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The case is about Dhriiti–The Courage Within (Dhriiti), a non-governmental organization founded in 2004 in Assam, India, to help rural communities in northeastern India generate income by producing areca tableware. In 2009, Dhriiti established the for-profit social enterprise Tamul Plates Marketing Private Limited (Tamul) to manage the entire value chain of the tableware. As Tamul expanded, it decentralized its production model to better promote rural entrepreneurs and to supplement its existing centralized factory-based production unit. However, women’s participation in these decentralized units remained low. In response, Dhriiti established Project Pragati, which successfully empowered 29 rural women entrepreneurs and inspired many more. The case highlights the dilemma of the co-founders in December 2022. They can expand the capacity of Tamul’s existing centralized production unit to grow the enterprise, which will generate more direct employment for local women. Alternatively, they can invest in more decentralized production units to establish a longer-term, more empowering model of promoting rural entrepreneurs, which will both engage women and transform them into change agents in their communities.

The case study follows Microsoft's transformation under CEO Satya Nadella over the last decade. The story of the transformation emphasizes two critical and inseparable themes, namely strategy and leadership. In doing so, it hews closely with the classical view of a turnaround and how Nadella was able to command the attention of the organization as he breathed new life into what had become a complacent company resting on past laurels. It traces a host of changes that were made to articulate and implement a cloud-first strategy with an emphasis on customer centricity and ubiquity of the product suite. The changes called for destroying some of the core advantages the company had relied in the past to deliver predictable revenue growth. It discusses the approaches that Nadella deployed to reengage the talent of the company and rebuild a new culture consistent with his new vision for the company, and the manner in which he infused a growth mindset among the rank and file. It closes with the partnership deal with OpenAI and the changes that have followed at the company. The case also raises questions about the viability of another turnaround, this time a pivot toward generative AI in an intensely competitive landscape.

In 2019, Parker Hannifin, one of the world's largest manufacturers of motion and control technologies, did something unusual for an industrial company: it created a purpose statement. Even though it already had a clear business strategy and longstanding culture of empowering its employees, creating a nine-word purpose statement proved transformational. This was particularly true during the pandemic, when Parker's purpose-Enabling Engineering Breakthroughs that Lead to a Better Tomorrow-came to life as team members built parts for lifesaving ventilators and designed a filtration system that enabled the mass-production of vaccines. Now Parker's new CEO must determine how to bring Parker's purpose fully to life, using it to inspire team members, connect with customers, and guide the company as it navigates clean energy technologies and other challenges.

Phumlaphi Rita Zwane, founder of Busy Corner, a thriving Shisanyama (African barbeque) business in Thembisa, South Africa, faced a pivotal decision amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Motivated by aspirations for business expansion and the pursuit of new opportunities, Zwane established a company-owned restaurant in the Mall of Thembisa. However, insufficient consideration of crucial factors during the decision-making process led to an alarming debt of $825,971, as of February 18, 2023, posing a significant threat to the business's survival. At this juncture, Zwane grappled with the dilemma of whether to close, sell, or franchise the Thembisa Busy Corner location, underscoring the critical need for a strategic resolution to secure the future of her entrepreneurial venture.

Jugalbandi is an AI-driven platform developed by OpenNyAI, aimed at enhancing access to legal information and government services in India. This innovative platform integrates large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT with language translation models (LTMs) from Bhashini, creating a seamless conversational AI interface. OpenNyAI, initiated by Agami, leverages AI to address societal challenges, particularly within the legal domain. Jugalbandi was conceived to mitigate the extensive backlog of pending legal cases in India by making legal information more accessible and comprehensible to all, especially in local languages. The platform has gained significant recognition, including being highlighted by Satya Nadella during Microsoft Build 2023, and has been instrumental in delivering critical information through popular messaging apps. Despite its success, Jugalbandi faces several strategic challenges that need to be addressed to ensure its scalability and sustainability. One major dilemma is balancing ecosystem development with technological dependencies on external AI models like ChatGPT and Bhashini. Ensuring the platform remains up-to-date and effective while relying on these foundational technologies is critical. Another significant dilemma is choosing between maintaining an open-source model, which aligns with the mission of creating digital public goods (DPGs), and transitioning to a for-profit model to ensure financial sustainability and growth. Additionally, the team must decide between vertical diversification, adding more core features to enhance existing applications, and horizontal diversification, expanding to new use cases across different domains. Each approach has implications for resource allocation, community engagement, and technological development. Addressing these dilemmas is crucial for the long-term success and impact of Jugalbandi.

Dealing with the negative emotions of employees isn't easy, but knowing what to do or say can make a huge difference to their well-being, the quality of your relationships with them, and team performance. The trouble is, many leaders fail to respond at all because they think discussing emotions at work is unprofessional or worry they don't have the right to intervene in personal matters. That's a mistake. Research shows that teams whose leaders acknowledge members' emotions perform significantly better than teams whose leaders don't. In this article the authors offer a road map for providing employees emotional support. The right response depends heavily on context, in particular, whether someone (1) is working on a time‑sensitive goal and (2) seems to be coping. Sometimes you have to intervene quickly; sometimes you should simply validate the employee's feelings; sometimes you should validate and then offer advice; and sometimes you should give the person space and time. You need to assess each situation carefully and avoid the tendency to always jump in with solutions, bearing in mind that employees may not expect you to fix things; they may just need to be heard.

