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As one of the world’s largest OEM suppliers of electric massaging equipment, China’s Easepal has faced increasing challenges in its traditional OEM business over the course of two decades. Since the company’s inception in the 1990s, its founder has always had the ambitious goal of becoming more than just a supplier in the global electric massager market. Easepal’s mature research and development and manufacturing capabilities have the potential to deliver some valuable opportunities in both the Chinese and international markets. With the goal in mind of becoming the international market leader, how can Easepal systematically transform itself from an OEM supplier into a global brand?

in 2011, the senior management team at TransCanada Corporation in Calgary, Alberta, was stunned by the U.S. Department of State announcement that it was deferring its decision on a presidential permit, which was required for all construction of infrastructure crossing U.S. international borders. The infrastructure in question was the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would create a 2,735-kilometre direct route for Canadian crude from the Alberta oil sands to refineries in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast. Because the pipeline would pass through environmentally sensitive landscapes, especially in the state of Nebraska, non-governmental organizations, climate change activists, citizens, celebrities and federal and state politicians pressured the Obama administration to halt the project. Company executives had initially seen the Keystone XL pipeline as a readily achievable, financially significant and strategically compelling venture but now wondered whether they had missed the indications and opportunities to avoid controversy. Extensive advertising campaigns and intensive lobbying in Washington did not seem to have improved the likelihood of the pipeline’s construction. What could be done now to increase the likelihood of permit approval and bring the Keystone XL pipeline to fruition?

Mexican electric appliances company Mabe had grown from being a leading national firm in its field to an international company with presence in most of the Americas and Russia. It had ventured into emerging markets and intended to continue its expansion to other countries. The company gathered together five directors to form an Action Learning team that would evaluate its entry into India together with directors from its potential partner, Italian company Indesit. The Action Learning team had to analyze the company's prospects and make its recommendations with respect to entering the Indian market. However, despite being a market with great potential, India also posed a series of problems, including a lack of transportation infrastructure, an excess of industry capacity for electric appliances and the cultural challenge of a multinational Mexican company marketing to Indian consumers. Should Mabe go ahead with its move into India? If so, what would be the best way to enter the market? This case can be taught on its own, or in combination with ""Mabe: Learning to Be a Multinational (A)""

When M Power Micro Finance was founded in 2009 in the Indian state of Gujarat, a number of challenges in the microfinance market made it difficult for the company to survive. Just months after M Power's founding, the microfinance industry was hit by a repayment crisis that eroded both profitability and confidence in the industry. With public sentiment turning against microfinance institutions, M Power's bright growth prospects suddenly disappeared and its CEO struggled to keep the business afloat. The flow of funding into the microfinance sector dried up, and the management of funds had to be closely monitored on a monthly basis. The CEO's woes were not over: some of his business partners left the organization as the situation worsened. The company's future was uncertain. As the industry began to show signs of recovery in 2013, though, the CEO hoped to secure a financing deal and persevere.

The senior management team at TransCanada Corporation in Calgary, Alberta, was stunned by the U.S. Department of State announcement that it was deferring its decision on a presidential permit, which was required for all construction of infrastructure crossing U.S. international borders. The infrastructure in question was the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would create a 2,735-kilometre direct route for Canadian crude from the Alberta oil sands to refineries in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast. Because the pipeline would pass through environmentally sensitive landscapes, especially in the state of Nebraska, non-governmental organizations, climate change activists, citizens, celebrities and federal and state politicians pressured the Obama administration to halt the project. Company executives had initially seen the Keystone XL pipeline as a readily achievable, financially significant and strategically compelling venture but now wondered whether they had missed the indications and opportunities to avoid controversy. Extensive advertising campaigns and intensive lobbying in Washington did not seem to have improved the likelihood of the pipeline's construction. What could be done now to increase the likelihood of permit approval and bring the Keystone XL pipeline to fruition?

As one of the world's largest OEM suppliers of electric massaging equipment, China's Easepal has faced increasing challenges in its traditional OEM business over the course of two decades. Since the company's inception in the 1990s, its founder has always had the ambitious goal of becoming more than just a supplier in the global electric massager market. Easepal's mature research and development and manufacturing capabilities have the potential to deliver some valuable opportunities in both the Chinese and international markets. With the goal in mind of becoming the international market leader, how can Easepal systematically transform itself from an OEM supplier into a global brand?

