Ascend Behavior Partners provided applied behavioral analysis (ABA) services to families with children with autism. The growing autism services market presented a massive opportunity for Ascend to provide quality care to families in need. Ascend's delivery model relied on board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs), who were the backbone of providing care to families with children with autism. But the severe imbalance between supply and demand for these critical skills posed a challenge for companies like Ascend looking to hire qualified BCBAs. After struggling with its BCBA offer acceptance rate, Ascend made a counter-intuitive decision in December 2018 and altered its BCBA hiring process to make it substantially more challenging and time-consuming. The new process was designed to give applicants a chance to experience Ascend's culture in a more meaningful way throughout the hiring process. The epicenter of the revamped hiring process was an in-person, full-day interview, where applicants spoke with a range of employees across the company. Almost immediately after implementing the change, Ascend saw its offer acceptance rate spike from 50 percent to 90 percent. This case discusses how to create a hiring process that accurately conveys the culture of a company.

In December 2019, Scoot, the low-cost carrier (LCC) launched by Singapore Airlines Limited in 2011, had successfully established itself in the Asian market, having flown over 65 million passengers to 68 destinations with a fleet of 48 aircraft. Scoot accounted for 14 percent of seat capacity in Singapore, and 43 percent of LCC capacity out of the country. In 2016, SIA fully acquired and integrated the local LCC Tigerair into Scoot. Scoot's growth, along with the integration of Tigerair, enabled SIA to compete for price-sensitive leisure travelers on short- and medium-haul routes, particularly within Asia, and premium passengers on medium- and long-haul routes. Scoot had been essential to building network connectivity within Asia and allowing SIA to compete effectively with competitors entering the market. Reflecting on Scoot's evolution from 2011 to 2019, Goh Choon Phong, CEO of Singapore Airlines Limited felt that the SIA Group had succeeded in fulfilling its strategic intent of being invested and a market leader in both the full-service and low-cost markets. He contemplated the opportunities and challenges ahead for SIA. Because Scoot operated many places where the full-service airline did not fly, Goh thought that SIA could gain tremendously by making connections between flights by Singapore Airlines, Scoot, and SilkAir-the airline's short-to-medium haul premium subsidiary-as seamless as possible. But there were challenges as well, since Scoot provided different service levels and had been established and run with a high level of autonomy. Goh explained, "There are different expectations between the full service and the LCC if there are any delays. But when you are connecting the two of them, how do you manage the expectations? These are all things that we are still learning. But we are determined, and we think it can be resolved. We are just right at the front of the learning curve."

In this 2019 case, Ed Rapp, retired group president and CFO of Caterpillar, recounts the positive impact that using a type of "self-talk" called an affirmation has had on his life and career. Affirmations are simple, positive, carefully crafted statements declaring specific goals in their completed state. A foundational belief behind an affirmation is that self-image is shaped by self-talk and daily performance reality. Affirmations should be personal, positive, accurate and balanced, allowing a person to assess who they are now and who they want to be in the future. The gaps that emerge between "now" and "the future" lead to making goals for change, supporting the goals with affirmations, and then creating the positive change. Affirmations are powerful because they create self-awareness, which is critical for leaders. Rapp credits affirmations with helping him succeed in his career; balance his personal and professional life; and become more of the person he wanted to be. In 2015, Rapp was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He was diagnosed on November 5th and rewrote his affirmations on November 7th to reflect his new reality, while maintaining the goal of affirmations: continually making positive change.

Coppersea, a craft distillery in the Hudson Valley of New York, had developed a range of whiskies using "heritage distilling" techniques (a term they coined), whereby local, raw materials were combined using a process modeled after 19th century distilling. Founded in 2011, the distillery was the consequence of intense conversations between Angus MacDonald, a master distiller who had learned distilling in his teens from his uncle, and Michael Kinstlick, a businessman who foresaw the burgeoning of the craft distillery movement. After nearly a decade in the business, Kinstlick hoped to grow production volumes by three to four times existing levels-which were still below 10,000 9-liter cases annually-using Coppersea's current production technologies. Kinstlick knew that growth beyond those levels would require a more significant set up and investment. Given the trends affecting craft distillers, an evolving consumer base, and new potential avenues of distribution, including international expansion, the path forward would be challenging. Students take on Kinstlick's challenge and grapple with keeping a balance between sustainable growth and adhering to Coppersea's founding principles and heritage methods. Kinstlick described his perspective: "We realize our heritage approach would keep our production volumes somewhat limited as we grow-but we think it's important to retain that distinction of character in the spirits themselves and we don't think we can capture that using the same kinds of methods other distillers are using, even other craft distillers.

In 2009, Caterpillar shipped its first D7E tractor, an "electric drive" machine in which electric motors moved the tracks and blade, using electricity from a generator powered by a diesel engine. In an industry where new products provided performance gains of just a few percent, the D7E moved 10 percent more material per hour, using 10-30 percent less fuel that its predecessor. It was also easier to operate, had 40 percent fewer moving parts, and a far lower lifetime operating cost. When the project was originally approved in 2003, the D7E was intended to prove out the electric drive concept for tractors. The D7E was chosen for this role in part because it was a relatively low-volume machine, and provided less risk for the new technology. If successful, electric drive was expected to be adopted by other products in Caterpillar's tractor product line. However, by the end of 2013, this had not yet happened, nor had the company announced plans to do so. This case describes the D7E project from its conception, including the organizational and technical challenges it faced, and how the project team overcame these challenges. It raises questions about why the technology had not been rapidly adapted to other Caterpillar tractors.

Nike's labor practices were the subject of high profile public protests in the 1990s, and CEO Mark Parker said the company still had a lot of work to do in that area. The case also details how making sustainability a key part of the design process led Nike to develop more innovative and high-performing products, such as a breakthrough running shoe called the Flyknit, which was widely worn at the 2012 Olympics. Following protests in the late 1990s over unsafe working conditions, low wage rates, excessive overtime, restrictions on employee organizing, and negative environmental impacts, Nike began shifting from a reactive to a proactive mode. During the 15 years covered in this case, Nike made significant changes in its sustainability practices, including moving its Corporate Responsibility team much further upstream in the organization, where it could have a greater impact on decisions by providing input early in the process. The company also developed multiple indexes that measured its sustainability practices and those of its independent contract manufacturers. The indexes had metrics for measuring the relevant impacts of product waste, water, chemistry, labor, and energy. Nike's critics said many labor issues had not been resolved, but Nike made progress in that area through collaboration with governments, NGOs and labor unions, and through management compliance trainings. If a contract factory did not score high enough on the company's sustainability and labor ratings scales, Nike would impose sanctions on the factory or even drop it from the supply chain. These actions took Nike off the top of most activists' target lists.

The US organic cereal business is fascinating: while most brands of organic breakfast cereals were founded by hippies who wanted to make a difference in the world in the 70s and 80s, many have been taken over by large "traditional' food companies. Attune Foods and its brands Uncle Sam and Erewohn is an exception: it is a small, independent player. Its ambition is to become a leading digestive health brand in the country: not exactly a popular conversation topic at most family dinner tables. Attune faced two challenges: - Develop a way to communicate about digestive health in a consumer-friendly way. - Communicate its differentiation with food giants like General Mills and Kellogg in a compelling way, with way less financial resources. Attune decided to base its strategy on authenticity: a less costly strategy that the company believed would allow it to clearly communicate its message and to differentiate it from the big boys. It applied the concept of authenticity in all aspects of its business (e.g., product definition, production and sourcing, communication). The case describes the company and its competition. The challenge facing Attune at the time of the case was to double the size of the company within four years.