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No one would argue that that online and mobile banking have transformed the financial services industry. Tech-savvy customers welcome online banking for its convenience, and banks view it as a way to increase efficiency. But the author argues that despite the rapid growth of digital tools and solutions, personal relationships remain critical in the financial sector. She describes her research findings, which indicate that there are hidden costs to abandoning personalized banking relationships - and that such relationships between borrowers and lenders can benefit both parties.

Despite widespread agreement on the importance of creativity, leaders often fail to recognize creative ideas-or worse, reject them outright. The authors summarize research pointing to a variety of conditions that bias managers toward judging creative ideas negatively. Heeding the call for tools that aid in the recognition of creativity, they then describe their model for successfully pitching ideas in organizations, which, assuming true idea novelty, features two critical proactive behaviours on the part of the employee: idea enactment and influence tactics.

The billionaire founder of Sun Microsystems Vinod Khosla talks to Creative Destruction Lab Founder Ajay Agrawal about the AI-generated opportunities (and dangers) that lie ahead. In particular, he points to the potential of AI to increase income disparity to dangerous levels that could lead to societal unrest. He also argues that lower skilled jobs like truck driver and restaurant worker will likely be fine, but that higher skilled knowledge-based jobs like radiologists are in trouble. On the bright side, AI could eradicate unsatisfying work; we are at the beginning of a continuous 'hypercycle' of innovation; and the future is shapeable: Technology doesn't rule; it serves. We get to decide on its goals.

Brazilian logistics company Rumo operated 13,500 km in railway networks, port terminals, and inland transshipment terminals, connecting major Brazilian ports to the agriculture hubs of Mato Grosso and São Paulo state. Controlled by Cosan, Brazil's leading sugar and ethanol producer, Rumo had been through a turnaround over the last 3 years, including heavy investment in operational improvements, financial deleverage, and taking cash flow generation from a negative $278 million in 2015 to positive $15.3 million in 2018. In 2019, as the company planned its new expansion cycle ($3.4 billion would be invested from 2019 to 2023), Rumo's executives had to find the best way to continue to capture the value created, while preserving its relations with customers and other stakeholders.

Chicago-based CME Group is the world's largest futures and options marketplace, with annual trading volume of over 4.8 billion contracts in 2018. This case is set in late 2019, as heightened perceptions of risk stemming from the U.S.-China trade war are driving record trading volumes of agricultural futures. CME Group leads the agricultural futures market, but changing global dynamics are raising new questions about the security of its competitive position. With roots dating to the 1850s, CME Group became the market leader by developing liquid markets for reliable products tied to U.S. agricultural production. But the U.S. no longer dominates global grain and oilseed production and trade, raising questions about whether U.S.-domiciled futures and options will remain relevant globally. Other pressures on CME Group include the U.S. political environment-there is talk of taxing futures trades-and potential competition from Chinese futures exchanges. How should the management team adjust their strategy? While this case focuses on CME Group's agricultural products business, some of the questions at play-e.g., about the role of speculators, the usefulness of a financial transactions tax, and the positioning of price discovery in commodity source markets versus destination markets-apply to other lines of business such as foreign exchange or precious metals.

The Carroll Family, U.S. pig and grain farmers, needed to decide what to plant, whether to purchase land, emphasize pigs or grain, or other investments. Seven family members across three generations owned and operated Carroll Family Farms (CFF). In Illinois, CFF raised pigs as part of a commodity pork business, grew corn and soybeans to feed the pigs, and used the pig manure to fertilize its crops. CFF also owned a significant farming operation in Brazil that grew soybeans, cotton, and corn, and it provided farm services for other farmers in Brazil. They had low debt, and significant cash flow. CFF faced significant market uncertainties. The U.S. and China were in the midst of a trade war that was impacting the supply, demand, prices, and trade patterns of agricultural products. There was a growing African swine fever outbreak that could kill off a large portion of the world's pig population. The U.S. government paid large, but uncertain agricultural subsidies, and farmland was expensive and rarely available for purchase. How should the Carroll family farmers address these challenges?

Korea Telecom has committed $4billion in investments and R&D to build a GiGAtopia, essentially ushering in the next generation of mobile (5G) and wired infrastructure. CEO Dr. Hwang and his team are considering which areas to prioritize in terms of new products and services in development. The top five sectors identified by KT's team include Internet of Things (including connected cars and smart city/homes), media, health, energy, and security and surveillance. Which might provide some quick wins both in terms of revenues and market lead. Should KT develop solutions that could be exported to other countries? Should KT go all in across all five sectors, or select one or two to prioritize?

This case is an abridged version (part 1 of 2) of "Walmart's Omnichannel Strategy: Revolution or Miscalculation?" HBS Case 720-370. The (A) case discusses Walmart's early forays into online retail, as well as improvements made under Doug McMillon beginning in 2014. The case describes Walmart's physical stores, delivery options, grocery business, online marketplace, and distribution system. It also discusses the ecommerce startup Jet.com, which Walmart was considering purchasing in 2015. The case poses the question: How could Walmart best use its existing resources to compete against major ecommerce players like Amazon? Should it focus on its in-store business, build up its web-to-store capabilities, or compete head-on with pure ecommerce players in web-to-home sales? Alternatively, should it consider an omnichannel strategy, attempting to grow all these aspects of the business at once?