This case study examines the open innovation journey at Fujitsu, a global information and communication technology company. The case ends with the location decision between Tokyo, Japan, downtown San Francisco or Sunnyvale, California, regarding establishing a small unit for the purpose of institutionalizing Fujitsu's open innovation journey. Mohi Ahmed, together with Mikito Kiname and Tango Matsumoto, embarked on the journey to strengthen Fujitsu's marketing and innovation platform in North America, and to transform the company's innovation culture by making the Japanese giant more open and leaner in its approach to innovation. In the past, Fujitsu struggled with opening up its innovation process in Silicon Valley: partnering with other organizations to integrate outside technology in its products and services; spinning out unexploited technology had proved challenging. With input from thinkers and practitioners inside and outside of Fujitsu, Ahmed identified the maker movement as a potential avenue to begin Fujitsu's open innovation journey because of the significance of Monozukuri (art and science of making) in the company's origin. He engaged with Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop Inc., a fast-growing chain of member-based maker spaces, in a conversation about how companies could focus on "doing well by doing good," and they jointly initiated four projects on which they could collaborate. Ahmed planned to leverage these projects to transform Fujitsu's innovation culture by illustrating that the company could successfully engage in exploration with new external partners, and could move quickly into experimentation to accelerate learning and innovation.

This add-on case study reveals the location decision that was made in front of the challenge presented in case study #616-034. The launch of the Open Innovation Gateway (OIG) was a success. Fujitsu's management team now had to figure out the best way to continue to build momentum and develop the best model for OIG to become an integral part of the company's open innovation journey.

This case is set in 2015 as a team at Match Education, a high performing charter middle school in Boston, explores new staffing and technology approaches in their quest to obtain what they term "jaw dropping" results. The team hopes to test and model for other schools solutions to specific educational problems. In 2013, the team began to think about the redesign to create a school model in which students spend significantly more time reading, more individualized attention is provided to students and families, the challenge of finding outstanding teachers is addressed, and to do so in a cost-effective manner. In their redesigned school, Match Next, students receive all of their instruction from inexperienced newly minted college graduates called tutors, who are supervised by one master teacher, called a Director of Curriculum of Instruction (DCI). In addition, the Match Next team infuses technology into instruction (e.g. students watch instructional videos and complete online activities) and operations (e.g. schools keeps track of student assessment results and select activities and problem sets from online databases). After the first year as a full-day program, results on the state test were very strong in math but below expectations in ELA (English Language Arts). The case explores questions related to designing the school model, interpreting early results, and assessing the team's ability to disseminate their model to other schools.

On May 8, 2012, the president of Hefei Xingtai Financial Holding Group (Xingtai) received a message from a senior officer of the Hefei Municipal Government, the company's authorizing body, asking that Xingtai provide financial support to PanTeng Company (PanTeng), a solar power manufacturing company. In order to survive, PanTeng needed Xingtai to provide a guarantee for a ¥100 million business loan from a commercial bank. PanTeng had already been turned down by Xingtai Financing Guaranty, one of Xingtai's subsidiaries, because of the potentially high level of guarantee risk. If Xingtai provided a guarantee, it could be liable to reimburse the loan due to PanTeng's high-risk operation, lose its risk management expertise, and face further violations. However, denying the senior officer's request would hamper Xingtai's important relationship with the local government. Should Xingtai take a chance and approve the loan, or should it deny the guarantee?

On May 8, 2012, the president of Hefei Xingtai Financial Holding Group (Xingtai) received a message from a senior officer of the Hefei Municipal Government, the company’s authorizing body, asking that Xingtai provide financial support to PanTeng Company (PanTeng), a solar power manufacturing company. In order to survive, PanTeng needed Xingtai to provide a guarantee for a ¥100 million business loan from a commercial bank. PanTeng had already been turned down by Xingtai Financing Guaranty, one of Xingtai’s subsidiaries, because of the potentially high level of guarantee risk. If Xingtai provided a guarantee, it could be liable to reimburse the loan due to PanTeng’s high-risk operation, lose its risk management expertise, and face further violations. However, denying the senior officer’s request would hamper Xingtai’s important relationship with the local government. Should Xingtai take a chance and approve the loan, or should it deny the guarantee?

Joyus is an ambitious and high-potential company just transitioning out of start-up mode. After three years operating in the growing online video shopping marketplace, all the while developing new technology, business partnerships, and fundraising, Joyus is positioning itself for the next level. The company’s goal is to become the dominant player in the rapidly developing video-based ecommerce marketplace. The chief executive officer and her management team need to analyze and evaluate the company’s strengths and weaknesses and decide on the strategic direction of the company.

