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Organic Wellness Products Private Limited (Organic Wellness) was founded in 2015 with the aim to create a sustainable venture for organic products that would boost agricultural entrepreneurship and benefit society by generating rural employment and value creation. By May 2018, Organic Wellness’s market had grown considerably, and the company was exporting to 27 countries around the world and had a pan-Indian presence. While its innovative marketing strategy—free of big spending—had worked well for the organization, the founder needed to decide if he would continue with the same style of cause-related marketing, or whether it was time to invest in marketing channels to create better consumer outreach.

On January 20, 2017, Moody’s Investors Service, an American credit rating agency, downgraded the Corporate Family Rating for Sears Holdings Corporation from Caa1 to Caa2, stating that the company did not have enough money to stay in business and was relying on outside funding or sale of assets to sustain operations. The leading US retail chain had a revenue turnover of US$22.14 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016–17. However, beginning in FY 2011–12, it had suffered losses year after year. Its stock had fallen 38 per cent between April 2016 and April 2017. The retail chain’s majority shareholder, chair, and chief executive officer was making some changes, but critics questioned his motives and retail acumen. With falling share prices, continuous losses, decreasing assets, and a decided shift in the industry away from traditional retail, it seemed that it would be only a matter of time before Sears Holdings Corporation reached its end. In light of its poor financial performance and consecutive losses on a yearly basis, a new Master of Business Administration graduate and junior analyst was assigned the task of analyzing the retail chain’s financial status and assessing the possibility of its bankruptcy.

New ventures are increasingly internationalizing from emerging economies, but the role of their home country and any associated within-country regional differences are not well understood. In this article, we look at a new venture in China and how its headquartered region promotes its internationalization. We present empirical evidence that shows the interrelatedness between a venture's region and internationalization: When institutional development in a region is strong, the impact of foreign firm presence on venture internationalization becomes even stronger. We discuss implications for managers of multinational enterprises and new ventures operating in emerging economies as well as policymakers in these economies.

Spreadsheet for product 8B19B008.

Spreadsheet for product 9B19B008.

Supplement for Case ST63

In 2018, the Singapore-based telecommunication operator StarHub Ltd. (StarHub) acknowledged that in 2017 its total revenue was relatively flat and its net profit had declined. In the face of rising competition and a slowing global economy, the company needed to explore new sources of revenue growth. Two areas of growth seemed promising. The first area involved the launch of StarHub's smart retail analytics for small and medium enterprises in the retail food and beverages industry, which had been experiencing a high churn rate. The second area would apply StarHub's new robotics and automation solutions in the labour-intensive hospitality industry, which suffered from an oversupply of properties and would likely see exits and consolidation. StarHub needed to choose between the two investment options.

By February 2019, General Motors Company (GM) had evolved into one of the three dominant North American automobile manufacturers, selling over 10 million vehicles annually. However, GM’s global market share had been declining over the previous 10–15 years due to intense competition in the small and mid-sized car segment from new entrants with a cost structure unlike global competitors and a product marketing strategy more focused on price than quality products. This development forced GM to rely heavily on sales of its pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles to increase gross margins that had been consistently below industry averages. At this point, the industry was also shifting toward a new automotive platform and related business model dominated by autonomous and electric vehicles. GM had to find a way to transform its current business and profit model to meet the needs and trends of an emerging electric and autonomous vehicle industry.

In July 2018, MICA, Ahmedabad, one of the leading management institutions in India, was experiencing bottlenecks in its dining hall that were delaying regular operations during peak lunch hours. The lunch break was for about 75 minutes between classes. The dining hall catered to 480 people at any given time—not only students but also faculty members and other MICA staff. After eating lunch at the dining hall, many students had to rush to post-lunch class sessions, and they risked missing attendance. Most faculty members had zero tolerance for late entrants. A MICA faculty member from the business management area was entrusted with studying the situation, determining the cause for delay, and proposing remedial measures. He needed to identify the weakest link in the chain and then propose an infusion of resources that would buffer this constraint, thereby reducing the total time students and other members of the MICA community spent in the dining hall during lunch hours.

An executive at a North American-based multinational company contacted an old friend and former business associate in Indonesia in hopes of collaborating with him to purchase Asian software companies. After several emails, the two disagreed and disengaged. The North American declined the Indonesian’s advice to invest time in developing the relationships required to access this market. Three months later, after realizing he had closed the door on a huge and growing market, the North American again contacted his Indonesian associate. He realized that his North American style of negotiation was ineffective in this market and that the Asians had their own preferred approach. He planned a phone call to Indonesia to try to restart the process. What style of communication should he use this time in an effort to generate a better understanding and success?

In May 2018, B9 Beverages Private Limited (B9 Beverages), the owner of craft beer Bira 91, reached a total of over US$100 million in funding after receiving $50 million from Sofina SA, a Belgian investment firm. This third round of funding would allow the company to meet the various objectives that the founder and chief executive officer had planned for the company’s new Bira 91. He wanted his India business to break even by 2019 and expand fivefold over the next three years. He also wanted to establish a leadership position in the Indian premium beer market. The company also planned to launch Bira 91 as a public company through an initial public offering within the next few years. His long-term goal was to make Bira 91 a product rooted in India, as well as a global leader in craft beer. As the market and competition continued to grow, B9 Beverages had to develop a strategy to differentiate Bira 91 in the crowded global beer market.

On May 27, 2018, Maryanne Trollope, the Learning and Development (L&D) manager for Anglo American South Africa, was considering her dilemma of handing over her brainchild to her successor. The Building Leaders and Shaping Talent (BLAST) program was a flagship talent management program for young graduates in South Africa, and she wanted to ensure a smooth transition for her successor and to ensure that the BLASTers (BLAST recruits) developed relationships with her replacement. Trollope was meeting with one BLASTer, who had been on an international BLAST placement in London, England. She had to decide when to introduce this recruit to the individual taking over the program and what information and insight she should recommend the recruit share with her colleague. What were the critical success factors of the talent management program, and how could Trollope ensure sustained success and a smooth handover process?

