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Tourism has been an important economic pillar for Singapore for decades, contributing 4% to Singapore's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While Singapore is a well-known destination with Asians and Europeans, the country has yet to become a popular choice for US travellers who lived outside the gateway cities on the eastern and western coasts. Being the second largest economy in the world, the US presents huge potential for tourism in Asia, and specifically Singapore. Under the premise of the 'Passion Made Possible' brand for Singapore, jointly launched by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) in 2017, STB collaborated with Warner Bros. in promoting the film Crazy Rich Asians, a Hollywood romantic comedy based on a book by the same title. The film's huge success has helped raise the profile of Singapore in the US market. However, there were some misalignments in the interplay of STB's city branding vision, the cultural connection to Singaporeans and the image that US travellers had of Singapore.

This case examines gender challenges confronting women leaders, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-related sectors through the lens of Wendy Chan, a data science team leader in Europa a multinational insurance company, and the challenges she encountered in her role, as well as the steps she took to address her situation. It highlights issues concerning bias against women leaders, gender differences toward work issues, and work-life balance. This case caters to undergraduates and graduate courses on management and/or entrepreneurship that focus on diversity and leadership issues, especially those covering the topic of gender. It is also suitable for gender studies and women's studies courses with a focus on diversity and leadership issues.

Future Retail Limited (Future Retail) had a unique business model and an aggressive growth strategy that helped to make it India's largest retailing organization. In 2017, Future Retail was expanding its network of stores, but a new retail landscape was emerging, as customers were shifting to e-commerce for large purchases, due to changing lifestyles and customer preferences, while continuing to shop at small mom-and-pop stores for smaller, quick purchases. Amid such changes, how would Future Retail be able to maintain its leadership position? As it sought a larger share of the retail pie, how would it deal with an increasing customer preference toward the convenience of online ordering? How would it handle the competition from omnipresent neighbourhood stores and cart vendors?

Jayalaxmi Agrotech (JAT) is a company based out of a small village called H.B. Halli in Bellary district of Karnataka, which helps farmers in availing correct and timely information at their fingertips using mobile technology. JAT created a mobile app which can be used to access information about various crop varieties, diseases, fertilizers, and pesticides and other details on irrigation, micronutrients, etc. This app pushes data on almost real-time basis to a server regarding the features accessed by the farmers from the app. This data can be analyzed to assess the usage of the app and some of the attributes can act as proxy data to understand prevalent diseases and the varieties of crops grown in specific areas. Anand, the founder of JAT, wanted to understand this data and gain some valuable insights which could help farmers with decision making. The major dilemma for Anand was to either prove or disprove several claims about plant diseases that were prevalent among the farmers.

Spreadsheet supplement for case IMB731.

Following a contentious presidential race, Donald Trump's 2016 election destabilized America's status quo. Academics, journalists, politicians and the public at large examined why Trump had won. Many Americans, inside and outside the government, asserted that a state-led Russian disinformation campaign had influenced the election's outcome. The leaders of major social media companies, including Twitter and Facebook, also conceded that state actors had gamed their platforms to influence American politics. Trump himself made conflicting statements, while Russian politicians asserted that American elites had rhetorically weaponized the issue of election interference to justify an unwillingness to work with their country internationally. It was hard to parse where reality ended and political rhetoric began. Post-election, the future of U.S.-Russia relations remained unclear, and the United States grappled with how to regulate cyberspace. Analyzing the 2016 election and its aftershocks helps students confront interrelated questions about business regulation, international relations, cultural identity, strategic communications, political will and the Internet. The case encourages students to consider the boundary between narrative and reality and examine subjectivity, objectivity, and power in the public and private sectors.

Formal communication channels, such as protocol-guided meetings, are often eschewed by today's managers and employees, who prefer the ease of email and apps. But informal avenues can lead to oversights and inefficiencies that hurt performance. That's the central finding of research from IE Business School on manufacturers of high-tech machinery. Fortunately, formal communication protocols can be designed to both maximize performance and overcome people's resistance to adopting them.

The 'Stranded' game is an experiential platform to learn lessons on team leadership in a situational context based on sudden changes of events. It is modelled primarily upon variables associated with contingency theories of leadership. The setting is a future dystopian world where resources are scarce and different cities are at war with each other as they compete for resources. The player (the student) has to assume the role of a leader of a team now stranded in a desert because their vehicle in the form of a van is damaged. If not repaired quickly, they may be raided by their enemies, thus delaying or diminishing the hope of escape. The team comprises three males, Bastian, Daya, and Jiro, and one female, Jessa; all, including the leader, are strangers to each other. They all have different personality traits and respond differently to tasks and instruction. During the course of the game, the player (the student), has to discover the followers' personalities, assess the availability and limitation of resources, prioritise and assign tasks appropriately so that the van is repaired on time for them to escape from the dangerous situation. The daily tasks involve repairing the van, growing food, building a shelter and scavenging for resources, namely, provisions for food and materials to repair. Meanwhile, the camp must also be guarded from the enemies who would attack and raid the camp's food and materials. The game progresses in number of days. During the nights the leader interacts with the followers to gauge the energy, motivation and temperament of the team. The leader rations the provisions and motivates the followers. At the start of each day, the leader has to choose from three different leadership styles and assign task to the followers. When the Van is restored to 100% driving condition they all can escape to safety.

