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This note explores the technology and economics of emerging 5G networks.

This short case provides an update to Elon Musk's strategy and tactical moves with Tesla, Solar City, and SpaceX from 2016-2019.

Mobileye was an Israeli company, officially headquartered in The Netherlands, which was a Tier 2 supplier to the global automobile industry. This short case updates Mobileye's business performance and strategy, following the acquisition by Intel in 2017.

Stephane Kasriel, the CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, updates his progress on how to redesign its business model in 2019.

The case explores Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse's mission to disrupt the global payments industry by leveraging the cryptocurrency XRP. Students will learn about Bitcoin and the blockchain industry, as well as Ripple's unique crypto business model. The case provides an opportunity to navigate the areas of distributed technology, platforms, regulation, and global payments, from the perspective of a San Francisco software startup with over $20 billion in digital assets.

In 2019 Walmart was still the world's largest company, with over $500 billion in annual revenue and operations around the world. Although it had mostly vanquished its rival discount retailers in the U.S., it was struggling to find the right growth strategy. Facing a mature U.S. market, it had looked to ecommerce and international sales as an engine of growth. Walmart leadership also faced intense competition from dominant online retailer Amazon. In such a competitive environment, how should Walmart respond to the reality that its traditional strengths no longer guaranteed robust growth?

This case is set in mid-2019, when Qualcomm was struggling with unwanted take-over battles, fights with Apple and the Chinese government, and internal dissension on the board of directors. Ten years earlier Qualcomm was hailed as a monopoly on CDMA technologies and its derivatives, it appeared to be positioned to become the next dominant technology company in the tradition of Microsoft and Intel. But as the industry changed, Qualcomm's competitive position seriously weakened. The purpose of the case is to explore central questions in strategy formulation: 1. how to build a long-term sustainable position based on technology; 2. how to design an IP strategy to lock-in customers for the long-run; 3. how to build a global standard and appropriate returns on that standard; and 4. how to respond when your historical business model starts to crumble.

By early 2018, voice-controlled intelligent assistants had become a major new front in the battle between the giants of the technology sector. "Voice War" focuses on Alphabet's strategy for Google Assistant, its entrant in the voice assistant space, and asks how the voice assistant should fit in with Alphabet's larger portfolio of products and services. While the mobile phone was the major platform for Google Assistant, Alphabet had recently introduced a range of smart home speakers to challenge first-mover Amazon's Echo of devices, which were powered by its intelligent assistant, Alexa. Google also faced competition from Apple, whose intelligent assistant Siri had long been a staple of its mobile devices, but which introduced a smart home speaker in early 2018. Other competitors included Microsoft and Samsung, along with Chinese players Tencent, Alibaba, and Xiaomi.

Many observers worried about what would happen to Apple when Steve Jobs died in 2011. But Apple had performed above everyone's expectations in Cook's six years as CEO. Apple's core business - the iPhone - continued to deliver spectacular results. In addition, Cook was aggressively introducing new products, ranging from Apple Watch to HomePod. Cook also had the world's biggest balance sheet to invest in new technologies and markets. The total number of products in Apple's portfolio had doubled (from roughly 20 to 40) under Tim Cook. The question for Cook in 2018 was no longer, 'can Apple thrive without Steve Jobs,' but rather 'can Apple move beyond a one-trick pony (iPhone)'?

This case provides a brief update on Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp.

In fall 2017, HTC CEO and Chairperson Cher Wang was driving the company to focus on virtual reality (VR). HTC's first VR product, VIVE, released in spring 2016, was applauded for its superior immersive room-scale capabilities. However, early adoption of VR beyond gamers and technology enthusiasts was off to a slower start in general to due high cost, lack of quality content, and some user discomfort while using the technology. Wang endeavors to be the leading VR company though competition from Sony, Facebook, and other technology leaders is mounting and several, like HTC, are already pursuing second generation tetherless VR technology. As Wang seeks to develop the ecosystem by partnering with developers, creating a content platform, investing in VR startups, and launching VR arcades, she must decide the appropriate balance of fostering innovation in hardware, software and services, or both.

This brief note explores the emerging possibilities of virtual reality and its potential as a gaming platform.

