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After only two years on the job, a successful young female engineer encountered a critical and independent decision-making scenario in a profession traditionally dominated by males. She identified a safety risk in a construction project as she was driving to work and decided to ask the crew to stop their work for a safety assessment. The issue raised several key factors that she had to address in her attempt to manage risk. Her decision to shut down a field project in a residential neighbourhood was based on various considerations, given her assessment of an imminent threat to public safety. Was she right to stop the construction project? Could she have done things differently?

In December 2017, the Electrical and Mechanical Services department (EMSD) held its first Innovative Technology Day in collaboration with Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation at EMSD's Hong Kong headquarters. The event, which brought together government departments and related organizations as well as developers of innovative technologies, was a first step in responding to the new policy direction outlined by the chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in her first policy address and to the challenge issued to EMSD staff by the director of Electrical and Mechanical Services. Supervising engineers at EMSD were directed to develop a strategic roadmap and implementation plan to move EMSD forward to implement the organization's new mandate: to be a promoter and facilitator of innovation and technology (I&T).

On March 21, 2017, Downer EDI Limited, a leading provider of engineering, construction, and infrastructure management services in the Australasia region, announced an unsolicited offer for Spotless Group Holdings at A$1.15 per share, to be funded largely by a fully underwritten renounceable two-for-five rights issue at A$5.95 per share. Although an offer for Spotless Group Holdings was not unexpected, the market was surprised at the considerable premium of 58 per cent above the previous day's closing price of A$0.725. With the institutional portion of the rights offering due to close the following day, an equity analyst with a large institutional fund that was a major shareholder of Downer EDI Limited, had little time to complete a thorough valuation analysis of Spotless Group Holdings. If the analyst determined that Downer EDI Limited was overpaying for Spotless Group Holdings, she would recommend that the fund turn down the rights offering and sell its stake in Downer EDI Limited.

California-based Vivos Group (Vivos) built and sold luxury bunkers designed to withstand catastrophes. The founder himself had acknowledged that the majority of US residents could not afford them: while competitors offered bunkers with down payments as low as a US$1,300 -which middle-income consumers could afford-Vivos's $35,000+ bunkers were for the rich. By May 2020, several of Vivos's bunker properties were sold out, but it was uncertain whether this indicated some permanent change in consumers' buying behaviour or an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Vivos's founder now faced several challenges: should he focus on constructing more luxury apartment-based bunkers or low-cost, community-sharing bunkers to provide consumers with protection from COVID-19? What aspects of bunker management should he improve, given the criticism that bunker companies had made false claims about the air filtration systems in the bunkers? How could he help Vivos achieve growth in the long run?

In 2020, Luke Minion and the leadership team at Riverstone, a hog producer founded in 2013 in Shandong, China, were evaluating Riverstone's strategy as it rebounded from outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) in two of its three farm complexes. Riverstone was a joint venture between Minnesota-based private equity firm Proterra Investment Partners and agricultural services firm Pipestone Holdings, the third-largest U.S. pork company by sows managed. The vision for Riverstone was to apply Western hog production systems in China, where-despite being the world's top hog producer and consumer-most production was fragmented and inefficient. Just as Riverstone was ramping up capacity in 2018, China's hog industry faced a devastating ASF epidemic that wiped out tens of millions of hogs and bankrupted countless small producers. Riverstone had been able to recover by implementing strict biosecurity practices, and as it rebounded, it was benefiting from surging pork prices. From March 2019 to March 2020, Riverstone's profit per weaned pig rose from $80 to $250. In late 2020, Minion and the Proterra team were considering options for the exit of Proterra's Food Fund 1, which owned 70% of Riverstone. There was the possibility of an all-out sale, an IPO, or as Minion hoped, selling some portion of the Fund's equity to the U.S. farmers who were shareholders in Pipestone's U.S. operations. What was the best option?

Facing a significant decline in revenues in 2016, David Gwilliam, Head of Transformation at PepsiCo UK introduced a new way of working ("Responsive Working"), which encompasses a set of work practices and some new team structures. The work practices comprise a set of 9 codified practices that employees can be trained in to use as part of their daily work. The team structures-called SLAM teams-are put together following strict procedures to tackle key strategic or operational challenges. They are typically cross-boundary, time limited teams. Through these interventions, PepsiCo UK managed to turn the business around (back to growth) by late 2017. At the time of the case in December 2019, PepsiCo UK seems poised for continued success, while Gwilliam contemplates whether or not to authorize employee requests to initiate modified SLAM team for less urgent and strategic issues.

