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Louis Dreyfus Commodities (LDC or Dreyfus) is the D of the ABCD grain-trading giants. The case describes how their business works and details the strategy by which management turned the company around in recent years. The case presents a number of issues facing the company: a sense of volatility in grain markets is getting lower, recent attempts by China to forward-integrate into grain procurement, and changes in ownership. A related question is the degree to which they should emphasize pure trading or participate in value-added activities.

Diageo, the world's leading premium drinks business, had a long history in Africa starting from its beer brand, Guinness, first exported to Sierra Leone in 1827. By 2013, 13% of Diageo's global revenues were from Africa, up from 9% in 2007. Diageo Africa President Nick Blazquez was considering how to seize the opportunities presented by rising populations and incomes while navigating increased competition and the unique challenges presented by frontier markets. The case describes Diageo's innovation process and two recent product launches developed specially for Africa. It also discusses government relations and the need to develop local production and raw material supply chains.

In November 2013, Dr. Jose Pinto, head of Grupo Beta San Miguel (BSM), Mexico's largest private sugar producer, is weighing the future prospects of the Mexican sugar industry as he considers whether BSM should bid on one of the state-owned sugar mills slated for auction. His decision will be informed by dynamics in the North American sugar market-NAFTA affords Mexico unique duty-free access to the U.S.-as well as the world sugar market and other major sugar-producing countries, especially Brazil.

OSI, one of the world's largest suppliers of processed meats to McDonald's and other QSRs, was in the middle of a $400M expansion in China that included backward integration into poultry production. However, its current customers took only a portion of each bird produced and OSI had to develop a go-to-market strategy for the rest. The case describes the opportunities and challenges of operating in China and raises questions involving vertical integration, competitive positioning, corporate strategy, organizational design, marketing and branding, and the management of business and political risk.

From modest beginnings as a cashew trader in Nigeria, Olam, founded by Indian nationals in 1989, has grown into a leading global agricultural trading company, with annual revenues of $14 billion. The company recently has begun investing in farms and in the production of packaged goods, shifting from its traditional focus on the midstream of the value chain. The case raises questions involving competitive positioning, corporate strategy, sustainable development, and the management of business and political risk.

In late 2012, Kori Tuggle, director of marketing and business development at Ocean Mist Farms, a California produce company, examines her social media-based marketing program and her attempts to create a brand for a bulk commodity.

Patrick Coveney, CEO of Greencore, one of the top producers of private label prepared foods sold through U.K. grocery retailers, was assessing Greencore's growth options. Growth potential was limited in the U.K., a mature market in which retailers were unlikely to grant much greater market share to Greencore or any of its competitors. In the U.S., where Greencore had struggled to gain traction since its initial entry in 2008, the market for fresh, chilled prepared foods was far less developed. Can Greencore translate its success in the U.K. to the U.S.? Should Coveney focus on developing the U.S. market or on maximizing Greencore's position in the U.K.?

In 2011, Fonterra, the world's largest processor and exporter of dairy products, needed to reposition its business to take advantage of rising demand in emerging markets in Asia.

In mid-2011, the management of Brasil Foods, a leading Brazilian branded foods producer and protein exporter, is evaluating strategies for international and domestic growth. The team has just received approval from Brazil's antitrust authorities to complete the merger of Perdigao and Sadia, the two massive food producers that had combined to form Brasil Foods in 2009. Now, the team is free to focus on their ambitious plan to double revenues by 2015. Domestically, the plan calls for Brasil Foods to maintain its allowed retail market share and expand its presence in the fast-growing food service sector. Internationally, the plan sets out a vision of Brasil Foods evolving from an exporter to a true multinational. The team believes their operational expertise and scale combined with Brazil's booming economy and vast agricultural resources form the ideal platform for achieving their vision. Yet, amid a wealth of possibilities, they face tough choices, such as which emerging markets to pursue first. They also face serious personnel issues, including integrating employees from Perdigao and Sadia-longtime industry rivals-and developing an international team that understands foreign markets.

Marine Harvest has the leading position in salmon aquaculture. Aquaculture is very much a growth business, many believing it could play a major role in solving the world's growing need for protein. The CEO is considering three alternatives for taking advantage of his firm's dominant position. Expand production in Chile, produce value-added salmon products, or backward-integrate into the salmon feed business.

In 2011 Khalil and Adil Sattar are considering growth opportunities for K&N's, their family business that is the market leader for processed chicken and value-added chicken products in Pakistan. This position has been built through a strategy of vertical integration, product innovation, and branding. K&N's has also developed its own chain of retail "Chicken Stores" to promote their products. Growth opportunities include contained expansion in Pakistan, exporting to nearby markets, and/or developing a global Halal food brand.

