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Israel had experienced great change since its founding in 1948 to become arguably the most prosperous nation in the Middle East. With the exception of the United States and more recently China, Israel had more companies listed on the NASDAQ than any other. It spent a larger percentage of its budget on research and development than any other country in the world. Multinational companies like Intel, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Motorola, Mitsubishi, Hewlett Packard, Deutsche Telekom and eBay had set up significant operations there. Within 50 years of its establishment, Israel had experienced unprecedented economic growth. But despite its many successes, the country remained in a constant state of conflict. The Arab-Israeli conflict lingered, and Israel and its geographic neighbors had strained relationships. Could Israel market itself to tourists and businesses despite its constant state of conflict? How should it do so? Was it better to focus on a national narrative or pursue city or industry marketing and branding?

Since 1996, Indigo Books and Music had grown to become essentially a book retail monopoly in Canada. But the global recession had hit the company hard, and the chief executive officer (CEO) was focused on creating innovation at every level of the national operation. The hope was that Indigo would eventually be able to compete internationally with giants such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Nobles. How to stabilize the company's financials while at the same time creating and promoting creative product lines that customers would crave was the critical question that the CEO had to answer if her company was to thrive in the future.

<p style="color: rgb(197, 183, 131);"><strong> AWARD WINNER - Responsible Leadership category, 2014 European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition</strong></p><br>In February 2014, a McKinsey Global Institute report proposed tracking an empowerment line that could enable India’s citizens to get out of poverty by providing the resources they needed to build better lives. This prompted Ela Bhatt, founder of the India-based Self-Employed Women’s Association, to take stock of her initiative to empower women working in India's informal sector. Since 1972, her organization has been widely acclaimed as a global first mover and active champion of grassroots development. Quickly approaching two million members in India and six neighbouring countries, and inspiring similar efforts in South Africa, Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso, it exemplifies a unique form of positively deviant organizing by speaking to the centrality of human beings at work. Given resources, support and encouragement, its many members have used their own human agency even in the direst of circumstances to better their lives in ways most meaningful to them, for instance, by creating childcare, health care, banking, farming and education cooperatives. However, as she reaches retirement and contemplates the future, Bhatt wonders if the new generation of Indian leaders will take up the Gandhian socially minded path or follow the commercial careers opening up in the country’s multinational sector. Also see B case 9B14C019.

Supplment to 9B14C018.

Safe Water Network, a charity initiative focused on providing underserved populations with clean drinking water, established its first site in the village of Nizampally, India. This initiative was unique in a number of ways in its conception as well as its execution. Firstly, after vigorous assessment of the identified region, demand-driven solutions were customized to deal with the specific water-related issues of the region. Secondly, it was supported by prominent Indian and international companies who not only provided monetary support but also extended assistance in terms of technology, assessment and further research. Thirdly, the project was economically sustainable and required active participation and ownership by the community it served. Safe Water Network’s directors hoped to scale up and sustain the adoption of the Safe Water project. The commitment and participation of the villagers was truly heartening but would this enthusiasm continue? Would the villagers see value in this expenditure? Were there any barriers to the project’s adoption?

The Volkswagen Group (VW Group) had set a firm-wide "Strategy 2018," which sought to make Volkswagen "the most successful and fascinating automaker in the world by 2018." According to the strategy, the company would reach annual sales of 10 million vehicles worldwide. To achieve this ambitious goal, VW Group placed "intelligent innovations and technologies" at the top of its agenda. Big data, broadly defined, represented an important opportunity for the company. In this exercise, the class will be divided into teams, and each team will design an initiative that leverages big data to help the VW Group make significant progress towards its objective. The teams will present their initiatives at the upcoming executive meeting, at which time the best initiative will be selected.

China has no lack of entrepreneurs, market demand, or wealth, but can the country succeed in its quest to become the world's innovation leader? For nearly 40 years, the government has been establishing research programs and high-tech zones, encouraging domestic firms to boost their innovation capacity, and helping colleges and universities flourish. Recently it declared its intention to transform China into "an innovative society" by 2020 and a world leader in science and technology by 2050. But against the government's intentions and resources run some powerful currents. Communist Party representatives must be present in companies with more than 50 employees--a requirement that constrains competitive and entrepreneurial behavior. And many Chinese companies have found that the rewards for incremental improvements are so vast that there's little incentive to pursue breakthroughs. Certainly, China has shown a potential for innovation and has the capacity to do much more. But will the state have the wisdom to lighten up?

