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In October 2005, Yahoo! Inc. ("Yahoo") formed a partnership with Alibaba Group Holding Limited ("Alibaba"), the country's biggest e-commerce firm. The company invested US$1 billion in Alibaba for a 40% stake and transferred the ownership of Yahoo! China ("Yahoo China") to Alibaba. However, some media outlets have described the two companies' relationship since 2005 as being anywhere from rocky to downright ugly. Yahoo's decision in mid-2009 to switch to Microsoft's Bing search technology has prompted Alibaba to adopt a search engine from Yahoo's local competitor Sohu.com. Then Alibaba collaborates with eBay Inc. instead of Yahoo in entering the US business-to-business market. Meanwhile, Yahoo directly competes with Yahoo! China for advertisers by soliciting companies in southern China to advertise on Yahoo's Hong Kong website. Alibaba has been taking a loss in its operations since 2006, and the search revenue share of Yahoo! China has dropped from 27% in 2005 to an insignificant level in 2010. But Yahoo! has turned down Alibaba's offer to buy back its stake because it would like to wait for the IPOs of Alibaba's two major subsidiaries before any exit. In light of growing tension with Alibaba, Yahoo's board would like to review its approach to managing this partnership and figure out what should be done to mend the ties.

In early 2003, an outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong led to a plunge in inbound travel to the city. Many local travel agencies started hosting below-cost inbound tours, dubbed "zero-fee tours", for mainland Chinese tourists. They make a profit by bringing these tourists to shop in designated retail outlets that charge them inflated prices but offer lucrative commissions to tour operators. Zero-fee tours first caught the public's attention in October 2006 when a group of tourists were abandoned at a pier because they spent too little while shopping. Then in June 2010, a tourist died of a heart attack after a heated argument with a tour guide over a shopping arrangement. Despite preventive measures implemented by the industry association, tourist complaints keep increasing and high-profile cases in which tour guides insult or even fight with tourists continue to happen. Trendy Travel Limited is a local travel agency that hosts regularly priced inbound tours. Facing strong market demand for zero-fee tours, it would like to understand the business model of zero-fee tours: what is the driving force, is it sustainable, and what are the impacts to the company and the entire industry? It also wants to determine how to position its inbound tour business in the short and long term.

Capitec Bank was a new bank established at the end of apartheid to offer banking services and loans to the large numbers of low-income potential customers newly opened to economic progress and aspiration by the end of the discriminatory system. The banking context was dominated by four major and long-established banks characterized by conservative legacy practices. Capitec planned to create an innovative offering to serve the low-income market and to migrate this offering into higher income groups. At the same time, the competitive context began to change, as other banks sought to attract lower-income clients as well. The case examines Capitec’s strategic options for survival and expansion in this context.

In 2012, the Ontario provincial government announced that after 41 years in operation, the iconic Toronto tourist attraction Ontario Place would be shut down. The immediate closing would save the province and tax payers an estimated $20 million a year and eliminate at least 48 full-time jobs and 600 summer positions in the process. Ontario Place attendance had dropped sharply from an average of three million visitors during the early 1980's, to just over 327,000 in 2010. The Ontario government planned to keep the park closed until 2017 and spend the five years following closure to redevelop the majority of the site. It established an advisory panel empowered with the task of evaluating how to once again make Ontario Place a popular city venue and tourist destination. The advisory panel was expected to submit a full report outlining the best ideas for the Ontario Place revitalization to the provincial government by the end of the summer.

The executive vice president of sustainability and corporate affairs at Monsanto was facing a difficult situation that could dramatically reshape the firm's business. A decade earlier, the firm had introduced into India, through a joint venture, the first in-the-seed cotton trait biotechnology. This trait protected cotton crops against potentially devastating pests, thereby reducing the need for pesticides and improving yields. Subsequently, three Indian state governments imposed a price ceiling on these biotech seeds. In addition, by 2010, the company was facing competition from over 40 Indian seed companies that offered similar or competing biotechnology cotton seeds. Also, a federal ministry had overruled the recent regulatory approval for a second, indigenously developed biotech crop, brinjal (eggplant). How should a technology innovator such as Monsanto deal with an unpredictable regulatory approval process in an increasingly competitive marketplace? Looking forward, two new in-the-seed trait technologies were being considered for introduction to Indian farmers. Should Monsanto proceed and, if so, how? More generally, what should the firm's long-term approach be in this promising market?

