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This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. The successful use of analytics in sports, both on the field and off, comes down to integrating analytics within an organization. Three strategies -collaborative analytics, a common language, and accessible technology -are key.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Composing valuable strategies requires seeing the world in new and unique ways. It requires asking novel questions that prompt fresh insight. Even the most sophisticated, deep learning-enhanced computers or algorithms simply cannot generate such an outlook. Innovative strategies depend more on novel, well-reasoned theories than on well-crunched numbers.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. When developing strategy for execution, managers often want to start by setting their strategic priorities, but that's a mistake. Management teams should start by identifying the corporate vision and critical vulnerabilities -both of which help clarify and shape priorities.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Organizations often struggle with corporate strategy because executives lack clarity on how parts of the business fit together to create and capture economic value. A simple framework can help leaders understand the relationship between corporate and business unit strategies.

The case provides a discussion of the birth and evolution of Ryanair in Europe. It paints a rich picture of the avenues of competitive advantage that the company had built in its march toward dominance among the low cost carriers segment of the aviation business in Europe. The early segment of its history provides a very useful discussion to explore fundamental concepts in strategy such as competitive positioning, activity maps, low cost strategies, and tradeoffs. The later half of the case describes the transformation of Ryanair from a pure low cost provider to more of a value added company that seeks to enhance the overall customer experience within the constraints of a low cost model. It closes with a set of issues that surface when Ryanair undertakes the massive shift in its strategy to become a more customer friendly airline company. The later half of the case is an ideal vehicle to reinforce the concept of tradeoffs in strategy and the need for strategic clarity around what a company will do and what it will not do.

A deep sense of foreboding filled Dr. Jim O'Connell and his team at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) in October 2014. The Boston mayor's office had just announced the closure of the 64-year-old bridge that provided the only passage to the island in Boston Harbor housing the city's largest homeless shelter. It did not have a long-term contingency shelter plan in place and the city's other shelters were full. With winter fast approaching, O'Connell, who at the time had been providing health care to Boston's homeless population for over a quarter century, feared some of the city's dispossessed would die on the streets from cold. BHCHP would be hard pressed to provide them the medical care they needed. To implement his solution-reopening the Boston Night Center-O'Connell had to overcome the disinterest of BHCHP's traditional allies in the homeless service provider community, who for a number of years had been channeling their energies away from sheltering toward permanent housing solutions. The Boston Night Center's reopening helped achieve an unprecedented feat for the City of Boston: Not a single homeless person died from the elements that winter, the harshest in the city's recorded history. How did O'Connell work with stakeholders to accomplish his goal? What could he do to maintain support for the Boston Night Center and the reestablishment of homeless services on the island?

Dr. Jonathan Woodson faced more formidable challenges than most in his storied medical, public health, and military career, starting with multiple rotations in combat zones around the world. He subsequently took on ever more complicated assignments, including reforming the country's bloated Military Health System (MHS) in his role as assistant secretary of defense for health affairs at the U.S. Department of Defense from 2010 to 2016. As the director of Boston University's Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy starting in 2016, he devised a National Digital Health Strategy (NDHS) to harness the myriad disparate health care innovations taking place around the country, with the goal of making the U.S. health care system more efficient, patient-centered, safe, and equitable for all Americans. How did Woodson-who was also a major general in the U.S. Army Reserves and a skilled vascular surgeon-approach such complicated problems? In-depth research and analysis, careful stakeholder review, strategic coalition building, and clear, insightful communication were some of the critical leadership skills Woodson employed to achieve his missions.

More than a billion people in the developing world remain in extreme poverty and outside the formal economy. Traditional CSR programs have done little to alleviate the situation and rarely produce transformative change. Instead of trying to fix local problems, the authors argue, corporations need to reimagine the regional ecosystems in which they participate. They should search for systemic, multisector opportunities; mobilize complementary partners; and obtain seed and scale-up financing from organizations with a mission to alleviate poverty. They should also align the various stakeholders around the new strategy, using proven tools such as a co-created strategy map. These principles are informed by the authors' experience with several successful inclusive-growth projects. An initiative in Uganda is bringing small maize farmers into the mainstream regional economy, while a training program in El Salvador is giving unemployed youths the skills to work in the country's growing service sector.

