Focal Systems, with fresh new Series B funding and more new orders than it could handle, believed its novel out-of-stock detection system would prove the sweet spot in the automation of traditional brick and mortar retail stores. Small cameras on store shelves could automatically log any products in need of resupply, but also order the items to restock, saving store managers valuable time each day. Stores would see lower labor costs but also would benefit from a more efficient resupply system. The competition for automation in retail was stiff, and becoming more intense. How could Focal convince retailers to give its innovative technology a try-and could the company fend off the competition?

Could AI-based X-ray scanning platform make flying safer? Airport security officers had just seconds to decide if someone's luggage contained a knife, gun, explosive, or other potential safety threat, and the human eye was not designed to focus for hours on a scanning screen. This case study describes the founding and early years of Synapse Technology, which aimed to improve airport security performance by leveraging advances in computer vision to detect these types of threats with far greater accuracy. The company set out to develop the AI solution they believed would work, building an AI model and then feeding it training data on which types of weapons and other items to flag as a threat, as passengers' luggage went through the screening process. The case study explores the technical as well as entrepreneurial challenges in this new AI frontier, including locating a real-world test venue, and then determining how to measure and explain the return on investment to potential clients.

This case discusses how the leaders of the Royal Bank of Canada infused the 80,000-employee company with a new emphasis on People Analytics. This supported the bank's business strategies for its wide range of business units. The bank's new People Analytics group, led at the top by the vice president of human resources, collected and analyzed huge volumes of data about the bank's employees, customers, and business unit performance to help the company achieve its strategic goals. Companies across industries had long talked about using data analysis to help them improve employee and organizational performance, but the advent of big data created a step change in the ability to make that happen. With the abundance of data available, and many potential ways to use it, the Royal Bank of Canada, referred to as RBC, was choosing projects that had the greatest potential ROI. The People Strategy and People Analytics teams worked together to add clear business value to business units to help them achieve performance objectives. The case details two of RBC's major People Analytics projects. The first project used data to identify empirically the traits of great managers and subsequently identify who might or might not be a great manager. This enabled RBC to help those managers who could benefit from coaching or other types of interventions. The second project used both internal and customer data to diagnose whether any specific branch, region, or product innovation was not doing as well as it could be-and why not.

The 2015 case "Royal Bank of Canada: Transforming Managers (A)" discusses programs that the bank put in place between 2011 and 2013 to improve managerial effectiveness. The case looks at the traits that make good managers, how to use data to create visibility into managerial effectiveness, the features of a successful intervention action plan, and the challenges with finding ways to reward good managers. Specifically, the case focuses on a pilot intervention program within the Canadian Banking operations division that was designed by Human Resources thought leaders in collaboration with Canadian Banking operations' top leaders. The program had multiple parts: 1) Using an analytics model based on the employee opinion survey to rank all managers in the division based on effectiveness; 2) Dividing all managers into four effectiveness cohorts (roughly in quartiles); 3) Identifying the managers most in need of, and most likely to benefit from, manager effectiveness training; and 4) creating and carrying out action plans. The action plans included formal coaching by each of the targeted managers' managers (the most effective intervention), feedback, and formal training. The case concludes as the bank waits for the results of the next employee opinion survey to gauge how effective its management improvement programs were. The companion case, "Royal Bank of Canada: Transforming Managers (B)," discusses the results of the programs.

The 2015 case "Royal Bank of Canada: Transforming Managers (B)" details the success of the manager improvement pilot intervention program discussed in the companion case, "Royal Bank of Canada: Transforming Managers (A)." Within one year, the division that ran the program, the Canadian Banking operations division, saw marked improvement in nearly all of the managers who participated in the program. Based on these results, the division continued to hone the intervention program details, and RBC expanded the program across the bank.

In 2015, LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network, was experiencing explosive growth, and it needed to hire the very best people quickly to support and fuel that growth. This case discusses LinkedIn's hiring approach and details how the company used its own online recruiting products, such as LinkedIn Talent Solutions, to attract and retain talent. At the same time, the company was creating new recruiting models that put it at the forefront of modern recruiting. LinkedIn had done well so far in bringing in top talent. Nevertheless, as it rapidly scaled, the challenge was making sure the company could compete with other tech firms to attract enough highly skilled engineers. The case explains specific techniques that LinkedIn's recruiting team of over 100 people used to attract talented candidates for positions in engineering, sales, and other departments. Those techniques included: 1) replacing cold calling potential candidates with finding "warm connections" to them through their LinkedIn networks; 2) using a data-driven approach to identify the best candidates to pursue; and 3) developing personalized online relationships with top candidates. LinkedIn made internal hiring a priority. For external hires, the company focused heavily on recruiting passive candidates-people were who already gainfully employed and not necessarily looking for a new job. The case also discusses LinkedIn's employee value proposition, focusing on the extraordinary opportunities employees were given for "transformation" once they joined the LinkedIn team. These opportunities included personal advancement through a smooth path to change jobs within LinkedIn if they wished, as well as formal and informal programs designed for employees to pursue their passions-and share their experiences. "LinkedIn and Modern Recruiting (B)" goes into more detail about LinkedIn's data-driven approach, new recruitment innovations, and diversity scorecard.

This case picks up where "LinkedIn and Modern Recruiting (A)" left off, detailing the company's innovations in hiring practices, which included its highly effective use of LinkedIn profile and resume data. As part of these innovations, LinkedIn's talent acquisition team built a new recruiting model, called the Total Addressable Market (TAM) model. TAM took a page out of sales and marketing models by using data that users provided on LinkedIn, enabling the company to narrow, segment, and prioritize which potential candidates to commit recruiting resources toward. In addition, the case presents LinkedIn's diversity scorecard and efforts to date.

This 2015 case focuses on the evolution of Box's management practices as the company grew from a small start-up to an organization with over 1,000 employees in five major locations. The online file sharing and cloud content collaboration service company was founded in 2005, and a decade later it was valued at $2.4 billion. During that time, Box was evolving its approaches to and processes for hiring, compensation, promotions, and performance evaluations. A driving factor in its management practices was the need to attract and retain top-quality entrepreneurial employees. However, as the company pivoted strategy to focus more on the lucrative enterprise market, its management practices had to evolve to be able to attract and retain more experienced employees with specific expertise in that segment. Box found it need to address tensions that arose as the company grew, including the slower speed of promotions, the changing compensation mix (cash versus equity), and the changing company culture as more seasoned employees joined the Box team.

Alejandro Ramirez, the CEO of Cinepolis, the largest film exhibitor in Latin America, sat in the back of row of the company's flagship movie theatre in Mexico City one evening in January 2005. The company was preparing to roll out an expensive new IT platform that streamlined box office, concession stand and warehouse operations. Despite resistance from some senior managers, Cinepolis was considering a thorough (and costly) training program. Ramirez knew he and his executive team had invested wisely in new technologies and now it was time to make those investments pay off.