In early 2017, 15 years after being launched, DMart was India’s second-largest and most profitable food and grocery retailer. To achieve its stellar growth, the company had followed a no-frills, limited assortment model and had restricted itself to limited geographies within the country. The company was listed in the capital market and attracted very favourable views from investors. As a listed company, DMart might be expected by shareholders to expand to new locations and develop an online presence. Would DMart be able to meet the challenges of exploring new geographies and new formats? What strategies would it need to adopt to remain competitive?

Launching a peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing platform is not easy. Online support forums have two distinct segments: those who seek product support, and those who provide it. Knowledge seekers are hesitant to ask questions if knowledge contributors are few and far between, and knowledge contributors will not sign up if there are not enough problems to solve. It is a classic chicken or egg challenge that can be effectively addressed by seeding the platform with expert knowledge.

In early 2017, 15 years after being launched, DMart was India's second-largest and most profitable food and grocery retailer. To achieve its stellar growth, the company had followed a no-frills, limited assortment model and had restricted itself to limited geographies within the country. The company was listed in the capital market and attracted very favourable views from investors. As a listed company, DMart might be expected by shareholders to expand to new locations and develop an online presence. Would DMart be able to meet the challenges of exploring new geographies and new formats? What strategies would it need to adopt to remain competitive?

Yankuang Group Company (YGC), a Chinese provincial state-owned enterprise (SOE), had over two decades of experience operating in the international market since its overseas initial public offering (IPO) in 1997. In 2013, YGC suffered great losses from an oversupply of coal production and a sharp decline of coal prices. How has YGC adjusted its internationalization process? The case highlights the key steps in the process and the impact of internal and external environment factors on the adjustment. It also illuminate the reforms of Chinese SOEs and the solutions to tackle challenges for running multi-national businesses.

The case documents the emergence of Artsy, a digital solution to the sale of artwork. Once the preserve of the elite, the art market has been democratized by the founder Carter Cleveland, who in 2012 created an online catalogue of painting, photography, sculpture, film and video, and design. The curated platform features works by 70,000 artists, including Pablo Picasso and even a drawing by Vincent Van Gogh. How the young Princeton graduate became the go-to art player for museums and major auction houses like Christie's and Sotheby's is attributed to a business model based on a network of gallery owners, museum curators, art fair organizers and auctioneers, and the creation of a unique database that renders artwork accessible. A truly global powerhouse, Artsy offers art lovers a secure portal to the world's leading purveyors of art.

Shirdi Infratech Pvt. Ltd. was in the wooden furniture manufacturing business and dealt with a wide range of diversified products such as modular kitchens, furniture, and doors. With its normal profit margin, the firm was growing, but not at a rate that satisfied the owner. At the same time, the business faced personnel management issues. The dilemma began in 2015 when the owner learned that one of his top performers had potentially leaked confidential information to a competitor and was offered employment by them. The owner recognized this employee's importance, as well as the critical timing of the project he was working on. In light of this, would the best option be to retain that employee or let him go? The owner was also concerned about social capital management, and how to use the employee's intellectual skills to develop others in the organization.

Shirdi Infratech Pvt. Ltd. was in the wooden furniture manufacturing business and dealt with a wide range of diversified products such as modular kitchens, furniture, and doors. With its normal profit margin, the firm was growing, but not at a rate that satisfied the owner. At the same time, the business faced personnel management issues. The dilemma began in 2015 when the owner learned that one of his top performers had potentially leaked confidential information to a competitor and was offered employment by them. The owner recognized this employee’s importance, as well as the critical timing of the project he was working on. In light of this, would the best option be to retain that employee or let him go? The owner was also concerned about social capital management, and how to use the employee’s intellectual skills to develop others in the organization.

In 2012, Argentine media conglomerate Grupo Clarín and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner were embroiled in what some called "the mother of all battles." Grupo Clarín was one of the preeminent media companies in Argentina, with leading newspapers, cable television and Internet services, and broadcast television and radio stations. Some critics contended the company had prospered over several decades by managing relationships with governments of varying political color, such as with Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), the popular president who helped lead the country out of the financial crisis. But its relationship with the government changed in 2008 when a divisive agricultural export tax sparked a conflict between Grupo Clarín and President Cristina Kirchner, Néstor Kirchner's wife and successor. Then in 2009, in a call for "democratizing" the media, Cristina Kirchner introduced a media reform law that would significantly limit Grupo Clarín's operations. By 2012, the conglomerate had delayed the law's implementation through the courts, but would likely have to restructure to accommodate the new regulatory environment. The case allows students to consider the assumptions that underlie media regulation and to debate the role of media in society. It may also be used to discuss how to evaluate a business decision in an uncertain regulatory environment.