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Food Donation Connection is a for-profit company that creates sustainable value — value for both shareholders/owners and stakeholders — by facilitating the redistribution of surplus prepared food from donor corporations, such as restaurants, convenience stores and grocery stores, to charities that distribute the food to people in need. In fulfilling its mission of “Let nothing be wasted,” the company addresses the extensive food waste at the retail and wholesale stages of the food supply chain, a key pressure point in global food waste. Food Donation Connection has operated successfully for more than 20 years in the United States; however, the founder and chief executive officer is now considering the company’s future. He must determine whether and how to expand the company’s services globally.

Bayer MaterialScience, a unit of Bayer AG, was a leading provider of polycarbonate, a basic material for plastics. In response to the changes in its client industries, Bayer MaterialScience relocated the business unit headquarters for polycarbonate to Shanghai in order to be closer to customers and other business partners in the Asia-Pacific. Bayer MaterialScience (A) focuses on the laptop industry, where a large number of players influence the selection of material suppliers. Bayer MaterialScience has to re-evaluate its market intelligence and its business-to-business marketing in view of changing global competition. Bayer MaterialScience (B) provides insights into the consequences of relocating a division headquarters to China, and introduces the forthcoming initial public offering of Bayer MaterialScience. The company has to assess how to further develop its organizational structure, its partner relationships, and its industrial marketing strategy under a new brand name; Covestro.

Bayer MaterialScience (BMS), a unit of Bayer AG, is a leading provider of polycarbonate, a basic material for plastics facing rapid change in many of its downstream industries. In response to the changes in its client industries, BMS relocated the business unit headquarters for polycarbonate to Shanghai to be closer to customers and other business partners in Asia-Pacific. Case ‘A’ focuses on the laptop industry, where a large number of players influence the selection of material suppliers. BMS has to revaluate its market intelligence and its business-to-business marketing in view of changing global competition. Case ‘B’ provides insights into the consequences of relocating a division headquarters to China, and introduces the forthcoming initial public offering of BMS. BMS has to assess how to further develop its organizational structure, its partner relationships and its industrial marketing strategy under a new brand name.

Betaspring was a mentorship-driven startup accelerator program for technology and design entrepreneurs. Founded in Rhode Island in 2009, it was one of the highest-ranked and longest-operating accelerators in the United States and was notable for being headquartered outside Silicon Valley. However, debate had emerged about the value provided by accelerators, and in August 2014 Betaspring faced two crucial strategic questions. Had a bubble emerged in the accelerator industry? If so, should Betaspring change its business model in order to survive a potential industry shakeout?

In 2013, Oxigen Services India Pvt. Ltd. launched a money transfer service integrated with the infrastructure of the National Payment Corporation of India. The Oxigen Wallet, India's first non-bank wallet, allowed instant money transfers to and from any bank account over an extensive ecosystem, with a large retail presence across India using point-of-sale terminals. Oxigen was a major provider of bill payment and merchant payment services, with complete interoperability between mobile wallets and bank accounts. But newer mobile wallet players were focused on alternative strategies, and were showing rapid growth in the number of subscribers thanks to innovative services, extensive sales promotions, and varied marketing initiatives. Oxigen wanted to be sure that it was using the capabilities of the ecosystem effectively within the context of changing market dynamics. Should Oxigen continue to invest significantly in ecosystem development, as it had been doing, or focus instead on a sales-and-promotion-driven growth strategy? In the changing market, what were Oxigen's best options for success?

This case introduces the key features of Google's wearable technology product "Glass" and illustrates the tensions that Google faced over the development and marketing of this product. The case goes on to highlight the growing backlash that Google experienced when promoting Glass.

Food Donation Connection is a for-profit company that creates sustainable value - value for both shareholders/owners and stakeholders - by facilitating the redistribution of surplus prepared food from donor corporations, such as restaurants, convenience stores and grocery stores, to charities that distribute the food to people in need. In fulfilling its mission of "Let nothing be wasted," the company addresses the extensive food waste at the retail and wholesale stages of the food supply chain, a key pressure point in global food waste. Food Donation Connection has operated successfully for more than 20 years in the United States; however, the founder and chief executive officer is now considering the company's future. He must determine whether and how to expand the company's services globally.

