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In January 2019, one of the founding members and current board members of Londvolota, a South African trust formed by General Electric South Africa (GESA) in 2015, faced a challenge. Londvolota needed to improve the establishment and growth of entrepreneurial South African businesses as part of GESA's development of local suppliers, which aimed to enable the best of these businesses to supply the global GE network. The initiative represented a major contribution to supporting the South African economy; however, the board was considering updating its criteria for selecting the businesses for development. How should the organization adjust its criteria to avoid failures and increase the initiative's success rate?

The case helps participants explore and understand the difference between value innovation, the creation of a leap in value, and technology innovation, the creation of breakthrough technology. It teaches students to identify value innovation offerings, how value innovation differs from technology innovation and their commercial consequences. The case also explores if and how patterns in value innovation remain constant across industries and throughout time. The case is designed to foster a lively classroom discussion driven by mini cases and exercises.

When Anthony Hucker, the CEO of Southeastern Grocers (SEG), took over in that role in July 2017, the company was in dire financial and operational condition and was headed towards bankruptcy. SEG, the fifth largest grocery chain in the U.S. in early 2021, operated under Bi-Lo, Fresco e Mas, Harveys, and Winn-Dixie labels in the Southern U.S. states. Under Hucker's leadership, the company started on a three stage financial and cultural transformation process-"Correcting the Business," "Getting Fit for Purpose," and "Getting Fit for Growth." For Hucker and Chief People Officer Elizabeth Thompson, the path forward to growth and profitability was going to be rooted in a cultural transformation of the company. By January 2021, the company was once again growing and profitable, and employee trust scores had jumped to all-time highs even as the company was navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. The case describes the cultural change process initiated at the company which in three years resulted in the company emerging from bankruptcy, getting awarded Great Place to Work® certification, and on the verge of an IPO in early 2021.

Bairong CEO Felix Zhang, in launching his credit scoring start-up that incorporates 74,000 variables per individual, found strong initial success. However, the shifting regulatory environment, growing breadth of competitors, difficulties in retaining top talent, and uncertainty around the accumulation and protection of data that fuels the company all threaten the company's stability during its IPO. Defining exactly how his firm will make its mark, and remain indispensable amongst a massive and ever sharpening FinTech landscape, will test Zhang's abilities at the helm and make or break his corner of the industry.

This case helps individuals learn about different types of investment strategies. It presents three different people with varying risk tolerances and investment objectives and provides information about the investment strategies they adopt.

This case presents a situation where the company Carter + Smith (C+S), which receives U.S. dollars to finance a Colombian pesos project, decided to create a hedge to cover the risk of an ex- change rate fall (revaluation of the COP against the USD). However, shortly after, there was a sharp rise in the exchange rate (devaluation of the peso), and this generated significant losses in the Non Delivery Forwards (NDF) contracts.

Isabelle, vice-president of customer loyalty and insight at a big bank, has led the development of a package of new products/services for clients, and a five-minute presentation to explain the offering. In a pilot test, where client managers randomly select walk-in customers and offer to go through the presentation, some agree to listen but others don't have the time. Several months later, when data about client profitability is available, she notices that average profit from clients who listened to the presentation is lower than those who did not. Disappointed by the outcome and at a loss to understand why, she pulls the customer-profile data hoping that data analysis will explain the decrease in profitability.

After the Gulf War of 1991, the UN Security Council imposes economic sanctions on Iraq. To alleviate the crippling effects of the sanctions, the council establishes the Oil-for-Food Programme in 1995 - allowing Iraq to sell its oil and use the revenue to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods. Later, in 2000, Rahul Kumar is appointed head of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) at the UN. Kumar is responsible for auditing, investigating, evaluating and inspecting UN programmes. He seeks to review the work of OIOS in order to refocus department resources to areas of high risk. A cursory review of UN programmes identifies Oil-for-Food as a major risk in terms of the potential for operational failure and damage to the UN reputation. In the absence of adequate internal resources, Kumar aims to institute a full risk analysis of the programme with the help of external consultants. However, this initiative is blocked.

In 2020, the Indonesian bank PT Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional Tbk (BTPN) had to make a decision regarding a digital transformation strategy for its future. BTPN had started as a small bank that focused on pensioners, but became known for its innovation after a private equity partner bought a stake in 2008. Initially innovating successfully in microfinance, BTPN decided to go digital by creating an in-house start-up in 2015 called Jenius, thereby leapfrogging to become one of the forerunners in Indonesian digital consumer banking. The COVID-19 pandemic had accelerated digital financial services, and BTPN had to decide how to scale Jenius to transform the company. Was the in-house start-up model the best choice after all, or would the large incumbent banks digitalize faster?

