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Recruiting women directors can create positive feedback loops that pave the way for future diversity, and strengthen a board's role in supporting long-term innovation and creativity.

On November 21, 2018, the Italian luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) cancelled a show that was scheduled to take place in Shanghai, China, after controversial video advertisements and private Instagram messages, allegedly sent by Stefano Gabbana himself, went viral. The videos were seen by many to be racist, and they resulted in subsequent boycotts by Chinese celebrities and consumers. As D&G struggled to regain market share in China and suffered huge financial losses, major Chinese e-commerce companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Limited and JD.com Inc. joined the boycott by dropping the brand from their platforms. The Chinese luxury market was large and growing, and experts warned that the brand's profits would suffer from this mistake. What mitigation strategy or actions could D&G undertake to repair the damage done to its reputation, especially in China?

Mint Tax was founded in Vienna in 1960. By 2019, the company had approximately 80 employees and a broad client base in the areas of taxation, accounting, and payroll services. Over the previous decade, the company had experienced many successes and failures, including mergers, acquisitions, separations, firm structure changes, and financial losses. However, it had always managed to recover. Mint Tax was considering an expansion of its digital products, services, and internal processes and practices. The founder's daughter and current chief executive officer was motivated and had innovative ideas, but faced various challenges that prevented implementation of many of the company's ideas. To overcome these challenges, what steps should the chief executive officer and her team take to understand the company's strategic management patterns, identify and evaluate the company's capabilities, and develop solutions?

The chief human resources (HR) officer at National Pharmaceuticals (National), established in 1937 in Bihar, India, had been with the organization since 2007. The organization had been facing high employee attrition rates since 2013. Although the organization had reduced its employee attrition rate from 44 per cent in financial year (FY) 2014-15 to 25 per cent in FY 2017-18, the organization was yet to reach the industry benchmark rate of 12-13 per cent. This issue needed to be urgently resolved, as the organization would soon launch a new product range for which it required additional employees. A meeting was called with all the functional heads within HR. As the group discussed what had gone wrong and what had helped National in the past, they identified several factors that had led to the company's high employee attrition rate and noted various human linked HR policies. The group had two weeks to create an effective action plan to meet the benchmark attrition rate of 12 per cent. This plan would be presented to the board of directors. Should the company change its recruitment, selection, performance management, and training policies to create the organizational culture the leaders aspire to? Should it invest in more training and development?

Takata Corporation was a business-to-business firm based in Japan, whose logo once symbolized safety. In 2013, however, the company mishandled its airbag recall crisis, which was Japan's largest automotive safety recall. The crisis led to the largest corporate bankruptcy filing of a Japanese firm and impacted Japanese banks involved in a collateral-free syndicated loan. How could the company have better managed the crisis?

The July 2015 spin-off of DuPont's performance chemicals division as the independent company Chemours burdened new CEO Mark Vergnano and his team with perilous challenges. Despite market-leading offerings in several areas, the company faced a glutted market for its primary product, even after its prices had fallen 40% since 2012. The company also owed $4 billion in long-term debt, equivalent to 10 times 2014 earnings. Not least, DuPont had made Chemours financially responsible for chemical contamination at 171 U.S. sites, representing 62% of DuPont's environmental liabilities and 90% of its litigation by number of pending cases. Within six months, Chemours shares had lost 80% of their value.

Supplement to the (A) case 420-001, describing actions taken by Chemours CEO Mark Vergnano and members of his executive team to execute a successful turnaround of the company.

A large-scale study in Europe of funding decisions finds that VCs evaluate male and female entrepreneurs by different standards. Savvy entrepreneurs can anticipate potentially biased responses to their pitches and plan accordingly. Certain tactics keep audiences engaged and confident of the idea's potential, positioning the petitioner to succeed.

In a world plagued by information overload, it is not surprising that we often resort to categorical thinking to simplify incoming information. The problem is, this habit can manifest itself in a tendency to group individuals on the basis of social categories including race, gender and age. Further, such categories are often imbued with associations and expectations - a.k.a. stereotypes. One little-discussed sub-category of stereotypes is 'occupational stereotypes' - collections of traits or attributes with which individuals associate members of different occupations. The authors describe their research into these stereotypes, showing how they lead to occupational segregation and impact vocational choice, recruitment and selection.

Anurag Bhatt (AB), Managing Director (MD) of Coats Indonesia, was on a flight from Bangalore to Singapore on his way to Jakarta after a vacation. On the flight, he was reflecting on an issue that he had encountered just before the vacation but not yet addressed. It would definitely be one of the first issues he would have to handle on his return. An effort to fill a senior position, Head of Procurement, currently occupied by an expatriate, had not been received with enthusiasm by those who seemed to have the potential to take on the role. One-on-one conversations with the potential candidates had not helped as each one suggested the name of another person as more suitable for the role. He had faced similar difficulties in recruiting Indonesians to occupy other senior roles. Nothing in his past experience helped him understand how these people were unwilling to accept an opportunity for career growth. One of the goals that had been assigned to him as he accepted his current role was to reduce the number of expatriates in senior ranks in Coats Indonesia. This was not feasible unless local managers were willing to rise to the occasion. He needed a way to address the lack of enthusiasm among managers in Coats Indonesia to take on positions with greater responsibility. He had some ideas, based on the short experience in the country, but was willing to get inputs from anyone who might have a better understanding of the drivers of behavior of Indonesians in general and managers in particular.

