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Thomas D'Souza, a cofounder of Trinisoft, reflected on how far Trinisoft Technologies had come in just four years. He and Nicolson, his brother and cofounder, had just purchased a new office space in Ahmedabad, India, and added several new developers to service a growing list of clients. Trinisoft's fee-for-service business model meant clients would have to be replaced as development projects came to an end. Growth required more than just replacement, and attracting new clients depended on tangible successes with current ones.

Discussion between Coca-Cola, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focused on how Coca-Cola's supply chain knowledge could be harnessed to improve the distribution of essential medicines and health supplies in Africa. This led to Project Last Mile, a pilot project that aimed to deliver sustainable improvement in distribution of essential medicines and health supplies in Tanzania.

When the Meta Abo Brewery Company, Ethiopia's second largest brewery based in Sebeta, Ethiopia, was purchased from the government by UK-based Diageo PLC in 2012, sustainability of raw material supply, especially barley, was a key concern. At the time of the acquisition, the Meta Abo Brewery was importing all its malt barley. Diageo wanted to push local raw material sourcing to 70 percent. In May 2012, Paul Walsh, Diageo's CEO, attended the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. During the symposium, Walsh signed a pledge to support the launch of the G8's New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (see case Exhibit 2). In the same year, Walsh signed the letter of intent committing Diageo to invest US$1.5 million scalable value chain project to source barley for the Meta Abo Brewery from about 6,000 smallholder farmers with the potential to scale up to 20,000 metric tons per year by 2016. This would still not meet all demands for the malt barley required to produce the malt needed by the Meta Abo Brewery, but it was a step in the right direction in terms of increasing local content in a market computing for inputs. The goal was clear, but the implementation details had to be worked out. How would Diageo and Meta Abo Brewery implement this bold initiative to partner with 6,000 smallholder farmers to increase both quality and quantity of local sourced malt barley? They had experience working on development projects in Africa, but would those projects provide sufficient lessons learned for this challenge?

This case provides readers with the opportunity to examine three different leadership styles. Amundsen picked his crew of only 19 men based on both proven skills, including skiing and cold-weather endurance, and his assessment of how the candidates would work together as a team. Amundsen also planned meticulously. He learned from the units and translated this learning into detailed preparations for the food and supplies, and worked with his team to develop new ways of doing things. His expedition was clearly much more focused on the singular goal of reaching the South Pole. Scott, by contrast, selected a crew of 65 men and hired a professional skier to train the crew. However, he failed to make the skiing lessons mandatory. Additionally, he grossly understocked his supply depots, which were also much more distant from one another than Amundsen's depots. Shackleton held in middle position in which he engaged in participative and inclusive leadership, but still failed to plan as well as Amundsen.

Anja, the project leader for a major initiative aimed at encouraging sharing of best practices across Genizome divisions, was preparing to meet for the second time with her core project team, consisting of Mary from Marketing, Andreas from Research, Toshi from Manufacturing, and Thomas from a consulting organization. During the first project meeting, Anja had the team members introduce themselves. After introductions, Anja spent the next hour walking the team through the project charter, and shared her thoughts about the key project deliverables. At the end of the meeting, she asked if anyone had any questions. Nobody did, so she felt confident to push ahead to risk management, detailed scope management, and assignments during the second meeting scheduled the following week. Details about the capabilities and inclinations of team members are provided in the case. These details reveal that Anja has some work to do to get the team aligned around a common vision and set of objectives

This case provides an historical description of the differences between the Apollo Space Program era and the Space Shuttle Program as a backdrop for the teleconference that occurred the night before the Challenger shuttle disaster. Roger Boisjoly (Morton Thiokol engineer and central character) tries to persuade NASA to postpone the Challenger launch that included Christa McAuliffe, the teacher participating in the Teacher in Space program. He is rebuffed by NASA management since the condition of gas blow-by existed on several successful launches. The priorities and constraints facing NASA led a culture of "fix and fly" that blinded them to the need for a major redesign of the solid rocket booster.