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Three brothers that own and lead a second-generation family business in Hong Kong, encounter problems of nepotism and governance, and endure considerable conflict. The case asks how to resolve these family and business issues.

The vice-president of communications for Domino's Pizza International (Domino's), faced a significant threat to his company's reputation involving negative social media exposure. A video had been posted online two days earlier via YouTube by a Domino's employee, and showed two Domino's employees at a North Carolina franchise tampering with customers' pizza and sandwich orders. The employee stuck cheese up his nose, and sneezed on the food prior to boxing it up and could be overheard in the video gleefully admitting the orders would soon be delivered to unsuspecting customers. The video went viral; it had been reposted to Twitter and Facebook, and received almost a million views and various comments on YouTube. The video was also receiving attention from both local and national media channels. The senior executive team of Domino's was meeting with the vice-president in a matter of hours, and Domino's social media team would need to devise a plan to respond to the viral video to protect Domino's strong brand image before it was too late.

The owner of a large hardware, furniture and building centre faced a dilemma regarding how to manage the upcoming wage review process. After two consecutive years of frozen wages, employees were impatient for financial progress, but there was no spare money in the budget. It was possible to pump savings from upcoming process improvement initiatives into wage increases. However, the owner had limited motivation to channel hard-won funds to underperforming employees. On the other hand, he was eager to reward the people who added value. A plan that rewarded only some employees could result in an angry backlash. He had to decide whether he wanted to divert the savings into compensation, and if so, he needed an effective distribution plan.

Dr. Barrett Rollins, Chief Scientific Officer of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, attempts to engender cross-scientist collaboration by applying project management principles to medical research. The resulting innovation, Integrative Research Centers, are novel in this field and present a substantial challenge to the Institute's culture, which had previously allowed faculty scientists complete autonomy over their research. Center leaders are required to develop a business plan, adhere to agreed-upon performance metrics, and undergo regular progress reviews conducted by a peer-led oversight committee. The Center for Nanotechnology in Cancer, a new but crucial center in the program, has failed to meet almost all of its objectives in the first year. Furthermore, a heated dispute between two faculty members in the center has complicated matters significantly. Rollins is flummoxed by these problems because he thought he had provided resources and clear objectives to all of the centers. He must urgently diagnose the main reason(s) for the center's shortcomings and develop a plan of action so that this center's problems do not undermine the whole initiative toward greater scientific collaboration.

As the world has become more complex, companies have steadily increased their performance requirements: Now they strive to offer low prices and high quality; to customize products for local markets and standardize them for greater returns; to innovate and be efficient. The typical corporate response to such conflicting goals complicates things further: Firms restructure and try to align their organizations with extra coordinating functions, processes, and incentives. This approach does more harm than good. Managers' time gets sucked up by reports and meetings, leaving little time to work with employees. But there is a better way, says BCG senior partner Yves Morieux: Instead of strangling employees with new rules and procedures, create an environment in which they're compelled to work with one another to develop solutions to complex challenges. Managers can create this environment by applying six "smart rules": (1) improve understanding of what coworkers do and the real constraints they face, (2) determine which people are the firm's natural integrators and strengthen their roles, (3) expand the amount of power available to everyone, (4) increase the need for reciprocity in the system, (5) make employees feel the "shadow of the future," and (6) hold uncooperative people accountable. By tapping employees' ingenuity through the use of smart rules, firms can manage complexity quickly and creatively-and streamline their organizations.

Mauboussin is the chief investment strategist at Legg Mason Capital Management and a leading exponent of how to navigate complex systems in financial markets and other aspects of life. He points out that biology is full of complex adaptive systems: an ant colony is a prime example. Each ant has a decision role but works only with local information; it has no sense of the global system. Ant colonies solve very complicated, very challenging problems with no leadership or strategic plan. People, however, are hard-wired to link cause and effect-which aren't clear in complex adaptive systems-and they believe that certain causes will lead to particular effects. In addition, they tend to listen to experts and to aggregate information poorly. To best deal with complexity, managers should surround themselves with cognitive diversity and extract unshared information for evaluation. Small experiments with controls can be a valuable aid.

Liu Peijin is the president of Almond China, a subsidiary of the German company Almond Chemical. Almond China's joint venture with Chongqing No. 2 Chemical Company, which is currently failing to thrive, involves a clash of views regarding business ethics. The Chongqing executives are chafing under European standards that preclude gifts and commissions-incentives routinely employed by Almond's competitors. And a huge sale for the joint venture may be at stake. But Liu is thinking of Almond's reputation and its future business dealings in China. Commentaries by Xu Shuibo, the CEO of TNT Mainland China's subsidiary TNT Hoau, and Zhang Tianbing, the global vice president and the director of the China Research Center at A.T. Kearney.

