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The recently appointed commissioner of insurance for Arlandia, an emerging-market country, is determined to do everything possible to minimize insolvencies and their potential destabilizing effects on the country's financial system. The commissioner has an urgent need to quickly get up to speed on the Polaris Life Insurance situation. The minister of finance has already fielded inquiries regarding the company's soundness, and the Arlandia Insurance Authority's on-site inspectors have expressed deep concern about the company's investment portfolio. The commissioner now needs to brief the minister of finance about the situation, develop plans for how the insurance authority should proceed and consider recommending additional regulatory changes.

Can corporate social responsibility plans avert the tragedy of the commons? Or is selfishness an inherent part of business? Coca-Cola has long been criticized for its extraction of water from water poor communities. Faced with protests at the University of Michigan, Coca-Cola has agreed to an independent assessment. This case tells the story of what happened after the report gets back and asks students to decide if Coca-Cola has lived up to its stated principles. Or is Coca-Cola just green-washing?

Inaash is a Lebanese non-profit organization that supports the development of Palestinians in refugee camps. Inaash has created jobs for thousands of women in the camps through the production of traditional Palestinian embroidery items such as shawls and dresses, which the association sells in its shop and at exhibitions. The organization has also been successful in creating valuable social infrastructure in many camps through offering medical support to the elderly and sponsoring children's education. Major changes in the macro environment have resulted in diminishing sales and an increased dependence on donations. Inaash must rethink its strategy and consider improving its performance measurement, using social media to connect with stakeholders and raise awareness, and professionalizing its donor management. How can Inaash bridge the chasm between social purpose and financial viability?

To target the expanding segment of upwardly mobile and upper-income Indians, a pre-eminent organized retailer in India decided to introduce Western-style hyperstores with high-end merchandising. The initial reactions of shoppers were positive, but soon the novelty wore off and store traffic declined. To counter the negative consumer responses, the retailer undertook a year-long test of a new repositioning strategy in its signature hyperstore in a large urban centre. The key challenge was to increase the store's traffic and profitability without jeopardizing its distinctive and high-quality upscale image. The case provides the test results, which include consumer reactions as well as impacts on store traffic and profit margins.

The world's leading documents company is in a transformation mode. From being a provider of cutting-edge technology products for decades, it is moving towards providing product-service combinations. As a person driving this enterprise-wide change, the head of Xerox Innovation Group (XIG) is facing two specific issues. How should XIG become more customer-centric? How should the company build new competencies to provide consistent services across devices and locations for each customer?

Sogeti, a global leader in providing technological services chooses to invest in a social collaboration platform for its employees with a view towards bringing about business transformation. Partnering with IBM, the company launched "TeamPark." After the implementation, the company's central challenge was to encourage employee engagement levels and how to increase utilization of the platform. A further issue: Should the platform be opened up to clients and other stakeholders? There was a lot of deliberation around the way the community should be created - should it be restricted or open? If the company decided to open its information-sharing platform with its clients, how should it manage the issues of security and trust?

Naguib Sawiris, CEO of Egyptian Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH), continuously scoured the globe for opportunities to expand his telecommunications empire. In 2005, Naguib looked across the Mediterranean Sea and announced his intention to acquire Italian telecom operator Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A. (Wind), one of Italy's leading telecommunication providers in the largest leveraged buyout in European business history.

