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In January 2018, Fotile Kitchenware Co. Ltd.'s (Fotile's) sales for 2017 were announced at over ¥10 billion. Fotile had become the first kitchen appliance manufacturer in China to reach this significant milestone, despite its relatively short operational history. For years, Fotile had also been considered China’s most prominent brand in the kitchenware industry, beating several internationally-reputed brands. Since the company’s founding, the founder had set a differentiation strategy for this new venture to compete in the kitchen appliance industry. He had also made numerous tough decisions along the way to ensure that this strategy was persistently followed through. However, could his strategy continue to sustain Fotile’s growth for the future?

The case discusses the rapid success and competitive challenges of Guangzhou Chimelong Group Co. Ltd.’s (Chimelong's) marine-based recreational theme park, Chimelong Ocean Kingdom. The theme park was one of the biggest in China and had won several awards for its size and programs, but Western players such as the Walt Disney Company were expanding into China, and several smaller marine-based theme park players were entering the market, posing the threat of imitation to Ocean Kingdom. How should the theme park compete against leading multinationals and burgeoning Chinese domestic players? Could Ocean Kingdom sustain its competitive advantage against these players?

This case puts participants in the shoes of the directors of Barry Callebaut (BC), a cocoa-sourcing and chocolate manufacturing company. Chairman Andreas Jacobs is passionate about cocoa sustainability in West Africa - ensuring the cocoa crop (endangered by poor farming and climate change) and the farmers who grow it will survive and thrive. However, in response to a falling share price, the BC board has shifted strategy to achieve cost leadership. Moreover, customers have been unwilling to pay a premium for sustainable cocoa beans. Given the scale of the problem, the company cannot 'go it alone'. Nonetheless, when the CEO steps down in 2008, Jacobs sees an opportunity for BC to embrace sustainability and urges the board to go beyond goodwill gestures - like its earlier building of schools in Ivory Coast - and take "real action". Should the board follow his lead? What would "real action" mean?

Supplement to case IN1598 This case puts participants in the shoes of the directors of Barry Callebaut (BC), a cocoa-sourcing and chocolate manufacturing company. Chairman Andreas Jacobs is passionate about cocoa sustainability in West Africa - ensuring the cocoa crop (endangered by poor farming and climate change) and the farmers who grow it will survive and thrive. However, in response to a falling share price, the BC board has shifted strategy to achieve cost leadership. Moreover, customers have been unwilling to pay a premium for sustainable cocoa beans. Given the scale of the problem, the company cannot 'go it alone'. Nonetheless, when the CEO steps down in 2008, Jacobs sees an opportunity for BC to embrace sustainability and urges the board to go beyond goodwill gestures - like its earlier building of schools in Ivory Coast - and take "real action". Should the board follow his lead? What would "real action" mean?

The case follows Mina Radharkrishnan's career as a product manager and product executive in various digital environments. She launches her own start-up in 2016 and reflects on the lessons she has primarily learned at Uber, and earlier on at Google, Goldman Sachs, and ModCloth. Beyond leveraging technology to the benefit of potential customers, Mina would like to use her experience to build a team of product managers, facilitate collaboration between different stakeholders, and set priorities accordingly. The discussion explores the challenges that product managers and executives typically face and possible solutions.

In December 2015, barely one year into his tenure as the head of the Paris Opera Ballet (POB), celebrity dancer, choreographer, and entrepreneur Benjamin Millepied was caught in a storm of controversy. Hired to bring energy and modernity to one of France's oldest artistic institutions, Millepied laid out an inspiring vision of renewal and a strategy focused on developing new talent and enhancing the POB's social relevance and global visibility. In the process, however, he created turmoil. Promoting younger dancers in defiance of the established hierarchy, advocating diversity and social engagement, presenting the work of American choreographers instead of French classics, and openly criticizing the POB's restrained style pit Millepied against the established order . The case chronicles Millepied's efforts to transform the POB, focusing on the interplay between responsible leadership and organizational culture. Most organizations seek to balance business goals with social impact, urging employees to be inspiring and innovative, and bringing in outsiders with a "global" outlook to shake up "local" mind-sets. The case explores a fundamental issue for such endeavors to succeed: Responsible leadership entails more than a compelling vision. It also means sustaining a strong institutional culture while fostering diversity and innovation.

