"In the summer of 2020, amid nationwide protests following George Floyd's murder, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller faced multiple crises: a police department under a federal consent decree, rising violent crime, and COVID-19-related challenges. In response, Keller and his team launched the Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS) department, designed to handle non-violent 911 calls related to mental health, homelessness, and substance abuse by deploying trained professionals instead of police officers. ACS aimed to reduce the burden on police and fire services while addressing root causes of public safety issues through a social justice and public health approach. Despite political opposition from both conservatives and progressives, ACS became operational in September 2021. By 2023, it was successfully diverting thousands of calls from the police and addressing a wide range of community needs. However, the program faced challenges, including media backlash, staff unionization, and concerns about funding and long-term sustainability. The case concludes with Keller navigating these obstacles as he works to institutionalize ACS beyond his tenure."

On July 1, 2022, Don Allan was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Stanley Black & Decker (SBD). Although Allan had been with the firm for 23 years, most recently serving as President and Chief Financial Officer, he recognized that he was stepping into his new role as CEO at a time of turbulence and uncertainty. Allan and SBD had to grapple with the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and runaway inflation, among other challenges. More broadly, there was the sense that these obstacles reflected a shifting paradigm. "There is no normal anymore," Allan said. "The normal is change." This case study documents how, over decades, SBD had developed a robust innovation ecosystem with three horizons: (1) Core Innovation-which the company defined as making incremental improvements to existing products or creating new offerings that would drive year-over-year revenue growth; (2) Breakthrough Innovation-creating products that were worth at least $100 million and would substantially transform their markets; and (3) Stanley X-leveraging cutting-edge technology (e.g., software and IoT) to pursue extreme innovation, which SBD defined as products that "reimagine how we operate in today's technology-enabled, fast-paced world." The case allows for a discussion of the complexities of managing and growing a large business; 2) the tensions between maintaining a sophisticated innovation capability and profitability; and 3) Don Allen's decision about whether to pull back on the firm's pursuit of 'extreme' innovation and the impact of doing so on employees, customers, and shareholders.

It was the height of the summer in 2022, and Michel Doukeris, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), and Peter Kraemer, the company's Chief Supply Officer, gazed across the vast desert surrounding Zacatecas, Mexico. They were visiting their Grupo Modelo Brewery, AB InBev's largest and the highest-volume producer in the world, to contemplate their goal of increasing sales while reducing the company's impact on the natural environment. This case documents how company executives led an organizational transformation designed to help the firm balance growth and sustainability and achieve two benchmarks: becoming the number-one consumer packaged goods company for top-line growth and achieving their 2025 sustainability target, referred to as 100+ goals, and composed of smart agriculture, water stewardship, circular packaging, and climate action. The case illuminates the key decisions AB InBev executives needed to make, including making capital-intensive investments into the supply chain that drive sustainability and growth, reinventing processes and an overarching business model that had remained largely the same for hundreds of years, as well as changing how people work in a culture steeped in tradition.