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Grupo Argos, the third-largest business group in Colombia, was dedicated to cement production, energy, coal extraction, port management, and real estate development. The President of Grupo Argos was to meet his team to analyze whether its five subsidiaries had the necessary means to increase revenues and reduce portfolio uncertainty. The group considered deepening their core businesses so that by 2023, 80% of EBITDA would be generated by core businesses, 15% from experimental scalable businesses, and without risking the portfolio, the remaining 5% from emerging markets. The goal was for 50% of its revenues to come from operations outside Colombia, 10% from new businesses, and for the cement business to reach revenues of USD 10 billion. The executive committee questioned whether it was best for Grupo Argos to maintain its current portfolio or whether it should divest.

The OCP Africa illustrates the challenges of entering a market challenged by unfavorable conditions for the target customer - be it infrastructure, access to market, access to finance, education, etc. while at the same time acknowledging the need to respect the environmental mistakes made in other parts of the world - namely unsustainable farming. This forces OCP Africa to pursue a non-traditional, innovative approach to entering the African continent with a partnership-based strategy. The case starts by showing the challenges of the fertilizer market within Africa and the challenges for the farmers to farm in a sustainable manner. It then illustrates how OCP Africa learned from its first experiences in piloting an ecosystem approach in order to align the interests of aggregators, off-takers, input providers, financial institutions and government agencies to allow farmers to learn about sustainable farming and at the same time achieve a higher level of welfare. Business models that leverage public-private and private-private partnerships for social and economic benefits are often discussed theoretically with limited examples of use cases. This case aims to demonstrate through the OCP Africa example, the challenges of establishing and sustaining such partnerships, while taking a stakeholder-centric approach to doing business.

Student spreadsheet to case CU301

In 2020, the largest non-governmental organization in the world, BRAC, headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has some big problems to tackle. Its founder, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, has left behind a challenge: take the 1981-founded organization from Bangladesh to every single part of the world and create a global set of programs and program heads. Active in education, health, microfinance and poverty alleviation, BRAC is also entering the humanitarian and relief world through its work with Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. What will be the way forward for this global NGO based in the South?

Case A is set in 2010. Shinji Tanaka is a senior economist at Kyoto Heritage Foundation, a Japanese think tank, and he wondered if Sharp's new manufacturing plant in Sakai could turn the company around. Sharp's vision and innovative culture led it to invest in LCD technology. It played an important role in consigning cathode ray tube technology to the past and eventually outlasted plasma as well. However, Sharp's fortunes started to take a hit as plant construction racked up large debts and profitability declined as the global economy shrank and LCD prices fell due to increased competition. The company responded by doubling down on LCD technology and built a larger and more expensive plant to build more technologically advanced LCD panels. Case B continues in 2016. Technological improvements continued to bring down the prices of LCD panels. Sharp had to be bailed out from its losses twice and was facing bankruptcy again. The company had to decide between two choices. One option was to merge with the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), a government-owned investment fund, to create a national champion. The second one involved doing a deal with Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics giant that could realise synergies. Which option should Tanaka suggest Sharp to take?

Case A is set in 2010. Shinji Tanaka is a senior economist at Kyoto Heritage Foundation, a Japanese think tank, and he wondered if Sharp's new manufacturing plant in Sakai could turn the company around. Sharp's vision and innovative culture led it to invest in LCD technology. It played an important role in consigning cathode ray tube technology to the past and eventually outlasted plasma as well. However, Sharp's fortunes started to take a hit as plant construction racked up large debts and profitability declined as the global economy shrank and LCD prices fell due to increased competition. The company responded by doubling down on LCD technology and built a larger and more expensive plant to build more technologically advanced LCD panels. Case B continues in 2016. Technological improvements continued to bring down the prices of LCD panels. Sharp had to be bailed out from its losses twice and was facing bankruptcy again. The company had to decide between two choices. One option was to merge with the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), a government-owned investment fund, to create a national champion. The second one involved doing a deal with Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics giant that could realise synergies. Which option should Tanaka suggest Sharp to take?

Neat, a fintech company based in Hong Kong, launched its first account in 2016 and has grown up over the years. The company now mainly serves startups and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) by offering credit cards, payment collection, remittance services and startup-tailored solutions. After the outbreak of COVID-19, many countries introduced travel restrictions, lock-down and social distancing measures which gave online businesses including Neat significant growth opportunities. Having successfully secured a US$11 million Series A funding in April and a further US$4 million in August 2020, David Rosa, CEO and co-founder of Neat, is contemplating the next stage of expansion. Should Neat focus on developing new products and services or on expanding the market reach and target developing countries or developed countries? The case describes the business details of Neat, including company background, its products and services on offer and the different options available for its future development. The case helps students understand the different stages of corporate growth and the status quo of fintech companies in Asia. It provides a learning opportunity for students to analyze and discuss different growth strategies, and they will learn the different business environments fintech companies are facing in developing countries and developed countries.

Mr. Manuel Aristizábal was the founder of San Basilio, a restaurant that began operations in 2001. Angelina, Manuel's wife, started to work at the family firm on trial. Very soon, however, her organisational and managerial capacities meant that she became completely involved in the business. The business' growth was very conservative when Manuel and his wife were in charge. When Martín (their son) returned from studying abroad, he proposed new challenges for the family firm. Martín set up a catering service for San Basilio, led the opening of an additional branch, and began a successful ice cream business. The first two opportunities were leveraged in San Basilio, his parents' business; the new branch and the earnings from the catering service were important economic benefits just for him. Martín is the sole owner of the ice cream business. However, San Basilio's growth started to exceed its operational capacity, and, according to Angelina and Anette (their daughter), its financial performance was at risk. Angelina and Anette were interested in slow growth for the business and in maintaining the family ties, which had weakened due to the Martín's entrepreneurial activities. Martín's proposal to pass the catering service to San Basilio was the straw that broke the camel's back. He had been running it on his own and now wanted his parents to assume control of the whole operation and to give him a commission for the business whose original idea and current performance were the result of Martin's management.

