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In 2004, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba created Alipay, an app to facilitate payments on its e-commerce sites. As Alibaba grew, so did Alipay, until Alipay spawned its own ecosystem of financial technology products and services under the name of Ant Group. By 2020, Ant had one billion users on its platform, which offered investment opportunities, consumer lending, and insurance, targeted towards middle class individuals and small- and medium-sized businesses. In November 2020, Ant Group was poised for its initial public offering (IPO). But the Chinese government canceled the IPO just days before Ant was expected to raise $34 billion at a valuation of $310 billion. Regulators were concerned that Ant's partners were bearing too much risk and they fretted that the Chinese economy showed signs of rising consumer spending. What was next for Ant Group?

Philips India is a leading player in the air-treatment products market in the country. Philips India's launch of the New Urban Living Series air purifiers aligns with the company's continued focus on enhancing people's health by leveraging technology to promote healthy living and prevention. The case describes how, given the challenges in the residential consumer segment, Philips India intends to back its competitive strategy logic of entering the air purifier market and leverage its brand equity in healthcare to differentiate itself from its rivals and overcome the hurdles it is likely to encounter in a nascent but overcrowded market.

This field-based case uses the 66°North Company, an iconic Icelandic designer and manufacturer of premium outerwear, to unfold circumstances that allow for an analysis of the firm's value proposition, competitive position, and growth opportunities. The 66°North brand image was believed to be an important contributor to its success over the years. Outside Nordic countries, 66°North had grown since 2013, especially following its shift to develop direct-to-consumer channels, but still remained a small niche brand relative to several more widely recognized competitors. While in Iceland it was standard household gear, its market penetration in large global markets such as the United States remained low. This leaves the case open to exploring the uncertainty over the achievable and costly attempt to gain greater visibility in the US market. What was the brand positioning internationally? And what was the go-to market?

The game of baseball offers a team's manager relatively few tactical decisions to affect their team's chances of winning on any given day. The manager chooses the batting lineup and where the fielders are positioned; the pitchers who start the game and appear in relief, and to some extent what pitches are thrown; and if or when to attempt a stolen base or sacrifice bunt. Those decisions comprise all the levers in baseball a manager can pull to gain an advantage. Given this, the question facing baseball managers is how to optimize this limited set of decisions such that they maximize their team's odds of winning as many games as possible. In this exercise, student will measure how one of the strategic decisions a manager can make-whether to sacrifice bunt or not-affects runs generated or lost.

In this two-part case, in case A, a non-binary entrepreneur founded New FRDM Bodywear Ltd. (NEW FRDM) in 2015 in Toronto, Canada. The apparel and accessories company produced underwear for transgender and gender nonconforming individuals. While growing their business as a sole proprietorship, the founder sought out a mentorship opportunity through ACME Entrepreneurship Incorporated but was concerned about a request to censor NEW FRDM's website and messaging content. The founder had to decide whether to stray from NEW FRDM's original business model and accept the opportunity. In case B, over a year later, the entrepreneur was presented with new potential mentorship opportunities from three different programs. Build Your Best focused on female entrepreneurs and offered a permanent workspace and prestigious contacts in the industry. Womentrepreneur Network seemed to offer superior mentorship, non-financial resources, and promising events, but it seemed to be explicitly intended for people who identified as women. Out and Proud! offered one-on-one mentorship and large events and was explicitly focused on LGBTQ2+ businesspeople. The founder again faced the issue of having to change or abandon NEW FRDM's business model to take advantage of one or more of these significant business opportunities.

In The ClearZone (ClearZone), founded in 2020 by Jenessa and Madison Olson, was a sanitization service start-up that used ozone technology to disinfect commercial and residential spaces. The sisters started ClearZone when their existing business, STMNT, a successful online clothing rental business, was put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Noticing a heightened need for disinfectant services in response to the pandemic, the sisters took the opportunity to use their business skills, build on their concerns for environmental sustainability, and support clients attempting to create safe environments. ClearZone experienced exponential growth and was now considering its next step in expanding the business.

