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In 2014, the Patient Room of the Future (PRoF) was the largest European open innovation consortium in the healthcare sector. Established in 2009 by a group of manufacturers who were suppliers to the health care sector, PRoF brought more than 300 professionals from multiple disciplines and industries together to think about and contribute to the future of the health care industry. The consortium derived its power from a novel interdisciplinary approach, resulting in the successful completion of four projects. Yet its future presented many unanswered questions: How would PRoF continue to provide an innovative and dynamic environment for its members and stakeholders in the healthcare sector? How would PRoF’s projects achieve large-scale adoption, and what resources were needed to do that? What was the next step in the consortium’s development?

In January 2016, the chief executive officer of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals (AGH) was reflecting on the 12-year journey that had led to the establishment of AGH as the strongest pillar of holistic healthcare in Eastern India. AGH brought together the best infrastructure, equipment, people, and systems to serve the people of Eastern India with end-to-end tertiary healthcare. The institution grew with a continuous drive for expanding knowledge, introducing the latest technologies, and building a culture of compassion and care. However, AGH’s success had led to a shift in focus, drawing the attention of several leading tertiary care hospitals to the untapped healthcare delivery potential in Eastern India. This shift meant increased competition for AGH and higher expectations from its customers. AGH wanted to maintain its leadership position and better understand the organization’s future challenges and focus areas. Which business model would best serve the people of India: expanding the current location or launching a multi-location facility? How could AGH maintain its current high level of recognition, expertise, and availability?

In the spring of 2015, a marketing professor from Indore City in India was looking for an academic, entrepreneurial opportunity that would allow him to work alongside his wife. The professor came across a franchise proposal for a preschool with Delhi-based Wonder Kidz Education Pvt. Ltd. The total investment in the project would be approximately ?625,000, and cash profits would come in the first year. After discussing the opportunity with the company’s director, the professor was interested in taking on the franchise. However, not being an expert in finance, he was confused about the calculations and decided to seek an opinion on the financial feasibility of the project before making his decision.

Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone company founded in 2010, had quickly become an industry leader in the Chinese market. By 2016 it had started to expand internationally, and this case lays out the company's globalization strategies and challenges moving forward. Hugo Barra, a top Android executive, had left Google a few years earlier to lead Xiaomi's international growth. Xiaomi's founder and CEO, Lei Jun, said the company's ultimate goal was "making good but cheap things," a low pricing strategy that had succeeded in China. The company sold over 70 million mobile phones in 2015-while aggressively building out a robust ecosystem. However, Xiaomi had expected to sell 80 to 100 million units that year; it was facing a declining domestic market and increased competition. Therefore, international expansion had become an important part of the company's overall strategy. But expanding to other countries would be a challenging road. For one, it would take considerable time and effort to tailor the company's Android-based MIUI operating system for diversified markets-and obtain market-access qualifications. Xiaomi's patent portfolio was thin compared to those of large competitors, and it ran the risk of lawsuits from companies that held patent rights in the countries it wanted to enter. Other challenges included building out sales channels, output capacity, and cross-culture management development. Xiaomi's international plan included ten countries in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The next year or two would be critical for Xiaomi-and it needed to make the right strategic decisions to succeed in its globalization efforts.

In late 2011, Netflix was migrating from its highly successful business model of delivering DVDs by mail to streaming movies and other media content directly to subscribers' televisions. To be profitable, Netflix decided to charge more for receiving DVDs by mail—a service that its existing customers had come to expect as a minor add-on to their original subscription arrangement. This charge led to a huge backlash: subscribers defected and Netflix's stock price dropped. Netflix faced the dilemma of remaining profitable in the video streaming business while paying much more for content and dealing with competition that had been absent in its DVD-by-mail business model. The company was at a crossroads; the path it chose would affect its future. Should it return to combining the two services or continue with two separate services and live with the consequences?<br><br>This case is a follow-up to Netflix, 9B09M093, and precedes Netflix: Proving the Skeptics Wrong, 9B16M081.

