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Spreadsheet supplement for case 219060.

Three brothers discuss the succession plans of their shares in the publicly listed family business.

Italy's March 2018 elections led to a populist government which included the right-wing League and the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement. To respect their electoral promises, the two parties came up with a budget plan which provided for a public deficit at 2.4%, a figure higher than what the previous administration had promised the EU Commission. On October 23, 2018, the EU Commission rejected such plan asking Italy to revise downwards the public deficit. The same day, Italian bond yields spoke to 4-year highs, up to 3.7% as investors questioned Italy's capacity to repay its public long-term debt, the second highest in the EU. Would the Italian government be able to implement its plan?

Spreadsheet supplement to case 619019.

Lexoo, a UK-based online marketplace for legal services, was facing the strategic choice of how to grow from early start-up to mature platform. Daniel van Binsbergen, Lexoo's CEO, and web developer Chris O'Sullivan, CTO, had set up Lexoo to help Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to find legal advice at low prices. At the time of the case in 2018, Lexoo had just started attracting larger companies in need of specialized legal advice as new customers. Larger companies had higher value and more frequent needs. Lexoo could become their "go-to" place across a broad range of legal services. Nevertheless, larger companies also required a more personalized approach and were more difficult to acquire than SMEs. Van Binsbergen and O'Sullivan were debating whether Lexoo should diversify to serve both SMEs and larger companies, or whether to pivot their focus toward larger companies altogether.

Ferrari is among the world's most powerful brands but how the company operates has remained mysterious. The case reveals the inner workings of the company - the Ferrari Way - from the way it designs, produces, and markets its cars, to how its leadership team is driving future growth. Central to Ferrari's strategy is its response to disruptive changes in the automotive industry and their impact on the company's products and brand.

The European leader in offshore wind, the Danish Orsted is building a global position and entering markets where offshore wind is nascent.

In the Republic of Georgia, legend had it their land was a precious gift from God he had intended to keep for his mother. But over time, the land had been under intermittent threat from without and within. In 2017, the Bitfury Group, which Valery Vavilov had co-founded, had helped publish 300,000 Georgian land titles onto the blockchain, making them immutable and, many believed, unhackable. What came next, Vavilov's team envisioned, were smart purchase and sale contracts via the blockchain; and from there, a full suite of property-related services and, eventually, blockchain as the foundation for a transformation in government services. Vavilov, who had co-founded Bitfury and expanded it substantially from its bitcoin mining roots, felt a blockchain-driven makeover of this sort would take place not just in Georgia's government, but around the world. It was not a matter of "if?" anymore; although that still left the question of "when?"

Riccardo Zacconi was the co-founder and CEO of King Digital Entertainment, the video game company which had quickly established itself as the world's leading maker of casual games for mobile devices after the sensational success of its game "Candy Crush Saga." Zacconi had only a few days left to decide what to reply to Activision Blizzard, one of the largest video game publishers in the world, which had offered to acquire King for almost $6 billion. King had already managed to successfully adapt to disruptive technological changes in the course of its history, could it continue to go solo? Or would an acquisition by a complementary video game maker like Activision be the best choice for King to continue to thrive? The clock was ticking but Zacconi knew that whatever the final decision, it had to satisfy one condition: Player was King.

Patrick Lammers, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) for the Dutch energy company Essent NV, once a state-owned company, was pleased with the progress Essent's consumer ("B2C") business had made: Earnings Before Income Tax (EBIT) for B2C had gone from a loss of €18 million in 2010 to a profit of €149 million in 2014; churn rates had decreased, and customer satisfaction had increased. The B2C brand had become a leader in the fully liberalized Dutch market. Behind B2C's performance there had been a strong focus on marketing, an optimization of the channel mix, and also changes in the company's operations by adopting lean management tools. Despite the strong performance of Essent's B2C business, Essent's B2B business had instead seen its profits drastically decrease from €47 million in 2011, to minus €15 million in 2015. For 2016, B2B expected to report €15 million losses. While pondering the reasons behind the difference in performance between B2B and B2C, Lammers wondered what Essent should do to improve its B2B business.

In 2016, Europe struggles to cope with one of the largest refugee flows it has ever witnessed.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 216023.

One of the University of Cambridge's Colleges evaluates different asset management options for its endowment fund. The King's College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge in the UK, had most of its endowment invested in equity index funds. Its committee was to discuss whether they should overhaul their investment strategy. The college had three options. One was to invest in a new pooled fund created by the University, in which other colleges were also investing, another was to invest through a private multi-asset investment firm also used by other colleges, Partners Capital, or remain in index funds.

A Swedish light bulb manufacturer reviews its strategy to better compete against large global multinationals.

In 2014, the restaurant Noma, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, was considered to be amongst the best restaurants in the world, and its co-founder, co-owner and chef, René Redzepi, among the most influential chefs. The restaurant was also leading the new Nordic food movement, a movement focused on rediscovering Nordic cuisine and ingredients, which had helped increase the popularity of Danish cuisine. Since 2013 Noma had a new investor, the American Marc Blazer, who joined to help Redzepi increase the restaurant's margins to make it a more sustainable business. But the question was-how? What options really were available?

Created in 1900 by the tire manufacturer Michelin, the Michelin Restaurant Guide was widely considered the international benchmark of food rating, and, by 2013, boasted paper editions in 23 countries, and had recently expanded to the United States and Asia. Paper sales however had dropped, following the emergence of free, online guides, global players, and more broadly, the wider diffusion of the Internet. In 2012, the Guide had launched a new range of services targeting restaurateurs. The Director of the Guide was contemplating developing the Guide even more internationally and on digital formats, but also knew he needed to limit costs.

This case examines the unique business model of Ristorante D'O, a high end gourmet restaurant located near Milan, Italy. Founded by Chef Davide Oldani, D'O offers meals at approximately one-third the price of other Michelin starred restaurants. Oldani has made this business model profitable by making a conscious set of operating strategy choices (menu, meal design, service process, lay-out, reservation process) that reduce waste and inefficiency, while preserving quality. The case enables students to understand how cost-quality trade-offs can be altered through creative operating strategies, and sufficient data are available to analyze the operating model in depth. A second focal point of the case concerns Oldani's choices for growth. The wait list for D'O is currently 18 months. He can presumably open another D'O at a different location. At the time of the case, however, is considering opening a new restaurant in the same vicinity as D'O that would operate at an even lower price point. Case debate can center around whether this new restaurant format makes sense from a strategic point of view, and, in particular, whether the capabilities and know-how acquired in operating D'O are applicable to the new restaurant. The deeper issue in the case concerns how businesses based on the creative talent of an individual (like Chef Oldani) can grow, without losing what makes them special.

Royal Dutch Shell has been among the early players to implement diversity and inclusion policies in the 1990s, first in the U.S. and then globally. In May 2009, Peter Voser, CFO and soon-to-be CEO, wants to adjust the company's business, head count, and cost levels to adapt to changing economic conditions after one of the worst economic downturns in decades. His all-male executive committee has raised eyebrows because it is a step back from that of his predecessor, and he must decide whether to continue to promote the firm's emphasis on global diversity and inclusion while it restructures its business and reduces its managerial workforce.