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The case highlights the journey of a digital gold loan start-up which offers low interest rates, doorstep service, speedy documentation, locker and quick gold withdrawal features to customers looking for a gold loan. This enables the customers to eliminate the fear of social stigma associated with gold loans and complete the formalities from the comfort of their home. The case also talks about the nature of the organized and unorganized gold loan markets. It stresses the relevance of a secure, guaranteed and affordable gold loan structure in a market where interest rates are skyrocketing and customers can easily wind up with unsustainable levels of debt, especially in unorganised gold loan markets.

In December 2012, Altos Ventures General Partners Han Kim, Anthony Lee, and Ho Nam met to discuss the future of the firm. Altos had already adjusted its strategy multiple times. It began as a U.S.-focused venture capital investor whose first two funds were backed by a sole limited partner, a South Korean financial conglomerate. In late 2001, the partners made their first transformative decision, raising a fund from traditional institutional LPs to focus on bootstrapped technology companies. In 2008, Altos again refined its strategy, this time to fund similar capital-efficient companies but with more "explosive growth" potential. Now, in 2012, the firm was running out of capital and did not have the realized track record to raise another traditional institutional fund. They considered two options: raise a South Korea-focused VC fund or offer more co-investment opportunities to LPs through a "mini" fund. What should Altos do to stay afloat?

Autodesk's new CEO launched three strategic initiatives that would transform the company into a global leader in software products and services for architecture, engineering, and construction. The company would be a customer-centric organization, with the new technologies and apps its customers demanded. How would the company meet the challenge of customer expectations-and their fears about shifting to cloud-native solutions? After all, different customer segments were likely to have distinctly different expectations-but delighting customers with next-generation cloud solutions would power their operations, as well as Autodesk's growth. At the same time, how would Autodesk balance old and new products, and make the transition seamless? This would involve an internal cultural shift, as engineers generally preferred to write new code, and take on new challenges, vs. leveraging existing code. But shared services-in which teams leveraged common, existing services to save time, ensure quality, and move fast-were critical to development the new platforms. As the Autodesk CEO commented, "Perceptions change lightning fast, but it takes a lot longer for people to change."

Within a decade, Apple twice changed its mind about where the boundaries of the firm should lie. In 2010 the company introduced an Apple-designed custom "system on a chip" (SoC) for its iPhone and iPad products, which replaced non-customized Samsung chips. Then in 2020, Apple announced that it would end its 15-year partnership with Intel and begin designing the microprocessors inside its new Mac computers. This was the second time Apple had switched microprocessors in its computers. From 1994 to 2005, Apple computers ran on IBM PowerPC microprocessors, which were incompatible with the dominant Intel x86 chip architecture. At the time, Apple had only a 4 percent share of the personal computer market. In 2005, the company announced it would switch its Mac computers to Intel chips to take advantage of Intel's industry-standard architecture and superior product roadmap, which would enable Apple to build the products it envisioned. In November 2020, Apple unveiled three Mac computers that used its new custom M1 processor. Apple's custom chip contained numerous special-purpose accelerators that enabled performance and capabilities not accessible with off-the-shelf chips. As it did when it switched to Intel microprocessors, Apple provided software emulation technology that enabled existing Intel-based apps to run on the new Macs until they were updated to work with the new Apple chips. Huawei and Samsung had developed custom SoCs for their smartphones, but no other personal computer company followed Apple's path.

dotin.in was a technology start-up founded by Ganesh Iyer in California, a spin-off from a product venture incubated by Cisco Systems created to solve the attraction and retention of talent. Leveraging their understanding of artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning (ML) techniques, dotin incorporated the motivation science developed from the Color Munsell Theory. The insights of individual motivations are assessed through a quick 60-second color preference assessment based on Holland's vocational personality type, Gardner's multiple intelligence theory, and the Color Munsell System. It also incorporated an assessment of learning style to develop individual fit reports for specific job roles. dotin then based their report of fit based on a standard job competency dictionary of ONET taxonomy. The patented product was proposed as an end-to-end solution for talent management. dotin appealed to the recruiter community by providing a large database of potential candidates comprising passive job seekers. This database was developed by accessing and stitching together applicant information from multiple data sources, compliant with data privacy norms and laws. Recruiters could then connect with these passive applicants and invite them for specific job opportunities. If the applicant evinced interest, they responded to a one-minute color motivation patented assessment. The emerging analysis delivered a comprehensive functional (skill) fit, motivation and behavior, and preferred learning style. The resulting report offered insights to recruiters who hire internal and external talent. By assessing the fit and suitability for future roles, organizations could make informed data-based decisions on the potential capability of their talent and succession pipelines. The dotin assessment suggests appropriate development interventions to develop future leaders based on individual learning styles and motivation.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF) is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) headquartered in Bengaluru, India. It was founded by ISKON (religious foundation) in the year 2000 and runs the world's largest school meal program that was serving 1.8 Million children every day in 2019. In March 2020, however, as the COVID-19 pandemic struck India, the schools were shut and hence the mid-day meals were stopped. This gave rise to not only a new challenge of still continuing to feed the underprivileged children but also gave rise to different needs such as relief feeding for poor families and migrant workers. The foundation has a mission is to feed five million children every day in the near future and are challenged in not only how to scale up but also how to sustain their operations and growth (both in terms of capital expenditure and operating expenditure), specially considering that the government subsidisation of their meals (as a fraction of the total cost per meal) is only reducing.

