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In 2018, the owner of a Sasol Limited (Sasol) fuel retail franchise in Pretoria, South Africa, was facing the challenge of how to continue growing her business by retaining her existing customers and offering the products and services they expected. A woman entrepreneur in a male-dominated industry, the franchisee had worked her way up the corporate ladder in the financial services industry and, after being retrenched from her position at a bank, had purchased a fuelling station. She now wanted to gather information on her customers’ needs in order to make an informed decision about how to scale the service offerings at her site to increase revenue, but she was unsure as to how to go about gathering this information. Various brands in the service station industry had seen decreased customer visits, and in this competitive environment, it was important to increase her efforts in building loyalty among her service station’s customers.

Instructor Presentation to accompany product 8B21M070.

In recent years, India had experienced a digital revolution, emerging as a forerunner in cashless payments and, in the process, dramatically raising the level of financial inclusion in the country. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), established in 2008 with the mandate to improve national payment systems, became a global gold standard for facilitating innovative financial technology (fintech) solutions. NPCI was created as a not-for-profit “coopetitive” organization, initiated by India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, but owned by a consortium of India’s leading banks and largely run independently. While NPCI’s success in devising an open innovation platform had led to a new competitive playing field, it had also raised the question of whether or not its original coopetitive organizational design was still suitable for sustaining the flow of fintech innovations.

Xiaomi India Private Limited (Xiaomi India), a subsidiary of the Chinese smart phone company Xiaomi Corporation, controlled a major share in the Indian market. However, its dominance was threatened by geopolitical tensions between India and China. The two countries shared a 4,000 kilometre border and a history of dispute over the border’s actual demarcation. Tensions brewing over the international border during early 2020 precipitated an armed clash between Indian and Chinese troops at one border post that resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers. In response, the Indian government issued orders for companies to declare the identity of products made in China, with a preference for products made in India. A consumer boycott of Chinese products was also posing a threat to the Xiaomi brand’s market leadership position, while competitors saw an opportunity to expand their market share. How could Xiaomi India overcome the current negative environment and prepare for similar potential conflicts in the future?

In mid-2020, Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber) acquired Latin American-based mobile application Cornershop, which delivered online grocery purchases to the consumer’s home. The operation involved technology firms based on multisided platforms. Uber, which focused on the intermediation of passenger transport, had expanded to businesses such Uber Eats for the delivery of restaurant meals, while Cornershop’s focus was the purchase and delivery of supermarket products. Recently, Walmart had attempted to acquire Cornershop, but Mexico’s antitrust authorities would not authorize the acquisition. Uber’s acquisition of Cornershop involved important managerial challenges. What were the main sources of value? Should the two companies be managed separately or as joint units? Would Walmart have been a better fit for Cornershop? What was the best strategy to grow in this multisided business space?

To create long-term value, corporate boards must focus on managing talent, strategy, and risk. But they also have to satisfy their shareholders, who often have competing demands. Activists, for example, might press for short-term profits, while index funds and other long-term shareholders are more concerned with the company's longevity. Drawing on years of work with boards, top executives, and the investment community and on interviews with the heads of public and private companies and investment firms, the authors offer a playbook for managing stakeholder relationships productively. They argue that regular, open communication is key; whether aligned with or hostile to the board's long-term objectives, investors often have valuable information about a company and its competitors and can be a source of fresh ideas. The authors provide guidance on how and when to meet with investors, how to get useful feedback, how to understand what each type of investor is looking for, and how to anticipate and ward off activist attacks. Although the advice is directed at board members, the insights will be valuable to CEOs, other members of the senior management team, and large shareholders as well.

The former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, whose life journey began in a Manhattan tenement, is an outspoken champion of inclusive capitalism and racial equity--themes that animate her just-published memoir, "Where You Are Is Not Who You Are." In this conversation with HBR's editor in chief, she talks about good leadership in a multistakeholder world, income inequality, battling an activist investor, how being both Black and female affected her career trajectory, and more.

Brain scans are showing us in new detail exactly what entices readers. Scientists can see a group of midbrain neurons--the "reward circuit"--light up as people respond to everything from a simple metaphor to an unexpected story twist. The big takeaway? Whether you're crafting an email to a colleague or an important report for the board, you can write in a way that delights readers on a primal level, releasing pleasure chemicals in their brains. Bill Birchard is an author and writing coach who's worked with many successful businesspeople. He's drawn on that experience and his review of the scientific literature to identify eight features of satisfying writing: simplicity, specificity, surprise, stirring language, seductiveness, smart ideas, social content, and storytelling. In this article, he shares tips for using those eight S's to captivate readers and help your message stick.

Vanir, a young community bank dedicated to serving small-business owners, prides itself on the personalized service it delivers to customers. That approach has helped it grow quickly, but now competitors are circling. A new system that uses algorithms to speed up decision-making is ready to go live, but employees are worried that it will destroy the bank's special sauce. What should Vanir's CEO do? This fictional case study by Leonard A. Schlesinger features expert commentary by Bob Rivers and Chris Yeh.

The former top editor of the Boston Globe and the Washington Post talks about the Globe's investigation of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, attacks on the Post by President Trump, truth as a casualty of political polarization, and more.

