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Privately held Simplot has developed a new genetically engineered potato that substantially reduces waste and does not turn brown after cutting. Unlike other GMOs, it does not contain foreign genes. The case describes the company's commercialization plans in light of the complex environment surrounding genetically modified foods.

BioLite started out as an evening and weekend project for two men who wanted to design a more efficient camping stove. From those humble beginnings grew a company that has won accolades and attention for its innovative design. BioLite's stove could potentially improve the lives of millions of people worldwide while combatting global climate threats. With its roots in sustainable design, the company has become a social enterprise dedicated to finding a market-based solution to the range of problems caused by the open fires that millions of people rely on for cooking and heating their homes. A unique feature of BioLite's business model is its dual-innovation streams: The lessons and innovations gleaned from testing its HomeStove prototypes in developing countries like Ghana, Uganda and India are then adapted to create products that can be sold to the European and North American recreational markets. The revenues from sales in developed markets can then support the company, be reinvested in new research and help incubate its efforts in developing countries until those fledgling markets become self-sustaining. However, BioLite is at a transitional stage, having completed much of its field-testing, it has an adaptable and well-accepted HomeStove design. At the end of the case, the future viability of BioLite's proposed model is brought into question given the complexities of successfully selling its product in a developing country. Learning objectives: The BioLite case could be used in several subject areas as it incorporates elements of entrepreneurship, business strategy and corporate social responsibility/sustainability. Of particular interest is the way BioLite has combined design and strategic thinking to embed sustainability and transformational values into its core business strategy. Therefore, it is applicable for use in undergraduate, MBA level or executive courses.

Marketing needs a new mindset to fulfill its proper role in creating and sustaining strategic advantage. To extend its influence beyond the boundaries of current offerings, the firm, and conventional practice, marketing and markets must be viewed through a service lens. This lens allows marketing to take a lead role in assisting the enterprise to become an enabler of value co-creation by customers who have jobs to be done. This article offers four new premises to guide marketing thought and practice and draw out implications of these premises for achieving and sustaining strategic advantage.

When Dalian Wanda Group of China announced its plan to acquire the AMC Entertainment theatrical exhibition chain in the United States, many people in the U.S were mystified. Unlike China where theatrical exhibition was experiencing rapid growth, the U.S. market was viewed as mature, and rapidly changing technology was giving consumers a widening range of choices for movie viewing. AMC was owned by a group of private equity firms, and their pessimistic view of the industry influenced their strategies and investment decisions. AMC's management team had yet a different view on the prospects of the industry. Thus three present or potential stakeholders, all looking at the same data, had distinctly different views of future prospects. How could this be? The (B) case looks at AMC's performance in the year after the acquisition.

The Dutch company HEINEKEN, one of the leading global brewers known for its brands like Heineken, Amstel, or Desperados and for its award-winning marketing campaigns, seeks to closely integrate its long-term sustainability "Brewing a Better World"-approach into its corporate strategy. HEINEKEN had set itself ambitious 2015 and 2020 sustainability targets in six pillar areas around Energy/CO2, Water, Sustainable Sourcing, Responsible Consumption, Community/Inclusive Growth, and Health & Safety. The case zooms in on HEINEKEN's efforts in the sustainable sourcing pillar, with its work on farming standards and supplier code as well as its support for local sourcing programs in the growing African market. HEINEKEN's management finds that marketing its achievements in these sustainability areas poses new challenges though. For example, its current "mass-balance" sourcing in which sustainable and traditional material got mixed in the supply chain did not allow for effective communication on a given bottle. But was this reason enough to try to move to "segregated" sourcing, if that was even reasonable?

Late in 2013, Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez was considering how and whether to deepen the company's investment in Arogya Parivar, its profitable program that sold Novartis medicines in rural India, while expanding access to medicine and health information to millions of Indian villagers.

Discovery Ltd. is a South-African based insurance company. Started in the early 1990s, Discovery used behavioral economics and data collection to innovate in the health care insurance industry. Its founder Adrian Gore believed that the company's products needed to not only make money but have a positive impact on society. Using its Vitality Wellness program as its strategic lynchpin, Discovery expanded into other insurance areas and financial services products and also entered new markets abroad. In late 2014, Gore and his team had to decide how to further develop the company and prioritize among many growth opportunities.