Although most managers believe that they give each of their team members equal attention, respect, and consideration, four decades' worth of empirical research says otherwise. Studies show that nearly all bosses have-or are seen to have-in-groups and out-groups. Employees on the wrong side of these divides experience a reduction in engagement, satisfaction, commitment, citizenship, innovation, and performance. Bosses usually argue that any differentiation is unintended and that their reports are reading too much into minor disparities. Both claims might be true. However, it is the view from below that counts. Perceived unfairness is real in its consequences. Managers should first acknowledge these issues and then work hard to head off or repair conflict. Those who don't may lose key contributors they'd prefer to retain, exacerbate the challenges presented by underperformers, ruin team performance and morale, and hurt their own reputations. Start by regularly reviewing your treatment of team members. Ask yourself: Did I seek everyone's company? Did I acknowledge their capabilities? Did I assist their growth? If you are routinely answering no for certain subordinates, they need more attention from you. When a relationship has already gone off the rails, it's important to rectify the problem: Prepare for a direct conversation, engage empathetically, and then make a plan for how you'll interact with one another in the future.

The newly appointed CEO of Highstreet Properties has doubts about several members of the top team she has inherited. She's trying to drive a turnaround, the company has a complicated matrix structure, and some team members seem opposed to her strategy. She's debating replacing several of them, but she's worried about making too many changes too quickly, upsetting her board, and bringing in too many former colleagues.

When the front man of Hootie & the Blowfish ditched pop music to make country records, he was taking a big risk. Nashville didn't welcome crossover artists, and an African American hadn't had a country hit in years. In this interview Rucker describes why he prevailed, how he's dealt with racism, and what still gets him excited.

The newly appointed CEO of Highstreet Properties has doubts about several members of the top team she has inherited. She's trying to drive a turnaround, the company has a complicated matrix structure, and some team members seem opposed to her strategy. She's debating replacing several of them, but she's worried about making too many changes too quickly, upsetting her board, and bringing in too many former colleagues.

The newly appointed CEO of Highstreet Properties has doubts about several members of the top team she has inherited. She's trying to drive a turnaround, the company has a complicated matrix structure, and some team members seem opposed to her strategy. She's debating replacing several of them, but she's worried about making too many changes too quickly, upsetting her board, and bringing in too many former colleagues.

The World Economic Forum and the consulting firm McKinsey & Company collaborated with academics to create the concept of lighthouse factories in 2018. The concept represents a vision for manufacturing in the digital age, in which cutting-edge digital technologies are designed and deployed to enable innovative manufacturing practices to be implemented at large scale. The concept has since become a global standard for digital manufacturing. For McKinsey & Company, and other consulting firms, this vision brings significant opportunities but also requires these organizations and their consultants to obtain an in-depth and nuanced understanding of lighthouse factories and the underlying business models, practices, technologies, and cases.

The World Economic Forum and the consulting firm McKinsey & Company collaborated with academics to create the concept of lighthouse factories in 2018. The concept represents a vision for manufacturing in the digital age, in which cutting-edge digital technologies are designed and deployed to enable innovative manufacturing practices to be implemented at large scale. The concept has since become a global standard for digital manufacturing. For McKinsey & Company, and other consulting firms, this vision brings significant opportunities but also requires these organizations and their consultants to obtain an in-depth and nuanced understanding of lighthouse factories and the underlying business models, practices, technologies, and cases.

In 2020, Ford Motor Company (Ford), a global automaker, embarked on a transformative journey toward electrification with the introduction of the Ford Electric Vehicle Strategy. This case examines Ford's approach to meeting the electrification challenge, particularly in response to California's Executive Order N-79-20, which mandated the phase-out of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. The case provides insights into Ford's activities and highlights the challenges and opportunities inherent in the electrification space.

In 2020, Ford Motor Company (Ford), a global automaker, embarked on a transformative journey toward electrification with the introduction of the Ford Electric Vehicle Strategy. This case examines Ford’s approach to meeting the electrification challenge, particularly in response to California’s Executive Order N-79-20, which mandated the phase-out of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. The case provides insights into Ford’s activities and highlights the challenges and opportunities inherent in the electrification space.

Sri Sabari Engimech Private Limited (SSEPL), a firm founded in 2001, provided contract-based staff for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of plant and machinery (P&M), mainly in the petrochemical sector. The founder reaped profits from the first month onward. In 2008, his son took over SSEPL as director of operations and expanded the company’s services and clientele to increase profits. In 2019, the company encountered loss for the first time because of, among other reasons, malpractice by its former CEO, the ex-CEO starting his own O&M outfit and taking with him some of SSEPL’s employees, the entry of new players into the market, and the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic. However, SSEPL managed to bounce back with low profit margins the following year, leading the director of operations to contemplate the way forward for the company.

