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In 2013, after years of success, Samsung, a manufacturing conglomerate based in Korea but with offices, research and development divisions and factories worldwide, is established as a global powerhouse in the smartphone industry. But success has revealed opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed as the company navigates the competitive landscape. Samsung has sold more phones than rivals such as Nokia and Apple and is also a major player in the increasingly popular tablet computer market. Given the volatility of the industry and the market, in addition to the dynamic relationships between suppliers, manufacturers, technology providers, application developers and operating systems, Samsung needs to think carefully about its next competitive steps. Specifically, it has to think about one very important issue: should it continue to rely on Google's Android operating system, or should it seriously consider an in-house software ecosystem?

A newly appointed state program manager for a non-governmental organization (NGO) has been given the responsibility of managing several health centres in rural India. The state program manager quickly found that his new business environment was full of interpersonal difficulties and unprofessional conduct, which were threatening to derail the organization’s goals. Despite being a newcomer to a well-established and structured NGO, the manager knew that he would have to find a way to persuade his staff to work as a team and to focus on the tasks at hand: the question was, how?

Flipkart.com is one of India’s best known online retailers. Founded in 2007, with the ambitious dream of becoming India’s Amazon.com, Flipkart.com started out selling books and quickly expanded its product portfolio to include laptops, computer peripherals, consumer durables, consumer electronics, fashion accessories, media and games. Flipkart’s products were competitively priced, its customer service was exemplary and it offered innovative solutions to enhance the customer experience such as its cash on delivery service. These factors, coupled with a smart marketing mix and catchy advertisements that sensitized the Indian consumer to the online shopping experience, contributed to its rapid growth. While the customer viewed the company with rose-tinted glasses, all was not well within Flipkart. It was plagued by a multitude of issues, including a business model that swallowed cash faster than it was generated, increasing constraints on its operational and supply chain capabilities and deteriorating investor confidence. Indeed, Flipkart found itself in trouble in late 2012. With competitors hot on its heels and the imminent entry of Amazon.com into the Indian market, Flipkart had to evaluate its options carefully and make some smart moves if it was to survive and regain investor confidence.

In 2013, after years of success, Samsung, a manufacturing conglomerate based in Korea but with offices, research and development divisions and factories worldwide, is established as a global powerhouse in the smartphone industry. But success has revealed opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed as the company navigates the competitive landscape. Samsung has sold more phones than rivals such as Nokia and Apple and is also a major player in the increasingly popular tablet computer market. Given the volatility of the industry and the market, in addition to the dynamic relationships between suppliers, manufacturers, technology providers, application developers and operating systems, Samsung needs to think carefully about its next competitive steps. Specifically, it has to think about one very important issue: should it continue to rely on Google’s Android operating system, or should it seriously consider an in-house software ecosystem?

Billy Beane and the Oakland A's have 'changed the game' in terms of talent identification, analytics, and player investment in Major League Baseball (MLB). Cases A and B are designed to provide and inspire learning on these topics by recounting Billy Beane's success as the Oakland A's General Manager over the past 16 seasons (1998 to 2013). The case, through analysis of performance and financial data over this time period, establishes Beane as the most efficient GM in MLB and shares concepts, information and data to allow for improved understanding of the barriers and drivers to the adoption of new and disruptive innovations in the sport business.

Billy Beane and the Oakland A's have 'changed the game' in terms of talent identification, analytics, and player investment in Major League Baseball (MLB). Cases A and B are designed to provide and inspire learning on these topics by recounting Billy Beane's success as the Oakland A's General Manager over the past 16 seasons (1998 to 2013). The case, through analysis of performance and financial data over this time period, establishes Beane as the most efficient GM in MLB and shares concepts, information and data to allow for improved understanding of the barriers and drivers to the adoption of new and disruptive innovations in the sport business.

In summer 2010, unusually intense monsoon rains in Pakistan triggered slow-moving floods that inundated a fifth of the country and displaced millions of people. This case describes how Pakistan's government responded to this disaster and highlights the performance of the country's nascent emergency management agency, the National Disaster Management Authority. It also explores the integration of international assistance, with a particular focus on aid from the international humanitarian community and the U.S. military. Case number 2015.0

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This case challenges students to take a holistic view and analyse root causes ranging from management support, integration of company and supply chain strategy onto cross-functional engagement and required decision-rights to formulate a call for action towards top management to turn supply chain into a competitive advantage. The reader will need to acknowledge supply chain performance drivers (e.g. SKU portfolio complexity) outside logistics and warehouse management that would need to be integrated into their final recommendation. The case can be used effectively to motivate the relevance of supply chain management towards a general management audience or to summarize a series of lectures on supply chain management at the end inviting the participants to draw up an integrative proposal for improvement.