Tokio Marine, Japan's leading insurance company, has spent nearly two decades building a global footprint in different insurance businesses around the world. As the company becomes majority non-domestic it has to make a choice of what organisation structure to adopt to best manage the global footprint. Should it separate the domestic and international businesses, or should it attempt to integrate the two organisations in meaningful ways?

Subway had been a dominant player in the submarine sandwich category since its inception in 1965. By 2011, the company had surpassed McDonald's as the world's largest restaurant chain. However, the emergence of strong competition and a number of issues-mostly related to its products, place, and price-had caused the company to struggle since 2014. The company's franchise system was poorly designed and operated, product quality had slipped, the company had not kept up with industry and dietary trends, and the arrest of the company's key spokesperson had a negative effect on the company's profits. Revenues declined from 2014 to 2019, and 2,376 stores were closed between 2016 and 2018. Subway needed to turn itself around. How could Subway's chief executive officer resolve the company's product-, place-, and price-related issues to help reverse its fortunes?

In 2020, Falabella, one of the largest Latin American multi-format and multi-country retailers, faced increasing competition from the online world. The growth of online giants posed significant challenges for Falabella's senior executives, who needed to decide how to allocate investments in this highly competitive environment. There were also growth opportunities in the brick-and-mortar business in many Latin American countries. Falabella needed to assess how to compete in the dual online and off-line world. The COVID-19 pandemic had created additional challenges for Falabella's management team, as most shopping malls and stores were obliged to close for a long period of time, and the lower off-line sales were not expected to be fully compensated by increasing online sales. Should Falabella's executives continue to focus on the historical strength of Falabella, fuelled by horizontal, vertical, and international expansion? Should they focus their efforts on the online business and divest some of their current business units.

In August 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, confronted one of the most difficult dilemmas of his career: how to improve the country's economic performance. This case set highlights Gorbachev's reform efforts from 1985 to 1990. Numerous measures of economic performance had declined, and the USSR faced serious crises of economics (declining productivity and financial insufficiency), federalism (challenges to the primacy of the Soviet Union), and separatism (ethnic and nationalist agitation). Three groups of advisers offered competing plans. One plan focused on economic revolution toward a market economy; one on reform of the existing centrally planned economy; and a third on economic retrenchment and reinforcement of socialist discipline that had prevailed over the previous 73 years. Students must evaluate the benefits and risks of each alternative and recommend a course of action.

Set in January 2020, this case describes the entrepreneurial journey of Hayman Microfinance (Hayman), which provided financial solutions to the low-income strata and rural population of Myanmar who had limited or no access to banking services. Over 2015-2020, Hayman grew to become a 25-branch strong company with a loan portfolio of US$29 million, 129,000 active borrowers, and 155,000 depositors. Besides its product attributes, targeted marketing approach, trained work force and effective delivery, Hayman's success could also be attributed to its corporate social responsibility (CSR) thrust in the areas of health, education, safety, and the environment. Over 2017-2019, many international players had entered Myanmar. While some of these entrants had big spending budgets, they lacked first-hand experience of the country's rural poor, and had limited knowledge of the demanding bureaucratic processes followed by the Myanmar government in the financial sector. Sultan Marenov, the Executive Chairman and Managing Director of Hayman, believed that Hayman would be an ideal partner for such investors; however, he was yet to clinch a satisfactory deal. Would highlighting Hayman's CSR program as a core element of its business model strengthen the company's value proposition to potential investors? How much did the social activities contribute towards building the company's brand equity among its key stakeholders, and a sustainable competitive advantage?

