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In May 2018, US-based multinational retail giant Walmart Inc. (Walmart) took control of India's biggest e-commerce platform Flipkart Internet Private Ltd. (Flipkart). Despite being the industry leader, Flipkart had been continuously losing market share to Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon) and was looking for support from a deep-pocketed investor. This created an opportunity for Walmart to enter the Indian e-commerce industry, bypassing regulations governing foreign direct investments. However, the unprecedented growth of Amazon, new foreign direct investment rules in India, Reliance Industries Ltd.'s entry into e-commerce, and challenges due to COVID-19 all created unexpected turbulence for the new partners. How would the Walmart-Flipkart duo overcome these challenges? Would Walmart divest its investment in Flipkart and end its aspirations to become one of the largest e-commerce companies in India? Or would the duo overcome these challenges together and emerge as winners?

In May 2018, US-based multinational retail giant Walmart Inc. (Walmart) took control of India’s biggest e-commerce platform Flipkart Internet Private Ltd. (Flipkart). Despite being the industry leader, Flipkart had been continuously losing market share to Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon) and was looking for support from a deep-pocketed investor. This created an opportunity for Walmart to enter the Indian e-commerce industry, bypassing regulations governing foreign direct investments. However, the unprecedented growth of Amazon, new foreign direct investment rules in India, Reliance Industries Ltd.’s entry into e-commerce, and challenges due to COVID-19 all created unexpected turbulence for the new partners. How would the Walmart–Flipkart duo overcome these challenges? Would Walmart divest its investment in Flipkart and end its aspirations to become one of the largest e-commerce companies in India? Or would the duo overcome these challenges together and emerge as winners?

In May 2020, the three cofounders of Kinsip House of Fine Spirits (Kinsip), a craft distillery located on a farm in Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada, felt a great sense of accomplishment. The distillery had a varied product mix that included light and dark spirits, a broad variety of bitters, and cask-aged maple syrup. However, in March of 2020, the business had retooled to produce hand sanitizer in response to the shortages resulting from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a distillery, Kinsip already produced ethanol for its regular products, which was also a key ingredient in the composition of hand sanitizer, and in combining this with their production and bottling expertise, were able to meet the needs of the community quickly and effectively. Before long, Kinsip had added hand sanitizer to its list of products for sale to the public. Should the cofounders make hand sanitizer a regular Kinsip product offering?

Spreadsheet supplement for case 121086.

When Peter Moyo was appointed as chief executive officer (CEO) of Old Mutual Emerging Markets (Old Mutual), one of South Africa’s largest and oldest financial institutions, in 2017, the chair of Old Mutual, Trevor Manuel, and the Old Mutual board were optimistic, as Moyo seemed like the ideal candidate. However, less than two years into his tenure, Moyo’s employment was terminated owing to a conflict of interest and a breakdown of trust between Moyo and the chair and board. From the moment he was suspended, Moyo made the dispute very public, and appeared to be orchestrating a media campaign against Old Mutual and the directors, especially Manuel. A protracted and bruising legal battle ensued, and many corporate governance lessons were learned. It was now incumbent on the board to identify and appoint a new CEO of Old Mutual. Given the local and international environment, and in view of internal and external challenges, they needed to consider what kind of CEO would be appropriate for Old Mutual; what criteria they should set for this crucial position; and what the right timing and communication process would be around the new CEO’s appointment.

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?

On July 21, 2004, Molson's board approved a merger of equals between Molson and Coors. For Eric Molson, chair of the board since 1988, and also head of the Molson family and controlling shareholder, this merger with a strategic partner of similar size would make the merged company - Molson Coors - the fifth-largest brewer in the world. Before this could happen, however, Molson shareholders had to be convinced that this merger would be fair to everyone, not just to the Molson family members who held Class B shares (with voting rights). The merger would require the approval of two-thirds of both the voting and non-voting classes of Molson shareholders. This was far from a done deal since a merger of equals is a zero-premium deal for shareholders. The case explains how Eric and other stakeholders managed to convince Molson shareholders to approve the merger of equals with Coors.

