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Founded in 2013 and acquired by General Motors (GM) in 2016, Cruise was a trailblazer in the autonomous vehicle industry. Cruise had rapidly expanded under the guidance of GM, but this growth was marred by crashes and disruptive interactions with emergency vehicles. By November 2023, the company had become the focus of intense public and regulatory scrutiny following a serious incident in San Francisco, California, on October 2, when a Cruise robotaxi caused severe injuries to a pedestrian. In the aftermath of the incident, Cruise faced significant backlash from regulators and consumers. The California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended the company’s operational permits, and Cruise temporarily halted its driverless operations, shifting to vehicles operated with safety drivers. The co-founders resigned, and Cruise appointed a new president and chief technology officer. What actions should the new president take to prevent such an incident from happening again, regain the public’s trust, and ensure rigorous safety standards and transparent communication? The decisions the company made in the coming months would be crucial in shaping its future trajectory.

Sonali Saini was the founder of Sol’s ARC, a nonprofit organization that worked to benefit neurodiverse individuals. She had just returned from a meeting with senior representatives of a leading organization at which they expressed concerns about hiring neurodiverse people. She had managed to persuade them to agree to another meeting in 15 days, at which she planned to try to address their concerns. Saini was contemplating three strategic options: (a) developing a compelling business case by leveraging the past success stories of organizations that had benefited from hiring neurodiverse individuals, (b) channelling additional resources into advocacy and awareness efforts to change corporations’ perceptions of neurodiverse talent, and (c) offering additional services such as job mapping and carving jobs that are suited to neurodiverse individuals.

Spreadsheet to accompany product W37352.

In May 2023, Lei Yang, general manager of Jiangsu Tianan Smart Science and Technology Co. Ltd. (Tianan), based in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, was deciding how to improve his company’s profitability. In its early days, Tianan had sold in-vehicle infotainment devices to automobile companies, and in 2014, it started installing in-vehicle software systems and driver terminals. But from 2010 to 2017, the company lost money. So when the Chinese government announced in 2018 its plan to create internet of vehicle (IoV) pilot zones throughout China, Yang recognized this as an opportunity to transform his company and get rid of its losses. He restructured Tianan’s team, integrated its hardware and software suppliers, took advantage of the government’s help, and turned Tianan into an IoV system service provider. Tianan was profitable in 2020, 2021, and 2022—but Yang was not yet satisfied. Despite the turnaround, the company’s revenue still came primarily from the government, its project delivery capacity was too low to increase sales volume, and its limited bargaining power led to high purchase costs from suppliers. Now, in 2023, what could Yang do to improve his company’s profitability?

Founded in September 2016 and based in Beijing, China, ZOMOZOMO primarily conducted business through its gamified freelancers’ platform, where designers’ works were publicly requested, reviewed, chosen, and rewarded, eliminating some of the long-standing troubles within the industry, such as inefficiency, fragmentation, and lack of transparency. The company soon became a prominent player in the design industry. The first four years of the company witnessed the rapid expansion and diversification of its client base, which began to include many influential brands such as Amazon.com Inc., Nike Inc., and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. However, ZOMOZOMO began to find it increasingly challenging to meet the needs and requirements of its high-end clients in terms of response time, service quality control, and confidentiality. In deciding to shift from a bidding platform to a provider of one-stop design solutions, ZOMOZOMO needed to determine whether it should prioritize building its internal capabilities or seek external partnerships to deliver high-quality design solutions to its high-end clients.

Supplement for product W37009.

Why the need to proactively counter the impact of hubris on organizational leadership has never been greater.

February 2022 marked the start of the tenure of a new managing director and chief executive officer at Punjab National Bank, a critical position in the wake of the bank’s challenges, including a massive instance of fraud and challenges associated with the bank's amalgamation with the United Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce in 2020. With over three decades of experience leading other public sector banks, the new leader embarked on the mission to restore the bank’s 128-year legacy. Faced with the daunting task of restoring the bank’s former reputation and glory, he explored strategies for implementing a comprehensive plan to bring Punjab National Bank back on the track of sustainable growth. Which strategy would reshape the bank’s trajectory and ensure sustainable growth while also reviving the bank's legacy and heritage?

