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CreditAccess Grameen Limited (CAGL) was a successful company serving the credit requirements of the niche customer segment of lower income households. It was registered as a non-banking finance company microfinance institution (NBFC-MFI) and focused its loan book on a specified category of customers defined as inclusive customers. Given the nature of vulnerability of the customers, the segment as well as the organizations serving it, were open to several risks that went beyond the risks faced by mainstream banking and financial services companies. These included political risks as well as social risks, as evidenced in the Kolar crisis and the Andhra Pradesh (AP) crisis discussed in the case. CAGL had weathered many crises that hit the organization and sub-sector either due to regulatory over-reach or macroeconomic factors. CAGL was able to resiliently sail through this crisis given its flexible repayment systems, where the customer could choose the schedule. It recognized that the model of group guarantees was no longer effective, but nevertheless kept the system intact for the purpose of aggregation of transactions. The COVID-19 pandemic posed a challenge to group meetings and aggregation, as lockdowns and social distancing threatened the basic premise on which the Grameen model was built. CAGL was able to innovate even during this crisis - it leveraged its operational technology and focused on retaining customer loyalty and stickiness. With all these under the belt, CAGL was now ready for the next leap forward. With the transition of ownership from promoters to investors, CAGL had also moved from having a social orientation (sometimes at the cost of financial efficiency) to being an investor-driven corporation with social objectives. It therefore had to clearly delineate its commercial and social activities.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 209059.

Advent International, one of the world's leading private equity firms, must decide whether to acquire Walmart's subsidiary in Brazil or not. Although Walmart Brazil is losing cash at a rapid pace, Advent thinks it has a solid plan to recover the company's finances. However, there are several execution risks associated with the deal and local analysts are skeptical about the possibility of a quick turnaround.

Ivory Tower, the world's leading online education platform, is considering whether to accept payments and invest cash reserves in Bitcoin. The gung-ho CEO thinks the move is a no-brainer, but the board and the finance team have deep reservations. What should the CFO do? This fictional case study by Charles C.Y. Wang features expert commentary by Amrita Ahuja and Roxi Wen.

Ivory Tower, the world's leading online education platform, is considering whether to accept payments and invest cash reserves in Bitcoin. The gung-ho CEO thinks the move is a no-brainer, but the board and the finance team have deep reservations. What should the CFO do? This fictional case study by Charles C.Y. Wang features expert commentary by Amrita Ahuja and Roxi Wen.

Ivory Tower, the world's leading online education platform, is considering whether to accept payments and invest cash reserves in Bitcoin. The gung-ho CEO thinks the move is a no-brainer, but the board and the finance team have deep reservations. What should the CFO do? This fictional case study by Charles C.Y. Wang features expert commentary by Amrita Ahuja and Roxi Wen.

Officially launched on January 29, 2010, Bank of Singapore had grown rapidly in reputation and assets under management (AUM) over a short span of 11 years to become one of the fastest growing private banks in Asia. As of June 30, 2021, its AUM stood at US$125 billion. With the growth of family offices in Singapore, the demand for external intermediaries, such as the external asset managers (EAMs), to manage the growing wealth on the island had risen. Singapore's AUM by asset managers reached US$2.9 trillion in 2019 and it was estimated that EAMs accounted for 5% of the total AUM. Many private banks in Singapore had announced strategic plans to strengthen their presence in the EAM business. Bank of Singapore had to quickly compete with the foreign banks who had decades of experience managing the EAM businesses in Europe and United States. What strategies could the Bank implement to propel the bank's EAM business amidst competition? This case examines the EAM business from the perspective of Bank of Singapore as a custodian bank, the value propositions of Bank of Singapore in differentiating herself to the EAMs, the challenges faced, and the road ahead.

