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In early January 2016, the chief strategy officer and his team at Ippudo, an expanding ramen restaurant operation, were tasked to formulate both marketing and customer service management strategies for the company's first ramen shop in France, which was due to open in Paris in late 2016. Ippudo, a famous ramen brand in Japan, started its global expansion in 2008, when it successfully established its presence in New York City. When it entered the US market, Ippudo changed its marketing mix and customer service approach to follow a strategy that incorporated Ippudo's corporate values with both Japanese and New York culture and norms. Moving forward, how should Ippudo’s chief strategy officer position the new ramen restaurant in Paris? What marketing mix should Ippudo pursue? Should Ippudo change its product offerings to appeal to Parisians? And should Ippudo France’s website follow the same concept used in New York, where the website served only to convey information?

In May 2019, the head of Organizational Development and Talent for Comair Limited (Comair), was contemplating the dilemma of stimulating higher buy-in for team coaching—a program in formal leadership development emphasizing collaboration and shared responsibility. The long-standing chief executive officer (CEO) had just resigned. He had focused over the last few years on enabling a leadership style of collaboration where departmental silos would be removed and management structures would evolve to reflect a new way of working along functional rather than departmental lines. The head wondered how she could promote team coaching to a new CEO, and specifically, how she could help stimulate more interest and buy-in for team coaching. What could be done to help the teams that had undergone team coaching to sustain the newly learned behaviours, especially when the pressure was high?

Huluwa Technology Co. Ltd. (Huluwa) was a small manufacturer of children’s smart watches in China. The company’s smart watches could be monitored by parents in real time through an application installed on their phones. The product design, application development, raw material procurement, and cloud service were all operated by Huluwa, while production was outsourced to a factory. Huluwa mainly relied on its offline channels to sell products. In April 2016, looking back at the first-quarter data for the year, the company’s operations director noted that Huluwa had sold and delivered 150,000 units to its distributors while it had produced 200,000 units. Puzzled by that gap, he was also worried about the production capacity stretch imposed on the contract manufacturer. How could the company manage continuing growth for the product?

In 2015, the management of Haier Group (Haier), a Chinese company that designed, developed, manufactured, marketed, and serviced home appliances, faced a dilemma. Established in 2007, Casarte, Haier’s high-end sub-brand, had sustained only a mediocre performance from 2007 to 2014, and its sales revenue had remained low. Had brand cannibalization occurred between Haier’s mid-range to high-end products and Casarte’s high-end offerings? Should Haier continue to develop Casarte, which would require more risk and investment? Or should it cut its losses and discontinue the business, which could hurt Haier’s ability to compete in the high-end market?

In early July 2020, the US government was considering banning TikTok, a social media platform for creating and sharing short videos, because its Chinese ownership had led to national security concerns. The founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, had taken several measures to distance TikTok from China, including hiring an American CEO and establishing offices in Los Angeles, California, and London, England. However, ByteDance investors expressed concerns that the company's Chinese ownership would still remain a liability. How could the founder and CEO prevent a possible ban on TikTok in the United States? Should he sell ByteDance's stake in TikTok to American investors? Did he have other options?

Founded in 1989, the Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Corporation Beijing (Ameco), the earliest and largest civil aircraft maintenance enterprise in China, was a joint venture between two of the world's largest airlines: Air China Limited (Air China) and Deutsche Lufthansa AG (Lufthansa). In response to a crisis in the domestic market after 2012, Ameco decided to enter the international market. After Ameco had considered several methods for implementing this strategy, it eventually formed a successful alliance with the Lufthansa subsidiary Lufthansa Technik AG (LHT). Ameco and LHT communicated with each other to solve existing problems and produced a successful design collaboration. In 2019, while this partnership was proceeding smoothly, the general manager of the business aviation modification department needed to decide on a strategy that would help the company also succeed in the areas of market development and technical capability.

