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Beginning in 2014, JPMorgan Chase launched Invested in Detroit, a $100 million philanthropic investment in the city over five years. The bank worked with local economic development organizations, workforce development organizations, small businesses, philanthropies, and the city government to put in place a series of investments to help turn around the struggling city. In 2017, JPMorgan Chases' chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, is faced the with decision of whether or not to expand the program to other locations in the U.S. The (B) case explains the expansion of the program to Chicago and Washington, D.C. that began in 2017.

The case narrates the journey of an environmentalist, M Revathi, who as a young child with polio affected legs, could not move around on her own, and therefore began to develop friendship with birds, who kept her company. She thus grew up appreciating life other than mankind, such as birds, insects, plants and animals, and became an avid reader and a birdwatcher. Revathi eventually chose a career as a science teacher, and her passion for birds led her to the discovery that usage of pesticides, insecticides and other agricultural chemicals was severely damaging the environment and destroying the farming ecosystem. The case then describes Revathi's tryst with farming communities and her enquiries into India's green revolution, which revealed the root cause of increased pesticide usage in Indian agriculture. Revathi successfully uncovers the various connections between fertilizers, high yielding variety (HYV) seeds and the need for pesticides; and how the water-intensive modern agricultural practices gradually reduced the fertile delta lands in India into infertile dry lands. The case next describes how Revathi's efforts to change the habits of farming communities towards more ecofriendly methods and her determination to build morale of debt-ridden farmers on the verge of suicides, led Revathi to quit her job as a school teacher and travel around the rural parts of India. Her husband followed suit, giving up a well-respected position in the Indian Navy, to support Revathi in her journey. The couple soon found themselves in the midst of Tsunami-hit Nagapattinam district, offering relief and rehabilitation to poor and marginal farmers whose livelihoods have been hit hard by Tsunami. The case ends with the following dilemma: whether Revathi and her husband should implement the ecological techniques they have been using to recover the land damaged by chemical-based farming, to recover the Tsunami-hit land in Nagapattinam district.

Beginning in 2014, JPMorgan Chase launched Invested in Detroit, a $100 million philanthropic investment in the city over five years. The bank worked with local economic development organizations, workforce development organizations, small businesses, philanthropies, and the city government to put in place a series of investments to help turn around the struggling city. In 2017, JPMorgan Chases' chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, is faced the with decision of whether or not to expand the program to other locations in the U.S.

In February 2017, the co-founders of Passion Connect were considering potential monetization strategies for their company. Passion Connect was an online platform based in Bangalore, India, that helped people identify, nurture, and live their passions. The company provided users with curated content, events, and connections related to their passions—from painting and music to travel and food. Passion Connect aimed to raise a Series A round of venture capital financing by the end of 2017. The co-founders had to find an effective monetization strategy before approaching potential investors. They had to consider both qualitative and quantitative outcomes for each strategy, the fit with the business’s goals, and the impact on profitability, feasibility, and user experience.

In mid-2012, after successful years in large public companies and obtaining an MBA, middle daughter Jen, 32, is trying to decide whether the time is right for her to enter her mother and sister's small family business to grow it further. Destira, Inc. was a designer/manufacturer of gymnastics wear for girls, headquartered in California. Donna Levy founded the company in 1990, after years of making leotards for her three daughters, who were competitive youth gymnasts, and getting requests from other parents to make the garments for their own children. In 2005, when Donna's oldest daughter, Jodi, joined Destira, Donna gave her a 50 percent equity stake. Between then and year-end 2011, the pair grew the revenues from $550,000 to $1.06 million, increased the number of outlets carrying the brand, upgraded the internal accounting/operations software, and added an online direct-to-customer retail business. The case shows realistic considerations for the individual, family, and business when evaluating whether or not to commit to join the family enterprise.

Nest Wealth Asset Management Inc. (Nest) was a new Canadian robo-adviser based in Toronto. The company competed not only against large incumbents such as Canadian banks but also against other financial technology start-ups. In April 2015, Nest's main competitor had just aligned with a significant partner that had abundant financial resources and broad market access. Nest's chief executive officer needed to consider the best option for the company's future: Should he maintain the current business-to-consumer model by maintaining a focus on scaling and expanding Nest's consumer base, or should he explore a business-to-business model by leveraging Nest's technological capability and offering technology to human advisers?

Vodafone was operating in the fast-moving telecommunications market where innovation and scale were key. Faced with an onslaught of technological advances-big data, automation and artificial intelligence-CEO Vittorio Colao reflected on how he should change the organization to incorporate these advancements to improve the way the functions work, how to incorporate machine learning and artificial intelligence that de facto improve productivity and slash costs and what can he could do to give back to society and make sure that new opportunities were created for the new generation.

In November 2017, a fan of hockey watched his favourite team lose 6-4 against a contending team. After a great start to the season with a record of 6 wins and 1 loss, his favourite team had lost 6 of the last 8 games, dropping their record to 8 wins and 7 losses. The fan knew that the time was approaching for the inevitable discussions with his friends regarding the team's success. Which players should they have signed? Which player should the team trade for? What line combinations would serve the team best? Who was overvalued, and who was undervalued? Knowing that conversations among his friends typically took on a random and unstructured format, the fan planned to provide a more analytical approach to the discussion this year. His research would raise the level of the conversation and help back up his suggestions.

Student spreadsheet for case W18103.

In April 2017, a college student in California was graduating with a degree in business administration with a concentration in entrepreneurship. She had been a florist for the past six years and wished to pursue her dream of starting her own flower business. Her vision was to open a flower shop where all the arrangements were uniquely designed for each customer and no two arrangements were the same. Her current employers were trying to sell their shop (Belle Fleur) and offered to sell it to her at a discount price. She had to decide whether to buy the business or start her own shop from scratch.

