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The "1mg" case focuses on a key strategic dilemma of an entrepreneur in times of digitalization. Should 1mg be just an e-pharmacy and designed as pure pipeline business, a marketplace or be a hybrid between these two? Should it adhere to the current stakeholder constellation, or should the needs of patients, and no longer those of doctors and hospitals, be at the centre of the healthcare ecosystem? India's healthcare market in 2014 was expected to grow with 14% CAGR reaching by 158B$. E-pharmacies not only enjoyed the support of the national government to reduce costs and improve quality of medication, but also to increase access to people in rural areas, comply with India regulation and increase sales tax collection. Traditional pharmacies were regulated under the Drug & Cosmetics Act whereas e-pharmacies were regulated under the IT Act. These different regulatory bases created distortion. It was expected that regulation would be clarified and give digitalization a strong boost. That said, the traditional brick and mortar pharmacies were still playing a critical role in the overall supply chain. At the same time a plethora of competitors were attracting funds by international venture capitalists and gain market traction, either based purely on new digital technologies or on their existing healthcare footprint. The case describes the different market segments based on demographics, health habits, age, and combines it with the penetration data of the mobile industry in the life of urban & rural Indians. The case also tackles the question of profitability versus growth and provides all the elements needed for a debate over the business model choice to be implemented.

In April 2018, Amit Darekar, director of operations at Hydropack India Pvt. Ltd. (Hydropack), was focused on revamping the company's information technology (IT) infrastructure. This had become crucial in the face of a product design leak resulting from an employee who had left Hydropack to join a rival company and taken valuable data with him in the process. The design that Hydropack had made was for a tender floated by a public sector company. The rival company had submitted the stolen design with a lower bid, putting Hydropack's own bid in jeopardy. Darekar now had to rise to the challenge and ensure that Hydropack implemented secure IT infrastructure and policy to avoid further data leaks in the future. His objective was to ensure that all of Hydropack's data in the form of designs and other confidential documents was suitably protected and accessible only to those who had authorized access.

This case explores the decision that Bill Ackman, CEO and founder of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital, was considering in late February 2020 about hedging the exposure of the fund's portfolio from the potential financial fallout ensuing from an extreme event like a global pandemic. Bill Ackman had become increasingly concerned about the hedge fund's exposure to a novel, highly infectious, and lethal coronavirus that was spreading across the globe. Ackman and his team needed to decide whether this was a risk worth hedging, and if so, which hedging instruments would best balance risk mitigation, explicit costs (fees and premia), opportunity costs, and the long-run objectives of the fund. Ackman and his team considered fully liquidating their portfolio, as well as hedging it with futures, options, and credit default swaps. For each alternative, they also needed to determine the optimal size and maturity of the hedging position, after accounting for uncertainty over the trajectory of the virus. This case provides students with ample opportunities to analyze and understand tail risk and how to manage it in practice, including explicit calculations of position sizing, costs, risks, and benefits of hedging alternatives.

Y Combinator (YC) was a business startup accelerator based in Mountain View, California. Originally founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2005, by 2021, YC listed 2,830 companies amongst its alumni. More than 80% of these companies were still active, had been acquired, or had gone public in June 2021 (see Exhibit 1). By comparison, more than 80% of companies receiving traditional early-stage investment failed within 10 years. In 2021, YC's alumni included 125 companies valued at over $150 million and 25 worth over $1 billion. In total, YC's alumni had a combined valuation of over $300 billion. Its success had attracted many imitators, but YC had continued to innovate its business model over the years and was still the leader in its field. The challenge for Geoff Ralston, President of YC since May 2019, was what to do next to maintain this position. Should YC retain its focus on early-stage funding? Or, should it broaden its product and geographic scope like many of its imitators?

