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Antigal is an Argentinian winery with an integrated business model including vineyards, wine production, and distribution. Antigal is owned by the Cartoni family. Virgilio Cartoni entered Antigal as a minority shareholder in 2007, and in 2016 he and his wife Ana Maria took full control of the winery. Antigal consists of three companies. Virgilio and Ana Maria have four children: Stefano, Francesco, Alessandra, and Antonella. Since 2016, the couple each own 20% of the vehicle ROCKY, parent to two companies of Antigal, and the four children own 15% each. Virgilio and Ana Maria also own 50% each of the vehicle BACO, parent to the third company of Antigal. In mid-2018, Antigal became a multi-generational family-managed firm with Stefano, Alessandra, and Francesco working as company managers. Francesco, Virgilio, and Ana Maria's second-oldest son started working for a Chilean producer and exporter of wines following his graduation from university, and he soon realized that the future of the wine business was in China. Consequently, in 2016 he moved to China to work for the Chilean company there. In 2018 Francesco resigned from the job to start a full-time MBA program and begin to build relationships for his family business. Francesco, along with his brother and sister, has a vision to bring Antigal to the next level. There are many challenges ahead for the company to overcome: How to structure the family business governance? How to expand the business and increase the enterprise value of the firm? How and how much could China contribute to it?

In 2016, UltraTech Cement Limited acquired a number of Jaypee Cement Corporation Ltd.’s cement capacity assets in India’s largest cement sector deal. As a result of this acquisition, all permanent employees at the acquired plants became employees of UltraTech Cement Limited. This included people working in plants, logistics, sales and marketing offices, and head office. On analyzing the employee data and organizational structure, considerable differences became apparent. The differences were related to organizational culture, organizational structure at the plant level, reporting relationships, and employee compensation. The challenge was to combine the two organizations and streamline human resources policies and practices fairly and equitably and help Jaypee Cement Corporation Ltd. employees integrate well into the newly merged entity.

Reymund (ER) Rollan and Shivapratim (Shiv) Choudhury, founders of the digital technology platform GrowSari, were at a crossroads. The feedback from their initial product roll-out were not what they had expected, and they needed to decide how to proceed. The pair, alongside co-founders Andrzej Ogonowski and Siddhartha Kongara, had started GrowSari after they had each spent significant time working at the intersection of technology and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). They were trying to bring data and technology to inform how multinational consumer goods companies sold their products through small, informal retailers known as "sari-sari" stores in the Philippines. These stores, whose name means "variety" or "everything" in Filipino, were a typical convenience store or bodega, selling consumer products from sachets of shampoo to cans of baked beans and potato chips and soda.

Case supplement for HBS Case No. 322-036. Reymund (ER) Rollan and Shivapratim (Shiv) Choudhury, founders of the digital technology platform GrowSari, were at a crossroads. The feedback from their initial product roll-out were not what they had expected, and they needed to decide how to proceed. The pair, alongside co-founders Andrzej Ogonowski and Siddhartha Kongara, had started GrowSari after they had each spent significant time working at the intersection of technology and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). They were trying to bring data and technology to inform how multinational consumer goods companies sold their products through small, informal retailers known as "sari-sari" stores in the Philippines. These stores, whose name means "variety" or "everything" in Filipino, were a typical convenience store or bodega, selling consumer products from sachets of shampoo to cans of baked beans and potato chips and soda.

This background Note introduces the implications of climate change (global warming) for American cities. In the U.S., partisan political divides and unaddressed economic and racial disparities in climate vulnerabilities can inhibit action. The two main fronts for action are mitigation (reducing emissions) and adaptation (preparing for change by building resilience). The Note reviews main sources of emissions - energy, buildings, transportation, waste - and examples of mitigation actions, showing differential costs and impact. Adaptation actions depend on geographic location and specific climate hazards, with resilience of infrastructure and institutions a major factor. The most risk-prone are often the least prepared. Crises tend to propel action, and foundations have facilitated adaptation capacity, but leadership challenges require cross-sector goal-setting and collaboration.