What is the right mix between business-driven and pure research? This case considers the question in the setting of IBM Research India, where a management push for balance between exploratory research and the fulfillment of business needs meets some resistance from employees who were accustomed to so-called pure basic research. The case looks at the Spoken Web project, a good example of use-inspired research for which management has yet to develop a viable business plan.

The chairperson of the United Church Housing Corporation (UCHC) of Regina, Saskatchewan, received some information from an external consultant who was hired to assess the state of affairs of the UCHC. This non-profit organization had operated for over 50 years and had built accommodations for many seniors that were both affordable and offered personal independence. In 2005, the UCHC board approved a new four-storey assisted living facility, Wascana Wing, which was to be built in response to long waitlists. With this decision, the UCHC board had taken out a $3 million mortgage to finance the project. Since opening the new facility, UCHC had been plagued by high vacancy rates as new for-profit competitors entered the market for senior accommodations. The combination of high vacancy rates and UCHC's highly leveraged financial position were the source of losses from 2006 to the present. The board's break-even mentality was not working. UCHC was at a major crossroads - the housing situation of more than 100 seniors residing in assisted living apartments and cottages would need to be decided upon at the next meeting. The question was whether or not June, a retired nurse, would recommend that the board proceed with winding up UCHC or make suggestions that would call for major changes to the current business model.

Aman Resorts (Abridged) describes the operating model and philosophy of this high-end set of global properties. Aman relies on employees taking considerable initiative to deliver the highest quality personalized service in the hospitality industry. The case also highlights Aman's strategy and operations which differ in many ways from industry standards. Aman Resorts (Abridged) is a slightly shorter version of Aman Resorts, HBS No. 111-012.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers, a major Wall Street investment bank, sent shockwaves through financial markets as global liquidity dried up and investor confidence reached an all-time low. Banks with exposure to complex financial instruments in high-debt environments were considered particularly vulnerable. ICICI Bank - India's largest private-sector bank with maximum international exposure among Indian banks - was hit by rumours about its exposure to Lehman assets. Solvency fears drove its depositors to withdraw large sums of money and the bank's stock value started to erode. ICICI's management responded to the crisis by initiating an intense public relations effort: the bank released information on its exposure and supported its position through media appearances of its top executives and statements issued by rating agencies, regulators, and the government of India. The bank emphasized the strength of its balance sheet, the limited exposure to risky assets, adequate provisioning, and a healthy cash reserve ratio. It alleged malaise and rumour-mongering by market intermediaries as the reason behind the crisis and denied any threats to its solvency. The public relations effort had barely concluded when another episode of stock collapse and customer withdrawal started. The case gives students an opportunity to evaluate crisis communication efforts in the age of new media and its link with business reputation. The student, in the role of a PR consultant, must decide why the efforts failed. What else could have been done to restore trust?

The collapse of Lehman Brothers, a major Wall Street investment bank, sent shockwaves through financial markets as global liquidity dried up and investor confidence reached an all-time low. Banks with exposure to complex financial instruments in high-debt environments were considered particularly vulnerable. ICICI Bank — India’s largest private-sector bank with maximum international exposure among Indian banks — was hit by rumours about its exposure to Lehman assets. Solvency fears drove its depositors to withdraw large sums of money and the bank’s stock value started to erode. ICICI’s management responded to the crisis by initiating an intense public relations effort: the bank released information on its exposure and supported its position through media appearances of its top executives and statements issued by rating agencies, regulators, and the government of India. The bank emphasized the strength of its balance sheet, the limited exposure to risky assets, adequate provisioning, and a healthy cash reserve ratio. It alleged malaise and rumour-mongering by market intermediaries as the reason behind the crisis and denied any threats to its solvency. The public relations effort had barely concluded when another episode of stock collapse and customer withdrawal started. The case gives students an opportunity to evaluate crisis communication efforts in the age of new media and its link with business reputation. The student, in the role of a PR consultant, must decide why the efforts failed. What else could have been done to restore trust?

