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Student spreadsheet for product 9B15N002.

In 2013, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of a lingerie business in India has recently moved his business from offline to online in order to reach a wider customer base. The company is one of the very few online lingerie stores in India that also has its own brand. Although the online business is profitable, the CEO cannot ignore the fact that offline stores still dominate the lingerie market in India. Since its key product is only available online, the company may be missing out on an opportunity. Because the shift from an offline business to an online one occurred in 2012, an immediate investment in actual stores will have financial consequences. Should the CEO continue to operate his online business and consider relaunching retail stores at a later time, or should he relaunch now and manage both business models at once?

In April 2015, BitGold, an international savings and payments service, was undergoing the final steps towards its historic initial public offering, which would take place on Canada's TSX Venture Exchange and sought to raise between $10 million to $20 million in funding. With its blending of blockchain technology and aspects of digital currencies like bitcoin, BitGold was paving the way to the legitimation of future FinTech startups by going public. The important questions include: How can BitGold continue to maintain its legitimacy and growth on the heels of a tumultuous year for digital currencies, blockchain technology and bitcoin? Given the complexity of the regulatory landscape, how can BitGold build its customer base and expand internationally?

Haw Par Corporation’s healthcare division produces Tiger Balm, the external analgesic rub that has gained global popularity. Despite delivering strong results, the division remains dependent on Asian markets, which poses challenges with regard to low affordability, weak protection of intellectual property and aggressive competition. To achieve sustained growth, the company’s executive director is considering several alternatives: geographic expansion, by entering more markets; product expansion, through deeper penetration of existing markets with new products; and extending the brand into the highly competitive wellness space. He also needs to decide whether the division should pursue organic or inorganic growth.

This case introduces the key features of Google’s wearable technology product “Glass” and illustrates the tensions that Google faced over the development and marketing of this product. The case goes on to highlight the growing backlash that Google experienced when promoting Glass.

Food Donation Connection is a for-profit company that creates sustainable value — value for both shareholders/owners and stakeholders — by facilitating the redistribution of surplus prepared food from donor corporations, such as restaurants, convenience stores and grocery stores, to charities that distribute the food to people in need. In fulfilling its mission of “Let nothing be wasted,” the company addresses the extensive food waste at the retail and wholesale stages of the food supply chain, a key pressure point in global food waste. Food Donation Connection has operated successfully for more than 20 years in the United States; however, the founder and chief executive officer is now considering the company’s future. He must determine whether and how to expand the company’s services globally.

Bayer MaterialScience, a unit of Bayer AG, was a leading provider of polycarbonate, a basic material for plastics. In response to the changes in its client industries, Bayer MaterialScience relocated the business unit headquarters for polycarbonate to Shanghai in order to be closer to customers and other business partners in the Asia-Pacific. Bayer MaterialScience (A) focuses on the laptop industry, where a large number of players influence the selection of material suppliers. Bayer MaterialScience has to re-evaluate its market intelligence and its business-to-business marketing in view of changing global competition. Bayer MaterialScience (B) provides insights into the consequences of relocating a division headquarters to China, and introduces the forthcoming initial public offering of Bayer MaterialScience. The company has to assess how to further develop its organizational structure, its partner relationships, and its industrial marketing strategy under a new brand name; Covestro.

Bayer MaterialScience (BMS), a unit of Bayer AG, is a leading provider of polycarbonate, a basic material for plastics facing rapid change in many of its downstream industries. In response to the changes in its client industries, BMS relocated the business unit headquarters for polycarbonate to Shanghai to be closer to customers and other business partners in Asia-Pacific. Case ‘A’ focuses on the laptop industry, where a large number of players influence the selection of material suppliers. BMS has to revaluate its market intelligence and its business-to-business marketing in view of changing global competition. Case ‘B’ provides insights into the consequences of relocating a division headquarters to China, and introduces the forthcoming initial public offering of BMS. BMS has to assess how to further develop its organizational structure, its partner relationships and its industrial marketing strategy under a new brand name.