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the most successful sports leagues in the world. Under the leadership of David Stern, the NBA has undergone unprecedented globalization. An NBA game in 2007 between the Rockets and Bucks — featuring the meeting of two Chinese players — drew an estimated 250 million television viewers in China. In 2008, a local, independent company, NBA China, was created and majority-controlled by the NBA, taking the NBA’s business in China to the next level. Up until now, China has been the NBA’s number one market outside the United States by a large margin. However, nothing comes easily. Social networking services have developed quickly, redefining how fans watch games and interact with each other; the traditional merchandise strategy based on franchised stores is being challenged by booming online businesses; the annual NBA China Games are no longer able to satiate Chinese fans’ growing appetite for games; relations with the government-affiliated Chinese Basketball Association are tense; and no Chinese have played in the NBA since Yao Ming’s retirement. Facing all these challenges in a nation with an entirely foreign system and culture, what should the new CEO of NBA China do?

Since 1976, Yamato had enjoyed steady growth in the Japanese domestic parcel delivery market. Yamato had maintained its leading position in Japan through its highly acclaimed TA-Q-BIN service. However, with changing demographics and market conditions, the business landscape had been changing. Overdependence on the domestic delivery business limited the overall growth of Yamato. Furthermore, the growth of the TA-Q-BIN business in Japan was limited by the stagnant growth of Japan’s economy. Makoto Kigawa, president and then chairman of Yamato Transport, had been relentlessly pursuing business restructuring as well as promoting productivity improvements. His goal was to increase the share of the delivery business related to overseas markets from four to twenty per cent of total revenue by the time of Yamato’s centennial celebrations in 2019. How could he successfully implement the TA-Q-BIN service system in overseas markets such as Taiwan, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Malaysia?

Founded in 1973 with a vision of inclusion, integration and normalization, Monnikenheide had pioneered a series of innovative approaches to improve the quality of life of people with mental disabilities. It had introduced some of its practices to local partners in China, India and Indonesia and now had the most sought-after facilities in Belgium for families with special-needs children and other family members. At the age of 69, the co-founder of Monnikenheide felt the necessity to plan for the transition for Monnikenheide, and decided to appoint her third son to be the director of the board. Her son and the board were confronted with how to evaluate the options for the transition. Should it continue as an independent organization or join a larger group with adequate organizational capabilities? How should Monnikenheide go about meeting its financial targets? Should Monnikenheide play a bigger role globally and, if so, how?

By 2013, Sobey’s Inc., one of Canada`s largest food retailers, had initiated a number of programs in order to reduce its environmental footprint and to try to meet the public’s expectations that business would address such sustainability issues as waste management, genetically modified products and food safety. At the top of Sobey’s agenda was to develop a sustainable seafood strategy. While data collection, metric selection, employee incentives and customer education were important parts of this emerging strategy, a central decision was what products to choose to sell or not to sell. Certain major competitors had announced that they would sell only “certified sustainable” seafood, an approach strongly advocated by well-known environmental organizations. Sobey’s, on the other hand, decided that to abandon uncertified seafood would not only hamper its bottom line but also would eliminate its ability to push the very fisheries that needed more guidance towards better practices. Yet, to continue to sell “red zone” seafood was very controversial and could jeopardize Sobey’s standing as a leader in sustainable practices — an outcome that could have serious negative consequences in the marketplace. In this context, the vice-president of sustainability had to implement a sustainable seafood strategy by year’s end.

Having positioned itself from the beginning as a global enterprise in information technology, Infosys benchmarked its governance practices with the best in the world right from the start, focusing on the importance of performance appraisal at all levels, including that of the board. Indeed, Infosys broke fresh ground when it introduced a model of Peer Review at the board level wherein each board member would annually review the performance of every other individual member of the board. Launched as the personal initiative of the chairman of the board and chief mentor – who also designed its process framework – the Peer Review was meant to raise the stature of corporate governance at Infosys. <br><br>More than seven years later, Infosys launched Board Review, a more common form of performance appraisal wherein each individual member of the board would annually review the performance of the board as a whole during the previous year. As he re-examined Peer Review in light of this new model of appraisal, the chairman of the board had to decide if Peer Review was serving its purpose, if it was damaging to boardroom collegiality, and how to institutionalize performance appraisal processes before he retired.