From 2005-2006, Federated Department Stores converted some 15 regional department store chains into a single national brand, Macy’s, with 810 stores across the United States. In addition, the company repositioned the consolidated Macy’s in the overall retail landscape in an attempt to differentiate the new company from its competitors. These maneuvers were undertaken to counter decreasing sales and profits in the traditional department store industry. Some retail analysts suggested that the consolidation of Macy’s, while interesting, was destined to fail because the traditional department store was an obsolete entity; however, other analysts suggested that Macy’s strategy might hold the key to success in a declining industry. In 2008, the U.S. economy entered a recession, and by 2011 it remained far from booming. Did Macy’s need to change parts of its strategy to remain competitive? What would need to change?

Executives often complain that investors' obsession with short-term returns forces them to make decisions that are bad in the long term. New research shows that it works both ways: Companies with a short-term orientation attract investors interested in short-term time frames.

"This case addresses how to account for an environmental catastrophe from its initial stages to its conclusion, using the 20-year history of the Exxon Valdez oil spill as an illustration of the accounting disclosures required over time. The spill resulted in severe social, environmental, and economic damages to the Prince William Sound region and led to more than 20 years of litigation regarding the appropriate amount of damages to be paid by Exxon. The case has two parts. Part I addresses the question of whether a company has a responsibility to accrue and disclose a provision in its financial statements before a disaster occurs. Part II addresses accounting disclosures required in the aftermath of such a disaster. A student in intermediate accounting performs the role of an intern working at an international public accounting firm with clients who may be faced with incidents similar to Exxon's, such as the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, in 2010. These incidents, whether they occur in the United States or elsewhere, may have significant financial, social, and environmental impacts; create uncertainty over payment amounts; and span years before final settlement. Students must research and write a memo that discusses how to account for such losses using the 20-year history of the Exxon Valdez event as a possible scenario. The research should include authoritative pronouncements in effect at the current date using U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and international financial reporting standards (IFRS). "

When Carroll became the CEO of Anglo American, in 2007, the company had suffered 200 worker fatalities over the previous five years. Some company veterans insisted that deaths were inevitable at such a large mining company, given the dangerous nature of the business. Carroll fundamentally rejected that assumption. She undertook a tour of operations in Australia, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, and South Africa. The platinum business in South Africa had the worst track record in terms of safety, and Carroll was troubled by her conversations with its local managers. Immediately after her visit, another worker died. That was it. She ordered the world's largest platinum mine, which employed 30,000 people, to be shut down immediately. Intensive retraining began, and 3,000 leaders and 12,000 line managers, supervisors, and frontline employees have been through the program since 2008. Carroll also initiated the Tripartite Alliance, a collaboration with the South African Department of Mineral Resources and the National Union of Mineworkers, to study global best practices in safety and make recommendations. By 2011 she had reduced fatalities at Anglo American by 62% and had cut time lost owing to injuries by half.

Few managerial transitions are more difficult than making the move from leading a function to leading an entire enterprise for the first time. The scope and complexity of the job increase dramatically, in ways that can leave executives feeling overwhelmed and uncertain. It truly is different at the top. But how, exactly? Career transition expert Michael Watkins set out to explore that question in an extensive series of interviews with leadership mentors, HR professionals, and newly minted unit heads. What he found was that at this turning point, executives must navigate a tricky set of changes in their leadership focus and skills. Watkins calls these the seven seismic shifts. New enterprise leaders must move from being a specialist to a generalist; from analyzing data to integrating knowledge from multiple sources; and from implementing tactics to developing strategies. They also need to transform themselves from bricklayers into organizational architects; from problem solvers into agenda setters; and from warriors intent on beating the competition into diplomats who engage with a full range of stakeholders. Finally, leaders must move out from the wings and get used to living on center stage in the full spotlight. To make the transition, managers have to acquire new capabilities quickly. And though what got them to the top may no longer be enough, there are steps that they and their organizations can take to prepare them to succeed.