The case is about a sustainable investor firm, Nia Impact Capital (Nia) (Oakland, California), and its founder and CEO, Kristin Hull. Hull aims to invest in gender and racial justice and to make money with meaning and purpose. She brings the logic of impact investing to public markets, exercising active ownership, and engaging with portfolio companies, including Tesla, IBM, and Apple. Hull has a crusade for social justice and against mandatory arbitration. For that purpose, she filled shareholders resolutions and has had proxy votes in the 2020 and 2021 proxy seasons. The case focuses on Nia's engagement with Tesla and the 2021 proxy season. Tesla is a leader across the renewable energy sector but is in the news for sexual harassment and racial discrimination. In 2020, Nia submitted a shareholder resolution on Tesla's mandatory employee arbitration to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In her speech during the Tesla's shareholders in September 2020, Hull made her case against the company's forced arbitration for employee sexual harassment and racial discrimination claims. Tesla disputed the proposal, and Nia didn't get a shareholder's winning vote. Hull's crusade in 2020 towards Tesla received extensive media coverage and showed her strategy as an activist investor. In her words, "it was a win because it was an important move in a much larger and longer campaign." As part of her battle, Hull decided to raise her voice and fill again in October 2021. She thought that Nia's advocacy at Tesla was advocacy for the entire US. Nia's resolution on Tesla's proxy ballot was crucial to her strategy for "connecting the dots about forced arbitration." At the end of the case, Hull must prepare a proposal to the SEC and a speech to Tesla's Board. She thought about the impact on Nia's future strategy if they didn't get 50% of the shareholders' vote in Tesla's board meeting on 7 October 2021.

In 2018, the Lo family of Hong Kong held a combined 68% of Great Eagle Holdings (GEH), a publicly listed and one of the largest real estate conglomerates in Hong Kong, 33.5% through a family trust and the remainder through individual holdings. Only 32.5% of the company was in public hands. The case opened with Dr. LO Ka-shui (KS), chairman and managing director of GEH, musing about a deep and serious split in the family. Trained as a cardiologist, KS helped his father with the family business since 1980 and played a critical role in rescuing the company from near bankruptcy. Between 1984 and 2018, the Net Asset Value (NAV) of GEH expanded by 350 times as Hong Kong property values boomed. KS felt that he could take the credit for the company's success, as his father's right-hand man for most of that time, and chairman for the 12 years since his father's death in 2006, during which he expanded the company's assets, paid off debt, and raised HK$23 billion from capital markets. With the increase in his personal shareholdings to 27%, it raised questions among some of his eight siblings, despite the fact that his personal holdings were a matter of public knowledge. In 2016, KS' mother, Lo To Lee-kwan (Madam Lo), three of his brothers and two sisters challenged his control of the company, in a painful and very public family dispute focusing on the governing structure of the Lo family trust. The challenge not only put family control of GEH in jeopardy; it also raised questions about the ability of trust structures to maintain family unity in an Asian family business, where family unity and harmony, as well as wealth preservation and family values, are top priorities.

In February 2020, a social geographer at the University of Victoria was approached by one of the co-founders and managing partners of Raven Indigenous Capital Partners to develop an Indigenous impact measurement framework for the company. Raven Indigenous Capital Partners was founded in 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The founders launched the Raven Indigenous Impact Fund to invest in early-stage growth businesses started by Indigenous entrepreneurs. The ultimate goal was to increase the well-being of Indigenous communities in Canada, but the fund had to demonstrate to non-Indigenous impact investors that they could target, measure, and report their social impact while earning an annual rate of return of 6–8 per cent on their investment. The social geographer faced two key tasks. She had to develop an impact measurement framework that combined Indigenous and non-Indigenous approaches to measuring social and environmental impacts. She also had to engage the Indigenous community in reporting on these outcomes.

In February 2020, a social geographer at the University of Victoria was approached by one of the co-founders and managing partners of Raven Indigenous Capital Partners to develop an Indigenous impact measurement framework for the company. Raven Indigenous Capital Partners was founded in 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The founders launched the Raven Indigenous Impact Fund to invest in early-stage growth businesses started by Indigenous entrepreneurs. The ultimate goal was to increase the well-being of Indigenous communities in Canada, but the fund had to demonstrate to non-Indigenous impact investors that they could target, measure, and report their social impact while earning an annual rate of return of 6-8 per cent on their investment. The social geographer faced two key tasks. She had to develop an impact measurement framework that combined Indigenous and non-Indigenous approaches to measuring social and environmental impacts. She also had to engage the Indigenous community in reporting on these outcomes.

The share price of EOH Holdings Ltd. (EOH), a company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and Africa’s largest technology service provider, decreased by over 30 per cent in December 2017 following allegations of fraud in relation to a corporate action within the group. Despite strong denials by the then–group chief executive officer (CEO), Zunaid Mayet, EOH’s market value continued to plummet, from a peak of 22 billion South African rand to 4 billion. In September 2018, Mayet was replaced as group CEO by Stephen van Coller, a former banker and telecommunications executive, who recruited a new executive team, replaced the board, and contracted out an unfettered internal corruption investigation. By June 2020, van Coller was wondering whether he and his management team had done enough to prove to the market that EOH was an organization once again worthy of trust and investment. Had they taken sufficient steps to restore EOH’s reputation? Had they earned the right to push the board to approve the next phase of EOH’s turnaround?