The case describes two transformation journeys for ABN AMRO bank. The first transformation is cultural and the second is digital. It explores the interplay between these two journeys from the perspective of the head of the Personal Banking. The case goes into detail regarding how to bank rebuilt its internal operating model. The hierarchy was delayered and replaced with agile ways of working, employee empowerment, and a new performance management approach. At first, there was a lot of chaos, but, after some time for adjustment, benefits started to appear, such as higher NPS scores, and better financial results. The new approach also helped the bank cope with the COVID-19 pandemic as many of the changes were linked to remote working for employees and technology-mediated service provision for customers. Yet, the case describes the appearance of some new challenges. While some teams embraced the new ways of working, others had trouble letting go of legacy approaches. There were some inconsistencies and confusion around performance measurement. Despite improving performance in some areas, multifunctional teams were not necessarily delivering the best customer experiences. Sick leave was increasing, and there were signs that employee engagement was falling. The reader is placed in the shoes of the head of Personal Banking must to come up with solutions to these challenges.

The case considers the entry of Germany's leading retailer, Kaufland Warenhandel GmbH & Co KG (Kaufland), known for its hypermarket retail format and low prices, into the Australian market. Before entering Australia in 2016, the retailer had only expanded into Eastern European countries. Australia was its first developed market. In April 2019, a change in chief executive officer (CEO) took place at Kaufland, with the new CEO, Klaus Gehrig, demanding more centralized decision making. In Australia, Kaufland was struggling to get approval for its larger stores. Competitors in Australia, such as Woolworths and Coles, were also gearing up for the competition, with Coles sending a team of executives to study Kaufland's operations in Germany. In November 2019, after a series of weather-related issues in Australia, the retail price of several grocery items increased. Kaufland was still searching for suppliers and working on opening its stores. Experts felt that Kaufland Australia had the potential to make an impact on the grocery market, as higher prices offered by other retailers would lead consumers to shift to it. Going forward, Gehrig faced a challenging decision: Should he revisit the decision to expand into the Australian market? How might his competitors retaliate?

In March 2020, the founder of an auto mechanic shop in a Toronto suburb was contemplating a five-year growth strategy. Given the disruptions in both the auto mechanic sector and the automotive industry at large, she wondered whether her plan was realistic. Should the founder execute the growth strategy according to plan or change the plan and lead the business in a completely different direction?

Logitech has sold billions of computer mice and other computer peripherals over the 38 years of its existence. It was a typical growth company profiting on the success of the PC with an unprecedented history of top and bottom-line growth. With the decline in PC sales, Logitech needed a new strategy. Under the lead of new CEO Gerald Quindlen, the company developed a "Four- Screen" strategy and introduced two major post-PC products: a smart-TV-device named Logitech Revue (based on Google TV) and Lifesize, a high-end video collaboration solution. Both attempts failed dramatically and left the formerly highly successful company in a crisis.

New management under CEO Bracken Darrell transformed Logitech into a company with a design-led focus. The product and brand portfolio are diversified with a strong focus on audio, video, gaming and other cloud-connected devices. This ultimately leads to a significantly lower dependency on the PC market, financial success, a transformed corporate culture, and high recognition in the industry. The strategy is not fundamentally different from the previous attempts, but the leadership style and strategy execution are radically changed. With the departure of key executives, Logitech and its CEO in 2019 are again at crossroads and are looking for new ways to grow.

The case deals with the international expansion of Jollibee across Asia, USA and Europe along various dimensions (in particular its brands portfolio)

The world's first truly global AI crisis came at a time when no one expected. In the summer of 2020, after college exams were cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions, tens of thousands of students received nonsensical grades, which were determined using undisclosed AI models trained on the class of 2020 and prior years students' data. Few things mattered more in life than where one went to college, and for many young people, their career, relationships, network, income, and, generally speaking, life was to be determined by what the UK's prime minister Boris Johnson labeled as the "mutant algorithm." Much like COVID-19 itself, this situation was repeated nearly identically in multiple countries, but the first instance of the crisis was with the International Baccalaureate Organization headquartered in Switzerland, which, on July 5, 2020, was the first to release its grades before individual countries released theirs. This public-sourced case examines the grading scandal, how it happened, and how it affected students worldwide.

Handout for Case UV8670

Handout for Case UV8670

Handout for Case UV8670

Handout for Case UV8670

The proliferation of social media and information communication technologies (ICTs) has transformed the crisis communication landscape. We are increasingly seeing new crisis development patterns and stakeholder communication processes that overwhelm traditional crisis communication protocols. Crisis communication theories and best practices, however, remain largely reactive and may not provide practical implications for effective communication strategies in the digital age. Crisis communication must advance to proactive strategies with stakeholder-focused communication. This article provides research-based evidence with real-world examples to illustrate why stealing thunder must be considered a strategic crisis communication option in the digital age. Managers must understand how social media and ICTs influence the current crisis communication ecosystem and how stealing thunder can help them navigate crises.