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Why do people often resist knowledge that might benefit them? A new study suggests that they do so to protect their self-esteem.

In 2019, after one year in the position, H. Lawrence Culp Jr., the first outsider chief executive officer (CEO) of General Electric Company (GE) was faced with the task of gaining the stock market’s faith in his ability to turn GE around. During the tenure of his two predecessors (from 2001 to 2018), GE’s stock price had declined significantly, and investors were concerned. The new CEO introduced the lean management philosophy and restructured divisions like GE Power to enhance free cash flow (FCF), a key concern of GE investors. By October 2019, analysts believed that strategies taken by him were not enough to improve GE’s stock market performance. Could he, as an outsider, prove to be a better CEO than the insiders had been? How should he manage GE’s business units? How could he increase FCF and the market valuation of GE? Should he continue with lean management?

In June 2019, the cofounders of BharatAgri, an Indian agritech (agricultural technology)-focused entrepreneurial venture, were reviewing their strategy. BharatAgri leveraged information technology to provide crop-management related advisory services to Indian farmers and provided data analytics-driven decision dashboards to organizations that worked with farmers. They had onboarded nearly 6,000 Indian farmer-customers and had raised ₹40 million (INR) of venture capital funding to date. Their target was to onboard 20,000 farmers as paying customers by 2021. Could they also generate revenues by selling farm-management related data to agriculture-related organizations? In the next meeting, they were expected to present a comprehensive and cogent strategy to their financiers.

In January 2020, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Salt n Soap, an online retailer of food and groceries in Kolkata, India, was reviewing the company’s strategy and business model. Salt n Soap had been in operation for six years, and now offered nearly 15,000 food and grocery (F&G) products of 1,000 distinct brands through its online retailing website. However, the Indian online F&G retail industry was highly competitive. Salt n Soap had a limited business footprint, mainly concentrated in Kolkata, India and unlike its competitors, it had not raised external equity funding. The CEO had to quickly reassess the current business model and strategy and prepare for the oncoming challenges from an increasingly competitive business environment. The decision had to be made before the end of the month so that any strategic changes could be implemented within the current financial year.

Between 2017 and 2019, The Walt Disney Company (Disney) faced two major scandals that threatened to damage its family-friendly brand image. Disney’s brand value decreased by 5 per cent from 2017 to 2018, although it remained the most valuable media brand worldwide. In November 2017, John Lasseter, Disney’s executive producer, was accused of illegal sexual misconduct at its Pixar Animation Studios (Pixar). Following the allegations, Lasseter left the company in December 2018. Further, during the June and September of 2018, Rian Johnson, the writer and director of The Last Jedi for Disney’s subsidiary, Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC (Lucasfilm), posted unprofessional, aggressive, and insulting responses on his personal Twitter account to fans who hated the film. In April 2019, Disney chief executive officer (CEO) Robert Iger announced that no new Star Wars movies written or directed by Johnson would be put into development. Why did Disney not take immediate action to address these two scandals? How should Disney mitigate the losses stemming from the two scandals and prevent them from happening again? What should Disney do to further grow its sustainably?

Decision making requires managers to constantly estimate the probability of uncertain outcomes and update those estimates in light of new information. This article provides guidance to managers on how they can improve that process by more explicitly adopting a Bayesian approach. Clear understanding and application of the Bayesian approach leads to more accurate probability estimates, resulting in better informed decisions. More importantly, adopting a Bayesian approach, even informally, promises to improve the quality of managerial thinking, analysis, and decisions in a variety of additional ways.

As a leader, you will need to master action plans to implement solutions that advance your organizational goals. Here are six simple steps to diagnosing situations and systematically developing action plans.

