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The case is inspired in the real story of Scott Stiles and the Fair Employment Agency, a non-profit employment agency, founded in Hong Kong, with the purpose of eliminating forced labour. The Agency aims to address this issue with the introduction of a new business model in the domestic worker employment agency industry, which addresses social aims while allowing companies to be profitable. In the business model of the Fair Employment Agency, the hiring of domestic workers is made through transparent pricing and ethical practices, and foreign domestic workers are not required to pay placement fees to find jobs in Hong Kong. This allows foreign domestic workers to be free of debts, therefore being less susceptible to exploitation by employers and employment agencies.

In 2018, after ten years at the helm of the Festival Aix-en-Provence, Bernard Foccroulle had passed the reins to Pierre Audi, leaving behind him a uniquely positioned festival with a distinctive artistic vision renowned for its policy of accessibility and audience diversification. It was also distinguished by being firmly anchored both in its region and in the Mediterranean. In addition to the artistic and economic objectives that generally characterize such organizations, the Festival also had societal objectives. This case unfolds a few months before the passing of the torch.

In May 2020, Chinese state-owned Shandong Gold Group was attempting to acquire the Canadian gold mining company TMAC Resources, whose gold mines were located in the High Arctic. If this acquisition took place, it would be the first time Shandong Gold Group would operate a gold mine outside of China. However, it would be a challenge for Shandong Gold Group to operate a mine in such a hard-to-navigate polar environment. As well, there were other lingering questions: How would the company handle the relationships with the indigenous Inuit people during the development stage of the project? Would Shandong Gold Group’s potential acquisition of TMAC Resources be successful, considering the Canadian government’s recent strengthening of its reviews of foreign acquisitions of Canadian companies? Would Shandong Gold Group’s state-owned identity increase the uncertainty of this potential transaction?

In March 2020, the director of Shikshaa Public School (SPS), a privately owned school with 785 students, located in Chennai, India, and his wife and co-founder were reviewing the school's performance and deciding its strategy going forward. The Indian education sector was highly regulated and competitive. Government schools, government-aided schools, and private schools all competed for new student enrolments to obtain a portion of the US$101.1 billion (in fiscal year 2019) Indian education sector. Having recently taken out a bank loan to construct a school building that increased SPS's capacity to 3,000 students, the cofounders were considering ways to increase SPS's revenue and profitability. The options considered were (1) more effective marketing to attract an increased enrolment of new students; (2) relocation of SPS to an upmarket location, where families had the potential to pay higher fees; and (3) acquisition of another school to expand rapidly and leverage the SPS brand.

Foodics aimed to develop a point-of-sale system that offered food and beverage establishments an all-in-one workflow solution, providing a digital menu system to replace outdated analog systems and paper stickers to update menu prices. The case study discusses the hurdles and complexities of bringing what appeared to be a logical and simple digital solution to market, as well as plan for strategic expansion across multiple countries. Integrating Foodics' digital meus into existing point-of-sale systems would involve unexpected challenges, as the founders soon realized restaurants and coffee shops in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Middle East relied on proprietary technology platforms for many of their business operations. Further complicating matters, the highly individualized rules, laws, and ways of doing business in different cities would require local staff and expertise, and a large field sales organization.

BreadTalk Group, based in Singapore, has grown into a food and beverage powerhouse in the region. Mention BreadTalk and images of delicious, fluffy bread with unorthodox designs and creative names comes to mind. Despite its successes, BreadTalk is experiencing a period of stagnation and underperformance in its key markets. How can BreadTalk Group improve the competitiveness of its BreadTalk brand in Singapore and China? What key factors should BreadTalk consider when prioritising which international markets to allocate more resources to? This case challenges readers to assess the external environment and capabilities of BreadTalk to recommend strategic actions to improve performance.

Since its inception in 2015, the 2030 Agenda for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has provided a blueprint for shared prosperity in a sustainable world - a world where all people live productive, vibrant, and peaceful lives on a healthy planet. With less than a decade to go, we need to ask if we are laying the right foundation to achieve the SDGs. How "SDG-smart" are we? How aware are we of the production, trade and financing of commodities that are widely consumed? This case provides an overview of the cocoa sector, its supply chain and structural abuses, challenging the audience to reflect upon their SDG awareness and how they - be they consumers or producers - can do better and how the leaders of tomorrow can bring about sustainable change. The case uses a novel format using a slide set only. The slide set has six parts, starting with introducing the cocoa sector and the issues of poverty, child labour and deforestation. It is followed by the current practices to tackle these issues, namely industry sustainability initiatives and third-party certification programs. It concludes with different components that allow for further in-depth discussion. The final discussion question is about what you as a leader of tomorrow would do differently to bring about true impact. This should prompt the audience to think critically about what they would do. Here, many different components can be considered and the case handles some of them: • Responsible consumption and production. • How can governments and legislation play a role? • How can emerging technologies help? • What role can be played by social impact companies? Can they drive change in the sector?

