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In April 2014, Alibaba's impending initial public offering (IPO) projected to be among the world's largest IPOs. Alibaba faced many choices regarding ownership structure, trading location, IPO pricing and IPO timing. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange seemed like a natural fit for its IPO due to geographical, cultural and language proximity. Furthermore, 86.7 per cent of Alibaba's revenues originated within China. However, Alibaba insisted on "partnership governance," and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange did not allow listing of companies with dual-class share structure. In contrast, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ did not object to Alibaba's proposed ownership structure. While the Hong Kong investors knew Alibaba's business better, the New York exchanges provided more liquidity and visibility. Against this backdrop, Alibaba needed to make difficult decisions regarding its IPO.

The four founding members of Bazaart-a young Israeli company whose sole product was its eponymous mobile application (app) which allowed users to create collages from photographs and other images-face an important strategic decision in June 2014. Since its founding roughly two years earlier, the company had raised very little money from outside investors. Gili Golander, one of the founders and Bazaart's chief marketing officer, utilized a number of "growth hacking" techniques to generate downloads and build awareness at minimal cost. These techniques had proven successful and helped the firm reach 1 million downloads by June 2014. However the four founders debated whether to stay focused on growing Bazaart's user base and worry about driving revenue later, or try and monetize the app (by introducing in-app purchases, native advertising, or moving to a subscription model) and bring in some much needed revenue. Would growth hacking alone be enough to grow the company or should it utilize (and pay for) more traditional marketing? What approach would make the company more attractive to investors?

Growth Hacking at Bazaart (B)" provides a brief update of what has transpired at Bazaart since the timing of "Growth Hacking at Bazaart (A).

This is part of a case series. John Erceg was in a quandary. It was a sunny spring day in Barcelona in April 2010, and he'd been negotiating for several weeks with a possible buyer for the company that he'd created from scratch and built over the past seven years. Apart from buying two Barcelona apartments that got him started - thanks to his then girlfriend and now wife Lucia's good credit and a couple of hefty mortgages - and apart from maxing out a couple of credit cards in the early days and personally funding small losses in the early years, Erceg had not invested a single euro in an online travel agency business for which he had just been offered 17.3 million euros. The offer from GoTravelNow had come as a complete surprise. EnGrande, as Budgetplaces' corporate entity was called, was growing fast and was highly profitable, and Erceg wasn't sure what to do. After weeks of negotiations, he had managed to improve the cash portion of the offer to 8.5 million euros. 'A life-changing amount of security for seven years worth of work,' he thought. Should he take the offer that was on the table? It was time to decide.

Supplement to case LBS124. This is part of a case series. John Erceg was in a quandary. It was a sunny spring day in Barcelona in April 2010, and he'd been negotiating for several weeks with a possible buyer for the company that he'd created from scratch and built over the past seven years. Apart from buying two Barcelona apartments that got him started - thanks to his then girlfriend and now wife Lucia's good credit and a couple of hefty mortgages - and apart from maxing out a couple of credit cards in the early days and personally funding small losses in the early years, Erceg had not invested a single euro in an online travel agency business for which he had just been offered 17.3 million euros. The offer from GoTravelNow had come as a complete surprise. EnGrande, as Budgetplaces' corporate entity was called, was growing fast and was highly profitable, and Erceg wasn't sure what to do. After weeks of negotiations, he had managed to improve the cash portion of the offer to 8.5 million euros. 'A life-changing amount of security for seven years worth of work,' he thought. Should he take the offer that was on the table? It was time to decide.

Supplement to case LBS124. This is part of a case series. John Erceg was in a quandary. It was a sunny spring day in Barcelona in April 2010, and he'd been negotiating for several weeks with a possible buyer for the company that he'd created from scratch and built over the past seven years. Apart from buying two Barcelona apartments that got him started - thanks to his then girlfriend and now wife Lucia's good credit and a couple of hefty mortgages - and apart from maxing out a couple of credit cards in the early days and personally funding small losses in the early years, Erceg had not invested a single euro in an online travel agency business for which he had just been offered 17.3 million euros. The offer from GoTravelNow had come as a complete surprise. EnGrande, as Budgetplaces' corporate entity was called, was growing fast and was highly profitable, and Erceg wasn't sure what to do. After weeks of negotiations, he had managed to improve the cash portion of the offer to 8.5 million euros. 'A life-changing amount of security for seven years worth of work,' he thought. Should he take the offer that was on the table? It was time to decide.

On a visit to her ancestral village in India, an entrepreneur found that maintaining the sanctity of traditional Madhubani paintings was no longer something that artists considered worthwhile. In the name of contemporary art, the traditional style of this world-famous Indian art was being distorted. However, artists were willing to switch back to traditional techniques of creating art as long as their livelihood needs were met. In late 2010, Mithilasmita was set up as a folk art gallery from where artists’ works could be marketed and they could earn decent money. In 2012, the organization registered as a private limited firm. This was a start, but a question remained: How could Mithilasmita capitalize on the pro-artisan initiative of the All India Handicrafts Board and geographical indication rights of Madhubani paintings in building up a sustainable business, preserving traditional art and achieving social objectives?

