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In late January 2021, Robinhood Markets Inc. (Robinhood), the California-based start-up that had upended the securities brokerage industry with its zero-commission trades, faced legal and market challenges. The US Securities and Exchange Commission had imposed a hefty fine on the company for its inadequate disclosure of payments to market brokers. In addition, a state regulator had filed an administrative complaint about the start-up's "gamification" of investing that had arguably led unwitting customers to lose money. A huge run-up in the stock of GameStop Corp. had put the spotlight on Robinhood and its business practices. On the competitive front, both traditional brokers such as Charles Schwab Corporation and Webull Financial LLC, a China-based start-up, were challenging Robinhood for the millennial investor customer base. Robinhood’s co-founder and chief executive officer, Vladimir Tenev, and his team needed to respond to these challenges so the company could file papers in March 2021 for a mid-2021 initial public offering.

In late January 2021, Robinhood Markets Inc. (Robinhood), the California-based start-up that had upended the securities brokerage industry with its zero-commission trades, faced legal and market challenges. The US Securities and Exchange Commission had imposed a hefty fine on the company for its inadequate disclosure of payments to market brokers. In addition, a state regulator had filed an administrative complaint about the start-up's "gamification" of investing that had arguably led unwitting customers to lose money. A huge run-up in the stock of GameStop Corp. had put the spotlight on Robinhood and its business practices. On the competitive front, both traditional brokers such as Charles Schwab Corporation and Webull Financial LLC, a China-based start-up, were challenging Robinhood for the millennial investor customer base. Robinhood's co-founder and chief executive officer, Vladimir Tenev, and his team needed to respond to these challenges so the company could file papers in March 2021 for a mid-2021 initial public offering.

The healthcare industry continues to face substantial pressure to simultaneously improve costs and patient centricity. Much of the focus to date has concerned policy interventions capable of improving these performance measures for traditional healthcare providers, such as hospitals. But recently, nontraditional healthcare providers like Walmart Health and Amazon have made forays into the industry by establishing retail medical clinics (RMCs). These efforts constitute a redistribution of how services are organized across the macro healthcare delivery supply chain. While RMCs stand to bring innovative models of service delivery to patients, the policy environment can both enable and inhibit their involvement in the industry. We develop a framework that explains how structural and conduct regulations have historically influenced demand for and supply of healthcare services. We then describe how these regulatory factors can support nontraditional healthcare providers as they launch innovative service delivery models aimed at efficiency and customer centricity.

Supply chain strategies are used to increase efficiency, save money, or reduce uncertainty and disruption. Disruptions can be unexpected and potentially devastating for supply chains. However, sometimes supply disruptions are built into supply chains using a postponement strategy. When postponement is implemented as a supply chain strategy, it can smooth the flow of goods, provide cost savings, and improve customer experience. When postponement is forced on supply chains via government intervention it can break down the seamless flow of goods and information, causing them to work inefficiently. In this article, we show how intervention through postponement creates unintended consequences that negatively impact beer supply chains and make recommendations to help managers mitigate these consequences. We also address policymakers, who can decrease the likelihood of unintended consequences resulting from regulations they enact, including how to prevent legislating these regulations in the first place.

A 2010 global event had far-reaching effects on the Indian energy sector, when a change in Indonesian law affected the commercial viability of power plants in India that were based on imported Indonesian coal. There were serious implications for private participation in the electricity sector, which was slowly moving toward liberalization and privatization. The issue was convoluted and became all the more serious when, in 2017, a compensatory tariff allowed by regulatory bodies to provide relief for the increased coal prices was disallowed by the Supreme Court of India within the contractual framework.

This note discusses identifying the potential future fragile and high-growth economies.

SATS Ltd., an airline service provider headquartered in Singapore, was the largest air cargo terminal operator at Singapore's Changi Airport. As a key player in the Asia-Pacific region, it had built its reputation as one of the top air cargo terminal operators in the world. With meticulous strategic planning, it had developed technological capabilities to navigate through many challenges and stay ahead of its competitors. In 2019, multiple challenges were arising from the external factors that had transformed the nature of the global air cargo value chain. An impending labour crisis, coupled with changing customer expectations and the threat of substitutes, meant that the company faced a fresh set of challenges. To fight these challenges, it had to decide whether to further develop its automation capabilities or to focus on driving digitalization within its operations to improve its operational efficiency.