Mahindra Financial Services (MMFSL) is an Indian non-banking financial services organization largely involved with financing of tractors, commercial, and passenger vehicles. The company is nearly 30 years old with a turnover of more than US$ 1 billion. MMFSL grew as an organization following a regional structure. However, with growth in business both in terms of volume and diversity, MMFL felt that the regional structure was creating constraints rather than facilitating its growth. Therefore, it undertook a restructuring exercise and adopted a product-based structure. The case describes the conditions that led MMFSL to consider the structural change, how it went about implementing the change and what was the impact of the structural change? The elaborate process that MMFSL adopted in implementing the change ensured that the transition was smooth and that the new structure created architecture for further business growth.

Culture is easy to sense but hard to measure. The workhorses of culture research--employee surveys and questionnaires--are notoriously unreliable. Studying the language that employees use in electronic communication has opened a new window into organizational culture. New research analyzing email, Slack messages, and Glassdoor postings are challenging prevailing wisdom about culture. Some of the findings: (1) Cultural fit is important, but what predicts success most is the rate at which employees adapt as organizational culture changes over time. (2) Cognitive diversity helps teams during ideation but hinders execution. (3) The best cultures encourage diversity to drive innovation but are anchored by shared core beliefs.

This case provides insights into the job of a manager of a large retail store. John Hernandez is the store manager of a 200,000 square foot Walmart store with 300 associates. As the day progresses John must deal with various issues, including an open door meeting with an employee, shrink and theft protection, change management, and the store's financial performance.

The case describes how the design thinking mentality and management process drives Asia Miles' leadership, innovation, organization structure and behaviour, and the enterprise planning process to enhance customer experience (members of the rewards programme) and new product & service development, as well as to improve value delivered to all other stakeholders and the branding of the company. The transformation of Asia Miles via a change management process aims to inculcate design thinking into their culture, systems and employees -becoming an insights-driven organization via a quantitative-qualitative continuum.

This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. In 2009, Ricardo Martinez, management assistant at Premium Capital Investment Advisors (PCIA), was asked to fabricate some of the information to be included in the monthly account balance statements addressed to five shareholders in Premium Capital Funds (Premium), a piece within a complex network of firms founded by Interbolsa, the largest brokerage firm in Colombia. The request, Martinez had been told by his supervisor, "came from the top." Martinez found himself at a crossroads: however outrageous the order was, refusing to obey it would certainly have negative consequences for his immediate future and medium-term career. Reporting the issue to the authorities appeared as though it would be totally useless-and yet, obeying was out of question. What, then, could he do to try to stop this falsification from happening?

Supplement to case UV7926 This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. This B case contains a video and a transcript of an interview the case authors conducted with Ricardo Martinez on July 15, 2019, concerning his reflections on the ethical conflict described in the case and what he actually did about it.

A senior manager of marketing and sales at a large medical devices firm has convened his team to help him choose a new manager that will be capable of attracting new business and promoting overall revenue growth. The decision has been narrowed down to two, equally qualified candidates: an outgoing and outspoken woman, and a well-liked man. The conversation is going in circles until someone mentions that the woman's behavior at the office party was inappropriate "for a mother." Students are asked how to manage difficult decisions where latent bias may be a factor first from the point of view of this senior manager, and then from the point of view of his female boss, whom he consults with in the second part of the case. This case, which disguises the facts of an actual scenario, is designed to surface and explore students' instinctive decision-making tendencies around a high-stakes leadership situation. Thus it is short enough to be read and responded to in class. Students are assigned readings and assignments related to the case after class discussion, in which they are encouraged to further reflect on their initial responses. This case can be used to focus on the decision itself-whom to promote-or on how the decision should be made (i.e., on the decision-making discussion). The case is quite flexible and would work in any course that deals with leadership, ethics, decision-making, organizational behavior, human resources, and related topics. It is appropriate for a range of levels and audiences, including undergraduate, MBA, and executive education.

The case highlights the challenges and successes LAX CEO Deborah Flint and Board Chair Sean Burton have achieved from Flint's arrival in 2015 to December 2019. It explores issues of leadership and change management in a highly complex environment: LAX Airport. Chair of LAX Board Sean Burton and LAX CEO Deborah Flint have made progress on streamlining and modernizing LAX's complex capital projects ($12 billion worth) while reorganizing and retooling Los Angeles World Airport (LAWA) staff resources, management processes, and revitalizing the LAX guest experience. From 2015-2019, LAX's performance improved, yet many challenges remained, and new ones continued to come to light. In December 2019, as Flint prepared to move onto a new position, Burton and the board are assessing the progress the team has made, and looking to next steps.

Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. in 2014 was the world's largest glass company, but the company faced flat revenues and increased global competition. Several of its flagship businesses projected few prospects for growth unless the company could develop new products and identify competitive strengths to compete within the rapidly changing global economy. AGC held leading global market shares in four major products: architectural glass, automotive glass, quartz glass, as well as fluorinated resins. The case study details the new CEO's plans to revitalize the thinking and workforce at AGC, and shift to an outward-looking focus that embraced change and could lead the company forward into new areas of business.