Set in 2022, the case describes the partnership between Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) and The Social Kitchen (TSK), a social enterprise, to launch Unilever's flagship alt-meat brand 'The Vegetarian Butcher' (TVB) in Singapore. With a focus on 'future foods', Unilever planned to double the number of products that delivered positive nutrition and minimised environmental impact by 2025. Its vegan foods portfolio comprised nearly 700 products, with TVB as its most significant addition in the high-growth space of plant-based nutrition. UFS's tie up with TSK was driven by its aim to create social impact by helping people make healthier and sustainable lifestyle choices. Furthermore, positioning TVB as a 'brand with a purpose' could help it stand out in the highly competitive plant-based food space. TSK, a well-established social enterprise, provided UFS with an appropriate and credible platform to launch TVB in the city-state. The restaurant at Singapore's Jurong Bird Park, a popular tourist attraction, opened in partnership with TSK, proved to be a cost-effective platform for creating social media impressions, brand awareness and consumer interest. The full menu integration enabled TVB to experiment and develop new products for the taste palate of the locals. However, TSK comprised only one restaurant so far. Was that sufficient to launch TVB successfully in the highly competitive Singapore market? Should the company also look at other alternate food service channels to widen TVB's visibility? Moreover, did the venture generate adequate returns on the investments made by Unilever? Did the brand partnership with TSK and the related social media buzz generate enough sales leads to justify the collaboration moving forward? Most importantly, were sales and profitability in the short-term good enough criteria to assess the long-term intangibles such as a 'socially responsible' brand image and goodwill?

When Puneet Chhatwal took over as CEO of Taj Hotels in 2018, he faced an onerous task: improving the financials in a hyper-competitive environment marked by the arrival of foreigners such as Starwood Hotels and online entrants Airbnb and OYO. He perceived that the focus on employee empowerment and welfare (as the basis of service excellence) conflicted with the need to emphasize cost cutting to improve profitability. These inconsistences left managers and staff unsure of the overall strategy. In an attempt to resolve them, the hospitality veteran balanced a top-down drive for change with bottom-up involvement in the strategy-making process. Adept in recognizing and adjusting resource allocation to ensure the parent company IHCL achieved its goals, he delegated tasks to the leadership team and employees but kept them focused on the deliverables. With input from many managers across the organization, a new strategy emerged organically - Aspiration 2022 - that resonated with the entire staff. By late 2019, staff were reporting a stronger sense of direction in day-to-day operations. With this came increased profitability and stock performance in line with group targets. With the success of the turnaround, the CEO seemed set to pursue his strategic vision through 2022. Little did he know that the strategy-making processes he had put in place would be subjected to upheaval as a result of the imminent COVID-19 pandemic.

Associate Professor Chng Wee Joo, Director of the National University Cancer Institute Singapore (NCIS), started to move the treatment of cancer patients out of the hospital to the community and patients' homes. This innovative business model was implemented to manage the lack of space in the hospital and to reduce costs for patients. Chng also believed that an environment of strong family and community support would strengthen the morale of patients and result in fewer hospital readmissions. While Singapore had a reliable and balanced healthcare system, it faced higher healthcare expenses due to prolonged life expectancies and an ageing population just like other industrialised countries. Sedentary lifestyles, traditional diet habits and an increasingly polluted environment had led to an increase in cancer cases and cancer becoming the leading cause of death. The rising demand for cancer treatment had pushed the existing infrastructure and resources in hospitals to its limits and the shortage of hospital beds had resulted in a strategy to keep patients "out of the hospital" as long as possible. Operating under the National University Health System (NUHS) healthcare cluster, NCIS was a specialty centre designed to gain synergy by addressing all aspects of care related to the disease. With the clustering of public healthcare services in Singapore in 2017, NCIS now had the opportunity to incorporate primary care and end of life considerations in the care journey of a cancer patient. With his specialty in myeloma, a type of blood cancer, Chng led his team to focus on shifting healthcare out of the hospital and into patients' communities and home and started experimenting to deliver treatment outside of the hospital. Chng succeeded in treating myeloma in the outpatient clinic and subsequently in the patient's home. After the initial success, his team began working on similar projects in other type of cancers.