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This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Capturing new growth opportunities is fundamental to strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship. These days, experimentation and improvisational change are in. But how should managers address the challenge? The answer, the authors argue, can be more complex and more crucial to a company's success than previously thought. Their research on mature corporations, growing businesses and new ventures suggests a paradoxical tension between focus and flexibility that can define or break a business. Based on more than 150 interviews with managers at 30 companies in North America, Europe and Asia, the authors conclude that focus is still critical and may be just as important as flexibility. What's more, they conclude that a company's focus may influence its flexibility and vice versa. There are two components to capturing a new business opportunity: opportunity selection and opportunity execution. Opportunity selection involves determining which customer problem to solve, whereas opportunity execution deals with solving the problem. The authors point out that most books, articles and thought leaders focus on opportunity execution -how to create value by developing solutions. But research suggests that innovation initiatives often move so quickly to identify a solution that the innovators have to cycle back to figure out which problem they are actually solving. The authors found that opportunity selection appears to matter as much as opportunity execution. More importantly, how managers approach opportunity selection (whether with flexibility or with focus) has a critical impact on how successful they are at opportunity execution. The authors observed that managers and entrepreneurs tend to fall into two groups: opportunists and strategists. Opportunists rely on a less scripted and more flexible approach to opportunity selection, letting emergent customer inquiries shape opportunity selection.

Businesses constantly innovate to create new value--but unless they also focus on how they capture value, they won't realize maximum benefit from their breakthroughs. And even avid innovators often have a blind spot when it comes to value capture. Managers need to think about value capture more imaginatively and as a matter of course. A new framework developed by IMD business school's Stefan Michel can help them do so. Michel details 15 value-capture innovations, which fall under five broad categories. Firms can profit by changing the price-setting mechanism (think of Priceline), the payer (media businesses where advertisers subsidize content consumption), the price carrier (Netflix), the timing of the exchange (commodities futures), or the segment served (grocery coupons, which "fence off" customers who prioritize savings). The practical applications of the framework are proven: In workshops at a major airline and a global professional services firm, for instance, cross-functional teams using this tool quickly devised new ways to capture value that boosted their company's profits.

As Serena Shamash opened the doors to her newly renovated restaurant, the last thing she was expecting to see was two inches of water covering the floor of the bar. Yet, this was just another day in the life of an entrepreneur. She had overcome many obstacles over the emotionally charged three years it took to give birth to her business dream - Eat Me, The World on Small Plates®. Now that she had achieved this goal, what was next? Her main preoccupation recently was how to extract herself from the day-to-day operations of the restaurant in order to start the next phase of her business. Eat Me was expected to reach operating breakeven at the end of the year, a major milestone in its short life. Did Eat Me still require her full attention? Or was it time to move beyond the first unit and consider scaling up? What about launching a new concept? She had already started developing new ideas and was getting anxious not to get stuck in the daily grind of this industry. But how would she decide on which direction to pursue? Learning objectives: Entrepreneurial careers, starting a restaurant, affinity financing, managing growth in a service industry, managing relationships while starting a company, setting strategy, creating a value proposition in the restaurant industry, personnel management, key success factors in hospitality.

This case centers around the shareholder dispute between three major shareholders of Turkcell, and how its management vied against increasing regulatory intervention and market competition in the absence of a fully-functioning board. The battle for control of the Turkish telecom giant led to several years in which the company could not hold annual shareholder meetings, renew its board of directors, or pay dividends, and lacked a board-approved operating budget. Nevertheless, it maintained its majority market share and was the only telecom player with positive EBITDA in the market. What were the implications of this dispute for Turkcell's broad ambitions? How would the continuing battle affect management, talent, and the company's financial performance?

In 2013, Radiometer continued to lead the world in blood gas analysis equipment and accessories, selling direct and through distributors to hospital central laboratories, point-of-care locations, and non-hospital medical locations. Founded in 1935 and based in Denmark, Radiometer was acquired in January 2004 by US-based Danaher Corporation. Under Danaher's direction, Radiometer began an intensive program of process improvements using the Danaher Business System (DBS), an iterative tool system and company culture that sought to continuously improve the company's growth and lean and leadership capabilities. However, as CEO Peter Kurstein reviewed the successes of the last ten years, he conceded that Radiometer still faced significant challenges. Progress in the USA, the world's largest market, remained elusive. How would Radiometer breakthrough in the US? Then there was the issue of long-term growth. Roche and Siemens were investing heavily in multiple diagnostics segments. How should Radiometer respond? Which other segments of diagnostics should Radiometer consider? Quest Diagnostics was selling HemoCue, a Swedish based global niche leader in hemoglobin testing. Would acquiring them make sense for Radiometer?