This case is an abridged version (part 2 of 2) of "Walmart's Omnichannel Strategy: Revolution or Miscalculation?", HBS Case 720-370. The (B) case describes Walmart's omnichannel strategy in 2018 as it battled Amazon for online retail market share. Walmart aimed to integrate its enormous brick and mortar footprint with its growing ecommerce business, e.g., through merchandise and grocery delivery and order online, pickup in store options. It also followed a two-part acquisition strategy that included specialty retailers such as Shoes.com and digitally native vertical brands that developed their own products and sold them directly to consumers, such as ModCloth and Bonobos. In 2016, it acquired the ecommerce retailer Jet.com. In addition to building its online marketplace, Walmart hoped to leverage its existing assets, such as its massive network of retail stores and thriving grocery business, in the fight against Amazon. The case poses the question: Could Walmart successfully compete against Amazon and other online retailers in areas such as grocery delivery, product selection, shipping costs, and delivery times?

This case discusses the alternative social media site Steemit, including the principles it was founded on in 2016 and the challenges it faced in 2019. Steemit was a blockchain-based platform that aimed to differentiate itself from other social media companies by returning power to its users, rather than centralizing control among company executives. Steemit rewarded its users with cryptocurrency for posting, commenting on, and upvoting content on the site. Although it championed itself as a bastion of free speech, in January 2019, it banned a user for soliciting funds in exchange for the release of conspiracy-theory-related documents. This ban called into question the degree to which Steemit was willing to exert control over the content posted to its site. In addition to these censorship issues, Steemit's developers had to weigh a number of strategic considerations about the future of the site. Questions they faced included how to avoid alienating potential users with Steemit's complex features (such as its intricate payment system) and how to prevent certain users (e.g., those who had been kicked off of other sites) from becoming overly dominant on its platform.

Foxconn, well known as the iPhone maker, was the largest electronic manufacturing service provider in the world. Foxconn was founded in Taiwan in 1974. It grew enormously since mid 1980s after setting up manufacturing in mainland China. It benefited from the low labour cost in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as China's open-market policies. But China experienced significant demographic changes: the working-age population peaked in 2010 and the education level of workers overall increased steadily since 1980s. Both changes put pressure on Foxconn to increase wages. On the demand side, Apple started to diversify its supplier base by supporting a rival Taiwanese EMS provider, Pegatron, to assemble its products. Foxconn's profit margin dropped significantly after 2000s despite its effort to lower costs through automation and product diversification. Faced with challenges from both labour cost and customers, Foxconn had to adjust its market position in the new era. The case covers the history of Foxconn, the changing macroeconomic environment and actions taken by Foxconn trying to increase its profitability. The case details the challenges faced by Foxconn and Foxconn's efforts to reposition, especially though acquisition attempts. Keeping in mind the core competencies of Foxconn, students need to explore the strategies Foxconn has employed and suggest future strategies for Foxconn.

Retail had always fascinated Katrina Lake, the youngest woman CEO to ever lead a US initial public offering. But she couldn't help noticing that the age-old industry never changed. Brick-and-mortar retailers still competed on variety and touch-and-feel, while online competitors sought to differentiate through low prices and fast shipping. She realized that artificial intelligence and human beings -- in particular, stylists -- could be creatively leveraged to change the retail value proposition, create a fundamentally different and significantly superior buyer experience, and a differentiated and low-cost offering. The case describes how Lake turned a Harvard Business School class project into a $1.5 billion company, Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix provides a personal styling service, sending individually selected clothing and accessories based on customer preferences and constraints. Buyers receive the knowledge, creativity and style expertise of human stylists, combined with the benefits a top-tier AI provides. These are blended into a service previously reserved for the wealthy (personal styling), delivered directly to customers' homes, at a price point that fits their budget. Lake's Stitch Fix is founded and led by women, and has one of the largest female management and workforces in the AI space, if not almost all industries. As of 2019, Stitch Fix employs more than 6,600 employees, of which 86% are women. The case works especially well for teaching about women in business. It also looks at recent attempts by Amazon to jump into the blue ocean Stitch Fix created. This leads to an interesting discussion about the likely impact of Amazon's Personal Shopper service, inviting student input on how to counter Amazon's attack.

The case is set in November 2019, and the protagonist is Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. From humble beginnings as an online book retailer, Jeff Bezos has built Amazon into one of the most valuable companies globally with a market cap of some $900 billion in 2019. Amazon has continued to diversify by integrating online and brick-and-mortar retail, hardware and software, products and services, and as well as original content creation and delivery via online streaming. Amazon Prime delivers content to over 100 million subscribers in the U.S. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the largest provider of cloud computing services, with $35 billion in sales and a 26 percent profit margin. Amazon's microtargeted online advertising services are growing rapidly. Yet, Amazon's retail business continues to display low profitability with thin margins of two percent, following years of losses. Amazon's overwhelming dominance in online commerce as a direct participant and as a provider of backend services to other firms is leading to calls for it to be broken up or to be regulated as a utility. Other strategic issues Jeff Bezos must address include continued diversification and international competition. Amazon's hard-charging workplace culture is also discussed.