Vasudev Nair, CEO of PENPOL, a medical devices company in India, was facing a financial crisis. With debt mounting and cash flow becoming increasingly problematic, he had to make some decisions about the future of the company. Incorporated in 1987 under Nair's leadership, PENPOL began as a producer of hematology products with the introduction of its innovative blood bag product. The blood bag business was expanded with the introduction of multiple types of bags and blood bag equipment. In 1993 the company entered the urology business with the introduction of urine bags and within four years the urology line was expanded to include stone management devices, leg bags and foley catheters. Growth in the urology business was met with limited success however, and by 1998 PENPOL had exited all but the urine bag product line. The failed launches resulted in huge inventories of unsold goods and problems getting payment from stockists (distributors) that contributed to the company's mounting debt and cash problems. In addition, the Urology Division's flagship product, the urine bag, faced intensified price competition. PENPOL's Blood Bag Division was also suffering due to increased competition in the Indian market. Vasudev Nair had to stop the bleeding. He considered a few alternatives. Knowing that the company had no more access to debt financing, he considered the possibility of securing private equity or the infusion of funds from some of the co-owners of PENPOL. With this infusion of funds, could he or should he save both the Blood Bag and Urology Divisions? Should he divest or sell the Urology Division in order to bring in funds to shore up the blood bag business? Divesting the Urology Division would mean sacrificing the star product, the urine bag, which after much effort was gaining acceptance in the market. Given that a competitor had expressed interest in the company, he considered establishing a joint venture with the competitor.

The case explores a public-private partnership initiative on environment education in India, highlighting the strategic, institutional, and reputational implications for corporate social responsibility in an emerging country context. Launched in 2010 with a target to reach 200,000 schools, “Paryavaran Mitra” (Friends of the Environment) was a multi-layered collaboration with three primary and more than 160 secondary partners. The case is positioned in 2013, when the senior manager of corporate responsibility for the firm that serves as the corporate sponsor of the project must make a decision about the future of the initiative.

Bitcoin is part of a new wave of financial technology – or fintech – innovations. These innovations are disrupting the technical, highly regulated financial industry that has been dominated by large banks and other financial institutions.After three years of trading in relative obscurity, the emergence of bitcoin in 2013 as a viable cryptocurrency is promising both to open up new possibilities to entrepreneurs and incumbent firms and to pose challenges to regulators such as the U.S. Federal Reserve. Rising in value from just $0.05 in mid-2010 to over $1,000 by November 2013, bitcoin is to some people the 21st century version of Tulipmania and to others a viable alternative to fiat currencies. Bitcoin’s popularity has prompted the development of competing cryptocurrencies, the establishment of a foundation to promote its interests and the emergence of legitimate and grey market entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on the currency itself and its features. Its position as a currency concerns regulators around the world, and hackers have already exploited security gaps in service providers such as Mt. Gox, a bitcoin exchange platform, for their own benefit. Looking at recent developments, what will the future of bitcoin be?

Under the guidance and vision of founder Peter Munk, Barrick Gold Corporation had risen to become an industry leader and the world’s largest gold producer. The company had grown, mostly through mergers and acquisitions, from one single mine in Northern Ontario to 26 operating mines on five continents, with more than 20,000 employees worldwide. By 2013, however, weak gold prices, asset value writedowns and operational cost overruns have negatively affected the company’s stock price. Many attribute the company’s problems to Munk’s personality and his control over the board of directors. Munk has announced that he will retire in 2014 and will be replaced as chairman by his current co-chairman, John L. Thornton. How can Thornton effectively chair Barrick’s board in the wake of Munk’s legacy? Will his vision for the company conflict with Munk’s dream of turning it into an international diversified mining company? How much of a role will Munk play in the future given his level of informal power? Finally, what can Barrick do to lift itself out of an industry mired in volatility and financial uncertainty?

Sudarshan Chemicals Industries is a top player in the Indian chemicals industry. This case traces the remodelling of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, both along scientific lines and aligned to its core business strategy. Faced with an informal and unstructured CSR initiative, the company uses an innovative method of problem-solving – crowd-sourcing ideas from a top business school in India. A team of students assesses the situation completely in order to make recommendations to the company’s top managers. The case details a process of scientific value-creation in CSR that can be adopted by companies as they make the transition from local to global.