Domino's Pizza is the world's second-largest pizza company with 9,436 stores globally, 95% of which are franchised. Domino's franchisees in the U.S. market were able to purchase fresh dough, cheese, pizza toppings, and other menu ingredients and store supplies directly from the company-owned supply chain system. When commodity prices became more volatile in 2007 and 2008, executives at Domino's changed the way they worked with suppliers and franchisees to manage costs and risks, and better leverage the assets of the supply chain system. As the company prepared to accelerate international growth in 2011 and beyond, executives contemplated how to best apply their purchasing and supply chain knowledge into new international markets.

Global companies face a crucial question when they enter emerging markets: how far should they go to localize their offerings? Typically they try to sell core products or services pretty much as they've been sold in Europe or the United States, with headquarters calling all the shots-and usually with disappointing results. The authors, both of Harvard Business School, examined why KFC China has been able to find fertile ground in a market that is notoriously challenging for Western fast-food chains. KFC's executives believed that the dominant logic behind the chain's growth in the U.S.-a limited menu, small stores, and an emphasis on takeout-wouldn't produce the kind of success they were looking for in China. KFC China offers important lessons for global executives seeking guidance in determining how much of their existing business model to keep in emerging markets-and how much to throw away.

As Ireland's third largest beef processor, Kepak faces new opportunities as well as significant challenges from the collapse of the "Celtic Tiger." The government has identified food and agriculture as one way the country could significantly grow exports. However, the beef industry is suffering from overcapacity and from an inefficient farming structure. CEO John Horgan is considering the best way to position Kepak for success, including the possibility of an umbrella Irish beef brand, opportunities for "co-opetition" within the industry, and how to expand the firm's successful convenience foods business to more countries.

For Asian Agri and other Indonesian palm oil producers, the future promised rising demand from fast-growing Asian populations, but also intensifying criticism from environmental groups. With the highest yield and lowest production cost of any edible oil, palm oil constituted an abundant, inexpensive source of food for Asian and, to a lesser extent, international markets. Its production had soared from 1970 to 2010, sparking concern from environmentalists over the conversion of high-value conservation land in Malaysia and Indonesia (where nearly 90% of palm oil was produced) into palm oil plantations. Critics had intensified their campaigns in recent years, urging-at times successfully-packaged food makers and investors to boycott palm oil suppliers accused of environmental mismanagement. While noting that some accusations were unjustified, palm oil producers argued the industry was making strides towards greater sustainability and cited the unique advantages of palm oil: it was free of unhealthy trans fats, for example, and required less land to produce more oil than any known substitute. Asian Agri, an established Indonesian palm oil grower and exporter, had thus far avoided public scrutiny. The company was a key source of employment in many rural communities, had extensive experience negotiating the complex Indonesian regulatory environment, and was moving to certify its operations according to industry-set sustainability guidelines. In 2010, Asian Agri appeared well positioned to capitalize on the growing palm oil market, but the broad-strokes vilification of the palm oil industry was a source of serious concern. In the face of great uncertainty, the management team needed to devise a strategy for the future.

Since the first KFC opened in China in 1987, Yum--under Sam Su's leadership--had built the largest restaurant company by far in mainland China. Averaging one new restaurant opening a day for the past five years, in 2010 Yum ran over 3,600 restaurants in 650 cities and employed over 250,000 people, many of them college students in their first jobs. In the third quarter of 2010, Yum China's revenues surpassed U.S. revenues for the first time and many analysts expected that Yum's China business--driven by a rapidly growing middle class--would be twice as large as its U.S. business within five years. But before rushing out to open thousands more stores, Su wondered what the company should do to forestall some of the problems plaguing the fast food industry in the West.

This case describes the international expansion plans of the second largest grain producer in Latin America, Los Grobo. Based in Argentina with US$550 million in annual sales, Los Grobo also operated in Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay--usually with local partners. Los Grobo had an unusual business model: it did not own land nor farm machinery. Instead, it created a network of partnered producers and suppliers. In other words, it outsourced as much as possible. CEO Gustavo Grobocopatel believed that Los Grobo's network model was the best way to work within "farming's new paradigm," in which knowledge and technological advancements were farmers' most important tools.

Red Lobster, a 40-year-old chain of seafood restaurants, has just completed some market research revealing an opportunity to shift their target customer segment. The chain is in the final stages of a 10-year plan of rejuvenation under CEO Kim Lopdrup. When he took over as CEO in 2004 the chain was closing restaurants and suffering declining same store sales and declining customer satisfaction. But in 2010, even in a recession, the fortunes of the chain are improving. A recently commissioned market research study has revealed, unexpectedly, that 25% of Red Lobster's customers are "experientials," people coming for a "good evening out" rather than Red Lobster's traditional core customer who came because of a craving for seafood. Should this news cause Lopdrup to do anything differently?