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OWNI was founded in April 2009 as a copyright-free online news and image distribution firm. As part of a web agency that developed web content and graphics for French companies, it insisted that all content produced could be made freely available to others under the Creative Commons licence. OWNI delivered hard-hitting news, sourced in the beginning mostly from bloggers and later supplemented by a team of investigative journalists. Set up to challenge the dominance of traditional French media, OWNI sought to carve out a niche for itself as a provider of richly illustrated, insightful news articles that were available to the public at no cost. Yet, despite its aspirations, the recognition it had received in the form of industry awards and the commitment of its employees, the firm filed for bankruptcy by the end of 2012. A former journalist at OWNI considers its impact on French media, what it represented, what changes — if any — it sparked and what it could have accomplished had it achieved what it set out to do. What were the challenges of growing and maintaining a unique business model in the face of competition and dwindling resources that OWNI’s management failed to meet?

In early 2013, the head of business development and commercial operations of Arla Foods, a dairy enterprise focused on Northern European markets, is examining, in the light of a new five-year strategy, alternatives to the existing organization structure. His dilemma is to determine the best structure that can deliver the strategy, which is focused on renewed international expansion. The new structure must support the company's strategy in relation to both the existing core markets in Northern Europe and also the growth markets of the future in countries of Asia and Africa. It must ensure that Arla Foods has the right competitive stance in individual markets, which vary widely in terms of customer buying habits and retail formats. It must also ensure regular innovation of dairy categories developed from local resources and marketable globally.

The United Nations' Millennium Development Goals represented a global commitment to cut in half the population living in extreme poverty, and improve the lives of women and children worldwide. In Brazil, the population living in the extreme poverty represented about 16 million people in 2012. Several very successful initiatives during the Lula administration radically improved the lot of the poor in Brazil. Casa Transitoria is a charity located in the Valley of Paraíba, state of São Paulo, whose central goal is to provide extended comprehensive assistance to expectant mothers. Urbanization, migration, and social dislocations have led to the creation of slums around large Brazilian cities. Casa Transitoria is one of the nonprofit institutions committed to alleviating the problems of these families and transforming their economic and social prospects. The charity has been recognized as one of the best-managed nonprofit organizations in the country. After 40 years of service under the leadership of its original team, the organization must confront the difficult process of succession, while, at the same time, adjusting to a new set of circumstances, both at the level of the populations served and its volunteer work force.

In October 2006, Ms. Suzanne Blanchet, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cascades Tissue Group (CTG), was pondering how much weight should be given to products sold under the CTG brand compared to those sold under distributors' or retailers' private labels. The fourth largest tissue paper producer in North America, CTG was one of the four divisions of Cascades Inc.: a giant in the Canadian pulp and paper industry. The distributor and retailer private label market offered an attractive prospect for growth, but at the expense of CTG's own brands, which were more economically viable. However, developing a brand required sustained resources and investments, especially in marketing, which CTG's plant managers were still reluctant to support. Furthermore, her decision had to take into account the opportunities and threats related to the arrival of producers from emerging countries.

LOLC Microcredit, a microfinance company within the LOLC group in Sri Lanka, has been serving the financial needs of the base of the pyramid through micro-leasing and group lending. The question now is whether to grow the exisiting business, use diversification to increase impact or prioritize its expansion into Myanmar.

Nearly 27,000 people depended on Ilva Steel Taranto, the largest steel-making plant in Europe, for their livelihoods, but the plant's pollution fouled the environment and increased the incidence of tumors, respiratory illnesses and deaths. In July 2012, faced with a court-ordered partial shut-down and a possibly unaffordable remediation plan, the company's newly appointed head must decide what to do next.

In this second part of a two-part case, the finance manager learns that the incentive program for the financing of solar energy installation has been adjusted to incorporate a tiered structure.

