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In March 2023, Reliance Consumer Products Limited announced the relaunch of Campa Cola, an iconic soft drink brand in India that was discontinued almost two decades earlier. The company acquired Campa Cola for US$2.7 million in 2022 to capitalize on the brand nostalgia and the appeal of a domestic brand offering high-quality aerated beverages at affordable prices, believing that Campa Cola had a deep connection with Indian consumers due to its unique taste and flavour. However, to be successful in the competitive market dominated by two global giants in the soft drink industry—The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo Inc.—Reliance Consumer Products Limited had to craft a meticulous strategy that should address three significant challenges: create a customer value proposition, set the right pricing strategy, and trigger brand nostalgia to appeal to all market segments across generations. However, the company would have to take a leap of faith and assume a great risk. Could Campa Cola emerge as a viable competitor in India’s soft drink industry?

Ballard Power Systems Inc. (Ballard) was a pioneer and world leader in hydrogen fuel cell power system development and commercialization, employing over 1,100 employees worldwide, with operations in China, Europe, and North America. However, despite its strong revenue growth, Ballard had failed to report positive operating income since 1993. At the end of 2022, a new round of government support for green technologies had the potential to change things for Ballard. The company now faced the question of whether to expand its operations in China, previously its major market, or shift its focus more toward North America and Europe. Factors to consider included geopolitical tensions and government funding. What steps should Ballard take next?

In July 2023, Tesla, Inc. (Tesla), a global leader in the manufacture and sales of electric vehicles, needed to formulate its entry strategy in India. Tesla’s chief executive officer, Elon Musk, had met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his visit to the United States in June 2023 and expressed optimism about India as a market for Tesla. This development was in sharp contrast to the events of just over a year earlier, when Musk and Tesla had expressed disappointment with the Indian government’s policy of heavily taxing imports of fully assembled Tesla cars and had seemingly abandoned their plans to enter India, at least in the short term. Despite the thaw in the relationship with the Indian government, Tesla’s top management needed to get a number of critical decisions right if the company’s entry into the Indian market was to be successful.

Chengdu Jwell Co. Ltd. (Jwell) was established in July 2013 as a subsidiary of Pangang Group Investment Co. Ltd., a prominent state-owned enterprise. Jwell served as a comprehensive service platform, facilitating transactions, payments, and billing for various commodities, including steel, vanadium, titanium, and chemicals. Its digital transformation journey began in 2015 with the launch of its e-commerce platforms, and currently, its warehouse management relied on a smart warehouse chain based on digital warehouse technology. However, this approach faced challenges with respect to the real-time sharing of information about cargo and financial data and the lack of adequate support for security in e-commerce transactions, which hindered Jwell's further development.

In late 2020, Harman Singh Arora, the chief executive officer of Gtropy Pvt. Ltd. (Gtropy), a logistics technology provider in the logistics and transportation space, was considering the company’s future. Gtropy had disrupted the market with its GPS based fleet management solutions complemented by exhaustive data analytics since it was formed in 2019. The company’s quarterly growth was 40 per cent and they had a network of 350+ partners. However, Arora found in customer satisfaction surveys and feedback, that their clients were looking for centralized platforms for making all payments digitally and seamlessly. Arora sets his eye on big-ticket financial technology segment. However, his senior leadership team were not in the favour of moving so fast on Arora’s risky and difficult plan. But in this digital world of up or out, it was time to focus on the elephant in the room: Where should they invest its time and resources?

AbhiCure was an online health care platform facilitating consultation between patients and doctors. It enabled individuals to be treated by doctors from their own homes by phone call, online chat, or video consultation with doctors supported by AbhiCure’s team of paramedics. The company aimed to simplify the entire health-care ecosystem and add value for all stakeholders, including patients, doctors, pharmacies, clinics, and hospitals. However, with competition intensifying in the telemedicine sector, the company’s senior management was concerned about which growth strategy to adopt for the future and was considering product diversification, product development, market penetration, and market development strategies.

