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Anugnyaa Agricultural Association (AAA), a non-profit organisation, wants to introduce a cross subsidisation scheme between tomato farmers with good yield and those whose yield is affected by a crop infection. They want to partially absorb the risk of infection while ensuring their revenues are large enough to cover all costs. Further, they also have the technology to identify early onset of infections in certain cases, treat those crops and ensure high yields. Can a management trainee help AAA price their services and analyse their risks in different cases?

This case examines the career of Vicky Tsai, the creator of San Francisco-based TATCHA, a Japanese-themed luxury beauty brand launched in 2009. It explores how Tsai developed the concept, assembled management, and successfully launched the brand, despite experiencing major obstacles because of stereotyped views based on her gender and Asian ethnicity. Originally advised that Asian beauty was too niche for the American market, Tsai struggled to raise capital, and felt that she needed to take on white males as co-founders in order to be taken seriously. She faced continuous funding constraints, even after the Tatcha brand debuted on the QVC channel and began to grow fast. In 2017 Tsai sought private equity funding to further grow the business, and found herself encouraged to leave the role of CEO in favor of professional management. Tsai sold the business to Unilever for an estimated $500 million in 2019 as this process was underway. In January 2021 Tsai was recalled as CEO as the business faltered. The case ends with her determination to build a business which would work for positive change in the beauty industry in its attitudes towards gender and ethnicity.

In June 2022, 3G Capital Co-Managing Partners Alex Behring and Daniel Schwartz were in a partners' meeting. On the agenda were three potential investments. Code named "Alpha," "Bravo," and "Charlie" (real target companies that have been disguised), they were the finalists amongst hundreds that the team had screened. Unlike other private equity firms, 3G did not build a portfolio: each of its funds had only one investment. This model had worked extremely well for some investments, with successes like Restaurant Brands International, but it had also faced some challenges. Each investment decision was crucial to the future of the firm. What should their next investment be?

The case narrates the IPO journey of Budweiser APAC (Budweiser APAC), the Asia-Pacific subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev). During its time in Asia, megabrewer AB InBev not only engaged in many mergers and acquisitions but also witnessed first-hand the development of an up-and-coming market. This allowed Budweiser APAC to become a leader in the Chinese and South Korean markets and develop plans to significantly expand its market share in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, challenges such as the overall sluggish beer industry and fierce competition for talent slowed Budweiser APAC's business. In 2019, the brewer behemoth suspended plans to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Shortly thereafter, the company offloaded its Australian Subsidiary Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) and then successfully listed Budweiser APAC in Hong Kong. Instead of providing the entire IPO story at once, the case intentionally splits this content into two parts. Case A focuses on Budweiser APAC's initial failed IPO attempt and asks students to put themselves in the shoes of Jan Craps, AB InBev's Zone President Asia Pacific and CEO & Executive Director of Budweiser APAC. Initially, the class discussion should focus on the global beer industry, the competitive landscape in different geographic regions, and Budweiser APAC's major competitors. Subsequently, students should discuss which of the proposed alternatives to the failed IPO listing best serves the needs of both AB InBev and Budweiser APAC. Case B follows Case A and discusses which alternative was actually chosen: AB InBev successfully listed Budweiser APAC on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after selling its Australian subsidiary to Japan's Asahi Group. This divesture facilitated Budweiser APAC's second IPO attempt not only by making it clear to investors that the company will focus on growth markets such as China, India, and Vietnam, but also by making the listing more attractive to investors who seek exposure to emerging

This case traces the digital transformation exploration of NOVA VISION (also called "Baodao Glasses"), as the leading Chinese service-oriented eyewear retailer sought continuous improvement. The company developed informatization construction in its early stage. In the internet era, it started an online business and tried the O2O (online to offline) model in 2013. In 2019, it launched a methodology for private domain traffic operations and implemented drastic organizational changes. They followed its strategic positioning of "professionalism + digitalization" and operational goal for transforming the traditional "store operation-centered" sales model into "member operations as the core" service-oriented retail model. However, NOVA VISION's digital initiatives were not recognized by peers for many years, nor have they solved the industry's essential pain points, such as the high proportional personnel costs and the steadily rising store rents. NOVA VISION still faces internal and external challenges. The extremal challenges include threats from upstream players in the industry chain of lens and glass frame brand giants as well as competition from eye hospitals that enter the optician industry. Internal challenges come from its employees, who may be full of confusion and uncertainty about the future. It is crucial that NOVA VISION better implements the "professionalism + digitalization" strategy and ensures organizational changes bring effective outcomes. Wang Zhimin, chairman of the board of directors, still has a strong idea for exporting the company's own experience and upgrading the industry through platformization, which is full of unknowns. Will future generations still need glasses? What kind of glasses will they need? The future of eyewear service retail is blurry... NOVA VISION's related exploration reflects several important issues in the development of China's optical retail industry, such as "healthcare vs. fashion" needs, "online vs. offline" scenarios,

