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Patrice Mousseau was an Indigenous woman in Canada who founded an organic skin care company, Satya. From Satya's modest beginnings and early challenges, the company had several subsequent successes before Mousseau faced significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mousseau' s Indigenous values and influences shaped her approach to launching and developing Satya. Additionally, Mousseau's collaboration with a women-only network of investors (SheEO) and the support they offered not only aligned with her desire to achieve social change and impact through Satya, but also proved to be a vital virtual lifeline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kovi, a car rental startup located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, provides affordable access to rental cars for rideshare drivers. The case examines the origins of the company, provides background on the auto and rideshare industries in Brazil, and follows the CEO, Adhemar Milani Neto, as he evaluates options for growing the company.

By the spring of 2021, My Sisters’ Place, a safe, welcoming, and inclusive support centre for women in London, Ontario, had welcomed countless women to Buchan House, a historic Victorian mansion located in downtown London, that had been generously donated by a local family. While it had become a safe haven for so many people in the community, the building’s age and heritage status also meant frequent and high maintenance costs, and the recent roofing repair bill was just another item on a long list of expenses. With strong community support, My Sisters’ Place had many plans for future programs and initiatives, but the organization’s manager was feeling a little overwhelmed by mounting financial needs, including the unexpected roof repair cost. As the manager of a not-for-profit social enterprise with limited funding, she understood that proceeding with the repair would translate into a painful cut somewhere—a reduction in services or in staff hours. Both would heavily impact the vulnerable population the organization was designed to serve, but the manager had to make a choice.

By the spring of 2021, My Sisters' Place, a safe, welcoming, and inclusive support centre for women in London, Ontario, had welcomed countless women to Buchan House, a historic Victorian mansion located in downtown London, that had been generously donated by a local family. While it had become a safe haven for so many people in the community, the building's age and heritage status also meant frequent and high maintenance costs, and the recent roofing repair bill was just another item on a long list of expenses. With strong community support, My Sisters' Place had many plans for future programs and initiatives, but the organization's manager was feeling a little overwhelmed by mounting financial needs, including the unexpected roof repair cost. As the manager of a not-for-profit social enterprise with limited funding, she understood that proceeding with the repair would translate into a painful cut somewhere-a reduction in services or in staff hours. Both would heavily impact the vulnerable population the organization was designed to serve, but the manager had to make a choice.

Ye Ji had a dream: to build a unicorn enterprise. Ji, a serial entrepreneur in his forties, had the experience of setting up three businesses as an entrepreneur. From 2010 to 2014, he owned and managed Dalian Lingdong Technology Development Co. Ltd. (Lingdong), which specialized in developing e-commerce systems. From 2014 to 2017, he was the agent for Baidu Waimai’s Dalian operations. In 2017, he set up Flashfood.Shop, a company providing office workers with affordable and convenient fresh meals, twenty-four hours a day. However, Flashfood.Shop was almost brought to a halt by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. By April 2021, Ji had yet to realize his entrepreneurial dream of building a unicorn enterprise. The time had come for him to make a decision. Should he stick with Flashfood.Shop’s operation and wait for a turnaround? Should he close Flashfood.Shop and return to Lingdong, a business with which he was more familiar? Or should he start over with a new venture? Ji needed to seriously consider how to choose his next step.

Ye Ji had a dream: to build a unicorn enterprise. Ji, a serial entrepreneur in his forties, had the experience of setting up three businesses as an entrepreneur. From 2010 to 2014, he owned and managed Dalian Lingdong Technology Development Co. Ltd. (Lingdong), which specialized in developing e-commerce systems. From 2014 to 2017, he was the agent for Baidu Waimai's Dalian operations. In 2017, he set up Flashfood.Shop, a company providing office workers with affordable and convenient fresh meals, twenty-four hours a day. However, Flashfood.Shop was almost brought to a halt by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. By April 2021, Ji had yet to realize his entrepreneurial dream of building a unicorn enterprise. The time had come for him to make a decision. Should he stick with Flashfood.Shop's operation and wait for a turnaround? Should he close Flashfood.Shop and return to Lingdong, a business with which he was more familiar? Or should he start over with a new venture? Ji needed to seriously consider how to choose his next step.