A family health crisis, difficulties making urgent medical appointments, and inefficient doctor-patient communications had convinced two tech entrepreneurs that Saudi Arabia's health care system was ripe for a digital intervention. Digital health technologies had focused primarily on health care providers, leaving patients in Saudi Arabia largely on the sidelines-was telehealth, and real-time patient communication tools, the next big digital revolution for the 33 million people in the Kingdom? And could this model expand to other Middle East countries and beyond? This case study describes the founding of Cura in 2016 and the cofounders' exploration of various telemedicine models and problem-solving efforts as challenges arose. The case concludes with a discussion of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company.

The Sunshine Foundation of Canada (Sunshine) was a national, Canadian-focused, self-funded charity established in 1987 and headquartered in London, Ontario. In the second half of 2020, the chief executive officer (CEO) and president was deciding how to create an effective email template that would serve the larger organization as the first point of contact for potential donors. Sunshine's relationships and donor pipeline were the organization's lifeline, and with strong competition in the non-profit milieu, the CEO knew securing funds in the individual-giving category would be difficult. How could she outline Sunshine's differences and highlight why the prospective client would be interested in becoming a donor? How could she convert these prospects into new Sunshine donors?

Following the 2008 China milk scandal, Chinese infant milk formula products were regarded as unsafe, and Chinese consumers were preferring to pay high prices for the products of foreign brands. As one of the few companies not involved in the milk scandal, China Feihe Limited (Feihe) was able to maintain steady growth in product sales in the medium- and low-end market, but it did not have a differentiation advantage over foreign brands; therefore, its sales results in the high-end market were poor. In 2015, Feihe carried out a strategic transformation and repositioned its brand proposition, which led to increased customer value. The company also launched a new product series, which allowed it to create a competitive advantage. In 2019, Feihe was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. However, other brands started to imitate Feihe in developing products that were suitable for Chinese babies, which made investors doubt whether or not Feihe could maintain its competitive advantage. What action should Feihe take to maintain its competitive advantage and its position in the market?

This case is used to explore the strategic concept of "look forward, reason back." Roku in 2021 is trying to figure out the future of television and streaming media. Students are asked to provide a vision for television and streaming media (that is, Look Forward) by the middle of the decade, and then reason back to the strategic choices it should take in 2021. Roku is well positioned, but industry and consumer habits are changing quickly, and Roku must decide whether to focus on creating its own exclusive content, focus on licensing its OS to TV manufacturers, and/or remain the "Switzerland" of the streaming media world, without competing with content players or TV OEMs.

Alfa Group for a long time was named as one of the leading private banking groups in Russia and CIS countries with successful and continuous business growth. Alfa-Bank (Kazakhstan), a subsidiary of the group operating in Kazakhstan, had been focused on corporate clients in previous years and was reasonably good in that. However, that segment didn't support the expected growth rates. Hence the bank made the decision to diversify its business by developing Small and Medium Enterprises segment (SME), as well as retail markets, which required revision of its current business model and introduction of innovative practices. To execute the initiative agile, principles were implemented, organizational structures and processes were changed in line with the intrapreneurial framework. Nowadays agile teams are actively engaged in developing innovative digital products and services, which resulted in significant growth dynamics in target segments (SME clients: from 9 to more than 45 thousand and Retail clients: from 359 to more than 581 thousand). The journey was not easy, and the case describes many issues that arose during the implementation phase, as well as doubts regarding the sustainability and efficiency of the intrapreneurial framework in future. Following the 3 years of intensive development and initial successful results, the intrapreneurship initiative was clearly on the crossroads. The key question addressed in this case is whether Alfa-Bank (Kazakhstan) should continue to develop the intrapreneurship framework, and if so, what are the next steps to be taken by protagonists to develop the bank into a truly intrapreneurship organization, with efficient agile-based innovation framework, contributing to the bank's profitability.

This case looks at the vagaries of Molson's corporate governance during the period from 1995 to 2003, which led to a declaration of the Molson Family Principles and a review of the board of directors' effectiveness initiated by Eric Molson, its chair. These actions proved particularly important in light of the attitudes, behaviours, decisions, and ambitions of Ian Molson, a distant cousin who sat on the board, and CEO Dan O'Neill. Patriarch of the Tom Molson (his father) clan and controlling shareholder of the company, Eric Molson needed to reaffirm the values and principles of his family by using his power of persuasion and influence and, if necessary, the (heavy) artillery to ensure the company's sustainability.