As founders of the software company Basecamp, Jason Fried and David H. Hansson were used to being the subjects of social media attention. Both maintained active and dedicated Twitter followings for their unique perspectives on management and life. But on April 26, 2021, Fried and Hansson found themselves in the spotlight for a very different reason: they had just publicly announced a new policy that would curtail the discussion of politics at work. The co-founders argued that this policy would prevent distractions and polarizing political differences that Basecamp employees could not hope to resolve amicably or productively. But just one day later, a number of their employees reached out to a journalist to report that Fried and Hansson were simply using their new policy to chill dissent about problematic practices within the company. The subsequent exposé yielded public outcry, and the co-founders were firmly in the crosshairs. In response, Fried held an all-hands meeting at the company to address the events, but tensions quickly escalated. Two hours into the meeting, one of his employees challenged Fried to publicly denounce another employee who had voiced an opinion on matters of racial bias and white supremacy that some viewed as deeply troubling. Basecamp, Fried had argued, could not afford to get distracted by talking politics at work. But could it afford not to?

In 2020, the EtonHouse International Education Group (EtonHouse) celebrated its 25th anniversary. Under the leadership of Ng Gim Choo, founder and managing director, EtonHouse has become a renowned education provider noted for its well-designed inquiry-based curriculum. Since its initial expansion in Singapore, the institution has spread across the world. Throughout its history, EtonHouse has faced many crises. However, employing paradoxical leadership, Ng has managed to accommodate conflicting demands and guide EtonHouse away from adversity. In early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) posed an unprecedented challenge to EtonHouse. In addition to developing business strategies in response to COVID-19, Ng has been considering whether the time is ripe for handing over the reins to Ng Yi Xian, her son and EtonHouse successor. This multifaceted case study focuses on paradoxical leadership, women entrepreneurship, crisis management, and family business succession. It presents the entrepreneurial journey of a female protagonist, Ng, who established EtonHouse out of a passion for education and illustrates how she successfully addressed paradoxical challenges and navigated the company through crises. The dilemmas addressed in this case study concern whether Ng should delegate authority to her son to manage the COVID-19 crisis, and which EtonHouse should take to cope with COVID-19.

This case delineates how Fotile Group (hereinafter "Fotile") continuously upgraded its vision, mission and broader cultural system in its pursuit of becoming a "great company" and "delivering happiness to millions of families." Since its establishment in 1996, Fotile has attached great importance to corporate culture and invested substantial efforts to develop and transform its culture. Having gone through four main stages of exploration and development, Fotile devised a unique cultural system combining traditional Chinese culture with Western management theories. Since then, Fotile's unique culture has guided internal management. An employee management system promoted benevolence by providing love and care while assisting staff in finding material and spiritual fulfillment. In addition, Fotile's broadly-held consensus that "Culture is business" instructed the product development team to prioritize customers' happiness over profits and convey the firm's values via innovative and user-friendly products.

As Joseph Biden began his presidency in early 2021, he was faced with the enormous task of balancing his more centrist tendencies with the increasingly activist part of his coalition. More generally, he would need to understand the forces that contributed to subpar economic performance and to redirect government efforts to supporting a market economy that benefitted all Americans. To do so, he would need to understand the arguments for and against government intervention in a variety of contexts.

This case examines a small, high-growth women's athletic apparel company's activities to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and impact the apparel industry, while ensuring its internal organization and operations are aligned with its political and social stances. Founded as a "for women by women'' company, Oiselle (pronounced wa-zell) has a brand mission focused on women's empowerment. Its leaders support sociopolitical causes such as Planned Parenthood and Black Voters Matter. In the athletic retail industry, critics have found misalignment between companies' external branding and internal leadership. For example, Nike and Adidas marketing campaigns have championed female athletes and called for increased representation of women in sports, yet their own executive teams and board members are primarily men. Oiselle is led by women, who are increasingly elevating diversity in their branding, including highlighting gender, race, and LGBTQ+ disparities in the industry. The case presents background information on Oiselle and an overview of the business case for DEI. The case then asks students to wrestle with fundamental questions like the role of business in advancing DEI and how companies can incorporate DEI in a manner consistent with their business model.

