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At the end of November 2020, Demetrio Santander and Juan David Gómez were finalizing the details for a pitch scheduled to take place in a few days. After three years of effort and dedication, the entrepreneurs had positioned Waykana as a fast-growing Ecuadorian company with a national and international presence. The company was selling bulk guayusa leaves (a tree located in the Ecuador rainforest) and branded products in more than 10 countries. To accelerate the firm's growth and social and environmental impact mission, the entrepreneurs believed that the time had come to secure additional growth capital and formalize the firm's expansion strategy. Waykana's business model had three sources of income. First, brand product sales in Ecuador-tea boxes and energy drinks-through the country's largest retailer. Second, brand product sales in the United States- tea boxes and loose-leaf-through Amazon and Shopify. And third, bulk guayusa sold to big international traders and extractors. Facing increased competition while deeply committed to Waykana's social mission, the entrepreneurs knew they had to prioritize their growth efforts. But which income stream should be given more attention-without overly weakening the others? Given Waykana's mission-driven interests, which one would generate a better social and environmental impact? Did they need to choose just one or could they secure enough funding to reinforce the three businesses simultaneously? Answering these questions would not only help the entrepreneurs to fine-tune their funding pitch, but also provide insight into the company´s next strategic moves.

The case study "Enemies with benefits: Daimler and BMW's mobility ecosystem" portrays how the German automotive giants Daimler AG and the BMW Group, strong competitors for decades, bundle different ventures and activities in the field of new mobility solutions to create a joint ecosystem called "YOUR NOW". The ecosystem entails a variety of different business models covering car sharing, ride-hailing, charging, parking, and mobility-as-a-service offerings. These different divisions (that Daimler and BMW often refer to as "verticals") oftentimes complement each other, but partly also compete with each other. This situation creates a unique potential to combine complementary resources and capabilities, but also causes tensions from competitive behaviors among the single ventures.

Amber Wright was an African American blogger, entrepreneur, and founder of Talk to Amber, a communications consulting, training, and coaching enterprise focused on inspiring people to communicate with confidence and clarity. The idea for Talk to Amber emerged in 2012 when Wright identified a need for communication coaching within the blogger community. Although her fellow bloggers were outstanding communicators in writing, they needed help organizing and presenting their thoughts to live audiences. Wright started working with bloggers and other writers to refine these skills. It was spring of 2019 and Wright reflected as she looked towards her second year as a full-time entrepreneur. Wright's first full year taught her that she had to be more specific in setting goals and priorities. Wright also needed to understand what she was trying to achieve with Talk to Amber, what the business was truly about, and how Talk to Amber added value. If Talk to Amber were to succeed, she had to pivot now from the survival mode of "starting up" to making intentional decisions about Talk to Amber's long term value proposition.

Bob Diamond was a serial entrepreneur with a track record of success in launching new products and new ventures. His latest venture, Xeleum Lighting LLC, founded in 2011, developed and commercialized advanced LED lighting systems. The firm engaged in a variety of approaches for generating revenues: manufacturer's representatives, energy service companies, and Xeleum's own internal sales and marketing processes. In its first eight years, Xeleum had grown its payroll to eighteen employees. The LED lighting industry was rapidly maturing - with global companies dominating the market, such as Samsung and Philips. Though Xeleum remained a relatively small player, it was confident that its products were equal to or better than those of its competitors; its prices were competitive or lower; and its responsiveness to its customers was unexcelled. However, its major competitors possessed far greater sales reach, which -- together with their brand power -- provided them with visibility and marketplace exposure commensurate with their size. In early 2019, Diamond was developing strategies for reviving and accelerating the growth of his firm, while also sustaining Xeleum's track record of superior customer responsiveness - which he viewed as a key source of competitive advantage. He wondered if he would need to rethink Xeleum's financial and business models in order to support his growth objectives. Diamond had been able to self-finance Xeleum's growth during the first eight years with the support of bank financing, but had not yet attempted to attract equity financing. Diamond wondered if that would be necessary or advisable in order to accelerate growth, and if so, how he should proceed. Finally, Diamond was considering whether Xeleum needed to revise its sales and marketing strategy in order to increase lead generation as a precursor to accelerating growth. If so, what should it be and how could Xeleum make it happen?

