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The family-run Balaji Wafers Pvt. Ltd. (Balaji Wafers), a savoury snack manufacturer, had adopted a phased strategy in taking on the likes of global multinational corporation PepsiCo in India, an emerging economy. After operating successfully for more than three decades in western India, Balaji Wafers was planning to grow and to go national with forays into north and south India. Balaji Wafers had a strong foothold in western India, where in Gujarat and Maharashtra it had left PepsiCo’s brand Lay’s far behind; however, growing nationally would require more investments, robust business strategy, and marketing acumen. In pursuing growth, should Balaji Wafers expand nationally, or should it strengthen its leadership position in its home territory?

Xbed Technology Group (Xbed), a start-up that branded itself as an online hotel platform, was founded in 2015 with the aim of addressing the changing landscape of China’s hospitality industry while coping with issues related to a customer-to-customer sharing economy model. By employing a dual-sharing model and utilizing state-of-the-art digital technologies, the company emerged as a disruptor in the market and expanded to 44 cities in China in just two years of development. As Xbed grew, it faced many challenges, including intense competition from both sharing economy players and traditional hotels. In 2017, as the company looked toward the future, its founder wondered about the future of hospitality services in China and what the company’s strategic focus should be as it pursued its next phase of growth.

In October 2015, ZappRx founder Zoe Barry is deciding between two business models for her health technology start-up. Her product, a software application which aims to expedite the prescription fulfillment process for patients with rare diseases, has attracted interest from specialty drug manufacturers who wish to build an exclusive platform for patients taking their medications. But Barry, against the advice of her management team, is considering an alternative business model, which would open the platform up to all manufacturers in a given disease area. Instead of financing product development through individual contracts, the comprehensive platform would be free to docs and pharma alike and financed via an aggressive fundraising strategy and through the sale of the prescription data collected on the app. Barry is willing to take the risk, but her management team is staunchly opposed. Which path should ZappRx take? The case is a window into the early go-to-market and business model decisions that an entrepreneur must make, in this case in the face of pushback from her own management team. The case also provides a detailed picture of the specialty pharmaceutical industry and challenges students to think about target customer identification and talent management in a start-up environment.

Rajan Overseas was founded by Rajan Makhija in the year 2014. It was into export of handloom products like rugs, throws, etc. Makhija wanted the company to grow from INR 7.6 crores to 100 crores in the next five years. However, the plan hit a roadblock as one of the largest customer of Makhija wanted him to sign an exclusive contract. Makhija was evaluating various growth options in the light of this new hurdle. The case can be taught in courses on entrepreneurship, internationalization and strategy for SMEs to teach topics related to effectuation and challenges of international business.

In 2016, the Japanese company Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC) acquired the remaining shares of the French trading company Compagnie Française de l'Afrique Occidentale (CFAO), which was operating in Africa. That same year, TTC registered its first financial loss in 16 years. Several years earlier, in 2012, TTC had participated in CFAO's equity as its majority shareholder. These strategic moves were all part of TTC's corporate campaign Vision 2015, "Lead the Next", which aimed specifically to reduce its dependence on its parent group by diversifying to increase earnings from non-automotive businesses, rather than targeting African markets as a long-term sustainability plan. What were the motivations of TTC and CFAO in pursuing these transactions? Was the positive performance that followed the acquisition a result of synergies or just a simple sum of the consolidation and an industry trend? Why did TTC move from preserving CFAO's operational autonomy in 2012 to delisting and fully internalizing it in 2016? Was there a link between poor performance in 2016 and the acquisition of CFAO? How should CFAO solve the conflict between its existing automotive customers and the Toyota Group as its main rival? How could CFAO defend its leader position from the entry of major competitors from South Korea, India, and China? Although the Vision 2015 campaign was validated, should TTC revise its global vision strategy and 10-year plan in the future, given its bad year in 2016?

In recent years, the twin software development methodologies of continuous delivery and continuous deployment have risen to prominence in the start-up world and beyond. These methods have enabled technology companies large and small to accelerate their product development pipelines and reshape their relationships with customers. Drawing on academic research and interviews with practitioners, this note explores the evolution of iterative approaches to software development, describes the mechanics of continuous development, and assesses the business benefits and challenges of rapid software testing and release.

In April 2015, the Dharampal Satyapal Group introduced a new hard-boiled candy in three states in India. The candy, named Pulse, had a distinctive raw-mango flavour and a spicy, tangy taste. It quickly became popular. Within two years, Pulse candy surpassed ₹3 billion in sales and became the leader in the hard-boiled candy segment, beating leading national and international brands. The company achieved all of this with a small advertising budget and very little promotion; rather, the candy’s success was largely a result of word-of-mouth and interest on social media. Demand exceeded supply, and competitors were beginning to launch similar and poorly imitated products. How could the group sustain the sales momentum of Pulse? Should it extend the Pulse brand to other formats and flavours and into other product categories? Should it take the candy to overseas markets, and if so, which ones?