In late 2015, Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon) opened its first brick-and-mortar Amazon Books store in the United States. Amazon had invested heavily in expanding in the United States through new projects, from establishing Amazon Prime Now to setting up Amazon Books and Amazon Go locations. By 2017, a rumour suggested that Amazon might acquire Whole Foods Market Inc., a natural and organic foods supermarket. Could Amazon be as successful in offline retail as it had been in e-commerce? How could the company differentiate itself in the brick-and-mortar retail segment?

In June 2017, a journalist was preparing a major news story about Lumni Inc. (Lumni), a company that he wanted to profile in the next issue of his Mexico City–based magazine. Lumni's mission was essentially a social one: to improve the conditions, access, and quality of higher education for young students, especially in Latin America. However, although its mission was originally non-profit, Lumni was not considered a non-governmental organization since it worked with a financially sustainable model and did not depend on donations or government funding. As the journalist investigated this business model, he learned that some experts referred to it as a hybrid business model. Although he had been gathering research on Lumni for some months, he still was unsure whether his report should promote hybrid business models as viable alternatives to traditional business models.

A hybrid business model incorporates the social responsibility interests of a non-profit organization with the economic objectives of a for-profit company. This note explains the fundamental organizational activities that drive a hybrid business model and provides examples of successful hybrid business models currently in operation. This note can be used as a companion document to Lumni Inc.: Improving Society in a Sustainable Way, product no. 9B18M011.

A hybrid business model incorporates the social responsibility interests of a non-profit organization with the economic objectives of a for-profit company. This note explains the fundamental organizational activities that drive a hybrid business model and provides examples of successful hybrid business models currently in operation. This note can be used as a companion document to Lumni Inc.: Improving Society in a Sustainable Way, product no. 9B18M011

CEO Zhang Ruimin must plan how to accelerate the growth of self-managed micro-enterprises. Platforms were Haier's business platforms operating in five major sectors: white goods transformation, investment and incubation, financial holdings, real estate, and cultural industry. Platform owners incubated micro-enterprises on their platforms with the resources Haier had, but they were not the supervisors of micro-enterprises. His goal was to tear down the walls between the organization, shortening the time the company took to respond to users' needs, with the ultimate goal of "zero distance" between employees and users. Haier had engaged in a series of organizational changes since 2005, the most recent of which started in 2012. His latest experimentation was turning Haier into a platform for entrepreneurship. Employees and those outside Haier could set up micro-enterprises on Haier's platforms. Zhang thought Haier was on the right track, but the model had to prove itself in practice. He set a timetable: the micro-enterprises must reach the tipping point by September 20, 2018, which meant the micro-enterprise would have become a platform to which all resource providers would flock and stay loyal. There was no precedent of transformation like this anywhere. Would Haier succeed? What could Haier do to push the micro-enterprises to get to the tipping point?

The case opens with Said Darwazah, chairman and CEO of Hikma Pharmaceuticals, the multinational generics company, anticipating the company's 2017 AGM and reflecting on changes made over the previous year to address concerns expressed by proxy advisors and some shareholders about Hikma's reliance on a combined chairman/CEO position, the long tenure of some directors, and the company's approach to executive pay. The case describes Hikma's origins as Jordanian pharma company founded by Darwazah's father in 1978, and traces the evolution of its governance as a private family company, then as publicly-traded company listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2005, and finally as a member of the FTSE 100, beginning in March 2015. Ahead of the 2017 AGM, Darwazah is confident that shareholders will approve changes made to the company's executive incentive plan (EIP) and steps taken to accelerate the turnover of long-serving directors, but he wonders how much longer the company will be able to continue with a combined Chairman/CEO and, more generally, how to marry the high level of governance expected by shareholders with the entrepreneurial spirit that had driven Hikma's growth and development.

In 2016, the newly appointed president and chief executive officer of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), an alcoholic beverages retailer and a Crown corporation of the province of Ontario in Canada, was weighing his options in developing and executing a strategy for organizational transformation. The trigger for transformation was external. The provincial government, which fully owned the LCBO, had decided to allow grocery stores to sell alcoholic beverages. What strategy should the chief executive officer use to ensure the LCBO would be relevant to its existing and future customers and therefore remain a competitive player in the market?

Since its founding in 1990, Shenzhou International Group Holdings Limited evolved from a small clothing manufacturer to a world-leading apparel supplier, serving well-known sports and leisure brands such as Uniqlo, Nike, Adidas, and Puma. Over the previous 10 years, the group experienced explosive growth. Yet, in an age of increasing consumer expectations, could it rely on existing models to achieve greater success? Comments made by the US president about reviving his country’s manufacturing industry encouraged many firms to invest in building factories in the United States. Despite being a traditional labour-intensive manufacturer, the company wondered if it should consider setting up a factory in the United States as part of its future strategic plans. If so, would the challenges outweigh the opportunities?

This case provides a brief overview of the success and challenges of the HNA Group between 2015 and late 2017 when it grew rapidly through global acquisitions to became a Fortune 170 company. How would HNA face the challenges of being a truly global and prominent company in an era of increasing scrutiny of big businesses?

Tesla Motors, Inc. (Tesla), the electric car company, unveiled its Model 3 in late July 2017 as its stock price continued to appreciate. The Model 3 was priced to sell to the mass market and to potentially compete with the mass-market leaders such as Toyota. The stock market had also responded favourably to Tesla’s decision in 2016 to acquire SolarCity, a manufacturer of solar cells, and its decision to build the Gigafactory, the world’s largest lithium battery plant. Could Tesla justify its sky-high stock price multiple by simply selling electric cars, or should Tesla become a battery company that could fundamentally change the energy storage industry—or for that matter, some other type of company?