Royal Enfield, the motorcycle division of Eicher Motors Limited, saw its unit sales increase a multiple of 16 times from 2008 to 2018. By 2019, the company controlled 96 per cent of the 250–750 cc motorcycle market segment in India. However, sales growth slowed considerably in financial year 2018–19, when the first three quarters seemed to indicate continuing slow growth for the company. Year-to-date sales for the first nine months dropped 15 per cent compared to the same period the year before. Two major new competitors were having a considerable impact of Royal Enfield’s ability to retain market dominance: Mahindra & Mahindra’s successful Jawa motorcycle line and US motorcycle giant Harley-Davidson, which was contemplating extending its portfolio in India into the 250–750 cc motorcycle segment. Having reached the pinnacle of the market, Royal Enfield was eager to retain its position in the 250–750 cc motorcycle segment. What strategic choices and growth options did it have to maintain market dominance, and what competitive advantage was its most viable growth option?

In September 2020, Moovaz, a startup in the tech-enabled relocation space, was at a critical juncture in its evolution. In the three years since its founding, the company had established its business model, shown impressive growth in revenues, raised S$7 million in Series A funding and acquired a portfolio of established magazines in the form of <i>The Finder</i>. Junxian Lee, co-founder and CEO of Moovaz was optimistic about the prospects of the company going forward, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there were a number of caveats to his optimism. Specifically, possible decline in demand if the world economy continues to struggle and challenges in raising the next round of funding in the face of uncertainty.

In May 2020, Usha Martin Limited (Usha Martin), a diversified engineering group based in India, was debating strategies for continued future growth. In April 2019, the company had divested its steelmaking and related operations to reduce its debt load. Though the divestment meant a large decline in the company’s sales for the year ended March 2020, the company managed to reverse the trend of losses incurred in several recent quarters and years to earn positive profits. However, attaining future growth remained a challenge for the smaller, focused company, especially given the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 crisis. It was critical that Usha Martin’s management made the correct strategic choices so that the company could achieve good, long-term, profitable growth.

In February 2020, the president of South African Chefs Association was exploring ways to ensure a sustained revenue stream for the association, which relied primarily on membership fees for survival. As a non-profit organization, South African Chefs Association had a rich history of representing chefs, enabling them to compete on the international stage, supporting their training and education, and providing members with networking opportunities and a community. The association faced several challenges; most notably, it needed to find an innovative solution to sustainable growth in terms of both membership and revenue numbers and the value created for members. The association’s president needed to establish a sense of relevance and community for its members through a range of strategic partnerships and innovative value contributions, ensure its leadership reflected the racial makeup of the country, and reconsider its structure and purpose.

On March 19, 2020, as Covid-19 swept across the world, Bourla challenged everyone at Pfizer and its partner BioNTech--a German company focused on cancer immunotherapies--to "make the impossible possible": develop a vaccine more quickly than anyone ever had before, ideally within six months and certainly before the end of the year. Less than eight months later, on Sunday, November 8, they discovered that they had succeeded: Their combined second- and third-phase trials showed a 95% efficacy rate. In the spring, thanks to their work and that of the other companies whose vaccines have been authorized, 300 million doses should be available around the world. It took a moon-shot challenge, out-of-the-box thinking, intercompany cooperation, liberation from bureaucracy, and, most of all, hard work from everyone at Pfizer and BioNTech to accomplish what they did in 2020. Organizations of any size or in any industry can learn from these strategies to solve their own problems and to produce important work that benefits a broad swath of society.