Nigel and Tammy Peck owned the Adventure Inn in Durango, Colorado. The process of acquiring the 25-room motel took several years and their combined life savings. After only 18 months of owning the property, Nigel's trusted friend and hotel broker, John Hazen, suggested that they had made such dramatic improvements through remodeling and rebranding the hotel that it was ready to sell. Nigel knew he would eventually sell the property, but he hadn't taken on the project with the intention to "flip" it so quickly. Nigel ruminated upon the variety of factors that would influence the future success of the Adventure Inn in order to make an informed decision about whether the timing was right to put the property up for sale. At the property level, nearly all of the physical improvements were complete, and they expected to see profits increase in the coming years as expenses leveled off and were projected to decline. At the destination level, Durango, Colorado was experiencing growth in visitation with a year over year increase in demand for the past four years and several new hotel properties were being added to the number of lodging facilities in town. Hazen was worried that the Adventure Inn would lose revenue and value as these new hotels entered the market and made the urgent suggestion for them to sell. Nigel and Tammy knew that while the new hotels could be considered competition, they might not necessarily target the same market segments. Additionally, the Durango Area Tourism Office (DATO) that promoted Durango as a destination to potential visitors had considered putting forth a public vote to triple lodger's tax which would also increase their marketing budget. At the industry level, Nigel's research revealed that lodging followed a ten-year cycle and that the industry was due for a period of financial decline. It didn't appear to Nigel that there was a clear answer after weighing the factors that were out of his control with his own abilities to navigate future

Dr. Arthur Pierre was responsible for developing a course schedule for the Business Analytics Department at Siena College. He needed to determine which professor would teach a particular class section in a particular time slot for the Spring 2020 semester. Pierre barely survived the last round of course scheduling due to the compressed delivery time from five weeks to three weeks in the previous cycle. This was one of his most sensitive and challenging responsibilities as he had to consider student demand, administrative requirements and faculty preferences in the process of developing a schedule. The importance of the decision and the stressful problems that he had encountered in adjusting to the new timeline necessitated a more systematic approach to scheduling since the shortened timeframe would be implemented for the foreseeable future. His ad hoc approach was too time consuming because he had to incorporate multiple factors into his course schedule and that often required reworking the entire schedule each time he encountered a conflict. In collaboration with a colleague, they identified a potential solution. They needed to prioritize constraints and build an integer linear optimization model.

In the autumn of 2018, Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) was facing a changing and challenging environment. Fintech start-ups were a continuous source of disruption for the past decade, but some of the world's largest technology firms such as Google and Apple were entering the financial space and disrupting banking by disintermediating banks from their customers. TD had to prioritize which services and customer segments to protect from the industry's on-going digital disruption and develop strategies to protect them. TD had to move quickly as the longer the delay, the more opportunity the disruptors had to entrench themselves and siphon away customers. Tim Hogarth, Vice-President of Innovation Framework and Strategies, was leading TD's Innovation Council which was tasked with identifying solutions to the bank's technology challenges. The case focuses on understanding how and why disruption occurs and what an incumbent can do to protect itself. It provides the basis for applying Christensen's insights on disruption, the Diamond-E, Ansoff matrix, and applying the criteria for the make-versus-buy decision, i.e. acquire, partner with or internally develop new technologies.

Thorough analysis of various nonprofit business models requires an understanding of each firm's economic characteristics. The relations between various financial statement items provide evidence of many of these economic characteristics. This case presents the "common-size" condensed annual balance sheet, income, and cash flow statements for eight nonprofit firms in the U.S. for the 2018 or 2019 fiscal year (compiled from either audited financial statements or Form 990s).

Madan Mohanka (MM) set up Tega Industries Ltd. in 1976 to manufacture abrasion-resistant rubber mill-lining products used in the mining and mineral-processing industries. This was a completely new technology for India; in fact, he had set up a plant for mill liners even before any takers for his products in the market existed. Tega first set foot in overseas markets in 1998 after it became free of the export restraint imposed on it by its mentor and stakeholder, Skega AB, a Swedish company. It received its first international order from Ghana and subsequently set up a sales subsidiary in the country. It then gradually opened sales and distribution offices in Australia, the USA, Mexico and Canada. The business was slow to develop in each of these countries, and sales picked up after a tenuous ride. In 2006, as part of its inorganic expansion strategy, Tega bought a small rubber-manufacturing company that sold mill liners in South Africa. Between 2006 and 2011, Tega's business grew at 40% compound annual growth rate. Buoyed by this growth, Tega made two back to back acquisitions in Australia and Chile in 2011. However, several managerial, legal and commercial problems crept up in its Chilean manufacturing facilities after the acquisition. These problems led to a severe financial downturn in Tega's fortunes in 2016, compelling it to either plan a revival or divest its interest in its Chilean plant.

