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Yuser Inc. (Yuser) was a young Canadian start-up based in London, Ontario, and focused on developing a gamified media sharing mobile application to help connect businesses with influencers. Yuser's co-founders had released a marketable version of their app at the end of 2019, and in 2020, the company had nearly exhausted its seed funding. Yuser's top priority at this time was to secure outside funding to grow the company fast without breaking it. The available options for funding consisted primarily of three sources: venture capital, equity crowdfunding, and token issuance. As each funding option had its own benefits and drawbacks, Yuser's co-founders had to determine which option or combination of options would work best for their company.

In March 2019, Boeing's 737 MAX aircraft was grounded across the globe following its second crash in five months. Investigations concluded that the sensor in the planes' Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) had failed, leading both aircraft to nosedive downward, crashing and killing all aboard. The public was confused as to how this engineering error occurred, given Boeing's strong history of aerospace achievements. The case traces the main developments in the aircraft manufacturing industry and Boeing's organizational changes over time. How could these changes have affected events leading up to the two 737 MAX crashes?

Southern Implants, a South African dental implants manufacturer, was considering how to diversify its risk. Over the last 30 years, the company had grown from a local manufacturing company and now served customers around the world through distributors and subsidiaries. The founder and managing director was particularly concerned about the final stages of production which involved cleaning, sterilizing, and packing. While Southern Implants had four machine shops across South Africa, the final stages of production involved all items coming back to Southern Implants for these final packaging steps. The managing director wanted to set up another processing cleaning plant abroad, but he wondered what location for this plant would be best. The United States was the largest market for Southern Implants but labour costs were high. Portugal was another option and had an investor-friendly economic environment with no discrimination between domestic and foreign investors. What were the organizational and managerial risks to consider before making this decision?

Ernesto Blanco, a leading Venezuelan businessman in the financial sector, was proposing to create a foundation with the aim of promoting the development of the stock market in his country. He wanted this initiative to be aligned with the strategic vision of his business group, as much as possible. However, he did not rule out sponsoring something not directly linked to the line of interest of his organization, if it had an impact on the status quo of the national stock market. Given the wide spectrum of issues that would fit into such an initiative, he decided to focus his efforts by developing a strategic planning exercise run by his old friend Ramón Piñango from the Business Academic Training Center (CAAE). For a day, a group of important opinion-makers from the academic and business worlds helped to think about the challenges of this proposal. These discussions resulted in the design of "four strategic topics" on which the project should focus: ≈ Development of the population's technical and financial capacities ≈ Ability of Venezuelan companies to operate in stock markets ≈ Capacity of the regulatory environment to boost competition ≈ Stimulation of the demand for securities Although Ernesto Blanco was convinced that the strategic planning exercise, run by Piñango, had been a success, he still felt that he had not resolved his greatest concern: where to position his foundation in the thematic area that would have the greatest impact on society, while aligning it with the long-term development interests of his corporate group.

Brazil experienced several years of extraordinary economic growth and social development from 2003 to 2014. However, economic and political stability collapsed in 2016, leaving Brazil with the worst economic crisis of its history and a significant political crisis. The case offers a broad perspective of the economic and political structure of Brazil to understand the political and economic conditions necessary for sustained growth and development in Latin America and a BRIC country with a democratic political regime where there are different political forces and electoral and political cycles.

In 2020, NEC focused on providing advanced IT, network, and data solutions, including cloud computing, AI and machine learning, Internet-of-Things platforms, and 5G networks as well as communication equipment installations. An award-winning company, NEC ranked fifth in the world in AI-related patents. The case study describes NEC's pathway towards accelerating in-house innovation, and commercializing what its global labs had invented. In 2013, the company established a Business Innovation Unit (BIU) to boost in-house innovation, and tap into the sense of urgency, risk-taking, and promise of rewards that helped drive technology start-ups elsewhere. In 2018, the BIU formed a Silicon Valley subsidiary called NEC X to structure a new "inside-out" accelerator. By 2020, two start-ups had graduated from the program, and others were well underway. Could NEC X become a trailblazer, creating new standards and processes for "inside-out" accelerators?

In 2020, Jennifer and Corey Feist started the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Fund in memory of Jennifer's sister. As the head of the emergency department at a Manhattan hospital, Lorna Breen had treated patients at hospitals overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic, contracted the disease herself, and then tragically taken her own life. The Feists hoped the fund would bring new attention to the desperate need for improved support for health care workers' mental well-being. Now in late summer, it is garnering significant, and increasing, support. The Feists plan to turn the fund into a foundation, but they face decisions about how to accept donations, follow up with donors, and avoid duplicating the efforts of other organizations. Their challenge is to crystallize a long-term mission while maintaining the current fundraising momentum stemming from the media attention surrounding Breen's death. Through this case, students will grapple with difficult issues, including mental health challenges, burnout among health care providers, and suicide. Students also will learn about the challenges of starting a nonprofit and its lifecycle. Finally, they will be able to put practice into action and flesh out the mission for a nonprofit.