In March 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains. The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus affected the entire world, including the scenic Prince Edward County in Eastern Ontario. Three co-owners of the boutique distillery Kinsip House of Fine Spirits (Kinsip) were inspired to contribute to their community's efforts to limit further spread of the virus. As a distillery, Kinsip was aptly able to produce the principal ingredient of hand sanitizer-ethanol. The other two main ingredients-glycerol and hydrogen peroxide-were generally procured on the open market from North American suppliers. Obtaining the right packaging for the sanitizer as quickly as possible, including both the bottle and the cap, was one of the key challenges the three partners were facing. Another challenge was navigating Health Canada's approval process. In addition, the partners needed to determine Kinsip's capacity to supply hand sanitizer to the local region and the production schedule on which it could deliver the product.

Yinglan Tan considered the future of his young Singapore-based venture capital firm. On the one hand, the intuition that was behind the initial creation of Insignia in 2017 had been proven correct. The venture capital market in Southeast Asia had grown rapidly, driven by the spread of e-commerce around the globe and the increased willingness of venture investors around the world to look globally. The new venture group, exploiting existing connections and a nimble structure, had rapidly establish itself in this promising market. This success was incredibly gratifying to Tan. On the other hand, some important questions remained. Foremost among these was the question of scaling. One concern related to whether Insignia should "climb the ladder," and follow its portfolio companies as they received substantially larger financing rounds. These financings would entail raising much more capital but doubling down on winners might yield attractive returns. Second, if it was to garner large amounts of additional capital, the Insignia model would need to evolve, and in important ways come under stress. Finally, the venture market was showing signs of stress. If the long-anticipated downturn was here, what would be the implications for Insignia?

In February 2022, an indigenous studies professor was considering applying for a position on Roche Canada's Soaring with Roche program's advisory Board. The program was looking for an individual to represent Canada's indigenous population, as it pursued an open innovation strategy within Canada. In considering her decision, the professor examines the pharmaceutical industry as whole (and within Canada), the pros and cons of open innovation, and the fit between her, an open innovation program, and Roche Canada.

After a year filled with the highs of entrepreneurial success and the lows of personal hardships, Whitney Wolfe was considering starting a new venture-a social media platform aimed at creating positivity for women online. Wolfe was meeting with Andrey Andreev, the founder of Badoo, one of the world's most popular dating services, to discuss her new venture idea. However, Andreev was disinterested in starting a social media platform and dismissed her new venture idea. But he had wanted to work with Wolfe for some time, so he instead suggested starting a new online dating service focused on women. Wolfe had to make a decision. Should she turn down Andreev's suggestion and start her own business, or should she pursue his idea of creating a new online dating service focused on the needs of women? If so, how should this new service differ from the numerous current products flooding the market?

Rocks and Pebbles (RnP), a dog park, café and a dog boarding center located in the city of Gurgaon in Northern India, was set up in August 2019 by Vandana Sinha, a dog lover. The case details some of the decisions taken by Sinha with respect to the services offered, the business model, and execution of her strategy. It details some of the challenges faced by RnP during the Covid-19 crisis and the decisions Sinha has taken to deal with the crisis. She is grappling with four dilemmas even as she is trying to grow the business. Should she scale up the café at RnP into a restaurant in order to attract more visitors? Should she provide flexible payment options to pet parents in order to increase customer enrolments at RnP? Should she diversify into delivery of pet food in order to increase revenue? How should she balance her commitment to her regular job with the time devoted to RnP?

In May 2021, the founder of Yardstick Educational Initiatives Private Limited, a provider of experiential learning programs in India and the United Arab Emirates, was facing various business challenges. The company was started in India in 2008 but had been increasingly focused on the more profitable Middle East market since 2012. Attempting to stay current with technology advancements in educational products, it made considerable investments to develop new products and enhance its flagship learning product, the Yardstick Experiential Learning Program. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 caused a major setback for the company. Cash flow issues and reduced working capital were forcing the founder to decide which client segment to continue serving and which products to support. With only three months left in the peak sales season before the next academic year, the founder had to make important decisions.

In June 2022, 3G Capital Co-Managing Partners Alex Behring and Daniel Schwartz were in a partners' meeting. On the agenda were three potential investments. Code named "Alpha," "Bravo," and "Charlie" (real target companies that have been disguised), they were the finalists amongst hundreds that the team had screened. Unlike other private equity firms, 3G did not build a portfolio: each of its funds had only one investment. This model had worked extremely well for some investments, with successes like Restaurant Brands International, but it had also faced some challenges. Each investment decision was crucial to the future of the firm. What should their next investment be?

