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This is a two-part case. Case A introduces Kim Underhill as the new Regional Head at Appliances International, a leading global appliances manufacturer that has sold more than 30 million household and professional products in over 70 markets. Underhill was headhunted in December 2016 to help revive the firm's declining performance in the key Asia-Pacific markets of India, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Of the four markets, India, had proved to be particularly challenging with AI having a marginal presence, stagnant sales, recurring losses, and poor brand image in the country. Upon taking charge, Underhill sensed some wariness on the part of the India team in dealing with a woman leader. She held meetings with the employees to understand the issues better, and thereafter decided to implement a series of measures to help turn the situation around. Over the next few months, she laid off a number of senior managers whom she believed were incompetent and lacked motivation. She implemented new performance incentives for the sales staff. She also met the key customers, and worked towards addressing their concerns and misgivings with AI. However, by the end of the year, there was no significant improvement in AI India's sales performance or relationships with its channel partners. With 14 months gone by, Underhill was worried. Had she overcommitted by promising to turnaround the company in two years? What should she do now? Case B sees Underhill implementing other initiatives to turn the company around, such as joint activities with channel partners, investment in brand activities, running of product and service training, and holding regional meetings to encourage open conversations among colleagues across different offices. She also drew upon AI's matrix structure to have experienced managers located in other countries assist in coaching employees at the India office. Consequently, AI's sales in India began to grow, recording 20% increase in the following year.

Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited (Standard Chartered) was part of an international banking group that focused on the creation of wealth across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. As part of its commitment to corporate social responsibility, Standard Chartered launched a project in 2012 called Silver Lining, a community project that aimed to support elderly Singaporeans in meeting their financial and health care needs. Silver Lining had overcome a number of challenges since its inception, choosing appropriate partners and finding ways to help young volunteers overcome language barriers to work with elderly clients. It had also joined with other organizations to collaborate on offering supports and services to seniors in the community, some of whom were dealing with poor mental health. In early 2017, Standard Chartered had to make some key strategic decisions in order to ensure the continued relevance of Silver Lining and justify the need for continued funding for the project.

Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited (Standard Chartered) was part of an international banking group that focused on the creation of wealth across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. As part of its commitment to corporate social responsibility, Standard Chartered launched a project in 2012 called Silver Lining, a community project that aimed to support elderly Singaporeans in meeting their financial and health care needs. Silver Lining had overcome a number of challenges since its inception, choosing appropriate partners and finding ways to help young volunteers overcome language barriers to work with elderly clients. It had also joined with other organizations to collaborate on offering supports and services to seniors in the community, some of whom were dealing with poor mental health. In early 2017, Standard Chartered had to make some key strategic decisions in order to ensure the continued relevance of Silver Lining and justify the need for continued funding for the project.

How can an organization help its employees' creativity thrive? When Rokey Zhang and Ricky Xu founded Eico in 2004, no one could predict the scale of China's mobile and e-commerce revolution. Fourteen years later, they have ridden that wave of change to play a key role in designing some of the most influential and popular digital services in China. But it has not been easy. Charting the cultural, organizational, and business-related issues they encountered as the firm grew, the case explores the changes made to its structure , how systems and processes are designed to overcome national and cultural impediments to the creative process, and why Eico is able to work in an environment which other design agencies have found particularly challenging.

The case describes the education, career and political strategy of Emmanuel Macron in his ascent to the French presidency.

The case accounts for the gender pay gap in companies and industries around the world. In Europe, women earn on average 84 cents per hour for every euro men make. In the United States, they earn between 80 and 82 cents per hour for every dollar made by a man. The gap widens further after women have children. Iceland is a rare exception; companies in Iceland are under a legal obligation to prove that they offer equal pay. Elsewhere, the under-representation of women in leadership roles in government, industry, the boardroom and c-suite means a dearth of role models for girls. The case shines a spotlight on ingrained behaviours and perceptions that condone the gender pay gap on the grounds that men have more responsible jobs and hold more senior positions.

Asahi Kasei Corporation (Asahi Kasei), a diversified company based in Japan, had partnerships with weavers in India for its cupro yarn, which was used to make traditional garments for Indian women. The company developed a unique, inclusive value chain in India and began focusing on enhancing the development impact of its operations there. With a growing market for cupro yarn in India, Asahi Kasei expanded the capacity of its production facility in Japan in 2014, even though the domestic market for the product was shrinking. However, in 2015, the product started to face intense price competition in India from viscose rayon, which was an inferior but cheaper product. In 2016, the company had to address the competitive pressures while considering its economic and social objectives.

In November 2016, the co-founders of Poppy Barley Inc. (Poppy Barley) had just finished discussing the company’s fiscal projections and sustainability goals for the upcoming 2017 year. Poppy Barley, a made-to-measure footwear retailer in Edmonton, Alberta, had grown rapidly. The co-founders, who were sisters, wanted to further both their product line and their commitments to corporate sustainability. Would becoming certified as a sustainable business publicize their commitments and values, and improve their triple bottom line? If so, which certification should they choose? On the other hand, given the company’s growth stage, would directing finite resources toward certification detract from other important business areas?

Since the founding of Ontario-based Social Focus Consulting (SFC) in 2011, its founder had led a team of over 100 members to work on more than 30 projects for over 30 non-profit organization (NPO) clients from London to Ottawa. SFC’s competitive market included NPO consulting firms that were more established, larger, or offered pro bono services. SFC set itself apart by exclusively hiring undergraduate and graduate students. The organization specialized in youth-oriented marketing strategies that helped NPOs raise more funds and awareness in a highly fragmented multi-billion-dollar Canadian market. Although SFC had achieved some success, the founder wondered if SFC's recent declining revenues and failure in new project acquisition meant that its business model was not feasible over a long-term horizon. In September 2017, he had to decide whether to continue running SFC with long-term goals for success or avoid the risk of ruining his professional reputation and wasting time and money by ending his work with SFC.

