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On October 10, 2017, the co-founders of Snapper Future Tech Private Limited (Snapper) were discussing the solutions they had proposed at a recent blockchain business conference. Snapper’s initiative envisaged digital solutions for smooth land registration, adding transparency, accountability, and good governance at every stage of the process. Snapper had developed a proof of concept for land records on a private blockchain in a cloud-based environment. Its live demonstration of the proposal was well received by the conference attendees; the challenge was whether the government would consider the solution and engage on a long-term basis with the company for blockchain solutions in land registrations. Would Snapper’s journey be acknowledged in the annals of the country’s digital revolution?

In 2017, Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (Cathay Pacific) began its largest transformation program in 20 years in response to business hardships the airline had been experiencing since 2016. The program used digital enablement and insight orientation to realign the company’s newly defined business focuses and to establish supporting pillars for further development. Information technology (IT) not only played a lead role in this corporate transformation, but it also became increasingly vital to Cathay Pacific’s future growth. In 2018, this transformation seemed successful, but important questions remained regarding the development of Cathay Pacific’s IT strategy over the previous decade, the company’s focus for its IT investments, and the factors that led the company into hardship. As it moved forward, how far could Cathay Pacific go with its digital transformation? How could IT influence the company’s future business strategy: could it help Cathay Pacific avoid further turbulence?

In 2018, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Zashita Inc. (Zashita) was contemplating the future strategic direction of his security and electrical contracting firm based in Irkutsk, Russia. The company had experienced outstanding sales growth since its founding in 2013, and this trend was expected to continue into 2019 with the existing business. Despite this, the CEO had identified a new, untapped opportunity in Irkutsk—smart home technology installations—and was trying to determine whether he should risk expansion into this expensive but potentially highly profitable market. Alternatively, he could focus on spending his resources on Zashita’s existing business or look elsewhere for new opportunities. The CEO needed to decide on the future strategic direction of Zashita and determine the best course of action for allocating the company’s resources to ensure future profitability for the company and its workers.

In 2016, the promoters of Savourites Hospitality Private Limited, which owned the fine-dining restaurant 6 Ballygunge Place, in Kolkata, were visiting London to explore possible future growth plans. Their foray into the market of Bengali cuisine through 6 Ballygunge Place had been successful and had developed into a strong destination brand. With a view to growing, Savourites’ promoters had ventured into newer product offerings and had tried moving into new geographical markets. In order to expand the brand’s range, they had launched a pan-Asian restaurant; launched the Bengal Lounge, which revived the Bengali penchant for never-ending chat sessions; and started fixed-menu outlets as variants of their core offering, hoping to tap into the middle-class market. They had also moved into other locations within Kolkata and to other cities. Their various expansions and diversifications had gone well, and the team found that the bulk of the growing consumer base was the Bengali customers that they had hoped to attract. They wondered how to keep the growth momentum going while still appealing to this clientele.

Many successful individuals cite fate or luck as significant factors in their success. But is luck at the root of success? Or is luck a second-hand explanation that fulfills other psychological needs? The author argues that success is not primarily a question of the opportunities that present themselves to an individual, but of whether an individual, first, even recognizes them as opportunities and, second, is able to make the most of them. Research shows that extroversion correlates with an increased probability that someone will encounter unexpected opportunities and actively exploit them. The identification and exploitation of chance occurrences is also the result of certain personality traits and attitudes. When successful people point to luck, this often serves as an unconscious defence against envy. Someone who has just enjoyed a particularly sweet (and, for others, envy-inducing) success might shrug their shoulders and say, “So what, I was just lucky.” In doing so, they are seeking to neutralize the envy that may be directed against them by pointing to a random, unpredictable, and uncontrollable power (or combination of powers) that is responsible for favourable or unfavourable outcomes. However, for happenstance, luck, or coincidence to contribute to great success, they must meet an individual with the requisite tacit knowledge—one who is able to recognize the opportunity and seize it.

The incidence of sexual harassment and assault is highest in male-dominated workplaces. And, like sexual harassment and assault, gender discrimination is more prevalent among male-dominated companies. Given the preponderance of mostly male or all-male boards, directors should ask what they can do to pre-empt and prevent #MeToo-type situations in the companies they govern. The author recommends six steps: 1) Diversify: Gender-diverse boards look at sexual harassment and discrimination through a different lens because there are assorted types of people in the room. 2) Examine the culture: Culture can normalize attitudes and behaviours that allow problems to perpetuate and allow silence to prevail. 3) Do a vulnerability analysis: Human-capital risk is part of enterprise risk management and human resources and compensation committees should put gender discrimination and harassment risk on the agenda. 4) Review policies and procedures. 5) Establish when and how the board should be notified: Policies should specify what situation is too small to merit board attention and, conversely, what requires the board’s guidance and how urgently. 6) Build a response plan. Ultimately, there is never a good time to face sexual harassment and discrimination problems; however, boards should have tough and sensitive discussions now. They should be informed, attentive, and realistic about the frequency of these problems, and should advocate a zero-tolerance policy.