What do you call a dense, overly lengthy contract that's loaded with legal jargon and virtually impossible for a non-lawyer to understand? The status quo, says Burton, the general counsel for GE Aviation's Business & General Aviation. When Burton was leading the legal team for that division's new digital-services unit, he and his colleagues noticed that customer contract negotiations were dragging on for months, hampering growth. So they set out to replace the unit's seven excruciatingly complicated Contracts with one that even a high schooler could understand. In this article, Burton describes how the team went about achieving that goal and the lessons learned along the way. He also shares the results: Customers were delighted with the new contract, and some even signed it without making a single change. The time it took to negotiate contracts dropped by a whopping 60%. And now plain-language contracts are starting to spread inside GE.

Rick Stein gazed out at Propay Ltd's car park where his fifteen-year-old car now languished.A year ago ProPay's previous owner parked his Maserati in the exact same spot - a contrast that seemed oddly symbolic of Rick's current predicament. He had bought the payments gateway business after raising a Search Fund from a number of private investors and with a plan to improve what he perceived to be an 'undermanaged' business. A few months later it had become apparent that more funding was needed. He returned to his financial model to consider his position...

Rick Stein is faced with taking rapid action to both save his business and at the same time take advantage of a surprise exit opportunity. As usual there's a cash squeeze but should the business take more money and if so where from and on what terms?

In September 2015, Groupe Fnac (Fnac), a large French retail chain, announced it had acquired long-time competitor Darty Limited (Darty) in an effort to counter competition from online retailers, particularly American e-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. Fnac's first offer had been declined, but Fnac and Darty negotiated and agreed on a new offer in November 2015. Unexpectedly, in March 2016, a South African-based retail holding company, Steinhoff International Holdings N.V., made a bigger offer. After an intense bidding war, Fnac successfully acquired Darty in April 2016 for 60 per cent over its first offer. The new company, Groupe Fnac Darty, faced several challenges. It needed to convince its stakeholders that the two emblematic competitors could create better value for them, despite their different identities and corporate cultures. How should the combined entity achieve the announced €130 million in annual synergies by 2019? And would the new entity survive the aggressive competition of e-commerce?

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) began as a stand-alone hospital in the heart of downtown Philadelphia in 1855. By 2016 the CHOP Care Network stretched across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the New York metropolitan area, providing a wide range of services from primary care to complex specialty care. In 2016, U.S. News and World Report had ranked CHOP as the number 2 pediatric hospital in the nation and among the top 10 in 10 pediatric specialties. CHOP's residency program for training pediatricians was also ranked number one in the country. Madeline Bell, who had been President and Chief Operating Officer, was named Chief Executive Officer in 2015. A pediatric nurse who became a hospital administrator, Bell saw the network as a means to serve more patients, improve pediatric care, and address the challenges posed by a rapidly changing health care environment.

Spanx Inc., founded in 2000, was a U.S. intimate apparel company that sold body shaping undergarments known as shapewear. Through word-of-mouth marketing by celebrities and consumers, Spanx achieved 2016 sales of US$400 million globally. However, Spanx's leadership position was being threatened by a shift in consumer preferences, medical concerns over the dangers of compression wear, and competitors launching more comfortable products in the active wear category. Would Spanx be able to sustain its growth or was it beginning its decline?

In September 2016, German-based Bayer AG (Bayer) and U.S.-based Monsanto Company (Monsanto) agreed to merge entities to create a global leader in agriculture. The combined entity would benefit from Monsanto's expertise in seeds and traits, and from Bayer's wide range of crop protection products. Bayer would acquire Monsanto for $128 per share, a high 44 per cent premium in an all-cash transaction. There were issues with the deal, which included antitrust concerns, which could require subsequent divestments, and Monsanto's brand image, owing to its involvement in controversial business operations. Given these issues, would Bayer's diversification into agrochemicals by merging with Monsanto be able to create sufficient synergies and deliver economic benefits to shareholders, while meeting expectations from other stakeholders at different levels?