GOJO Industries, a U.S.-based hand hygiene company, plans to use sustainability as a business strategy in its big hairy audacious goal of reaching one billion people every day by 2020. It has developed a six level framework to embed sustainability throughout every aspect of the company internally and to assess its successes in the following areas: mitigating risk; reducing energy, waste and materials; differentiation; entering new markets; protecting and enhancing brand; and influencing industry standards. The company has a long history of using sustainability to drive innovation and facilitate expansion into new markets and sees sustainability as a key differentiator from its competitors to achieve its goal. In order to so, the company must also consider the importance of employee engagement in order to further embed sustainability and increase the number of people it reaches with its products.

The U.S. government responded to a surge of tire imports from China using Section 421 of the 1974 Trade Act. This allowed the U.S. government to impose a large increase in tariffs on imports of tires from China over a three-year period. Explanations for President Obama's decision to do this ranged from domestic political explanations-specifically, that he was caving into pressure from the USWA union-to arguments that he was defending the larger national interests.

GOJO Industries, a U.S.-based hand hygiene company, plans to use sustainability as a business strategy in its big hairy audacious goal of reaching one billion people every day by 2020. It has developed a six level framework to embed sustainability throughout every aspect of the company internally and to assess its successes in the following areas: mitigating risk; reducing energy, waste and materials; differentiation; entering new markets; protecting and enhancing brand; and influencing industry standards. The company has a long history of using sustainability to drive innovation and facilitate expansion into new markets and sees sustainability as a key differentiator from its competitors to achieve its goal. In order to so, the company must also consider the importance of employee engagement in order to further embed sustainability and increase the number of people it reaches with its products.

This case explores issues faced by the corporate sustainability manager at the corporate headquarters of a large hotel group in a developing nation as she implements her company’s corporate sustainability strategy through supplier partnerships with bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) social organizations. Under the rubric of responsible purchasing, the hotelier’s “Creating Sustainable Livelihoods” initiative engaged cause-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by exploring opportunities where the products or services of such organizations could substitute for similar products or services sourced from for-profit suppliers. The case illustrates the challenges inherent in a BoP responsible purchasing strategy, including the delicate balance between meeting business objectives while supporting social causes.

In 2004 Lenovo announced the decision to buy IBM's personal computer ("PC") business. Most people thought the Chinese company would burn its cash and fail. Lenovo proved them wrong, and by 2010 showed clear growth momentum and steadily increased its market share in the PC industry. In early 2013, Lenovo's successful "protect-and-attack" strategy has forced Dell to trail behind and enables the company to compete head-to-head with Hewlett-Packard to become the world's largest PC vendor. But IBM's leaving the PC industry proves the foresight of the world's oldest technology company. The PC industry is in the midst of a sweeping transformation, which started with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and culminated in 2010 with the launch of the iPad. By the end of 2012, over 212 million iPads and other modern tablets had been shipped, while PC shipments had shown continuing decline for four consecutive quarters by the first quarter of 2013. Will the company's "protect-and-attack" strategy still work in an industry in the midst of a structural change? Will it be able to sustain its competitive advantage in the new battlefield? Will the company be able to establish a global brand in the "smart connected devices" market?

The U.S. made a deal with the EU to drop its trade dispute in the WTO over the EU's ban on hormone-treated beef. In return for the U.S. ending the WTO case and dropping its retaliatory tariffs on selected EU products, the EU would increase its imports of non-hormone-treated beef from the U.S. While the 14 beef producers who participated in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's non-hormone-treated cattle (NHTC) program were pleased, the bulk of the U.S. beef industry, almost all of which uses growth hormones in its production processes, would not benefit from this deal.

An update to First Solar (A), this case highlights changes to the solar energy market between 2010 and 2013 and the resulting challenges that First Solar had to overcome. In addition to increased competition from highly subsidized Chinese manufacturers, First Solar lost its pricing advantage due to a steep decline in material costs for the competing solar cell technology, c-Sci. The 2008 global financial crisis spurred a dramatic decline in demand from subsidy markets, further intensifying competition. Within First Solar, the management team went through substantial turnover and was sharply divided over what the company's core strategy should be. Good financial discipline and several key business model decisions kept First Solar solvent. Through acquisitions, the company developed a competitive advantage in the systems business and pivoted away from subsidy markets, pursuing more sustainable markets elsewhere. Finally, First Solar hedged its bet on technology, adding c-Sci, the competing solar cell technology, to its portfolio through an acquisition. These shifts helped to restore optimism and position First Solar to resume a leadership role.

