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By the end of 2020, Ambuja Cement Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of Ambuja Cements Ltd., based in Mumbai, India, had been uplifting its communities through social development goals for the past 25 years. The specific focus of its activities had been water harvesting, agriculture development skills training, health, and education. However, the foundation faced the consistent challenge of measuring the impact of its corporate social responsibility projects with reference to the social development goals selected by the company in terms of performance or improvement at the village level. In December 2020, the vice-president of Ambuja Cement Foundation needed to determine which measurement the foundation should use to measure the performance of its community development programs and its alignment with the social development goals. Should it go along with the existing measurement tools or adopt a new model to measure performance and impact?

Ivan and Lana Kuznetsov are a dual-career couple and parents to four young children. Having immigrated to Canada from Russia in 2012, they are both in the process of rebuilding their careers. Ivan already has what can be considered a successful career, with local credentials, experience, and a good professional network, but he is not quite satisfied and considers making a change. Lana’s career in Canada is in its early stages. As a recent college graduate, she is only beginning to realize her dreams and is working in an entry-level part-time position. When Lana receives a full-time job offer that will require her full attention and energy, the couple need to decide whose career to prioritize, as one of them will have to focus on the family. Over a person’s lifetime, multiple career choices are made that are also related to their other life roles. Each spouse has different reasons and motivations for the vocational choices they make that affect both of their actions throughout their lives. In a situation of conflicting goals, where both spouses cannot work full-time, and one of them has to make a sacrifice, each option has potential benefits and risks.

In March 2021, a group of junior investment banking analysts at the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., an American multinational investment bank, told senior management that they were suffering burnout from having to work 100-hour weeks. Nearly a year since the start of the pandemic, this workplace culture crisis heightened the importance of senior leadership prioritizing employees’ mental and physical health. In addition, it drew attention to the importance of person-organization fit and to the changing labour market. A top-ranked undergraduate business student recently received a full-time job offer from Goldman Sachs. After learning of critical incidents of employee burnout at the firm, she was considering whether the company culture aligned with her values and whether she would be a good fit there.

In December of 2020, the head of product development at QualityKiosk Technologies Private Limited (QualityKiosk) was grappling with a significant issue. QualityKiosk provided application quality assurance, business automation, digital experience management, and data analytics services to financial services companies across India. Krishna had to recommend the way forward for the company’s latest product—Anabot, a new information technology (IT) journey analytics platform. The Anabot platform could provide its clients with quick insight about any IT incidents in the client’s technology services. It also provided around-the-clock intelligence to the client’s team handling those incidents. In its first year of sales, the customer journey analytics platform had been adopted by five major clients, generating over ₹20 million in revenues for QualityKiosk. However, between May and August 2020, none of over fifty potential clients who had expressed an interest in the Anabot product had proceeded to make a purchase. For the entire Anabot product team, anxiety was increasing about the future of their product. In an upcoming product review meeting with the company’s chief executive officer, the head of product development would be required to present his recommendations for the future of the Anabot platform.

Spreadsheet to accompany product W28436.

In January 2022, MitiMeth was a Nigeria-based innovative social enterprise that produces handcrafted products made from natural fibres—agricultural waste and aquatic weeds—that are otherwise considered to be waste or a hazard to the environment. MitiMeth added value to this material by transforming it into well-designed furniture and home furnishings, storage boxes, lamps, kitchen and dinner ware, stationery, and souvenir items. Mitimeth’s initiative of transforming this environmental nuisance into marketable products provided work for more than 600 people from over twenty-five communities in Nigeria. Despite challenges in exporting from Nigeria, MitiMeth had made good progress in reaching international markets. MitiMeth had already gone through several challenges, and the COVID-19 pandemic only added to the difficulties the enterprise had experienced. Mitimeth needed a plan that ensured MitiMeth’s long-term sustainability.

This case deals with the challenges and learnings associated with the implementation of flexible work practices at TDC Group, Denmark’s largest provider of digital infrastructure and entertainment. The company has decided that most of its workforce should not return to the office as per normal before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. The case examines TDC Group's vision of a new way of working and how it went about implementing the new program.