This case examines the career of Vicky Tsai, the creator of San Francisco-based TATCHA, a Japanese-themed luxury beauty brand launched in 2009. It explores how Tsai developed the concept, assembled management, and successfully launched the brand, despite experiencing major obstacles because of stereotyped views based on her gender and Asian ethnicity. Originally advised that Asian beauty was too niche for the American market, Tsai struggled to raise capital, and felt that she needed to take on white males as co-founders in order to be taken seriously. She faced continuous funding constraints, even after the Tatcha brand debuted on the QVC channel and began to grow fast. In 2017 Tsai sought private equity funding to further grow the business, and found herself encouraged to leave the role of CEO in favor of professional management. Tsai sold the business to Unilever for an estimated $500 million in 2019 as this process was underway. In January 2021 Tsai was recalled as CEO as the business faltered. The case ends with her determination to build a business which would work for positive change in the beauty industry in its attitudes towards gender and ethnicity.

Toxoplasma gondii, which is estimated to infect 10% to 50% of the population, affects your brain and makes you disinhibited and less risk-averse. It also makes you 29% more likely to found a start-up.

Innovation is all about finding and filling people's unmet needs. But even innovators and organizations renowned for their scanning capabilities often have trouble perceiving and correctly interpreting those needs. Drawing on their work as researchers, teachers, and consultants, the authors outline a four-part framework to help innovators diversify how and where they look. It involves two main strategies: improving your vision (seeing in greater detail) and challenging your vision (looking at people other than mainstream users). Within each you can adopt a narrow focus or take a wider view. You can zoom in on individual mainstream users and their everyday experiences (what the authors call a microscope strategy) or pull back to discover patterns in their aggregate behavior (a panorama strategy). Likewise, you can take a look at users outside your core (a telescope strategy) or seek a broader view of the patterns they exhibit as a group (a kaleidoscope strategy). For each of the framework's four parts, the authors describe how digital technologies can augment more-traditional ways of looking. Used together, the approaches they present will enable entrepreneurs to look further afield and on a larger scale than ever before.

By the late spring of 2019, it was clear to Samuel Kalika, Founder of Critical Concrete (CC), a sustainable architecture social enterprise in Porto, Portugal, that his organization needed to pivot. While he was not exactly clear on what strategy would help CC more reliably and consistently deliver on its social mission, Kalika was convinced that the organization's current focus on the Critical Concrete Summer School (CCSS) was not financially sustainable for much longer. The staff was spending an entire year in its planning and coordination, and the financial situation seemed inconsistent and fragile, among other challenges. He had to quickly decide on how to move forward and redirect their efforts. The 2019 CCSS would conclude in only three months, and after that, there was nothing scheduled, which also meant no funds were coming in beyond that point. CC needed to pivot, but Kalika had to figure out what to do next. Considering the mix of resources and challenges in the picture, what could he do to pivot the organization?

When and how much risk to take? In October 2020, Ken Sweder, CEO of Individual FoodService ("IFS"), contemplated this question as he evaluated a proposal to acquire Brady Industries, a distributor of janitorial and sanitation products. Sweder and his private equity partners at Kelso & Company had been working hard to grow IFS, and now they had a unique opportunity to make a transformative acquisition. The deal had great potential and risks; it was unclear if this was the right time to make such a large, complex acquisition amid disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. Sweder needed to decide if he should recommend the transaction and, if so, how to set the right value creation plan for the combined company.

In June 2021, as Toronto-based Flashfood Inc. (Flashfood) continued to grow dramatically, its founder and chief executive officer was facing critical questions about how to manage both the firm’s mission and its business model. Flashfood partnered with grocery chains to sell near-expiry food to consumers via an app, and it had an expanding network of locations in Canada and the United States. The firm had a clear sustainability-driven objective: to reduce food waste and feed people more affordably. But how should the firm focus its ongoing investment and scarce resources—both strategically, in terms of market development and service offerings, and tactically, in terms of product pricing and app improvement? Could the firm achieve sustained success while avoiding any potential tendency to drift from that mission? Note to instructors: This case also includes a supplemental student spreadsheet. See "Supporting Materials" section below to download.

Student spreadsheet to accompany product W28461.