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Jean-Marc Frangos, Managing Director of Products & Services Research and Open Innovation at BT Group is looking to optimize the London-based telcom company's external innovation process - scouting for new technologies from Silicon Valley, Israel and Asia. Having taken on responsibility for some of BT's internal research labs in 2017, he needs to boost synergies between internal research and external innovation, and to evaluate how these will play out in the future for telecom companies and the implications for BT. Please visit the dedicated case website (https://cases.insead.edu/bt-group/) to access supplementary material.

PopChef is a start-up foodtech business in the lunchtime food delivery market in Paris. The case centres on the period from launch in 2015 to 2017. PopChef is the first to enter the market with a new business model in France. As other well-funded domestic and international entrants arrive, the market becomes highly competitive market. PopChef aims to counter this by shifting from a technology-based company to a virtual food company. Will this be enough to ensure its survival?

By 2018, it was clear that U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) had significantly contributed to the growth of green building, and over its 25-year history had become a powerful brand in the construction sector with its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard. Nonetheless, USGBC faced two significant challenges moving forward: maintaining LEED's leadership position as the green building standard in the U.S., and increasing the proportion of building stock that met the LEED standard. The case provides background on the USGBC and the evolution of its LEED standard, including how the standards are set, and green building benefits and costs.

As a French engineer, nothing predestined Patrick Hoffmann to ever launch and lead a small pig empire in Russia. What had started out as an ambitious high-technology pig multiplication facility in the region of Lipetsk had evolved over the period 2005-2018 into one of the country's premier multipliers, at the leading edge of genetics and pig raising techniques. The company expanded to cover multiple stages in the pig industry, from manufacturing concrete floor slats for the pig farms to farming 12,000 ha of land, producing high quality animal feeds, slaughtering animals, and further processing meat all the way to running eight French-style butcheries. The company now truly operated "from pitchfork to fork". But the journey was never over. The vertical integration had happened more by default than by strategic choice, and it was fair now to question the whole montage. Patrick had just been presented with the chance to integrate backward into genetic selection as their Danish supplier restructured. Retail and meat processing had been unqualified disappointments; should they continue to be involved? On the positive side, Patrick had just fielded a call from the governor of the region, informing him of another 12,000 ha of farm land for leasing. Unfavorable price evolutions in the industry also suggested some less efficient competitors would soon face financial distress, creating interesting acquisition opportunities. Learning objective: Doing business in Russia, agro-industries, vertical integration strategies, building teams, managing the value chain, technology as barrier to entry, innovation, genetics, growth management, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial leadership, managing stakeholders, capital budgeting, business models, project management, growth financing.

Nobel Prize in Economics S. Kuznets (71) said there were four kinds of countries: "developed, developing, Japan, and Argentina. Argentina can do things wrong, but its lack of humility and its ability to fascinate and generate expectations is undeniable". Aswath Damodaran defined Argentina as "that crazy and drunk uncle living in the attic of your house". When he is sober, he is wonderful, but when he is drunk, he does crazy things". At the beginning of 2015, the directors of a passenger transport company in Argentina (Campana Dos), developed a brilliant business through a corporate strategy that would only work in a chaotic market like Argentina, however they are facing a new challenge due to the political context in an election either a continuation of protectionist populism or a move towards an open economy. The directors evaluate a 2x2 decision matrix that has four possible scenarios (Invest- Do not invest // Demand Grows - Does not grow). Each one has a marginal value that is calculated by x6 EBITDAs. The company has a serious risk of bankrupting if any of the first three scenarios come true due to non-controllable factors. Students will face a complex decision that principals must make for which there is no concrete solution. At the beginning of 2015, the company directors faced a possible exponential growth of the population of 600,000 to 2.5 million inhabitants due to the discovery of the second largest global gas depot (Vaca Muerta). They had to decide whether to invest ARS $ 47 million (USD $ 5.5 million) (1.9 times the total of their assets and 29.3 times their net profit) to avoid demand, but this can lead the company to the Bankruptcy after twenty successful years. Students must ask themselves if Vaca Muerta was just a bluff to justify the governor's family investments -which evolved from 4.9% of participation in public works in 2003 to 55% of the public works in 2010- or was there really going to be an exponential growth in investments and population.

Innovium has been focusing on disrupting an entrenched space. After getting product market fit the company wrestles with how to scale up, how to build a strong culture and how to raise more funds.

This Case presents the Internet retail battle in India among the e-commerce giants Flipkart, Amazon, and Snapdeal. The domestic player Flipkart had been a dominant player and was followed by Snapdeal until the global player Amazon entered in 2013. The competitive dynamics were focused on the marketplace model, basic logistic and delivery, and customer satisfaction. With the new regulations and technology disruption in the recent years, the competitive landscape shifted to private labels, artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics, and omni-channeling. As the competition got more and more intense, Flipkart - the first home-grown e-tailor- was determined to be the market leader.