Beijing’s Palace Museum was facing the threat of becoming irrelevant and obsolete. A former imperial palace, it housed thousands of priceless cultural relics of historical importance and was once a destination in high demand. However, over time, the museum found its popularity with modern youth was waning. To address this problem, the Palace Museum chose to follow in the footsteps of other global museums and in 1998, launched a digital transformation. By June 2020, the museum had made steady progress in its digitalization over the previous two decades. It formed partnerships with online media platforms and experimented with innovative technology in key areas of its systems and structures. However, this transformation did not come without criticism. Was the museum sacrificing its integrity and its cultural import by leaning too heavily on science and technology? If people could access the collections online, would anyone still bother to visit? The museum was challenged to weigh the risks and benefits of digital transformation.

In 2016, Pythagoras Global Fund (Pythagoras), based in the United Kingdom, decided to launch a fund focused on emerging markets, especially those in Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC countries). Pythagoras’s fund manager favoured investing in family-owned businesses, but the investment opportunities in India used ownership structures different than those used in developed markets. The structures in Indian groups altered the cash flow and effective ownership rights in the subsidiary firms, which had ramifications for stakeholders and raised associated governance issues. The fund manager needed to decide which firm to choose by assessing the investment opportunities and evaluating the corporate governance of the companies.

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Beijing's Palace Museum was facing the threat of becoming irrelevant and obsolete. A former imperial palace, it housed thousands of priceless cultural relics of historical importance and was once a destination in high demand. However, over time, the museum found its popularity with modern youth was waning. To address this problem, the Palace Museum chose to follow in the footsteps of other global museums and in 1998, launched a digital transformation. By June 2020, the museum had made steady progress in its digitalization over the previous two decades. It formed partnerships with online media platforms and experimented with innovative technology in key areas of its systems and structures. However, this transformation did not come without criticism. Was the museum sacrificing its integrity and its cultural import by leaning too heavily on science and technology? If people could access the collections online, would anyone still bother to visit? The museum was challenged to weigh the risks and benefits of digital transformation.

In March 2021, the wine trade war between China and Australia was escalating, and the competitive landscape in China’s wine market had changed dramatically in just three months. Asa Top, a Chinese import company that had represented certain Australian wineries for over a decade, had to rethink its marketing strategy. The general manager of Asa Top did not know when the recent trade friction between China Australia would end. After the Chinese government introduced its new tariff policy on Australian wine, other participants in the Chinese wine market had quickly reacted to claim Australian wine’s market share in China. How should Asa Top deal with the impact of the duties, reduce the losses, and explore future co-operation with Australia’s winemakers?

NorLand Limited (NorLand) was a construction company based in British Columbia, Canada, with operations in Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, and the United States. Having grown primarily by acquisition, the company was moving toward an ambitious goal: to achieve CA$500 million in revenues and CA$50 million in net operating income (NOI) by 2025—the 500-50-25 goal. The main questions facing Dave Reynolds, NorLand’s chief executive officer (CEO), and his leadership team revolved around not only expanding the business to achieve this target but doing so sustainably, while giving NorLand’s business units the latitude and freedom that had drawn them to join NorLand in the first place.

In February 2022, Daryl Lim, founder of Kuehchic Desserts, created his own recipes for kueh, bite-sized cakes local to Singapore, that are healthier and more appealing to modern tastes. Together with his friends, Sharon Tan and Shiva Kumar, he set up the business and worked out a strategy for the launch of Kuehchic. While the initial feedback on the food is positive, Lim wants to test his products with a wider tasting panel. The company also has to undertake various business development and website development tasks, which would be split among the team. After some discussion, Lim worked out a task schedule. He also estimated the time needed for each task and the sequence in which some of them had to be carried out. For reasons beyond their control, the team could only start work in July. Lim wondered if the steps he had listed out to manage the project were adequate, and if his entrepreneurship journey would be successful.