Kaleidofin was co-founded in 2017 by Puneet Gupta and Sucharita Mukherjee; former CFO and CEO of IFMR (Institute for Financial Management and Research) Holdings Pvt Ltd. As part of their roles at IFMR, Gupta and Mukherjee focused on designing products and developing technology to push for financial inclusion. In their field interactions, the co-founders had an epiphany of the challenges faced by people while trying to save towards important life goals. They saw an opportunity in the large segment of financially under-served people in India and quit their jobs to start Kaleidofin. Kaleidofin was conceptualised as a digital platform that offers customised financial solutions to help customers meet their life goals. The start-up partnered with mutual fund companies for solutions on one hand and network partners (NGOs, microfinance organizations, cooperative banks) on the other for access to their existing customers. Kaleidofin grew from 50 customers in January 2018 to 15,000 customers by March 2019. Aiming to grow to 1 million customers in the next 30 months Kaleidofin faces a dilemma about its future course. The start-up could continue to grow by expanding its current target segment which is the low-income households and preserve its vision at the risk of increasing costs. The second option would be to look at other potential target segments, such as, middle-income households and risk diluting their vision. The case study highlights the unique customer-centric model of Kaleidofin and the need for start-ups to understand the value proposition of their products/services.

In 2014, Walmart was at an inflection point. The world's largest company wasn't sure how to evolve and innovate to win over the next 30 years. In a leadership change that year, Doug McMillon rose to become Walmart's new CEO. Soon after, he hired Lori Flees, a Bain & Company partner, to lead Walmart's Corporate Strategy and drive innovation at scale. Flees led Walmart's acquisition of Jet.com for $3.3 billion and together with Jet founder Marc Lore stood up Walmart's internal incubation arm called Store No. 8. With an internal venture-capital style approach, Store No. 8 focuses on developing technologies that are at least 3 to 5 years out. All Store No. 8 companies operate as independent entities with CEOs, boards, and business metrics. Store No. 8, however, is not Walmart's only weapon to drive innovation at scale. Flees moves to lead the Next Generation Retail team structuring symbiotic partnerships with other powerful industry players through a variety of tools. Then she transitions again to bring "everyday low prices" to health care.

This case describes Thailand's response to the global Covid-19 pandemic from when it started in January 2020, until early August 2020 when it was considered to be under control. While the Thai government managed to keep the coronavirus at bay, the pandemic nevertheless had exacted a heavy toll on the country. Businesses, small and large, were floundering - particularly those in tourism, a sector that had been the lifeblood of the kingdom's economy. Many Thais also had to adjust to working from home (WFH). This new normal would likely remain as the business-as-usual scenario for many months ahead. As a consultant to the Thai government, David Chong, had been brought in to review the country's Covid-19 crisis response, particularly on the performance of its reopening strategy, with an eye to preserving tourism and mitigating the impact on families and firms due to WFH arrangements. The critical questions that David needed to address were as follows: How could the economy be reopened safely and sustainably? How would the Thai society work, live, and play at home when so many were telecommuting? What are the critical decisions that the country should focus on?

The case, based on extensive interviews with Retail Rocket's co-founders (Nikolay Khlebinsky and Andrey Chizh), several employees and one of the start-up's investors, documents the genesis and rapid growth of the company. Launched in 2012 in Moscow, Russia, Retail Rocket was a big data-based personalization platform for e-commerce and omnichannel retail identifying the needs of customers based on their online behavior and, thanks to artificial intelligence, offering personalized product recommendations through the website, e-mail and other marketing channels, increasing the conversion rate, average order value and retention rate of its clients. In effect, it makes available to small and mid-sized online firms the same website optimization functionalities associated with powerhouses such as Amazon or Yandex. Its value proposition included superior shopping-pattern prediction algorithms and value-based pricing using randomized A/B testing. What would it take to monetize and grow its exceptional IT competencies?

In 2016, French car manufacturer Peugeot announced its will to return to the US, one of the most competitive market in the world. Peugeot had previously attempted to conquer the US, but that effort failed: In 1991, after having sold a grand total of 4,261 cars in the whole country the year before, Peugeot left the US and remained away for 25 years. Now eager to stage a successful comeback in a market that only got even more fiercely competitive and in the midst of rapid changes affecting the industry, Peugeot needed to first figure out how to overcome its key competitive weakness, namely its lack of a distribution network. For Peugeot's CEO, one question dominated all others: How should Peugeot fulfill its distribution needs in the US (defined as selling cars and providing maintenance), given that it did not have a distribution network?