In early 2014, Sanjay Swamy and Valerie Rozycki Wagoner, respectively chairman and CEO of ZipDial, were discussing the possibility of extending the company's operations to Indonesia and the Philippines, two key markets in Southeast Asia. Having successfully rolled out ZipDial solutions in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka - from their primary market in India - they planned to accelerate expansion into selected markets in the region. Through its proprietary technology platform, ZipDial enabled brands in emerging markets to create, track and manage mobile marketing campaigns, engaging hundreds of millions of consumers who were otherwise unconnected. Building on its user database, the company created engagement opportunities based on user profiles that marketers could leverage to deliver targeted advertising messages. Although poised to take advantage of the continued growth in mobile adoption, the company faced a number of challenges. At a time when India's mobile technology landscape had started to consolidate and new competitors had entered the mobile advertising market, the need to find new sources of financing to support its operations and expansion plans was becoming more pressing. The case traces the evolution of ZipDial since its inception in 2010 as India's first mobile marketing and analytics company. It offers an overview of the latest developments and current strategy, including its approach to bridging the offline-online world through innovative marketing solutions and partnerships with social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

This case illustrates the tragedy of the commons through an interactive game to be played by students. At a United Nations world climate conference, students are divided into 10 regional blocs. With less than a day to go and no agreement among the regional blocs in sight, students use data in the case to advise the countries in their bloc regarding the collective level of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions they should adopt. When a last minute carbon tax proposal circulates, students must also recommend whether or not their bloc should sign onto the proposal. This case package includes an Excel Spreadsheet that students can use to understand the impact on Net Domestic Product (NDP) of different carbon emissions levels. Due to the need to work in groups, the case can also serve as an icebreaker.

Spreadsheet supplement for case SM234.

The SurveyMonkey case portrays the evolution of the company from its founding in 1999 through to 2014. SurveyMonkey was launched by Ryan Finley, a young computer science graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to address the dearth of easy-to-use, affordable online survey tools on the market. In 2009, Finley sold the company to Spectrum Equity and Bain Capital Ventures, having recognized the need for a partner to help the company achieve its full potential. David Goldberg, an entrepreneur and former Yahoo! executive, took the helm as CEO and immediately put in place his plan to set the company on track to scale at a consistent and rapid pace of growth. Goldberg's primary initiatives in the early days were to hire a strong management team, rebuild the entire technology platform, and expand internationally. As it made substantial progress on these fronts, SurveyMonkey completed several acquisitions and began to expand its feature set and product offerings to include SurveyMonkey Audience (panels of survey respondents) and survey templates, among others. The company completed an $800 million secondary financing raise in 2012 to provide liquidity to employees and investors in lieu of an IPO and charged forward in its efforts to transform its survey tool to a full-blown platform. Though SurveyMonkey had established itself as the dominant player in the direct-to-consumer market by 2013, it began building out an enterprise offering to compete against the other large players in the growing enterprise feedback management space. Having achieved tremendous growth in its 15-year history, the majority of which took place since the 2009 acquisition, as Goldberg and his team looked ahead to 2014, they faced the critical question of how to prioritize SurveyMonkey's avenues for growth-international expansion, quality initiatives, enterprise, platform growth-so as to best position the company to achieve its full potential.

Describes Google's history, business model, governance structure, corporate culture, and processes for managing innovation. Reviews Google's recent strategic initiatives and the threats they pose to selected competitors. Asks what Google should do next.

Describes Google's history, business model, governance structure, corporate culture, and processes for managing innovation. Reviews Google's recent strategic initiatives and the threats they pose to Yahoo, Microsoft, and others. Asks what Google should do next.

In 1999, the International Horticultural Exposition was held in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province in China. Recognised as an international exposition by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the event was organised by the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH), based in Paris, France. It was the first international mega-exposition hosted in China, and had strong support from Kunming's local government agencies. The six-month long exposition (Expo Garden) attracted more than 9 million visitors from around the world with a daily average of 49,000 park visitors and hitting a peak of more than 110,000 visitors in a single day. After the exhibition ended, Kunming government decided to continue to keep the venue open as a tourist destination, and major transformations were made to Expo Garden's management structure and business operations. A decade later, Expo Garden had lost its position as a prime tourist destination in Yunnan, as other destinations such as Dali, Shangri-la and Lijiang became the top tourist draws. During this time, domestic tourists emerged as the main engine of growth in Yunnan's tourism industry. In 2012, the group that owned and managed Expo Gardens, Yunnan Tourism Co. Ltd, a state-owned company listed in the Shenzhen stock exchange, needed a turnaround strategy to enhance the attractiveness of Expo Garden, its major asset. The aim was to: transform Expo Garden into a major player in Yunnan Province's tourism industry; and to boost Expo Garden's income growth substantially and improve the financial performance of the company.