In early 2020, 24M Technologies (24M) announced that two of its strategic investors had commenced building plants to produce lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries based on 24M's novel semi-solid electrode technology. This promised to halve the cost of conventional Li-ion batteries, increase the energy density to provide greater range in electric vehicles, and make them safer and more reliable. Cofounders Yet-Ming Chiang and Throop Wilder had set up the company 10 years earlier in a quest to take all that was good about Li-ion technology and improve it. The founders argued that, historically, Li-ion development had focused on miniaturized cells for consumer electronics and that these design principles had been carried over into cells destined for electric cars and grid-scale batteries. It made no sense to accept these constraints. What was needed was a fresh start; to begin with a "clean sheet of paper." The technology had taken 10 years and nearly $100 million to develop from a laboratory demonstration to a commercial product. Now, the challenge was to scale it up to compete with conventional technology.

Working professionals are often in the predicament of needing to make a choice between activities that will grant them more money or more time. Indeed, in large-scale representative panels of working adults, most respondents report feeling pressed for both time and money. Yet, we often are forced to make trade-offs between these valuable resources. Whether deciding to dine out vs. cook at home; to live in an expensive residence close to one's workplace vs. a cheaper abode with a longer commute; or to pursue a high-income job with long work hours vs. a humble salary with no overtime, trade-offs between money and time are prevalent in all of our major and daily decisions.

The head of the South African subsidiary of the US consulting firm McKinsey & Company (McKinsey), has to address the implications of the firm’s involvement in a corruption scandal. The South African office was implicated in a scandal involving its local partner, Trillian Capital Partners (PTY) Ltd. (Trillian), and Eskom, a South African state-owned enterprise (SOE). McKinsey was required to partner with a local company as a condition of any contract with a South African SOE. McKinsey took on Trillian as its local partner after Trillian was recommended by a former client. Trillian was, however, associated with the Guptas, a family that the South African Public Protector (an ombudsman) had accused of using its influence with the South African president, Jacob Zuma, and his family for corrupt activities. The partnership (first with a company named Regiments Capital (PTY) Ltd. [Regiments] and then, following restructuring, with Trillian) directly benefited the Gupta family. More than three years into the relationship, McKinsey claimed to have discovered that its partner was politically exposed and under investigation by the South African authorities. McKinsey’s new global managing partner attempted to limit the damage to the company’s reputation by issuing an apology. However, the South African public appeared skeptical about the apology, and questions remained regarding McKinsey’s integrity. The questions left unanswered included the following: Was Sneader’s apology enough to enable McKinsey to quell the attack on its reputation? Should McKinsey do more to enhance its standing within the South African business community, or should it accept that its reputation had suffered irreparable harm?

The case highlights how global dynamics impact both regional economic development and the organizational growth of a market-leading pork producer with a promising yet uncertain future. A key Western Canadian pork production industry stakeholder was tasked with assessing existing environmental complexities as well as global supply and demand factors in an effort to address changing consumer preferences. After determining that global factors could either support or limit further industry investment, the aforementioned stakeholder had to evaluate company resources and firm risks to identify the qualitative and quantitative factors that would influence two specific expansion opportunities and the associated income projections within the local industry.

This case describes the career of Eiichi Shibusawa (1840-1931), a serial entrepreneur who is widely known as the "father of Japanese capitalism" and as a pioneer of socially responsible investment. Born in feudal Edo Japan, following the Meiji Restoration in 1868 Shibusawa transitioned to working for the government in the new Ministry of Finance. He played a central role in the creation of Dai'Ichi Bank, a national bank and Japan's first joint stock company, in 1873. He subsequently became a prolific venture capitalist, being involved in founding nearly 500 companies and 600 public organizations over the course of his lifetime. The companies he founded, such as Oji Paper, Tokio Marine Insurance Company, and the Osaka Spinning Company were central to the modernization of the Japanese economy. He was also active in forming business associations, including the Tokyo Bankers Association, and supported many social enterprises in education. In 1901 he was associated with the founding of the Japanese Women's University, the first private university for women. Shibusawa was a student of Confucianism and developed the concept of gappon shugi, which has been variously translated as ethical or stakeholder capitalism. While traditional Confucianism in Japan had regarded commerce as lacking virtue, Shibusawa argued that creating wealth was a virtuous activity. He believed that ethical principles had to be central to the pursuit of wealth, and that business must serve all stakeholders, so that the country as a whole could flourish.