Stitch Fix Inc. (Stich Fix), started by Katrina Lake in 2011, combined modern technology and online shopping with a retail clothing shopping experience. Customers subscribed to Stitch Fix and received boxes of clothing, shoes, and accessories based on individual style and preferences; a personal stylist was matched with each customer to personalize each box prior to shipping. A significant part of the company’s value came from its unique value chain elements, including sophisticated algorithms that permeated all aspects of the company’s value chain.<br><br>However, in early 2020, the company was facing a significant challenge, with both Amazon Prime Wardrobe and Nordstrom Trunk Club entering the industry. How should Stitch Fix modify its business model to stay ahead of the competition and possibly expand its boundaries to other customer segments?

Viral Nation, a six-year-old company based in Ontario, was North America's leading influencer marketing company. In March 2020, as the global COVID-19 pandemic struck, the founders of the company were assessing their venture's future growth prospects. Having just received three competing acquisition offers for their company, they needed to make a decision: Should they accept any of the offers, and if so, which one? Or, should they instead continue to grow organically in an increasingly uncertain market environment?

On August 12, 1819, a crew set sail for the Pacific Ocean on a three-year voyage on the Essex whaling ship. On November 20, 1820, a giant sperm whale emerged from the ocean and critically damaged the Essex’s starboard hull. The crew consisted of the captain, two officers, three boat steerers, and 13 sailors, most of whom lacked experience. While the captain and officers of the Essex huddled to plan their next move, the crew trusted the first officer to make the crucial decisions about using the ship’s three remaining whaleboats for the long voyage home. Surviving the wreckage would not be an easy task; therefore, making the right decisions would be essential for survival. As the ship continued to take in water, the captain and officers had to decide who should go in each whaleboat, what direction they should take, and what provisions they should carry.

Spreadsheet to accompany product 9B20C049.

On November 23, 2018, the US jewellery maker Tiffany & Co. (Tiffany) received the final verdict in a years-long legal battle with the Swiss watchmaker The Swatch Group Ltd. (Swatch), which required Tiffany to pay Swatch millions of Swiss francs in damages (plus additional legal fees). The subject of the conflict was a strategic alliance the two companies had announced in 2007, which had once been called a "historic agreement" and a "pathbreaking strategic move." The alliance’s objective was to design and manufacture luxury watches under the Tiffany brand name and distribute them across Swatch's vast retail network and through Tiffany's own stores. How did this once-promising alliance come to be terminated in 2011, less than four years later? What lessons could be derived from the failure of this alliance?

Ireland-based Ryanair DAC (Ryanair) was the largest European low-cost airline, serving approximately 120 million customers in 34 countries in 2016–2017. The airline was considering entering new markets as its growth in existing markets had plateaued. The untapped Ukrainian market offered a huge growth opportunity for Ryanair as the country had recently signed a free-trade agreement with the European Union (EU) and was about to enter a visa-free regime that would increase travel between Ukraine and the EU. However, in July 2017, Boryspil International Airport (KBP) in Kyiv returned a co-signed service agreement that withheld several important terms and breached earlier verbal agreements it had made with Ryanair. KBP didn’t want to provide a preferential tariff for Ryanair’s flights to London because this would conflict with existing routes. It also insisted on solving disputes in Ukrainian courts rather than in UK courts, as Ryanair preferred. As the airline was confronted by KBP, Ryanair’s chief executive officer, Michael O’Leary, needed to decide what to do in order to enter the Ukrainian market: What were the available entry options and entry timing? How should Ryanair proceed?

Vijay Sales Ltd., established in 1967, had become one of India’s leading retail chains in consumer electronics and appliances by 2020. The company sold products through 102 exclusive stores in northern, western, and southern India and had developed a loyal customer base across wide geographies, particularly among the 40-plus age group. However, the company faced challenges in attracting a younger demographic, specifically millennial customers. To secure its future, the company needed an effective marketing strategy to position it as millennial customers’ preferred retail brand for consumer electronics and appliances.