The CEO of Gran Tierra Energy (GTE) had to prepare for an upcoming strategy session with senior executives. GTE’s investments in Peru looked promising, as recent exploration well tests indicated large oil reserves with significant production potential that could transform the company. However, the company’s Brazil operations continued to encounter challenges, such as setbacks in applying new technologies. The CEO had had high hopes when GTE entered Brazil in 2009 and thought that he and his team had carefully considered the risks. Given the increasingly positive developments in Peru, was dedicating the resources of GTE — a somewhat small energy firm by global standards — to Brazil operations still worth the risk? Could GTE turn the situation around or should the CEO recommend a divestment of the Brazilian assets?

In 2010, the owner of a small air-passenger firm transports individuals and small groups to remote waterfront regions. The business serves two types of customers: private and public. The private customers can afford to pay more, while the public customers’ budget constraints limit what they can pay. The owner wants to set a single price that will maximize his expected revenue across both customer groups. A constraining factor is the plane’s limited capacity, which means the owner cannot accommodate all requests. In other words, after a flight has been sold out, seats may still be requested by customers who potentially might be willing to pay more. See supplement 9B13E014.

This is a supplement to 9B13E013.

The owner of a small air-passenger firm transports individuals and small groups to remote waterfront regions. The business serves two types of customers: private and public. The private customers can afford to pay more, while the public customers' budget constraints limit what they can pay. The owner wants to set a single price that will maximize his expected revenue across both customer groups. A constraining factor is the plane's limited capacity, which means the owner cannot accommodate all requests. In other words, after a flight has been sold out, seats may still be requested by customers who potentially might be willing to pay more. See supplement W13725.

Supplement to case W13724.

In 2005, Victorinox, the original producer of the Swiss Army Knife, acquired Wenger, including the fragrance label “Swiss Army Fragrance.” The acquisition of Wenger allowed Victorinox to become the only producer of the famous Swiss Army Knife as well as the key player in Swiss Army watches. Victorinox’s head of marketing was asked to design a business strategy that would successfully allow the company to enter the fragrance industry. How should Victorinox diversify into the fragrance business? Should it aim to transfer its existing brand attributes to fragrance products? Or should it adopt a strategy that would include the use of another brand to market the perfumes? The head of marketing had to present a plan to the CEO of Victorinox on how best to brand and position the product, and how to compete in the fragrance industry.

Sidhi was a cooperative society aimed at rehabilitating destitute tribal women living in one of the poorest states in India. Most of these women were illiterate or had only primary education. A professionally educated non-tribal social entrepreneur has helped these women to set up cottage industries and earn a decent living. Because of her own health concerns, this social entrepreneur needs to resign. Her successor needs to be a woman who can arrange for funding, coordinate the funding and training, and liaise with both the government authorities and the vendors. The challenge is to either identify such a leader among the illiterate women or to recruit an outsider, who will understand Sidhi’s needs and be accepted by the Sidhi membership.

An entrepreneur has a venture idea that he believes can be successful. After his family’s farm was sold to a company, the entrepreneur was contacted by the new owners and asked for help finding farmers to rent the land. This request formed the seed of his idea that a website could be used to link farmers with landowners for the purpose of land rental. Following an invitation to submit an application to a local business pitch competition, the entrepreneur faces many questions about what steps he should take to launch the business, specifically what he should do, how he should do it and when and why he should take these actions. The entrepreneur is also challenged to act entrepreneurial in the face of uncertainty.

Lawrence Coburn and Pankaj Prasad, co-founders of the event solution startup DoubleDutch, have to make a significant decision about their young company's sales function. DoubleDutch's key product was a mobile application (app) and event management platform that customers could use to better engage and connect with their event participants (e.g. attendees at a conference, employees at a quarterly sales meeting), and also to obtain detailed information from these participants to deliver a better future experience, understand how the event was received, and receive large amounts of valuable data. The company was growing quickly and rapidly adding new customers, but Coburn and Prasad wanted to make sure that in the drive to add new customers, existing clients whose contracts were expiring were not "slipping through the cracks" when it came time to renew. But who within the company should be responsible for renewals? Sales? The customer success team that helped customers develop and deploy the product? Or an entirely new team dedicated solely to renewals?

Napalm is one of the most destructive weapons ever to be invented. Yet, at its original inception it was nothing more than a technical challenge, and it was never intended to be used in indiscriminate antipersonnel warfare. The pathway of its development by a Harvard research scientist to its use in flamethrowers by U.S. ground troops in World War Two, and as an incendiary device during the Vietnam War (1959-75) was unanticipated. Many of the early technical challenges associated with Napalm were solved by experimentation under the guidance of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), created to coordinate scientific research into the problems of modern warfare. Because the government needed private contractors to manufacture Napalm, it turned to several companies with experience in chemicals manufacturing. One in particular - The Dow Chemical Company - bore the brunt of the moral opprobrium association with the production of Napalm.

Walid Hajj (HBS '95), CEO of Dubai-based restaurant franchising company Cravia considers how best to expand his business in the fast-growing Gulf region. Should he add more American brands, expand to nearby countries, or open more of his current lineup of restaurants?