Joyus is a growing online video shopping marketplace specializing in women’s health, beauty and fashion products. After three years of operations and having recently secured substantial funding, the company is poised for future growth. The co-founder and chief executive officer faces the difficult challenge of building the right management team and the appropriate organizational structure to support the company’s desired growth. She needs to structure the organization from a human resources perspective, by evaluating the organizational needs and determining the right mix of skills, abilities and personalities required for success.

Joyus is an ambitious and high-potential company just transitioning out of start-up mode. After three years operating in the growing online video shopping marketplace, all the while developing new technology, business partnerships, and fundraising, Joyus is positioning itself for the next level. The company's goal is to become the dominant player in the rapidly developing video-based ecommerce marketplace. The chief executive officer and her management team need to analyze and evaluate the company's strengths and weaknesses and decide on the strategic direction of the company.

Joyus is a growing online video shopping marketplace specializing in women's health, beauty and fashion products. After three years of operations and having recently secured substantial funding, the company is poised for future growth. The co-founder and chief executive officer faces the difficult challenge of building the right management team and the appropriate organizational structure to support the company's desired growth. She needs to structure the organization from a human resources perspective, by evaluating the organizational needs and determining the right mix of skills, abilities and personalities required for success.

In 2011, Coca-Cola India recognised the opportunity to access the rural and remote markets of India in a more effective manner by launching the 'eKOCool', a solar power operated cooler. This innovation had the potential to expand the hitherto underserved and hard to penetrate Indian rural market, and even bring home the first time consumers who had never tasted the company's beverages. It also facilitated an integration of the company's business development goals with its social responsibility initiatives - in particular, contributing towards the global 5by20 initiative of enabling economic empowerment of five million women entrepreneurs by 2020. To make this innovative product affordable, the technical team worked through the supply chain and brought down the costs to US$779, more than a third of the original cost. However, the company's top management acknowledged that for long-term sustainable impact and the scalability of the innovation, it was imperative that the cost be brought down further. How could this best be done, and how could the golden triangle of business, government and civil society come together to develop similar initiatives that would develop value for communities?

Canara Bank has been one of the top five public sector banks in India since its founding in 1906. After lagging behind its competitors for some years, it has finally started to recover from non-performing assets and low profitability. Its new chief executive officer has brought vision, strategic direction, and motivation to achieve a remarkable turnaround in 2013/14, but now he faces several key questions. Should the bank launch an ambitious expansion of its branches, online services, information technology, and human resources, based solely on the recent encouraging results? Is the management committee's optimism justified, given that several new initiatives are still at various stages of implementation? Will this growth overstretch Canara Bank's already constrained resources? In order to regain its position and improve reach and profitability in a highly competitive market, an expansion program has to be launched or an opportunity will be missed.

After acquiring a majority stake in the Shanghai Totole Food Company, a leader in the Chinese chicken powder industry, Nestlé faced dilemmas regarding maintaining control over this foreign-invested enterprise (FIE). Despite its 80 per cent stake, and in a departure from past practice, the Swiss company let its minority Chinese partner remain firmly in control. The circumstances surrounding the integration of Totole posed questions about the strategic decisions surrounding investment in a Chinese enterprise by a multinational firm and the challenges of integrating local and global operations. In 2012, Nestlé began talks with the general manager of Totole about acquiring the remaining 20 per cent of the company. Should Totole sell the remaining 20 per cent of shares and, if so, how and when should it do it?

Mary Jones was the CEO of the Richardson County Community Association (RCCA), a nonprofit with assets of $250 million and annual grants totaling $50 million to charitable organizations in Richardson County, Colorado. As CEO of RCCA, Jones engaged personally with over 250 donors per year. She described her job as primarily one of relationship management, and at times, those relationships could prove challenging. In the RCCA Vignettes, Jones's first difficult situation deals with her board member, David Jacobs, who recently assumed the role of board chair. Jacobs had begun to assign the RCCA staff his own small projects and, after making his "rounds," he would sit down in Jones's office, expecting her to drop whatever she was doing in order to interact with him. Jones would need to find a way to diplomatically yet effectively convey her feelings about Jacobs's behavior. In the second vignette, Jones receives a $1 million stock donation from an esteemed donor, Leo Farnand, who asks her to hold the stock until the recently-announced sale of his company is complete. Jones and the board agree to make an exception to the company policy given the size of the donation and hold the stock. However, after delays in the sale, Jones decides she must sell the stock against Farnand's wishes. The vignette ends with Jones preparing for what will undoubtedly be an unpleasant conversation with one of RCCA's largest donors.

Role play supplement to 9B15M122.