Set in 2016, this case presents the ten-year long journey undertaken by SunMoon to transform its legacy business model that had led the company to become a loss-making, cost-inefficient and debt-ridden entity in 2007. Gary Loh, who joined the company in 2007, spearheaded the efforts to restructure the debt, modernise operations, and change the business model. However, the process was arduous, being besieged on one hand by financial issues such as capital inadequacy, downward spiral in revenues and increasing losses; and on the other hand by operational issues such as inter-personal conflicts, debt settlement challenges and labour unrest. The case further discusses how SunMoon, after having divested its non-performing assets and non-core businesses, set out to achieve its new strategic vision to be an asset-light, brand-focused, and consumer-oriented company. Its new business model centred on building and leveraging SunMoon's brand equity, developing a larger retail network across more geographies and dealing in a wider range of products. While SunMoon's deal with Yiguo (Alibaba backed) - the leading fresh food e-commerce company in China, was a testament to its new model, fruits being a commodity product and the highly fragmented nature of the industry raised various concerns: Would SunMoon be able to become the industry benchmark in quality for both buyers and growers, and provide an aggregator platform like Uber or Airbnb? Would it be able to create the last mile connectivity with end-consumers and provide brand differentiation among them?

This case is set in February 2016, when Paris Baguette (PB) has just been declared the winner at the most prestigious baking competition in the world held each year in Paris. PB had started operations in 1945 with a small bakery in Korea. By 2014, it boasted of 3,200 outlets in South Korea, and another 200 plus outlets across China, USA and Southeast Asia. Buoyed by its international appeal, the company entered France, opening its first store in 2014 and the second store in 2015. Positioned as a 'premium health conscious brand', PB quickly found resonance with the French by diligently following traditional baking standards, suitably localising the innovative menu and offering a café-style service. Its success in France was paving the way for further expansion into other European markets. This was significant given that the Korean domestic market was intensely competitive and heavily regulated against corporate bakeries - so future growth in all likelihood could only come from the international operations. The question now is to decide the appropriate strategy for the bakery brand when entering other European markets. Which country or countries should it go to after France? Should it leverage on its selling proposition of 'French-ness', or should it find a staple bread specific to each European country and replicate the strategy followed in France?

Senior management must make a decision for how to grow their search fund to reach the final margins for investors.

In 2010, RBC Financial Group (RBC), a banking and insurance company headquartered in Toronto, Canada, had implemented a new loan program. The program targeted clients who were seeking loans for the installation of electricity-generating solar panels on their property under a new government-sponsored green power program, the Micro Feed-In Tariff Program (microFIT). For RBC, the loan program was an excellent fit with the company's strategy to support environmentally-focused initiatives. However, by October 2010, microFIT was encountering problems. Once the banking business unit at RBC had sold the loans to a client and the client had installed the solar panels, the insurance business unit at RBC was then cancelling the client's insurance policies due to the increased risk posed by the installations. Customers were confused and upset. How should RBC handle this difficult situation? How could the company prevent similar problems with future program implementations?

In January 2017, the leadership team of Bega Cheese-the Australian dairy company-was considering a bid for Mondelēz International's Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) grocery business, which included several leading consumer brands such as Vegemite, the iconic Australian spread. The team must decide whether to bid for the division and, if so, how much to offer and how to finance the all-cash bid. Making these decisions was difficult because this would be Bega's largest acquisition ever and it would extend the firm outside of its core dairy business. In addition to the valuation and financing issues, the leadership team must decide whether shifting from the firm's current B2B business model (manufacturing and processing dairy products) to a more B2C business model (a producer of branded consumer foods) made sense strategically.