Since the pandemic, companies have adopted the technologies of virtual work remarkably quickly--and employees are seeing the advantages of more flexibility in where and when they work. As leaders recognize what is possible, they are embracing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset work using a hybrid model. To make this transition successfully, they'll need to design hybrid work arrangements with individual human concerns in mind, not just institutional ones. That requires companies to approach the problem from four different perspectives: (1) jobs and tasks; (2) employee preferences; (3) projects and workflows; and (4) inclusion and fairness. Leaders also need to conceptualize new work arrangements along two axes: place and time. Millions of workers around the world this year have made a sudden shift from being place-constrained (working in the office) to being place-unconstrained (working anywhere). Employees have also experienced a shift along the time axis, from working synchronously with others 9 to 5 to working asynchronously whenever they choose. If leaders and managers can successfully make the transition to an anywhere, anytime model, the result will be work lives that are more purposeful and productive.

Many large companies fail to pay enough attention to their leadership pipelines and succession practices. That leads to excessive turnover at the top and destroys a significant amount of value--close to $1 trillion a year among the S&P 1500 alone, say the authors of this article. The biggest costs are underperformance at companies that hire ill-suited external CEOs, the loss of intellectual capital in the C-suites of organizations that executives leave behind, and for companies promoting from within, the lower performance of ill-prepared successors. Companies and their boards can (and must) do better. The solution isn't that complicated: Firms need to start succession planning well before they think they need to; make sure they identify and develop rising stars; appoint the most promising executives to the board to help prepare them to take on the top job; and look at both internal and external candidates. In addition, when working with search consultants, firms should avoid perverse incentives like contingency and percentage fees.

Everyone knows that success at work depends on being--and being seen as--both competent and likable. You need people to notice your growth and accomplishments while also enjoying your company. But if you draw attention to the value you've created, to ensure that managers and peers recognize it, you risk coming across as a shameless self-promoter. No one likes a braggart. In this article the author explains how to highlight your accomplishments at work without having it backfire. Drawing from a fascinating strain of laboratory research, she advises against several popular tactics such as "humblebragging" and "boomer­asking" (asking a question in the hope it will be reciprocated so that you can bring up your own accomplishments). Instead, she advises, recognize situations where self-promotion is socially acceptable (such as job interviews) and consider using a mentor or other agent to boast on your behalf.

Four recent books help readers smartly channel an increasingly common condition: "Trust Yourself," by Melody Wilding; "Chatter," by Ethan Kross; "Anxiety at Work," by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton; and "The Anxiety Toolkit," by Alice Boyes.

The star of the 2018 Oscar-winning documentary "Free Solo" talks about how he prepares for climbs, the way he thinks about risk, and what's next now that he has achieved his lifelong ambition to scale El Capitan.

Seemingly overnight, digital tools, models and platforms have emerged from their traditional back-office function to become an unstoppable strategic force, revolutionizing every industry-and the global pandemic has only accelerated this transformation. As a result, today's executives-many of whom have little expertise or training in this area-are faced with many more technology-driven conversations, ranging from new value propositions to start-up investments to disruptive competitors. The result: they often get defensive about their ability to contribute. The authors, experts in difficult conversations, provide tools that will enable leaders to support the digital evolution of their organizations.

The former Chairman and CEO of BMO Financial Group recounts his experience leading one of the world's most successful banks through three separate crises, from the 1990 real-estate market collapse to the 2001 dot-com bubble to the 2008 global financial crisis. In this excerpt from his book, Personal Account: 25 Tales About Leadership, Learning and Legacy from a Lifetime at Bank of Montreal, he shares proven strategies for crisis leadership and his reasons for an optimistic view that "people of character and resolve will emerge to guide us in the months and years ahead". And while the long-term economic implications of the global pandemic are not yet known, he shows that lessons from earlier crises can guide those responsible for the world's recovery.

Fostering the well-being and resiliency of employees has long been an important element of the best business models. Now, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become even more of a necessity. The authors, senior leaders with Accenture, describe their research showing that by meeting six fundamental human needs, companies can unlock significant workforce potential. They also share six 'sweet-spot practices' that leaders should embrace to get the most out of each and every employee while simultaneously fostering their well-being.