In less than ten years, co-founders Brian Sharples and Carl Shepherd had transformed HomeAway from just another Internet startup into the leading vacation rentals marketplace in the world-a global online platform that linked customers seeking vacation home rentals to the property owners and managers who supplied them. The case traces HomeAway's origins through IPO and beyond, documenting the company's acquisition-led growth and the core elements of its subscription-based business model. By 2014, incumbent travel giants and high-profile startups like Airbnb began to take notice of the vacation rentals sector. To stay ahead, HomeAway initiated a pilot collaboration to show some of its listings on Expedia's site. Sharples was also considering a new commission-based revenue model that promised to attract a broader swath of property listers but risked undermining HomeAway's existing business.

Leading fertilizer producer Yara International demonstrates the concept of creating shared value through the Southern Agricultural Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) initiative, which brought together multiple organizations to enhance agricultural development in rural regions.

The case builds on the earlier A case which described the origins of the Turkish business group established by Vehbi Koç before 1988. This case takes the story forward to 2012 as the Koç group was led by Vehbi's son Rahmi followed by his grandson Mustafa. It explores both the professionalization of the management, and a radical restructuring of the business portfolio as the group refocused on five core sectors. The case also examines the start of the group's globalization strategy which was focused on the white goods affiliate Arçelik.

Data can be easily manipulated to tell a desired story, manufacture good results, or exaggerate a trend. Don't get fooled by these infographics tricks.

Dow had adopted the "Breakthroughs to World Challenges" (BWC) program as part of its ten-year 2015 Sustainability Goals. BWC was an internal award recognizing products that effectively addressed one of five world challenges: energy and climate change, sustainable water supply, decent affordable housing, personal health, and food supply. By late summer 2014, two products had been designated as BWCs and two others were set to be announced in the fall. Dow senior executives believed that Dow was creating shared value through its BWC products. As management began drafting the company's sustainability plan for 2015 and beyond, CEO Andrew Liveris confronted the question of whether to maintain, modify or terminate the BWC program.

In 2014, seven years after he was appointed CEO of the Danish shipping and oil conglomerate A.P. Møller Maersk (the Maersk Group), Nils Andersen was reexamining the size and role of corporate headquarters in the company he had reshaped as a "premium conglomerate." During his tenure, Andersen had divided what had previously been operated as almost a single entity into separate lines of business, each accountable for its own performance and expected to deal at arms-length with its "sister" businesses, while substantially reducing the size and functions of the corporate headquarters. But as the business units (BUs) and corporate headquarters adjusted to their new roles, new issues surfaced.

Power clearly isn't what it used to be. We see Goliaths being toppled by Davids all around us, from the networked drivers of Uber to the crowdfunded creatives of Kickstarter. But it's difficult to understand what power actually is in this changed world, and how to gain more of it. Two fresh voices to HBR--Jeremy Heimans, cofounder of Purpose and Avaaz, and Henry Timms, director of the 92nd Street Y in New York--offer a framework for organizations seeking to effectively use the two distinct forces of "old power" and "new power." Old power, the authors argue, works like a currency. It is held by few and is zero-sum. Once gained, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful have a substantial store of it to spend. It is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. New power operates differently, like a current. It is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. Like water or electricity, it's most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it but to channel it. New power actors differ from old power players along two dimensions: the models they use to accumulate and exercise power and the values they embrace. Some enterprises, like Facebook, have new power models but don't seem to embrace the values; others, like Patagonia, have new power values but wield their influence using traditional old power models. This big-picture piece examines the underlying dynamics at work and looks at how power is really shifting: who has it, how it is distributed, and where it is heading.

Augustin Rey, the president of Emilia, a century-old clothing retailer in Spain, is determined to revamp the company's merchandising strategy and redesign some of its dowdiest stores. He also wants to do away with discounts, circulars, and special sales, and win customers over with a strategy he calls hablar claro--"straight talk." That means the same low prices every day. At first, Emilia's financial results were outstanding. But they've since started to slip: Customer traffic is down significantly, and same-store revenue has dropped. Rey's board of directors is pressuring him to go back to the old ways. This case is based on real events at J.C. Penney and includes commentaries from Shari Rudolph, of Gabriel Brothers, and Yashodhara Shroff, of the Indian retail chain ffolio.