In recent decades, observers from across disciplines have begun to apply the principles of natural swarm behaviour to artificial intelligence systems, humans, and business systems. Companies such as Spotify and Daimler are adopting swarm theory as a collective organizing framework. This may be because traditional group facilitation is hampered by prescriptiveness, horizontal growth, and groupthink and group polarization. Swarm facilitation is sustained by six core principles or beliefs: a) belief in collective behaviour and the collective intelligence of the group; b) belief that group work is part of a collaborative and complex adaptive system that is self-organizing and emergent rather than a controlled, prescriptive, and ready-made environment; c) belief that ideas collected in the group can contribute directly to organizational improvement or product development, or promote the wider networked learning organization; d) belief that diverse groups of collaborative stakeholders enhance innovation, decision making, and learning; e) belief that modern technology can support the filtering of information and ideas and enhance decision making; and f) belief that open innovation and collaboration promotes vertical growth. Research involving observing the migratory habits of honeybees offers five powerful lessons about what is needed for swarm facilitation to thrive: focus on real issues; split into teams; exercise collective leadership; embrace diversity; and use mechanisms to filter information. In the end, swarm theory is an organizing framework—inspired by the natural world—that promotes group collaboration and helps us navigate through complex adaptive systems.

Canada’s Department of Finance recently began consultations on open banking—a global trend enacted last year in Britain and the European Union and soon rolling out in Australia. Under open banking, you would be able to authorize apps developed by fintech companies to access your bank account in order to provide services you want, such as reporting, budgeting, or forecasting. The issues that need to be addressed to make open banking work for Canadians include scope, security, stages, and literacy. Data security (and privacy) is the #1 issue, and Canada eventually needs to establish both data protection standards and a code of consumer data rights to get the most out of the digital economy. Canada’s proposal does not include a digital identity system to replace physical documents (such as a passport or identity card). The country should adopt two standards to increase security: mandating standardized APIs that third-party developers can use to build banking apps, and mandating PCI DSS-compliance for fintech firms operating in payments. Canada should roll out open banking in stages, and it should be accompanied by a major effort to raise financial literacy—consumers need to be informed and protected.

The customer is the domain of the strategic marketer, yet less than 3 per cent of the largest company boards have marketing representation. Adding a customer expert to the board would bring the customer to the fore of board discussions and augment board competency, with proven expertise in creating and evaluating growth strategies. Filling the strategic marketing vacuum at the board level is increasingly urgent, given the convergence of three factors: the seismic change in customer attitudes and behaviours, the innovation imperative, and the relentless importance of building a company’s brand. To build a better board—one that is more effective and customer-centric—the author proposes three main strategies: a) bring a new emphasis to the creation and maintenance of vibrant revenue streams; b) augment board skills with strategic marketing expertise; and c) cultivate an understanding of new “quantum” customers and their impact on generating revenue. It is time for strategic marketers to take a seat at the board table. As Peter Drucker observed, “The single purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” In these turbulent times, boards must cultivate a sharp and unwavering focus on the customer as the foundation for strong and sustained business vitality.

In 2014, Yildiz Holding, a Turkish conglomerate, had just acquired the UK-based biscuit maker United Biscuits, the premium chocolate maker Godiva Chocolatier Inc., and the US-based company DeMet’s Candy Company. As Yildiz Holding moved forward in pursuit of its goal of dominating the global confectionery market for biscuits and snacks, senior management members were questioning whether the company's business model (which had brought it success for many years) would continue to be viable, and particularly, what the implications of its global expansion were for its diversified business model.

This note can be used at the undergraduate or graduate level to accompany a case on strategy or international business. It is especially helpful when analyzing an emerging market company expanding into developed economies and the challenges associated with this.

In December 2017, during the celebrations of the third anniversary of his company, the founder and president of Dami Technology Co. Ltd. (Dami) reflected on the success of his entrepreneurship efforts since 2014. Using mobile Internet, Internet of things, and artificial intelligence technologies, Dami implemented a new rice supply chain from farm to table by developing smart kitchenware, such as rice buckets and rice cookers. Dami was the first company to accomplish this goal in the Chinese rice industry. By the end of 2017, Dami had created its own market in more than 30 of China’s major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. Having achieved great success, Dami had two main options for its next phase of growth: (1) build a complete smart kitchen ecosystem using all available resources, or (2) partner with a Chinese home appliances giant and join a smart kitchen ecosystem.

