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When analyzing a business case, MBA students tend to extrapolate by concluding that whatever a successful company did was effective, and whatever a failed company did was wrong. At the heart of the problem is the classical confusion between correlation and causality. This case demonstrates the pitfalls of such thinking through a parable, in which an alien who descended to earth concluded that lying on a hospital bed causes a person to die. It then provides several concrete examples of business analysis so students can discuss whether we can attribute commercial success to various practices or "visions" of a company. Finally, it suggests a choice-centered approach to case studies on how to draw a meaningful conclusion through observations (as opposed to rigorous statistical analysis). The suggestions include clarifying the purpose of case analysis, framing the central question as a choice, considering trade-offs, identifying external conditions, and going beyond a particular company. The final part is an appendix, which goes beyond business cases by discussing similar confusions in war, art, health, and education, and scientific methods in natural sciences and economics.

Simple Energy was an electric scooter start-up in India founded with the intent of filling a market gap for a well-designed e-scooter, fully made in India, with sufficient range to be practical. In April 2021, with a couple of months left to launch Mark 2, the company's first e-scooter, the founders needed to settle on their marketing strategy and decide how to position Simple Energy as a relatively new entrant in what was becoming a fiercely competitive market. Simple Energy had one model ready, but competitors had entered the market with multiple variants. Should Simple Energy introduce both a basic and premium variant of Mark 2? The founders also wondered whether they should focus on introducing Mark 2 in one city first or start operations in multiple cities simultaneously.

In 2016, UltraTech Cement Limited acquired a number of Jaypee Cement Corporation Ltd.'s cement capacity assets in India's largest cement sector deal. As a result of this acquisition, all permanent employees at the acquired plants became employees of UltraTech Cement Limited. This included people working in plants, logistics, sales and marketing offices, and head office. On analyzing the employee data and organizational structure, considerable differences became apparent. The differences were related to organizational culture, organizational structure at the plant level, reporting relationships, and employee compensation. The challenge was to combine the two organizations and streamline human resources policies and practices fairly and equitably and help Jaypee Cement Corporation Ltd. employees integrate well into the newly merged entity.

In early 2021, McKinsey & Company (McKinsey) agreed to pay US$573 million to end US state-level investigations into claims that it had helped exacerbate the global opioid crisis. Tom Peters, an influential and highly respected management guru, was upset by how far his former employer had been willing to go in helping US drug maker Purdue Pharma LP increase sales of OxyContin, a narcotic-based painkiller that helped drive an opioid epidemic responsible for hundreds of thousands of tragic deaths. As far as Peters was concerned, there was no question as to whether what McKinsey did was wrong: it had ignored the "moral responsibility of business" by helping an unethical client maximize profit by aggressively promoting the wide-scale use of a highly addictive drug. In addition to asking why McKinsey was still open for business, Peters posed a previously unimaginable question: "At this moment in time, why would anyone want to go to work for McKinsey?"

This case describes multiple open banking initiatives made by China Construction Bank, ShenZhen (CCB-SZ) between 2016 and 2018 in an effort to remain competitive in the retail customer market against online financial services provided by big tech companies such as BATJ (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and JingDong), in China. In particular, CCB-SZ was facing severe competition from mobile payment technologies provided by Alipay and WeChat Pay in individuals' and SMEs' payment markets, which were traditionally underserved by incumbent banks. With new regulations enacted in 2016 to encourage incumbent banks to provide online financial services to individuals and SMEs, especially through mobile phones, CCB-SZ made a number of efforts to regain some of the lost territory, including utilizing its long-term relationship with large enterprises as a bridge to reach their customers, collaborating with existing and popular apps, and being creative in terms of offering innovative payment services and redesigning the corresponding business process. Its open banking strategy was to break down its financial services into smaller units and embed them into customers' daily financial needs, wherever and whenever they arose. Such efforts put CCB-SZ back on the playing field of mobile payment, as it was able to catch up with nonbank mobile payment solutions and maintain a similar growth rate after 2016. However, the nonbank payment providers had multiple advantages over incumbent banks, such as better technology, more data, a larger customer base, and less regulation. Hence, the future of incumbent banks' open banking strategy remained unclear.

A young HBS graduate purchases a publisher of specialty magazines that advertises second hand cars, boats, trucks, etc. The magazines carry photographs and a brief description of each article for sale. The company faces the problem of deciding on how many magazines to drop off at each distribution point. Teaching objectives: relevant costs which are not always obvious, simple forecasting, and shortcomings of critical fractile analysis.

The Happy Turtle was a bootstrapped start-up in Delhi, India, that was focused on driving a circular economy for plastics. The company aimed to offer sustainable and biodegradable lifestyle alternatives to plastic, which could secure a greener future for the planet. The founder of The Happy Turtle had left a successful and flourishing corporate culture to follow her passion for sustainability. By mid-2019, The Happy Turtle had been growing at a slow but steady pace to reach a breakeven point. One year later, however, the company was finding itself at a crossroads. Business uncertainty had arisen due to the Indian government's new policy on plastic waste management, various underlying issues related to the circular economy, and the challenge of raising money from angel investors. In addition, the founder was finding it difficult to recruit, hire, and retain the right talent to help her achieve The Happy Turtle's vision. What strategic and routine decisions would she have to make to reach her company's goals and vision?

VH1, MTV, and LOGO were all popular television channels owned by the ViacomCBS television network. One of the most successful shows on LOGO was RuPaul's Drag Race, a reality television show featuring drag queens. ViacomCBS was considering moving RuPaul's Drag Race off LOGO to a different platform within the ViacomCBS portfolio in 2017. Before deciding where RuPaul's Drag Race would air, ViacomCBS needed to determine whether the show could be successful on another platform given its current fan base, how the potential move would affect the show's ratings, and whether the positioning or targeting strategy for the series would need to change if it were moved.

Interface has been a leading innovator in the carpet industry, specializing in the manufacturing of carpet tiles for commercial flooring. This case describes the history, context, and technology behind the company's development of its newest sustainable innovation-carbon negative carpet tiles. Interface began pursuing a path of bold sustainable initiatives in 1994 when Founder and CEO Ray Anderson, confronted by an employee, had a realization of the company's negative environmental impact. The company then began moving toward a carbon neutral future, through carpet recycling and leasing programs, transparent emissions reporting and new carbon storing materials. This case uses Interface's story to: explore the context and motivations for companies pursuing environmental goals such as carbon negativity; present the transparency and reporting dynamics within the realm of carbon accounting; and contemplate the stakeholder dynamics created by these decisions. The primary dilemma is whether Interface made the correct decision in launching its carbon negative carpet tiles, given these different factors.

In mid-January 2022, Nadine Hachach-Haram, founder and CEO of Proximie, was thinking about the company's growth plans. Launched in 2016, Proximie was a platform that enabled clinicians, proctors, and medical device company personnel to be virtually present in operating rooms (OR) where they would use mixed reality and a suite of digital audio and visual tools to communicate with, mentor, assist, and observe those performing procedures. The goal was to improve patient outcomes. The company had grown quickly, opening offices in Beirut, London, and Boston, and had 135 employees. Proximie's technology had been used in tens of thousands of procedures in over 50 countries and 500 hospitals. It had raised close to $50 million in equity financing and was now entering strategic partnerships to broaden its reach. In deploying its platform, Proximie also digitized and structured formerly uncaptured data from ORs, making it possible to build a novel database of rich surgical data and prepare an infrastructure for both analytics and for curating insights from users. Hachach-Haram aspired for Proximie to become a platform that powered every OR in the world. To achieve these goals, Hachach-Haram had to navigate several challenges as she scaled the company. She needed to carefully think about the company's partnership and data strategies. Which formula would position the company best for the next stage of growth?

Reymund (ER) Rollan and Shivapratim (Shiv) Choudhury, founders of the digital technology platform GrowSari, were at a crossroads. The feedback from their initial product roll-out were not what they had expected, and they needed to decide how to proceed. The pair, alongside co-founders Andrzej Ogonowski and Siddhartha Kongara, had started GrowSari after they had each spent significant time working at the intersection of technology and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). They were trying to bring data and technology to inform how multinational consumer goods companies sold their products through small, informal retailers known as "sari-sari" stores in the Philippines. These stores, whose name means "variety" or "everything" in Filipino, were a typical convenience store or bodega, selling consumer products from sachets of shampoo to cans of baked beans and potato chips and soda.

The Miami metropolitan area is a global epicenter of climate risk from heat and sea level rise, but leaders have only recently mobilized for action to respond to this systemic challenge. Resilient 305 began a collaboration across officials in the cities of Miami and Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County, with some community leaders, but action has been slow. The case identifies the actions and concerns of (a) public sector officials (Mayors and new Chief Resilience Officers), concerned with infrastructure; (b) community activists (grass roots advocacy organizations) concerned with immediate resident issues like electric utility bills in a region with large income disparities; and (c) business leaders (real estate developers and climate technology entrepreneurs) who seek growth and economic returns. Can their interests be aligned, and new collaborations forged to accelerate climate action for both short-term and longer-term goals?

In December 2021, more than a decade after its founding, Goldman Sachs's 10,000 Small Businesses program was still going strong - and the firm now needed to evaluate potential program modifications to reach a wider group of small business owners. Launched in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, 10,000 Small Businesses provided business education, a wide network, and access to capital to U.S. small business owners through more than a dozen city- and state-based program and a National Cohort model. By 2020, Goldman Sachs achieved its goal of graduating 10,000 small business owners from the program, and the firm decided to renew the program with the goal of reaching another 10,000. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which placed unprecedented strain on small business owners across the U.S., the 10,000 Small Businesses program office team expanded the program's efforts to organize a collective voice for small business owners in U.S. politics, support an internship program that paired community college students with local small businesses, and admit owners of smaller businesses than had previously been accepted into the program. In late 2021, the team considered how to approach its latest effort: supporting Black women business owners in line with the firm's broader One Million Black Women initiative. As 10,000 Small Businesses expanded its reach to smaller businesses and sole proprietors, what modifications did the team need to make? In what ways did Goldman Sachs need to rethink its work to render its One Million Black Women initiative effective?

The South Korean K-pop band, BTS, is shattering linguistic boundaries and reshaping the global music industry. BTS became the first band in Billboard history to simultaneously top the Billboard Artist 100, Billboard Hot 100, and Billboard 200; and the sixth act to have four Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles in less than a year. A critical component of BTS's success has been the efforts of a vast network of very dedicated fans called the ARMY. How did BTS build and grow its devoted global fanbase? Could other artists or even businesses follow BTS's lead?

Makena Wanjiru, chair of Kiri Mount Kenya Conservation Network and Resource Centre (Kiri), wondered whether turning Kiri's loans business into a co-operative bank would be in the group's best interest. The challenge was to convince the rest of the board members of the idea. The board of directors would meet on July 18, 2019. Wanjiru had to draft a report before then explaining how the idea was consistent with the group's current strategy and would benefit Kiri for years to come. Wanjiru also needed to consider strategies to grow Kiri's agribusiness beyond the Mount Kenya community.

The case is set in 2022 when Creative Chocolates, a popular United States based chocolate manufacturer, plans to enter the African market. Known in the United States for its unique "warm freshbaked" chocolates, Creative Chocolates expanded to over 100 countries with 26,000 outlets worldwide since its inception in the late 1980s. However, all their outlets were either their own stores or franchisees. Attracted by the market research data on the population growth and economic success of Nigeria and other African countries, Alan Rickman, the new chief executive officer of Creative Chocolates, plans a growth strategy based on penetrating the African market. The case presents Rickman's dilemma-whether to conduct test marketing or not-and builds on it to discuss his next step.

Beijing's Palace Museum was facing the threat of becoming irrelevant and obsolete. A former imperial palace, it housed thousands of priceless cultural relics of historical importance and was once a destination in high demand. However, over time, the museum found its popularity with modern youth was waning. To address this problem, the Palace Museum chose to follow in the footsteps of other global museums and in 1998, launched a digital transformation. By June 2020, the museum had made steady progress in its digitalization over the previous two decades. It formed partnerships with online media platforms and experimented with innovative technology in key areas of its systems and structures. However, this transformation did not come without criticism. Was the museum sacrificing its integrity and its cultural import by leaning too heavily on science and technology? If people could access the collections online, would anyone still bother to visit? The museum was challenged to weigh the risks and benefits of digital transformation.

In 2016, Pythagoras Global Fund (Pythagoras), based in the United Kingdom, decided to launch a fund focused on emerging markets, especially those in Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC countries). Pythagoras's fund manager favoured investing in family-owned businesses, but the investment opportunities in India used ownership structures different than those used in developed markets. The structures in Indian groups altered the cash flow and effective ownership rights in the subsidiary firms, which had ramifications for stakeholders and raised associated governance issues. The fund manager needed to decide which firm to choose by assessing the investment opportunities and evaluating the corporate governance of the companies.

This case chronicles a successful digital transformation in Russia, where JSC Raiffeisenbank, the Russian branch of the Austrian parent company, reinvented its organizational and management system to build a new digital value network. The case discusses the transition to a less hierarchical Agile organizational structure, driven by IT-intensive cross-functional product teams. It illustrates the main challenges facing the leadership team in orchestrating the transformation: overcoming internal resistance, bridging the talent gap and handling the cultural upheaval. It highlights the key enablers that must be put in place to make a digital transformation work: leadership vision and skills, management team alignment, a strong foundation for transformation, detailed organizational rules and fast learning capabilities.