Sandu Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Sandu Pharmaceuticals) was a publicly listed company operating in the pharmaceuticals and health care sector. It manufactured Ayurvedic medicines. Incorporated in 1985, the company traced its history back over more than a century. The third generation was at the helm of the firm in September 2016. The company’s director, was thinking about how previous successive generations in the family had handled the challenge of absorbing family members into the business, and in particular about whether he was doing enough to prepare the next generation to take over a business that was bound to grow more rapidly in the future, given the growing concern worldwide about the cost of allopathic health care and demand for less invasive and more holistic treatments.

On April 2, 2017, the chairman of Kamat Hotels (India) Limited (KHIL) and his son, the company’s chief executive officer, were having breakfast and recalling tough times endured in 2014 after a failed corporate debt restructuring. It had been one of the most important decisions ever made by the public sector undertaking bank—leaving their previous joint lenders and deciding to assign the loan to an asset reconstruction company. The incident had proven to be a turning point for the company. The failure of the corporate debt restructuring mechanism had become an unexpected advantage, and the company never looked back. The two leaders were now focused on their commitment to grow the company in a sustained manner, staying true to the local environmental challenges. With the goal of aggressive growth in several Indian states, the chief executive officer was looking for more hotels to own, manage, or lease in the mid to high segments of the market as an expansion plan. His vision was to someday retire as the owner of one of India’s largest hotel assets and to take his family name forward to the next benchmark of Indian hospitality. Was this the best path forward for KHIL?

Ofo (stylized “ofo”), a Beijing-based bicycle-sharing company, had grown bicycle sharing from nothing into a dockless mobile application (app) service industry with over 120 million monthly active users sharing 30 million bicycles in cities across China and around the world. Founded by five bicycle enthusiasts in 2014, its dockless system used a smartphone application to unlock and locate nearby bicycles, charging an hourly rate for use. Although only two years old in 2017—and yet to turn a profit—the company was valued at over USD 1 billion in a recent E round of private-equity financing. ofo’s new funds would be used to buy bicycles for international expansion and hire more talent, but in a rapidly changing, highly competitive environment, the company needed to assess its current and future position.

The backwaters of Vembanad, in Kerala, India, were a renowned tourist attraction, known for their beautiful waters, schools of fish, and the people who lived along the shores. However, the exploitation of resources had taken a toll on the lake and its ecosystem. Pollution and the decline of the rich fish population had left the community impoverished. In 2008, the non-profit social enterprise Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) had launched an innovative educational and self-regulatory program that had begun to improve the ecosystem. However, by 2018, the resurgence of the fish population had also attracted a fisheries-based food company that wanted to begin processing and exporting fish caught in Vembanad. The immediate employment benefits were attractive to the impoverished local fishers, but the long-term consequences for the region and its community were severe. How should ATREE respond to this pending crisis? Should ATREE use incoming money for immediate relief for Vembanad’s stakeholders or should it use the money for long-term benefit by focusing on further conservation efforts?

Since China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, economic relations between China and the US have deepened. Along with closer ties, however, has also come greater political conflict. In this case, students will analyse the current Sino-US diplomatic relationship through two distinct lenses: 1) bilateral diplomatic relations; 2) economic theory. By understanding the complex political and economic factors underpinning the relationship, students will be called on to propose potential solutions to avoid further escalation.

In June 2017, executives from Amalsad Vibhag Vividh Karyakari Sahakari Khedut Mandali Ltd. (Amalsad Cooperative) met to consider possible changes to the cooperative’s interventions in commodity marketing, particularly, whether further interventions would benefit member farmers. Linking a unique reward and penalty scheme to the grade supplied by the farmers and directly supplying produce to the terminal market in Delhi had resulted in a 15 per cent increase in the farmers’ income. Streamlining the entire process—from receiving the commodity, grading and sorting the supply, to paying the farmers—had considerably reduced delays. The chairperson of the Amalsad Cooperative, which covered farmers from 17 villages near the town of Amalsad, in India, was pleased that reengineering the commodity marketing process had not only fetched a better price but had also eliminated the inefficiencies associated with marketing through the traditional channel—the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee trading yards, or mandies. However, he wondered whether further refining the grades would enhance the income of the members and asked his executives what other processes could be modified to benefit the members, especially in rendering services.

In 2014, the vice-president of Group Corporate Social Responsibility at Singtel, a Singapore-based provider of telecommunications products and services, was scrutinizing his proposal for the company's corporate social responsibility (CSR) transformation. He wanted to reposition Singtel's CSR approach to create greater social impact while demonstrating greater benefit to the company beyond promoting its branding and reputation. In doing so, he was mindful that the proposal would require greater financial investment on the part of the company. The proposal would also need to leverage the company's capabilities and partnerships and address the possibility of dropping its current beneficiaries. His team needed to convince the board of directors and senior management that the potential benefits of the proposed changes would be worth the financial investment and the possibility of reduced brand exposure.

DuckDuckGo, a late entrant in the search engine industry, was founded in 2008 by Gabriel Weinberg with the main purpose of protecting users' online privacy and raising the standard of trust online. DuckDuckGo earned a reputation for being the search engine that doesn’t track you, and despite initial hurdles, by 2017, it had emerged as one of the top 10 search engines in the world. DuckDuckGo had managed to successfully leverage increasing privacy concerns amid accusations of tracking made against other search engines. Weinberg was now contemplating how to compete against organizations with massive resources and reach the maximum number of people who were concerned about privacy yet unaware of the existence of his search engine.