedicated product. Should it develop the Sunbird for the Chinese market?

This case examines the queueing issues caused by the growth in popularity of one of the most visited Hindu temples in the world. On January 2, 2015, Ramesh and Vasantha Gupta visit Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, just a day after some 210,000 people crowded the 2,000-year-old site. The case describes the many enhancements that the temple administrator, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), has implemented since its management of the temple complex began in 1932. The soaring popularity of the temple, however, has led to safety and comfort concerns for pilgrims. While challenging students to consider additional improvements that might benefit pilgrim throughput rate and time in the temple system, the case highlights the tension TTD must manage between maximizing efficiency and maintaining religious traditions. Additionally, the case demonstrates the importance of perceived waiting times in the management of queues.

This case follows a young entrepreneur as she launches a crowdfunding campaign to expand her already-established craft ice cream company. The story reveals the several steps taken from the planning phase through execution of the online campaign. This case provides an opportunity for students to learn about the benefits and drawbacks of crowdfunding, both as a form of marketing a business as well as garnering capital for expansion of a small business.

The case study discusses the human resource strategy of a fast-growing company in the highly competitive beauty spa industry in Malaysia. It examines how the founders' personal values and philosophies are expressed in the human resource policies and practices and the influence of these on the company's customer service delivery and service culture. HerbaLine's focus on excellent customer service enabled the founders, Mr. Low Chee-Kwong and Ms. Liu Kim-Hwa, to position the beauty spa operator as a viable alternative to expensive, high-end international beauty chains and low-cost, no frills individually-operated beauty salons. The success of their service strategy is reflected in the growth of the beauty spa operator from one outlet in 2000 to 55 outlets in 2014. With a vision to expand HerbaLine beauty spa to every major town in Malaysia, the founders embarked on a new a profit sharing scheme for high performing employees to reward performance and to sustain and grow the high levels of employee commitment and excellent service delivery that underpinned the company's growth. Could this be the motor that would enable the company to double its number of outlets to 100 by 2024?

In late December 2014, Shinzo Abe was elected to another term as the prime minister of Japan. His re-election was largely interpreted as a vote of confidence for his economics policies, collectively referred to as "Abenomics." Comprised of three "arrows," including expansionary monetary policy, fiscal stimulus, and structural reform, these strategies were designed to reverse Japan's two-decade long challenge with deflation and sluggish growth. Japan also faced several worrisome structural issues, including a demographic crisis, strict labor regulations, and low wage growth, despite low unemployment, in addition to a debt balance that reached 240% of GDP. As the Abe government launched a second round of quantitative easing, totaling ¥80 trillion per year, many wondered, would Abe's three arrows be enough to reverse Japan's problems with economic growth, rising debt, and persistent deflation?

During his tenure as CEO since 2005, Bill Nuti had moved NCR Corporation (originally National Cash Register) from its historical competence in hardware to become a provider of hardware and software for managing transactions across a range of industries and payments methods. Nuti envisioned a world in which consumers would use NCR hardware or applications whether transacting at a bank or ATM, purchasing clothes at a retailer, or checking into a flight at an airport-and in which NCR software would register the transactions, securely store and process the data, and use the transaction information to help NCR customers efficiently manage their operations. In 2011 and early 2013, NCR had made two major acquisitions of companies that were important providers of transaction software in the retail and hospitality industries. Now, in late November 2013, Nuti and his team were considering a third potential major acquisition: Digital Insight, a market leader in online and mobile banking solutions. Nuti saw Digital Insight as key to complementing NCR's offerings in the financial services industry, transforming it from a maker of standalone, electromechanical cash registers and ATMs into an "omni-channel, omni-commerce, software-driven company." Would this acquisition be the next right strategic move for NCR's transformation?

Travis Boersma, co-founder and President of the Dutch Bros. coffee chain, faces three operational decisions that will shape the company's growth trajectory and distinctive culture. First, should they offer a specialty coffee at a subset of their stores in one region where customers are clamoring for it, contrary to the company's commitment to a consistent experience across all stores? Second, as the company continues to expand, should they roll out an electronic point-of-sale system, which has interfered with customer service in prior pilot tests? Third, how can Dutch Bros. provide opportunities for their best employees, who aspire to own and operate their own franchise stores but often lack the expertise and funding to do so.

This note provides an overview of the elements of marketing strategy, and explains how they can be applied in the public and not-for-profit sectors. Elements necessary for a successful marketing strategy (segmentation, pricing (including price discrimination), product design, place/distribution, and promotion) are examined, and then applied to public sector examples, such as: NYC's Municipal Identification Card program, a hypothetical needle exchange program, and mass transit systems. This note concludes with practical advice for implementing a marketing strategy.