This case is the first of a two-part series that follows Ramez Sousou and his team at TowerBrook Capital Partners as they face a challenging investment decision in February of 2013. Since its founding, TowerBrook has prided itself on its purpose-driven investing philosophy and responsible ownership practices, seeking to incorporate these ideals in each step of the life cycle of a deal. Thus, the TowerBrook investment process extends beyond financial returns and consideration for the bottom-line. This investment decision was a tough one: some TowerBrook team members were excited about the company's growth potential, while others were concerned about the optics of its social impact. Overall, this case can be used to understand how private equity firms are integrating ESG considerations into their decision-making processes.

In April 2018, the two co-founders of SafeMotos, a motorcycle taxi service in Rwanda, in Central Africa, were examining their expansion plan. Their start-up had not yet become profitable, but they were already making plans to expand into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were also driven by the larger goals of replicating their tried and tested growth model in other cities on the African continent and moving quickly into the underserved city transportation markets of Asia and the Far East. As they reviewed their four-year experience of working in Africa, they were facing a singular question: What should be the roadmap for scaling up their ride hailing service?

In early 2020, the founder and operator of Ramon Film Productions-known familiarly as Wakaliwood-needed to manage the tensions of operating as an informal movie production company in a slum in Uganda's capital of Kampala. Although Ramon Film Productions had received much international acclaim for its ultra-low-budget action movies, the company was under increasing pressure from the local authorities to formalize, by obtaining new operating licences and complying with stricter regulations. The founder needed to weigh the costs and benefits of continuing to operate informally, compared with formalizing his business.

yourtown was an Australian non-profit organization offering a variety of services to children, young people, and families, supported by a range of stakeholders including federal and state governments, corporations, and, most significantly, members of the public. It was best known for its art union initiative in which supporters bought tickets to a raffle for luxury homes and automobiles. In 2016, the organization rebranded from BoysTown, which at the time had awareness levels of 60 per cent in Australia. Now, in 2017, yourtown had an awareness level of only 10 per cent. Had the rebranding been the right move? Had it been too slow? Was it possible to regain past awareness levels or even exceed them?

Robert Unanue, chief executive officer (CEO) of Goya Foods, the largest Hispanic food company in the United States, came under criticism on July 9, 2020, when as an invited guest at the White House, he praised the US President. Upset community members boycotted Goya products. Supporters of the US president, on the other hand, began to buycott. Experts mentioned that weighing into political opinion before the 2020 US presidential election was a bad business decision for any corporate entity. Was Unanue wrong in sharing his opinion? What could the possible impact of the boycott be on Goya's revenues? What should Unanue do to manage the company's reputation?

Juhi Warrier was a successful human resources (HR) professional with almost two decades of work experience across various industries. She had recently joined the Indian unit of Revital Pharma Inc. (Revital), a leading healthcare manufacturer based in the United States. Heading talent acquisition (TA), Warrier was hired to bring in a fresh perspective and drive change. As only the third female among the 200 leaders in senior management roles, gender diversity was among the top goals on her agenda. However, she was in for a shock, as not only did her ideas for revamping the TA process find no takers but she also had a hard time gaining acceptance as a woman who was a senior leader on the team. The case describes the challenges faced by Warrier in championing the diversity agenda at Revital, while navigating the personal battles of gaining acceptance as a leader. Various incidents described in the case reveal the gaps in the system and the ingrained biases in the company culture. As Warrier works through the system, she is often forced to compromise on her diversity goals. Warrier now faces the dilemma of whether she should re-evaluate her goals or keep striving for equal opportunities in the TA process. What can Warrier do to succeed as a leader and build an inclusive workplace?

This is a two-part case. Case A is set in October 2018, when Zenn Lee, Senior Analyst at a Shanghai-based securities brokerage, was working on the investment advisory to his clients on Kweichow Moutai (KM), the maker of the super-premium Moutai brand of baijiu, a Chinese spirit. The day before, KM's share price had hit the 10% daily limit down and wiped out US$9.3 billion from its valuation. The Moutai brand commanded a premium price in the market because of its iconic image as the 'national drink', its distinct taste, and five-year-long production process that kept the supply depressed against the incessantly soaring demand. In 2012, the Chinese government's 2012 austerity measures had stymied KM's momentum, but by 2017, KM had managed to recoup its revenue growth by adjusting its marketing mix. The comeback was extraordinary; it overtook Diageo to become the world's most valuable liquor company. By 2018 third quarter, KM's prospects had grossly diminished due to the US-China trade spat, economic slowdown, and dampened consumer sentiments. The situation was exacerbated by graft allegations, the government's intervention in pricing matters and a likely tax on alcohol consumption. With the lowest sales growth since 2012, KM's third-quarter results shook its stronghold, and its share price plummeted. Lee speculated on the options ahead of KM to turn around its fortunes - How could it further its revenue and thereby its profitability? Should it pursue opportunities overseas? Case B is set after the 2019 results of KM, when sales had expanded that year by 15.5%, and net profit had increased by 17%. Though not yet matching the level of its pre-2012 growth rate, it was a satisfactory growth rate that had defied the gravity of the broad-based slowdown and dampened consumer sentiments. Lee had to give, once again, his rating for KM's stock, and he wondered what fundamentals were driving the sales of Moutai regardless of the broader economic realities.