with a description of three concepts it inspired and an invitation to design a set of experiments to test the concepts' desirability, feasibility, and viability. The C case reviews the two phases of testing actually conducted. Taken together, the three cases cover a completed design thinking process in detail, with a particular goal of encouraging student reflection on the design of research plans, both exploratory and confirmatory. SWR operated some of the busiest train routes in the United Kingdom, with 235 million passenger journeys a year. It covered urban, suburban, regional, and long-distance routes between London's Waterloo Station and locations in southwestern England. SWR struggled with some long-term problems: challenging relations with a highly unionized work force, major network repairs needed, low staff morale, and overcrowded commuter services. All these were compounded by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Amid these challenges, senior leadership at SWR concluded that the pandemic presented a unique opportunity to change how the public and the UK Department for Transportation viewed SWR, and to improve the passenger experience. SWR reached out to David Kester & Associates (DK&A), a leading design-strategy consultancy, in search of a partnership that could help the rail company innovate. DK&A's mandate was clear: learn fast from customers, rapidly deliver confidence-building basics at stations, and work closely with SWR staff to reshape both the organization's culture and their passenger's experience. SWR wanted practical ideas to better meet customer needs-ones that could be trialed and scaled throughout the network. But how to go about gathering the data needed within a tight timeline amid the complexity of SWR's operations and opportunities? For those interested in adding self or peer assessment to students' design thinking learning journey, Professor Jeanne Liedtka, working with coauthors Karen Hold, Jessica Eldridge, and Treehouse

The case is designed to be used in courses on Nonprofit Operations Management, Data Analytics, Six Sigma, and Business Process Excellence/Improvement in MBA or Executive MBA programs. It is suitable for teaching students about the common problem of lower rates of volunteerism in nonprofit organizations. Further, the case study helps present the importance and application of inferential statistics (data analytics) to identify the impact of various factors on the problem (effect). The case is set in early 2021 when Shefali Sharma, the Strategy and Learning Manager with Teach For India (TFI), faced a few challenging questions from a professor at the Indian School of Business (ISB) during her presentation at an industry gathering in Hyderabad, India. Sharma was concerned about the low matriculation rate of TFI fellows, despite the rigorous recruitment, selection, and matriculation (RSM) process. A mere 50-60% matriculation rate was not a commensurate return for an investment of INR 6.5 million and the massive effort put into the RSM process. In 2017, Sharma organized focused informative and experiential events to motivate candidates to join the fellowship, but it was not very clear if these events impacted the TFI matriculation rate. After the industry gathering at ISB, Sharma followed up with the professor to seek his guidance in performing data analytics on the matriculation data. Sharma wondered if inferential data analysis could help her understand which demographic factors and events impact the matriculation rate.

South Africa, like most other countries, is in the process of reducing its carbon emissions to comply with COP26 and, hopefully, reach net zero emissions by 2050. However, because South Africa relies almost wholly on coal (93%) for electricity, and on coal for artificial gasoline, this is a huge task. Furthermore, its state-owned utility - ESCOM - is just recovering from a period of corrupt, "state capture," and requires state support to cover its debt service. Finally, because of the country's high unemployment and strong labor unions, a "just energy transition" is essential. Jobs and retraining for thousands of coal miners and energy workers, their families and communities, will dominate the process of energy transition.

In April 2011, Dutch multinational Royal Philips, one of the most iconic companies in the country, decided to disrupt itself and transform from a diversified industrial conglomerate to a focused player in Health Technology. The case describes the first decade (2011-2021) of the strategic transformation in terms of refocusing the business portfolio, the new business model and, most of all, the efforts of top management to transform Philips' internal organisation in terms of structure, culture and systems. The first case author was a member of the executive board of Philips during the entire decade, working closely with the CEO, Frans van Houten, to effect the huge transformation. In addition to the author's personal experience as a senior executive with the firm, the case is based on numerous interviews with other members of the executive board, including van Houten.