In April 2020, the business head and the human resources head at Apturja Power Limited (APL) were anxious about the rising levels of new-hire turnover across all five power plant locations. Out of 2,000 employees hired in the past two years, half had left the organization within a year of joining. High attrition posed an issue for APL's cost-competitiveness strategy by not only increasing hiring costs but also nullifying the time and energy spent in acquainting and training employees to APL's requirements. Both department heads wanted to identify reliable indicators so that they could develop an appropriate action plan to reduce new-hire turnover and thereby strengthen APL's human capital.

On May 12, 2020, Vedanta Resources Limited, representing the London, United Kingdom company Vedanta Group, expressed its intention to buy all public shares of its Indian subsidiary Vedanta Limited and to delist it from all stock exchanges in India and New York. The chair of Vedanta Group explained that the decision to delist was largely driven by a strategy to simplify the group structure. The indicative offer price of ₹87.5 per equity share represented a premium of 9.9 per cent over the closing market price of ₹79.6 on the previous day. However, there was some doubt that minority shareholders would find the offer attractive. The final exit price, which would be determined through the reverse book-building process, was likely to increase. Exactly what amount Vedanta Resources Limited was willing to pay was a key factor in the quest for a successful delisting. Two other important considerations were the additional amount of borrowing required and future debt servicing constraints.

En Classe is an educational foundation operating in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of the poorest countries in the world, where nearly 61 million people live on less than $1.90 a day. Twelve million children do not attend school and only a quarter of those who do ultimately complete secondary education. Most government-run schools are in a state of disrepair, often lacking roofing, toilets and desks. With a vision of improving the lives of Congolese children through sustained improvement of schooling, since its founding En Classe has renovated and helped to manage 18 government schools, reaching over 15,000 children. Beyond rebuilding the infrastructure, it also provides free teacher training, reading tablets, and leadership workshops for pupils. In 2019, En Classe embarked on a project to develop a 'model school' for the remaining schools and for future fundraising in an effort to scale up its activities. It faces three challenges. First, lacking formal authority over teaching and administrative staff, it has only non-monetary incentives to encourage the them to adopt new teaching practices and improve student outcomes. Second, most teachers receive no salary from the government and rely on money raised directly from the parents, who are often unable to pay, and pupils perform poorly in state exams. Third, since its founding, the original management team has moved out of the DRC and now manages En Classe remotely using a local team of employees, which proves challenging. Looking ahead, the founders want to transfer more responsibility to the local team.

several companies competing to win the mandate to manage F&M's assets. Investure's approach is to pool the assets of "like-minded" institutions and significantly increase their allocations to PE. Miller and his team are preparing to meet with the F&M board's investment committee to describe Investure's services and approach to investment management. This case is designed to introduce students to AA and the distinctions among PE, hedge funds, and private capital within this asset class. It focuses primarily on why PE is a difficult asset class to manage and describes several channels available to small endowments like F&M to access PE. The case introduces students to the core vocabulary of PE investing and limited partnership agreements. To make the concepts and terms more concrete, it provides a simple exercise that asks the students to calculate the expected internal rate of return (IRR) on an investment made through a traditional limited partnership (primary fund commitment) and a fund of funds and compare those to Investure's approach. Students must evaluate and discuss the feasibility and attractiveness of each alternative to F&M. In doing so, the case creates an opportunity for students to discuss the current trends and issues many E&Fs confront as they attempt to increase allocations to PE. The case is appropriate for use in an introductory or early class in courses focusing on PE, venture capital (VC), and entrepreneurial finance, as well as in specialized courses for fund trustees interested in AA. The case can be used for the following purposes: 1. To introduce students to AA and how they differ from public equities and fixed income.

This case discusses efforts made by biotechnology (biotech) company Amgen to introduce digital technologies into its manufacturing processes. Doing so is complicated by the fact that the process for manufacturing biologics-or therapeutics made from living cells-is subject to unforeseen variability and thus requires a highly controlled environment. Mistakes are costly, given that the manufacturing process takes several weeks from start to finish. Set in early 2020, the case asks students to evaluate two opportunities facing case protagonists Myra Coufal and Chris Garvin. The first involves working with a new team to build a standard multivariate model for a fairly new commercial product with limited production data. The second involves building a predictive machine learning model to automate one step of the manufacturing process for a top-selling product that generates sizable margins. The case includes a supplemental problem set that provides students the opportunity to analyze data and make an informed choice between the two opportunities.