When they are posed with two intriguing offers on the fund-raising television show Shark Tank India, the co-founders of Menstrupedia Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Menstrupedia), Aditi Gupta and Tuhin Paul, are faced with a tough decision. Should they forgo the social brand they have built over several years to pursue the seemingly smart business decision of becoming a sanitary napkin producer, or should they scale up their comic business despite so many competitors in the menstrual awareness landscape, or should they do both? Menstrupedia Comic is an educational comic book about menstruation for adolescents created by Gupta and Paul in 2009. Its aim is to shatter deep-rooted, widespread menstruation myths. Although Menstrupedia has started out as a comic book producer, the company’s social impact has been enormous, with Gupta having been recognized for her social outreach efforts by organizations such as Forbes Media limited liability company and British Broadcasting Corporation. By 2022, the co-founders seek to grow their impact, and the need to scale up Menstrupedia propels them to appear on Shark Tank India. Two “Sharks” (members of a panel of potential investors) each offer them a different avenue for growth. The first Shark is in agreement with the co-founders’ vision of social change and growth, while the other suggests that they diversify their business by manufacturing and selling sanitary napkins, an immensely profitable endeavour, while using their comics as a complementary product.

Amidst the complex landscape of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in mainland China, CrossBorder Environment Concern Association (CECA) has emerged as an independent grassroots environmental NGO focused on conserving coastal biodiversity. With the vision to become a leading think tank, CECA provides well-founded research findings to authorities through early intervention, ensuring environmental compliance in government-proposed development projects. In its advocacy efforts, CECA emphasizes community engagement and relies on its well-trained volunteers to carry out complex procedures. The NGO sets itself apart by upholding independence, transparency, and refusing government funding or any illicit "guanxi" connection. This raises questions about how CECA secures its funding and diversifies its revenue streams. Furthermore, the partners contemplate how CECA can more effectively demonstrate its environmental and community impact to stakeholders, thereby further enhancing both financial and societal support. Readers are invited to analyze the competitiveness of CECA in the industry, identity success factors, as well as potential challenges. They are also encouraged to propose alternative strategies for CECA to consider, taking into consideration of the missions of the NGO.

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was backed by the government in India as an innovative solution to onboard numerous small-scale retailers and other businesses to participate in the digital commerce ecosystem comprised primarily of e-commerce platforms, on-demand food delivery, and ride-sharing platforms, through standard technology and processes, policies, and entrepreneurship. ONDC was officially incorporated in December 2021 under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade as a non-profit section 8 company. As a set of protocols to foster open, unbundled, and interoperable networks, ONDC-enabled communication among various players or entities of an e-commerce transaction. Functions of typical e-commerce such as discovery, matching, order fulfillment, or delivery were unbundled so that multiple players could execute each of these steps independently. ONDC had onboarded seller-side apps (applications interacting with merchants), buyer-side apps (applications interacting with consumers), logistics providers, and customers over the past two years, but the scale of ONDC's growth was limited compared to existing players. Also, there were considerable questions on ONDC's decisions pertaining to continual subsidy offerings for sellers and discounts to customers. Some success was seen in areas of hyperlocal mobility through apps developed on ONDC such as Namma Yatri and hyperlocal delivery of restaurant food, but order volume was an impending issue. Technology service provider firms stepped forward to help sellers in building and managing services. In the latter half of 2023, Antler Innovation Private Limited ONDC was launched to fund, train, and onboard promising participants in the network. ONDC now had to strategically address areas in which it needed to make investments, whom to subsidize and charge, how to enable scaling, and formulate effective governing policies.

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was backed by the government in India as an innovative solution to onboard numerous small-scale retailers and other businesses to participate in the digital commerce ecosystem comprised primarily of e-commerce platforms, on-demand food delivery, and ride-sharing platforms, through standard technology and processes, policies, and entrepreneurship. ONDC was officially incorporated in December 2021 under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade as a non-profit section 8 company. As a set of protocols to foster open, unbundled, and interoperable networks, ONDC-enabled communication among various players or entities of an e-commerce transaction. Functions of typical e-commerce such as discovery, matching, order fulfillment, or delivery were unbundled so that multiple players could execute each of these steps independently. ONDC had onboarded seller-side apps (applications interacting with merchants), buyer-side apps (applications interacting with consumers), logistics providers, and customers over the past two years, but the scale of ONDC’s growth was limited compared to existing players. Also, there were considerable questions on ONDC’s decisions pertaining to continual subsidy offerings for sellers and discounts to customers.<br><br>Some success was seen in areas of hyperlocal mobility through apps developed on ONDC such as Namma Yatri and hyperlocal delivery of restaurant food, but order volume was an impending issue. Technology service provider firms stepped forward to help sellers in building and managing services. In the latter half of 2023, Antler Innovation Private Limited ONDC was launched to fund, train, and onboard promising participants in the network. ONDC now had to strategically address areas in which it needed to make investments, whom to subsidize and charge, how to enable scaling, and formulate effective governing policies.