By the end of 2019, Trōv, Inc. (Trōv) had ceased to sell its flagship direct-to-consumer single-item coverage insurance product. Going forward, Trōv would no longer compete as an insurance company, but would instead focus on expanding its technology in order to equip established insurance companies, financial institutions, and technology companies with the modern, all-digital insurance apps required to remain competitive and/or gain market share. In doing so, Trōv offloaded the enormous financial burden associated with customer acquisition. Heading into 2020, Trōv’s business was divided into two main units—Trōv Enterprise and Trōv Mobility. As a result of this strategic shift from a business-to-consumer (B2C) strategy to a business-to-business (B2B) strategy, Trōv’s leaders were faced with a new set of questions. Should they implement a fee structure that would allow Trōv to achieve profitability as a B2B technology provider? Were Trōv’s new products designed to respond to its clients’ desired customer segmentation? How should Trōv allocate resources between its Enterprise and Mobility businesses?

Can a social purpose and stakeholder capitalism confer a powerful competitive advantage in the age of COVID-19? For PayPal, the answer is yes. After spinning off from eBay in a 2015 IPO, the company declared its purpose as "democratizing financial services" by ensuring that low-income consumers and small businesses can efficiently and inexpensively manage their money. The company fully lives into this purpose, sending employees out into communities to experience firsthand the indignities and high fees imposed on the unbanked, dramatically lowering the cost of international remittances, enabling small businesses to access working capital without credit checks, and facilitating cross-border purchases for small merchants. The company takes the welfare of each stakeholder group seriously: achieving racial and gender pay equity, raising hourly worker pay and benefits to ensure a living wage, and building a diverse and inclusive culture; working closely with regulators and law enforcement to unearth signs of sex trafficking and terrorism; aggressively removing hate-group transactions; providing $4 billion in credit to hundreds of thousands of small businesses that would never have qualified for bank loans, especially those owned by women and people of color. Together these actions have built a high degree of trust that creates a competitive moat in the otherwise commodity business of online payments. During the pandemic, the company was able to get stimulus funds to individuals and small businesses far faster and less expensively than banks or the SBA, and committed $500 million to investments in black-owned businesses. In the 5 years since its IPO, despite intense competition from major banks and credit card companies, Google, Apple, and countless VC-backed fintech players, the company has more than doubled its users, increased profits and boosted the stock price 500%.

Technology doping accusations were made when several athletes wearing Nike, Inc.’s (Nike’s) ZoomX Vaporfly 4% Flyknit running shoes won sporting events in 2018 and 2019. In December 2019, the International Association of Athletics Federations was investigating the issue and was considering banning Vaporfly shoes from the Olympics and other sporting competitions. Soon, Nike’s competitors, including Adidas AG, Reebok International, and Saucony, counteracted with their own versions of an innovative midsole component. With technological advancements taking place in several spheres of sports shoes, experts demanded that boundaries be drawn in terms of both innovation and the high price of athletic shoes such as the Vaporfly, whose ban could have financial implications for Nike. Could Nike leverage innovation to fight a competitive battle? How could it promote the use of the Vaporfly shoe, given the controversy surrounding the technology? What streams of innovation should Nike pursue for its growth?

In March 2019, Molson Coors CEO Mark Hunter considered a request to pull forward $65 million CAD in anticipated future funding for Truss Beverages, a Toronto-based cannabis beverage company that Molson Coors created in a joint venture with a Canadian cannabis production company. The request was for the construction of a new production facility for cannabis beverages, a new product in an as-yet-nascent market.

Supplement to case 315108.