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Two life-long friends, one a doctor and one a business professional, joined forces to set up Eye-Q Super Specialty Hospitals in 2007. Driven by their shared goal of bringing superior quality eye care to places where such services were desperately needed, the partners chose to operate in the small towns and cities across India. Both men believed in a vision that combined a socially driven business model with a commercially viable enterprise, and they had experienced great success with this model during their first seven years of operation. In January 2014, as they charted out Eye-Q Super Speciality Hospitals’ plans for growth, the partners decided to expand the organization’s reach from 30 to 125 hospitals over the upcoming five years. Was this growth expectation realistic? What strategy would best suit this objective?

In May 2012, private equity firm KKR is considering the buyout of WMF group (WMF), a diversified kitchenware and professional coffee machine manufacturer headquartered in Geislingen, Germany. The deal seems a potentially compelling investment opportunity, with various options for value creation - expanding WMF's well-established brand to other geographies as well as reducing costs. Priorities must be set, however, to generate an attractive return by the end of the investment period. The deal team has to decide which business segments are worth putting more resources into and which to divest, which brands should be kept and which to trim off, and how to take up any operational slack without affecting the overall strategy.

This case illustrates solutions to a) the vexing problem of how to stop counterfeit luxury goods from being sold on the Internet; and b) the larger issue of how to sell lots of pre-owned personal luxury goods without fear of undermining their lofty prices. When the "fake luxury goods" problem first appeared in the mid-2000s, brands like L'Oreal, Hermès and Tiffany responded by taking one of the biggest online marketplaces, eBay, to court. The big brands won millions in damages and dragged eBay's name through the mud for years to come. But on the sidelines were three different sets of entrepreneurs, almost all French, who saw in this scandal the opportunity of a lifetime. Separately they launched three competing digital platforms where pre-owned luxury products can be bought and sold on the condition that they are fully authenticated by experts. While all three are still in business, the company that started with six co-founders has been the most successful. This case examines the role of all six people and why eight years later the two "techies" were able to leave the company on good terms.

On the evening of September 30, 2016, the founder and chief executive officer of Lagom Kitchen + Brewery (Lagom) surveyed his newly opened microbrewery and restaurant with pride. He had put a great deal of hard work, time, and money into this venture; in the past two years, Lagom had required an investment of US$1 million. Yet the business's Gurgaon location, within India's Delhi National Capital Region, had failed to deliver the footfall that the founder had expected. Lagom was at the centre of an information technology corporate park where more than 10,000 employees worked, and was surrounded by many business parks and malls. However, fewer companies had moved into these spaces than anticipated, which was affecting Lagom's sales. Should the founder alter Lagom's product offerings or increase the price of the menu items? Should he increase the focus on corporate customers by undertaking exclusive tie-ups, or should he increase Lagom's social marketing efforts to attract customers from nearby condominiums? Lagom's founder had only two weeks to act before the restaurant's financial situation became critical.

By 2017, Beijing Testin Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Testin), had forged partnerships with multiple large multinational companies (e.g., Microsoft, IBM, ARM, Intel). Since it was founded in 2011, Testin had served over 800,000 application developers by conducting more than 150 million quality and security tests on over 2.5 million mobile applications. It had received several rounds of financing totaling over $80 million. Many Chinese Internet companies had tried to acquire Testin, and a well-known MNC asked Testin to sign an exclusive service contract. Wang and his partners resisted such offers and were determined that Testin should maintain its neutrality. But as a five-year old enterprise, Testin's big concern was how it could "stay hungry and stay foolish."

Founded in 2003 by a fourth-generation Australian farmer, John Foss, The Chia Co recognized the demand for healthy food among different segments of consumers and aimed to provide health and wellness to the global community through the production and distribution of chia seeds. Through his creative entrepreneurial skills, Foss encouraged a new Australian agricultural industry, which had unique supply chain practices and an emphasis on sustainability and fair value for farmers. Nevertheless, by 2016, the company was facing several challenges. Some critical issues included demand that overshot supply, threats from other healthy superfoods such as flax seeds and quinoa, and lack of scientific evidence of the health benefits of chia seeds. In this context, Foss needed to determine how to make The Chia Co a world-class market leader in chia seeds and how to overcome supply and demand challenges. If superfoods really were just a fad, he also had to consider what lay in the future for The Chia Co and its products.