Globalization and new technologies have sharply reduced the efficacy of command-and-control management and its accompanying forms of corporate communication. In the course of a recent research project, the authors concluded that by talking with employees, rather than simply issuing orders, leaders can promote operational flexibility, employee engagement, and tight strategic alignment. Groysberg and Slind have identified four elements of organizational conversation that reflect the essential attributes of interpersonal conversation: intimacy, interactivity, inclusion, and intentionality. Intimacy shifts the focus from a top-down distribution of information to a bottom-up exchange of ideas. Organizational conversation is less corporate in tone and more casual. And it's less about issuing and taking orders than about asking and answering questions. Interactivity entails shunning the simplicity of monologue and embracing the unpredictable vitality of dialogue. Traditional one-way media--print and broadcast, in particular--give way to social media buttressed by social thinking. Inclusion turns employees into full-fledged conversation partners, entitling them to provide their own ideas, often on company channels. They can create content and act as brand ambassadors, thought leaders, and storytellers. Intentionality enables leaders and employees to derive strategically relevant action from the push and pull of discussion and debate.

By now we expect personalized content--it's routinely served up by online retailers and news services, for example. But the typical leadership development program still takes a formulaic, one-size-fits-all approach. And it rarely happens that an excellent technique can be effectively transferred from one leader to all others. Someone trying to adopt a practice from a leader with a different style usually seems stilted and off--a Franken-leader. Breakthrough work at Hilton Hotels and other organizations shows how companies can use an algorithmic model to deliver training tips uniquely suited to each individual's style. It's a five-step process: First, a company must choose a tool with which to identify each person's leadership type. Second, it should assess its best leaders, and third, it should interview them about their techniques. Fourth, it should use its algorithmic model to feed tips drawn from those techniques to developing leaders of the same type. And fifth, it should make the system dynamically intelligent, with user reactions sharpening the content and targeting of tips. The power of this kind of system--highly customized, based on peer-to-peer sharing, and continually evolving--will soon overturn the generic model of leadership development. And such systems will inevitably break through any one organization, until somewhere in the cloud the best leadership tips from all over are gathered, sorted, and distributed according to which ones suit which people best.

Many believe that charisma, the ability to captivate and inspire an audience, is innate. But through research in the laboratory and in the field, the authors, who all work at the University of Lausanne, have identified 12 tactics that help managers become more influential, trustworthy, and "leaderlike" in the eyes of others. Great orators and politicians employ these techniques instinctively, but anyone can learn how to use them. Nine of the tactics are verbal: metaphors, similes, and analogies; stories and anecdotes; contrasts; rhetorical questions; expressions of moral conviction; reflections of the group's sentiments; three-part lists; the setting of high goals; and conveying confidence that they can be achieved. Three are nonverbal: animated voice, facial expressions, and gestures. Though there are other tactics that leaders can use--repetition, humor, talking about sacrifice--the 12 singled out by the authors have the greatest effect and can work in almost any context. And the research shows that they also have a larger impact than strong presentation skills and speech structure. This article explores the 12 tactics in detail, providing examples from business and politics, and offers guidance on how to start implementing them. A manager's goal should be to incorporate them not only into public speaking but also into everyday interactions. They work because they help you create an emotional connection with your audience, even as they make you appear more powerful, competent, and worthy of respect. People who use them effectively will be able to unite their followers around a vision in a way that others can't. And in the authors' study, executives who practiced them saw the leadership scores that their audience gave them rise by about 60%.

Although the first ship he ever commanded crashed into a buoy, Mullen rose through the ranks to serve two presidents as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff--a job he says was the hardest of his life.

Social Impact Investment is a rapidly expanding field, but terminology in the field is poorly defined and imprecise. This note suggests frameworks that help to clarify important dimensions of SII projects, distinguishing and clarifying key differences in approaches to social impact investments undertaken by different organizations and funders.