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The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital commerce in India, and, in doing so, it exposed serious inadequacies in the country's e-commerce system. Through outreach programs to small sellers and entities in hyperlocal supply chains, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in India identified a substantial gap between the quantum of online demand and the local retail marketplace's capability to meet this demand. Established e-commerce giants had developed ways to maintain and increase their dominance and maximize profits, while small and fringe companies struggled to establish a place for themselves in the e-commerce marketplace. The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was a first-of-its-kind initiative to create an open, all-encompassing, and competitive online marketplace in India. The network, which conceptualized itself as offering equal opportunity to all sellers, promised discoverability of digital commerce stores across industries through the use of network-enabled applications. The network was designed to provide a level playing field for sellers and to ultimately democratize digital commerce in India. The benefits of digital commerce would percolate among consumers across socioeconomic strata and even reach remote geographic locations. The intent was to implement ONDC on a population-wide scale and make it a public utility. To truly democratize e-commerce in India, ONDC would be required to incorporate millions of digitally excluded small retailers. For this to happen, the transactions on the network needed to be seamless, customer trust had to be won, and a proper grievance redressal mechanism had to be put in place. Although the initiative had gone through the alpha- and beta-testing phases and was now live in select Indian cities, a certain degree of merchant onboarding and customer involvement was still essential to get the process underway.

In July 2023, Tesla, Inc. (Tesla), a global leader in the manufacture and sales of electric vehicles, needed to formulate its entry strategy in India. Tesla's chief executive officer, Elon Musk, had met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his visit to the United States in June 2023 and expressed optimism about India as a market for Tesla. This development was in sharp contrast to the events of just over a year earlier, when Musk and Tesla had expressed disappointment with the Indian government's policy of heavily taxing imports of fully assembled Tesla cars and had seemingly abandoned their plans to enter India, at least in the short term. Despite the thaw in the relationship with the Indian government, Tesla's top management needed to get a number of critical decisions right if the company's entry into the Indian market was to be successful.

Chengdu Jwell Co. Ltd. (Jwell) was established in July 2013 as a subsidiary of Pangang Group Investment Co. Ltd., a prominent state-owned enterprise. Jwell served as a comprehensive service platform, facilitating transactions, payments, and billing for various commodities, including steel, vanadium, titanium, and chemicals. Its digital transformation journey began in 2015 with the launch of its e-commerce platforms, and currently, its warehouse management relied on a smart warehouse chain based on digital warehouse technology. However, this approach faced challenges with respect to the real-time sharing of information about cargo and financial data and the lack of adequate support for security in e-commerce transactions, which hindered Jwell's further development.

Royal Enfield has maintained its dominance in the 250-750 cubic centimetre mid-size motorcycle segment in India. After a COVID-19-induced lean patch, the company's unit sales have skyrocketed to an all-time high of 834,895 units in fiscal year 2022-23. The demand for premium motorcycles is growing significantly, which bodes well for Royal Enfield. However, the market leader has been confronted with a big challenge. The alliance between Hero MotoCorp Ltd. and Harley-Davidson Inc. has launched the Harley-Davidson X440-the most affordable Harley-to take on Royal Enfield. Meanwhile, the alliance between Bajaj Auto Ltd. and Triumph Motorcycles Ltd. has unveiled the competitively priced Speed 400. The initial response to the new motorcycles has been overwhelming. What strategic options are available to Royal Enfield to maintain its market lead amid intensified competitive rivalry?

In February 2022, Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) Investments, the investment management organization that managed funds for the CPP, one of the biggest pension plans in the world, announced a net-zero commitment for its portfolio by 2050. Under its CEO, John Graham, it outlined key actions to get there but pleasing stakeholders on all sides was a tough ask. While some lauded the fund's efforts, others questioned its decision not to set interim emissions reduction targets and to continue to finance fossil fuel firms. In practical terms, executing on the firm's sustainable investing approach meant making appropriately weighed investment decisions daily, a complex exercise. In mid-2023, one such investment under consideration was Aera Energy, a California oil and gas asset transitioning to a green business model-renewables and carbon capture and storage.

