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Most managers in an international business are likely to be involved with international joint ventures (IJVs) during their career. IJVs have a greater chance of success if the businesses involved have good advisers on their teams. However, it can be a challenge to know what advisers to hire and how best to utilize their expertise. Drawing on their extensive career experience, the authors recommend best practices for hiring and working with international joint venture advisers based on three perspectives: legal, business, and academic. The possible roles of advisers, value versus cost of advisers, and what to look for and avoid when hiring advisers are outlined and framed within specific business examples.

The chief executive officer of McLaren Racing (McLaren), is considering the next strategic investment for the upcoming Formula 1 (F1) 2020 racing season. With goals to win the World Constructors’ Championship and challenge the top three F1 teams, the McLaren team must consider the benefits and challenges of two options: changing engine suppliers for radical improvement, or staying with the current engine supplier for incremental innovation. Adopting a new engine (Mercedes) would offer comparatively more speed than staying with the old engine; however, millions of data points collected from the old engine would no longer be applicable for future iterations. Alternatively, staying with the old engine (Renault) would allow McLaren to incrementally improve upon its existing car, but the fast innovation cycles in F1 mean McLaren must carefully weigh the possibility of diminishing benefits associated with this option.<br><br>In a highly uncertain environment with fast-paced design cycles, F1 offers a unique setting to understand how organizations in an innovation-based industry balance the competition between radical and incremental innovation. The trade-offs offered by these two approaches are further compounded by competitive innovation cycles, high costs, tight timelines, and planning limitations due to a considerable degree of luck on the race tracks.

In March 2020, Evolko Systems Private Limited encountered several strategic and operational effects resulting from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The private health care technology company, which was based in California, United States, used artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide products and services to India’s health care market. The company’s chief executive officer had to mitigate risk from the pandemic using his company’s business model and value offerings. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a lockdown order effective across all of India to slow the progress of the virus, affected some of the company’s key business elements and had a macroeconomic impact on its operations. The chief executive officer’s challenge was to explore all options to continue the business operations and to determine how to transform its physically interactive business model to one with little or no physical contact with clients.

Many people thought of knitting as a hobby for grandmothers, but the time-honored craft had evolved into a booming business with loyal, passionate, and interactive customers worldwide. The Spanish e-commerce business We Are Knitters (WAK) spent the last decade growing into what investors called the “world leader in online knitted kit sales,” a segment of the global $100 billion knitting industry. WAK’s sales soared by 240 per cent between April 2019 and April 2020 due to the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. By February 2021, while WAK’s co-founders were still grappling with pandemic-related challenges, ahead of WAK's 10-year anniversary, they also started to look ahead to consider plans for further growth and internationalization while maintaining their business model and competitive advantages.

California-based Intel Corporation (Intel) was one of the world’s leading semiconductor circuit firms. In July 2020, manufacturing delays with Intel’s 10 nanometre (nm) and 7 nm chips were adversely affecting the company’s customers at a time when demand for personal computers and laptops was at its peak. Unlike its competitors, Intel was vertically integrated. Competitors such as Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. had outsourced their chip manufacturing to leading contract manufacturers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) and were experiencing better market capitalization growth by focusing on designing chips for PCs and other product categories. TSMC had become the leading contract manufacturer for chips globally. Intel’s former chief executive officer (CEO) believed that Intel’s chip quality was the best because its manufacturing facilities were in house. At the same time, geopolitical issues between Taiwan, the United States, and China meant that regulatory authorities in the United States were not in favour of outsourcing critical chip manufacturing. In January 2021, Intel’s newly appointed CEO would have to decide whether Intel should outsource chip manufacturing to a contract manufacturer like TSMC and whether, in the long run, Intel should remain a vertically integrated unit or spin off its manufacturing division.

Mantra Ayurveda (Mantra), established in India in 2020, manufactured and marketed luxury Ayurvedic skin care and hair care products. The brand’s equity in the Indian market was low, its performance marketing efforts were not leading to expected revenue gains, and the revenue from direct-to-consumer (DTC) initiatives had experienced a negligible uptick in financial year (FY) 2020–21. In April 2021, the chief executive officer would have to convince the board and investors about his plans for achieving fourfold revenue growth from the DTC channel in FY 2021–22. He needed to propose a choice that would build the brand for long-term sustenance while delivering on short-term revenue goals, considering key strategic pillars: an international DTC market launch to expand; offline marketing to increase brand awareness; in-house and outsourced performance marketing to optimize digital efforts; and discounts, promotions, and the launch of smaller package sizes to drive trials. Making the right choice could lead to an expanded international brand presence and deeper penetration into the Indian luxury market. However, the wrong choice could mean an early exit of a major investor, leaving the company cash-starved and plunging both the company and the future of his career into uncertainty.