In March 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains. The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus affected the entire world, including the scenic Prince Edward County in Eastern Ontario. Three co-owners of the boutique distillery Kinsip House of Fine Spirits (Kinsip) were inspired to contribute to their community’s efforts to limit further spread of the virus. As a distillery, Kinsip was aptly able to produce the principal ingredient of hand sanitizer—ethanol. The other two main ingredients—glycerol and hydrogen peroxide—were generally procured on the open market from North American suppliers. Obtaining the right packaging for the sanitizer as quickly as possible, including both the bottle and the cap, was one of the key challenges the three partners were facing. Another challenge was navigating Health Canada’s approval process. In addition, the partners needed to determine Kinsip’s capacity to supply hand sanitizer to the local region and the production schedule on which it could deliver the product.

Dietz and Watson (D&W), a family run business that had been operating in Philadelphia for over eighty years, was a key player in the deli meat product market. D&W was concerned about losing market share overall; it was dependent on the aging baby boomer segment and possibly not top of mind for a younger, more progressive demographic. In early 2019, the company’s vice-president of brand strategy had to consider various options for investing the brand’s resources and offer a credible plan to the chief financial officer. What tactics could the company employ? What were the risks of various marketing strategies, and how could the company mitigate those risks? Could a digital strategy help D&W make inroads with the targeted demographic? If so, what would such a strategy look like?

In early June 2021, an independent investigation team released its report into the way Japan-based Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba) had conducted its 2020 annual shareholder meeting, finding that the company had mishandled the annual general meeting with respect to shareholder rights. As a result, Toshiba had to deal with the immediate problem of putting up a new slate of nominee board directors to be put to a vote at the next annual shareholder meeting to be held on June 25, 2021. Toshiba also had to deal with the long-term problem of improving the company’s corporate governance and re-establish trust in the way the company was run. The board had one week in which to prepare a plan to present at the annual general meeting that would restore trust in the company.

Paytm was India’s first digital wallet service provider. It revolutionized the country’s digital payments landscape, but it was slow to adopt Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments. The entry of WhatsApp into the digital payments industry on November 6, 2020 intensified the competition in the UPI segment of the market that Google Pay and PhonePe already dominated by focusing on person-to-person (P2P) transactions. With a strong 400-million user base, WhatsApp threatened to be a formidable competitor in the P2P segment. Paytm was in third position in the UPI-based payments market, but maintained a firm hold on the person-to merchant (P2M) segment. Should Paytm continue to focus on that segment or should it expand to P2P, which was a larger market with big competitors?

A former investment banking professional had her eureka moment when she noticed instances of assaults on single women travelling alone in taxi cabs at odd times of the day. The prevalence of these instances led her to begin a safe cab service run by women for women—Taxshe Services Pvt. Ltd. (Taxshe), located in Bengaluru, India. In March 2020, the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic began in India, and a lockdown was announced as a preventive measure. Taxshe, whose customers mainly comprised working women and school-going children, faced a significant challenge, as the sudden changes and stringent restrictions brought on by the lockdown precipitated a substantial drop in the need for cab services. Taxshe’s founder contemplated the company’s dilemma and consulted people from across her wide network of personal and professional acquaintances. How could she keep Taxshe up and running in spite of the restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic? What value-added specialty services could Taxshe offer as a cab service during the pandemic that would benefit society at large?

In June 2021, a strategist in the Canadian offices of Summit Consulting’s products strategy group was contemplating how to improve her recognition and standing within the professional services organization. However, she believed that her ability to advance was hampered by a conflict in the relationship between her direct manager and her coach. The strategist wanted to strengthen her own relationship with her direct manager, which seemed to be suffering due to her close relationship with her coach. The products strategy group was expected to grow significantly over the next year, during which time the strategist hoped to be promoted to the position of manager. However, she worried that the conflict between her two managers would stand in her way.

In August 2021, Singapore Airlines Group (SIA) was at a critical juncture in its history. Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had forced commercial travel to almost a standstill, requiring SIA to idle most of its fleet. The group’s overall revenues had declined by 76 per cent in the 2020/21 financial year, resulting in a loss of S$4.27 billion. The massive cash bleed forced the group to issue new capital, thus diluting the stake of its existing shareholders. Although SIA’s results had improved for the quarter ended June 30, 2021, the emergence of new virus variants and continued travel restrictions meant that the group needed to make critical decisions that would have implications for both its short-term survival and its long-term performance.