In 2013, Oxigen Services India Pvt. Ltd. launched a money transfer service integrated with the infrastructure of the National Payment Corporation of India. The Oxigen Wallet, India’s first non-bank wallet, allowed instant money transfers to and from any bank account over an extensive ecosystem, with a large retail presence across India using point-of-sale terminals. Oxigen was a major provider of bill payment and merchant payment services, with complete interoperability between mobile wallets and bank accounts. But newer mobile wallet players were focused on alternative strategies, and were showing rapid growth in the number of subscribers thanks to innovative services, extensive sales promotions, and varied marketing initiatives. Oxigen wanted to be sure that it was using the capabilities of the ecosystem effectively within the context of changing market dynamics. Should Oxigen continue to invest significantly in ecosystem development, as it had been doing, or focus instead on a sales-and-promotion-driven growth strategy? In the changing market, what were Oxigen’s best options for success?

Betaspring was a mentorship-driven startup accelerator program for technology and design entrepreneurs. Founded in Rhode Island in 2009, it was one of the highest-ranked and longest-operating accelerators in the United States and was notable for being headquartered outside Silicon Valley. However, debate had emerged about the value provided by accelerators, and in August 2014 Betaspring faced two crucial strategic questions. Had a bubble emerged in the accelerator industry? If so, should Betaspring change its business model in order to survive a potential industry shakeout?

Today’s business leaders are scrutinized like never before, and not just for their ability to lead organizations to financial success. The pressure is on for CEOs to adhere to accepted values. Thanks to social media, leadership behaviour is constantly monitored by a public ready to share news of transgressions. As a result, the price for departing from expected behaviour is steep for both leaders and organizations. But does following the standard of what is considered good as a CEO really lead to sustainable business with higher profits? Or do nice people finish last? <br><br> This article explores these questions by looking back in time and highlighting the findings of a study that examined the impact of ethical leadership on the kingdom of Judah. After using a common ethical standard to review 19 kings between 931 BC and 586 BC, it was posited that organizations with ethical senior management have better long-term performance. Modern examples of how senior executives influence their organizations support this conclusion. As a result, firms should seek leaders who demonstrate normatively acceptable conduct. That means leaders who are concerned with how numbers are achieved as well as the organization’s impact on employees and the environment. It means leaders who are credible and possess leadership character. And it means leaders who ensure that subordinates follow their example. For organizations that do this, ethical leadership will likely result in a scandal-free reputation, increased morale, job satisfaction and performance — and a positive bottom line.

Stories abound about situations where individuals and groups that went on to great performance levels were passed over (or nearly overlooked) in the early stages of their careers. Talent isn’t always easy to recognize early on, and the challenges in distinguishing potential from performance aren’t new. However, the increasing pace of change in most industries coupled with alternative opportunities from competing organizations means that most firms can’t afford to overlook emerging talent as much as in the past. Spotting future leaders “early” means spotting them in their initial jobs and roles. This means looking for signs of potential that do not necessarily correlate with current performance metrics. Since leadership potential isn’t always embedded in early jobs and roles where it can be easily demonstrated, we need processes to spot the “glimmers” of potential that manifest themselves in less-than-systematic ways. We also need systems that help organizations sort out those glimmers from the day-to-day noise. All cases will be somewhat different, and talent spotting probably leans more toward an art than a science. The point isn’t to be 100 per cent accurate, but to leverage more critical development time by looking for serious leadership potential while it’s in the glimmer stage, but understanding that glimmers aren’t constant in frequency or equal in brightness.

The director of marketing for Lawrence & Mayo (L&M) was reviewing the company’s results for the past financial year. Far from encouraging, the results were a reflection of an addition to the company’s existing product portfolio: accessories. L&M was an established name in the field of ophthalmic and optical instruments. The prestigious brand had maintained an exclusive positioning for over 100 years. When L&M launched premium watches under its existing brand, it took a bold step. The product was, no doubt, world class in quality and design. However, the company’s detractors wrote it off, calling it an attempt to ride two horses at the same time. Did the recent financial results vindicate these critics? The director of marketing wanted to comprehend the impact of the new product line, the reasons behind the poor performance and the way forward for L&M.