Shrikant Patel was the manager of Sabar Aart Farmer Enterprise Producer Company Ltd (SAFE), located at Khedbrahma, in the Sabarkantha district of Gujarat. Patel knew that members of the farmer producer organization (FPO) were working laboriously but were still not able to generate high incomes. Organic cultivation of only a single crop in fertile land once a year did not boost their incomes. Passionate about agriculture and social work, he wanted to encourage the FPO members to adopt multicropping and increase their incomes. He identified turmeric as one of the crops that was not grown in the Sabarkantha region. Thus, growing turmeric along with creeper vegetables would not only ensure a steady income for the FPO members but would also provide the FPO with first-mover advantage in organic turmeric cultivation in the region. Patel, not being an expert in accounting, needed support from advisers to determine an accurate price for the turmeric powder from one kilogram (kg) of raw turmeric input.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital commerce in India, and, in doing so, it exposed serious inadequacies in the country’s e-commerce system. Through outreach programs to small sellers and entities in hyperlocal supply chains, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in India identified a substantial gap between the quantum of online demand and the local retail marketplace’s capability to meet this demand. Established e-commerce giants had developed ways to maintain and increase their dominance and maximize profits, while small and fringe companies struggled to establish a place for themselves in the e-commerce marketplace. The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was a first-of-its-kind initiative to create an open, all-encompassing, and competitive online marketplace in India. The network, which conceptualized itself as offering equal opportunity to all sellers, promised discoverability of digital commerce stores across industries through the use of network-enabled applications. The network was designed to provide a level playing field for sellers and to ultimately democratize digital commerce in India. The benefits of digital commerce would percolate among consumers across socioeconomic strata and even reach remote geographic locations. The intent was to implement ONDC on a population-wide scale and make it a public utility. To truly democratize e-commerce in India, ONDC would be required to incorporate millions of digitally excluded small retailers. For this to happen, the transactions on the network needed to be seamless, customer trust had to be won, and a proper grievance redressal mechanism had to be put in place. Although the initiative had gone through the alpha- and beta-testing phases and was now live in select Indian cities, a certain degree of merchant onboarding and customer involvement was still essential to get the process underway. Many also believed that if the initiative gained the involvement of one or more of the major online platforms, ONDC had the potential to grow much faster, morphing into the “blue ocean” it was envisioned as becoming. However, the cooperation of the digital titans was not guaranteed—they might choose to play the waiting game or refuse to engage with ONDC. This could mean that the company’s ambitions might not succeed. Which strategic initiatives could help ONDC upend the status quo in the Indian e-commerce market?

<p align="justify">In 2022, Emtec Inc., an information technology and digital services firm located in Florida, was at a critical juncture. The company had seen immense success as a hardware reseller and managed services provider to government agencies and midmarket companies in the US. But Dinesh Desai, the founder and former chief executive officer, was concerned about decreasing profit margins and intensifying competition in the current reseller and managed services business. Low barriers to entry were adding new entrants and competition on pricing as well as affecting the ability to acquire and keep talent. Furthermore, the pace of technological change influencing newer offerings such as cloud and custom development was creating significant uncertainty. For Desai, the question came down to the following: Stay the course and build upon established services or pivot to a different mix of offerings? The pressure to chart a new path was very important, given the uncertainty about the future and the cutthroat price-based competition in the market.

In September 2022, inspired by personal experiences, marketing executive Nicole Bezinski decided to set up GirlsTakeOver.org (GTO) after recognizing that teenage girls and young women in high schools and colleges in the United States were lacking coping mechanisms to help them manage increased stress and performance pressures. While schools received numerous new education program ideas annually, they were highly selective about which programs met the stringent criteria and were accepted. Consequently, Bezinski found herself with the challenge of proving that non-profit GTO offered students the self-management and coping benefits they needed. A high-impact proof-of-concept model was critical for GTO to receive serious consideration and acceptance by schools. Acceptance would lead to support, advocacy, and critical financial sponsorship from numerous stakeholders to enable GTO to launch and run operations in the first year. Bezinski had to finalize her proposal including the proof of concept before schools began accepting new education program applications.

Royal Enfield has maintained its dominance in the 250–750 cubic centimetre mid-size motorcycle segment in India. After a COVID-19-induced lean patch, the company’s unit sales have skyrocketed to an all-time high of 834,895 units in fiscal year 2022–23. The demand for premium motorcycles is growing significantly, which bodes well for Royal Enfield. However, the market leader has been confronted with a big challenge. The alliance between Hero MotoCorp Ltd. and Harley-Davidson Inc. has launched the Harley-Davidson X440—the most affordable Harley—to take on Royal Enfield. Meanwhile, the alliance between Bajaj Auto Ltd. and Triumph Motorcycles Ltd. has unveiled the competitively priced Speed 400. The initial response to the new motorcycles has been overwhelming. What strategic options are available to Royal Enfield to maintain its market lead amid intensified competitive rivalry?