Zoho Corporation Ltd. (Zoho) was a privately held technology company that provided a suite of software applications for businesses of all sizes. The company was founded in 1996 with the aim of providing affordable, easy-to-use software applications to small- and medium-sized enterprises. In 2021, Zoho announced that it had reached $1 billion in revenue. The founders’ socio-economic vision of embracing collective well-being and purpose-driven leadership and following unconventional business practices such as transnational localism had contributed to its unwavering growth. Under the leadership of its chief executive officer, who focused on customer-centricity, simplicity, and doing business with responsibility and accountability, the organization was able to pursue social and commercial objectives simultaneously. In late 2023, Zoho intended to address the grand challenges of the world, particularly the challenges of a developing nation, through its coordinated actions and collaborative efforts. The chief executive officer faced several pressing questions: What should Zoho do to remain afloat amid the global downturn? As a socially responsible enterprise, how can could Zoho balance its business goals with social goals, given the complex landscape of social responsibility?

This role-play exercise presents students with a realistic and complex negotiation challenge: it asks them to participate in a quantifiable negotiation between managing partners in a venture capital fund who are embroiled in a co-founder dispute. The negotiation is multifaceted, focusing on both reputational safeguards and financial outcomes across five key quantifiable issues. The negotiation is also underscored by an atypical yet critical ethical conundrum, offering a rich context for exploring the interplay between ethical considerations and business decision-making. These scenarios compel negotiators to engage deeply with the ethical dimensions of their strategies, assessing not only the limits of their own moral flexibility but also the veracity of their adversary’s claims.

The president of Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in Kamloops, Canada, Brett Fairbairn, faced backlash and scrutiny for his handling of a harassment and discrimination investigation into two of his senior leaders. In November 2021, two local media outlets released details of the allegations that were brought to the attention of the President and Board of Governors months earlier. The case outlines the public reactions, and a timeline of events, as reported via TRU’s public website and local news media, as well as social media posts from interested parties. The President is faced with a decision on how to respond to his varying stakeholders when his leadership and the vision of the university are at stake.

Khayal Gumaan, a professor at a reputable Canadian university, had many years of experience teaching on campus, where she prided herself in creating a safe and respectful environment by valuing diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) in her classroom. When the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced courses to be delivered online, she taught for the first time an online course in organizational behaviour for undergraduate students. Although still committed to promoting DEI in class, the professor found it difficult to do so in the virtual environment. Then, in the first month of her online course, a student appealed to her in a private email, asking her to intervene in an unsettling group discussion. The professor was determined to engage her students on the sensitive topic of DEI. How should she respond to the situation in her class’s online group discussion and also use it as a teaching opportunity?

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for businesses worldwide. With operations halted and supply chains disrupted, Exide Industries Limited (EIL), a prominent name in India’s battery sector, found itself at a pivotal juncture. It had a machine imported from Italy that was critical to its manufacturing operations sitting uncommissioned due to travel restrictions. An innovative solution was proposed to adopt an augmented reality (AR) solution for remote support, which could potentially transform EIL’s manufacturing operations, but also raised questions about the feasibility and implications of integrating this technology. EIL had to weigh strategic, operational, and technological considerations to decide whether to embark on this technological innovation and service transformation path during a global crisis.

By August 2023, Byju Raveendran, chief executive officer of Think & Learn Private Limited (doing business as BYJU'S), was facing corporate governance and ethical challenges, resulting in regulatory authorities scrutinizing the company. BYJU'S valuation also declined from a high of $21.2 billion in March 2023 to $5.1 billion by June 2023. Critics accused Raveendran of leveraging aggressive growth strategies, resulting in a decline in the company's performance. And Raveendran was increasingly pressured by stakeholders and critics to step down from BYJU'S board. Should Raveendran step down as chief executive officer? How can he undo the wrongdoing with different stakeholders? What could have driven him to pursue aggressive growth at the cost of ethics and governance?

