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After a rocky start to the 2020/2021 season of the UEFA Champions League and the Serie A, things were finally getting better for Juventus Football Club in December 2020. The new trainer, Andrea Pirlo, was beginning to prove he was up to the job, leading the team to good results. The latest was the triumphant win against Barcelona FC. In an empty Camp Nou stadium due to COVID-19 restrictions, Juventus made history on 8 December 2020, becoming the first Italian team ever to score three goals against the iconic Spanish team in its home stadium in a UEFA competition. As the end of a disruptive 2020 approached, Andrea Agnelli, president of the club and a member of the family that owned it, pondered the future of Juventus. At home in Italy, the club had become the best on the field and business-wise, but in Europe other clubs were still ahead. Agnelli was keenly aware there were important challenges to address if Juventus was to lead internationally in 2021 and beyond. Which strategic priorities should he focus on to ensure the club would be fit for the future? How could he further diversify the club's revenue stream in the face of the high uncertainty to be expected going forward? COVID-19 had accelerated the shift to digital. How could Juventus take advantage of the opportunities that emerged post-pandemic?

By the end of 2019, HelloFresh was able to deliver a profit for the first time in its history. Ever since it was founded in 2011, its founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Dominik Richter and his team had worked tirelessly to turn HelloFresh into the largest player in the global meal kit industry. The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020 fundamentally changed the landscape and triggered changes in customer behavior that marked the beginning of outstanding revenue growth for HelloFresh. With millions of households forced to stay home, restaurants closed and widespread fear among people about catching the coronavirus, HelloFresh found itself in an ideal setting to grow as its home-delivered, delicious and healthy meal kits enjoyed terrific success across markets. Moving its global customer base up from 2.5 to 4.2 million in just a few months, HelloFresh was looking confidently at 2021 and beyond. Yet, two challenges appeared to be critical for the company going forward. First, even though sales had grown as a result of the lockdowns imposed by governments in several markets, could this remarkable growth be maintained in post-pandemic times? Second, the company had already invested heavily in its sustainability strategy, with Richter announcing in August 2020 that the company aimed to become the first carbon-neutral meal kit company globally, primarily through its participation in carbon offsetting programs. Yet, high amounts of plastics were still used in each HelloFresh box delivered worldwide. Would the carbon offsetting programs be enough to really win the sustainability battle going forward?

By the end of 2019 the adidas Group was solidly the world's second largest multinational in the sportswear manufacturing industry. Following the successful implementation of a digital transformation initiated in 2015, the company enjoyed years of sustained growth and high profitability in the 2016-2019 period, strengthening its brand desirability and increasing sales volumes, especially in the online space. It ended fiscal year 2019 stronger than ever and its chief executive officer (CEO), Kasper Rørsted, was very optimistic about what the future would hold. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020 radically changed the business landscape. adidas was severely hit by the lockdowns imposed by governments. The new measures of social distancing were expected to have a lasting impact on consumer habits and consequently on the operations of companies such as adidas. Thus, unimaginable only few months before, the company's first earnings call of 2020 led by Rørsted focused on the negative results obtained in the preceding few months and the high degree of uncertainty looking forward. Aware of the many challenges facing the company, Rørsted had to decide which strategic initiatives he should prioritize to future-proof the company and keep it on a steady growth trajectory in a post-COVID-19 world.