The purpose of this note is to give a brief introduction to dynamic programming. The note introduces dynamic programming terminology and notation and provides motivation for why these problems are difficult to solve. Five examples illustrate how dynamic programming can be applied in a variety of settings.

The co-founder and chief executive officer of The Asylum, a movie production company headquartered in Burbank, California, must decide whether the company needs to explore other avenues for growth or change its current business model to boost profitability. The company has developed a unique imitation strategy to reduce the uncertainty of financial success in filmmaking - its "mockbuster" business model is to produce B-rated movies that use plotlines similar to that of major Hollywood films already in production and release them at the same time as or just before the comparable Hollywood film. It can thus take advantage of the large marketing and promotion campaigns that large film production studios employ to promote their films while producing a substantially cheaper (but somewhat similar) film. To date, all of these mockbusters have been profitable, but changes to property rights regulations and increased litigation cases may come to affect the bottom line. There are three options going forward: maintaining the status quo, focusing even more on producing mockbusters or shifting toward completely original film production. What should the company do to ensure future success?

The co-founder and chief executive officer of The Asylum, a movie production company headquartered in Burbank, California, must decide whether the company needs to explore other avenues for growth or change its current business model to boost profitability. The company has developed a unique imitation strategy to reduce the uncertainty of financial success in filmmaking – its “mockbuster” business model is to produce B-rated movies that use plotlines similar to that of major Hollywood films already in production and release them at the same time as or just before the comparable Hollywood film. It can thus take advantage of the large marketing and promotion campaigns that large film production studios employ to promote their films while producing a substantially cheaper (but somewhat similar) film. To date, all of these mockbusters have been profitable, but changes to property rights regulations and increased litigation cases may come to affect the bottom line. There are three options going forward: maintaining the status quo, focusing even more on producing mockbusters or shifting toward completely original film production. What should the company do to ensure future success?

In March 2015, Huayi Brothers Media Corporation is China's most influential entertainment company, accounting for one-fifth of the country's total yearly box office revenues. In recent years, in an effort to leverage its movie content and copyrights, the company has expanded into developing and distributing games on the Internet as well as building entertainment theme parks in Asia. Now, the chairman and co-founder is considering a partnership with Hollywood's STX Entertainment to jointly invest in and co-produce 18 films and distribute them worldwide within two years. Should the company enter into this partnership or not? What is the best strategy to move forward and grow internationally outside of China? Or should the company concentrate on bettering its competition by concentrating on its core business portfolio in visual (both movies and television), live (musical performances and theme parks) and Internet gaming in China and Asia?

Cipla Global Ltd. (CGL) is a real-life, undisguised decision case. CGL is one of India's top pharmaceutical companies. Thanks to India's process patent regime (1970-2005), Dr. Yusuf Hamied, the company's chairman, managed to catapult the company to its position as a leading generics manufacturer. However, in 2005, India changed its Patents Act to make it TRIPS compliant. Faced with Western pharmaceutical companies' 'evergreening', CGL became a prominent crusader against multinationals. It fought and won patent cases in Indian courts. On the other hand, the government of India took advantage of the TRIPS provisions to authorize Indian companies to manufacture copies of patented drugs without the patent holder's permission. This infuriated Western pharmaceutical companies because they saw this provision as an infringement on their rights, which would lead to decreased revenues. As a consequence, they started lobbying their respective governments to put pressure on the Indian government. The case ends with a dilemma about the best course of action for CGL going forward, given the various options offered by the industry, on the one hand, and the ambitions of its chairman, on the other.

Axiom, an innovative player providing legal services to corporates, develops service lines to provide lawyers on secondment to clients and managed services to outsource part of its clients' legal activities. Axiom's growth is placed in the broader context of changing client needs and competition in the corporate legal market.