In the summer and fall of 2013, Charter Communications, the fourth-largest cable television company by market share, made multiple bids to acquire Time Warner Cable, the second-largest company, only to be rejected. Then, in late 2013, Time Warner Cable invited Comcast Corporation, the largest cable television company, to make a friendly bid. In February 2014, Time Warner Cable accepted Comcast Corporation’s bid. However, a year later, in April 2015, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission recommended hearings on the merger case, signalling that the agency was unlikely to approve the merger. Following that announcement, Comcast Corporation terminated its proposed merger agreement with Time Warner Cable on April 24, 2015, which meant that Time Warner Cable was again available for a merger. At that point, Charter Communications had to decide whether to launch a new bid for Time Warner Cable. If so, what should Charter Communications do differently in this new bid attempt?

In January 2017, the Midea Group Co. Ltd. (Midea), a China-based large manufacturer of electrical appliances, completed its acquisition of German-based KUKA AG (KUKA), a large manufacturer of industrial robots. To ease concerns about technologies falling into foreign hands, Midea entered into an alliance with KUKA that ensured KUKA’s independence until 2023. However, within less than a year, KUKA experienced problems in its European and Asian markets. In China, it needed to lower costs. In Europe, a price war slowed down the orders, and the company had insufficient workers to meet demand in the United States and Asia. Some German automotive clients were losing trust in KUKA, and German employees worried about their job security. How could the two companies operate sufficiently independently to maintain their clients' trust, while being integrated enough to improve their efficiencies? How should they be prepared for the expiration of the alliance in 2023?

In November 2017, Jerry Xie, executive vice-president and corporate secretary of China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd. (CGI), the only overseas-listed subsidiary of China National Gold Group (CNG), a Chinese state-owned gold company, was expected to report his plan for the future development of CGI to the chairman of the board of both CNG and CGI in a week’s time. CGI was perceived as the international flagship company of CNG and was listed in both Canada and Hong Kong, yet it had two mines in China and none in Canada. The parent firm needed Xie’s help to answer a question from the global capital market: should CGI be kept in operation in Canada?

In 2012, the founders of food wholesale company FoodXervices Inc. Pte. Ltd. identified a gap between food wastage and food insecurity in Singapore. To reduce this gap, they established a charity arm, The Food Bank Singapore Ltd., which operated as a liaison, collecting near-to-expiry, excess, and unwanted food products from food suppliers, retailers, and restaurants for distribution to beneficiary organizations. When the charity was founded, it was set up to be legally independent to ensure clearer accounts and audits and to prevent false allegations of misuse of food donations. In April 2018, the founders were considering integrating these two now-mature entities to take advantage of potential internal and external synergies. They needed to determine the optimal way to integrate the two entities, while considering the needs of all stakeholders.

In January 2018, the second-generation scion and director of Natural, an Indian ice cream family business, was preparing for a meeting with the general manager of the company’s retail operations. The company was founded by the director’s father in 1984 under the name Kamath Ourtimes Ice Cream Private Ltd. and was known for its handmade artisanal ice cream brand—Natural Ice Cream. Several years after his entry into the family business in 2009, the son insisted on professionalizing the company as a means of achieving a vision of growth, despite an increasingly competitive market. In 2014, almost 30 years after the company was established, the general manager was the first professional to be hired by the company. Although professionalization brought about an increase in sales of two and a half times during 2012–2018, the director was sensing a change in the culture of the company, which he found troubling. He wondered if he had grown the company too big, too fast in his haste to transform it into a high-growth enterprise.

Teach For Lebanon (TFL) was a non-profit organization (NFP) founded in response to the national problem of low quality public education. The case examines the sustainability challenges that TFL faced in a developing country, covering the financial, legal, and social dilemmas that NFPs struggled with. The case tracks TFL's innovative solutions to enhance the organization's financial sustainability and considers scaling-up and initiating a new business to generate additional income. Using benchmarking, students can invent and list their own suggestions for enhancing NFPs' financial sustainability.

In early 2018, Modena, Italy’s Pagani Automobili S.p.A (Pagani Automobili), a boutique designer and manufacturer of high-performance internal combustion engine powered supercars, was struggling to develop a response to the emergence of electric vehicle technology. This technology appeared to be interesting and potentially useful. It outperformed internal combustion technology in terms of speed and power. In 2018, relatively inexpensive electric cars could already accelerate faster than most supercars over a quarter-mile distance. However, the electric car driving experience seemed very different from the experience of driving a supercar powered by an internal combustion engine, due largely to fundamental differences between the technologies. Could Pagani Automobili build an electric vehicle that its customers would perceive as a true Pagani Automobili creation?