In 2020, the Chilean government wants to promote green hydrogen, a technology with high potential to help mitigate climate change. President Sebastián Piñera, aware of the country's advantages to produce green hydrogen competitively, asks Energy Minister Juan Carlos Jobet to elaborate a mission-oriented strategy to promote the technology. The strategy was to match the government's center-right orientation and the country's political and economic trajectory. Chile was often praised for its strong macroeconomic fundamentals and a sound policy framework. However, the country was facing social and economic disruptions given the Covid-19 pandemic, which added pressure to an already difficult political backdrop. Chile still struggled with unprecedented political uncertainty after social unrest in 2019 led to a wave of protests that forced the government to agree to a constitutional reform and greater social spending.

In September 2020, Diana Ferguson was nearing her first Audit Committee meeting as the newly appointed Audit Committee chair of Mattel, Inc. Mattel was just recovering from an accounting scandal which had revealed the company's poor internal controls and weak board oversight over financial reporting, and the committee had important decisions to make going forward. In early 2018, Mattel's Tax team had discovered a significant reporting error in its third-quarter financial results. In consultation with Mattel's independent auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Mattel's finance team opted not to issue a correction and instead (effectively) concealed this mistake. This cover-up came to light in 2019, when an anonymous whistleblower reported the incident, setting off a chain of negative press coverage and senior-level resignations. Mattel responded by conducting an internal investigation, and concluded that, while their accounting processes needed to be improved, there was no evidence of fraud. Despite this, this issue had resurfaced in early 2020 when the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched a fresh investigation into the accounting error and subsequent cover-up. In light of these events, Ferguson and the Audit Committee faced a challenging road ahead with several important issues to consider. They needed to tackle Mattel's problematic governance and internal controls, and restore investor confidence in the company's financial disclosures. They also needed to review their earlier decision to continue to engage PwC as Mattel's auditor going forward.

It was 2019, and the senior manager of strategy and business operations at Lyft Inc. (Lyft), headquartered in San Francisco, had been tasked with helping the company expand its existing vehicle services infrastructure to include individual riders, also known as end users, in addition to drivers. She had information about the competitive landscape within the industry, along with valuable insights from interviews Lyft had facilitated with potential customers. She was aware that in order for Lyft to grow and ultimately scale in as frictionless a manner as possible, the company might have to re-evaluate its value proposition and figure out how to build trust with consumers.

This case follows the formation and early growth of ExecOnline, a provider of leadership development solutions through partnerships with top business schools. Founder Stephen Bailey navigates initial sales and partnerships, key personnel decisions, and fundraising dilemmas as he seeks to improve diversity among corporate leaders using the ExecOnline platform.

How did Shopee - a small e-commerce player launched in 2015 - overtake its historic rival Lazada in just a few years to average 281 million visits a month and become the most valuable company in South East Asia in 2021? CEO Forrest Li followed a bold two-sided digital marketing strategy that won over sellers (B2B) and users (B2C). What differentiated Shopee from Lazada was its intensive data-driven approach that powered greater customer intimacy and its local, experience-driven branding efforts. Stepping into Li's shoes, students learn the essentials of a e-commerce strategy, from platform design to marketing strategy and tactics, operations and organizational choices supporting Shopee's relationship with its customers.

The co-founders of PhonePe, India's leading digital payment platform are considering pursuing various growth opportunities in a huge country just entering the digital age. In a highly competitive industry, the founders are keenly aware that making the right choices is not only a matter of opportunity cost but critical to preserving the company's market leadership. PhonePe began as an enabling platform between parties and, unlike some of its competitors, did not get involved up to now in the direct delivery of goods and services. But PhonePe's brand and reach make it relevant now to revisit the question. In the next board meeting, three areas of obvious digital potential are likely to come up: lending, education and gaming. Another is taking the model international. What should the founders recommend to their board?