Sudarshan Chemicals Industries is a top player in the Indian chemicals industry. This case traces the remodelling of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, both along scientific lines and aligned to its core business strategy. Faced with an informal and unstructured CSR initiative, the company uses an innovative method of problem-solving - crowd-sourcing ideas from a top business school in India. A team of students assesses the situation completely in order to make recommendations to the company's top managers. The case details a process of scientific value-creation in CSR that can be adopted by companies as they make the transition from local to global.

EADS N.V. (EADS), Europe’s leading aerospace and defence company, is reviewing its strategic positioning. EADS had planned to merge with a British company to form the world’s largest aerospace company, but the merger failed mainly due to resistance from government shareholders. As a result, the firm cannot achieve its major strategic goals that were tied to the merger. In the highly competitive aerospace industry and despite also facing production issues and a corruption investigation, the firm’s management must revise both its short-term goals and future action plan.

More than one-third of India remained without electricity or received less than eight hours of electricity per day. To fight energy poverty, Boond was in the business of providing lighting solutions to the low-income population in rural India. By 2013, it had created a network of four hubs (energy centres) and impacted the lives of more than 50,000 people across two states in India through its solar energy systems. It had forged non-traditional partnerships with regional rural banks and community-based organizations and its plan was to shift from the inception phase to the growth phase in 2013–2014. The aim was to set up 30 hubs covering more than 50 districts in the states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh by 2015. This required evaluating the transformational challenges and creating an action plan to address them without losing sight of the social mission. Key obstacles included attracting social investors, extending its reach, and finding and retaining skilled employees willing to operate in small towns and villages.

Green Freight Asia (GFA) is a three-part case. Part A chronicles the formation of GFA, a private sector initiative that grew out of a network of companies that came together in 2011 to reduce air pollution and CO2 from road freight emissions in the Asia Pacific region. GFA's primary goal is to incentivise the adoption of green freight practices by creating a label that recognises and rewards companies for their commitment to improving fuel efficiency and reducing vehicle emissions. GFA's label programme, finalised in March 2014, establishes four levels of recognition, each represented by a logo with a corresponding number of 'Green Leaf(s)'. However, GFA lacks the necessary data management systems and processes to run the programme. This means that GFA needed a mechanism to collect, verify and incorporate company reported data into the labelling programme. To address this issue, in May 2014, Stephan Schablinski, the chief executive officer of GFA, seeks potential partners to collaborate with GFA on a comprehensive IT solution for the programme. He is not interested in a typical IT services arrangement but also because he believes that working with GFA could provide ample business opportunities for an entrepreneurial partner. Part B of the case series explores how a collaborative partnership between GFA and an IT solution partner could work. A workable partnership must consider alternative models for financing, since GFA lacks the financial resources to pay for the development, implementation, operation and maintenance of the data management system. The partner must provide a feasible, innovative and creative means to commercialise at least some aspect of the GFA partnership. Part C of the case series takes a look at the capabilities of what a successful data collection, analytics and reporting platform could do. And how the platform could potentially influence policy and expand collaboration into more wide-reaching spheres to mitigate global climate change.

Green Freight Asia (GFA) is a three-part case. Part A chronicles the formation of GFA, a private sector initiative that grew out of a network of companies that came together in 2011 to reduce air pollution and CO2 from road freight emissions in the Asia Pacific region. GFA's primary goal is to incentivise the adoption of green freight practices by creating a label that recognises and rewards companies for their commitment to improving fuel efficiency and reducing vehicle emissions. GFA's label programme, finalised in March 2014, establishes four levels of recognition, each represented by a logo with a corresponding number of 'Green Leaf(s)'. However, GFA lacks the necessary data management systems and processes to run the programme. This means that GFA needed a mechanism to collect, verify and incorporate company reported data into the labelling programme. To address this issue, in May 2014, Stephan Schablinski, the chief executive officer of GFA, seeks potential partners to collaborate with GFA on a comprehensive IT solution for the programme. He is not interested in a typical IT services arrangement but also because he believes that working with GFA could provide ample business opportunities for an entrepreneurial partner. Part B of the case series explores how a collaborative partnership between GFA and an IT solution partner could work. A workable partnership must consider alternative models for financing, since GFA lacks the financial resources to pay for the development, implementation, operation and maintenance of the data management system. The partner must provide a feasible, innovative and creative means to commercialise at least some aspect of the GFA partnership. Part C of the case series takes a look at the capabilities of what a successful data collection, analytics and reporting platform could do. And how the platform could potentially influence policy and expand collaboration into more wide-reaching spheres to mitigate global climate change.