In 2016, the owners of Styles Inc. (Styles), a bespoke tailoring company in Toronto, Canada, needed to decide whether to discontinue the least profitable of the company's seven clothing lines or to increase that clothing line's retail selling price. Over the previous six years, Styles had been financially successful, and customer retention was a major factor in this success. However, competition was increasing and profits were shrinking. Should the owners drop the clothing line that had the lowest margin or increase its retail selling price? If they chose to increase the price, they would need to decide on the amount of the price increase. The owners wondered whether increasing the price would still enable them to meet their target contribution margin.

Rougir Cosmetics International (RCI), founded in 2010 and with headquarters in California, experienced double-digit growth for several years. At a board meeting in June 2016, RCI’s chief executive officer (CEO) announced a large new order that represented a major opportunity to further expand into the ever-growing home shopping cosmetic business sector. However, the firm did not have the capacity to meet this transaction along with its normal business production schedule. Therefore, the only short-term possibility was to outsource some work to a third-party supplier. RCI had tried to avoid this in the past because of the proprietary nature of the company’s product line. The board cautioned the CEO and asked how much of the pending order might have to be subcontracted out. The CEO had one week to complete an analysis using RCI’s new analytics-based resource management system, and provide a recommendation.

By 2017, Beijing Testin Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Testin), had forged partnerships with multiple large multinational companies (e.g., Microsoft, IBM, ARM, Intel). Since it was founded in 2011, Testin had served over 800,000 application developers by conducting more than 150 million quality and security tests on over 2.5 million mobile applications. It had received several rounds of financing totaling over $80 million. Many Chinese Internet companies had tried to acquire Testin, and a well-known MNC asked Testin to sign an exclusive service contract. Wang and his partners resisted such offers and were determined that Testin should <br> maintain its neutrality. But as a five-year old enterprise, Testin’s big concern was how it could “stay hungry and stay foolish.”

On the evening of September 30, 2016, the founder and chief executive officer of Lagom Kitchen + Brewery (Lagom) surveyed his newly opened microbrewery and restaurant with pride. He had put a great deal of hard work, time, and money into this venture; in the past two years, Lagom had required an investment of US$1 million. Yet the business’s Gurgaon location, within India’s Delhi National Capital Region, had failed to deliver the footfall that the founder had expected. Lagom was at the centre of an information technology corporate park where more than 10,000 employees worked, and was surrounded by many business parks and malls. However, fewer companies had moved into these spaces than anticipated, which was affecting Lagom’s sales. Should the founder alter Lagom’s product offerings or increase the price of the menu items? Should he increase the focus on corporate customers by undertaking exclusive tie-ups, or should he increase Lagom’s social marketing efforts to attract customers from nearby condominiums? Lagom’s founder had only two weeks to act before the restaurant’s financial situation became critical.

Founded in 2003 by a fourth-generation Australian farmer, John Foss, The Chia Co recognized the demand for healthy food among different segments of consumers and aimed to provide health and wellness to the global community through the production and distribution of chia seeds. Through his creative entrepreneurial skills, Foss encouraged a new Australian agricultural industry, which had unique supply chain practices and an emphasis on sustainability and fair value for farmers. Nevertheless, by 2016, the company was facing several challenges. Some critical issues included demand that overshot supply, threats from other healthy superfoods such as flax seeds and quinoa, and lack of scientific evidence of the health benefits of chia seeds. In this context, Foss needed to determine how to make The Chia Co a world-class market leader in chia seeds and how to overcome supply and demand challenges. If superfoods really were just a fad, he also had to consider what lay in the future for The Chia Co and its products.

In 2016, the owners of Styles Inc. (Styles), a bespoke tailoring company in Toronto, Canada, needed to decide whether to discontinue the least profitable of the company's seven clothing lines or to increase that clothing line’s retail selling price. Over the previous six years, Styles had been financially successful, and customer retention was a major factor in this success. However, competition was increasing and profits were shrinking. Should the owners drop the clothing line that had the lowest margin or increase its retail selling price? If they chose to increase the price, they would need to decide on the amount of the price increase. The owners wondered whether increasing the price would still enable them to meet their target contribution margin.

Shirdi Infratech Pvt. Ltd. was in the wooden furniture manufacturing business and dealt with a wide range of diversified products such as modular kitchens, furniture, and doors. With its normal profit margin, the firm was growing, but not at a rate that satisfied the owner. At the same time, the business faced personnel management issues. The dilemma began in 2015 when the owner learned that one of his top performers had potentially leaked confidential information to a competitor and was offered employment by them. The owner recognized this employee’s importance, as well as the critical timing of the project he was working on. In light of this, would the best option be to retain that employee or let him go? The owner was also concerned about social capital management, and how to use the employee’s intellectual skills to develop others in the organization.