Greenpac (Singapore) Private Limited (Greenpac) was a green packaging solution provider led by the founder and chief executive officer. Under her vision, Greenpac aimed to become a world-class knowledge-based company that offered innovative and environmentally friendly packaging solutions. Greenpac was also a champion of corporate social responsibility (CSR), advocating for environmental sustainability and social issues. In 2019, the head of the CSR team was tasked with evaluating the company’s current CSR efforts and suggesting strategies to advance Greenpac’s CSR efforts. She has the results of three published evaluation frameworks to use and an engagement survey of company employees and executives.

The share price of EOH Holdings Ltd. (EOH), a company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and Africa's largest technology service provider, decreased by over 30 per cent in December 2017 following allegations of fraud in relation to a corporate action within the group. Despite strong denials by the then-group chief executive officer (CEO), Zunaid Mayet, EOH's market value continued to plummet, from a peak of 22 billion South African rand to 4 billion. In September 2018, Mayet was replaced as group CEO by Stephen van Coller, a former banker and telecommunications executive, who recruited a new executive team, replaced the board, and contracted out an unfettered internal corruption investigation. By June 2020, van Coller was wondering whether he and his management team had done enough to prove to the market that EOH was an organization once again worthy of trust and investment. Had they taken sufficient steps to restore EOH's reputation? Had they earned the right to push the board to approve the next phase of EOH's turnaround?

Greenpac (Singapore) Private Limited (Greenpac) was a green packaging solution provider led by the founder and chief executive officer. Under her vision, Greenpac aimed to become a world-class knowledge-based company that offered innovative and environmentally friendly packaging solutions. Greenpac was also a champion of corporate social responsibility (CSR), advocating for environmental sustainability and social issues. In 2019, the head of the CSR team was tasked with evaluating the company's current CSR efforts and suggesting strategies to advance Greenpac's CSR efforts. She has the results of three published evaluation frameworks to use and an engagement survey of company employees and executives.

This case focuses on the growth journey of HP Wealth Management (HPWM), an early pioneer in the external asset manager (EAM) sector in Singapore. This case is motivated by two observations: (1) the inception of HPWM during a time of crisis when confidence in financial institutions was lost, and (2) the growth of EAMs in Singapore as her private banking sector matures. The case examines the motivations of the founders of HPWM in switching from salaried employees in private banking to entrepreneurs in a nascent EAM sector, in 2009. It goes on to examine the business and revenue models of a typical EAM and the value propositions of the EAM model to high net worth clients. The case then explores HPWM's differentiated value propositions to clients, which provides a competitive edge over other EAMs and the incumbent private banks. The case presents the investment philosophy of HPWM, the challenges, and the strategies adopted by HPWM. Lastly, it prompts the reader to think deeply of how HPWM can beat the competition and grow to the next level.

This case provides the opportunity to perform a real, but simplified, ESG research analysis and portfolio investment decision from the perspective of an impact investor. It was designed using Triodos Investment Management (Triodos) and three well-known (possibly controversial) companies, Yamaha Corporation, Tesla and Philip Morris International (PMI). Students, as candidates for a research analyst position at Triodos, are asked to analyze the three companies, focusing on an ESG assessment following Triodos's investment approach. They need to provide a compelling statement about the companies' value propositions, as well as their positive and negative impact on people and the planet. They must build a comprehensive investment case that explains the rationale for (i) investing with no reservations, (ii) investing and engaging on controversies, or (iii) excluding Tesla, Yamaha and/or PMI and describe why the companies are good, potentially good or not good for the planet and for people. Students must weigh the controversial ESG issues resulting in a decision either to invest with engagement or to exclude the companies from Triodos's portfolio against the innovative products and future potential of the companies. Henk Jonker, Head of Research, Impact Equities & Bonds at Triodos, invites IMD MBA students to apply for a research analyst. He wants entrepreneurial and "out-of-the-box" thinkers who push the limits of traditional financial analysis. The case tests students' affinity with Triodos's mission and vision, their analytical and financial skills, and whether they have a results-oriented, well-organized and problem-solving attitude. It examines their ability to integrate ESG criteria in their recommendation to include the companies in Triodos's fund or exclude them. During an interview, Jonker aims to evaluate the students' insights about their role as sustainable investors and the impact of their decisions on people and the planet.