Netflix, a subscription-based movie and television show rental service, offered content to subscribers either via DVDs delivered by mail, or through Internet-based streaming. After splitting the two services, the company lost subscribers, and its stock price plummeted. Most observers were skeptical that Netflix could maintain its profit margins, given the increased cost of acquiring streamable content. However, Netflix not only reduced its cost per user but also increased its subscriber growth both in the United States and internationally. Were these moves sufficient to deliver the growth needed to support its rising stock price? Netflix also faced increased streaming costs because it used disproportionately more bandwidth than other streaming companies. Would these costs mean that the Netflix business model was no longer viable?<br><br>This is a follow-up case to Netflix, 9B09M093, which describes the company’s innovative business model of delivering DVDs by mail, and Netflix Inc.: The Second Act—Moving into Streaming, 9B16M080, which describes the after-effects of the dual-subscription model.

Infinity Life Insurance Company was a joint venture between two Indian public sector banks and a U.K.-based insurance firm. The company began its operations in November 2009, as the youngest entrant in the life insurance market in India. Within three years of launching operations, it ranked among the top 10 private firms for new business premiums. When the joint venture project started, the senior leadership group identified numerous challenges and various strategies to address those challenges (detailed in this case). The company connected its basic business strategies to a set of human resource strategies, which were then applied through various human resource processes (detailed in case B). With the Indian government focusing on further liberalization in the insurance sector, the joint venture needed to be ready for the next leap. Which processes should it continue, and which needed to be changed?

Supplement for product 9B16C036.

After a year at AW Ltd., a family-owned Indian pharmaceutical company, a change management agent was disillusioned about her ability to add value to the organization or gain buy-in for her change initiative. Although she was adept at information collection, data analysis, and using tools for organizational intervention, she had failed to account for softer issues of change management in terms of people management, handling inertia, breaking power centres, and building influence. Management of group inclusion processes were crucial to build buy-in and a sense of urgency to enact change. Why exactly had her change management process gone so badly? Should she continue at the firm and, if so, what should she do differently?

In late 2010,the director general of the Industrial Sectors Directorate at Environment Canada, was reviewing a draft work plan for the Air Quality Management System (AQMS), a regulatory project to deal with Canada’s transboundary air pollution problems. Though some of the key elements of AQMS were in place and director general had the support of co-chairs from Alberta and Ontario, she had to develop a series of briefings on her strategy before the end of 2010 so that she could gain approval from her deputy minister and minister.

In 2016, the owner of Sarda Farms, a dairy farm in western India, was preparing for a meeting with the company’s senior management. Since the dairy’s launch in 2011, its production processes had stabilized; however, the daily demand for its milk was projected to increase substantially in six months, from 15,000 litres to 25,000 litres. Because the farm was already operating at near capacity, the output and efficiencies of all processes were under scrutiny. Sarda Farms needed to improve its efficiencies to meet the increase in demand, and the owner needed to finalize his strategy for improvements with senior management in one week’s time.

In 2014, an analyst with a leading investment company wanted to evaluate the financial performance of a kitchen appliances company, TTK Prestige Ltd., headquartered in Bangalore, India. To accomplish this task, the analyst decided to use the economic value added (EVA)-based performance measure, which accorded importance to value creation by management for its shareholders. Recently, there had been a shift away from traditional approaches of measuring shareholder value creation (e.g., earning capitalization and present value of estimated cash flow) towards more value-added approaches like EVA, which offered a more effective method for evaluating financial performance.

To improve its profitability, NKT Photonics A/S (NKT), a small Danish company operating in the global photonics industry, was getting ready to undertake the commercialization process of its highly advanced optical fibre technology. NKT’s chief executive officer (CEO) was considering two options for accomplishing this goal: (1) establishing strategic partnerships with system integrators in order to gain access to commercial customers, or (2) repositioning NKT as a system integrator by embarking on an acquisition strategy. Turning the company into a more commercial entity would mean a complete change of culture. It might also result in the loss of some top engineering and scientific minds and perhaps even the company's reputation. The CEO wondered if there a way to effectively introduce a business mindset to the organization while still preserving its innovation-based DNA.

In May 2014, Julie Hallman was about to assume the presidency of the struggling non-profit arts organization, the Falaise Foundation, which offered a residence for small groups of artists and scholars from around the world to work on creative endeavours at its extensive property in the South of France. The foundation was suffering financially due to a combination of weak fundraising, high operating costs, an ineffective board of trustees, and a murky relationship between the founding family and the foundation. Complicating matters was Hallman’s personal situation: she was the daughter of the foundation’s founder, who had run the organization his own way for decades until health issues forced him to step down. As a documentary filmmaker with a degree in Fine Arts, Julie Hallman had no business background. She had to develop an understanding of the root causes of the foundation’s problems and identify a set of strategies and actions to effect a successful turnaround.