SkySpecs is a company that helps the wind energy industry optimize performance of wind farms to improve productivity and efficiency and minimize downtime. It has developed a proprietary drone system to automate the task of inspecting wind turbine blades. This core technology allows rapid turbine blade inspections and provides analytics capability. The case first describes the stakeholders in a wind energy ecosystem and the challenges the industry faces. It then presents SkySpecs' product strategy and explores how the company brings value to different stakeholders in the wind energy ecosystem. Looking to the future, SkySpecs is exploring two options for growth. These are broadly classified as pursuit of depth, offering a broader set of solutions within the wind energy industry, or pursuit of breadth, leveraging its expertise to offer similar solutions within other industries. Students will discuss the pros and cons of these two directions and make a recommendation.

First Place Winner; DEI Global Case Writing Competition. With Johnnie Cochran Jr. and John Wooten, civil rights attorney Cyrus Mehri formed the Fritz Pollard Alliance to advocate for National Football League coaches of color. Their efforts resulted in the NFL adopting the Rooney Rule prior to the 2003 NFL season in order to increase representation of coaches of color in the head coaching ranks. Subsequently, Mehri lobbied the NFL to improve the rule (e.g., applying it to additional coaching positions) while also working with (and against) companies to implement similar policies. The rule became one of the most prominent diversity initiatives in the United States, with employers such as Amazon, Facebook, the City of Pittsburgh, and the University of Texas System adopting variations of it. In 2021, however, nearly two decades after the Rooney Rule's implementation, the total number of NFL head coaches of color was three-the same number as in 2003, when the rule took effect. Frustratingly for Mehri and his colleagues, two top applicants of color-the two offensive coordinators in the most recent Super Bowl, Eric Bieniemy of Kansas City and Byron Leftwich of Tampa Bay-were passed over for all seven head coaching vacancies after the 2020 season. The ongoing debate about the rule's effectiveness intersected with a pivotal moment in U.S. history. Corporate America, prompted by the Black Lives Matter movement and protests following the 2020 killing of George Floyd in police custody, had allocated billions of dollars to addressing racial injustice. Many more organizations would be considering personnel policies modeled after the Rooney Rule. Was the Rooney Rule really a best practice in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I)? Had Mehri, through his consulting firm Working IDEAL, identified practices that might strengthen or replace the Rooney Rule?

This case focuses on Lemon Tree Hotels, a leading Indian hotel company that employs large numbers of people with disabilities and other socially marginalized groups including orphans, divorcees, widows, survivors of acid attacks, and members of the transgender community. Unlike other hoteliers, Lemon Tree puts these "opportunity deprived Indians" (ODIs) in front-line positions. Launched in 2007 as a charitable endeavor, this unusual human resources strategy (Inclusion Program) has evolved and is now an integral part of Lemon Tree's business model and a source of competitive advantage. The case centers on Lemon Tree Vice President, Aradhana Lal, the program's chief architect. She has just received surprising news from the company's chairman and founder: He is considering expanding Lemon Tree's international footprint by entering the U.S. hotel market and would like to replicate the Inclusion Program there. He asks for her advice. Lal finds the idea intriguing yet sees major strategic, operational, and financial challenges and risks. Students will gain knowledge not only of the various corporate disability and inclusion initiatives being undertaken in the hospitality sector, but how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs can be a source of competitive advantage for companies in a variety of consumer-facing industries.

The case explores the origins of the Hong Kong-based remote working start-up FLYDESK. Part A centers on its founding and first fundraising round in 2019, when the tech accessories company Native Union seeks to invest in FLYDESK. First, it must obtain approval from Leitmotiv, the private equity firm that invested in Native Union. What are the benefits and risks for both FLYDESK and Native Union if they go ahead with Native Union's investment in FLYDESK? And are the potential synergies feasible enough for Leitmotiv to "green light" Native Union's investment in FLYDESK? Part B fast-forwards to 2020, when COVID-19 has hindered business operations and forced a large part of the workforce to work from home. After a successful first round of funding, FLYDESK faces a series of new challenges as many co-working spaces have had to limit capacity or shut down. The main one is to adapt its product strategy and incorporate new demands. Given its limited resources, what product offerings should it focus on? How to ensure that the product strategy is aligned with the business strategy? And can FLYDESK stay relevant and attractive to win another round of funding? The case captures various perspectives and factors that are key to the success of an early-stage start-up.

Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon), the Seattle-based e-commerce giant, leaped into China with a buyout of Joyo.com Limited, China's largest online book, music, and video retailer, in 2004. Amazon had the ambition of becoming the dominant online retailer in China by capitalizing on its globally recognized brand, cutting-edge technologies, and advanced business model and philosophy. In the following years, China's e-commerce industry experienced exponential growth, representing a golden opportunity for technology firms. For Amazon, however, many challenges started to surface, including intense competition from Alibaba Group Holding Limited and JD.com Inc., which limited Amazon's growth. In 2018, as China's e-commerce industry quickly became one of the world's largest, Amazon had to determine what its next steps should be.

Concentrix Corporation (CNX), a technology enabled global business services organization, supported a transport solutions company with its customer management services. In June 2019, CNX's global customer services operation manager carried out an assessment and found irregularities in the credit claim process for CNX's client. The manager needed to reduce the number of irregularities so that CNX's agents did not create a negative experience for the client. Random samples for audit revealed that existing guidelines and control procedures were ineffective in capturing irregularities. What strategy did the manager need to select a sample for audit that could capture the maximum number of irregularities within the allowable audit cost?

In January 2016, the founder and chief executive officer of Polycorp Ltd., near Toronto, Ontario, needed to decide whether to cut prices for products produced by the largest of the company's three divisions, the mining division. Polycorp had become a global leader in providing protective rubber liners for mining mills. The liners were consumable products, thus generating a constant stream of revenue. The company's mining division accounted for almost half of the firm's sales, generated the highest margins for the company, and had the greatest potential for growth. It was also the costliest division to run. But the mining sector was in a downturn, with falling prices for various ores. With excess capacity in the industry, customers demanding price concessions, and competitors pricing aggressively, the founder wondered if Polycorp should alter its current premium pricing strategy for mill liners. Lowering prices would reduce the company's margins, and lower margins would, in turn, limit the firm's planned capital investments, which were needed for the company to sustain its growth and profitability. Could Polycorp sustain its premium pricing tactic in a marketplace that was becoming increasingly challenging?

Ashish Interbuild Private Limited (AIPL) was a mid-sized founder-driven turnkey fit-out firm based in India. The firm executed prestigious fit-out projects across the country, and it had been making steady progress every year since its founding. Faced with an increasing workload, Ashish Thakkar, the founder and managing director, had decided to change the firm's operating model from an owner-led model to one that was people- and process-driven. To manage the transition smoothly, he had to decide on the most appropriate management control model for the firm. The two management control models proposed to Thakkar stood in stark contrast to each other, each with its own strengths. It was crucial for Thakkar to select the appropriate control fit for AIPL neither too tight nor too loose. An inappropriate model could lead to chaos, employee dissatisfaction, financial loss, a damaged firm reputation, and even potential bankruptcy. Although there were good reasons to pursue either of the two proposed alternatives, it was vital to determine which control system was best suited to the firm.

Teladoc and Livongo had ridden the tailwinds of the COVID-19 pandemic-and a merger between the two would offer a "one-stop-shop" for technology-driven care for patients with acute, chronic, and specialty care needs. The case study describes the regulatory history of telemedicine in the United States, and the licensing barriers that had inhibited virtual doctors' visits-until the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic forced urgent changes to the ways doctors and patients interacted. Would the Teladoc business model-and the proposed merger with Livongo-help establish the company firmly in the increasingly competitive telemedicine field? Analysts projected the telehealth space would grow at a compounded annual growth rate of more than 20 percent over the coming years. Livongo, with 147 million members, offered software and personalized health coaching to address diabetes, hypertension, behavioral health, and weight management. Did this acquisition make sense for Teladoc?