This case covers the discussions and events that took place in 2004 at the family, board, and executive levels at Molson Inc. (Molson). At that time, there was a debate between two strategic orientations: the merger of Molson with A. Coors & Co. (Coors) or the outright sale of Molson to a competitor. The case focuses on the interactions between key governance actors, including the chair, Eric Molson, the deputy chair, Ian Molson, the chief executive officer, Dan O'Neill, and other members of Molson's board of directors. Molson's status as a publicly traded family-controlled firm raises issues such as the importance of family support, the name of the entity resulting from any transaction, and the extent of family involvement in its governance.

This two-part case covers the discussions and events that took place in 2004 at the family, board, and executive levels at Molson Inc. (Molson). At that time, there was a debate between two strategic orientations: the merger of Molson with A. Coors & Co. (Coors) or the outright sale of Molson to a competitor. Case A focuses on the interactions between key governance actors, including the chair, Eric Molson, the deputy chair, Ian Molson, the chief executive officer, Dan O'Neill, and other members of Molson's board of directors. Molson's status as a publicly traded family-controlled firm raises issues such as the importance of family support, the name of the entity resulting from any transaction, and the extent of family involvement in its governance. Case B provides additional details regarding key events that followed the May 5 board meeting.

Royal Enfield, the motorcycle division of Eicher Motors Limited, saw its unit sales increase a multiple of 16 times from 2008 to 2018. By 2019, the company controlled 96 per cent of the 250-750 cc motorcycle market segment in India. However, sales growth slowed considerably in financial year 2018-19, when the first three quarters seemed to indicate continuing slow growth for the company. Year-to-date sales for the first nine months dropped 15 per cent compared to the same period the year before. Two major new competitors were having a considerable impact of Royal Enfield's ability to retain market dominance: Mahindra & Mahindra's successful Jawa motorcycle line and US motorcycle giant Harley-Davidson, which was contemplating extending its portfolio in India into the 250-750 cc motorcycle segment. Having reached the pinnacle of the market, Royal Enfield was eager to retain its position in the 250-750 cc motorcycle segment. What strategic choices and growth options did it have to maintain market dominance, and what competitive advantage was its most viable growth option?

This note offers a set of strategic questions to help you formulate an effective personal plan that can be especially useful for your first years after business school. It draws on theories and principles of management strategy as well as wisdom from top business thinkers, leaders, and Darden MBA alumni.

The director of the INSEAD Virtual Reality Immersive Learning Initiative, Daniel Landau, must decide what brand of VR headsets to buy for the school and its four campuses. It comes down to a choice between VR devices made by Oculus or PICO Interactive: which is better suited for his small team to create content and deploy it from their hub? Since each brand is embedded in a unique ecosystem, Daniel must evaluate their respective roles and contributions to the goal of delivering an optimal immersive learning experience.

As companies respond to intensifying competitive pressures and challenges, they ask more and more of their employees. But organizations often have very little to show for the efforts of their talented and engaged workers. By selecting fewer initiatives with greater impact, companies can make their strategies more powerful. A strategic initiative is worthwhile only if it does one or more of the following: It creates value for customers by raising their willingness to pay. As your company finds ways to innovate or to improve existing products, the maximum price people will be willing to pay for the offering rises. It creates value for employees by making work more attractive. Offering better jobs lowers the minimum compensation that you have to offer to attract talent to your business. It creates value for suppliers by reducing their operating cost. As suppliers' costs go down, the lowest price they would be willing to accept for their goods falls. As companies expand the total amount of value created for their customers, employees, and suppliers, they position themselves for enduring financial success.

Large digital multisided platforms (MSPs) such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Apple's App Store have made it much easier for sellers to reach new customers, but as thousands of companies large and small have discovered, conducting business on them carries significant risks and costs. MSPs sometimes exploit sellers' dependency on them in various subtle and not-so-subtle ways. They raise fees. They change their recommendation algorithms to put more emphasis on price. They require sellers to advertise to maintain visibility in search results. They compete against sellers by imitating their products. They impose restrictions on the prices sellers can set outside of the MSP. And they change their rules and design in ways that weaken sellers' relationships with their customers. But all is not lost, say the authors. Sellers can employ four strategies to build viable businesses on platforms. They can develop and invest in direct channels, use platforms mainly as showrooms, go deep with highly specialized offerings or go broad with many different offerings, and wage public relations and lobbying campaigns to curb platforms' power.