In 2022, Mariam Braimah, a digital designer working at Netflix, is considering the next move in her career. She has spent several years at Netflix, and in her spare time, using her savings, has founded a design-focused fellowship program and a consumer insights company based in Nigeria. Is now the time to leave Netflix and start working full time for her African ventures?

Jack Lynch, CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) since 2017, was leading the company's transformation from a legacy textbook publisher to a digital-first student outcomes provider, which earned subscription revenue from digital products and curriculum. In 2023, HMH acquired NWEA, a leading educational assessment company. Lynch was thrilled to add NWEA's industry-standard tools for measuring student progress to his company's product offering - but aware of the fact that HMH's new business strategy was untested. Would students, educators, and district administrators sign on to Lynch's vision for the future of U.S. education?

In 2019, Daniel Pinto, President and COO of JPMorgan Chase, has to make a recommendation to the bank's Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, about where to physically locate the bank's European trading operations after Brexit takes effect in 2020. The decision-making process considered a range of European locations, including Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Paris, and ultimately Pinto is left with a choice between Frankfurt and Paris. The case describes the decision-making process and gives an overview of JPMorgan's history in France and the French government's efforts to make the country more economically competitive to lure banks moving from London in the wake of Brexit.

In 2023, Luciano Bueno, CEO and founder of plant cell culture agriculture company GALY, was considering the best path forward for his company as he planned to pitch Series B investors. GALY, founded in 2019, aimed to produce cotton and other crops from cells grown in the lab. The company hoped to create 500,000 tons of products by 2030, and by 2023, had produced proof of concepts of cotton, coffee, and cacao. Bueno had a number of decisions to make. How should the company scale? Where should it locate production? Should it build its own production facilities, or license its intellectual property to partner firms? Should the company continue operating an office in Brazil, or centralize operations in Boston? The answers to these questions would point the way forward, but which path was best?

Patagonia's change of ownership from a privately held company to a perpetual purpose trust and 501(c)(4) nonprofit in order to use the company's profit to fight the environmental crisis and be a model for future businesses.

Kovi, a car rental startup located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, provides affordable access to rental cars for rideshare drivers. The case examines the origins of the company, provides background on the auto and rideshare industries in Brazil, and follows the CEO, Adhemar Milani Neto, as he evaluates options for growing the company.

In 2021, Kevin "Bud" Couch, a retired Navy captain who was now working as a civilian employee of the Navy Safety Center, was trying to determine how best to reduce the risk of Navy mishaps. The Navy had experienced a series of major mishaps in 2017 that had led to a closer examination of how it operated and what it could improve.

In late 2021, Darius Adamczyk, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell is considering the changes he has made to the company since he took over the top leadership position in 2017. The company he had inherited from his predecessor, David Cote, was seen by most as a high-performing, successful operation. Rather than rest on that success, however, Adamczyk had made a series of major moves-spinouts, exits, mergers, and reorganizations to refocus and reposition Honeywell. Against the backdrop of the breakup of GE, which many considered to be Honeywell's peer, Adamczyk wonders if he has done enough to prepare Honeywell to compete in the 21st century.

In 2020, just after closing a $34 million Series B financing round, Dave Salvant and Songe LaRon consider how to adjust their business, Squire Technologies, to the new realities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their barbershop technology, including tools to run a shop and a mobile app for customers was growing swiftly, but with nearly all barbershops shut down to prevent the spread of the disease and no revenue coming in, should they cut back, or take the opportunity to build up?

In 2020, JPMorgan Chase announced a $30 billion Commitment to Advance Racial Equity. The Commitment included investments in housing, small businesses, and financial literacy across the U.S., and diversity, equity, and inclusion within the bank. It was part of a broader cultural shift within JPMorgan and U.S. society to better acknowledge and work to remedy the effects of systemic racism in the financial system. The bank was now focused on implementing their commitments-turning their $30 billion into homes, bank accounts, and businesses that would improve the situation in minority communities across the country.