Ashiana Housing Ltd. (Ashiana) was a small real estate developer in India, specializing in mid-priced domestic housing. The company was tightly run and had attracted investment interest from large reputable firms, but its financial performance had recently deteriorated—a state that was reflected in the company’s declining share price. The industry was also undergoing change with far-reaching reforms, which was leading to consolidation and the exit of smaller players. Did Ashiana have the right business strategy for the market and was this the right time to invest in the company?

By May 2020, Rivian Automotive (Rivian), a new electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturer in the United States, had become a darling of the new battery electric vehicle (EV) market in North America. Rivian had not yet released any products, yet it had customers signed up and waiting in three distinctly different market segments. First 10,000 customers had deposited US$1,000 each for one of Rivian’s two electric adventure vehicles. Second, the Ford Motor Company, a Rivian shareholder, had made a commitment to purchase Rivian’s advanced electric skateboard powertrain, positioning Rivian as an EV component wholesaler. Finally Amazon.com Inc., also a Rivian shareholder, had pre-ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans. With three different markets, three different sets of customers, and three different commercialization challenges, had Rivian bitten off more than it could chew?

Schiit Audio was a manufacturer of audio equipment in the Los Angeles, California area. The company, which mainly sold its products directly to consumers, experienced consistent growth in the years leading up to 2015. However, in the summer of 2015, the company’s founder had three major issues to resolve. First, he was devoting half of his time to a marketing agency he had founded earlier and was increasingly feeling that the arrangement was inadequate to provide the leadership his audio company needed. Second, some suppliers were causing inventory and out-of-stock issues that made it difficult to deliver products to customers on time. Finally, selling products on Amazon Marketplace expanded the company’s reach to new customers, but came with drawbacks, including lower margins, high fees, and inventory management difficulties. The founder had to make some decisions for the business venture’s path forward.

Eco Femme (EF) was a social enterprise founded in 2010. It developed re-usable cloth sanitary napkins and marketed towards those looking for sustainable products to manage their menstrual hygiene. The enterprise faced several challenges in reaching their target market of poor women in rural India. There was a taboo attached to menstruation and it was thus a difficult topic to discuss. Also, there were popular, commonly used, and easily available substitutes in the market, which were heavily marketed and distributed. EF had narrowed its options down to three broad distribution options—community groups, small convenience stores, and apparel retailers; the team needed to choose and develop a plan.

Welspun India Limited (Welspun) was a global leader in home textiles, supplying to top global retailers like Costco Wholesale Corporation, IKEA, Tesco plc, and Bed, Bath and Beyond, Inc. Welspun undertook many sustainability actions like eliminating freshwater usage through a sewage treatment plant in Anjar, improving energy efficiency in manufacturing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, using transportation modes to leave a smaller carbon footprint, and creating products out of waste material. In order to move forward, the chief executive officer needed to decide how to use sustainable fashion to gain a competitive advantage. Was becoming a circular company the answer? If so, what steps needed to be taken for Welspun to become circular?

At the start of 2020, the main strategic challenge for UBits (a start-up focused on online corporate training in Latin America) was how to continue to scale up the operation. Although UBits had gained a foothold in Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, the company had no presence in Brazil—Latin America’s largest economy—or in any other major regional economies, including Chile and Argentina. UBits was offering only one type of service—subscription-based courses for corporate clients. The management team was contemplating targeting individual customers directly to leverage the growing UBits library that held more than 300 locally produced courses. However, the ideal strategic direction for the company's expansion was unclear, and its current financial situation did not permit pursuing all options.

In June 2020, UBits faced the uncertainties of a global health crisis—the COVID-19 pandemic. The company had experienced several temporary setbacks, but the chief executive officer and co-founder was encouraged by the shifts in market dynamics that seemed to hold a bright future for online training. However, major competitors had also intensified their efforts to capitalize on the new opportunities in the market. UBits needed to re-evaluate its options for growth, as new opportunities and challenges were arising from the pandemic’s impact on society.