As she prepared for the Hershey Company Investor Day, CEO Michele Buck knew the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI); the importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices; and that EDI within corporate social responsibility (CSR) was key to Hershey's valuable brand image, engaged employees, and effective business relationships. "Children's wellbeing is at the heart of who we are as a company. This goes back to our founder, Milton S. Hershey, who cared deeply about children." However, the company depended on cocoa beans from West Africa and had not yet honoured a 2001 industry-wide pledge to uproot child labour in global supply chains. Hershey was committed to improved practices but had not yet reached its goals. What if Hershey's largest customer in its largest market decided to drop Hershey products? What if socially conscious institutional investors decided to sell their shares? How could the CEO avoid these disastrous scenarios and reassure both customers and investors?

Motorcycle Offsetters, an aspiring startup, provided motorcycle enthusiasts with a platform to offset carbon emissions from their touring activities, contributing to the fight against climate change. Despite rapid growth, the venture faced financial instability. The founder, Andreas Gneist, aimed to devise a marketing and communication strategy to engage decision-makers in organizations offering offsetting services to a substantial motorcycle enthusiast base. Overcoming skepticism among environmental activists and countering the stigma associated with climate change efforts among deniers were pivotal challenges. Addressing these hurdles was crucial for the venture's success and financial sustainability.

In June 2023, Zerodha, a leading player in India's discount brokerage industry, was at a crossroads. Founded in 2010 by Nikhil and Nithin Kamath, who were avid stock traders from a young age, the company had grown significantly by putting customers first. The pandemic and low-interest environment had provided a strong tailwind to the sector as well as the company, especially in terms of the number of customers and revenues. However, the competition was nipping at Zerodha's heels. Many start-ups offered similar technology interfaces, and some were funded by venture capital. A few were spending aggressively to court customers as well as tech employees. With a debt-free balance sheet built through several years of profitable operations, Zerodha could pursue strategies that required large spending, but the key question was: should Zerodha deviate from its time-tested strategy of being a cost leader and not following the herd in the new post-pandemic environment?

RiQian Motor was a Chinese company focusing on the development of wheel motors for mining machinery. Its long-term track record with providing high-quality products and service had won the trust and favour of its many clients. In 2016, the mining machinery industry began to focus on the production of electric vehicles. RiQian Motor invested in this new direction, but as of 2018, it was suffering losses in this new area. RiQian Motor was faced with a difficult choice: Should it discontinue its efforts at diversification and go back to the specialized strategy it excelled at? Or should it take a risk and continue the diversification strategy?

As managers face a flood of data, it is very important that they effectively analyze and interpret the available data to make decisions. Plotting data will help them in their analysis and interpretation of raw data. The same is true for students in business programs. However, students in business programs (and managers) often do not see the importance of plotting data. This case presents a typical classroom scenario in which the professor of data visualization quotes statistician John W. Tukey to his students and tries to drive home the importance of plotting data. A representative student understands about presenting summary statistics and running some statistical tests, but questions the usefulness of plotting points as well. The professor must decide how to teach the class about the merits of plotting data. The professor gives the student an assignment with data and instructions, and tells the student to report the class the next day. The student is unaware that he has been given the Anscombe quartet, and he becomes convinced of the benefits of plotting data.

Spreadsheet supplement for Exercise W34893

In May 2023, Lei Yang, general manager of Jiangsu Tianan Smart Science and Technology Co. Ltd. (Tianan), based in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, was deciding how to improve his company’s profitability. In its early days, Tianan had sold in-vehicle infotainment devices to automobile companies, and in 2014, it started installing in-vehicle software systems and driver terminals. But from 2010 to 2017, the company lost money. So when the Chinese government announced in 2018 its plan to create internet of vehicle (IoV) pilot zones throughout China, Yang recognized this as an opportunity to transform his company and get rid of its losses. He restructured Tianan’s team, integrated its hardware and software suppliers, took advantage of the government’s help, and turned Tianan into an IoV system service provider. Tianan was profitable in 2020, 2021, and 2022—but Yang was not yet satisfied. Despite the turnaround, the company’s revenue still came primarily from the government, its project delivery capacity was too low to increase sales volume, and its limited bargaining power led to high purchase costs from suppliers. Now, in 2023, what could Yang do to improve his company’s profitability?