After a Twitter API change and policy change block his fledling startup, solo entrepreneur Alex Holt evaluates his options. Should he double-down with a major investment in new servers, rewriting his app from scratch, and charging users for a service that had prided itself on being free? Or give up and admit defeat? Was there any middle ground?

The founder of Toronto-based Able Translations has grown the company since 1990 from a single-man operation that did on-site interpreting to a firm of 100 staff in 2014. The firm provides a range of interpreting and translation services on three continents by more than 3,500 qualified language professionals in more than 100 languages. Although an industry leader, the company faces both strong global competitors and a myriad of microbusinesses and freelancers. Moreover, the language service providers industry is experiencing rapid technological change. The founder wonders whether to pursue international growth of his established translation and interpreting businesses (on-site and telephone) or to focus on its emerging capabilities in software development in the North American market - a strategic choice that will have a profound effect on the future of the firm.

In early June 2014, the chief executive officer of Canadian Western Agribition, a not-for-profit organization, is reviewing the results of its 2013 agricultural show, a fair that takes place every November in Regina, Saskatchewan. The week-long event includes the largest livestock show in Canada, an extensive agribusiness tradeshow, a large marketplace of home products, a rodeo competition, and entertainment and educational programs that have a focus on First Nations. After bouncing back from major financial problems three years earlier, Agribition had generated almost $4 million in 2013. How can management ensure that it will continue to grow as a world-class event? Which customer segment - rural, urban or international - should be targeted? How can more visitors, ranchers and breeders be attracted to pay the admission, entry and commission fees that account for 90 per cent of the organization's budget? How can corporate sponsorship and government grants be increased? To maintain its status as one of the best beef shows on the continent, management must implement a marketing and operations strategy that will meet the needs and interests of many groups, a key element for growth and profitability.

The chief operating officer at Westridge Cabinets, a Canadian cabinet manufacturer, needs to improve the company's on-time delivery performance and reduce costs. Customers' orders vary widely, in terms of both order size and product mix, leading to complications in planning and scheduling the plant. As part of their analysis, students are required to 1) recognize how the company's order process integrates with production planning and control; 2) understand how manufacturing lead times affect flexibility and delivery performance and 3) calculate capacity in each department to identify and resolve potential constraints.

This case provides an introduction to microfinance by presenting a very common dilemma that many microfinance institutions (MFIs) are facing - the struggle of reaching the rural population, and rural women in particular. This is done specifically through the lens of Douglas Pond, Opportunity International's (Opportunity) Chief Commercial Officer of Mozambique. In 2008, Douglas arrived in Mozambique and quickly experienced this dilemma. Upon identifying the many barriers to entry, Douglas was left with needing to make a decision.

In 2011, Mikkel Larsen, Managing Director, Head of Tax & Accounting Policy, Group Finance at DBS Bank mooted the idea of DBS adopting an integrated reporting approach. He was convinced that this was a more holistic way of reporting on the bank's business strategy and activities, linking each of them clearly to the financial and non-financial impact it would have on its stakeholders. In 2012, when DBS adopted the integrated reporting approach, it was the first listed company in Southeast Asia to do so. The report had been well-received and garnered considerable attention from the external parties such as research analysts and the media. Based on feedback from DBS's stakeholders, DBS incorporated changes that would make the 2013 IR more user-friendly and meaningful for its stakeholders. Larsen was, in May 2014, looking over the 2013 report, recognising that there was always room for improvement. For instance, in preparation for the following years' annual reports, further enhancements, could include defining 'materiality', increasing stakeholder outreach, and reporting 'outcomes' as compared to 'outputs'.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Organizations often try to accelerate product introduction cycles by prioritizing project delivery. However, many projects have two characteristics that make optimal delivery times elusive: The projects tend to involve uncertainty (for example, they develop a new product function whose feasibility has not yet been established); and the workers have information about the status of their tasks that many don't share. Behavioral issues are as important in project timeliness as diligent planning. This article examines the difficulties of project planning and execution and describes a management innovation at Roto Frank, a German company that produces hardware for industrial and residential windows and doors. Roto, headquartered in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany, has augmented its project control system with a formal help process that encourages workers to seek and provide mutual assistance. The authors found that Roto's help process achieved a measurable improvement in project cycle time without changing formal incentives or other management systems. Its success is based largely on two factors: establishing psychological safety and encouraging cooperative behavior among workers by emphasizing their interdependence. The authors argue that this help process has the potential to accelerate projects in many environments. In developing a project planning and monitoring system that encouraged project workers to reveal private information about their tasks, Roto did not rely on financial incentives. Indeed, the authors note that incentives don't need to be monetary or career focused; they can be social and geared toward building positive relationships. Without fears of being blamed for problems, workers were more inclined to call for help rather than procrastinating or passing latent issues on to the next project worker.