In May 2022, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) launched the pilot of Metaverse Seoul, a government-run metaverse. SMG had delivered a virtual version of Seoul's mayor's office. The team aimed to gain insights as they worked towards building a broad, immersive, online government platform. They'd invited citizen feedback in many ways, including via a virtual mailbox and bulletin board placed prominently around the corner from where an avatar of the mayor could greet visitors and preside over gatherings. Now, public comments were coming in and the team had to decide what to make of them.

In 1898, two Black entrepreneurs from Durham, North Carolina-barber John Merrick and medical doctor Aaron McDuffie Moore-put pen to paper and founded the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association (the Mutual). They would soon be joined by a third partner-an energetic young salesman named Charles Clinton Spaulding. This "triumvirate" faced long odds. While there was a long tradition of Black mutual aid societies-religious organizations that charged dues and paid members a small sum in the event of a death or emergency-operating a for-profit insurance company catering to the Black community presented several challenges. By the 1890s, an increasing number of Southern Blacks had the resources to afford a basic life insurance policy, but few had experience buying life insurance or knew why it was necessary.

Birla Carbon, a flagship business of the nearly $60-billion global conglomerate and India-headquartered Aditya Birla Group (ABG), is one of the world's top manufacturers and suppliers of high-quality carbon black. The largest among its 16 manufacturing plants is Birla Carbon Egypt (BCE), situated in the port city of Alexandria. BCE started its operations in 1994, to become the first carbon black manufacturing unit in Egypt and the Middle East. Over three decades it has grown to become a leading exporter in the region, playing a significant role in the Egyptian economy. However, the journey has not been without its challenges as BCE has tackled political unrest and frequent changes in government, besides growing concerns about pollution. Given Egypt's recent volatile political history, would BCE be able to successfully continue to separate business from politics? More broadly, what would BCE's success or failure mean on a global scale? As India seeks to grow into a great power, how would its economic footprint abroad distinguish it from other great powers? Could BCE represent a new, Indian version of FDI?

In May 2021, Warner Bros. Discovery was created as a merger of AT&T's WarnerMedia division with Discovery Inc. In mid-2022, this company would begin to operate as a standalone company, led by CEO David Zaslav and a 13-person board of directors. In this case, students will learn about the competitive dynamics driving the media industry, the major players, and the M&A process.

In January 2020, two social entrepreneurs were looking back at the first five years of operation of their venture JioVio Healthcare. The entrpreneurs had designed, developed, and implemented their cloud-based Internet of Things software Savemom. Using feedback from key stakeholders, Savemom assisted in the early detection of preventable complications during pregnancy and safe delivery, especially for expectant mothers in rural India, with a goal to reduce India's maternal mortality ratio (MMR). Using an iterative process, Senthilkumar collaborated with various stakeholders in central and southern parts of rural India to enhance and implement the Savemom software. To achieve the socially-conscious goal behind the Savemom software, the team developed a wearable device for use by each expectant mother, as well as a medical measurement device and an online platform for healthcare providers to access the health information of patients. After several iterations of prototypes based on process outcomes and feedback from stakeholders, the Savemom software, devices, and process seemed to have achieved its ultimate goal. But when one of the entrepreneurs visited doctors to get their feedback, they expressed great dissatisfaction with the vast amount of patient information to check each day on the portal, which was increasing their workload almost ten times. The two social entrepreneurs had to find a way to address the genuine issues the doctors had raised.

In June 2020, the vice-president of Ginjalrein India Corporation was meeting with three members from the client organization Nierejia Care. The meeting was to discuss the deteriorating relationship between the two companies. The relationship between the two companies had been difficult for most of 2019, something which had threatened the contract between the two partners. These initial issues had been resolved in March 2020 following high-level interventions and collaborations between key members from both organizations. <br><br/>Unfortunately, the subsequent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 threatened to derail the partnership once again. Both organizations faced significant challenges as a result the pandemic; lockdowns and pandemic measures forced escalated costs, increased uncertainties on various fronts, and threatened the survival of both organizations. Ginjalrein India Corporation was required to make manufacturing operations decisions that Nierejia Care viewed as a breach of contract. The upcoming round of negotiations in June 2020, as these companies sought to find middle ground and yet support their own interests, would be critical for both parties.

USV Private Limited (USV), an Indian pharmaceutical company, launched three comparative advertising campaigns for its Sebamed cleansing bar in January 2021, targeting the soap bars of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) based on the bars' pH values. Without delay, HUL filed a lawsuit against USV on grounds of disparaging its brands, infringing upon its trademarks, and misleading of consumers. The Bombay High Court restrained USV from continuing with the campaigns, but later vacated that order and delivered another order that permitted USV to continue with one of the three campaigns, directed modifications for the other two, and restrained the company from categorizing soaps as "safe" and "not safe" based on their pH values. HUL eventually began a campaign to refute the pH rationale used in USV's advertisements. USV now had questions to consider: Would consumers buy its Sebamed cleansing bar for the bar's "ideal" pH level as communicated in the ads, or was it time to change its advertising strategy?