Comfort Remote Site Services Ltd. (Comfort) was a remote-site food service company based in Oakville, Ontario. The chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Comfort was preparing a bid for the catering, housekeeping, and janitorial services for the Gregory Mine, an iron ore mine owned by Yellowstone Mining and located 320 kilometres north of Yukon, Canada. The remote food services industry involved a highly competitive bidding (often closed) process. Revenues in the industry had declined by 30 per cent in 2015 due to a weak global economy, and a subsequent downturn had occurred in natural resource commodity prices. The CEO must work through the financial analysis before deciding on whether to submit a bid.

Comfort Remote Site Services Ltd. (Comfort) was a remote-site food service company based in Oakville, Ontario. The chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Comfort was preparing a bid for the catering, housekeeping, and janitorial services for the Gregory Mine, an iron ore mine owned by Yellowstone Mining and located 320 kilometres north of Yukon, Canada. The remote food services industry involved a highly competitive bidding (often closed) process. Revenues in the industry had declined by 30 per cent in 2015 due to a weak global economy, and a subsequent downturn had occurred in natural resource commodity prices. The CEO must work through the financial analysis before deciding on whether to submit a bid.

On November 13, 2015, Dr. Marie Borel, Dr. Emmanuelle Dolla, Dr. Frédéric Le Saché, and Prof. Mathieu Raux were the doctors in charge of the trauma center at L'Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière in Paris, where dozens of wounded and dying patients, most with severe gunshot wounds from military grade firearms, arrived in waves after a series of terrorist attacks across the city. The doctors had trained for a mass-casualty event but had never envisioned the magnitude of what they now saw. This case describes how they rapidly expanded the critical care capacity available so as to be able to handle the unexpectedly large number of patients arriving at their doors.

Muskaan, a social enterprise based in Delhi, India, trained adults with intellectual disabilities to help bring them closer to mainstream society. The organization firmly believed that the “human mind is designed for learning,” and that everyone, including those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, had the potential to succeed in doing great things in life. Muskaan had two revenue sources: grants, and income from the sale of goods produced by intellectually disabled craftspeople. In 2016, more than 11,000 Indian non-governmental organizations lost their licenses to receive foreign funding. Dr. Shanti Auluck, Muskaan’s founder, worried that the funding needed for her business model might also soon dry up. To survive, grow, and ensure the sustainability of her social enterprise, Auluck had to change her business model and prepare a new business plan.

On August 31, 2016, a well-respected and highly influential cultural broadcaster and entrepreneur in Colombia was the subject of a fake news attack. A message started spreading over the WhatsApp messaging service wrongfully attributing to her a vociferous statement opposing the Colombian peace-making process. On September 2, 2016, she produced a disconfirming video, in which she made it clear that the statement was not written by her; that it did not represent her views; and that, contrary to what the statement said, she supported peace efforts. The video was posted on her official Facebook and Twitter accounts, and echoed by mainstream media. Unfortunately, the attack did not stop there. On several occasions between 2016 and 2017, the message was put in circulation again. The timing seemed connected to milestones in Colombia’s peace process. In February 2018, three months before the presidential elections in the country, the message started to circulate again. The entrepreneur wondered if there was anything else she could do to prevent further damage to both public opinion and her own reputation.

Meridian Credit Union (Meridian) was a financial co-operative (i.e. credit union) in Ontario, Canada. In its effort to shift from being a niche to a mainstream market player in the financial-services sector, Meridian attempted to challenge the oligopoly of Canada's big banks. It tried to do this through a responsible, consumer-centric business strategy that aimed to address many of the problems with the financial sector in Canada and around the world. Owned by its customers, Meridian represented a marked counterpoint to the traditional shareholder-owned bank in Canada at a time of increased awareness about the conflict between consumer and shareholder objectives. In March 2018, Meridian's executive team was reflecting on the credit union's recent growth and the changes that had resulted. As they considered where Meridian should go next, they faced a series of questions: Should the credit union become more focused? Should it expand and diversify its service offerings? What were the risks of these strategies? What were the opportunities and threats of financial technology? Were there other growth options Meridian should consider in light of these trends?

Lifecycle management of assets is essential for cost-effective maintenance and long-term economic viability. Properly maintained infrastructure provides significant economic advantages. Neglecting maintenance leads to lower productivity and imposes costs on users. Furthermore, delayed maintenance significantly increases total costs associated with repair or replacement. Lifecycle asset management should be used in the public sector to manage large-scale assets such as transportation infrastructure in a cost-effective manner. Yet, state governments have had little incentive to provide proactive maintenance. To address the infrastructure capital investment backlog, particularly acute in transportation, government priorities need to be coupled with long-term economic accountability. In addition, funding and financial reporting mechanisms should be created to ensure effective and efficient lifecycle asset management decisions. Public-private partnerships (PPP) also need to be fostered to help address regional deficiencies in infrastructure.

What strategic choices do business leaders make when implementing new business models? This study tries to answer this question by analyzing the development of several business model innovations that were new to the industry. We find that business model innovators face four strategic trade-offs and accompanying tensions during the implementation of their business model innovation process: (1) the level of independence granted to the developer (independence vs. dependence), (2) the degree to which the roadmap is planned in advance (discovery vs. planned execution), (3) the degree to which the value proposition challenges the status quo (challenging vs. maintaining status quo), and (4) the rigor to which business model innovators preserve the logic of the initial value proposition (solid vs. fluid logic). Our in-depth analysis reveals that business model innovators make pragmatic decisions that may deviate from the guidelines offered by existing literature, and we offer insights into the drivers behind these decisions.