Universal Print Systems Limited, located in Southern India, provides self-adhesive label printing for such end-user businesses as the passenger car and alcoholic beverages industries. Although larger markets exist in Western and Northern India, 80 per cent of its customers are located in Southern India. Because of the company’s low capacity utilization, management is contemplating its operations strategy options, including aggressively pursuing business in Southern India, expanding to Northern and/or Western India, sourcing online orders and digital printing, or exporting. Management is unsure of the best option to pursue.

The purpose of this note is to give a brief introduction to dynamic programming. The note introduces dynamic programming terminology and notation and provides motivation for why these problems are difficult to solve. Five examples illustrate how dynamic programming can be applied in a variety of settings.

Mahindra First Choice Services Limited, a multi-brand car-servicing business in India, needs to create a unique customer value proposition to differentiate its brand in a highly competitive landscape. In India, the aftermarket services market comprises original equipment manufacturers, independent garages and few organized players. The marketing head and his team need to position their company’s brand to capture customers that have previously relied on local garages and original equipment manufacturers.

The co-founder and chief executive officer of The Asylum, a movie production company headquartered in Burbank, California, must decide whether the company needs to explore other avenues for growth or change its current business model to boost profitability. The company has developed a unique imitation strategy to reduce the uncertainty of financial success in filmmaking – its “mockbuster” business model is to produce B-rated movies that use plotlines similar to that of major Hollywood films already in production and release them at the same time as or just before the comparable Hollywood film. It can thus take advantage of the large marketing and promotion campaigns that large film production studios employ to promote their films while producing a substantially cheaper (but somewhat similar) film. To date, all of these mockbusters have been profitable, but changes to property rights regulations and increased litigation cases may come to affect the bottom line. There are three options going forward: maintaining the status quo, focusing even more on producing mockbusters or shifting toward completely original film production. What should the company do to ensure future success?

In March 2015, Huayi Brothers Media Corporation is China's most influential entertainment company, accounting for one-fifth of the country's total yearly box office revenues. In recent years, in an effort to leverage its movie content and copyrights, the company has expanded into developing and distributing games on the Internet as well as building entertainment theme parks in Asia. Now, the chairman and co-founder is considering a partnership with Hollywood's STX Entertainment to jointly invest in and co-produce 18 films and distribute them worldwide within two years. Should the company enter into this partnership or not? What is the best strategy to move forward and grow internationally outside of China? Or should the company concentrate on bettering its competition by concentrating on its core business portfolio in visual (both movies and television), live (musical performances and theme parks) and Internet gaming in China and Asia?

An equity analyst at a value fund considers pitching to his fund manager the Canadian software maker Constellation Software Inc. The last software company he pitched was rejected for failing to meet the value fund’s investment criteria of low analyst coverage and small market capitalization with either a strong competitive advantage or a low price-earnings ratio and a low price-to-book ratio. The analyst has heard that Constellation Software is earning very high returns on invested capital deployed and wonders whether the company’s current valuation makes it a great business investment at a fair price.

In 2008, the newly appointed chairman and managing director (CMD) of Bank of Baroda, one of India’s largest public-sector banks, was exploring ways to implement the vision of making the bank one of the most popular and customer-oriented public-sector banks in the country. Under the tenure of the previous CMD, a strong foundation for growth had been built, and subsequently, the bank had made tremendous progress and had been ranked third among its peers. However, the bank continued to suffer from the typical malaise of large public-sector organizations — although change was taking place, the firm was sluggish, inadequately responsive to customers, and using outdated processes and technology. Consequently, the new CMD was faced with the challenge of managing the legacy of his predecessor. To accomplish his goal, he took on the task of reinventing the bank by dispelling the culture of fear and caution that prevailed. Could he make the firm more agile and customer-savvy, while quadrupling revenue?