Intartic, an Indian mobile accessories manufacturer was incorporated in 2015 by two ex-colleagues from Nokia who sought to explore the mobile phone accessory market in India, building initially on designs, parts and components imported from China. The case traces the evolution of Intartic and the various challenges it faces as it transitions from the mobile accessories business to the IoT-based safety wearables business. The case involves the study of technology management processes followed within the company and the imminent decision on the organizational and structural changes amid the changing business contexts and aspiration of the company. Starting by outlining the overall environment of the mobile accessories industry in India, the case introduces readers to the events leading to organizational change and transformation in ownership of assets by the corporate leadership. The case captures the transition of Intartic, from a commoditized mobile accessories manufacturer to a technologically challenging space of IoT-based safety wearables market. It also essays Intartic's vision to segue into the service business of developing software IP for a connected ecosystem across wearables, connected homes and automobiles, along with the challenges that it is likely to face in its transition and its potential solutions. This transition provides scope for learning various aspects of organizational development such as building organizational and technology capability, creating processes, managing portfolio of varied product development projects, and also educates readers about the evolving investor ecosystem.

Anand Saboo Foundation (ASF) is a philanthropic organization set up by an industrialist, Anand Saboo, with the aim of transforming poor people into entrepreneurs. Saboo focused on helping women living below the poverty line to become independent and sustainable small business owners. Saboo is himself a self-made entrepreneur, currently in his 70s, who set up Saboo Foundation in 1991. After experimenting with several different philanthropic models, he settled on the "Saboo Foundation Model", which relies on multiple stakeholders, focuses on equipment rather than cash, and links participating women to a customer base and a supply chain. Initial results show that the 362 women who availed a loan during October 2018 to January 2019 had zero default-rate. Participating women reported an average income of Rs. 7000 (93.3 USD) to Rs. 24,000 (320 USD) per month (3 to 4 times higher than their previous earnings). Saboo Foundation's approach is novel and shares more similarities with a venture capital investment model rather than a traditional lending model. Multiple philanthropic, government, semi-government, and non-profit organizations have worked in this space for decades, and the Anand Saboo Foundation, a relative newcomer in this space, so far, has enjoyed extraordinary success. This case study helps students understand the key facets that make a successful philanthropic model, with a focus on how to develop and support micro-entrepreneurs at the bottom of the pyramid.

The primary objective of this case is to introduce the concepts of sustainability and its operationalization in practice. To achieve this objective, the case makes use of a manufacturing firm in an emerging market, from one of the most polluting industries, namely, cement production. With the help of this example, the case demonstrates (i) the criticality of setting aggressive sustainability targets, (ii) role of top management in setting a long-term sustainability strategy to achieve these targets, (iii) creating a culture of sustainability, and finally, (iv) operationalizing the strategy on a day-to-day basis. The case also provides detailed description of carbon pricing and its role in promotion and adoption of various green technologies. The case narrates the sustainability journey of Dalmia Cement, which is part of a well-respected business group in India. The case begins with a detailed description of the cement production process, which along with the main raw material input (limestone) is the major contributor to the carbon emissions. The efforts of senior management towards creating a sustainability culture and instilling the appropriate values are discussed next. The case summarizes the various commitments made by the management towards environmental and social sustainability and the respective initiatives adopted to fulfil these commitments. The case finally ends with a dilemma regarding how the company will fulfil the pledge that their CEO had made at the Global Climate Action Summit-2018, that they would become Carbon Negative by 2040.

Social commerce is a new trend in e-commerce that leverages individual relationships and affiliations to drive growth in online sales. The case compares two companies, Pinduoduo and Facebook/Instagram, and their different social commerce business models, notably social network based vs. social group based models. Social network platforms (like Facebook/Instagram in the US) generate supply-driven commerce ecosystems that leverage the social graph of individual relationships to drive sales through highly-connected influencers in an ad-based business model. Social group platforms (exemplified by Pinduoduo in China) generate a demand-driven commerce ecosystem based on rich, gamified interactions that don't depend on prior relationships in a direct sales business model. The case describes the recent evolution of social commerce such as the launch of Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops that resemble Pinduoduo's model.

This case explores how the retail customers of the Bank of China lost an astounding RMB10bn (USD1.27bn) by investing in a structured product. The product, Crude Oil Treasure, was linked to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures. These crude oil futures were traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange and were used as a benchmark in oil pricing. The negative futures price of -USD37.63 per barrel on 20 April 2020 was a "black swan" event. Never before had the price of oil futures plunged into the negative. Through the case, students will grapple with the practical questions of how to identify the characteristics of a structured product by reference to the traits exhibited in a standard futures contract. Students will also be asked questions on finance theories about contango, extreme contango, backwardation, extreme backwardation, normal contango, and normal backwardation.