Spotify Technology S.A. (Spotify) was facing significant problems with public relations due to artists’ claims of poor treatment. They had accused Spotify of underpaying artists, obscuring its business practices, and being overly litigious. The objections reached a critical point with a union of creatives, the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW), submitting a petition to Spotify and on March 15, 2021, protesting at its global offices. Spotify management must decide how to navigate this issue.

In September of 2017, CavinKare Private Limited was faced with a tough decision about how to continue its growth in the personal care products industry. The company had been successful in the hair colour market in India, particularly in the southern regions of the country. CavinKare's success was largely due to their focus on research and development and innovation. The hair colour market showed room for growth, and CavinKare wanted to make sure that they capitalized on its potential. There were three options before the company: stay with their existing products and markets, expand their existing products into new markets, or create innovative new products. To make the decision, CavinKare had to consider many factors, including consumer behaviour, new product development, marketing strategies, and trade partnerships. Only by considering all of these things together would the company have an answer to its question: what was the best option for growth?

Farmer Lee Farms was a family-owned farm 70 kilometres from Johannesburg, South Africa. The farm was founded in 2005 by Jimmy Botha, a sixty-year-old, first-generation Black commercial farmer. From 2005 to 2017, the farm had experienced steady growth and was recognized as a Black business success story in post-apartheid South Africa. During this period, the farm had a clear target market of high-end food packaging houses and food retailers and specialized in the supply of high-quality, high-value fresh produce. However, a severe hailstorm in 2017 destroyed important infrastructure on the farm that was crucial for growing the farm’s temperature-sensitive products. The capital required to repair the infrastructure was not available. As a result, the farm lost key off-take agreements with high-end retail customers and Botha had to change his crops to hardier but lower-value cash crops. In November 2020, the farm urgently needed to re-evaluate its strategy to avoid bankruptcy, for which Botha was considering four options: continue growing cash crops and hope for a market turnaround, apply for a bank loan for funds to repair the damaged infrastructure, access the available government grants to carry out repairs to the infrastructure, or change his farming methods entirely and learn an alternative farming technique known as hydroponics.

In September of 2017, CavinKare Private Limited was faced with a tough decision about how to continue its growth in the personal care products industry. The company had been successful in the hair colour market in India, particularly in the southern regions of the country. CavinKare’s success was largely due to their focus on research and development and innovation. The hair colour market showed room for growth, and CavinKare wanted to make sure that they capitalized on its potential. There were three options before the company: stay with their existing products and markets, expand their existing products into new markets, or create innovative new products. To make the decision, CavinKare had to consider many factors, including consumer behaviour, new product development, marketing strategies, and trade partnerships. Only by considering all of these things together would the company have an answer to its question: what was the best option for growth?

Set in May 2021, this case describes the journey of transformation Hai Sia Seafood (Hai Sia), a Singapore-based seafood company, embarked upon five years earlier. Hai Sia, a family business established forty-five years earlier, supplied high quality, fresh, and processed seafood at competitive prices for domestic consumption in Singapore. However, the seafood processing industry in the city-state, including the port, was woefully backward. Hai Sia operated a manual processing plant that was twenty years old, and relied completely on labour intensive work processes, even though digitisation was on the rise in the country and consumers were increasingly migrating online in their buying behaviour. The company faced many challenges such as quota constraints on the number of foreign workers it could hire, inconsistency in quality due to human error, low productivity, and more importantly, the changing profile of its customer base. Hai Sia undertook many steps to transform its operations, including plant renovation and automation, digitisation of work processes, expansion into e-commerce, launch of a consumer brand, and product development for the retail market. The results were promising and the business grew from 1800 tons in 2015 to 2500 tons in 2020. However, the considerable corresponding investments to support these initiatives had adversely impacted the company's profitability. Ang Junting, the deputy director, knew that if he were to spend more time and resources in modernising the business, the senior management would need to be convinced about the returns that these investments would eventually bring. Moreover, he wondered if going forward, a similar business model that centred on automation, upskilling, training, and consumer retail could be successfully replicated in the neighbouring Southeast Asian economies.