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Tata Steel Zoological Park (Tata Zoo) has been created on a large piece of land in the middle of a growing city. As its sponsoring corporation, Tata Steel, has become more cost conscious, there is pressure on the corporation to stop funding Tata Zoo. Some consultants are of the opinion that the land would be better utilized for commercial purposes. As a result, Tata Zoo now faces a dilemma: how can it generate finances and also serve its social and environmental initiatives?

Part (A) of the case is about how Shashank Nigam, CEO of SimpliFlying Pte Ltd, a company based in Singapore, searches for the corporate strategy and vision for his company. SimpliFlying was founded in March 2008, and was originally a blog, which commented on issues in marketing aviation. After thinking about how he could find a niche for his business, Nigam decided to sell his company's services by combining the three pillars of aviation, marketing and technology through social media. However, he recognised that he still needed to decide on the long-term positioning of the company - should SimpliFyling focus on strategy consulting, or strategy execution (agency) work, or both. At the same time, Nigam's company was also receiving calls from hotels to help them with branding projects. In the end, Nigam decides that the company should handle business that was related to aviation strategy only. Part (B) of the case covers a specific project that SimpliFlying is handling. By November 2011, SimpliFlying had developed into a reputed aviation market strategy consulting and training firm. Estonian Airline's social media loyalty programme was not only SimpliFlying's second major airline project, but also the first airline loyalty programme in the world to be driven purely by social media. Despite the challenging timeline - only eight weeks from conceptualisation to launch - SimpliFlying had managed to deliver beyond expectations. However, Nigam had to consider if the approach he had used was the best way to implement bigger projects going forward.

Tata Steel Zoological Park (Tata Zoo) has been created on a large piece of land in the middle of a growing city. As its sponsoring corporation, Tata Steel, has become more cost conscious, there is pressure on the corporation to stop funding Tata Zoo. Some consultants are of the opinion that the land would be better utilized for commercial purposes. As a result, Tata Zoo now faces a dilemma: how can it generate finances and also serve its social and environmental initiatives?

Li & Fung Limited (LF), a Hong Kong-based multinational, was a global leader in consumer goods design, development, sourcing, and distribution. LF managed the entire supply chain for retailers and brands around the world by working with a network of over 15,000 supplier companies in more than 40 economies in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The company faced rising expectations on safety compliance, environment, social, and working standards. It decided to create an integrated and holistic strategy to address these issues in a manner that would create solutions and build value for LF customers in sustainable supply chain management.

Two recently graduated MBA students are tasked with developing an ad-serving learning algorithm for a mobile ad-serving company. The case illustrates the way in which hypotheses can be tested in an A/B format or "horse race" in order to establish customer preferences and superior profitability. The case was written for a course elective covering hypothesis testing.

Two recently graduated MBA students are tasked with developing an ad-serving learning algorithm for a mobile ad-serving company. The case illustrates the way in which hypotheses can be tested in an A/B format or "horse race" in order to establish customer preferences and superior profitability. The case was written for a course elective covering hypothesis testing.

In July 2014, nine months after they had developed a collaborative workplace for independent video game developers in Phoenix, Arizona, the two founders of the Game CoLab were discussing how to move the business forward. Using the Lean Startup method, they had designed their business model and opened a coworking space where they could also hold meetings, competitions and games showcases. However, they now face two challenges - declining membership and the need to move to new premises - and an exciting opportunity to work with corporate and educational organizations who are looking to "gamify" their digital offerings. The founders have four choices: (1) continue to maintain the coworking space concept, which has generated limited revenues so far; (2) pivot their business model to focus more on building the local and virtual community with events and cheaper, more flexible memberships; (3) pursue corporate business for customized game development while either continuing or abandoning the coworking space business; and (4) pursue a more major pivot whereby the company would become a start-up incubator.

When General Motors Holden announces its plan to exit from car manufacturing in Australia, Toyota faces a decision dilemma amid losses and adverse business and economic conditions. Should it continue as the country's sole vehicle manufacturer and wait for business and economic scenarios to change favourably, or should it exit the market? Toyota's position is assessed by applying microeconomics concepts, including the optimal scale of operation, minimum efficient scale of operation, economies of scale, short-run and long-run cost analyses, concentration ratio and fragmented markets.

In December 2012, a young worker in Toronto wants to invest $50,000 savings. He needs to decide the equity portfolio that will result in the lowest risk at the best possible return on his investment. In particular, he is looking to invest in Wal-Mart, IBM, Apple, Chevron and Amazon, all large U.S. corporations that have weathered the recent economic crisis and show growth potential for the future. He remembers learning about using efficient frontiers to analyze stocks and decides to undertake an exhaustive analysis before deciding in which company to invest.

In May 2011, the Public Bike System Company, based in Montreal, Canada, was preparing to answer a request for proposal by New York City to create a financially self-sustaining public bike-sharing system. Three years earlier, the company, owned by the Montreal Transit Authority, had created Bixi, a service that made bikes available to members through docking stations, powered by solar energy, spread across the city. Although its financial structure was still unproven, it was a promising solution that aimed to revolutionize urban transportation. In partnership with other private bike-sharing organizations, the company had successfully expanded to Minneapolis-St. Paul and Washington D.C. but had experienced problems with its implementations in Melbourne, London and Boston. Furthermore, the system in Montreal could not provide evidence of profitability, forcing the city government to step in by guaranteeing loans and providing additional cash flow. It also did not have a clear business plan as to how, when and where its international expansion should take place. Now, news of its problems in Montreal had made headlines in New York, putting the future of its expansion ambitions in doubt.

