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SEPTEMBER 2020: Adam Tejpaul and Gabriele Zaninetti were just tasked with the most transformative project J.P. Morgan Private Bank had faced in over 15 years, i.e. the integration of advisory services as part of their offerings. Adam knew the private banking industry inside-out and had witnessed all major changes in the private banking industry. J.P. Morgan private bank was renowned for the quality of its services and an insightful advising culture, but it needed to capitalize on its strengths, namely its strong due diligence and advisory services. How could Adam convince the organization that a change in the investment service model was needed despite being profitable? What options did Adam have to change the advisory model and prepare the bank for the new market environment? How would the new model answer the needs of internal (advisors) and external (clients) customers? How could he implement such an important IT-heavy initiative to bring the most value to the client advisors and clients? What would be the key success factors in this new technology- and fee-based advisory model? What options did they have to implement Engage within J.P. Morgan's IT infrastructure?

MAY 2022: The planning phase for the Engage project has taken way too long, in part because the technological platform was so critical to the success of the project. After months of discussions with a fintech company, a proof of concept had been delivered, showing promising results but it was still far from the fully integrated solution that had been promised. The final quote for the full project finally came in late and higher than expected. This was a big setback for Adam and Gabriele. They thought they had signed up with a development partner, but now they had the distinct impression the fintech saw its role more as a simple service provider, agreeing to client requests without bringing up the cost issues. Adam was particularly upset as he had spent countless days with the technology provider to make sure they understood the requirements and came up with a realistic budget ahead of time. The time felt wasted now, with the whole project on the brink of a complete breakdown. Without the technology-enabled platform delivering the functionalities needed, the whole transition to a new active advisory function was in trouble... There was barely enough time to negotiate again with the fintech. Was it time to reconsider doing it internally? Was it even reasonable to expect they might be able to salvage the project by going to another solution provider? Were they in any way responsible for the budget creep, thanks to the engagement of some many parties, each with its own requirements? How could they ensure Engage did not head for the trash bin of project history? They still believed, but maybe it was time to put milestones and deadlines to the dreams. Very much the definition of strategy...

Teresa Ward, founder of Grandma Treesaw’s Bannock (GTB), had recently received positive media coverage from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and was hoping to leverage it to grow her Yukon-based bannock-mix business. She was considering two options: expand her direct to consumer offer by working with Shopify Inc. to improve GTB’s e-commerce sales or grow her product portfolio by introducing two new flavours of bannock mix. A few questions loomed in Teresa’s mind: Could she do both? Did GTB have the organizational resources to pursue this expansion plan successfully? What should her implementation timeline look like? What financial analysis would need to be done to support the decision-making process? She wanted to decide which option to pursue in the next three to four weeks.

Like other small shops based in Chongqing, China, Zongshen Industrial Group started by assembling motorcycles from "standard" parts. The quality of its early products was good enough for rural Chinese buyers, though wealthier consumers usually purchased premium Japanese-made models. Zongshen struggled to differentiate itself since its competitors assembled motorcycles using essentially the same parts. This case looks at its struggles and how it continued to grow and improve. This is a classic setting for disruptive innovation, and the case offers insight into the mechanisms.

Set in April 2022, the case chronicles how Kering-owned luxury-fashion house Gucci underwent a comprehensive creative and cultural transformation, making it more inclusive, agile and digital. Faced with the emergence of the metaverse, Gucci decided to take the lead, bargaining that a test-and-learn approach would mitigate the risk of operating in such a loosely defined, unproven domain. Under the direction of EVP of Brand and Customer Engagement Robert Triefus, Gucci ran a number of experiments in social gaming, established a dedicated metaverse team, launched NFT drops and scooped virtual real estate. As the cash-flow engine of Kering, Gucci could afford to explore the metaverse without needing to generate revenue immediately. But, as Gucci set ambitious medium-term performance targets for itself and competitors flocked to the metaverse, Triefus and his colleagues had to address several questions; from sizing the addressable and obtainable market opportunity to seizing its innovation potential.

Spreadsheet supplement for case LBS344.

Set in September 2018, the case describes De Beers' attempt to halt the escalating disruption to its core business posed by diamonds grown in laboratories. Since its inception over a century ago, De Beers had created and nurtured the perception of diamonds as rare objects and exclusive symbols of love. But lab-grown diamond makers now had the capabilities to mass-produce and sell at a discount diamonds with the same optical, chemical and physical characteristics as natural ones, possibly jeopardising the entire mined-diamond industry. To counter the threat, De Beers introduced its own lab-grown diamond jewellery brand, called Lightbox. Lightbox diamonds were positioned as cheerful fashion items and sold directly to consumers at a substantial discount to generic lab-grown diamonds. Over its history, De Beers had had a remarkable track record of dwarfing competition. Would it succeed this time?

Spreadsheet supplement for case LBS346.