In September 2017, the chairman and the president of Shanghai Shine-Link International Logistics Co. Ltd. were considering their company’s future. The company was established in May 2001. After more than 16 years of rapid development, it became a leading information technology empowered logistics provider, offering high value-added services, with the lean management and innovation capabilities of modern logistics enterprises. In September 2017, it was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange main board. The management team had to reconsider the company’s next steps for growth. The two men realized it was time to convene the board of directors to consider the company’s future. With so many opportunities and risks in front of them, good decision-making was essential to their prospects.

In 2018, the Singapore-based telecommunication operator StarHub Ltd. (StarHub) acknowledged that in 2017 its total revenue was relatively flat and its net profit had declined. In the face of rising competition and a slowing global economy, the company needed to explore new sources of revenue growth. Two areas of growth seemed promising. The first area involved the launch of StarHub's smart retail analytics for small and medium enterprises in the retail food and beverages industry, which had been experiencing a high churn rate. The second area would apply StarHub's new robotics and automation solutions in the labour-intensive hospitality industry, which suffered from an oversupply of properties and would likely see exits and consolidation. StarHub needed to choose between the two investment options.

By February 2019, General Motors Company (GM) had evolved into one of the three dominant North American automobile manufacturers, selling over 10 million vehicles annually. However, GM’s global market share had been declining over the previous 10–15 years due to intense competition in the small and mid-sized car segment from new entrants with a cost structure unlike global competitors and a product marketing strategy more focused on price than quality products. This development forced GM to rely heavily on sales of its pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles to increase gross margins that had been consistently below industry averages. At this point, the industry was also shifting toward a new automotive platform and related business model dominated by autonomous and electric vehicles. GM had to find a way to transform its current business and profit model to meet the needs and trends of an emerging electric and autonomous vehicle industry.

An executive at a North American-based multinational company contacted an old friend and former business associate in Indonesia in hopes of collaborating with him to purchase Asian software companies. After several emails, the two disagreed and disengaged. The North American declined the Indonesian’s advice to invest time in developing the relationships required to access this market. Three months later, after realizing he had closed the door on a huge and growing market, the North American again contacted his Indonesian associate. He realized that his North American style of negotiation was ineffective in this market and that the Asians had their own preferred approach. He planned a phone call to Indonesia to try to restart the process. What style of communication should he use this time in an effort to generate a better understanding and success?

In February 2018, Punjab National Bank (PNB) in India reported a US$1.8-billion fraud related to the illegal issuance of letters of undertaking. The fraud was engineered by one of the leading diamond jewellers of India, Nirav Modi; his uncle, Mehul Choksi; and employees of PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai. Indian investigative agencies found that the previous top management of PNB along with other employees had also been involved in or had prior knowledge about the fraud. PNB's current chief executive officer, Sunil Mehta, was trying to steer PNB out of the crisis. What key challenges did Mehta face with respect to managing the operational risks of PNB? Was Mehta right to consider the fraud a people issue and not a systems issue?

Fantasy sports is the fastest growing online gaming industry worth several billion dollars. An important debate associated with fantasy sports across the world is whether it is a game of skill or chance. In India, the online gaming laws are not very well defined and hence there is always a threat to fantasy sports companies of getting into legal battles. While the game of skill is permitted by Indian laws, game of chance is strictly prohibited. Indian courts have recognized that no game is a game of pure skill or game of pure chance. When there is a chance involved, the Indian courts decide based on the dominant factor test that requires determining whether skill is dominant, or chance is dominant factor for a given instance. Ramasubramanian Sundararajan (Ramsu), the head of AI at the Cartesian Consulting was convinced that the debate around whether the dominant factor is skill or chance should be settled using data. With this objective, Ramsu approached Dream 11, one of the largest fantasy sports companies in India. Dream 11 has created fantasy games for sports such as cricket, football, hockey, kabaddi, and the National Basketball Association (NBA). Being a cricket fanatic, Ramsu wanted to check whether fantasy games played in cricket involves skill or not. Ramsu was convinced that several hypotheses can be designed and tested to check whether fantasy sports is skill dominant or chance dominant.