This case is set in 2019, and describes the social-entrepreneurial journey of Bettr Barista ('BB'), a Singapore-based coffee company. Launched in 2011 as a coffee academy, BB offered disadvantaged women and youth in Singapore a four-month long holistic programme providing barista skills for employability, emotional and physical training for psychological wellbeing, and an internship for learning on the job. At the end of the programme, BB helped the trainees secure employment in the industry. By end-2018, it had trained and placed more than 60 individuals with the support of government bodies, social sector organisations and private sector companies. To support and sustain its social goals, BB undertook for-profit coffee workshops for corporates and individuals, and ran other commercial businesses including a coffee roastery, retail coffee outlets and mobile brew bars. By end-2018, the coffee company had served 397,000 cups of coffee to 212,000 consumers through its cafés and mobile bars, and held more than 430 corporate events. However, in order to be truly sustainable, BB needed to expand internationally as the Singapore market was small and offered limited growth potential. Many of the neighbouring countries, being primarily coffee drinking markets, were attractive options. However, this also raised many concerns, as such a strategy could stretch the company's already limited financial and managerial resources. BB's business model was unique to Singapore, and the level of market development, technology, governance structures and government support varied significantly across countries in the region. Would BB have the expertise and resources to change or tweak its approach according to each country's market dynamics? Additionally, executing the expansion plans would require a comprehensive management structure to be put in place at BB. Could all of this be done without affecting the core values the company stood for?

In early 2019, Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. (AGC), a diversified Japanese company, was at a critical juncture in its evolution. Three years earlier, AGC had released its Vision 2025, which set a goal for the company to continue as a leading global provider of materials and solutions that improved the daily lives of people around the world. Its financial performance had improved significantly over the previous five years, but profitability remained modest, with operating profit margins slightly above 8 per cent. The modest profitability of the company belied a strong base of technologies in glass, chemicals, electronics, and ceramics. AGC could potentially use these strengths to develop and market high value-added products in varied sectors such as mobility, construction, new energy, and life sciences. To effectively exploit future opportunities, however, the company needed to devise and implement novel strategies, overcome competitive challenges, and align its internal organization. Specifically, it would need to extend or modify its globalization strategy by developing a differentiated strategy for combinations of products and countries, develop new competencies in areas such as biologics, and choose the appropriate entry modes to balance financial and strategic implications. How should AGC proceed toward achieving its Vision 2025 goals?

Alvéole was an urban beekeeping start-up in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 2012, Alvéole offered beekeeping services and products in support of its social mission of educational outreach surrounding issues related to the natural environment, food security, and ecological concerns facing society. The company had successfully launched in the Montreal region and was now considering how to grow the firm. At the same time, Alvéole wanted to address some existing challenges such as seasonal labour and cash flow management.

By 2018 it was the largest insurance company in China. The case charts the development of the company and how it diversified across financial services. In particular, it talks about its strategic transformation, which included attracting foreign employees and encouraging diversity. A key pillar in the strategic transformation was Ping An Technology, a division of the Group created in 2008 that would develop its technology capabilities. This division was critical to later enabling Ping An to develop into an ecosystem player across five segments. Ping An Technology had three core functions - including data, incubating new businesses and new products. Its immediate goal was to align the Group's different IT systems, reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency. Harnessing the latest technologies, Ping An would operate as a 'human being' with a brain formed of AI, its body of cloud computing, and a nerve, arterial and vein network of blockchain. The case then charts the rise of the Technology division and its ambition to become a global technology ecosystem player. It looks at the core technologies that the division developed including facial and voiceprint recognition and medical imaging and their applications to different parts of the ecosystem. The final part of the case looks at the five ecosytems - finance, healthcare, automobile, real estate, and smart city and Ping An's collaborations and offerings. The case closes with Ma reflecting on the 15 years of the transformation but questioning whether Ping An's technology leadership can continue given the challenges of competitors Alibaba and Tencent in financial services and Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent in smart city solutions. Ping An was also mainly a domestic player but served other parts of Asia, Ma questions what it will take for the Gorup to become a global player.

In 2019, 15 years after entering the Canadian wine industry, Diamond Estate Wines & Spirits Inc. (Diamond), located in the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario, was poised for growth. In a fragmented industry with local, national, and international competition from well-established and new players, Diamond had decent positions in many industry subsegments. One aspect of Diamond that set it apart from other small wineries was its distribution business, allowing access to valuable channels in the Canadian market. The company had proven itself capable of most aspects of the value chain in the wine industry and was poised for growth. The question was, which of the many attractive options should Diamond pursue?