Vanir, a young community bank dedicated to serving small-business owners, prides itself on the personalized service it delivers to customers. That approach has helped it grow quickly, but now competitors are circling. A new system that uses algorithms to speed up decision-making is ready to go live, but employees are worried that it will destroy the bank's special sauce. What should Vanir's CEO do? This fictional case study by Leonard A. Schlesinger features expert commentary by Bob Rivers and Chris Yeh.

Vanir, a young community bank dedicated to serving small-business owners, prides itself on the personalized service it delivers to customers. That approach has helped it grow quickly, but now competitors are circling. A new system that uses algorithms to speed up decision-making is ready to go live, but employees are worried that it will destroy the bank's special sauce. What should Vanir's CEO do? This fictional case study by Leonard A. Schlesinger features expert commentary by Bob Rivers and Chris Yeh.

This case starts by exploring the brief history of Alibaba from 1999 to 2020 from the perspective of strategy and values. The case shows how a company's strategy and values are mutually interdependent, but each retains a degree of autonomy. Values are based on and then applied to the implementation of strategy. The case next describes how Alibaba used values to influence and check employee behavior. It highlights Ali's unique value-centric rules, organizational structure, and value-based KPIs while describing the company's evolution toward a more flexible approach concerning values. It links this evolution to the company's different development stages. The case concludes by specifying the challenges Ali faced and would face in enforcing and popularizing its values, namely (i) business expansion was bound to dilute Ali's values; and (ii) business diversification would introduce other business cultures. The main purpose of this case study is to identify potential solutions to these challenges.

It is spring 1995, and the CFM partnership-a joint venture between GE Aviation and France's jet engine manufacturer Snecma-is facing difficult challenges. The parent companies must decide whether and how to renew their nascent partnership agreement, in the face of global and national economic turbulence in an industry undergoing dramatic change. The JV's careful attention to an equitable split across both partners is suddenly jeopardized as conditions in the market have changed and new leadership at the parent companies brings different aspirations for each side. Now the partners must decide how to move ahead.

In April 2020, the interim president of the 3D printing and digital manufacturing business of HP Inc. was weighing his options in resolving three managerial dilemmas: (1) How should HP promote technology awareness among industrial customers? (2) How should HP scale up its production of 3D printers? (3) How could HP promote shorter technology adoption cycles among industrial customers?

Asset management firm Capital SAFI wanted to attract new strategic investors and expand to other countries. Having the right corporate governance in place was critical to achieve this goal.

At the November 2019 Open Day conference, the vice-president of JD.com shared his understanding of the role that supplier collaboration played in an uncertain environment. Through 15 years of fast growth, JD.com had become the largest business-to-consumer platform in China with more than 30,000 suppliers. Using a boundless retail strategy, JD.com had to build a seamless channel from supplier to customer, which required a close look at how to collaborate with the suppliers through digital technology. However, working with people from different companies raised many challenges. Without a proper solution, the effectiveness of the supplier collaboration would suffer.

As a leading short-video social and livestreaming app in China, Kuaishou Technology’s Kuaishou application (app) was facing various challenges, including fierce competition from ByteDance Ltd.’s Douyin. In June 2018, to sustain its long-term growth, Kuaishou needed to evaluate the possibility of entering the livestreaming e-commerce market, as livestreaming was becoming one of the hottest ways to sell to Chinese consumers. The co-founder and chief executive officer of Kuaishou Technology needed to decide whether Kuaishou should launch a livestreaming e-commerce business. If so, should Kuaishou cooperate with an existing e-commerce platform or build its own e-commerce ecosystem? What potential challenges might Kuaishou face in its livestreaming e-commerce business expansion?

Following the 2008 China milk scandal, Chinese infant milk formula products were regarded as unsafe, and Chinese consumers were preferring to pay high prices for the products of foreign brands. As one of the few companies not involved in the milk scandal, China Feihe Limited (Feihe) was able to maintain steady growth in product sales in the medium- and low-end market, but it did not have a differentiation advantage over foreign brands; therefore, its sales results in the high-end market were poor. In 2015, Feihe carried out a strategic transformation and repositioned its brand proposition, which led to increased customer value. The company also launched a new product series, which allowed it to create a competitive advantage. In 2019, Feihe was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. However, other brands started to imitate Feihe in developing products that were suitable for Chinese babies, which made investors doubt whether or not Feihe could maintain its competitive advantage. What action should Feihe take to maintain its competitive advantage and its position in the market?

In 2017, the chief executive officer (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO) of Swiss-based BauZentral, a privately owned family business, faced a restructuring challenge. BauZentral produced and sold electrical systems, plumbing systems, and smart security and energy solutions. In 2014, when the current CEO took over from his father, the company needed to address the growth associated with its successful international acquisition strategy. However, the firm’s historical structure maintained tight family control, which needed to change to address the realities of the international expansion. The CEO and CFO recognized that the firm had too many different regions with different market conditions, products, and competitive environments to be effectively run from the head office. The CEO and CFO planned to use the family constitution and the firm’s financial targets as criteria to devise a governance system to align the interests of management with the interests of the family owners. Their aim was to restructure the organization to achieve the firm’s goal of becoming a global supplier while also respecting the family’s values. What type of new governance and compensation structure should they design for the firm?