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Kamal Kapoor, a cotton shirting fabric wholesaler based in Delhi, India, was unable to decide whether or not to continue his business. Retailers had been procrastinating regarding their outstanding payments and international suppliers offering exclusive goods were asking for advance payments. Domestic suppliers had disintermediated the channel by directly approaching retailers or launching their own retail brands. In addition to these challenges, e-tailors were eroding Kapoor’s business, as modern consumers preferred ready-made shirts at reasonable prices that were available at their convenience.<br><br>In light of this changing landscape, Kapoor was unsure whether his business model was sustainable. He considered various alternatives, such as whether he should move forward in the value chain by starting his own private retail brand or move backward by acting as an agent. He even contemplated focusing on a niche segment of the market that offered higher margins but not high volumes. Time was running out. Kapoor had to investigate the three options and make a choice, keeping the working capital cost of each in mind. Or was it simply time for Kapoor to liquidate his assets and exit the business on which he focused so much time and energy?

This case traces the business career and philanthropic activities of George Soros. The Hungarian-born Soros made a fortune as a hedge fund investor after establishing Quantum Fund on the tax haven island of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles in 1973 where he was largely free from regulation. He earned a notorious reputation as the "man who broke the Bank of England" in 1992 and for his role in the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. Soros also became one of the most generous donors to civil society projects around the world through his Open Society Foundations. His philanthropy promoted free speech, critical thinking, the rule of law, and education as a means of liberation Soros played an important role in building civil society in post-Communist central and eastern Europe. From the 1990s he also became involved in politics in Western democracies such as the United States and Britain by funding opponents of right-wing populists. These endeavors resulted in Soros becoming the subject of conspiracy theories, and condemnation by many of the world's populist leaders. The case provides a vehicle to examine the positive and negative dimensions of the philanthropic initiatives of business leaders, to explore the origins of right wing populism especially through the lens of the transition economy of Hungary, and to debate the contested relationship between capitalism and democracy.

Originally developed for software development, Agile approaches are increasingly adopted by organizations that seek flexibility in the face of rapid change. However, little attention has been paid to the potential negative consequences of the implementation of Agile in large-scale settings. This article presents the results of a multi-site study of a multinational telecom company over five years during its implementation of Agile practices in the context of large-scale software development. The article points to six potential pitfalls of implementing such practices that may negatively influence individual learning, ideation, and exploitation capabilities. It offers advice on how to avoid these consequences in large, established firms.

In January 2020, Jai Prakash Chaubey, the managing director of Sarva Pharmaceuticals Private Limited (Sarva), needed to decide whether or not to accept a proposal from Gursim Pharmaceutical Limited (Gursim) to market some of Sarva’s products in Cambodia. Sarva had been performing well; however, the company’s profitability in Cambodia was minimal. Should Chaubey accept Gursim’s offer? Or should he hire a new country head who could drive the sales in the country and motivate the sales team for better results? Other options included restructuring Sarva’s product portfolio or shutting down the company’s marketing arm to focus solely on distribution. What strategies should he adopt to turn around his company's performance, strengthen its presence in Cambodia, and remain on course to achieve the company’s target for 2020?

In July 2019, the uncertainty that had been surrounding Brexit since the public referendum in June 2016 had led to a crisis for Owen Barry Inc. (Owen Barry), a luxury goods manufacturing enterprise in the United Kingdom. The company’s finance and production manager had voted in favour of Brexit but was hardly prepared for the deadlock that followed. He was now weighing different options for navigating a way out of the company’s predicament. His three main concerns were: How should he deal with the exchange rate fluctuations that had been affecting the company’s revenues and margins? How should he deal with issues around sourcing and importing essential raw materials? How should he deal with problems around the recruitment and retention of the skilled workforce at the company’s manufacturing plant near London?

This case introduces students to the large Brazilian mobile conglomerate, Movile, and its mobile food delivery subsidiary, iFood. It focuses on the experiences of these companies learning business lessons from Silicon Valley and China. In particular, the case discusses how the executive teams developed relationships with important companies and leaders in these markets to set up an open exchange of information.

This case introduces students to Sandy Kurtzig, the founder and CEO of the ASK software company, and the first woman to take a Silicon Valley tech company public. It gives a brief background of the protagonist and then presents students with 4 different dilemmas from Kurtzig's experiences as an entrepreneur and investor.

Supplement for Case E727A.

Supplement for Case E727A.

Supplement for Case E727A.

Supplement for Case E727A.

This case describes the founding of Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee in 2017 and its path to surpassing Starbucks as the largest coffee chain in China (by number of stores) in 2019. Unlike Starbucks stores, which were designed to be welcoming "third places" for customers to gather away from their homes or offices, most of Luckin's stores were small and bare, reflecting its mission to provide convenient takeout or delivery coffee to busy customers. With its app-based ordering, cashierless stores, and "smart," cloud-connected kitchen equipment, Luckin positioned itself as a technology company, rather than just a coffee shop, and attracted a number of big-name investors.<br/> However, Luckin used deep discounts on its products to attract new customers, and as of 2019, it had yet to be profitable on a company level. The case asks whether Luckin's business model could be sustainable, even in the absence of these promotional prices, and whether Luckin's focus on takeout and delivery (soon to be expanded through a network of vending machines and express coffee machines) was enough to differentiate it from competitors.

