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The Medium Corporation seeks to change how people author, consume and engage with content on the Internet. Founded by Ev Williams, co-founder of Blogger and Twitter, the company developed a digital publishing platform and set of social network tools that allow people to spend substantive time with weighty issues facing society, business and politics. Fighting the trend of quick engagement with short-form content on the Internet, Medium wrestles with how to deliver an experience that advances important topics with ease, flexibility and meaning, while working to build a large and successful company. The challenges of building a successful digital media company, balancing tool development with content curation, and organizing a firm in the 21st century are at the core topics facing the firm's leadership team.

The Wikimedia Foundation is responsible for supporting Wikipedia and various other projects through administration, technical and financial support. Since its founding, Wikipedia has changed the way people around the world research information by allowing individuals to document and write history in a collaborative and decentralized fashion. The case follows Lila Tretikov as she takes on her new role as the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, and how she and the organization have to balance fundraising, technology development and managing an organization through influence and strategy.

This 2015 case is about the internal organizational transformation of the Hewlett Packard (HP) Enterprise Group (EG), which brought in $28 billion in annual revenue and had 50,000 employees. "EG Ignite," led by a small team of 10 people who reported directly to the head of EG, was designed to be the catalyst for the transformation and provide both a framework and problem-solving support for the most critical transformation initiatives. These included: 1) accelerating growth, 2) simplifying company processes, 3) becoming more customer-centric, 4) driving down costs, and 5) driving go-to-market changes. EG's leadership was especially focused on transforming the front line sales force. The EG Ignite team served as the interlock point between functions, business units, and regions, and it helped with the execution of the initiatives. At the same time EG Ignite was in full swing (18 months in), Hewlett Packard was in the process of splitting the $111 billion, 75-year-old company into two independent, publicly traded companies: HPI (Personal Systems and Printing business segments), and HPE (Enterprise Group, Enterprise Services, Enterprise Software, and Financial Services). The split came out of HP's desire to act with greater speed and agility so it could better compete in an environment in which technology, market, and customer expectations were rapidly changing. As a critical part of HPE, the Enterprise Group had to be sure its transformation was speedy, successful, and aligned with the imperatives of the company as a whole.

The pivotal role played by Intel in the development of the semiconductor industry, from the company's founding in 1968 and focus on semiconductor memory products (SRAM and DRAM), through various innovations in microprocessor technology, and leading to the introduction of the 286, 386, and 486 microprocessors is described in this case. Intel's internal ecology of strategy-making-its strategic leadership culture and style of decision making-is described at several key moments in the company's history when strategic decisions related to the entry and exit of several business lines internally competing for resources profoundly influenced the company, and the marketplace. This case draws upon cases and research papers concerning strategy-making at Intel Corporation written between 1989 and 1994.

"Intel's Mobile Strategy in 2015 and Beyond" examines the company's 2014 - 2015 strategy to become a more important mobile player. In early 2015, the semiconductor giant had virtually no presence in the smartphone market, and had only recently gained a real presence in the tablet market. Getting into the mobile market was strategically vital for Intel as the notebook market had been shrinking due to cannibalization from tablets. Flattening demand for notebook processors also meant that production volume in Intel's multi-billion fabrication plants was flattening as well. Intel's mobile efforts had led to losses of $5 billion by the first quarter of 2015. Most phones and tablets ran on a competing architecture designed and licensed by ARM Holdings, and Intel competitors Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung and MediaTek made most of the processors for mobile devices. Intel's efforts to gain market share included compensating its manufacturing customers for the cost of using Intel's more expensive chips. Its goal was to supply chips for 40 million tablets by the end of 2014 (which it exceeded). Intel was also engaging in new partnerships and investment tactics in China to sell Intel-branded chips for the low end of the tablet market. In pursuing the mobile market, Intel had encountered technology challenges and delays, as well as an internal resistance to selling the lower-priced, lower-margin mobile processors, despite having data showing customers' increasing desire for mobile products. Intel had very little time to establish a relevant presence in the mobile market, and the question was whether implementing these new strategies would be enough.

