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In 2011, HCLT ERS, a division of HCL Technologies, a global IT services corporation headquartered in New Delhi, India, had to devise next year’s plan for the Engineering Out Of The Box (EOOTB) business concept that it had initiated in 2009. EOOTB had facilitated the division’s ability to create “16 productized solutions” and to engage customers in new revenue services. The productized solutions were heavily reliant upon IT platform-based solutions and services. The executive vice president of HCLT ERS and the EOOTB team must consider new markets to enter, new types of work in existing markets, and delivery ecosystems involving partners, collaborators, and third-party providers.

Globalization has become an imperative and is no longer avoidable as a strategic choice for family businesses. However, globalization strategies are far from the norm among small and medium-sized family enterprises. This article reviews the main drivers for globalization, highlights the distinct characteristics of family businesses that may enhance or constrain their global expansion, and provides a framework for strategically evaluating business capabilities and global market opportunities.

The 21st century has brought both opportunities and challenges in our global, boundary-less world. Importantly, managers face a dynamic and interconnected international environment. As such, 21st century managers need to consider the many opportunities and threats that Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers present and the resulting respective shifts in loci of activity, power, and value. To help managers understand this new dispensation, we propose five axioms: (1) social media are always a function of the technology, culture, and government of a particular country or context; (2) local events rarely remain local; (3) global events are likely to be (re)interpreted locally; (4) creative consumers' actions and creations are also dependent on technology, culture, and government; and (5) technology is historically dependent. At the heart of these axioms is the managerial recommendation to continually stay up to date on technology, customers, and social media. To implement this managerial recommendation, marketers must truly engage customers, embrace technology, limit the power of bureaucracy, train and invest in their employees, and inform senior management about the opportunities of social media.

Korea Tobacco and Ginseng (KT&G) is a leading tobacco and ginseng company in South Korea, as well as one of the most successful cases of privatization in the country’s history. This case examines KT&G’s business operations during the process of privatization and afterwards in an environment of increasing foreign competition and investment. This case provides a valuable lesson for investors interested in the volatile process of privatization.

Centuryply operates in the building materials space - specifically, in interior decoration with plywood, laminates and decorative veneers - alongside other categories like cement, shipping, and logistics. In India, this market is dominated by unorganized players, and plywood has always been treated as a commodity by marketers. Given the boom in real estate across residences and offices, as well as the current rapid lifestyle changes in India, the company expects sustainable and continuous growth and wants to achieve greater success in the wood furnishings category. Centuryply views investment in brand-building as a way to beat commoditization.The focus of the case is to explain innovative branding strategies that may be adopted by marketers to create a brand in the commodity market. In addition, it touches on the difficulties faced by a company to maintain a sustainable brand proposition amid competition. The key question is how to maintain brand-building momentum and take it to the next level.

It was February 2012 and the founder of Nurturing Green, a plants-as-gifts enterprise, faced an important business decision. As he pondered the deal presented to him by an investment firm, he wondered about the wisdom of giving up 50 per cent control of his company in return for the investment firm’s offer of $10 million in capital funding. Would the investors take control of the company out of his hands, or would they provide necessary capital and useful business experience? Further, if he acquired the venture capital, how and where should he allocate the funds and his efforts to maximize the degree of leverage his business could gain from the influx of capital? Should he invest in building warehouses to better serve his customers by achieving lesser lead times? Should he invest in research and development to increase the knowledge capital of his business, or should he consider other options?

This is a supplement to Nurturing Green: Vows and Woes of an Entrepreneur (A).

The Wang Group was created by Alfred Wang in Hong Kong after fleeing China during the turbulence at the beginning of the Communist regime. After successfully building up a diversified trading business and expanding to various other Asian countries, the business was taken over in 1995 by his second son, Charles Wang, a charismatic leader. Charles wished to create a more sustainable family business, attuned to global trends and run by non-family members. To this end, Charles hired an outside CEO to carry out his vision after implementing a far-reaching corporate change program. The global economic crisis that started in 2008, however, affected the company halfway through this reorganization, and brought losses and the departure of the newly hired CEO. Charles Wang had no other option than to again take up the top job himself, and he had to reconsider the path towards a sustainable future for the family firm.

The Apple A and B cases provide two different perspectives on the evolution of the computer and electronics firm Apple and are designed to evoke debate about models of strategy, organization, and leadership. The A case presents the story of Apple from a hindsight rational analytic perspective in which students are able to apply a variety of models about strategy, organization, leadership, and innovation. The B case presents a more nuanced, critical account of Apple’s development, attributing some of its success to happenstance and good fortune, and also raises questions about Jobs’s leadership.

This case is a supplement to Apple A.

Like it or not, English is the global language of business. Today 1.75 billion people speak English at a useful level--that's one in four of us. Multinational companies such as Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, SAP, Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, and Microsoft in Beijing have mandated English as the corporate language. And any company with a global presence or global aspirations would be wise to do the same, says HBS professor Tsedal Neeley, to ensure good communication and collaboration with customers, suppliers, business partners, and other stakeholders. But while moving toward a single language at work is necessary and inevitable, Neeley's research shows that implementing such a policy is fraught with complications. English-only policies can create job insecurity and dissatisfaction and generate strife between native and nonnative English speakers in cross-national teams. Companies can anticipate and plan for inevitable challenges and resistance when adopting an English-only policy. Using Japanese internet services firm Rakuten as a case example, this article outlines guidelines for proper implementation.