This Case Study examines the key skills and factors of entrepreneurial success, and how educational courses pertaining to entrepreneurship can be designed to better contribute to the latter. These skills and factors are summarised in the BRiSK3 Mind model, which was crafted with insights gleaned from publications, media interviews, and personal interviews conducted with several entrepreneurs.

Case Study B is a continuation of building the entrepreneurial mindset using the BRiSK3MIND model in Case Study A. We would be following the journey of Mr. Neo Kah Kiat, Founder, Chairman and CEO of NEO Group Limited, as he navigated through his entrepreneurial journey. We encourage readers to trace his journey using the BRiSK3MIND.

By the second quarter of 2018, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the online video technology company Bitmovin Inc. (Bitmovin) had propelled the start-up along an aggressive growth path. After founding the company in Austria, he had relocated Bitmovin's headquarters to California's Silicon Valley, raised more than US$40 million in investments in two funding rounds, and was now in the process of building a global sales organization for the company's innovative online video infrastructure solutions. Within the next few years, the CEO wanted Bitmovin to achieve $100 million in revenues and initiate an initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York. However, Bitmovin's rapid international growth had resulted in a globally dispersed organization in which effective communication and alignment were difficult to achieve. The sales team was able to close deals with big-name customers in the media industry, but marketing and demand generation had been neglected and there were not enough potential customers in the sales pipeline. The company had recently failed to reach its growth goals for the first time, and the CEO wondered whether the company still had the right sales strategy and the right person as its sales leader.

Denitsa Ikonomova is a champion professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars (France) who has become a desired social media influencer. She must now consider the business side of her profession and decide how to leverage her celebrity.

In 2018, China Merchants Bank, China’s seventh-largest bank and the 30th-largest bank in the world, strategically repositioned itself in “light banking” to address the changing competitive landscape and rapid entry of non-bank financial technology companies. These companies were using information technology to compete in China’s domestic payments market. China Merchants Bank was also actively stimulating innovation. Through its incubation fund, the bank provided funding to its business units for new technology projects. The bank’s president was reviewing one specific project financed by the fund—the cross-border payments blockchain system. He was eager to determine the success of the project and the potential for future development of the blockchain technology, in his efforts to understand the applicability of blockchain to banking in general, and to payments banking in particular.

In the fall of 2009, founder and CEO Gab Goncalves has turned PeopleAnswers, Inc. from a fledgling startup to a steadily growing company of nearly 50 employees and $10 million recurring revenue. PeopleAnswers provides people analytics software which its clients use to screen job candidates, matching potential hires to the characteristics of existing top performers. After seven years of growth, the firm is still being run by its founding team, and Goncalves worries whether the business can continue to scale. The case takes place at a moment when Goncalves is about to interview a seasoned sales executive from SAP (a major enterprise software company) to be VP of Sales, and explores strategic human resource management problems for a growing firm. Goncalves has to confront three questions: (i) Does he need to hire? (ii) What should he be looking for? (iii) How can he convince a good candidate to take the job? All three questions may hinge on the firm's broader strategy. A companion (B) case reveals what happened next, and revisits the questions of the case a few years later, at a new crossroads.

In the fall of 2009, founder and CEO Gab Goncalves has turned PeopleAnswers, Inc. from a fledgling startup to a steadily growing company of nearly 50 employees and $10 million recurring revenue. PeopleAnswers provides people analytics software which its clients use to screen job candidates, matching potential hires to the characteristics of existing top performers. After seven years of growth, the firm is still being run by its founding team, and Goncalves worries whether the business can continue to scale. The case takes place at a moment when Goncalves is about to interview a seasoned sales executive from SAP (a major enterprise software company) to be VP of Sales, and explores strategic human resource management problems for a growing firm. Goncalves has to confront three questions: (i) Does he need to hire? (ii) What should he be looking for? (iii) How can he convince a good candidate to take the job? All three questions may hinge on the firm's broader strategy. A companion (B) case reveals what happened next, and revisits the questions of the case a few years later, at a new crossroads.

The Eyewitness Surveillance II case tells the story of Rush Arnold and RT McCloy, friends who met while studying at Wharton, who raise a search fund under the name Channelstone Partners. In the fall of 2010, after having spent two-thirds of their search fund capital and reviewed over 200 companies, they came across Eyewitness Surveillance, a company specializing in the use of video technology to protect the assets of car dealerships. Eyewitness' cofounder, Vince Redland, was interested in selling the company to pursue other interests and Arnold and McCloy found the industry, company, and deal all compelling. Over the course of the next two months, they engaged in a due diligence process which further validated their interest in the company, but also raised several red flags. Among the issues highlighted in due diligence included widespread employee disgruntlement, particularly with Vince (who was also the top sales person), a reluctance to share detailed financial information, and an 11th hour disagreement about a contract clause stipulating that the purchase price would go down if monthly revenues declined after the close. Despite having conducted a thorough and in-depth due diligence process, Arnold and McCloy were at the end of their search capital and facing a deal that was on the brink. They were now faced with the question of whether or not they wanted to charge ahead, despite the red flags, or walk away, knowing that this could potentially be the end of the road.