In January 2021, the co-founder of Mystery Books Co. (Mystery Books) was evaluating the company’s 2020 performance under the leadership of his daughter as the new chief executive officer. His daughter had ambitions of securing Walmart Inc. as a key client, so the co-founder had promised her an additional performance bonus of 5 per cent of his 30 per cent ownership of common stock if she grew the company’s net income by 20 per cent over the previous year. Throughout his thirty years of managing the company as chief executive officer, the co-founder had maintained very conservative accounting policies, some of which had been modified under his daughter's management. After reviewing the 2020 financial information, the co-founder harboured several concerns: Should he have specified more conditions for his daughter's performance incentive? Would the accounting policy changes pass the scrutiny of the company’s external auditors? And how should he proceed with regard to the suspicious sales activity he noticed? With these questions at the front of his mind, the co-founder of Mystery Books thought that perhaps he should have somehow left more reporting guidance for the company prior to leaving.

After Wirecard AG (Wirecard) collapsed in 2020, the financial technology (fintech) company, revealed as an elaborate fraud, came to be known as Germany’s Enron as investigators confirmed many of the concerns that had been raised by whistle-blowers and journalists. For instance, they confirmed that the company was using round-tripping to inflate revenues and that escrow accounts in Southeast Asia did not exist. Auditors had raised concerns for years, but then signed off on the company’s financial statements. What were the responsibilities of regulators and auditors with regard to the company, and what red flags should they have paid attention to?

Aftertaste Foundation (Aftertaste) was an organization that provided livelihood support to women living in the impoverished urban areas of Mumbai, India, who created sustainable handicrafts. Aftertaste was started in 2013 and initially employed three craftswomen. By 2021, the organization had expanded to two locations and had increased the number of craftswomen employed to 40. Aftertaste’s business model was focused on creating social impact by generating revenue through the sale of handcrafted items to corporate and retail buyers. For six years, Aftertaste was supported financially by the social impact organization Avanti Foundation. In September 2019, Aftertaste was registered as an independent entity. However, shortly after its transition, in March 2020, the foundation was confronted by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. A nationwide order for temporary lockdowns soon forced Aftertaste to stop all in-person operations. When the country started reopening after pandemic lockdowns, Aftertaste’s owner struggled to maintain the financial sustainability of her organization. Surrounded by enduring pandemic uncertainty, she had to decide what strategy to pursue for the future of her organization. How could she overcome her venture’s losses and lead Aftertaste on a path of financially sustainable growth?

In January 2021, the chief data and analytics officer (CDAO) at Allianz Benelux SA (Allianz) spotted a possible opportunity to optimize cash flow with direct debit. Direct debit was a pre-authorized financial transaction between two parties where the amount due was directly and automatically collected from the payer’s bank account. Direct debit would allow Allianz to shorten payment processes, reduce risks by anticipating payments, and improve customer loyalty. Despite the clear advantages of direct debit for both clients and insurers, only a few of Allianz’s clients were currently making use of direct debit. It was not clear what drove Allianz’s customers or brokers to implement direct debit. This was where the CDAO and his data office team came in. The data office possessed a large amount of data on Allianz’s property and casualty insurance contracts and customers. Now the team needed to investigate how this data could be leveraged to determine the value drivers and develop a strategy to convert more clients to direct debit payments.

One of India’s leading stainless steel conglomerates, Jindal Stainless Limited (JSL) specialized in manufacturing flat sheets and coils, specific sections, pipes, and tubes. Abhyudaya Jindal, the managing director of JSL, was recently informed about the growing number of counterfeit products on the market that were adversely impacting JSL’s brand reputation and sales, as well as goodwill towards the company.<br><br>This case explores the challenges faced by Abhyudaya Jindal as he tried to address the issue of counterfeiting in the stainless steel pipes and tubes market. The case discusses various ways a company can battle counterfeit goods and how co-branding can be used as a market strategy. The case also examines how strengthening relationships with channel members can help a brand fight counterfeiting.

By January 2022, approximately 100 employees from Microsoft Corporation’s (Microsoft) HoloLens division, which had pioneered augmented reality (AR), quit. Most joined Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook), despite the company’s recent controversies. Meta was seeking talent for metaverse technology that required AR and virtual reality (VR) expertise. Metaverse talent was scant industry wide. Meta offered double salaries to poach talent from Microsoft, its partner for different projects. The executives leaving Microsoft were key employees of the HoloLens division. Microsoft’s choice to not hire more engineers after the US Army contract led employees to question Microsoft’s commitment toward HoloLens, a part of metaverse technology. However, Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, confirmed Microsoft’s commitment toward metaverse technology, though some employees disagreed. What could Nadella do to retain HoloLens employees? With an increasing demand for metaverse-related skills, how could Nadella attract more talent? Was Meta’s employee poaching likely to bring any good news for Microsoft?