The case highlights the dilemma of Zenith Watches, a company that got stuck in its own tradition and lost its drive to innovate, relying too long on technical inventions of the past. Julien Tornare was appointed as Zenith CEO in early 2017 by Jean Claude Biver, head of LVMH watch division (Zenith's parent company) and living legend of the Swiss watch industry (after turning around Blancpain, Omega, Hublot and TAG Heuer). Julien was tasked with repositioning Zenith and injecting a new startup mindset into it. Tornare inherits a demotivated but talented workforce in a very traditional artisanal company but aims to spark creativity and innovation there. His agenda is loaded: repositioning the brand, bringing new products to market, improving sales, opening new markets, transforming the culture, all of this on a short schedule because LVMH has a short fuse

The global rise of responsible investing in the last decades (boosted by the increasing debates around climate change, business ethics and distribution of wealth) urged the development of coherent and reliable methodologies gauging the effect of business on Environmental, Societal and Governance (ESG) aspects. However, existing ESG rating methods not only differs greatly among themselves, but they are also typically based on companies' own practices (outputs), not on the final impact (outcome). To measure the latter, a Geneva-based company called Impaakt developed a digital platform, using the 17 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as benchmark, engaging the collective intelligence of the global community (on a Wikipedia-like model) to achieve this ambitious goal. This case explores the strategies behind the design of such a platform, investigates the importance of scale and sides, and analyses to what extent social and environmental impact can be measured objectively.

This case explores the accounting treatment of cryptocurrencies that Huobi Technology Holdings Limited (Huobi Technology, stock code: 1611.HK) had classified as intangible assets. Huobi Technology operated a digital asset (cryptocurrency) trading platform and rendered technology solution services in relation to blockchain. Huobi Technology received a loan in both cash and cryptocurrencies from its parent company, Huobi Global Limited. The cryptocurrencies portion of this loan was recognized as intangible assets by Huobi Technology in its statement of financial position. Such accounting classification also had financial implications across statements of profit or loss and other comprehensive income, statement of cash flows, statement of changes in equity, among others. The case seeks to highlight the accounting standards governing recognition of intangible assets. Through the case, students will grapple with the practical questions of how to develop an accounting policy with regard to cryptocurrencies.

Sterlite Copper (Sterlite), owned by Vedanta Resources Limited (Vedanta), was one of three major copper plants in India. However, the plant had been the subject of controversy and public protests. The people residing in Tuticorin, where the plant was located, considered Sterlite to be a major contributor to the air and water pollution in the neighbouring area. In light of the latest public protest on May 23, 2018, which was supported by several national and international non-government organizations, human rights activists, and Tamil solidarity groups, the Government of Tamil Nadu ordered a permanent shutdown of the plant. Since the plant contributed around 5 per cent to Vedanta's operating profit, the closure of the plant not only threatened the earnings and profitability of the parent company but also damaged its brand image. The plant was a major source of copper for over 400 small and medium-sized industries in its downstream value chain. The closure of the plant put at risk the jobs of a large number of employees, which Sterlite supported both directly and indirectly through its value chain. What should Vedanta do in such a hostile environment?

In 2018, high-end supermarket chain Margiotta Food & Wine (Margiotta) employed a robot named Fabio at one of its flagship stores to deliver in-store customer service. Founded in 1956, Margiotta retailed three product lines namely food, wine and 'local and organic' at their seven retail stores in Edinburgh, Scotland. However, within one week of its installation, Fabio was fired because of its inability to adequately deliver quality customer service. The customers developed a lot of resistance in accepting assistance from Fabio for their grocery shopping. The Fabio programmers, the Heriot-Watt University Interaction Lab, believe that a newer version of Fabio would be "crueller and more conniving" in delivering customer service. In the future therefore, Margiotta may very well have to take a decision on deploying a robot again. It would have to carve out strategies to proactively reduce customer resistance towards new version of Fabio, which eventually may ameliorate brand experience for Margiotta customers. In addition, Margiotta's employees were seen to have developed a state of positive emotion (love) towards Fabio. Employees were visibly disappointed when customer service through Fabio was discontinued. Hence, when the next version of Fabio is installed, Margiotta promoters would have to carefully manage employee emotions.

On August 9, 2020, Sean Jean De Ville, who had recently joined French fashion and cosmetics giant Satix as digital marketing head of the shampoo products division, was preparing for his first meeting with the CEO. He had been tasked to explore the viability of employing influencer marketing on Instagram. This would be a new promotional vehicle for the company, which had traditionally used billboards, print, and limited digital advertisements. He was also told that a budget of USD 500,000 would be allocated for influencer marketing and that the boss was anxious to get his insights and recommendations.