Back when the author was the CEO of Virgin Mobile, he accepted a challenge to live like a homeless person for 24 hours in New York City--with no money or credit card, no cell phone, just the clothes on his back. A few years later, when he was head of a division at American Express, he joined his leadership team in a variation on that experiment: They would spend an entire day trying to pay bills and transfer money the way people without bank accounts or credit cards have to. Those experiences increased his empathy for less-affluent people and his awareness of how difficult it is for them to manage and move money--and energized PayPal's new strategy after Schulman joined the company as CEO, in 2014. That strategy was to be a "customer champion" company and reorganize into just two groups: merchants and consumers. For merchants, PayPal would evolve its technology platform to enable more-intimate relationships with customers using mobile and software. For consumers, it would empower underserved citizens throughout the world to make more-secure, faster, easier, and less-expensive financial transactions. Within those two segments, the company has created or acquired a suite of products that target different markets, including Venmo for Millennials, Xoom for international digital payments, and PayPal Working Capital, which lends money to small businesses.

Jim Hargrove, the marketing director of $820 million Neptune Gourmet Seafood, is having a bad week. Neptune is the most upmarket player in the $20 billion industry, and the company is doing everything it can to preserve its premium image among customers. But Neptune's recent investment in state-of-the-art freezer trawlers, along with new fishing regulations, is resulting in catches that are bigger than ever. Though demand is at an all-time high, the company is saddled with excess inventory--and there's no relief in sight. Neptune's sales head, Rita Sanchez, has come up with two strategies that Hargrove feels would destroy the company's premium image: cut prices or launch a new mass-market brand. Not many executives in the company are in favor of cutting prices, but it's clear that Sanchez is gaining ground in her bid to launch a low-priced brand. Reputation worries aside, Hargrove fears that an inexpensive brand would cannibalize the company's premium line and antagonize the powerful association of seafood processors. How can he get others to see the danger, too? Commenting on this fictional case study in R0504A and R0504Z are Dan Schulman, the CEO of Virgin Mobile USA, a wireless voice and data services provider; Dipak C. Jain, a professor of marketing and the dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University; Oscar de la Renta, chairman, and Alexander L. Bolen, CEO, of Oscar de la Renta Ltd., the New York-based luxury goods manufacturer; and Thomas T. Nagle, the chairman of the Strategic Pricing Group, a Massachusetts-based management consultancy that specializes in pricing.

Jim Hargrove, the marketing director of $820 million Neptune Gourmet Seafood, is having a bad week. Neptune is the most upmarket player in the $20 billion industry, and the company is doing everything it can to preserve its premium image among customers. But Neptune's recent investment in state-of-the-art freezer trawlers, along with new fishing regulations, is resulting in catches that are bigger than ever. Though demand is at an all-time high, the company is saddled with excess inventory--and there's no relief in sight. Neptune's sales head, Rita Sanchez, has come up with two strategies that Hargrove feels would destroy the company's premium image: cut prices or launch a new mass-market brand. Not many executives in the company are in favor of cutting prices, but it's clear that Sanchez is gaining ground in her bid to launch a low-priced brand. Reputation worries aside, Hargrove fears that an inexpensive brand would cannibalize the company's premium line and antagonize the powerful association of seafood processors. How can he get others to see the danger, too? Commenting on this fictional case study in R0504A and R0504Z are Dan Schulman, the CEO of Virgin Mobile USA, a wireless voice and data services provider; Dipak C. Jain, a professor of marketing and the dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University; Oscar de la Renta, chairman, and Alexander L. Bolen, CEO, of Oscar de la Renta Ltd., the New York-based luxury goods manufacturer; and Thomas T. Nagle, the chairman of the Strategic Pricing Group, a Massachusetts-based management consultancy that specializes in pricing.