In the 20th century, Japanese multinationals established themselves as powerhouse exporters in developed markets. Names like Sony, Toyota, and Honda became commonplace. But in this century, growth in developed markets has slowed: Goldman Sachs forecasts that these markets will grow at an average annual rate of 2% until 2020, whereas the BRIC economies are expected to grow at an average annual rate of nearly 7%. To prosper now, Japanese companies must win in developing markets--which they're failing to do. They face four key challenges: distaste for the middle and low-end segments of the market; aversion to mergers and acquisitions; reluctance to commit--financially and organizationally--in emerging markets; and a failure to properly allocate talent. Two Japanese multinationals stand out for their success in overcoming the challenges: Unicharm, a manufacturer of personal-care products, and Daikin, one of the world's largest air-conditioning manufacturers. This article explains what they've done.

In March 2010, the management of A.B. Corp. announced its plan to select a definite location for its central warehouse. The company, a major producer of agriculture and farm equipment, had gone through three consecutive years of financial loss as a result of increasing production costs. Management had to select a central warehouse between four candidates, based on the location of five distribution centres, the loads to be transferred, and other factors such as land costs and tax.

Pak Elektron Limited was a prominent manufacturer of consumer home appliances, large distribution and power transformers, and switch gears for power companies in Pakistan. From 2007, the company had started the process of changing the information systems of the company. These systems had become outdated as Microsoft withdrew its support of Visual FoxPro, the platform on which all systems had been developed. The company decided that a Tier 1 ERP (enterprise resource planning) system with strength in manufacturing modules would be suitable. An ERP system was then selected and a firm was appointed as implementer in December 2009. The case describes the issues surrounding the implementation, including many unexpected events. It presents the situation as of the fourth quarter of 2011, after Phase 1 of the implementation had finished in December 2010 and the company had decided in March 2011 to dispense with the services of the consulting firm supporting the implementation. Pak Elektron Limited was facing a liquidity crisis and had to save costs even though there was insufficient corporate knowledge of ERP procedures. The staff was not comfortable with the ERP system and would not let go of the legacy systems and, as such, the project was in trouble.

Bella Healthcare India was originally established in Bangalore as a low-cost manufacturing facility for a U.S.-based cardiology equipment developer. Under country manager Joseph Cherian it evolved considerably, developing its own research and development capabilities. Strengthened by investment in technical training and a shift in culture and mindset, the India team developed and launched its first successful product in 2005 under the guidance of Cherian and American Jeremy Manning, the Bella India director of R&D. Their success led them to a joint product development venture with the parent company, but organizational, technical, and cultural issues resulted in its cancellation. After this disappointing failure, is Bella India ready to lead a new product development project? If so, is the new project proposed by Cherian the right one to recover with?

This case is about an ambitious “technopreneur” with ideas that were at the forefront of technology, such as in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Compassion Web had been successful initially, then swamped with challenges, and the original business model needed major changes in order to work in the fast-changing environment. At the same time, the company was facing a lawsuit with a major client, which could threaten its survival. To make matters even worse, the company lacked the strong and unified leadership necessary to pull it out of its difficulties.

In 2009, when the Indian cement market was strong, major Indian players were preparing to move from a regional emphasis to pan-India penetration. To become a national player, Jaiprakash Associates Limited grew through acquisitions and setting up new plants. To strengthen its position, the company decided to move from a multiple-brand cement portfolio to a single-brand entity. It merged its two existing brands of cement, Buniyad Jaypee Cement and Jaypee Buland Cement, into a new brand, Jaypee Cement. Expanding into new geographic markets and creating a pan-India presence for the brand was the motive for this merger. When global brands such as Swiss giant Holcim and France’s Lafarge continued with a multi-brand strategy in India, it was understandable that industry experts doubted whether Jaypee’s decision to move from multi-branding to mono-branding was correct.

Medupi was the first baseload project in South Africa in 20 years. It would be the largest dry-cooled, coal-fired power station in the world and was being developed by Eskom, which generated 90 per cent of Southern Africa’s power, at an estimated cost of R125 billion. In spite of the worldwide concern about greener energy, coal remained the most popular power station fuel for South Africa, due to the country’s vast resources of 224 million tonnes annually. The new capacity that Medupi would offer was sorely needed.<br><br>It had been challenging to follow a project schedule that involved various suppliers providing different packages at different dates and that required accommodating several interfaces during both design and implementation. Due to the massive scale and complexity of the project, three companies had joined forces to tackle the job, namely Murray & Roberts, Aveng, and Concor. Murray & Roberts had appointed Coenie Vermaak as project director at Medupi and, at 34, he was the youngest project director in the group. The managers of the joint venture had realized quickly that this would be “a project like no other.” The three companies’ different ways of working necessitated much more integrated coordination. For instance, employees from the different parent organizations had different job descriptions, remuneration, benefits, structures, processes, and cultures. Medupi’s uniqueness provided an opportunity to be pioneers in the construction industry and to “reconstruct construction.” A culture of employee engagement and alignment was required.

Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of Research in Motion (RIM), faced a situation of truly disastrous proportions. Earlier that week, service outages had started occurring on RIM’s popular BlackBerry smartphone devices, affecting over 30 million BlackBerry users globally. For a total of three days, RIM engineers worked around the clock to fix the widespread technical problems. However, with the company providing only brief comments to the public, many consumers and industry officials became increasingly frustrated. With the worldwide release of the new Apple iPhone 4S just days away, Lazaridis was presented with the additional challenge of how and if RIM should respond publicly to help restore consumer and market confidence.

This case is a supplement to Research in Motion: Blackberry Blackout (A).