In 2018, Inditex, based in Spain, was the largest specialist fashion retailer in the world, generating sales of $31.5 billion in 2017 from a portfolio of eight retail brands selling through a total of 7,475 stores located in 96 countries and from websites in 49 countries. Its largest brand, Zara, generated sales of $20.8 billion and operated 2,118 stores. Since its IPO in 2001, Inditex had grown sales an average of 14.3% per year and net profits by 16.3% per year, adding over 6,000 stores in the process, and its stock had significantly outpaced the FTSE 100. While many fashion retailers were retreating in the face of weak demand and competition from online retailers, Inditex grew like-for-like sales for the year in all concepts and geographies. Online sales were up 41% year-on-year, reaching 10% of total sales. For several years, the company had been slowing the growth in retail space and investing in large flagship stores to support its online business. Significantly, in late 2016 Inditex closed four small Zara shops in the company's hometown of La Coruña and opened a 54,000-square-foot store in its place. Indeed, in the last quarter of 2017, the net number of store additions turned negative for the first time. Meanwhile, online fashion specialists such as U.K.-based ASOS were growing rapidly, adding thousands of styles a week to their websites and providing thousands of pick-up and drop-off points (PUDOs) at local retail locations around the world to support their online sales. And then there was the threat of Amazon, which had been pushing into online fashion for over a decade. Was Inditex chairman and CEO Pablo Isla doing enough to turn the online threat into an opportunity?

Soon after being named regional managing partner for Ernst & Young (EY) China in September 2009, Albert Ng reflects on the enormity of challenges facing EY China. Despite EY Global's commitment to the China practice, EY China's growth agenda has been reversed, post global financial crisis. The smallest of the Big Four global accounting firms in China, EY China's reputation has weakened in the market, morale of its professionals has plummeted, and it faces the threat of a major lawsuit. Ng is musing how to address all these challenges confronting EY China.

The case outlines how regional managing partner (RMP) Albert Ng steered Ernst & Young (EY) China through a period of significant growth from 2009, when it was the smallest of the Big Four firms in China, to 2017, by when it had become the second largest firm. Partners worldwide felt a sense of shared achievement, since EY Global had come together with China leadership to invest in building a strong China practice that was integral to all of EY. But Ng was not resting content. he believed that EY China was at a critical juncture. Chinese economic growth, which had partially fueled EY China's dramatic rise, was slowing down, just as competition was intensifying. Was EY China prepared to face the challenges that lay ahead?

Set in January 2019, the case follows Andreas Sohmen-Pao, Executive Chairman of the BW Group, as he reflects on a fruitful year that passed and looks forward to an exciting and equally challenging year in 2019. BW, a global maritime group operating in the oil tanker, gas carrier and offshore floating infrastructure sectors, was a third-generation family-run business. Established in 2005, BW was the result of a merger of two long-standing shipping firms - Bergesen from Norway and World-Wide Shipping in Hong Kong (the latter was founded by Andreas' grandfather, Sir Yue-Kong Pao). Like many of the preceding years, BW had its share of highs and lows in 2018 too. The highlight was the successful acquisition of Hafnia Tankers by BW Tankers, a BW Group subsidiary. The eventual merger of the two would elevate BW Tankers to become the market leader in product tanker shipping with the largest commercially-managed fleet of more than 150 vessels. However, over the past few years, the tanker market as a whole had sunk into the trough of the shipping cycle. Demand for tanker chartering was unable to keep pace with faster growth in fleet capacity, forcing tanker companies to lower freight rates and leading to depressed earnings. The shipping business was widely perceived to be risky. There were not only short-term market cycles to contend with, new and longer-term challenges surfaced every now and then - such as environmental sustainability concerns (specifically the IMO2020 regulation on curbing ships' sulphur emissions), as well as opportunities and threats from technology (e.g., blockchain, artificial intelligence and cyber-attacks). Diversification had successfully enabled BW to weather challenges in the past, and its current strategy was to actively invest in diversifying and scaling up across multiple shipping segments. Andreas had to chart the way forward for BW in the coming years - how could he best navigate the oncoming headwinds?

The 'Stranded' game is an experiential platform to learn lessons on team leadership in a situational context based on sudden changes of events. It is modelled primarily upon variables associated with contingency theories of leadership. The setting is a future dystopian world where resources are scarce and different cities are at war with each other as they compete for resources. The player (the student) has to assume the role of a leader of a team now stranded in a desert because their vehicle in the form of a van is damaged. If not repaired quickly, they may be raided by their enemies, thus delaying or diminishing the hope of escape. The team comprises three males, Bastian, Daya, and Jiro, and one female, Jessa; all, including the leader, are strangers to each other. They all have different personality traits and respond differently to tasks and instruction. During the course of the game, the player (the student), has to discover the followers' personalities, assess the availability and limitation of resources, prioritise and assign tasks appropriately so that the van is repaired on time for them to escape from the dangerous situation. The daily tasks involve repairing the van, growing food, building a shelter and scavenging for resources, namely, provisions for food and materials to repair. Meanwhile, the camp must also be guarded from the enemies who would attack and raid the camp's food and materials. The game progresses in number of days. During the nights the leader interacts with the followers to gauge the energy, motivation and temperament of the team. The leader rations the provisions and motivates the followers. At the start of each day, the leader has to choose from three different leadership styles and assign task to the followers. When the Van is restored to 100% driving condition they all can escape to safety.