This case explores the unique challenges social entrepreneurs face in balancing social impact and growing their market reach. Jane Bloom, founder of Caring Caps, is passionate about this social cause and built a culture of giving back into the mission and vision of the organization. But operating a non-profit with the goal of growing can create significant strain on a founder and volunteers. The organization in this case provides knitted caps for cancer patients and fully embraces the inclusion of social mission, purpose, and vision into its everyday operations to create a significant social impact of individuals battling cancer.<br><br>Caring Caps has had minimal awareness since its inception in 2013 and is looking to evolve into something beyond a community within a synagogue and to provide its “comfy” caps to more hospitals and cancer centers to reach those in need. One of the biggest challenges is to identify a growth model for Caring Caps to stay sustainable. What should Bloom do to position Caring Caps for future growth? What marketing should she consider?

In January 2024, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Neha Enterprises (NE), based in Meerut, India, faced challenges in operating his custom pipe-trading business due to declining profitability and resource constraints. NE was a customized pipe trading and manufacturing company that, over the last 30 years, had focused primarily on resolving customers’ problems through customization, precise cutting, and finishing of pipes. It had 900 small and 10 large, specialized customers. After the COVID-19 pandemic strained profit margins, the CEO was exploring new avenues such as offering contract manufacturing for gym equipment, e-rickshaws, and wall beds. Contract manufacturing provided profit margins that were much higher than those earned through traditional pipe customization, but the CEO quickly realized the risk of juggling both a traditional trading business and contract manufacturing. Now, he had to decide whether to disengage from the customized pipe business or continue with contract manufacturing. Should the company standardize or reduce its trading portfolio, form a new contract manufacturing firm, or focus on serving a few medium and large customers?

In May 2023, Shake Shack Inc., the New York City-based fast-casual restaurant chain faced an activist’s campaign from Engaged Capital LLC. Citing poor performance compared to industry peers over the 2020–2022 period, Engaged Capital sought three board seats, with its nominees to have industry-specific expertise, to advise Shake Shack’s management team on turning around the multi-unit chain. Shake Shack had a dual-share capital structure with founder, Daniel Meyer, and his associates controlling 85.9 per cent of the voting rights. Meyer and the board had to consider and respond to Engaged Capital’s push for board seats at Shake Shack’s annual shareholder meeting on June 29, 2023.

Over a decade ago, Jazz, Pakistan’s largest data operator, embarked on a transformative journey toward fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within its organizational culture. Spearheaded by the vision of the chief executive officer and supported by a dedicated leadership team, Jazz undertook initiatives to create a gender-inclusive workplace. The organization introduced programs to support married women, women with children, and women returning to work after a career break. Despite significant progress, the leadership and DEI teams at Jazz believed there was more to achieve. In March 2024, Jazz leadership gathered at the Islamabad office to discuss what additional initiatives they could take to further improve the lives and livelihood of women in Pakistan.

By March 2022, the board of NTT DATA Group Corporation (NTT) had identified “innovation centers” as a critical investment priority of its midterm management plan. NTT, a multinational information technology services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, provided a range of technology consulting services and industry solutions to large business customers. With the success of innovation centers in the US and Europe, NTT decided to explore whether to open innovation centers in countries such as India and China. If so, it needed to determine what capabilities to develop there. Hiroshi Furukawa, head of research and development (R&D) and innovation at NTT, had to identify the new innovation centers’ locations, define their formats, and plan for customer collaboration opportunities.

As the Republic of Indonesia, the largest archipelagic nation in the world, was facing significant challenges posed by climate change, the imperative for immediate attention to the region’s climate issues became evident. Indeed, between 2018 and 2020, Indonesia issued three green sukuks, which were Shariah law-compliant debt instruments resembling green bonds. This case explores the specific approach taken by the Indonesian government to secure vital funding for initiatives aimed at mitigating and adapting to climate change in sectors including energy efficiency, renewable energy, resilience to climate change, sustainable transport, and waste and waste-to-energy management. The case also evaluates critical inquiries into the efficacy of the projects funded by the proceeds of green sukuk issuances in combating climate change.

Instructor Spreadsheet to accompany product W37568.

Student Spreadsheet to accompany product W37567.

In 2018, Ali Elsakka, a senior employee in the planning and performance department at a Gulf Cooperation Council country public health care organization, embarked on the development of a new performance measurement system to enhance the organization’s health care services. Elsakka recognized the need to enhance the organization’s performance and decided to create a strategy map based on the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard framework. Through his research, he uncovered common challenges in implementing this performance measurement framework in the health care sector, including inadequate communication, limited employee empowerment, and lack of consensus. Determined to address these issues, Elsakka believed that involving leaders in the development process would enhance their engagement and commitment. He recognized the strategy map as a powerful tool to effectively communicate the organization’s objectives. However, Elsakka faced the daunting task of designing a strategy map for a large health care organization and obtaining the approval of its employees.