In June 2014, Anthony Pile, founder and chairman of Blue Skies, called a board meeting to discuss the company's development plans. The economic crisis in Europe had made consumers more price sensitive, putting pressure on profit margins and spurring the search for new markets. Founded in 1998, Blue Skies was a fruit processing company headquartered in the U.K., with its main production site located in Ghana, Africa, where it cut and packaged fruits sold primarily to retailers in Europe. Relying on air-freight transport, it shipped produce within 48 hours of harvesting. Although Blue Skies had grown into a multinational with production operations on three continents, the company was still dependent on European markets. It remained largely focused on the U.K., whose retail sector was one of the most competitive in the world, but thanks to its product innovation capabilities, it was in a unique position to shape the future of the fresh-cut fruit industry. The case describes the evolution of Blue Skies since its foundation as a small fruit processing business exporting fresh-cut pineapple to Europe. It gives an overview of its strategy to capture more value using vertical integration as a mean to reduce supply costs and improve the quality of inputs. It illustrates how competitive structures in the fresh-cut market shape the balance of power within the agri-food value chain, and how Blue Skies maintained its competitive edge through a combination of production efficiency, product quality and market diversification.

In May 2012, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) founded edX, a new non-profit joint venture that would provide a platform for massive open online courses (MOOCs). edX did not produce original courses or instructional content-it made a web platform through which Harvard and MIT, and subsequently dozens more "partner" universities, could offer their lecture courses as MOOCs. While the future role of MOOCs in higher education remained a topic of public debate, edX needed to answer concrete managerial and strategic questions. For example, what should edX's scope be? Should edX try to develop a consumer brand of its own, or rely on the brands of its partners? And how could edX monetize its services to recoup Harvard and MIT's investments and reward participating universities? This case presented the history of edX and the online education market as background for a discussion about edX's strategic choices.

In 2003, Radiometer was the world's leading supplier of blood gas analysis equipment and accessories for critical care patients. Based in Denmark, Radiometer sold through a combination of sales subsidiaries and distributors around the world, and generated sales of over DKr 1,791 million ($272 million). Blood gas analysis formed part of the $27.7 billion in-vitro diagnostic market. Although sales were strong, Radiometer remained focused on its future. The market for blood gas analysis was growing slowly, driven mainly by new technologies that threatened to displace the high volume testing equipment that Radiometer supplied. Radiometer's recent attempts at competing in these new technologies had failed. Should it remain focused on blood gas analysis and redouble its efforts? Or should it turn to other opportunities for growth? CEO and controlling stockholder, Johan Schroder, had denied rumors of a potential sale, but an acquisition by a stronger partner could help the company expand into the United States. How should the company position itself for future success?

By 2014, IKEA Group was the largest home furnishing company, with EUR28.5 billion of sales, and planned to reach EUR50 billion by 2020, mainly from emerging markets. At the same time, IKEA Group had adopted in 2012 a new sustainability strategy that focused the company's efforts on its entire value chain from its raw materials sourcing to the lifestyle of its end consumers. The plan especially centered on wood, which represented 60% of IKEA Group's total procurement in volume and constituted a key lever for the company to increase its positive impact on sustainability. IKEA Group Management therefore had to decide how to manage its portfolio of wood sustainability initiatives, especially in the context of the company's aggressive growth plan.

A quarter century into the digital revolution, many companies still agonize over whether to invest significant resources in digital capabilities. Meanwhile, customers--who are used to weaving their digital and physical worlds tightly together--wonder why companies haven't done the same. The author and his colleagues at Bain have worked with and studied hundreds of companies around the globe that are trying to cope with the swiftly changing marketplace. Most industries, he writes, are still in the early stages of what he calls "digical" transformation--and the greatest barrier they face is inexperience with its execution. Drawing on Bain's study of leaders from 20 global industries, he presents five rules that can help: (1) Build your strategy around digital-physical fusion. It can be your new competitive edge. (2) Add links and strengthen linkages in the customer experience. (3) Transform the way you approach innovation. (4) Organizational separation is just an interim step. (5) Build a digical-savvy leadership team that includes the CEO. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Nike, Disney, and Burberry are among the companies whose efforts in this realm have paid off mightily.

The 2013 cyberattack on Target is just one recent example of a growing phenomenon: attacks involving connected companies or direct employees. According to various estimates, at least 80 million of these attacks occur in the United States each year--but the number may be much higher, because they often go unreported. Upton and Creese head an international research project whose goal is to aid organizations in detecting and neutralizing threats from insiders. Their team includes computer security specialists, management educators, psychologists, and criminologists, and their findings challenge conventional views and practices. "The doors that leave organizations vulnerable to insider attacks," they write, "are mundane and ubiquitous." In this article they discuss the causes of growth in the number of insider cyberattacks, the reasons behind them, and five ways to tackle the problem: Adopt a robust insider policy at every level of the organization; raise awareness of phishing and other ploys; screen new hires thoroughly; employ rigorous subcontracting processes; and monitor employees, letting them know that you will observe their cyberactivity to the extent permitted by law.

The author argues that far too many companies continue to focus on a numbers- and data-driven approach to innovation. Strategy and innovation, he says, should not be a mere exercise in analytics, but a qualitative process in which analysis serves the insights born out of individual observation and reflection. He explains why so many business people are uncomfortable with the 'qualitative' world, providing six strategies for improving qualitative judgment in an organization.