Potatoes are grown across 130 countries and form the largest non-cereal food crop consumed in large per-capita measures in some of the Eastern European and South American countries. India is the world’s third-largest producer of the crop and is estimated to consume about 25 million tonnes each year. Calcutta-based Sumangal Industries Limited launched a high yield investment program under the banner of the Flexi-Potato Purchase Scheme. Market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), took exception to the company’s collecting uncollateralized deposits from the members of the public without due registration, and issued prohibitive orders.<br><br>This case puts the facts underlying the offering in perspective and conducts a micro-economic analysis to assess the strengths of the business proposition. The statistical analyses reveal that the volatility and predictability of seasonal pricing patterns that the company seeks to exploit may not continue beyond the short-term. Further, the early success of the scheme is likely to attract entry into the segment, thereby squeezing arbitrage margins and enhancing business process costs. This case also lays out facts relating to exogenous influences on the local potato market and encourages policy makers to adequately inform potential investors as a means to empower them to make sound resource allocation decisions. The conclusions of the case could be applied beyond West Bengal, and beyond India, to other agricultural produce and pyramidal investment schemes, qualified by local conditions.

As Fei Cheng Wu Rao, China's most popular entertainment program, enters its fourth year, company leaders grapple with questions of how to keep the show fresh and reach new markets. In particular, the show is poised to expand to Africa, yet there are significant questions about how to tailor a program designed to capture the attention of a unique demographic within China to new cultural contexts.

Eikon Device Ltd, a tattoo equipment and supplies firm, has to choose between several alternatives. Their core business is the production of tattoo needles and the power supply that makes tattoo machines operate, selling primarily into the United States and Canada. With increasing international demand however, should they consider establishing a distribution facility abroad? Alternatively, since much of their success is derived from catering to the specific needs of tattoo artists, should Eikon expand its product line for the North American market? At the same time, competition from China has emerged to push Eikon out of its core markets. Eikon management has to prioritize their initiatives.

In February 2012, a human resources appointment attracted wide attention from China's domestic lubricating oil industry. The iconic general manager of Shell Tongyi (Beijing) Petroleum Chemical Co., Ltd. officially took the position as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Huo's Group, thus returning to work for his former boss, the founder of the former Tongyi Lubricating Oil. Before the merger between Tongyi and Shell in 2006, the private entrepreneur and the professional manager had jointly created the well-known Tongyi Lubricating Oil and were renowned as perfect partners by many in the business media. In 2012, their hope was to achieve glory again on this wider business platform - Huo's Group. Was this likely?

Ethiopian Airlines plans to expand its African market base to become a leading airline in the continent. As part of the airline’s multi-hub strategy, the vice-president of alliances and corporate strategy and his team must identify a suitable hub location and decide on the appropriate mode and level of ownership. Success in the first hub is essential as it will both validate the viability of the multi-hub strategy and set the tone for the establishment of subsequent hubs throughout the continent. The vice-president and his team need to resolve three issues: location of the first hub, entry mode and ownership level.

After spending a few years in the corporate world, in 2012, a young entrepreneur in India decided to start up his own venture developing mobile applications that supported interactive comic content. Called TodTales, the innovative e-comic would incorporate music, interactive games and augmented reality in a comic book format that would encourage young children to read. He had raised the initial seed funding from his own and his partner’s personal resources and an angel investor. The prototype was ready for demonstration and received positive responses from parents during a focus group study conducted in Mumbai. With the hope of going commercial by the end of 2014, the founder knew that he should start the next stage of development by convincing prospective investors that his idea had commercial potential and would quickly find a market not only in India but around the world.

Established in 2004, Facebook had shown stupendous growth. However, faced with the evolving mobile communication industry and increasing competition, the company was on the lookout to increase its user base by acquiring WhatsApp. Was it the right decision for Facebook to acquire WhatsApp — and at the steep price of $19 billion? From WhatsApp’s perspective, the company’s founder wanted to continue with his vision of connecting people, irrespective of the decision involving Facebook. Should WhatsApp sell its assets to Facebook or should it insist on an equity alliance instead?

In 2012, the general manager at the Seoul location of a European manufacturing company faces an ethical dilemma involving bribery and “facilitation” payments. A key decision maker in a local construction company’s purchasing department has asked for a “facilitation” payment as a necessary condition for securing an order. If the expatriate manager decides to pay the money, he will secure an order that will lift his company to a new level of success for years to come. If he decides not to pay, the order and all the company has worked for over the last year will be lost. The expatriate manager must decide whether or not the payment would violate laws internationally, locally and in his home country. What are the real risks? Who can help him answer the many questions he has regarding this local practice?