Ever since Yasuhiko Shogaki took over Saizeriya Co., Ltd. (Saizeriya) in 1968, the restaurant had aimed to provide healthy and tasty Italian meals at affordable prices for everyone. On 9 December 2008, Shogaki made a stunning public announcement - that the company had incurred a loss of ¥15 billion caused by the use of foreign currency coupon swaps. He further announced that because of such transactions (such as trading in derivatives to hedge against foreign exchange risks), the Italian-restaurant chain operator might fall into the red in terms of group net earnings for that fiscal year through August 2009. Shogaki revealed that Saizeriya had signed derivatives deals with BNP Paribas Securities (Japan) Ltd. in October 2007 to procure Australian dollars (A$) that the restaurant needed to import food from that country. Following the disclosure, Saizeriya's stock price went limit-down on 10 December 2008 as investors rushed to dump the stock. Some directors and shareholders questioned this disclosure. Shogaki then had to decide whether the company should continue hedging (such as with swaps), despite the fact that Saizeriya had just suffered huge losses from similar transactions. If Saizeriya did not arrange any hedging, the company could enjoy yen appreciation merits for the payments in A$.

The case illustrates the challenges faced by entrepreneurs launching a new product in a highly competitive market with limited resources. The case is set in 2005 and puts the student in the shoes of Michel and Augustin. Copy and paste the url into a browser http://cases.insead.edu/michel-and-augustin/home to access all case support material (videos, related articles and academic papers)

In April 2003, Dr. Julio Frenk, the Minister of Health of Mexico, prepared for the debate on his health reform bill to begin in the Senate. Since becoming Minister of Health in President Vicente Fox's administration in 2000, Dr. Frenk had worked tirelessly to build support for his vision of health reform and his goals of re-structuring the health care system in Mexico and providing universal access to care for 50 million uninsured in Mexico. The Senate debate on his bill was a rare political opportunity to fundamentally transform Mexico's health system. Dr. Frenk had to figure out how to deal with the opposition to his reform and how to get his bill adopted by the Mexican Congress.

Despite facing giants like Coke, Pepsi, and Budweiser-with obvious potential sources of competitive advantage-Red Bull had established itself as the U.S. market leader in energy drinks. By 2008, however, Red Bull's dominance was challenged as Monster drinks surpassed it in volume. The case considers judo strategy both from the perspective of a small player (when up-start Red Bull faces Coke, Pepsi, and Bud) and as a large player (when market leader Red Bull faces up-start Monster).

In May 2013 the co-founders and co-CEOs of salaUno, Javier Okhuysen and Carlos Orellana, were encouraged by the results of their fledgling start-up. salaUno was founded as a for-profit enterprise in order to have the capital needed for rapid growth and to fulfill its mission of Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico. salaUno had grown from doing 75 cataract surgeries in its first month of operation to a high of 388 surgeries 21 months later. This case explores the challenges in scaling up a healthcare venture within a developing country.

The Clef case focuses on the issue of turnover in a firm's sales force. Students must analyze the factors contributing to turnover as well as the role of the field sales force in Clef's profitable business strategy. Among other things, the Clef case illustrates that managing field marketing requirements entails managing individual people but also a certain aggregate call capacity and a set of sales tasks determined by business strategy. In turn, that analysis of strategy-sales linkages often changes students' minds about what to do about turnover in Clef's sales force.

Teach For China was founded in 2008 with the mission of expanding educational opportunity across China. By 2013, Andrea Pasinetti's lofty dream had taken flight: over 300 graduates from top American and Chinese universities were participating in its 2-year teaching fellowships in more than 87 rural Chinese schools. The organization had grown from a founding team of three in a shoebox office to an 80-person operation headquartered in Beijing with teams in six other locations across China. Teach For China adapted the model pioneered by Teach For America to meet the needs of the educationally under-resourced of rural China. Led by an American, could Teach For China reshape its international identity and become an enduring Chinese institution? Could Teach For China manage regulatory risks and challenge public and government skepticism of the still-nascent and highly volatile nonprofit sector? Would Teach For China be able to sustainably scale its model to truly end educational inequality in China?