Supplement to case W18285. In 2016, with success in its two main business lines, mobile phones and electronics retailing, Mobile World Joint Stock Company (Mobile World) faces the challenge of expansion. It is considering geographic expansion into the nearby markets of Cambodia and Myanmar. It is also considering business line expansion into either pharmaceutical or mid-market fresh produce. The founders of Mobile World and the partners of its private equity investor, Mekong Capital, are debating the chances of success of entry into one or more of these new geographic or product areas. Use with 9B18M078 and 9B18M079.

Supplement to case W18285. In late 2009, Mobile World consulted with the former chief executive officer of Best Buy about its operations in Vietnam. Should Mobile World take his advice? Should Mobile World's senior management team visit other companies with more experience in the electronics industry? How could Mobile World and Mekong Capital conquer the challenges they faced in 2012? Use with 9B18M078.

In 2009, the owners of Mobile Joint Stock Company (Mobile World) were struggling to manage the challenges of rapid internal growth in a fast-changing and competitive industry. At the same time, private equity firm Mekong Capital was considering its role in the company and how to guide future growth. There was some dissension between the two parties; how could they resolve their differences and add value to the company?

Many observers worried about what would happen to Apple when Steve Jobs died in 2011. But Apple had performed above everyone's expectations in Cook's six years as CEO. Apple's core business - the iPhone - continued to deliver spectacular results. In addition, Cook was aggressively introducing new products, ranging from Apple Watch to HomePod. Cook also had the world's biggest balance sheet to invest in new technologies and markets. The total number of products in Apple's portfolio had doubled (from roughly 20 to 40) under Tim Cook. The question for Cook in 2018 was no longer, 'can Apple thrive without Steve Jobs,' but rather 'can Apple move beyond a one-trick pony (iPhone)'?

Lake's experience as a consultant to retailers and restaurants led to a fascination with how untouched those industries were by 21st-century technology. As a lover of both clothes and data, she felt certain that data could create a better experience with apparel--as long as the human element was preserved. From the beginning Lake planned to build a data science operation to make Stitch Fix scalable. The company's revenue is dependent on great recommendations from its algorithm, so its data scientists have a direct line to the CEO. Data science is deeply ingrained in the company culture: In addition to client recommendations of clothing, algorithms keep capital costs low, inventory moving, and deliveries efficient. Product development has adapted algorithms from genetics to find successful "traits" in clothing. Stitch Fix has even used machine learning to design apparel. But, Lake says, shopping is inherently a personal and human activity, which is why human stylists can alter or override the product assortment a styling algorithm delivers before the client receives a shipment.

Political risk was once relatively easy to define--more often than not, it involved dictators seizing foreign assets. Today it comes from a wide array of actors: citizens making videos on cell phones, city officials issuing ordinances, terrorists with truck bombs, cybercriminals, and more. Supply chains are longer--and more vulnerable--and the geopolitical landscape is more crowded and uncertain. But just because you don't know exactly where political risk will come from, that doesn't mean you can't prepare for it, say Rice, the former U.S. secretary of state, and Zegart, the codirector for the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford. Effective risk management is still fairly straightforward. Companies that excel at it are strong in four core competencies: understanding, analyzing, and mitigating risk, and responding to crises. In this article, Rice and Zegart outline what each competency entails, providing questions that every organization can ask to identify gaps, along with case studies that illustrate how companies have successfully addressed real-world political threats.

Widely considered the founder of the modern strategy field, Michael Porter discusses his current work on the Social Progress Imperative and its accompanying Social Progress Index. He explains why social progress must be on the radar of every business executive. He also describes why Denmark (among countries) and America's largest bank, J.P. Morgan Chase (among corporations) lead the world in terms of their commitment to social progress. In the end, he makes it clear that the most powerful way for any company to affect society is through its business model.

Re-framing a technological advance as a shift from scarce to abundant or from expensive to cheap is invaluable for thinking about how it will affect your business. Computers made arithmetic cheap, with vast implications for industries whose products could be digitized, such as photography and music. Artificial Intelligence, the authors argue, will be economically significant because it will make something very important a lot cheaper: prediction. The challenge will be to identify situations in which prediction will be valuable, and then figure out how to benefit as much as possible from that prediction.