In June 2018, the government of Canada passed the Cannabis Act, paving the way for the legalization of recreational cannabis cultivation, acquisition, possession, and consumption on October 17 of that same year. This move set off a flurry of activity as existing companies, investment firms, and entrepreneurs sought to establish an initial position within the burgeoning industry. Mīhī Cannabis and its chief executive officer needed to navigate the complex patchwork of government regulations and other market factors to establish a launch strategy for the company that would differentiate it from the anticipated competition and support the normalization of the industry in the eyes of the communities in which it operated.

In early 2020, Singapore Airlines Limited (Singapore Airlines) faced severe liquidity issues as the global pandemic halted its flights and uncertainty loomed. Erstwhile massive cash reserves were quickly running out, and the airline’s executives pondered how to save the company from insolvency. Singapore Airlines’ majority shareholder, Temasek Holdings Limited, agreed to subscribe to a massive capital-raising exercise of up to S$15 billion via a proposed rights offer and mandatory convertible bonds (MCBs). Although minority shareholders were not convinced that the rights issue would be a good investment in such uncertain times, they had to decide whether to vote for it and whether to subscribe to the rights issue and MCBs.

In 2019, the Brazos Valley Food Bank (BVFB) in Texas increased its distribution and food-storage capacity and was delivering food to food-insecure people in six nearby counties through its partner agencies. While the number of food-insecure people in each of these counties was relatively stable, the food distribution capacities of BVFB’s partner agencies and the food supply fluctuated. As a non-profit organization, BVFB needed to equitably distribute food across all the counties it served, but it first needed to decide how to define “equitable food distribution.” Which parameters, food needs, or costs should it use to calculate this? How could it ensure that its food distribution did not favour one county over another? Was equitable food distribution achievable for BVFB at all?

Simple Energy was an electric scooter start-up in India founded with the intent of filling a market gap for a well-designed e-scooter, fully made in India, with sufficient range to be practical. In April 2021, with a couple of months left to launch Mark 2, the company’s first e-scooter, the founders needed to settle on their marketing strategy and decide how to position Simple Energy as a relatively new entrant in what was becoming a fiercely competitive market. Simple Energy had one model ready, but competitors had entered the market with multiple variants. Should Simple Energy introduce both a basic and premium variant of Mark 2? The founders also wondered whether they should focus on introducing Mark 2 in one city first or start operations in multiple cities simultaneously.

In 2016, UltraTech Cement Limited acquired a number of Jaypee Cement Corporation Ltd.’s cement capacity assets in India’s largest cement sector deal. As a result of this acquisition, all permanent employees at the acquired plants became employees of UltraTech Cement Limited. This included people working in plants, logistics, sales and marketing offices, and head office. On analyzing the employee data and organizational structure, considerable differences became apparent. The differences were related to organizational culture, organizational structure at the plant level, reporting relationships, and employee compensation. The challenge was to combine the two organizations and streamline human resources policies and practices fairly and equitably and help Jaypee Cement Corporation Ltd. employees integrate well into the newly merged entity.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Responsible Leadership Category at European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>In early 2021, McKinsey & Company (McKinsey) agreed to pay US$573 million to end US state-level investigations into claims that it had helped exacerbate the global opioid crisis. Tom Peters, an influential and highly respected management guru, was upset by how far his former employer had been willing to go in helping US drug maker Purdue Pharma LP increase sales of OxyContin, a narcotic-based painkiller that helped drive an opioid epidemic responsible for hundreds of thousands of tragic deaths. As far as Peters was concerned, there was no question as to whether what McKinsey did was wrong: it had ignored the “moral responsibility of business” by helping an unethical client maximize profit by aggressively promoting the wide-scale use of a highly addictive drug. In addition to asking why McKinsey was still open for business, Peters posed a previously unimaginable question: “At this moment in time, why would anyone want to go to work for McKinsey?”

