CEO Tim Höttges had successfully led Deutsche Telekom (DT) on an ambitious mission to become Europe's leading telecommunications service provider. All the more impressive, the company had achieved this goal while also navigating the expansion of T-Mobile's network in the United States, and merger with Sprint. What would be DT's next strategic challenge? In late 2023, Höttges and his executive team were scrutinizing the next frontiers in digitalization, as well as assessing ongoing challenges from hyperscalers. It was time to set new goals, Höttges believed, and lead the sector by continuing to build and operate best-in-class, integrated digital networks. This meant investing more in cloud-based service platforms, continuing the rollout of fiber optic networks in Germany, and realizing the full potential of monetizing DT network assets in conjunction with 5G technology. This case describes the strategic challenges facing DT in 2023 and beyond. Boundaries between industries such as telecommunications, software, artificial intelligence, data storage, chip technology, digital security, and cloud platforms were rapidly blurring. How would DT position itself as an industry leader in new areas-and fend off competition from traditional telecom providers?

For CEO Elon Musk, Tesla's mission required not only new technologies to create electric vehicles, but innovation on the software that connected every aspect of the organization. Tesla was founded in 2003 with the goal of revolutionizing the automotive industry, by producing electric vehicles that would help accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. Twenty years later, Tesla had achieved remarkable progress across multiple dimensions such as production capacity, innovative electric vehicles, customer experience, and financial performance. The case study offers unique insights by Tesla leaders into the company's journey to create a system and a process that would revolutionize the global automotive sector. To achieve its goals, Tesla had to deliver a dramatically different-and superior-customer experience to accompany the company's innovative electric vehicles. The case describes how Tesla's IT team set about custom-building a vertically integrated system operating system (OS) that connected and bound every aspect of the company's operations. In fact, the Tesla OS, a custom-built ecosystem, was far more expansive than a typical company's OS in that it powered all aspects of business planning and customer experiences-this enabled Tesla to go directly to the consumer, and bypass the traditional automotive dealership networks.

Automation, robots, and artificial intelligence (AI) were driving massive change by the 2020s-and it was perhaps only a matter of time before the planet had billions of digital workers executing standardized, repetitive tasks. In the 20 years since its founding, Automation Anywhere had laid a solid foundation in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which helped companies be more efficient via application user interfaces, application programming interfaces, and database access. In 2023 the global RPA market was around $3 billion-and analysts projected this would hit $24 billion to $30 billion by 2030. Mihir Shukla, CEO of Automation Anywhere, had seen the potential to transform how companies and people worked by letting technology take on repetitive tasks. Shukla had helped pioneer the technology that automated business processes with intelligent software bots - AI powered digital workers. And Shukla had led the company from its early days selling a low-cost software product, to its pivot towards the enterprise market and SaaS model. The company timed its series A funding round in 2018, positioning itself to be a leader in bringing new advances and AI applications to millions of people. By 2023, large and small organizations alike were increasingly open to adopting new technologies-and many companies believed the tipping point for AI had occurred with the emergence of the large language models and ChatGPT. The next five years promised to be exciting. What would Automation Anywhere tackle next in the fast-evolving intelligent automation market? How would it win the innovation battle, and brainstorm the path forward to build enterprise value?

How would Cummins Inc., a global leader in internal combustion engines, map out a strategy for the great energy transformation ahead-one that would grow the company while addressing the twin challenges of climate change and the world's insatiable need for power? Cummins Inc., founded in 1919, had become a leading designer, manufacturer, and distributor of internal combustion engines, power generation systems, and related parts and technologies. The case study discusses the strategic thinking behind Cummins' goal of Destination Zero, the company's zero-emissions target for 2050, and the interim steps, partnerships, innovation, and customer education needed to reach that goal. Cummins technology was integral to light-duty trucks, medium-duty trucks, heavy-duty trucks and buses; the company's engines were widely used in industries such as construction, mining, marine, and oil & gas. Major customers included original equipment manufacturers such as Daimler Benz, Navistar, Volvo, Paccar, and Tata. Evolving the Cummins product portfolio would require a series of interim goals, and juggling continual improvements to core engine products while building out zero-emissions solutions.

On April 12, 2018, Zuora listed on NYSE under the ticker symbol ZUO, becoming a publicly traded company at a valuation of $1.4 billion. The software company had achieved fast growth in the rapidly expanding subscription economy-and was poised to differentiate itself from the pack by serving both incumbents and disruptors. A subscription company itself, Zuora provided the billing products fueling the rapid growth of the subscription economy. The path ahead meant facing the challenge of innovating to meet an increasingly complex customer base, and rapidly growing companies like Zoom. But sustaining existing customer relationships-in addition to acquiring new customers-was critical for every SaaS company, and Zuora was no exception. The growth leading to the IPO was a clear indicator of the value Zuora's software products provided to customers. How would Zuora differentiate itself from competitors and enhance its subscription business model, but also retain long-time customers by easing the integration of new offerings with legacy enterprise resource planning applications? This ability to compete, to differentiate, and to continue to drive customer success meant it was time for a new blueprint for Zuora's next steps.

Autodesk's new CEO launched three strategic initiatives that would transform the company into a global leader in software products and services for architecture, engineering, and construction. The company would be a customer-centric organization, with the new technologies and apps its customers demanded. How would the company meet the challenge of customer expectations-and their fears about shifting to cloud-native solutions? After all, different customer segments were likely to have distinctly different expectations-but delighting customers with next-generation cloud solutions would power their operations, as well as Autodesk's growth. At the same time, how would Autodesk balance old and new products, and make the transition seamless? This would involve an internal cultural shift, as engineers generally preferred to write new code, and take on new challenges, vs. leveraging existing code. But shared services-in which teams leveraged common, existing services to save time, ensure quality, and move fast-were critical to development the new platforms. As the Autodesk CEO commented, "Perceptions change lightning fast, but it takes a lot longer for people to change."

Infosys Consulting was known for delivering innovative consulting services to some of the world's most complex companies. Launched in 2004 as a separate subsidiary, Infosys Consulting was integrated into a new business unit within its parent company in 2011. This case study examines strategic and operational decisions the global leader in consulting and technology faced in growing the increasingly commoditized-and competitive-systems integration and IT outsourcing business. This path involved several bumps in the road, to be sure, and achieving a healthy growth trajectory would require careful decisions about everything from leadership to client relationships to company governance. And it would take a new global model primed to capture the massive opportunities at the intersection of strategy and technology.