Supplement to case IMD724. Singapore Airlines creates a partnership with India's Tata Group to create a full-service airline to serve the Indian market. The market is served by five existing airlines in both the low-cost and full-service categories. In parallel to the company it is creating with Singapore Airlines, the Tata Group is also launching a low-cost carrier with Malaysia's AirAsia, the overall Asian LCC leader. The case looks at how the different carriers compete in the Indian market, drawing differences between the approaches of low-cost carriers and full-service providers. Learning objectives: To identify and understand the different ways in which a company can compete in a market - low cost vs. differentiation. To understand the close link between strategic positioning and internal competencies.

CEO Aaron Levie co-founded Box as a student at USC in 2004. Less than 10 years later, Box had become one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies in Silicon Valley, serving more than 180,000 businesses including marquee customers such as Procter and Gamble, Panasonic, and Avaya. Despite this success, Levie was concerned about the future. He and his leadership team would need to overcome significant hurdles to turn Box into one of the next great enterprise software companies. This case explores how Levie planned to evolve Box from online storage to a data platform in the cloud. It follows the company's attempt to shift from collaborative sharing of information to becoming a platform for accessing critical data. Issues covered include: managing competitive threats from large, well-funded companies such as Microsoft and Citrix, delivering enterprise-class solutions with consumer-grade ease-of-use, and maintaining Box's distinctive and fun culture as the company grew and added more disciplined business processes.

Brazil won a WTO trade dispute against the U.S. over U.S. cotton subsidies. Brazil has been authorized to retaliate, not only by imposing retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. but also by revoking intellectual property rights protection on various items, including patents for selected U.S. pharmaceutical products and copyright protection for U.S. movies and music. Rather than revoke IPR protection, the Brazilian Ambassador to the WTO, Roberto Azevedo, has decided to offer a deal: the U.S. can make an annual payment to Brazilian cotton farmers. The objective is to embarrass members of the U.S. Congress as they negotiate the U.S. Farm Bill, so that they will drop the cotton subsidies altogether.

Founded in 1997, Kalamandir was established in one of the poorest tribal areas in India to revive tribal dances and arts and generate livelihoods. It was now active in over 114 villages and its activities had helped increase the incomes of over 2,500 households. Despite strong achievements, much more would have to be done to make a substantial improvement in the lives of tribal villagers in Jharkhand, an impoverished region of India. The question was how to scale the activities and induce socio-economic development in a sustainable way. How could livelihood opportunities associated with arts, dance, culture and handicrafts be broadened while strengthening the region's core agricultural income? How could the local leadership pool in villages be expanded and what mechanisms could be introduced to minimize conflicts or resolve them faster? How could Kalamandir attract dynamic professionals? Which government and private organizations did it have to develop stronger relationships with in order to access the financial resources it needed to grow?

The MobiChair case describes the story of Lucy Ahn and Josh McKinnon, graduates of Stanford's Graduate School of Business who are also in a relationship, who take on the role of co-CEOs of a power wheelchair company after being offered the position by a mentor who is on the company's board. MobiChair is facing stalled growth and the board hopes to revive the company with new leadership. Though hesitant at first, the couple decides to take on the challenge and soon find themselves faced with a series of interpersonal issues and conflicts that threaten to overwhelm them. From their very first meeting with MobiChair's top three vice presidents, Ahn and McKinnon pick up on red flags that indicate the company operates with a "good enough" culture where 6-hour workdays, a focus on the tactical rather than the strategic, and reluctance to change are all the norm. In the second vignette, McKinnon must deal with an HR manager who defies instituting an employee recognition program McKinnon has requested. On a trip to the company's East Coast office, Ahn and McKinnon are alarmed to find that several top managers are underperforming and need to be replaced, after having assured the West Coast staff that they will not be shutting down any offices of undergoing layoffs. Finally, the co-CEOs are faced with an ultimatum from the controller which forces them to decide whether they can manage without her, or whether they must tolerate her antics until a suitable replacement is found.