Liu Peijin is the president of Almond China, a subsidiary of the German company Almond Chemical. Almond China's joint venture with Chongqing No. 2 Chemical Company, which is currently failing to thrive, involves a clash of views regarding business ethics. The Chongqing executives are chafing under European standards that preclude gifts and commissions-incentives routinely employed by Almond's competitors. And a huge sale for the joint venture may be at stake. But Liu is thinking of Almond's reputation and its future business dealings in China. Commentaries by Xu Shuibo, the CEO of TNT Mainland China's subsidiary TNT Hoau, and Zhang Tianbing, the global vice president and the director of the China Research Center at A.T. Kearney.

Liu Peijin is the president of Almond China, a subsidiary of the German company Almond Chemical. Almond China's joint venture with Chongqing No. 2 Chemical Company, which is currently failing to thrive, involves a clash of views regarding business ethics. The Chongqing executives are chafing under European standards that preclude gifts and commissions-incentives routinely employed by Almond's competitors. And a huge sale for the joint venture may be at stake. But Liu is thinking of Almond's reputation and its future business dealings in China. Commentaries by Xu Shuibo, the CEO of TNT Mainland China's subsidiary TNT Hoau, and Zhang Tianbing, the global vice president and the director of the China Research Center at A.T. Kearney.

Could the presence of teddy bears make executives behave more ethically? New research shows that adults cheat less and are more generous when reminders of children are near.

Behavioral economists know that because people struggle to think about money and risk in a systematic way, they may make irrational, counterproductive financial decisions for themselves and their organizations. The world of personal financial advice provides an example: Most people estimate that they'll need 75% of their current salary in retirement-because that's the benchmark they've heard from financial advisers. But when they describe how they expect to live, it turns out they'll actually need 135%.

Details Dannon's decision to initiate a cause marketing program focused on breast cancer to directly compete with Yoplait.

Martha Rinaldi has been an assistant product manager at leading beverage company Potomac Waters since graduating from business school. Rinaldi is frustrated by her relationships with her boss and a close co-worker. Even though she works hard to please her manager, she has received a negative performance evaluation for her first four months. Should Rinaldi leave Potomac for a standing job offer at a company she previously interned with or try to improve her current situation?

Salesforce.com recently implemented an innovative social enterprise business model whereby the Salesforce.com Foundation funds its operations and grant budget by selling discounted salesforce.com software licenses to nonprofits and education clients. The case recounts the development and initial stages of this project and the tradeoffs inherent in mixing social and business goals. Furthermore, as background the case also provides detail on Salesforce's 1-1-1 business model, whereby the company contributes one percent of product, one percent of equity, and one percent of employee hours back to the communities it serves.

The mission of the Global Business School Network (GBSN) is to strengthen business education for the developing world. The organization was transitioning out of its startup phase and wants to shift its focus from capacity building activities driven by the organization to empowering the network to carry out GBSN's mission. The case asks, what is the best way to accomplish this objective?

To retain competitive advantage in uncertain times, a leading investment bank aligns HR practices with its corporate values and mission through a new 360-degree assessment system. Rolled out among officer-level employees, the Performance Management System is put to the test at promotion time. This case supports the exploration of unconscious bias in decision making.

Denise Frazer and Paolo Canto, two HBS students, have decided to give each other feedback on their class participation. While Denise believes that she has provided concrete, actionable feedback to Paolo, she does not feel that Paolo is reciprocating. His feedback is general and superficial. Denise and Paolo have set a time to meet to discuss their latest class participation, and Denise has decided to use this time to address her issues with Paolo. This case should be used with its partner case: Denise Frazer and Paolo Canto: A Case Vignette on Feedback - Paolo Canto's Perspective.

Denise Frazer and Paolo Canto, two HBS students, have decided to give each other feedback on their class participation. While Paolo believes that he has been sensitive to Denise in providing feedback, he does not feel that Denise is reciprocating. Her feedback seems to be very negative and feels like a personal attack. He chose to be less negative and use feedback as a way to encourage Denise. He feels that she is not doing the same. Denise and Paolo have set a time to meet to discuss their latest class participation, and Paolo has decided to use this time to address his issues with Denise. This case should be used with its partner case: Denise Frazer and Paolo Canto: A Case Vignette on Feedback - Denise Frazer's Perspective.

Dynamic capabilities have been proposed as a useful way to understand how organizations are able to adapt to changes in technology and markets. Organizational ambidexterity, the ability of senior managers to seize opportunities through the orchestration and integration of existing assets to overcome inertia and path dependence, is a core dynamic capability. While promising, research on dynamic capabilities and ambidexterity has not yet been able to specify the specific mechanisms through which senior managers are actually able to reallocate resources and reconfigure assets to simultaneously explore and exploit. Using interviews and qualitative case studies from thirteen organizations, this article explores the actions senior managers took to implement ambidextrous designs and identify which ones helped or hindered them in their attempts. A set of interrelated choices of organization design and senior team process determine which attempts to build ambidextrous organizations are successful.