People in Yemen faced several challenges such as lack of food, water, electricity, or proper hygiene and sanitation. Distressed by the challenges faced by the Yemenis, Iman Hadi (Hadi) set up Friends of the Environment Station (FOES) solar micro-grid station in Abs district in the Hajjah governorate in Yemen backed by the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP). In 2021, Hadi planned to scale up her solar project in other rural districts of Yemen where 47 families had no access to electricity. Going forward, she also had ambitious plans to launch a large solar power plant to provide solar electricity to nearly 3,060 households in the Al-Ghadi area in Yemen. How would Hadi scale up her solar project to other districts in Yemen?

Innovation in aged care offers opportunities to create positive and inclusive change. Globally, healthcare systems are realizing the importance of customer-focused care, especially, when funding is limited. Residential aged care providers have traditionally focused on ensuring the health and safety of their residents. However, there are opportunities to address residents’ needs and enhance their well-being without compromising their health and safety. The case explores a not-for-profit healthcare service organization seeking to make improvements to meals that will improve nutrition, but do not require a significant financial investment. This case examines the role of food and nutrition and also positions the dining experience as a mediator for residents’ quality of life.

The founders of SENS Foods (SENS), a Czech sustainable-food small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), wanted to expand the business beyond their home market. SENS was operating in the rapidly growing alternative-protein market using products derived from edible crickets. Due to its increasing profitability and international expansion potential, SENS saw an opportunity to expand into one of more Nordic markets—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. SENS had to explore the possible modes of entry and evaluate the most suitable ones. In the short term, SENS had a sustained competitive advantage with its Thailand-based Cricket Lab Ltd. farm and its brand name. SENS’s intangible resources—business positioning and messaging, innovation, and research—represented a temporary competitive advantage. For market selection purposes, five cluster criteria were proposed to assess the attractiveness of the identified markets: estimating the level of primary competition, market maturity, market size, country environmental performance, and transportation costs. The founders needed to evaluate the four Nordic countries using these five selection criteria to identify the top two countries for further examination regarding mode of entry and level of competition.

Rijul Jain, the operations supervisor at Grooves Distillery Records (Grooves), is trying to decide if and how to address capacity issues at this boutique vinyl record production facility after receiving a large contract that increased demand significantly. Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the small business was started by Josephine “Fina” Leite and her wife, Theresa, to produce vinyl records of modern indie music for vinyl record enthusiasts. Jain must figure out where a bottleneck exists, balance Grooves' line of production workers, and increase production to meet demand.

The case study revolves around Amir Hashem El Dandarawy, the leader of the El Amara tribe in Upper Egypt, who faces two pressing conflicts. El Dandarawy must navigate these conflicts, mediate between the embattled families, and assert his tribe's rights while maintaining neutrality and integrity. The case examines El Dandarawy's leadership style; prominent Western leadership models such as servant leadership, transformational leadership, situational leadership, and ethical leadership; and different approaches to conflict resolution in Arab culture, including mediation, negotiation, consultation, and consensus-building. Students are challenged to compare and contrast Western and Eastern approaches to leadership and conflict resolution.

In late 2022, a difficult period for the cryptocurrency industry persisted, marking the middle of what many considered a “crypto winter.” Popular tokens and currencies like Bitcoin and Solana lost over 50 per cent of their value, with other Web 3.0 adjacent technologies following the same path. Debate surrounded the industry at large, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) flexed its regulatory muscle on a “poster boy” non-fungible token (NFT), Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), in efforts to provide more structure to the NFT market. The chairman of the SEC, Gary Gensler, who was extremely knowledgeable in the crypto space and also considered a tough regulator among the community, had to determine how to classify BAYC. Ultimately, questions surrounding BAYC’s legal interpretation were being posed in the SEC's investigation: Should BAYC be regulated as a security? Were investors protected? Should NFTs be considered art? Did BAYC violate security regulations? As one of the leading representatives of the entire $2 trillion crypto industry, the potential regulation of BAYC had major implications for its peers, the underlying technology, and a spectrum of investors.