The case tells the story behind "My INSEAD Story" - a unique book for children based on the INSEAD MBA experience of their parents. Sian Bentson and Ankur Grover came up with the idea as part of their final assignment for the "SPSD: Creative Thinking" course. It subsequently became the basis of a commercial product and, ultimately, a company, StoryPie (storypie.co) - which creates storybooks from the personal experiences of parents. Ankur Grover shares the behind-the-scenes journey, describing the rollercoaster ride from concept development to product launch. The case explains how innovation projects (even for simple products) are carried out - from gathering user insights to ideation, prototyping, and testing - and the sources of uncertainty that a project leader has to manage during the innovation journey. There are two versions of the case. Part 1 describes the product conceptualization as part of a 10-day course assignment. The complete version covers the journey over the two months that followed the course to develop it into a commercial product.

The case tells the story behind "My INSEAD Story" - a unique book for children based on the INSEAD MBA experience of their parents. Sian Bentson and Ankur Grover came up with the idea as part of their final assignment for the "SPSD: Creative Thinking" course. It subsequently became the basis of a commercial product and, ultimately, a company, StoryPie (storypie.co) - which creates storybooks from the personal experiences of parents. Ankur Grover shares the behind-the-scenes journey, describing the rollercoaster ride from concept development to product launch. The case explains how innovation projects (even for simple products) are carried out - from gathering user insights to ideation, prototyping, and testing - and the sources of uncertainty that a project leader has to manage during the innovation journey. There are two versions of the case. Part 1 describes the product conceptualization as part of a 10-day course assignment. The complete version covers the journey over the two months that followed the course to develop it into a commercial product.

A recently hired U.S.-trained sales account manager at Medical Equipment Inc. (Medical Equipment) returned to his office after meeting with the head of the cardiology department at a specialist hospital and research center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He had worked very hard to secure his first sale of US$725,000 for healthcare equipment, but was disheartened when the head of cardiology told him that the hospital's purchasing director intended to give the order to Medical Equipment's main competitor. The competition's sales representative and the purchasing director had known each other for 10 years and the head cardiologist implied that there might be side payments involved. The sales account manager knew Medical Equipment's product was superior and wondered how he could secure the order without having a history with the purchasing director or without engaging in practices he found ethically questionable.

A recently hired U.S.-trained sales account manager at Medical Equipment Inc. (Medical Equipment) returned to his office after meeting with the head of the cardiology department at a specialist hospital and research center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He had worked very hard to secure his first sale of US$725,000 for healthcare equipment, but was disheartened when the head of cardiology told him that the hospital's purchasing director intended to give the order to Medical Equipment's main competitor. The competition's sales representative and the purchasing director had known each other for 10 years and the head cardiologist implied that there might be side payments involved. The sales account manager knew Medical Equipment's product was superior and wondered how he could secure the order without having a history with the purchasing director or without engaging in practices he found ethically questionable.