Second-generation hawker Melvin Chew decided to set up the Hawkers United - Dabao 2020 Facebook group after the Singapore government announced that dining in at hawker centres, and all other food and beverage (F&B) establishments would be banned, following the imposition of the circuit breaker (partial lockdown) on April 7, 2020, in view of the worsening Covid-19 pandemic in Singapore. The group would allow hawkers to post their offerings, promotions, and takeaway or delivery options. Customers could also join it to pre-order food from these hawkers. The key reasons for Chew's decision to start the Facebook group included his desire to help his fellow hawkers, the need to devise alternatives to food delivery platforms that charged prohibitive commissions, and the necessity to save the hawker trade. There were however several barriers preventing hawkers from going digital, such as practical difficulties encountered when trying to adopt digital tools, as well as digital and verbal illiteracy among the more elderly hawkers. Nonetheless, various players in the ecosystem like the government, delivery platforms and software developers have stepped in to help coax hawkers to embrace digitalisation through various initiatives.

Tim Höttges was at the outset of his seventh year as CEO of Deutsche Telekom (DT) in 2020. The company served more than 184 million mobile customers and had a presence in over 50 countries. Over the course of the previous 7 years, European telecommunication companies had experienced varying degrees of success. Revenues for telecommunication companies in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain as a whole fell by 14 percent from 2012-2019, while DT's revenues rose by 38 percent, with fully two-thirds of DT's revenues generated outside of Germany in 2019. In late January, 2020, Höttges and his executive team are focused on the challenges faced by European telcos: advances in "digitization," "cloudification" and "softwarization" of the telecommunications network, along with the growth of 5G wireless capabilities, and the emergence of new types of co-opetitive relationships with the hyperscalers, large companies like Amazon and Microsoft that were making efforts dominate the public cloud and cloud services industries and expand into related verticals. This case describes the strategic challenges facing DT in 2020 and beyond that Höttges needs to think about and act upon: (1) the evolution of network technologies to cloud-centric production models, (2) attractive products and services as well as customer interaction through digital channels, synergies, and efficiency levers in internal processes, (3) the battle with the hyperscalers, and (4) the resolution of the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) challenge in Germany.

The case illustrates how Ping An can anticipate digital trends such as cloud computing and evolve from its core business to expand to new areas. Ping An began by selling property and casualty insurance but soon expanded to banking and financial services. The firm then invested heavily in I.T. development in order to take part in the Internet economy, focusing on five verticals: financial services, healthcare, automobiles, real estate and smart cities. In the five verticals, Ping An incubated 11 independent technology affiliates that dwarfed a valuation of $70 billion. By 2020, 3 companies were publicly traded as independent entities. Ping An was no longer a financial institution, instead, it had become a "finance + technology" and a "finance + ecosystem" company. While so many financial institutions and other traditional businesses always talk about digitization and transformation, but the progress is pretty slow. Ping An is in a very different place. The Ping An case is interesting both from a Chinese and a global perspective. As a firmly rooted Chinese firm, Ping An embodies the rise of a traditional company that learned to harness new technologies and compete with China's pure technology players. From a global perspective, Ping An offers lessons in how to develop an ecosystem of technology affiliates: the firm has developed a set of best practices for incubating, funding and collaborating with spin-offs.

Onward Technologies Limited was an engineering services outsourcing company based in India with divisions and branch offices around the world. Founded in 1991, the company was an early entrant in the services outsourcing sector and had performed moderately well. Over time, the company had moved from providing banking services support to providing engineering services. Competitors, however, showed greater growth, and new companies were commanding an increasing share of the market. In 2006, Onward Technologies Limited underwent a significant restructuring process and sharply reduced its clientele with the goal of establishing a long-term but narrow focus. Still, the company had not been growing at the rate envisioned by its founder. It had secured a significant and prestigious order from a well-known US company and was wondering which path to pursue. Should the company continue doing business in the developed economies and working with new Fortune 500 companies, or should it pursue new opportunities in the emerging Asian markets.

In 2020, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals in various swimming events, was now retired. As he looked back on his 20+ year athletic career, he considered what had gone into making him the greatest of all time-the highs and lows, successes and struggles. He had lived with mental health issues for much of his life, going public with his struggles in 2015, when he talked about his depression and suicidal thoughts. Mental health was a major focus for Phelps in 2020. He was working on removing the stigma associated with mental health issues, improving access to care, and preventing suicides. But as a professional athlete who was used to the rigor and routine of daily workouts and measurable goals, how could he ensure he was having the greatest possible impact in this new mission?