CyberArk was the recognized leader in the Privileged Account Management (PAM) space, a cybersecurity subsegment it had essentially created to secure organizations' IT systems and sensitive data. Over 17 years, the Israeli company had grown to a market capitalization of over $1.6 billion, with sales exceeding $217 million and 900 global employees with a strong corporate culture. In May 2017, Udi Mokady, founder, chairman, and CEO, debated how best to drive growth. He mulled over whether he should stay the course and remain focused on providing best-of-breed PAM for enterprises, both on-premise and in the cloud, or expand into new markets. Cyber threats were on the rise, which afforded numerous growth opportunities such as entering the broader identity management space, creating new products to protect critical infrastructure, and securing the burgeoning world of the Internet of Things (IoT). This case explores the company's competitive position, the challenges of sustaining its advantages in a highly competitive and consolidating industry, and whether it should pursue organic or inorganic growth, while maintaining company culture.

Stephane Kasriel, the new CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, needs to decide on how to redesign business model. While the firm has been growing rapidly since the merger of Odesk and eLance, the newly combined firm continue face problems of clients "circumventing" the Upwork platform after an initial match. This case explores a variety of options for how Kasriel might prevent circumvention and reach his ambitious growth goals.

This short case updates the earlier Intuit case on transitioning from a product company into a platform company. In addition to provided information on the recent successes and challenges of the business, it also explores a new challenge of building a platform with a branded third party solution or a "white label" solution, which would hide the third party brand.

In 2017 Wal-Mart was still the world's largest company, with over $480 billion in annual revenue and operations in 28 countries. Although it had mostly vanquished its rival discount retailers in the U.S., it was struggling to find the right growth strategy. Facing a mature U.S. market, it had looked to international sales as an engine of growth in the early 2010s, but international sales had also stagnated over the past few years. Wal-Mart's leadership had targeted the rapidly-growing e-commerce arena as strategic priority, but there it faced intense competition from dominant online retailer Amazon. In such a competitive environment, how should Wal-Mart respond to the reality that its traditional strengths no longer guaranteed robust growth?

Between late 2014 and late 2016, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk undertook several major, and risky, initiatives that would dramatically expand the scale and scope of Tesla's business. In late 2014, Tesla began construction on a $5 billion "gigafactory" that would manufacture lithium-ion batteries used in Tesla's electric vehicles on an unprecedented scale. In early 2015, Tesla announced a new product line of battery packs designed for large-scale energy storage for residential, commercial, and utility-scale installations. In 2016, the company acquired SolarCity, a leading solar energy firm, creating what Musk called "a vertically integrated energy company." These moves, representing billions of investment and extension into new industries, came at a time when Tesla was still losing money and struggling to scale up production of its electric vehicle lines to meet ambitious delivery targets. Meanwhile, Musk was also CEO of SpaceX, which was, while growing its business of launching satellites and cargo into space for commercial and governmental clients, preparing to take astronauts into space, pioneering the use of reusable rockets, and announcing plans to colonize Mars. Would Musk be able to realize his ambitious goals or was he taking too many risks with his investors' money?

In the summer of 2016, wearables 'wunderkind' and Pebble founder and CEO, Eric Migicovsky, was pleased with the young startup's success in the five years since its founding. The Silicon Valley-based company had recently shipped its two millionth smartwatch; held the record for three of the four highest Kickstarter campaigns ever (raising cumulatively over $40 million on the site); launched its first non-watch product dubbed a "wearables game changer;" and enjoyed a loyal customer base, particularly among technology early adopters and the community of software developers that created applications and watch faces for its products. Nonetheless, the young company faced a variety of challenges. The nascent smartwatch industry recently saw a dramatic uptick in competition. Apple had introduced its smartwatch the prior year; other established technology companies such as Samsung and Motorola offered smartwatches; U.S.-based fitness tracker Fitbit had recently launched its first smartwatch; and Chinese firm, Xiaomi, was soon to release a low-priced smartwatch. Migicovsky considers an array of strategic options as he looks ahead.

This case explores Carl Icahn's attack on eBay, starting in January 2014. The case examines how John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, should respond to Icahn's demand that eBay spin off PayPal and accept Icahn's two nominees to the board of directors. Teaching Note includes a.) links to videos which should be assigned to students along with the case and b.) videos only available to the instructor for display during classroom debrief.

In March 2016, Donna Dubinsky (co-founder and CEO) and Jeff Hawkins (co-founder) were struggling with a key question: could Numenta be successful in both creating fundamental technology and building a commercial business? Located in Redwood City, CA, Numenta was founded in 2005 to expand Hawkins' research on the human brain, with the goal of "reverse engineering the neocortex" and then creating machines based on biological principals. Ultimately, Hawkins believed that Numenta could be a catalyst in creating intelligent machines that would lay the foundation for the next generation of computing with potentially broad ranging commercial opportunities.