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The case discusses the international expansion strategy of The WeWork Company (WeWork), a co-working space company. In the United States and Europe, the expansion of WeWork occurred through greenfield investment; membership focus was on freelancers and entrepreneurs. In Asian markets such as India, where WeWork entered through a joint venture, enterprise customers were the revenue generators. In June 2019, a co-founder of WeWork considered buying the entire stake of its partner in the Indian joint venture. However, given that revenues continuously remained lower than losses, investors doubted the expansion strategy and business model of WeWork. Should WeWork's pace of expansion be slowed? Can WeWork's business model be revamped for more profitable returns, and if so, should it?

Owing to its intangible nature and oligopolistic structure, the Media & Entertainment industry used to seem particularly difficulty to disrupt, and Disney was sitting right at the top. Yet, ten years after Netflix launched its online video streaming service, incumbents acknowledged that surviving the online revolution requires drastic changes. Until 2017, Disney had not taken the threat seriously. Its streaming strategy could be described as exploratory, at best: It had a 30% stake in Hulu, a third-party streaming platform jointly owned by media giants, and it sold its "old" content to Netflix. However, as Disney's cable partners (e.g., Comcast) started to lose millions of highly profitable subscribers, the company realized that its half-hearted approach to online streaming was a recipe for disaster. That year marked the turnaround of Disney's approach to streaming. First, it shocked the world in August, when it announced that it would gradually withdraw its movie content from Netflix. That same month, it revealed it had taken a controlling stake in BAMTech, a technology company providing streaming video technology. Finally, in December, it announced its intention to acquire 21st Century Fox in a deal that closed 15 months later, giving it a controlling stake in Hulu and greatly expanding Disney's already formidable content library. With the nomination of Kevin Mayer at the helm of DTCI in March 2018, Disney realized its intention to transition into a B2C company. However, it was going to be a long road for Mayer, who faced both external and internal challenges. The case explores Mayer's options to succeed in a rapidly evolving marketplace in which former partners and internet giants have become the competitors. It also examines how Mayer can position DTCI within Disney, addressing the complexities of collaborating with other business units and the potential cannibalization of the Media Networks division.

The range of topics and the opinions expressed on artificial intelligence (AI) are so broad that clarity is needed on the the field's central tenets, the opportunities AI presents, and the challenges it poses. To that end, we provide an overview of the six building blocks of artificial intelligence: structured data, unstructured data, preprocesses, main processes, a knowledge base, and value-added information outputs. We then develop a typology to serve as an analytic tool for managers grappling with AI's influence on their industries. The typology considers the effects of AI-enabled innovations on two dimensions: the innovations' boundaries and their effects on organizational competencies. The typology's first dimension distinguishes between product-facing innovations, which influence a firm's offerings, and process-facing innovations, which influence a firm's operations. The typology's second dimension describes innovations as either competence-enhancing or competence-destroying; the former enhances current knowledge and skills, whereas the latter renders existing skills and knowledge obsolete. This framework lets managers evaluate their markets, the opportunities within them, and the threats arising from them, providing valuable background and structure to important strategic decisions.

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The case discusses how cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin posed a threat to Visa Inc. (Visa). In March 2019, the Kroger Co., a leading retailer in the United States, was planning to accept cryptocurrencies from consumers as a mode of payment. According to Alfred F. Kelly, the chief executive officer of Visa, cryptocurrencies were an inefficient means of retail-related financial transactions, though the company invested in the research and development of cryptocurrency for corporate transaction purposes such as cross-border payments. Should Kelly consider cryptocurrency as a disruptive force in the retail sector? Should she focus more on the retail or the business to business sector for cryptocurrency-based transactions?

In 2007, Trek Bicycles (Trek) entered the Indian market. Although Trek's market share in India was small compared to its global presence, India held an important position in Trek's global aspirations, and the country's potential for growth drove Trek to enter that market. The company strongly believed in innovation and in delivering value to customers through a bundle of services and schemes. Trek operated in the country through a partnership with an Indian distributor and in 2017 set up its Indian subsidiary. The company had a first-mover advantage with respect to the sale of super-premium bicycles in India, but in 2019, after more than a decade, how could the company increase its retail network and grow the community that was connected with cycling?