This industry note covers how new players in cloud file sharing and storage (such as Dropbox and Box) are reshaping the overall enterprise content management (ECM) software industry in 2014. The note presents the major incumbent firms in the ECM industry in 2014, and then describes in depth 1) the latest technology, market and business model changes that potentially enable a disruption of that industry, and 2) the key new industry players. It also discusses the implications of the convergence between two industries: Small and medium business (SMB) file sharing and ECM. In addition, the note considers the strategic challenges facing these two categories of players in shaping the future of the converged industry.

This short case discusses the process of Life Technologies' acquisition by Thermo Fisher in 2013 and 2014. The case is a complement to SM-209A and SM-209B, which highlight the various growth and acquisition strategies the company undertook over the previous 10 years.

Mariam Naficy (Minted CEO) and Melissa Kim (Minted COO) have grown the company to become a leader in the online printed cards, independent design and art market segments. As the business has continued to scale they wrestle with simultaneously growing their existing business while also looking at expanding into new markets, all the while keeping their existing customer base engaged. The case highlights the difficult decisions management faces in deciding where to pursue growth opportunities when choices might be overly abundant.

This industry note provides an extensive overview of the wireless communications industry in China at the end of 2012. At the time China had over 1.1 billion mobile subscribers, and the country was predicted to have 500 million smartphones in use by the end of 2013. The note discusses the industry's value chain (carriers, device manufactures, component providers, content and applications providers, and telecom equipment providers), and the role of the Chinese government in the industry's evolution. The note also presents the strategic positioning and business models of China's three main carriers (China Mobile, China Unicorn, and China Telecom), and of the major international and domestic handset manufacturers, including Samsung, ZTE, Nokia, Apple, Lenovo and Huawei. In addition, the note covers the strategic positioning of the main chipset suppliers in the Chinese wireless market: Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung and Intel.

It was 2005 and David Steiner, CEO of Waste Management (WM), had just received a report from an internal advisory panel created some months before to assess the future of the waste management industry and propose how the company's strategy should be adapted. The core of this report was the recommendation to create a special unit within the company, chartered with the central purpose of identifying ways to extract value from waste through new and innovative waste technologies.

The case details the strategic decisions that SK Planet, a leader in web and mobile services in its home country of Korea, needed to make regarding the best way to carry out an aggressive global expansion-most importantly into the United States. The $1 billion company had a war chest of $600 million in cash, which allowed company leadership to consider three strategic options for evaluation: 1) Port or rebrand SK Planet's top-ranked Korean services to the U.S. A challenge with this option was that these platforms were developed largely for the Korean market and might not translate to U.S. audiences. Also, many of these services would face entrenched, direct competition within the U.S.; 2) Develop or expand organically, by way of chartering new SK Planet divisions under experienced Korean or American executives. The downside was that this would involve delays in getting new divisions off the ground, and the company needed to invest significant time and energy in researching the U.S. market; 3) Follow a Merger & Acquisitions strategy using its $600 million in cash. However, this would involve a high degree of risk, and if not managed carefully, mergers could lead to culture clashes between U.S. and Korean executives. Whichever option it chose, SK Planet set a three-year goal for its expansion efforts. While nominally short, the company saw this as the critical time frame before the smartphone ecosystem in the U.S. reached maturation and the incumbents fortified their market positions.

(With SaaS, vendors stored a client's data in an external server or in the cloud, and maintained the software and relevant hardware.) Transitioning to SaaS required the €114 million company simultaneously to transform its strategy, business model, technology and culture; and the change process was bumpy. SaaS customers paid as they used services, rather than upfront as they did with the licensed software and installation business; that difference had an immediate negative impact on Basware's revenue stream. The company's new SaaS technology would be best in breed when it was complete, but it was taking longer than expected to be ready. Basware also needed to reorganize as a global organization, its sales people needed to be retrained or transitioned out, and its culture needed to adjust to match these rapid changes. At the same time, Basware's e-invoice operator business was booming. In 2013, there were an estimated 63 million transactions across the Basware Commerce Network, and the company expected to hit 150 million transactions by the end of 2015. Speed was the name of the game for Basware, as each transaction brought in money and because the network's size was Basware's competitive advantage. Although the software and e-invoicing businesses were two separate businesses, they were synergistic. The more customers moved from paper to e-invoicing, the more they would be able to use the full functionality of Basware's automated software solutions.