The vice-president of international operations must decide whether to continue to operate or abandon the company's Nigerian joint venture. Although the expatriate general manager of the Nigerian operation has delivered a very pessimistic report, Larson's own hunch was to stay in that country. Maintaining the operation was complicated by problems in staffing, a joint venture partner with divergent views, and increasing costs of doing business in Nigeria. If Larson decides to maintain the existing operation, the issues with its local partner and staffing problems (especially in terms of the joint venture general manager) have to be addressed.

The founder and owner of YU Ranch is selling all of the Texas Longhorn beef the ranch can produce. YU Ranch's grass-fed, sustainable beef is substantially leaner and healthier than conventionally produced beef. This highly differentiated product is sold at a premium to selected restaurants, food service companies and at the farm-gate. The local consumer segment has been tapped, while local businesses and distant customers need to be supplied. With the farm operating over its current capacity, expansion is inevitable but extremely expensive. What are the best ways to acquire new land, grow new business and leverage YU Ranch's core competencies - brand and reputation?

The vice-president of policy for the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) was asked to deal with the growing problem of signal piracy in the Philippines. CASBAA was an organization of 125 companies involving all elements of the pay television industry in Asia, including major multinational content and broadcasting companies, as well as leading Philippine cable distributors. These were multinational content producers and broadcasters concerned about the growing issue of cable television signal piracy in the Philippines - a key bellwether market for many CASBAA members. Among CASBAA's key objectives was the protection of the intellectual property of its members. CASBAA had already pursued legal options to curtail piracy in the Philippines with limited success and the vice-president was tasked with developing a strategy that did not involve expensive litigation. To do so, he needed to present a plan, with milestones, to his constituents to demonstrate that CASBAA was capable of dealing with its members' concerns.

InfoSoft Global is a seven-year-old start-up in the charting-software market. In 2008, it earns revenues of US$3.35 million in a market that its founder estimates to be US$100 million. Should the founder continue growing steadily within a niche, as he had done in the past, or should he make some new strategic choices to target a bigger share of the US$100 million market? Which technologies and devices should he bet on? What customer segments should he focus on? Should he add more complementary products to his company's portfolio? What new channels should he leverage for greater market reach, and what strategy must he adopt to get there?

After having virtually created the yoga-wear segment more than a decade earlier and having become a stock-market darling, Lululemon Athletica finds itself at a critical point in its development. After a series of missteps and a first-quarter profit drop of 60 per cent, the yoga-wear retailer's founder, Chip Wilson, prepares to go into battle, meeting with banks and private equity firms to mount a buyout and take the company private. Similar to other highly successful entrepreneurial companies and their leaders, Lululemon, Wilson and the company executives face fundamental struggles in their attempts to balance an ambition to grow with the need to preserve core elements of the brand as the firm evolves.

Cisco Systems, Inc., the dominant global supplier of the routers and switches that formed the backbone of the Internet, was considering entry into the cloud-based education market in China through the design and marketing of an in-classroom device, the Sunbird. The new vice-president and chief technology officer of Enterprise Networking Group, Cisco Greater China, had met with a Politburo member of the Communist Party of China and State Councilor with responsibilities including China's science, technology and education policies. The vice-president had introduced Cisco's global operations and the two women had discussed partnering, technology transfer, cross branding, joint product and service development, cooperation with Chinese companies, and the IT revolution and its effect on Chinese education. How could Cisco profitably join in the Chinese education IT revolution? Cisco had never entered the educational IT equipment space in any part of the world with its own dedicated product. Should it develop the Sunbird for the Chinese market?

Perched on a cliff, the ninth-century Tatev Monastery is one of the most important monasteries in Armenia. A prominent Moscow-based businessman has decided to make it into an accessible and attractive tourist destination. Complicating matters is the region’s significant poverty and inaccessibility due to harsh weather conditions and a lack of proper infrastructure. In addition, shortcomings in hospitality management and training mean that tourist numbers remain low. One of the greatest challenges of the project is the management of eight stakeholders, including the Armenian Church, the local community, investors and UNESCO. How can the founder of the revival project devise a commercially successful strategy that will address all stakeholders’ interests without compromising his own principles and ethical values?

Though only a minority of the world’s population works in sea-related occupations today, seaborne trade and naval capacities are at historic levels in human history. Meanwhile, beneath the sea, a vast amount of digital commerce hums invisibly through a global network of sunken fibre-optic cables. Climate change is revolutionizing trade routes while opening the door to more national conflicts, particularly in the Arctic, which represents an estimated 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of the world’s undiscovered gas. Superpowers and coastal states are making aggressive new claims on island chains and seaways and investing heavily in the latest generation of naval power in order to be able to back up these claims militarily. This article explains how all of these factors will have a significant impact on how businesses run. Now is the time to plan for disruptions to any part of the maritime ecosystem, which could create a big, unexpected shock to national economies while imposing serious damage on private-sector operations.