Set in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2020, the case illustrates Pinduoduo's agile response to the crisis and its corporate social initiatives on rural revitalisation in China. Established in 2015 in Shanghai, Pinduoduo's meteoric rise to become the third-largest shopping platform in China (after Alibaba and JD) was fuelled by its unprecedented growth within the first three years of its founding. Valued at an estimated US$63 billion in May 2020, the Nasdaq-listed tech giant was not only adept at pivoting its business model during its early days, but had also pursued an innovative concept of team purchase, coupled with social sharing, viral marketing, and gamification as its growth and user engagement strategies. A key part of Pinduoduo's initial user acquisition was targeting the untapped rural market of nearly 600 million people in China. In giving back to society, it aimed to create meaningful impact on farmers' livelihoods. The firm's "Internet + Agriculture" model enabled growers to bypass unnecessary intermediaries to reach the consumers' markets more quickly and profitably. Poverty-stricken farmers who participated in the Duo Duo Farm programme had the opportunity to attend entrepreneurship training, and obtain subsidies, resources and advice. Through these collective social initiatives, farmers could benefit from improved productivity, higher quality products and most importantly, increased incomes. During the Covid-19 outbreak, Pinduoduo stepped in to support farmers' sales of agricultural produce on its livestreaming channels as well as the spring planting season. As the country gradually emerged from the crisis, how could Pinduoduo strike a balance between its sustainability efforts and the pursuit of its core business as an e-commerce platform?

For most of her career, Lucinda Stewart was a woman working in contexts-investment banking private equity, venture capital-largely dominated by men. Nonetheless, Stewart had been able, virtually from the beginning of her career, to obtain allies and mentors and, as a consequence, accelerate her career progress (e.g., she was a VC partner in her late 20s). The case describes Stewart's life, upbringing, and career trajectory, with a focus on the personal qualities/attributes and strategies she has used to attract allies and supporters. Attracting supporters is something crucial to building power, because allies are crucial for getting things done.

Arcos Dorados-McDonald's largest independent franchisee, covering Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)-faced a pandemic that was disrupting the entire consumer foodservice business in 2020. With the exclusive right to own, operate, and sub-franchise McDonald's restaurants in LAC since 2007, the company served over 40 million customers a day at its almost 2,300 restaurants sprawled in 20 markets across LAC, reporting revenues of roughly $3 billion and $291.8 million EBITDA in 2019. Although results for 2020 had looked promising, in late March 2020, governments throughout the region implemented quarantine measures in response to a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), affecting the company's normal operations. Forced to withdraw a previously approved 2020-2025 plan for restaurant openings and reinvestments, the company had to focus on a strategy to reduce the impact of the pandemic on the company's finances. Based on its strengths vis-à-vis its competitors, Arcos Dorados' recovery plan hinged on five pillars: i) McDonald's restaurants' reputation for people care and food safety; ii) the company's capabilities to explore new channels for food purchasing and delivery; iii) McDonald's good "value-for-money" perception; iv) a consolidated brand with unique offerings; and v) a sustainable-minded company, with initiatives underway to enhance its brand image. Once the crisis was contained, the company had to draft a new six-year plan, including capital outlays for restaurant openings and reinvestments. Given its current position and strengths against its competitors, should Arcos Dorados grasp this opportunity to pursue an aggressive growth plan? Or, considering the post-pandemic economic downturn expected in the region, should the company come up with a more conservative plan or even contemplate downsizing? How should the plan differ by country?

As he considered his plans for the future, Glenn Sanford, CEO of eXp World Holdings, Inc., faced an exciting conundrum. He had built the first all-remote real estate brokerage firm, eXp Realty, which had been growing exponentially and was thriving, even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. eXp now had tens of thousands of agents, growing profits, and the potential for expansion into new global markets. Meanwhile, the virtual platform on which eXp was built, Virbela, was rapidly gaining enterprise-scale clients, as a wide range of industries looked to transition to remote operations during the pandemic. Sanford needed to decide how to allocate his company's talent, time, and resources. Should he maximize eXp Realty's growth and profits or focus on promoting Virbela's game-changing virtual platform?