If successful with its metaverse plans, Meta will dramatically expand its revenue streams by taking a cut of an explosion in sales of new digital goods, services, and software while significantly increasing its ability to study and influence consumers and sell their changed behaviours to advertisers. The latter is the focus of this article because Mark Zuckerberg’s idea of a brave new world is being built by the same people who helped create some of today’s major social problems. Whatever consumers choose to do in the real world and on social media, they can reimagine and do in the world of the metaverse—work, play, shop, date, exercise, bet, trade, learn, influence, travel, create, communicate, follow. While there is potential to improve remote work, the social costs of a virtual wild west could outweigh the benefits. Society stands the risk of being fed a steady, addictive, and customized mix of manipulated content by forces seeking to monetize the three elements that it takes to brainwash people–perceptions of identity, belonging, and injustice. The initial marketing focus will be on attracting users and getting them to spend a lot of time in Horizon Worlds. But the focus will shift to value extraction. This will likely be done by systematically and simultaneously working on users’ perceptions and behaviours while changing context continually. This evolution of marketing would break new and dangerous ground in oppositional marketing. While regulatory oversight of metaverse development is warranted, it isn’t guaranteed to happen or, if attempted, succeed at mitigating the risks.

Presentation for product W25374.

The Happy Turtle was a bootstrapped start-up in Delhi, India, that was focused on driving a circular economy for plastics. The company aimed to offer sustainable and biodegradable lifestyle alternatives to plastic, which could secure a greener future for the planet. The founder of The Happy Turtle had left a successful and flourishing corporate culture to follow her passion for sustainability. By mid-2019, The Happy Turtle had been growing at a slow but steady pace to reach a breakeven point. One year later, however, the company was finding itself at a crossroads. Business uncertainty had arisen due to the Indian government’s new policy on plastic waste management, various underlying issues related to the circular economy, and the challenge of raising money from angel investors. In addition, the founder was finding it difficult to recruit, hire, and retain the right talent to help her achieve The Happy Turtle’s vision. What strategic and routine decisions would she have to make to reach her company’s goals and vision?

VH1, MTV, and LOGO were all popular television channels owned by the Paramount television network. One of the most successful shows on LOGO was RuPaul’s Drag Race, a reality television show featuring drag queens. Paramount was considering moving RuPaul’s Drag Race off LOGO to a different platform within the Paramount portfolio in 2017. Before deciding where RuPaul’s Drag Race would air, Paramount needed to determine whether the show could be successful on another platform given its current fan base, how the potential move would affect the show’s ratings, and whether the positioning or targeting strategy for the series would need to change if it were moved.

Makena Wanjiru, chair of Kiri Mount Kenya Conservation Network and Resource Centre (Kiri), wondered whether turning Kiri’s loans business into a co-operative bank would be in the group’s best interest. The challenge was to convince the rest of the board members of the idea. The board of directors would meet on July 18, 2019. Wanjiru had to draft a report before then explaining how the idea was consistent with the group’s current strategy and would benefit Kiri for years to come. Wanjiru also needed to consider strategies to grow Kiri’s agribusiness beyond the Mount Kenya community.

Beijing’s Palace Museum was facing the threat of becoming irrelevant and obsolete. A former imperial palace, it housed thousands of priceless cultural relics of historical importance and was once a destination in high demand. However, over time, the museum found its popularity with modern youth was waning. To address this problem, the Palace Museum chose to follow in the footsteps of other global museums and in 1998, launched a digital transformation. By June 2020, the museum had made steady progress in its digitalization over the previous two decades. It formed partnerships with online media platforms and experimented with innovative technology in key areas of its systems and structures. However, this transformation did not come without criticism. Was the museum sacrificing its integrity and its cultural import by leaning too heavily on science and technology? If people could access the collections online, would anyone still bother to visit? The museum was challenged to weigh the risks and benefits of digital transformation.

In 2016, Pythagoras Global Fund (Pythagoras), based in the United Kingdom, decided to launch a fund focused on emerging markets, especially those in Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC countries). Pythagoras’s fund manager favoured investing in family-owned businesses, but the investment opportunities in India used ownership structures different than those used in developed markets. The structures in Indian groups altered the cash flow and effective ownership rights in the subsidiary firms, which had ramifications for stakeholders and raised associated governance issues. The fund manager needed to decide which firm to choose by assessing the investment opportunities and evaluating the corporate governance of the companies.

Supplemental Material for product W27084.