In researching what makes for successful project sponsorship, the authors used a project life cycle model with four stages: (1) initiating -from the preliminary idea through approved charter; (2) planning -from approved charter through approved project plan; (3) executing -from approved project plan through acceptance of major deliverables; and (4) closing -from acceptance of major deliverables through final completion. Project success historically has been defined by the "iron triangle"of cost, schedule and performance. The authors use a broader definition based on three success factors. The first success factor involves impact on the project's customers, which is almost always the most important success measure. The second success factor involves meeting agreements: Was the project completed on time, on budget and to specifications? The third success factor is tied to the future benefits to the company, be they new technology, new products, new markets and/or commercial success. The authors conducted separate studies of each project life-cycle stage, using literature reviews, focus groups, surveys and factor analysis in order to examine sponsor behavior and project success factors. For each stage, they found that two or three behaviors had a significant impact on the project success factors. In the initiating stage, the important behaviors for executive sponsors involve setting performance goals for the project, selecting and mentoring the project manager and establishing priorities. In the project's planning stage, the key sponsor behaviors are ensuring planning and developing relationships with stakeholders.

after all, most companies in an industry are seeking to obtain them. The authors contend that ordinary resources may play an overlooked but important role in successful strategies -and competing with ordinary resources can be a valuable complement to competing with strategic resources. An ordinary resource is a common resource on the market, generally perceived as neutral in terms of performance. Such a resource is considered, at best, as ensuring competitive parity. While ordinary resources are not, in and of themselves, a source of competitive advantage and greater performance, they are generally required for the business to function properly. Examples of ordinary resources include compliance with ISO standards in the automobile industry; stores and salespeople in retailing; and websites and logistics competencies in e-commerce. Unless ordinary resources are leveraged, strategic resources cannot always deliver their full-fledged competitive potential. In particular, the use of ordinary resources enables the duplication of a business model in many business units and/or in many countries. For instance, McDonald's Corp. is the world's largest chain of fast-food restaurants. But the replication of the McDonald's business model is possible specifically because the model leverages relatively ordinary resources, in the form of more than 1.8 million employees worldwide. Most entry-level McDonald's employees are not highly qualified, are part-time workers and can be easily replaced. However, the McDonald's brand can only be leveraged thanks to these ordinary resources. The authors also observe that the emergence of new business models that leverage a vast array of ordinary resources -particularly multisided platform business models -raises questions about the relevance of the traditional strategic focus on scarcity-based approaches and unique resources. For example, Airbnb connects an abundant number of people who want to source out their empty rooms to hirers who are

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. In today's dynamic and competitive world, a project manager's key challenge is coping with frequent unexpected events. Such events can be classified according to their level of predictability as follows: events that were anticipated but whose impacts were much stronger than expected; events that could not have been predicted; and events that could have been predicted but were not. Coping with frequent unexpected events requires an organizational culture that allows the project manager to exercise a great amount of flexibility. The traditional approach to project management emphasizes that project success depends on stability. According to this approach, project success can be achieved by focusing on planning and on controlling and managing risks. Although the popularity of this approach has sharply increased across industries, research covering a wide variety of projects consistently reveals poor performance. The authors collected data from more than 150 successful project managers affiliated with more than 20 organizations and concluded that today's successful project managers cope with unexpected events by a combination of traditional and "agile"approaches to project management. Using business examples drawn from their research at organizations such as Procter & Gamble, NASA and the construction services company Boldt, the authors identified four key roles that successful project managers play: •The first role, developing collaboration, is performed early on during the project. •The second role, integrating planning and review with learning, is performed periodically throughout the project. •The third role, preventing major disruptions, is performed occasionally. •The fourth role, maintaining forward momentum, is performed continuously. Today's managers must be people-oriented, information-oriented and action-oriented.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Many studies have shown the importance of mentoring and coaching in supporting individuals' career and personal growth. However, changes in the career landscape in recent years, including global mobility, an increasingly diverse workforce and shortened job tenures, present managers with new complexities and uncertainties. The notion that one mentor can meet all of an individual's developmental needs is often inconceivable. Instead, the authors argue that there are a number of network support roles beyond that of formal mentor. As individuals change roles, industries or organizations or relocate to different countries, they need to build a "personal board of advisors" that fits their careers and their busy lives. The authors' research suggests that individuals seek career and psychosocial support from multiple people. In their research the authors found that most of the members of people's personal boards of advisors played an active role in supporting the individuals' career and personal development. However, some individuals also mentioned the importance of people who had passed away but continued to motivate and inspire them. The authors identified six types of personal board members: personal guides, personal advisors, full-service mentors, career advisors, career guides and role models.