In May 2023, KOSÉ Corporation (KOSÉ) was facing three ominous factors in the Chinese market: declining sales due to weak consumer spending in China following a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases after Beijing ended its zero-COVID-19 policy, new regulations requiring beauty manufactures after January 2024 to label all ingredients that constituted more than 0.1 per cent of a product in descending order (thereby risking disclosing trade secrets), and Chinese consumers' preferences shifting to local Chinese beauty manufacturers. About 30 per cent of KOSÉ's net sales came from the Chinese market, where it focused on its major brands, Sekkisei and Decorté. Yet the market was becoming more saturated with giant European beauty manufactures and local enterprises. Should KOSÉ keep focusing on the Chinese market as its pillar strategy?

Spreadsheet supplement for case W36187.

Should you deploy that machine learning model â€" or will it fail? Most leaders making these decisions are focusing on the wrong metrics â€" which dooms many projects. In this article, adapted from the book The AI Playbook: Mastering the Rare Art of Machine Learning Deployment, learn how and why to use business metrics rather than technical ones to evaluate how well an ML model will perform â€" and how much business value it will deliver.

As one of the world's largest fried chicken chains, Popeyes had failed twice to enter the Chinese market over a twenty-year span. In March 2023, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), the owner of Popeyes, attempted a third strike by bringing the fried chicken brand under its local joint venture, Tim Hortons International Limited China (Tims China). The responsibility of making this third attempt successful rested with Yongchen Lu, the chief executive officer of Tims China. To cultivate another world-class, fast-service brand in China, Lu faced the imperative of delineating synergy between the two distinctive brands (one in coffee and the other in fried chicken). Could he make Popeyes a success in China?

This role-play exercise presents students with a realistic and complex negotiation challenge: it asks them to participate in a quantifiable negotiation between managing partners in a venture capital fund who are embroiled in a co-founder dispute. The negotiation is multifaceted, focusing on both reputational safeguards and financial outcomes across five key quantifiable issues. The negotiation is also underscored by an atypical yet critical ethical conundrum, offering a rich context for exploring the interplay between ethical considerations and business decision-making. These scenarios compel negotiators to engage deeply with the ethical dimensions of their strategies, assessing not only the limits of their own moral flexibility but also the veracity of their adversary’s claims.

Founded in September 2016 and based in Beijing, China, ZOMOZOMO primarily conducted business through its gamified freelancers’ platform, where designers’ works were publicly requested, reviewed, chosen, and rewarded, eliminating some of the long-standing troubles within the industry, such as inefficiency, fragmentation, and lack of transparency. The company soon became a prominent player in the design industry. The first four years of the company witnessed the rapid expansion and diversification of its client base, which began to include many influential brands such as Amazon.com Inc., Nike Inc., and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. However, ZOMOZOMO began to find it increasingly challenging to meet the needs and requirements of its high-end clients in terms of response time, service quality control, and confidentiality. In deciding to shift from a bidding platform to a provider of one-stop design solutions, ZOMOZOMO needed to determine whether it should prioritize building its internal capabilities or seek external partnerships to deliver high-quality design solutions to its high-end clients.

The founders of the app-based credit line MoneyTap shared a vision of creating an inclusionary multi-product banking experience. The company's gross revenue had surged from its first year, but while the business was doing well, growth was not coming easy because of intense competition. The organization wanted to expand its offerings to include a pay-later feature, credit cards, and digital savings and become India's first full-stack neobank. The team's current brand, MoneyTap, was a personal credit-line brand, and to expand it to a full-service neobank required a new brand strategy and a rethinking of the brand architecture. While branding and its concepts were perceived to be more applicable to consumer goods, the founders were convinced that their fintech start-up could only move to the next level by leveraging the inherent power of a strong brand.