The Kanaka Bar Indian Band, a First Nations community in British Columbia, Canada, had realized impressive economic development in the decades since the 1970s. This progress included development of a profitable hydroelectric system backed by strong community governance and the introduction of a five-year community economic development plan. In 2017, the community was executing the plan with some successes and some challenges. As the band council and community members looked to the coming years of the plan and beyond, they wished to continue making progress towards their community vision of self-sufficiency, vibrancy, and sustainability. As they reflected on their successes, took stock of the community’s resources, and assessed its challenges, they asked themselves whether the plan needed to evolve. Which of the community’s resources could it use to achieve its vision in a way that addressed the challenges at the time and remained consistent with the traditional community values?

In August 2015, a law student in Singapore came up with the idea for his first scooter when he needed a simple and economical mode of transport to get from his apartment to university. The student, who was Norwegian, and his Singaporean partner registered and incorporated Skutis Corporation Pte Ltd (Skutis) within only five days. The Skutis e-scooter emitted no fumes or noise and featured a quick folding design for easy storage. As new entrants in the industry, they felt confident that their combined study skills (law and business) would help them design and produce a more durable and dynamic scooter than those currently available. However, by April 2017, Skutis had already encountered major difficulties dealing with a Chinese manufacturer of its products. After 20 months of experience in the market, the two entrepreneurs were planning their company’s strategy for the future. Having experienced the lows and highs of the Chinese production market, they were searching for ways to make their business more profitable and develop a long-term trustworthy relationship with a reliable manufacturer who would produce their designs.

In 2013, two entrepreneurs launched the Virtual Market in Mexico City with a mission to transform small traditional retailers (the so-called “mom-and-pop” shops) into competitive market players. The family-owned shops were strongly embedded in the society, culture, and economy of Mexico and Latin America, producing 50 per cent of the region’s retail sales and 15 per cent of Mexico’s true gross domestic product. However, economic growth had increased consumers’ earnings, leading to previously low-income consumers gaining financial status. The traditional shops were unable to compete with the new demands for cashless payment methods, wider ranges of products and services, and lower prices. To remedy the situation, the Virtual Market gained the trust of the shop owners and worked to improve their financial, technological, and business literacy. By 2017, the Virtual Market had successfully worked with 10,000 shops but had still not attained break-even. Was its business model sustainable in the long term? Could it be replicated in other countries and with other cultures? How could it scale up and secure profits?

Mr. Nuno Ávila, General Director at Deimos Engenharia (Deimos), a private Portuguese Aerospace Engineering company and a key player in the European space sector, faced a crucial strategic decision. In the past, Deimos easily secured research grants from their funding sources to conduct path-breaking projects. However, these agencies now require applicants to specify market applications for their projects to qualify. This was an unknown concept for Deimos, a company steeped in cutting-edge scientific research. Ávila's objective was to build a market-driven innovation culture-a difficult prospect in a company that prides itself on its technological advancements. Ávila found himself faced with several options for how to proceed. With the annual board meeting scheduled in six months, he needs to make some decisions soon about what markets to pursue with the company's MyFARM software service. He is unsure about the Board's willingness to adopt a new strategy, so he invites the Value Creation Wheel team to address this challenge. With their help, Ávila prepares a set of recommendations that if successful, will enable Deimos to transform itself from a science- focused company to an international player that makes the perfect bridge between technology and market needs in the space sector.

Essex Farm, in the town of Essex, New York, employs both traditional and innovative agricultural methods to support the environmentally friendly production of healthy foods, an innovative business model, and a variety of educational initiatives. Its owners, Mark and Kristin Kimball, have become leaders and role models in the movement to revive family farms across the country, revitalize small towns, and reinvent a sustainable food system in the face of climate change and environmental degradation. An experiment in sustainable agriculture, in food entrepreneurship, and in community building, Essex Farm raises important questions about the economic sustainability of the new food movement, and about the future of agriculture in general. The case describes this experiment and addresses key questions that arise when diversified organic farming is proposed as both a lifestyle and an alternative to large-scale industrial farming.

Sunny Bee is a real-world example of a recent business student putting his learning to work to build a successful social venture in his home country of India. The case includes: -A base case that provides background on the material and addresses the entrepreneurial process. This case should be assigned first. -Four follow-on cases that can be taught in any order: -A lean supply chain case -A sustainability case -A business analytics case -A digital innovation case

Supplement to case BAB402.

Supplement to case BAB402.

Supplement to case BAB402.

Supplement to case BAB402.

IBM needed a win. Facing flattening sales and increasing analyst concerns, the century-old giant that had reinvented itself so often before was in search of market game-changers. The company believed they found such an opportunity in 2014 when employee Jerry Cuomo and other IBM technologists dug deeply into the secure and decentralized ledger that powered cryptocurrency Bitcoin.2 Similar to open-source software, IBM saw widespread potential for blockchain technology outside of the currency it powered. But seeing a technology's promise is different from monetizing it at scale. How could IBM distinguish blockchain technology from the cryptocurrency for which it was known and attract large clients to adopt IBM's approach to the emerging technology? If successful, what could be next for IBM blockchain?