Online social network service provider Five One Network Development Co. Ltd. (51.com) was founded in August 2005 and entered the online game industry in 2011, when browser games became popular in China. Although it continuously invested in developing online games, it had failed to reach its goal of becoming one of the top 10 companies in China. The online game industry had seen fierce competition and was finding it difficult to retain talented employees, who were leaving to start their own businesses. This problem, referred to as a “brain drain,” was also increasing the number of emerging profitable start-ups, especially in the mobile game segment. To overcome these internal and external challenges, 51.com decided to apply a new strategic approach: launching a series of new spin-off businesses from within the company. However, competition between the spin-offs seemed unavoidable. How would 51.com manage the relationships between the new spin-off businesses?

Founded in 2006, Pacific Drilling was a fast-growing offshore drilling company. From the beginning, the company’s chief executive officer was determined to create a unique drilling company by focusing exclusively on ultra-deepwater drilling and technological innovation. By the end of 2014, the company had more than 1,600 employees and was generating US$1 billion in annual revenues. However, the company also faced several challenges, such as being overly reliant on one key customer (Chevron) and the high costs of differentiation. With oil prices plummeting, the company was struggling to acquire new customers. To what extent could the company rely on what it had successfully accomplished in the past, and to what extent would it need to create and adapt to a new strategy?

In 2011, the chief executive officer of Singh Security Systems Limited, an Indian company that designed and manufactured security systems, wanted to expand the scale of operations. He located a partner, the business leader of a construction company that specialized in security systems, in Doha, Qatar. Together, they drew a lucrative plan to execute turnkey projects in security systems in Qatar. However, the best candidate to lead the partnership in Qatar was a woman, who was keen to pursue the position, but would be the only woman in a position of authority in a 180-member organization, in a male-dominated country. The business leader of the Qatari firm was hesitant to hire a woman to run the project. Should the company reconsider assigning a woman project manager to Qatar?

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Best Teaching Case Studies Award at the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI)</strong></p><br>In 2014, as one of the most well-known Taiwanese cuisine brands, Din Tai Fung operated more than 100 restaurants around the world. Attracted by its signature xialongbao (soup dumpling), long queues of customers at Din Tai Fung’s storefront were a common sight. Requests for partnerships for global expansion were constantly arriving. Customer feedback from overseas, however, suggested a notable gap in service quality between the overseas and Taiwanese branches. The demand for support by overseas branches had also surged significantly due to the fast pace of growth in recent years. The company’s chief executive officer had deferred his plan to open the 10th branch in Taiwan. Nevertheless, plans to open new branches in overseas markets were enthusiastically evaluated by existing partners. Two new potential partnership offers from Dubai and the Philippines were being aggressively pursued. What was the best way to cope with the increasing number of requests for support from overseas branches and to ensure high quality? Should Din Tai Fung approve the two overseas offers for partnership that seemed promising? What was the best overseas expansion strategy?

Saksham Wealth Solutions P. Ltd. (Saksham), founded in 2005, was an investment company that survived the challenges of the Indian wealth management industry and the ups and downs of the financial market. Saksham’s success was due in part to a strategy of building trust with clients and educating them about the nuances of creating wealth through various financial instruments. Transparency, assistance, timely advice, and a goal-oriented approach were considered the company’s essential services. In 2008, the company turned down a purchase proposal from top international bankers who valued Saksham at three times its annual profit. Ten years later, Saksham was four times bigger. If a similar offer were made, should Saksham take it?

Shree Balaji Alumnicast Pvt. Ltd. (SBA) was a successful Indian metal recycling company and a pioneer in creating sustainable customer value through its closed-loop supply chain. In 2009, its biggest customer demanded a 15 per cent price reduction on alloys and threatened to withdraw its entire business if SBA failed to meet its demand within a given time frame. This customer contributed a significant share of SBA’s revenue and was thus indispensable. SBA could not simultaneously offer a price discount and retain its margins, which were already declining, through its current business and manufacturing practices. The company needed to rethink its strategy in order to maintain its growth trajectory, and find a better way of managing costs.