By August 2015, Swiggy, an on-demand food delivery start-up, had been operating for almost one year in Bengaluru, India. The exponential growth of the business was expected to persist. However, Swiggy was incurring a loss, or a cash burn, on each delivery it was making. The company’s current cash reserves were also drying up, and its chief executive officer had been unsuccessful in attracting new venture capital funding to finance the cash burn estimated for the next four quarters. Swiggy must figure out how to pursue its growth without the injection of any fresh funds.

Founded in 1969 as a small operation, Otsuka Kagu, Ltd. became Japan’s largest furniture retailer and was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1980. A membership program in 1993 managed to revitalize the company’s sales at a time when Japan was in a recession. Years later, after sales began to decline and the founder was convicted of insider trading in 2008, the presidency was transferred to the founder’s daughter, who applied a more customer-centric model to the business. This change infuriated the founder, who removed his daughter from the company’s leadership. After persistently poor performance, the company’s board of directors reinstated the founder’s daughter; she then launched a notorious public battle for control of the company. Despite new environment-responsive strategies, revenues continued to decline to the point of the company declaring its biggest loss by the end of 2017. In August 2018, the company reported a net loss of ¥2.3 billion, with the company’s shares trading at their lowest level ever. Facing financial distress, the company had to look both inward and outward to determine its next steps.

In January 2017, the founder of Sunton Manufacturing in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, boarded a flight to Cambodia. He had to tackle the performance issue of the company’s garment manufacturing joint venture (JV) there—after two years in operation, it had run out of cash. After meeting with his JV partner, he concluded that the existing JV in Sihanoukville was beyond repair. He now needed to decide whether to exit Cambodia or to remain there, albeit in a different city and with a new partner. A new factory would require further investment. If he quit Cambodia, could his company survive and develop in the future?

In 2015, the corporate affairs executive of the leading Swiss agribusiness company Syngenta Crop Protection AG (Syngenta) and founder of the next-generation innovation platform Thought for Food, faced a dilemma about whether to register Thought for Food as an independent non-governmental organization, or to keep it housed within Syngenta. The choice had implications for Thought for Food’s potential for future growth and for its impact on global food-security challenges. To grow within Syngenta, Thought for Food would have to close the gaps between its open innovation practices and Syngenta’s traditional operations. To grow independently, it would have to develop a business plan that assured financial security. In either case, Thought for Food had to continue growing in relevance to its non-financial stakeholders, like the student participants and expert judges in its annual innovation challenge and summit.

This note addresses the key concepts of food security and sustainability, non-linear innovation, and open innovation models such as incubators and accelerators.

In January 2017, the online cake company Ohmycake.in, which was started two years earlier by a young entrepreneur in Kerala, India, ran into trouble after a series of successful experiments. Adding to the company’s problems, customers were becoming more demanding and the competition was catching up. The entrepreneur had hired a new operations executive to help solve the company’s business strategy and scalability issues, including a current problem: whether to accept or reject demanding custom orders that were appearing in the company’s online order management system.

Sichuan Haidilao Catering Co., Ltd. (Haidilao) was the leading hot pot company in the Chinese market and the largest hot pot chain of restaurants in the world. Haidilao was famous for its extraordinary customer service, which had made it a legend in the catering industry. However, on August 25, 2017, a news report with online videos revealed that mice were in the kitchen of one of Haidilao’s restaurants, that dustpans and tableware were washed in the same sink, and that spoons intended for customer use were used to unclog blockages in the plumbing. How could Zhang Yong, the founder and chair of Haidilao’s board of directors, respond to the crisis, turn threats into opportunities, and prevent the recurrence of such a crisis?

On April 2, 2017, the two founders of Foxcore Retail were preparing for a third summer managing their small retail business in Ontario, Canada. They had spent the weekend reviewing budgeting, staffing schedules, and inventory planning for their biggest expansion to date. There was only one pressing concern that had not been solved. In the past, employees had tracked sales by hand, on paper, which led to headaches when it came to calculating sales representatives’ commissions. Additionally, the two partners knew that by not documenting key information about each sale, they were missing the opportunity to collect valuable data that could provide insight into the performance of employees, events, and products. As the business grew, they were starting to notice the impact of these inefficiencies on customer service, and it was clear that this was the right time to implement a more disciplined database system.