In early 2021, BlackRock-the world's largest asset manager with $9 trillion in assets under management (AUM)-sought to become a leader in promoting environmental and social sustainability. Over the previous ten years, CEO Larry Fink had written an annual open letter to CEOs, pushing them to view sustainability and climate change planning key components of any long-term strategy. He had built an investment stewardship committee to attend portfolio company shareholder meetings and implement these goals. He had also recruited a team of prominent impact investors to BlackRock to lead a new impact investing fund. Now, as the new fund came of age, both the fund's managers and BlackRock's senior leadership faced difficult choices. At the fund level, they needed to define how to implement their two main selection criteria-intentionality and additionality-in choosing the fund's next stocks. At the company level, BlackRock's leaders wrestled with the question of just how much impact BlackRock could have on the companies it invested in, when well above half of BlackRock's AUM were invested passively.

In 2021, Ron DeShay, former American Idol producer, is launching his new business venture: World of Dreams Entertainment Group. World of Dreams rethought the existing TV production model, giving audiences more power to directly influence the creation of shows through a digital platform, and building an immersive experience around the TV production business.

In 2020, Mike Heyink and Maya Stewart, co-founders of the Pay-as-you-Go Solar company Yellow were considering how to grow their startup. They had achieved some success in their first market, Malawi, and had recently entered Uganda, where business was slower. What did they need to do to succeed in new markets? How could they continue to grow the business in Malawi?

In 2020, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals in various swimming events, was now retired. As he looked back on his 20+ year athletic career, he considered what had gone into making him the greatest of all time-the highs and lows, successes and struggles. He had lived with mental health issues for much of his life, going public with his struggles in 2015, when he talked about his depression and suicidal thoughts. Mental health was a major focus for Phelps in 2020. He was working on removing the stigma associated with mental health issues, improving access to care, and preventing suicides. But as a professional athlete who was used to the rigor and routine of daily workouts and measurable goals, how could he ensure he was having the greatest possible impact in this new mission?

In 2020, Olympic goal medal winning boxer and former heavyweight world champion Wladimir Klitschko had built himself a "second ring" to continue his career after retiring from professional boxing. He was a hotelier, boxing promoter, author, teacher, speaker, and had built an organization to train businesspeople on his "Challenge Management" philosophy. He believed that any problem could be turned into a challenge to be overcome, and he taught a method based around F.A.C.E.-Focus, Agility, Coordination, and Endurance-to do so. Some major European firms, including SAP and Deutsche Telekom, had begun using Klitschko's methods to train their teams. Given the new realities of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, how could Klitschko use his method to help people around the world adapt?

In the summer of 2020, Jan Swartz, President of Princess Cruises, was persevering to lead her company back from the depths of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Diamond Princess, one of Princess Cruises' 18 ships was the site of one of the earliest large outbreaks of COVID-19 outside of China. The outbreak led to hundreds of cases, at least a dozen deaths, media scrutiny, government investigations, and legal proceedings. In early March 2020, Swartz made the decision to pause all global operations of her company, the first cruise company to do so. Six months later, how could Princess Cruises restart operations safely and profitably?

This brief case describes the rise of so-called digital natives (also called born-in-digital) in the 2000s and 2010s that successfully grew without a sales force. The case highlights the emergence of business-to-business Internet and cloud-based companies and their decisions regarding sales strategy based on different customer bases. The case discusses the firms Atlassian, Basecamp, and Slack.

In 2018, Middlebury College's board of trustees is considering a proposal called Energy2028 that would push the small, liberal arts and sciences college in Vermont to become a net zero carbon emitter, decrease energy usage by 25%, divest fossil fuels from its endowment, and build new educational programming focused on energy and climate change. Building the Energy2028 proposal was a multistakeholder process that was guided by the college's president, Laurie Patton. Patton and her team brought together student activists, faculty experts, board members, and financial experts to craft a proposal that was bold, yet achievable. Perhaps the most surprising element was the divestment pledge. Just five years earlier, the board had faced a similar decision on divestment and chose not to act. Had Patton done enough to convince the board to change their minds and support the complete package of Energy2028?