This case tells the story of Included Health, a U.S. health care venture born from the unification of a major virtual care provider and two health care navigation platforms. The company's overarching mission is to raise the standard of health care for everyone by becoming a single source where all of a patient's services are provided - such that the patient is fully supported physically and financially. As of late 2023, it served tens of millions of individual members across America, counting as clients 32 of the Fortune 100 companies. We enter the case almost three years since the merger of the health navigation platform that Included Health's CEO Owen Tripp first founded, Grand Rounds, and the virtual care provider Doctor On Demand. He and Dr. Ami Parekh, the chief health officer, are at a crossroads. As the case describes their options for strategic direction going forward, Included Health becomes a window into several important industry themes: rethinking future models of in-person care, government regulation of virtual care after its boom during the COVID-19 pandemic, opportunities and challenges of incorporating AI, the increasing "consumerism" in health care, the primary care doctor shortage, and more.

University murders are not isolated brutal events. Fears ignited on campus compromise student learning and personal growth. When violence disrupts a campus, the integrity of education is violated. Anxieties and uncertainties brought by harassments and threats impair the welfare of faculty, staff, students, and their surrounding communities. This case traces intricacies and impacts of a graduate student's harassment and violent threats to faculty and staff for nearly a year. There is no intention to summarize all aspects of the analysts' report on which this case is based, including descriptions of 955 distinct events related directly to this murder. Rather, the objective of this case is to capture the evolution of information, judgments, decisions, and actions during a crisis, as well as the contextual impact of organizational culture and norms, and to provoke readers' insights and judgment regarding crisis management successes and failures.

A project's scope specifies the work needed to deliver a product, service, or result, given specified features and functions. At its core, scoping a project requires accurately predicting the allocation of resources for a given initiative in a way that forecasts answers to questions about performance, including timeline, cost, and deliverables. Such a skill is highly valued by organizations but is rarely taught formally. This technical note offers an overview of project scoping, defining related terms and tools such as project charters, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and action plans. It places project scoping in organizational context and discusses drivers and indicators of scope quality, along with potential pitfalls.

Amid the global shift towards remote working, Brad Merchant of Triovest uses a systems thinking approach to examine the evolving dynamics of office spaces. As corporations debate remote work, the demand for physical offices is in question. Triovest, a Canadian commercial real estate firm, is strategizing with a working investment thesis, "The Future of the Office." This approach involves buying undervalued office properties, modernizing them, and reselling them. Merchant and his team need to predict the interplay between remote and communal workspaces in their investment decisions. Would Triovest’s investment thesis affect these trends—or vice versa?

October 8, 2021: Tata Sons won a bid to acquire India's national carrier Air India, marking the airline's return to its original owners after 68 long years. The winning bid of $2.4 billion gave Tata Sons full ownership of the airline and its coveted network of 6,200 landing and parking slots in Indian airports and 900 slots in overseas hubs. This bid marked the end of a two-decade-long journey for the Indian government that had been trying to sell the troubled airline which, according to recent estimates, was losing nearly $3 million per day. The chairman of Tata Sons, Natarajan Chandrasekaran (Chandra), described the occasion as a "historic moment." "It will be a rare privilege for our group to own and operate the country's flag bearer airline. It will be our endeavor to build a world-class airline that makes every Indian proud." The acquisition of a heavily indebted and loss-making public sector asset raised several questions: Why did Tata Sons acquire Air India? Was it an emotional decision to regain control of an airline they had started? Was this an example of Tata Sons helping India overcome another persistent challenge, a trait well documented throughout its corporate history? Was it a commercially sound decision?

<p align="justify">Mamaearth, founded in 2016, started as a direct-to-consumer personal-care brand and carved a niche for itself as a trusted, toxin-free baby-care, skin-care, and hair-care brand in a competitive Indian personal-care market landscape that included established multinationals. In 2022, its parent company, Honasa Consumer Private Limited (HCL), raised $52 million in financing for a valuation of US $1.2 billion, becoming the first unicorn of 2022. HCL also acquired BBlunt, a hair-care and styling-products business in a ₹1.34 billion deal that was seen as a significant step toward meeting Mamaearth’s growth aspirations.<br><br> In a competitive personal-care market landscape, the leading companies had realized health-aware consumers’ need for natural and toxin-free products and were innovating and aggressively pushing chemical-free products. Mamaearth now faced a challenge in taking the next leap forward: it needed to grow its market, retain its sustainable positioning, determine its consumer segment, and build a communication strategy around these factors as a trusted, toxin-free skin-care and hair-care company.