The Novartis Malaria Initiative was designed, as a result of a precedent-setting agreement with the World Health Organization in 2001, to provide a breakthrough treatment for malaria-"at no profit"-for public health systems. What had begun as an exemplary act of corporate responsibility had succeeded beyond any expectations. In 2012, for the second year in a row, Novartis had manufactured and distributed over 100 million units of the anti-malarial drug Coartem ®. But with the significantly increased volumes came increased costs, bringing into question the sustainability of the program. In 2013, Dr. Linus Igwemezie, executive vice president and head of the Novartis Malaria Initiative, reflected on the evolution of the program and the way forward. His goal was to expand access to Coartem in the private sector through a low-margin, high-volume social business model to eventually enable the Malaria Initiative to break even and become financially sustainable. Was this the right strategy?

Considers the marketing and strategic challenges faced by natural beauty brands using the case of Australian-based Jurlique, which was acquired by Pola of Japan in 2011. The case opens two years later in July 2013 when Sam McKay, the chief executive officer, on a visit to Pola's head office in Tokyo, heard news of critical comments about the company and animal testing in a Facebook post from a group in South Australia, where the brand had been founded as a small biodynamic farm in 1985. The discussion of Jurlique's involvement with animal testing was a sensitive issue as it contradicted the brand's strong environmentally-friendly and ethical positioning. The matter had already arisen during the Pola acquisition as Pola, like all Japanese cosmetics companies, traditionally tested products on animals. The animal testing issue is put in context by a discussion of how during Jurlique's growth as a successful premium brand there had been substantial changes in market position, in part associated with shifts of ownership. At times the brand had been focused on core green consumers, but McKay had sought to broaden the consumer base by repositioning it as making "the most effective products as natural as possible." The company lost few existing customers, and found that Jurlique's image was an asset in attracting Chinese consumers who liked the story of the Australian farm which produced most ingredients. However, Chinese regulations refusing to allow the firm's stores to use recycled wood, and mandating of animal testing, were challenging to the brand's global natural brand position. The case can be taught both in marketing classes concerned with green business and in strategy classes exploring the challenges faced by global brands.

This case follows Rodrigo Nino, founder and CEO of commercial real estate development company Prodigy Network, as he develops an equity-based crowdfunding model for small investors to access commercial real estate in Colombia, then tries out the model in the U.S. U.S. regulations, starting with the Securities Act of 1933, effectively barred sponsors from soliciting small investors for large commercial real estate. However, the JOBS Act of 2013 loosened U.S. restrictions on equity crowdfunding. Nino believes that crowdfunding will democratize real estate development by providing a new asset class for small investors, revolutionizing the industry. The case also follows Nino's development of an online platform to crowdsource design for his crowdfunded buildings, maximizing shared value throughout the development process. Nino faces many challenges as he attempts to crowdfund an extended stay hotel in Manhattan, New York. For example, crowdfunded real estate faces resistance from industry leaders, especially in regards to the concern of fraud, and SEC regulations on crowdfunding remain undetermined at the time of the case.

Case A describes the development from concept to production of the world's first and smallest hand-held espresso machine. It shows the importance the role of prototyping plays in developing an innovative product, capturing the phases and decisions involved along the design path. The machine is ready for tooling and the CEO of Nielsen Innovation must decide to bring the product to market. Should it be licensed as they had done with other products they had designed? Or should they create a stand-alone business? Case B describes how and why the team started a spin-off company for the Handpresso machine, and managed to grow the business in a short space of time.

Vendex KBB is at crisis point at the end of 2004, especially its flagship V&D department stores. A consortium of private-equity investors led by KKR, who bought the business a year earlier, persuade retail veteran Tony DeNunzio to take on the challenge of turning the diversified holding company around. Reluctant at first, he agrees, but only for three years and thereafter for 18 months part time. His mandate is clear: to turn around the iconic Dutch business by adding value to all stakeholders, not just the PE firm, a mission made more difficult by the reputation PE firms have recently acquired as 'barbarians at the gate'. About to embark on his first 100 days, what should he do on his first day? Please visit the dedicated case website http://cases.insead.edu/vendexkbb-maxeda/ (copy and paste the url into a browser) to view video interviews and other support material.