The founders of Protein Power Plates--a company with the slogan "Let's meat!"--contemplate adding plant-based burgers to their menu. This fictional case study by Lena G. Goldberg and Michael S. Kaufman features expert commentary by Lynn Blashford, Scott Uehlein.

The founders of Protein Power Plates--a company with the slogan "Let's meat!"--contemplate adding plant-based burgers to their menu. This fictional case study by Lena G. Goldberg and Michael S. Kaufman features expert commentary by Lynn Blashford, Scott Uehlein.

The founders of Protein Power Plates--a company with the slogan "Let's meat!"--contemplate adding plant-based burgers to their menu. This fictional case study by Lena G. Goldberg and Michael S. Kaufman features expert commentary by Lynn Blashford, Scott Uehlein.

Founded in May 2020, FirstConnect Solutions is a micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) focused on providing recruitment and staffing solutions. When the pandemic hit recruitment activities across industries, FirstConnect Solutions demonstrated its mettle through robust growth within the first year, meeting clients' expectations by successfully filling the few but challenging recruitment mandates. The pandemic environment also allowed the firm to hire inexperienced recruiters and train them on the job. The company motivated recruiters with monetary incentives linked to successful placement and a powerful reward and recognition program. While all employees appreciated the organization's culture, FirstConnect continued to lose recruiters after they were painstakingly trained and had just started to become productive. To ensure client service did not suffer, FirstConnect hired gig recruiters, who were paid only for sourcing relevant candidate profiles through a milestone-based incentive system. The variability in quality and availability meant that this route of ensuring client satisfaction was not entirely reliable owing to an uncertain talent pool. The dilemma for FirstConnect was to identify the target demographic segments for its permanent workforce and how to build its employer brand and employee value proposition to prevent attrition. Further, it needed to determine the percentage of work to be managed by gig workers without risking their client servicing capability.

MiracleFeet, a US-based non-profit, improves access to high-quality treatment of clubfoot in low-income countries, typically in partnership with public hospitals and local NGOs, by providing low-cost foot braces, training, advocacy, awareness-raising and financial and operational support. It aims to treat 100,000 children by 2024 across 70 countries - half of them middle-income countries. Having succeeded in low-income settings, it now plans to target middle-income countries, starting with the Philippines, convinced it can make an impact by taking a different strategic approach. However, the middle-income segment proves less straightforward than anticipated, even if healthcare infrastructure is more developed and families can cover some of the costs. The narrative follows the non-profit across a decade of development, culminating with the question: what can MiracleFeet do differently to ensure its service offering succeeds in the Philippines, and then rolled out to other middle-income countries?

By the late spring of 2019, it was clear to Samuel Kalika, Founder of Critical Concrete (CC), a sustainable architecture social enterprise in Porto, Portugal, that his organization needed to pivot. While he was not exactly clear on what strategy would help CC more reliably and consistently deliver on its social mission, Kalika was convinced that the organization's current focus on the Critical Concrete Summer School (CCSS) was not financially sustainable for much longer. The staff was spending an entire year in its planning and coordination, and the financial situation seemed inconsistent and fragile, among other challenges. He had to quickly decide on how to move forward and redirect their efforts. The 2019 CCSS would conclude in only three months, and after that, there was nothing scheduled, which also meant no funds were coming in beyond that point. CC needed to pivot, but Kalika had to figure out what to do next. Considering the mix of resources and challenges in the picture, what could he do to pivot the organization?

In April 2019, Robyn Denholm, the chairperson of Tesla, Inc.'s board was asked by a judge to work with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to settle the contempt of court charges brought by the agency regarding Elon Musk's, the CEO, use of Twitter to make factually incorrect market-moving tweets about the company's prospects. The contempt charge was about a violation of protocol that was set up following an adverse 2018 verdict against the company on a similar charge. Denholm and Tesla's board had to act against the backdrop of several factors, including Musk's tremendous popularity among his 24 million Twitter followers, a soaring Tesla stock price, and an ongoing defamation lawsuit that stemmed from a Musk tweet after a daring rescue of a stranded Thailand soccer team by a British diver in 2018. In settling with the SEC, the board had to consider a variety of options, including the nuclear option of firing Musk that was suggested by a Tesla investor.