An update of Google's Android operating system since 2009. The case discusses the incredible success and market growth of Android and its impact on the global mobile market. Google adeptly added features and functions to make the OS competitive with Apple, as well as fleshing out its relationships with OEMs. Additionally, the company successfully brought partners and content into the Android ecosystem to make a richer experience for customers.

An update to First Solar (A), this case highlights changes to the solar energy market between 2010 and 2013 and the resulting challenges that First Solar had to overcome. In addition to increased competition from highly subsidized Chinese manufacturers, First Solar lost its pricing advantage due to a steep decline in material costs for the competing solar cell technology, c-Sci. The 2008 global financial crisis spurred a dramatic decline in demand from subsidy markets, further intensifying competition. Within First Solar, the management team went through substantial turnover and was sharply divided over what the company's core strategy should be. Good financial discipline and several key business model decisions kept First Solar solvent. Through acquisitions, the company developed a competitive advantage in the systems business and pivoted away from subsidy markets, pursuing more sustainable markets elsewhere. Finally, First Solar hedged its bet on technology, adding c-Sci, the competing solar cell technology, to its portfolio through an acquisition. These shifts helped to restore optimism and position First Solar to resume a leadership role.

This note describes the mobile telecommunications industry in 2012, and how the various participants were positioned for the future. This was a period of rapid change, as some competitors were rapidly growing, while others were undergoing equally rapid descent. The note focuses on ecosystems that evolved around competing operating systems and microprocessors, and highlights developments in each industry layer-software, hardware, handsets, and network operations-as well as strategic issues related to intellectual property.

In 2012, after several failed attempts at establishing a cloud computing solution for its entire Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suite, SAP announced two major acquisitions: SuccessFactors, a major SaaS provider for Human Resources software and Ariba, a major SaaS provider of supply chain software. The first acquisition was for $3.4 billion, with a 52 percent premium over SuccessFactors' market value. The second was for $4.3 billion, with a 20 percent premium. The industry press and bloggers saluted this as a strategic shift in SAP's approach to cloud computing. In May 2012, Lars Dalgaard, CEO of SuccessFactors, was appointed head of SAP's Cloud Business, in charge of the entire SAP SaaS strategy. This case explores the decisions, tactics and strategies pursued to turn SAP into a major cloud computing company.

In the early 2010s, the shift towards electrified transportation remained an important trend as vehicle manufacturers were pursuing a variety of options to meet emission and fuel efficiency standards. This case provides a comprehensive update of the global electric vehicle industry, comprising vehicle manufacturers, battery suppliers, and charge providers. The situation of that industry in 2013 is assessed, which includes how the established manufacturers are reconsidering their strategies for vehicle powertrains, how newcomers are entering the market especially with electric vehicles and seem to become successful or fail. The case also summarizes governmental policies, incentives, and mandates in different regions, especially including the U.S., China, Japan, and Europe. In conclusion, more consolidation of the industry is expected, especially regarding the diversity of different electrification solutions and charge providers. While the operation range of electric vehicles is expected to remain a significant consumer concern, plug-in hybrid and range extended electric vehicles are seen as a viable solution to meet mobility and sustainability requirements. Therefore, the incumbent players seem to be relatively well positioned to provide respective products given their expertise regarding gasoline-powered vehicles and technology integration while the future of newcomers remains difficult to forecast.

Flibe Energy is a startup in the nuclear power space seeking to find a safe way to enable nuclear energy using a technology previously dismissed by the US government since it could not be used for making material for nuclear weapons. The founders believe they have found a way to create safe, clean energy using a proven but forgotten technology. The challenges are steep, however, as proof of the technology will require hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

On June 12, 2008, Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems announced plans to merge. The combined company was to be renamed Life Technologies (NASDAQ: LIFE). Invitrogen offered to acquire Applied Biosystems for $6.7 billion in cash and stock. AB shareholders would receive $38 per share in cash and stock, representing a 17 percent premium over the share's closing price on Wednesday, June 11, 2008.

Founded in 1987, Invitrogen was one of the largest catalog life science companies in the industry. Its customers came from academic research, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and government laboratories. Scientists viewed Invitrogen as a one-stop shop for all major molecular biology, biochemistry and cell culture reagent products, with prices ranging from a hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars.