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This case study is set in November 2021. It describes how Amanda Khoo, Director of Nipo International (Nipo), had been exploring ways to innovate and expand the company's core product that was bitumen-based coatings. Khoo had led Nipo to embark on its innovation journey for more than 20 years. In the last 10 years, Khoo had been collaborating with several research institutes in Singapore including the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National University of Singapore (NUS) on four innovation projects. After a multi-year journey of research and development (R&D), Nipo had a few promising products to show. However, these products were still undergoing field trials as at November 2021. The outlook for Nipo's focused industry - the construction industry, was predicted to be promising for the next 30 years. What should Khoo do to further drive innovation and commercialise the products?

The case chronicles the challenges of a consulting team charged with developing and executing a negotiation strategy designed to help a large retailer cut costs by renegotiating their contract with their largest supplier. The disguised case begins by describing the market conditions that led BizCo, a publicly traded office supply retailer, to invite DMB, a top consulting company, to help them restore their price competitiveness. It then describes the interactions between DMB's consultants and BizCo's executives as they developed a joint strategy and prepared together for various negotiations. The case focuses specifically on the processes and outcomes of BizCo's negotiation with TQS, their largest supplier. The case is written from the perspective of Elizabeth, a member of the consulting team. The suboptimal outcome in BizCo's negotiation with TQS led Elizabeth to reflect on several issues related to designing and executing high-stakes negotiations. These issues include setting goals, managing relationships, establishing a division of labor within the negotiation team, choosing communication technologies for negotiation, setting the stage for the negotiation, and coping with time pressure and strategic surprises in high-stakes negotiations. The gaps that the BizCo - TQS negotiation revealed also led Elizabeth to reflect on strategies for influencing organizational leaders from a low power position.

The case describes the culture-building journey at Diageo India, formerly United Spirits Limited (USL). Diageo plc, a global leader in premium alcohol beverages, acquired a majority stake in Indian spirits company USL in 2013-14. The company manufactured, sold, and distributed a portfolio of premium alcohol beverage brands, some imported and others locally manufactured such as Johnnie Walker, Black Dog, Antiquity, Signature, Royal Challenge, McDowell's No.1, Smirnoff, and Captain Morgan. On taking over USL, Diageo made culture change one of its top strategic priorities. This was a challenging task since USL's close to 200-year-old history was marked by frequent cultural shifts resulting from a series of mergers and acquisitions. Anand Kripalu, the CEO of Diageo India, worked closely with Ivan Menezes, the chief executive of global Diageo, the HR function, and the leadership team to identify the four cultural pillars of the organization: breaking hierarchies, celebrating life, ensuring complete compliance, and fostering cross-company collaboration. Kripalu and Aarif Aziz, chief human resources officer of Diageo India, worked programmatically with other functions to deepen and institutionalize each of the four culture pillars. This case outlines Diageo India's initiatives and efforts in each of the pillars. Set in 2020, the case also looks at the extraordinary circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted the company to accelerate its culture-building efforts. The case closes with Kripalu and Aziz discussing how the gains made at Diageo India thus far could be institutionalized and how to sustain the cultural transformation they had initiated.

The case tracks Dineout's evolution into a full-scale tech solution provider for restaurants. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world. Several countries, including India, implemented complete lockdowns to control the spread of the virus. Stringent measures to ensure social distancing, night curfews and restrictions on social gatherings continued, which were a severe blow to the restaurant industry. The restaurants' revenue streams dried up as the diners avoided dining out and preferred food deliveries, which was against Dineout's core business model. The case ends with the questions on how Dineout should wade through the pandemic when its entire business model was being challenged.

In 2015, the co-founders of Dating Ring, an online dating startup that relied on human matchmakers to arrange dates between its members, were deciding whether to either shut down the service or instead manage Dating Ring as a "lifestyle company," ramping down growth expectations, abandoning plans to raise more venture capital, and keeping tight control over costs. Dating Ring's founders originally aimed to achieve a billion dollar valuation, and their participation in the elite Y Combinator accelerator has stoked their ambitions. However, growth had subsequently sputtered and the founders had not been able to raise more venture capital.

In 2022, Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart, and his team looked back at a difficult but ultimately successful past year. The global pandemic had posed enormous challenges, but the company had weathered the storm successfully, raising same-store sales growth, long anemic, by 8%. The team was particularly proud of Walmart's performance in online sales. Walmart+, the company's $98 membership program that offered free shipping, had attracted more than 15 million households. Investors remained skeptical, however. The company's share price remained flat. Would the post-pandemic era finally bring the hoped-for change? What were the most significant opportunities the company faced in its 60th year in business? Was it even possible to substantially grow Walmart's U.S. operations, a behemoth with more than 5,000 stores and over $350 billion in sales? As McMillon and his team debated Walmart's capital allocation, they carefully considered three growth opportunities: a continued build-out of the company's e-commerce operations, an upscaling initiative, and a renewed effort to capture market share in urban markets. Would any of these strategic initiatives sway Wall Street?

Aster Retail (AR) is the retail pharmacy division of Aster Dr Moopen's Healthcare (ADMH) Group. The group delivers healthcare services across the Middle East, India and the Far East with a portfolio of hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres and retail pharmacies. AR, under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jobilal Vavachan, is well known for its people-centric approach, unique culture and innovative human resource (HR) practices. AR has won multiple awards for HR practices, service quality and business performance. In a recent corporate restructuring, "Aster Primary Care" was carved out, combining the group's Clinics and Retail businesses. The case discusses the evolution of ARs' HR journey and the challenge to integrate culturally diverse businesses, without compromising ADMH values and promise, "We'll Treat You Well."

When Dr. Ikenna Okezie founded Somatus, a value-based kidney care provider, his goal had been nothing short of transforming kidney care delivery in the United States. Rather than relying on dialysis, a costly and intensive treatment for late-stage kidney disease, the Somatus model called for early identification of patients at high risk along with active management of the underlying conditions that accelerated kidney damage. But he had struggled to find health plans willing to take a chance on his unproven startup, especially in the highly concentrated dialysis treatment market. Thus, in 2017, Somatus agreed to manage traditional dialysis services for a group of hospitals in Virginia, focusing on improving the quality of care. In 2018, Somatus won its first contract with a health plan, finally allowing the startup to implement its full care model. But the contract generated just 10% of Somatus's revenues. Now, in December 2019, Okezie must decide whether to prioritize improving traditional dialysis services or continue to chase health plans willing to implement Somatus's innovative kidney care model.

Mantra Ayurveda (Mantra), established in India in 2020, manufactured and marketed luxury Ayurvedic skin care and hair care products. The brand's equity in the Indian market was low, its performance marketing efforts were not leading to expected revenue gains, and the revenue from direct-to-consumer (DTC) initiatives had experienced a negligible uptick in financial year (FY) 2020-21. In April 2021, the chief executive officer would have to convince the board and investors about his plans for achieving fourfold revenue growth from the DTC channel in FY 2021-22. He needed to propose a choice that would build the brand for long-term sustenance while delivering on short-term revenue goals, considering key strategic pillars: an international DTC market launch to expand; offline marketing to increase brand awareness; in-house and outsourced performance marketing to optimize digital efforts; and discounts, promotions, and the launch of smaller package sizes to drive trials. Making the right choice could lead to an expanded international brand presence and deeper penetration into the Indian luxury market. However, the wrong choice could mean an early exit of a major investor, leaving the company cash-starved and plunging both the company and the future of his career into uncertainty.

Concerns over decreasing global food security had been growing worldwide due to factors ranging from growing population and demand for food to declining levels of arable land due to urbanisation and climate change. This was exacerbated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given its own constraints in arable land and natural resources, Singapore was well ahead of other developed economies in pioneering the novel food industry development for food security. FRESH was a research centre launched by the Singapore government in 2021 to foster public-private partnership to build up local food safety science and R&D capabilities to support the safety assessment of novel food ranging from plant-based and cell-based meat to microbial and insect protein. FRESH knew that its rare and valuable expertise on novel food safety assessment would position it well to not only support Singapore's transformation of its own agri-industry, but also play a catalytic role in the international novel food scene with Singapore's strong reputation for stringent food safety standards. FRESH had to decide between two options for its future business model-remain as a public-funded institution or become a corporatized entity.

The case focuses on key decisions facing a startup venture BuyHive, that is on the cusp of disintermediating the sourcing business with a new business model. There are a few core issues such as (1) identifying the pros and cons of raising capital from strategic investors who can open doors to large pools of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) that can be attracted to the platform versus financial investors who typically only bring in the capital, (2) how to monetize the data that the company can access from the platform users, and (3) how to address some of the issues that are central to platforms such as platform disintermediation, network switching, bridging, and multi-homing. The founders have to specifically consider ways in which they can increase scale and stickiness with respect to the platform users as well as its sourcing specialists. The platform was an outcome of radically rethinking the way value was being delivered to buyers seeking to identify manufacturers who could supply to the specifications that the buyers had developed. The giant global sourcing companies and platforms such as Alibaba, Made-in-China, Global Sources among others had typically focused on creating value for the suppliers (manufacturers and their representatives or intermediaries). BuyHive seeks to turn the attention on buyers as their core focus and create a buyer-centric platform. The company has to make decisions on identifying the right type of investors, engineering the platform to create greater buyer value, improve stickiness of the platform, and adopt AI-based algorithms in bringing sourcing experts on board.

The case tells the story of El Ordeño, an Ecuadorian company competing in the dairy sector, whose central purpose is to help small ranchers in the country's Andean (mountainous) region rise out of poverty. To do this, it designed a business model in which they were included as shareholders, received fair payment for their milk and avoid intermediaries by creating their own distribution centers. To better communicate the social impact of this enterprise, and provide more transparency to its supply chain, the company decided to build a blockchain solution, the first of its kind in Ecuador and Latin America. In January 2021, after almost two years since launching the initiative, senior management has to make a decision: Should El Ordeño strengthen or abandon the blockchain technology.

This case revolves around Framberry Congelados S.A. (Framberry), an Osorno, Chile-based, privately held frozen berries produce wholesaler. Framberry was severely affected by the ongoing Covid pandemic that was expected to last for another three to five years. The pandemic directly or indirectly affected every aspect of Framberry's operations and threatened the company's survival unless an effective crisis management plan was formulated and successfully implemented. Framberry's Zonal Manager, Mr. Claudio Tapia, was tasked with designing and executing a comprehensive plan to navigate the company through the complex situation it faced.

This case discusses the launch of a marketing campaign titled "The Barbershop Girls of India" created by Gillette India, a Procter and Gamble company (P&G). Gillette India had been highlighting social issues for many years. Their "Gillette soldier for women" campaign, launched in 2013, is just one example. But this time, they took addressing social issues up a notch by addressing gender stereotypes in Indian society through their "The Barbershop Girls of India" campaign. The case outlines the company's prior efforts in social media platforms leading to the launch of the "The Barbershop Girls of India." The case encourages students to analyze how companies choose social issues to address through their marketing communication campaigns, as well as how marketing communications may be integrated with corporate goals and brand identity. The case concludes with questions about the future of the Gillette India brand, and what type of marketing efforts it should follow in the future.

Three years ago, Marjorie Rodriguez founded a company with the goal of supporting the LGBTQ+ community through employment opportunities. Now she needs to decide whether to expand the business, which would require bringing in non-transgender salespeople. That wasn't her original vision for the firm--but would it allow her to have a bigger impact? This fictional case study by Sandeep Puri features expert commentary by Fran Dunaway and Khadijah Tribble.

Three years ago, Marjorie Rodriguez founded a company with the goal of supporting the LGBTQ+ community through employment opportunities. Now she needs to decide whether to expand the business, which would require bringing in non-transgender salespeople. That wasn't her original vision for the firm--but would it allow her to have a bigger impact? This fictional case study by Sandeep Puri features expert commentary by Fran Dunaway and Khadijah Tribble.

Three years ago, Marjorie Rodriguez founded a company with the goal of supporting the LGBTQ+ community through employment opportunities. Now she needs to decide whether to expand the business, which would require bringing in non-transgender salespeople. That wasn't her original vision for the firm--but would it allow her to have a bigger impact? This fictional case study by Sandeep Puri features expert commentary by Fran Dunaway and Khadijah Tribble.

Toyota's supply chain, long admired as an industry benchmark for efficiency and effectiveness, was unable to supply critical parts to replenish inventory in its plants pursuant to the global chip shortages that resulted from the general disruption created by the Covid-19 pandemic. During the first quarter of 2021, the delta variant of the virus was spreading across the globe. Southeast Asia, where Toyota sourced many auto components, was particularly hard hit. As demand for automobiles was surging during the second half of 2021, a critical shortage of microchips forced Toyota and other automakers to shut down some of their assembly lines. Set against this backdrop, the case focuses on options that firms might pursue in preparing for black swan events such as Covid-19.