Fundrr was a South Africa-based alternative funding business that launched in 2018. The business’s goal had been to disrupt the South African business lending landscape, specifically at the small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) level where the majority (about 71 per cent) of SMEs generated annual revenues of less than R200,000 and employed between two and five people. Reflecting on the company’s journey in October 2021, the company’s founders realized that Fundrr had weathered the COVID-19 storm and had grown 630 per cent between September 2020 and September 30, 2021. However, there was a discrepancy between their current client base and the founders’ vision for the company as a disruptive, innovative, entrepreneurship-friendly alternative funder seeking to offer financial backing options independent of those granted by traditional banking institutions. The typical Fundrr client was usually in their fifties and male. Operating on a continent with the youngest population in the world, what did this say about their marketing and brand positioning? How could they apply the same resourcefulness and relevance to position the business into the future?

CEO Tim Höttges had successfully led Deutsche Telekom (DT) on an ambitious mission to become Europe's leading telecommunications service provider. All the more impressive, the company had achieved this goal while also navigating the expansion of T-Mobile's network in the United States, and merger with Sprint. What would be DT's next strategic challenge? In late 2023, Höttges and his executive team were scrutinizing the next frontiers in digitalization, as well as assessing ongoing challenges from hyperscalers. It was time to set new goals, Höttges believed, and lead the sector by continuing to build and operate best-in-class, integrated digital networks. This meant investing more in cloud-based service platforms, continuing the rollout of fiber optic networks in Germany, and realizing the full potential of monetizing DT network assets in conjunction with 5G technology. This case describes the strategic challenges facing DT in 2023 and beyond. Boundaries between industries such as telecommunications, software, artificial intelligence, data storage, chip technology, digital security, and cloud platforms were rapidly blurring. How would DT position itself as an industry leader in new areas-and fend off competition from traditional telecom providers?

The mission of Fairphone, an Amsterdam, Netherlands-based social enterprise company, was to design, produce, and sell smartphones that had a more positive impact on the environment and society. Fairphone was rated as the most sustainable smartphone in 2021 and was considered as a champion for the circular economy in the smartphone industry. Since 2018, Fairphone had been headed by Eva Gouwens. Under Gouwens’s leadership, Fairphone had more than doubled sales between 2018 and 2019. Sales were an important measure of impact for Fairphone and a driver for much of its strategy. In 2021, Fairphone announced a distribution agreement with Vodafone Group plc, the launch of a new flagship phone, and expanded recycling services. Fairphone now wanted to consider how to rapidly scale its impact in 2022 and beyond, and determine how it could increase sales. Should it consider new markets or new offerings? Or should Gouwens shift Fairphone’s focus from sales to some other strategic goal?

The case focuses on the precision agriculture industry, an emerging combination of technologies and solutions targeted at improving the economics and sustainability of the agricultural industry. Within the context of the industry transformation, the case specifically examines the strategic decisions made by John Deere, the leading agricultural machinery and equipment manufacturer in the world as it charts its course towards digitally transforming the company. The case provides an ideal platform to explore a broad spectrum of topics ranging from ecosystems and platforms, defining and delivering a unique customer value proposition, and leveraging contemporary tools such as artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), data analytics, and deep learning to revolutionize the old and tradition-bound agricultural business. John Deere has introduced a set of leading-edge tractors, sprayers, and farm equipment that promise to personalize agriculture at the plant level. The technologies embedded in its tractors along with cloud-based analytical capabilities provide farmers with real-time actionable data and advice. As it launches a new way of farming, the company confronts skeptical customers who think the equipment is too expensive and hard to repair, and the data streams too complex to comprehend and apply to their field-level decisions. There are other issues relating to data privacy and ecosystem management that Deere confronts as it aspires to emphasize its software platform as the way to the future. The reader is asked to assess the way the Leap Ambitions strategy has played out in the marketplace and suggest course corrections as needed to guarantee that Deere can ensure it derives the maximum value from the ecosystem.

This case is about the dilemma faced by Elisabeth Vardheim, a C-level executive at Statnett, Norway's transmission grid operator. As a result of its participation in the Paris Agreement, Norway decided to greatly accelerate the national energy transition. An increased reliance on electricity, however, brings with it a pressing need for more high voltage power lines. As executive vice president for construction at Statnett, Vardheim must choose between two ways of increasing Oslo's electricity transmission capacity: string power lines on 40-meter-high towers or bury them underground. However, although the upgrade is indispensable, neither solution seems to have any chance of being approved. Vardheim has to contend with powerful stakeholders. There is the local population, which opposes overhead power lines due to their impact on the landscape - the "not in my back yard" effect. There is also the regulator, who must act in accordance with regulations that favor the most cost-effective solutions to keep electricity prices low for all Norwegians. The case is not just about choosing between two solutions. Obtaining the construction license also means having a good understanding of the forces involved, the licensing process and the applicable regulations. The student is taken on a journey that includes stakeholder management analysis, the decision-criteria perspective and real option valuation. Students are subsequently divided in two groups, each attempting to win the other over to their chosen option. This usually creates a stalemate and a lack of consensus which is then solved by an "Aha!" moment thanks to the use of an embedded option, an approach that will solve the case and lead to the attainment of the construction license.