In January 2015, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Canaan Group, a privately owned logistics conglomerate of businesses in Vancouver, Canada, was considering how to capitalize on opportunities in the freight forwarding industry. The first thing he needed to do was stabilize the Export Cargo Specialist (ECS) division. The ECS division focused on ocean freight forwarding—helping customers coordinate and ship goods from origin to destination. To counter a glut of shipping capacity and fall in demand over the past few years, the CEO had restructured the roles and assignments in the division. He attempted to create a cross-trained workforce capable of performing a range of functions for clients. However, issues emerged with the restructuring, leading to employee departures and, along with the industry changes, a net loss in operations. The CEO was looking to turn things around and avoid further mistakes. He wondered if he should give his restructuring experiment more time, bring in an experienced project manager, or promote a current ECS staff member to find a solution.

BrightView Plumbing and Heating (BrightView) was founded in 1997 to provide plumbing services for both residential and commercial customers. The founder's son joined the company in 2008 and implemented a new operational strategy. However, he soon discovered problems in the process and procedures. Although he was able to apply an effective system for warehousing products internally, by 2015, the day-to-day policies and operational activities were not proving to be efficient, and the cost of goods sold was rising at a higher rate than the increase in sales. The company encountered miscommunication between the appointment scheduling (dispatching) and the availability of parts. BrightView needed to resolve the issues by analyzing the current situation and developing recommendations for improvement.

In August 2016, the director of UdaipurTimes.com, a hyperlocal news website, and his partner were faced with a problem. Their start-up venture had thus far grown without any explicit strategy. Despite a steady readership of nearly 200,000, achieving further revenue growth and sustained profitability were ongoing issues. UdaipurTimes.com needed to come up with a comprehensive strategy by evaluating various alternatives (such as creating a mobile app and soliciting user-generated content) to increase the frequency of customer visits and attract new readers to the website. Given its limited financial strength and its focus on speedily growing its customer base while leveraging current resources and capabilities, what strategy should UdaipurTimes.com choose?

In 2015, the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship (CSE), the largest business incubator in Denmark, was admitting 100-125 new start-ups each year and attracting external funding of US$33 million from both public and private sources-all with an annual budget of US$435,000, funded exclusively by the Copenhagen Business School. Like most business incubators, CSE worked to provide entrepreneurs with training, mentorship, and investors, and to enhance their visibility in the market. It required all admitted start-ups to participate in a screening/selection tool and a set of incubation activities over three specific stages. The school measured success in terms of the number of incubator participants who had both a business customer and a sustainable business model at the end of a nine-month incubation period. In 2015, CSE's success rate was 53 per cent. At this point, CSE's leaders recognized a need to question how they measured the benefits of the program. How should the 53 per cent success rate be compared to the Copenhagen Business School's investment? What changes could the CSE leadership make to create more value for Danish society?

Two experienced healthcare leaders that participated in the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University worked together to improve the nation's healthcare system through the early stage company Empathetics (an organization that teaches empathy to healthcare professionals and staff to improve the patient experience). With their guidance the company seems to make progress on staffing and funding, but despite Mandato's and McNerney's experience and optimism, the Empathetics team faced a great deal of uncertainty. Do they have the right team in place? Will they successfully raise their next round of funding? Can they penetrate the complex and crowded market and build a thriving business? Can the Empathetic products be perceived and recognized as a pain killer as opposed to a nice to have? How should they align themselves with hospitals and insurance companies? Can Empathetics fundamentally change the healthcare industry and normalize empathy training as an essential part of clinical and administrative training?

"Hacking Heroin" was the first hackathon that Annie Rittgers, founder of Cincinnati-based 17a, had organized or even attended. "There will continue to be a lot of preventable overdose deaths and wasted potential if the opioid crisis continues unabated," she said. "Bright spots and positive momentum matter when it comes to directing the energy that exists in Cincinnati toward addressing the epidemic." Now though, days before Hacking Heroin in June 2017, it wasn't clear that Rittgers's intercession would prove to be one of these "bright spots." Not quite 50 people had registered for the free event, and there was no guarantee that they would attend. Sponsorships for the event had been slow to materialize. The eight challenges that she and the team planned to pose to hackathon participants were mostly, but not entirely, settled. Some, but not all, of the key hospital leaders had signed on to participate in the event. Rittgers wondered what she could do to nudge the hackathon towards success. Were these just expected hurdles, and it would all turn out okay? Were they warning signs that warranted remedy? Or were they cues that hackathon skeptics had been right all along-what kind of way was this to address a problem of epidemic proportions anyway?