Through most of 2020, the United States was battling the same demon as the rest of the world: the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, a large number of people worldwide spent more time at home, so they noticed repairs that needed to be made and used the increased time spent in their living quarters to paint rooms, garden, build, and complete projects. Many people turned to The Home Depot for the materials and tools to achieve these goals. To address the needs of its workforce, The Home Depot invested in its employees by offering additional compensation, changing employee benefits, and creating a safe environment. As the pandemic continued, the executive team knew that safety measures would be essential to the organization's ongoing success. The Home Depot needed to protect its associates and the public. But the company's biggest selling season loomed. Spring was the kickoff for the many home-improvement projects and jobs across the United States. Leadership had to consider the need to manage increased customer traffic and sales without aiding in the spread of the coronavirus.

For Sid Worley, it was decision time. He had spent the last two years courting the management and the family owners of his largest competitor, and finally (and unexpectedly) they had indicated that they would be receptive to "a serious offer" to buy the company. Worley was excited and determined to buy the company, but now he faced the reality of having to come up with an offer that would work.

The United States Golf Association (USGA), operates among a network of associations and organizations in the game of golf. In the ecosystem of golf, there are many stakeholders, but no single governing body with overarching power to direct the action of other stakeholders. While the USGA works to improve the health of the golf industry, and the experience of participants, the actual experience of golfers is dependent on their local facilities, which are not under the control of the USGA. The golf ecosystem includes governing bodies, course owners, equipment manufacturers, professionals, and recreational players. During the first half of the 21st century, the recreational sport was in decline in the United States, as measured by many metrics, while it was growing in Asia. To guide its decision-making, and to inform key stakeholders, the USGA developed a strategic plan for 2020-2022, which it released in October 2019. This case discusses the role of the USGA in the complex golf ecosystem, its management, and the initiatives it undertook to grow the game of golf. The case draws on an earlier Stanford case study, SPM-52: The USGA and Golf Participation in the United States.

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its "sustainable maturation process," a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. The technology dramatically reduced the time, cost, and environmental impact (it required less energy and less wood) of making whiskey. At the same time, the technology could also be used to enhance a whiskey's taste profile which could allow producers to charge more for their products. To date, entrepreneurs Stu Aaron and Martin Janousek had proven they could produce whiskey at scale and with desired properties. Having validated the concept, they now had to decide whether to continue making whiskey themselves or use their technology to process it for others. In short, they had to decide whether to be a product-based, B2C company or a service-based, B2B company, or both? If they decided to be a service business, should they emphasis the Maturation-as-a-Service (MaaS, faster and lower cost production) or the Customization-as-a-Service (CaaS, creation of customized products with unique taste profiles) business in the short term?

In late 2019, the Colombian company Agrícola Himalaya SA was undertaking a strategy to double its sales by 2030. The company's popular Hindú brand of teas, developed over six decades, had expanded to include not only black and green teas but also herbal teas, fruit teas, ready-to-drink products, and an iced tea line. Over the past 10 years, the company had enjoyed steady growth, distributed its products throughout the Americas, and developed a communications strategy focused on health and wellness. Now the company's chief executive officer (CEO) had to decide whether or not it was time to expand into other product categories, and if so, how. The CEO and marketing team needed to develop a brand strategy to present to the board of directors and create a new product portfolio that would support the company's growth strategy. Which channels should the company target for growth? Should it continue to grow in the same category, extend the brand to other categories, or expand the demographic mix of its customer base?

By January 2020, Microsoft Corporation's (Microsoft's) Microsoft for Health healthcare vertical had become the company's most important vertical. Microsoft's chief executive officer, Satya Nadella, wanted the company to be viewed as a strategic partner of the healthcare industry and its clients. However, several challenges remained regarding the success of this vertical: both doctors and patients were unwilling to rely on artificial intelligence (AI) for diagnostics and prescriptions, while machine learning was even less accepted. Additionally, not many companies were willing to transfer more than 10 per cent of their data to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, which raised concerns about whether or not the decision to focus on vertical versus horizontal clients represented an appropriate strategic decision. As enterprises were not shifting the majority of their data to the cloud, should Nadella reconsider his decision to focus on verticals? How could he overcome the challenges associated with the use of cloud computing and AI in healthcare? If Nadella wanted to address his clients as partners, what approach should he follow to develop such collaborative relationships?