In August 2021, the founders of upGrad, the latest unicorn in the Indian higher education online space, were deciding how to best use the funds to execute on their ambitious growth plans. Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli had envisioned upGrad as an online education platform to enable working professionals to access university degrees from around the world. The pandemic induced lockdowns that confined millions to their homes due to COVID-19, supercharged the growth of upGrad, and indeed all online higher education providers, leading to both growth and competition. The founders of upGrad were keen to ensure they would continue to be a winner in the evolving sector-but which route should they prioritize? Should upGrad continue to focus on offering academic credentials through university partnerships to working professionals, or strengthen their position in the college learners (aged 18 to 23) segment by offering job-oriented test prep and bachelor's degrees?

ExxonMobil, the world's fifth largest source of carbon emissions, remained committed to aggressively expanding its oil & gas business despite global warming. During the COVID pandemic this strategy resulted in massive losses as the price and demand for oil declined. In the summer of 2021, a start-up impact investing hedge fund, Engine No. 1, invested $38 million in ExxonMobil stock and mounted a proxy fight to change the company's direction by electing Directors experienced in renewable energy. Over fierce objections by management, Engine No. 1 won 3 board seats. By then, demand for oil had resumed and Exxon's strategy had begun to pay off. The case raises provocative questions about whether maximizing shareholder value required Exxon to use its existing resources to drive short term profits without regard to future consequences and environmental impact or, alternatively, to move beyond its core capabilities into initiatives suited to a low-carbon future. Voted best case by first year MBAs.

In February 2003, P&G hosted two meetings-one with its largest woman- and minority-owned suppliers and one with its largest non-minority-owned suppliers. Attendees in each meeting heard the same message: P&G was keen to grow its commitment to inclusive supply chains, but felt hamstrung by the limited scale and scope of its existing woman- and minority-owned suppliers. It was up to the attendees to determine how to work together to meet P&G's needs. Otherwise, the consumer packaged goods giant would be forced to look outside its home city of Cincinnati, Ohio, for diverse suppliers at scale. This case tells the story of how Carl Satterwhite, president and co-owner of Infinity Services, a minority-owned furniture installation business, and J. Scott Robertson, president and owner of Globe Business Interiors (GBI), a non-minority-owned office furniture company, responded to P&G's call.

In May 2019, project managers with the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (Jeevika) in Patna, India, met to consider their role in creating farmer producer companies (FPCs) that helped poor agricultural producers access markets and receive fair prices for their produce, mainly litchi fruit. The creation of such producer companies was not a spontaneous process but often required a catalyst to harness community-based networks. While Jeevika, a project supported by the Government of Bihar and the World Bank, had been successful in alleviating poverty among those at the base of the economic pyramid, the project managers were now reflecting on the way forward for the producer company. Their overarching aim was a comprehensive understanding of the effects of their efforts on the community and the key variables affecting the sustainability of their efforts. They were aware that they could not support the community indefinitely, and they needed to consider how best to empower the producers to do this work on their own once Jeevika was no longer available. What new capabilities would farmers need to develop over time? How would the relationships between farmers and other stakeholders change when support from Jeevika was reduced or removed?

Case A focuses on how entrepreneurs and leaders deal with sudden unexpected events and crises. It describes the tensions that Russian female entrepreneur and CEO Anastasia Tatulova had to deal with in response to the coronavirus pandemic that wrought wide-scale disruption on society and businesses across the world. Tatulova founded the AnderSon café to address a lack of family-friendly cafés in Russia. Having started in 2009 with a single café in Moscow, AnderSon celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019 as a chain of 52 cafés in Russia and neighboring countries. It employed 1,500 staff in its cafés and in the "Factory of Happiness," which produced the confectionery sold in the cafés. At the beginning of 2020, Tatulova was poised to expand her business with outside investment, but by March, as COVID-19 triggered restrictions and the shutdown of society, her core business was paralyzed by a 90% drop in sales. This put her in the critical situation of having to fight for AnderSon's survival. Along with other small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Russia, AnderSon was obliged to pay staff during the lockdown and received very limited government support. The case highlights the struggles that Tatulova faced and it ends with her having to decide what to do with her business.