Eric Faust founded the Duluth Coffee Company (DCC) in 2012 with a $10,000 loan and a lot of passion for coffee. The company was a classic garage startup, where Faust had a 3-kilogram roaster cranking up limited batches of coffee and selling them to local coffee shops and restaurants. Then Faust rented a store in downtown Duluth, Minnesota. He turned it into a coffee shop with an upgraded 12-kilogram roaster that occupied a central spot at the café. As Faust was developing direct relationships with coffee growers, he realized that DCC could play a bigger role in improving farmers' livelihoods by buying more of their coffee. Faust decided to upgrade to a 70-kilogram roaster to be custom built and installed in the café. With the increase in the volume of the coffee he roasted and sold, the company would need to have a new distribution strategy. Sam Levar, the newly hired marketing manager, developed plans for a new distribution strategy to be run by his boss. Levar felt that the status quo inhibited the growth of the business and limited profitability in the long run. Faust and his three employees were tied up running the café while sourcing the coffee beans, roasting, prospecting, packaging, warehousing, fulfilling orders, invoicing, and managing accounts receivables and cash flows. Levar suggested outsourcing the distribution function to an experienced distributor(s). Such a decision would help the company have higher sales volumes and better long-term profitability. However, Faust was wary they might lose control over the brand he built from the ground up. Their conversation left Levar considering the pros and cons of preserving the status quo versus recruiting experienced distributors or a wholesaler. Is it time for a new distribution strategy? What should Levar recommend for Faust?

Lawrence Kellner, recently named Board Chair for the Boeing Company, is faced with assessing Boeing's strategic and financial condition in January 2020 as recent events potentially threatened the aerospace firm's survival. The most visible issue was the global grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX airliner fleet. Boeing also faced safety issues, production delays, and cost overruns that affected the remainder of its commercial airliner business, resulting in negative 2019 earnings, total debt almost doubling in one year to more than $27 billion, and negative 2019 stockholder equity. Boeing also was suffering competitively as its main commercial airliner competitor, Airbus, sold more commercial airliners than Boeing in 2019. The case seeks causes for the current crises by examining Boeing's history since it 1916 founding, its engineering leadership up to its 1997 merger with rival McDonnell Douglas, and the board's decisions since the merger. The board's decisions are examined regarding repeatedly forgoing expensive new product development while increasing dividends and stock buybacks to appeal to investors, and the effects of these decisions on Boeing's product line, culture, and ability to compete with Airbus. Data is provided to support assessing the financial, cultural, and competitive dimensions of the current situation, determining the board's role in Boeing's current competitive challenges with Airbus, and assessing how the board decisions contributed to Boeing's cultural changes and current strategic position. Information is also included to support an assessment of Boeing's current financial position and a determination of the board's role in creating the current situation. Critical decisions for discussion and response include what potential actions Kellner may recommend the board take to address Boeing's short-term and long-term issues as the company and he prepare for the upcoming 2020 Boeing Annual Stockholder Meeting.

Struggling to maintain a work-life balance after the birth of her second son in 2011, Dalia Barsoum left her executive position in Wealth Management at the Bank of Montreal to start her own business. She founded Streetwise Mortgages, an independent mortgage brokerage that targeted customers interested in purchasing investment properties. Customers were offered hours of free consultations on building wealth through real estate and had access to Barsoum's network of support. The value of these consultations to customers caused many clients to book meetings, consuming time and resources without generating a penny in revenue for Streetwise. By August 2020, Barsoum felt overwhelmed by the number of requests; she had only so many hours for consultations and needed to come up with a solution. She was considering charging a refundable fee for consultation meetings to discourage less-serious customers from booking one. Alternatively, she liked the idea of a screening tool, such as a questionnaire that determined customers' needs, resources, and goals to tailor the advice and services better.

The case focuses on the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL), one of Asia's major regional professional basketball competitions. Launched in 2009, the league struggled to become financially viable in its first decade, and quickly encountered many challenges including multiple leadership changes, a high team turnover rate, weak fan engagement, and poor take up of its broadcasting rights. When COVID-19 derailed its 2019-2020 season, the ABL abruptly suspended all games and never resumed competition. There was even a launch of a rival league called the East Asian Super League (EASL) during the pandemic that had detrimental ramifications for the league's fan base. Further, as a regional league, international air travel COVID-19 restrictions and quarantine requirements made it impossible to have the existing ABL competition format resume. These moves had a major impact on the future sustainability of the ABL. As the case concludes, students are put in the shoes of the ABL founder, Fernandes, who must decide from three strategic options: to re-start the league now, keep the league suspended, or make the difficult move to discontinue the league.