As a strategist, you must decide for your firm what products to produce, what customers to serve, what geographies to operate in, and what activities to perform. This note on Corporate Strategy, which introduces the fifth module of the RC Strategy course, offers a perspective for thinking about how these questions can be addressed so that you can determine the scope of your firm across three dimensions (horizontal, vertical, and geographic), and, given the scope, manage it in the most effective manner.

The case is set in January 2020 and the case protagonist is Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Inc., a fully integrated sustainable energy and transportation company. The case sets up real-world, factual problems that Elon Musk and Tesla face, including how to scale-up production profitably while launching several new models at the same time. Future demand in Tesla's key markets-the United States, China, and Europe-is also uncertain. Tesla, Inc. employed about 50,000 people worldwide and boasted a market capitalization of $150 billion, an appreciation of more than 6,000 percent over its initial public offering in 2010. This made the electric vehicle startup more valuable than GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler combined and the second most valuable auto company globally, only behind Toyota Motor Corp. but ahead of the Volkswagen Group, the world's two largest car manufacturers. To put Tesla's stock market valuation in perspective, in 2019, GM and Ford combined made more than 10 million vehicles while Toyota and Volkswagen each made over 10 million. In comparison, Tesla made less than 370,000 cars.

In 2018, the founder and owner of the Karatu Coffee Company needed to decide what to do next with his company. He was considering several options: increasing the tourism part of the business, growing the original farm, pursuing a property development project in the capital city, or simply selling out and walking away. The company, located in Tanzania, began as a coffee farm, expanded into tourism with a remote, idyllic coffee lodge, and then brought coffee and tourism together with a bustling inner-city coffee house, which also housed a boutique hotel. The final phase of expansion included the purchase of high-quality coffee equipment and highly-prized roasting facilities to capture a larger share of the coffee value chain. The owner's decision would require insights into both the coffee industry and Tanzania itself.

In 2019, the founder of Anjelo's Confectionaries, a commercial bakery in India, faced two difficult situations. The founder had created the Juicy Cakes brand to represent the company's standard cakes, differentiating the product from the bakery's specialty cakes and ice cream cakes; however, the Juicy Cakes name had limited exposure and lacked mass recall for consumers, as a result of poor distribution and reach. The second challenge was the unused capacity of the company's large automated plant. Although cake sales were seasonal, the founder wanted to utilize the company's excess capacity throughout the year. The entrepreneur founder needed to fine-tune the trade-off between a product-based strategy and a place- or distribution-based strategy. How should the founder proceed to ensure his company's future?

Founded in 2016, Critterati was India's first luxury hotel for pets, located in one of the most prominent residential and commercial areas of Gurgaon, India. The basic philosophy of the hotel was that pets provided unconditional love to their owners, so they deserved more than just basic care in return. The number of customers visiting Critterati over the previous three years had increased consistently from 500 in the first year to 1,200 in the second year and 2,600 in the third year. In a short time, the start-up had become a self-sustaining business. By early May 2019, the hotel's top luxury Critterati Suite was already booked for most of June and the overall hotel was nearly fully booked for the next two months. The Critterati differentiator was an annual membership plan that had been carefully crafted to provide a package of services for one year at a cost effective flat rate. However, the number of customers who chose the membership plan was still low, at around 250, but 1,000 memberships were needed to break even. How would pet owners be convinced about the benefits of the plan? Partnering with other service providers would also increase brand awareness, but which partnerships were most important?

In 2019, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited, one of Hong Kong's most popular jewellery chains, had recently adopted blockchain, under the leadership of managing director, to address some of the challenges in the diamond industry. In particular, the company had moved from paper certificates to digital certificates; blockchain also allowed the firm to trace the origin of diamonds, eliminating the problem of blood diamonds. In order to continue as a leader in transforming the diamond industry for the digital age, what other changes should the managing director implement? Should the company emphasize its use of blockchain technology in marketing to end consumers?

In March 2019, Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft were grounded worldwide. This was a consequence of two deadly plane crashes within five months in late 2018 and early 2019. In both the crashes, the flawed design of the aircraft led to an erroneous reading of the onboard sensors. This, in turn, activated the stall prevention software of the aircraft, which kept pushing the nose of the aircraft down. Boeing was alleged to have hastily developed the 737 MAX aircraft in response to the Airbus A320neo. In August 2019, Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing, was hopeful that services of 737 MAX could resume within a couple of months. How should Muilenburg deal with the crisis? To what extent should he worry about the increasing competitive rivalry with Airbus?