This case study is set in September 2016 to April 2021. It describes how Abhilash Murthy used the Digital Product Management (DPM) framework to create the Bus Uncle chatbot and subsequently, to pivot to a successful digital business. The DPM framework combines Design Thinking, Lean Start-up and Agile methodology. It can be used to develop digital products and solutions in the private and public sectors. There are four distinct stages that correspond to cases A, B, C and D respectively. And there are supporting videos for this case. Case A: How Abhilash created the Bus Uncle chatbot and then rapidly re-architected it to scale after the chatbot went viral. Case B: How Abhilash started monetising the Bus Uncle chatbot through conversational advertising. Case C: How Abhilash built a chatbot agency to develop and implement chatbots for other organisations. Case D: How Abhilash created a chatbots-as-a-service platform called BotDistrikt to scale the chatbot business further.

Case Supplement for Case SMU948

Case Supplement for Case SMU948

Case Supplement for Case SMU948

In June 2021, Zoom executives prepared for competition in the post-pandemic world. Zoom's breakthrough success in the previous year put the company in a position to set up many new opportunities going forward. At the same time, its success attracted competitors like Microsoft who pushed hard on its competing Teams offering.

Most MBA internships conclude with a presentation where you detail the results of your major summer project. A lot is riding on your performance-namely, whether or not you receive a job offer. The success of your presentation, however, does not rest solely upon your delivery. It is more accurate and beneficial to think of your performance as the earned result of completing the deliberate three-part process of planning, practicing, and presenting. While you will deliver your final internship presentation individually, you will often present as part of a team throughout your career. This technical note is a guide for team presenting. Each element of the three-part process-planning, practicing, and presenting-can be applied to individual and team presentations. The final section includes guidelines for virtual presentations.

Spreadsheet supplement to case 720410.

This case explores incentives for rare disease drug development by chronicling the role of the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Foundation in forming strategic partnerships with the scientific research community and pharmaceutical developers to transform the trajectory of innovation for the disease. In the 17 years since its inception, the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Foundation has helped transform SMA from an underfunded and poorly researched disease with no available treatments to one with three novel drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While these therapies greatly improved the quality of life for many newly diagnosed patients, there was still a substantial portion of existing patients with unmet medical needs. Though many in the medical community, and even at the FDA, felt that SMA had been all but cured, the Foundation could not accept that their work was done until every patient had a treatment option.

Storytelling is a crucial skill that leaders use in a variety of business situations. Accomplished leaders employ storytelling to improve interpersonal relationships, communicate strategy, and build culture. From an operations perspective, storytelling is a skill that empowers leaders to create common ground among teams, unleash the drive and passion of their people, and share a vision for the future. Likewise, storytelling plays a vital role in engaging external stakeholders. To raise capital and acquire investors, you need to tell a compelling story about how your company will create value and why your strategy will be a winning one. If you want the media and other influencers to spread positive news about your products and services, you must articulate a story detailing the unique benefits you provide. The ability to tell a convincing story about your company's purpose and the social good you generate is essential to recruiting the next generation of top talent to your organization. This technical note helps MBA students improve the storytelling skills that they will employ throughout their careers.

Friends of the Children was founded by Duncan Campbell in 1991. Campbell grew up in extremely challenging circumstances and wanted to use his good fortune to make an impact on the lives of children who faced the same sort of circumstances he once had. The Friends of the Children model entailed pairing a salaried, professional mentor, called a Friend, with each child for a minimum of 12 years. It worked-83 percent of Friends of the Children youth earned a high school diploma or the equivalent GED certificate; 92 percent enrolled in post-secondary education, served the country, or entered the workforce; 93 percent remained free from juvenile justice system involvement; and 98 percent waited to become parents until out of their teen years. This case explains the Friends of the Children model as it has evolved over the years and explores its capacity to scale (even as a comparatively expensive intervention). It also highlights the organization's response to the racial equity movement.

This mini case study focuses on one of the building blocks of a circular economy - design-for-circularity - either of an entire product or its components and materials. Rather than ending up as landfill, they are sent back to the production system to be re-made (into a copy of the original, for the same intended use). Students explore to what extent it makes sense to do so in different circumstances, using as an illustration a VHS tape to simulate a circularity transformation process through design.

Spreadsheet Supplement for Case IN1754

During a strategic planning process in early 2018, the chief executive officer of St. Joseph’s Health Care in London, Ontario, Canada encountered various challenges that tested her values-based leadership style and innovative approach to stakeholder engagement. She had not anticipated the skepticism from the senior management team that surfaced when she attempted to finalize the strategic plan for presentation to the board of directors. Although she faced resistance to the detailed wording of the proposed aims, she was opposed to diluting the language in the strategic plan. She found it important for all engaged stakeholders to see that their input had shaped the resulting plan. However, successful implementation of the strategic plan would depend on the support of her team members, who were accountable for its implementation. Overruling a management recommendation could potentially jeopardize the good working relationship she had established, but failing to deliver a plan to stakeholders that reflected their input posed a reputational risk for the organization. The chief executive officer had to decide how to move forward.