In May, 2020, Rio Tinto PLC, a global mining company, blasted a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site in the Juukan Gorge, an area in Western Australia. While Rio Tinto's actions were legal, the company was nonetheless widely criticized for its blasting of the sacred site, which contained remains and artefacts dating back tens of thousands of years. Furthermore, investigations revealed that Rio Tinto had knowledge of the sacred nature of the site. Internal investigations also revealed that the company had earmarked the site as being important to the Aboriginal peoples. The reaction to the blast was swift and unforgiving.

Patrice Mousseau was an Indigenous woman in Canada who founded an organic skin care company, Satya. From Satya's modest beginnings and early challenges, the company had several subsequent successes before Mousseau faced significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mousseau' s Indigenous values and influences shaped her approach to launching and developing Satya. Additionally, Mousseau's collaboration with a women-only network of investors (SheEO) and the support they offered not only aligned with her desire to achieve social change and impact through Satya, but also proved to be a vital virtual lifeline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This case set 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. Dax Enzo is the director of the ethical machine learning and responsible artificial intelligence (AI) team at a large US-based social media company, SOCIALCORP. In their young tenure, Enzo must decide whether to release research that their team conducted on the algorithmic amplification of political content on SOCIALCORP. The research shows that SOCIALCORP's content recommendation algorithm amplifies political content of right-leaning individuals and news outlets more than it amplifies content from the political left, but it does not (yet) explain why. Additionally, the research is difficult for laypeople to understand because it is very technical, complex, and multilayered. The research is submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, but the journal takes a long time to conduct the review, in part because it can work only with an aggregated data set: the complete data set cannot be made accessible due to user privacy concerns. Enzo decides it is their responsibility to publish the research as soon as possible, even without peer review and with the risk that the research could be perceived as unsubstantiated or superficial. In this A case, Enzo's challenge is to devise a strategic action plan that facilitates SOCIALCORP's support of releasing the research without peer review. This case set is intended for use at the graduate level in business and science, technology, engineering, and math, (STEM) classrooms, for example in courses on ethics and technology, responsible data and computer science (including machine learning and AI), or technology management. It could also be taught to advanced undergraduates who have developed a foundation in GVV or ethics and technology.

Sylvia's Restaurant, approaching its sixtieth anniversary this August, is a testament to the values instilled by the matriarch herself, Sylvia Woods. Despite living through an era of racial oppression and poverty, Sylvia accessed financing and established her financial independence within the restaurant community in Harlem, NY. It was there she cultivated a community inside the walls that would eventually stand as Sylvia's. Ten years since her passing - amid business expansions, succession planning and a global pandemic - the legacy of Sylvia Woods continues to live on. The question now is: what should the next 60 years of Sylvia's look like?

In 2015, David Crane was the CEO of NRG, the second-largest energy producer in the United States. NRG got most of its power from fossil fuels, but Crane - hired as CEO in 2003 as NRG emerged from bankruptcy - had invested heavily in alternative energy, loudly proclaiming the business benefits of being a leader on climate change. But by 2015, facing investor and board pressure, Crane was forced to spin off NRG's renewable assets, marking the end of his bold strategy.

Kovi, a car rental startup located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, provides affordable access to rental cars for rideshare drivers. The case examines the origins of the company, provides background on the auto and rideshare industries in Brazil, and follows the CEO, Adhemar Milani Neto, as he evaluates options for growing the company.

Third Place Winner; 2022 DEI Global Case Writing Competition. Ashima Patel, senior vice president and chief diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) officer at Shoppers Market, a global retailer, has made progress but needs to do more, especially regarding decreasing representation of women of color in the company. In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Shoppers Market, like other companies across corporate America, has been called upon to show that it is advancing racial equity with how it hires, promotes, and does business. While Shoppers Market had established a diversity office in 2007, the company wanted to redouble its commitment to DEI and hired Patel in October 2020 to lead the charge. With Patel's leadership, the company made significant strides in DEI and released its first-ever mid-year DEI report in September 2021. However, Shoppers Market was facing a challenge that most of corporate America was grappling with: a lack of improvement in representation for women of color. Though women of color represented about one in four U.S. employees at Shoppers Market in mid-year 2021, they made up just 4.3% of people at the officer level-people with president or vice president in their titles. Despite an increase in hiring, the representation of women of color at Shoppers Market had declined by 8% overall, and by 33% in leadership positions, over the last five years. This declining representation was a growing cause for concern for the CEO, James Spyers. He had committed to showing sustained improvement in representation for women of color in leadership positions by 2025 and was due to present a solid plan to the board of directors by the end of 2021. Patel and her team knew they needed to quickly understand and address the underlying causes. This case provides insights into a key aspect of DEI: intersectionality and its implications for the corporate world. Students will explore the challenges facing women of