Michelin, a tire company with over a century of experience, attempts to develop a digital service platform for its fleet and dealer customers. The case focuses on the challenges of bringing a large, well-established company into the digital age. Concerned about the slow growth in the tire market, Florent Menegaux, Michelin's CEO, set out to redefine the company as a mobility company. As part of this growth strategy, Michelin started offering a host of services such as fleet management and tire-as-a-service. In January 2020, Ralph Dimenna, Global President of its Service and Solutions group, launched its latest initiative called Digital Service Platform, a cloud-based system that connected Michelin with its fleet customers and dealers. However, the program was facing resistance in the market and he wondered what he could do to accelerate its acceptance.

For years, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz - a small, New York City law firm - has consistently boasted the highest profits per partner and one of the highest "prestige" ratings among U.S.-based law firms. The firm has remained loyal to a distinctive strategy ever since its founding in 1965. Whereas most law firms have multiple offices, seek long-term retainer relationships with clients, operate across multiple services, and bill by the hour, Wachtell Lipton operates from a single location, offers legal services on a matter-by-matter basis, focuses on transactional work (primarily M&A advisory), and value bills for its services. Despite its extraordinary success, as the legal services market evolves and the firm's name partners, 87-year-old Herbert Wachtell and 88-year-old Marty Lipton, approach retirement, questions arise about whether Wachtell Lipton's magic formula will continue to yield extraordinary results in coming years.

This case, set in May 2019, details the launch strategy of the German automobile company AUDI AG (Audi) for its model A8 sedan, the world's first Level 3 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) conditional automated vehicle. A Level 3 vehicle uses technology and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms derived from advanced programming to control itself under specific conditions, enabling the human driver to take their eyes off the road and their hands off the steering wheel. Given the fast-paced nature of technology development and the emerging status of the autonomous vehicle industry, this case provides several class discussion points, including first-mover advantage and influencing technological standards in an emerging industry, the ethical implications of technology development and the programming of autonomous vehicles to make decisions, and the role of government regulations and customers in autonomous vehicle programming. Further discussions could address the development of smart cities and related technology, the data privacy issues of autonomous vehicles, the decisions of an established company to develop a risky technology, and future international market entries with these vehicles.

In late 2017, Kate Ryder, the founder and CEO of digital women's health telemedicine company Maven Clinic, faced an important decision. Maven offered both a direct to consumer (D2C) product that anyone could use to book virtual appointments with health practitioners across a range of services and specialties for a fee, and an enterprise product-the Maven Family Benefits platform-which it sold to large employers as an employee benefit. Since founding Maven in 2014, Ryder had believed that the way to achieve true impact and scale is to work within that system, but the most effective strategy for pursuing enterprise customers was an open question. She considered her options.

An examination of the strategic marketing challenges facing Thinx as it tries to grow in the face of menstruation taboos and competition from large incumbents.

The author was working at a Silicon Valley bank in 2010 when some entrepreneurs pitched him on a "medical-cannabis technology company." He didn't know what to make of it, because he'd never considered cannabis to be a legitimate industry. But he and two friends began researching the issue. They recognized nascent signs that marijuana legalization--first for medical use, and then for recreational use--seemed likely to spread. Kennedy and his cofounders did extensive on-the-ground research in the hills of northern California and southern Oregon, the fields of Colorado and Washington, and the barns of British Columbia. They went to Jamaica, to Israel, and to Amsterdam. Slowly they created an investment thesis and worked to raise money. Then, in 2013, the government of Canada reached out to them for help creating a competitive private-sector supply chain. In response, the three incorporated Tilray, applied for a license, bought land, and built a cultivation facility. By April 2014 they were a licensed producer of medical cannabis products in Canada. Today they spend a lot of time with policy makers, regulators, and doctors around the world, demonstrating why cannabis should be mainstream medicine. Tilray currently exports to 13 countries.

In theory, companies create value for stakeholders by making risky investments. In practice, however, managers in large corporations routinely quash risky ideas in favor of marginal improvements, cost-cutting, and "safe" investments. Why are managers in large, hierarchical organizations so risk-averse? Corporate incentives and control processes actively discourage managers from taking risks. Whereas CEOs consider each investment in the context of a greater portfolio, managers essentially bet their careers on every investment they make--even if outcomes are negligible to the corporation as a whole. This article explains how loss aversion works, presents an analysis of just how much value manager attitudes toward investment risk leave on the table, and offers suggestions for changes in practices and systems.