The case describes how Justin Trudeau came from a seemingly hopeless third place (in the party rankings) to win a stunning majority and become Canada's 23rd prime minister. Trudeau's win is analysed through a Blue Ocean lens, showing how his campaign broke with the traditional rules of engagement by reaching out to non-voters, and increasing willingness-to-vote while lowering the cost-of-voter acquisition.

The case describes how Justin Trudeau came from a seemingly hopeless third place (in the party rankings) to win a stunning majority and become Canada's 23rd prime minister. Trudeau's win is analysed through a Blue Ocean lens, showing how his campaign broke with the traditional rules of engagement by reaching out to non-voters, and increasing willingness-to-vote while lowering the cost-of-voter acquisition. Video and Lecture Slides can be obtained from https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/teaching-materials/blue-ocean-politics/

In March 2015, Huayi Brothers Media Corporation is China's most influential entertainment company, accounting for one-fifth of the country's total yearly box office revenues. In recent years, in an effort to leverage its movie content and copyrights, the company has expanded into developing and distributing games on the Internet as well as building entertainment theme parks in Asia. Now, the chairman and co-founder is considering a partnership with Hollywood's STX Entertainment to jointly invest in and co-produce 18 films and distribute them worldwide within two years. Should the company enter into this partnership or not? What is the best strategy to move forward and grow internationally outside of China? Or should the company concentrate on bettering its competition by concentrating on its core business portfolio in visual (both movies and television), live (musical performances and theme parks) and Internet gaming in China and Asia?

Spreadsheet supplement for case UV6133.

In July 2012, a senior manager in the corporate strategy team of General Electric (GE) was wondering what changes he should recommend for its strategic plans in the MENAT region (the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and Pakistan). First, the senior corporate strategist wanted to get a better understanding of how regional management had succeeded in growing its business despite the barriers it had faced, such as political instability, difficulties in dealing with family-owned firms with affiliate relationships, and institutional corruption. Second, given predictions of sluggish growth in developed markets, it was clear that GE MENAT would be an increasingly large part of GE’s revenue base. The key challenge was how to continue to sustain GE MENAT’s growth rate while maintaining the high corporate standards for which GE was known.

Many companies go to extraordinary lengths to build bonds among workers, often to no avail: Think of trust falls, a frequently mocked symbol of wrongheaded attempts to create intimacy among workers. New research suggests there's a better way, and it's pretty simple: Encourage teams to eat together. Cornell University's Kevin Kniffin and colleagues researched meal preparation practices among firefighters in one U.S. city and identified significant positive correlations between eating together and team performance. Cooperative behavior, for example, was about twice as high among team members that ate with one another. Companies can take advantage of these findings by investing in such things as onsite cafeterias, encouraging team leaders to organize lunches, and including meal preparation activities in offsites. This reprint includes three additional Idea Watch articles. "How to Prevent Overbilling" presents research showing that simply changing how you ask vendors to account for their work--focusing on units rather than overall price--encourages more-ethical behavior. "What Makes a Start-Up an Employer of Choice?" examines how six nonfinancial attributes, such as office location and founder qualifications, influence the appeal of new ventures for prospective employees. "Straight Talk About Pay" is a visual depiction of people's perceptions about their compensation. Most people have no idea whether or not it's fair--and that has a big effect on how long they stay in their jobs.

During the first decade of the 21st Century Crandall University, a private Christian liberal arts university in Moncton, NB, Canada experienced significant growth in terms of enrolment and governance structure. If We Build It They Will Come: The Role of Governance in Expansion Decisions at Crandall University examines the dilemma faced by one member of the University's Board of Governors as he seeks to determine how to deal with decisions made by the Board that he believes are not in keeping with the requirements of sound policy governance. The narrative traces the history of the adoption of the Carver model at the University, and examines the role played by the Board in a critical capital expansion decision in 2010. The reader is invited to consider the roles and responsibilities of board members both corporately and individually, and to evaluate the difference between fulfilling the mandate to govern and meddling in the affairs of management.