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In early 2014, recent Stanford University graduate Tyler Shultz was in a quandary. He had been working at Theranos, a blood-diagnostic company founded by Elizabeth Holmes, a Stanford-dropout wunderkind, for almost a year. Shultz had learned enough about the company to realize that its practices and the efficacy of its much-touted finger-prick blood-testing technology were questionable and that the company was going to great lengths to hide this fact from the public and from regulators. Theranos and Holmes were Silicon Valley darlings, enjoying positive press and lavish attention from potential investors and technology titans alike. Just as companies like PayPal had revolutionized the stagnant payments industry and Uber had upended the for-hire transportation sector, Theranos had been positioned as the latest technology firm to substantially disrupt yet another mature sector: the medical laboratory business. By the start of 2014, the company had raised more than $400 million in funding, and had an estimated market valuation of $9 billion. Shultz's situation was exacerbated by the fact that his grandfather, the highly respected former US Secretary of State George Shultz, was on the Theranos board and was one of Elizabeth Holmes's biggest supporters. But Tyler Shultz worried about the customers he was convinced were receiving highly unreliable and often inaccurate blood-test results. With so much at stake, Shultz wondered how he should proceed. Should he raise his concerns with the firm's investors? Blow the whistle externally? Report to industry regulators? Go away quietly? This case and its subsequent four brief follow-up cases are based largely on interviews with Tyler Shultz, and outline the dilemma he faced and the various steps he would take both to extricate himself from his unsavory position and let the public know the full extent of the deception at Theranos. Five optional handouts are available to instructors to further discussion after the case has

This case follows the story of Jay Davis and Jason Pananos, classmates from Harvard Business School who started a search fund, Nashton Partners. The case covers their decision to launch a search fund, their investment objectives and goals, and then the search process over a two-year period. The core of the case discusses two specific acquisition opportunities the fund is considering - United Energy Services and Vector Disease Control Inc. There are clear advantages and drawbacks to both opportunities, and the partners must make a decision about what to do before the search fund runs out of money.

Aries Agro, an agribusiness firm, faced two prime challenges - the safety and productivity of its workers. When traditional software systems fell short of addressing these challenges, the firm contemplated the implementation of an IoT (Internet of things) based solution. This IoT based solution captures the movement of workmen and generates data from the sensors that help identify sources of inefficiency. In this case, we not only discuss the implementation challenges of an IoT based implementation but also how this solution can help to promote safety among the workmen and improve worker productivity by optimising facility layout.

In 2017, Chris Down, Global Brand General Manager for Hot Wheels, and his team from the Advanced Play Group within Mattel, Inc., were considering which innovation path to pursue in order to "future proof" the Hot Wheels franchise going forward. Hot Wheels was the number one selling toy in the world (by unit volume), however, play patterns among children were rapidly changing and children were moving on from physical toys to digital play at a younger and younger age. Hot Wheels needed to determine how to respond. One option considered was the development of a new "mixed-play" product that blended physical and digital play. While the mixed play idea was still at an early conceptual stage, it would likely involve embedding a chip into the Hot Wheels die-cast car, turning it into a "smart car" with its own unique identification. Users could play with the smart car in the physical world and on an app, thus offering an opportunity to also appeal to Hot Wheels consumers who were intrigued by digital play. Hot Wheels had made a number of forays into the digital space over the years, through licensing the brand to app and game developers and developing toys with some digital elements. The licensing strategy was low risk, low reward, and Mattel's own digital development had produced varied results, creating a culture hesitant to take big risks in the digital space. Down knew that a mixed play innovation would require a significant investment in time and resources. However, Hot Wheels parent company, Mattel Inc. had seen revenues and operating income drop for the past three years. It was unclear if Mattel's new CEO, Margo Georgiadis, would be supportive of the mixed play direction as the cornerstone of Hot Wheels' growth plan.

True North was a private equity fund that specialized in the growth and buyout of mid-market, India-centric companies. The leadership team initially believed that technology was not core to traditional businesses and steered clear of new age technology-oriented businesses. Then, in 2007, True North invested in Meru Cabs, a ride-sharing service with a growing fleet of cabs that had to change its business model with the launch of tech-based platforms like Uber. This experience led True North to significantly alter its stance on the importance of technology-powered business models. The team learned that all businesses needed to effectively become technology businesses to remain relevant. True North initiated the "Analytics, Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence" (3A) project. A system, Kelp, was designed and developed internally to facilitate the transformation of True North into an AI-first firm based on the introduction of data-driven decision making and productivity-enhancing digital tools. In 2020, as different elements of Kelp were launched, the leadership team met to discuss the future of this technology.

For Siba Mtongana, South African celebrity chef, the year 2020 was fraught with challenges and unknowns. Her brand was strong and she was certain it would survive. But as she fine-tuned her growth and innovation strategy in a shaky, unpredictable economy in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic, how should she plan for the future, in both the short-term and long-term?

This case follows Heather Grant as she begins her new role as manager of the Staunton, Virginia, branch of Loom & Ferris, a mid-sized call center specializing in printing, branding, and logos for corporate clients. As the new manager, Grant's role is to increase morale among her employees and to improve sales and productivity. She decides to spend her first week observing the call center and getting to know her new employees before making any decisions. Her arrival is not welcome to most of her employees, and she knows that because the company's sales are falling, she may have to fire some of them. Marcus Feeny, one of the employees, arrives late and unruly on Grant's first day, of which she takes notice. She recognizes him because he has the best sales numbers of anyone in the branch by far. Throughout the week, she observes Feeny to be consistently late, unkempt, and disruptive to his colleagues. His bad attitude does not go unnoticed by his colleagues. After a heated argument between Feeny and another employee, Grant calls him into her office to speak with him. She brings up his behavior and appearance at work, and he is immediately defensive and brings up his sales numbers. She recognizes that he sees himself as in the right, even though his colleagues believe that he is getting special treatment by being allowed to flout the office rules. At the end of her first week, Grant realizes that she will have to let some employees go to keep the branch afloat. She must decide the best course of action and whether or not Feeny should stay.

In 2018, ITC Hotels, a chain of luxury hotels based in India, achieved a distinct positioning with its branding, "ITC Hotels: Responsible Luxury." The company intended to communicate its image of being environmentally sustainable, responsible to the local communities and society, and responsible for the safety and comfort of guests and employees. This strategy shaped many of its operational decisions and processes. However, the executive director of ITC Hotels, felt cautiously optimistic about its positioning in the market. Could ITC Hotels succeed in balancing responsibility with luxury? Could this business strategy and positioning counter the intensifying competitive threats from India's other major luxury hotel chains?

In February 2020, Apple Inc. (Apple) was fighting litigation by one of the oldest patent troll firms (a non-practicing entity) in the United States, VirnetX Holding Corporation (VirnetX). VirnetX targeted innovative and cash rich firms and had begun to use specific US locations with patent troll-friendly courts as major hubs for filing litigation. For targets such as Apple, this meant resources intended for innovation were wasted in fighting legal battles. In collaboration with its competitors, Apple took several initiatives, including pre-emptive litigation and appeals to both the US and the European Union governments to improve patent laws and prevent patent trolling. How could Apple's chief executive officer encourage innovation at Apple amid patent trolling issues? What strategies should he take to fight against non-practicing entities?

In July 2019, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of a one-year-old start-up in Los Angeles was reviewing the path forward with the company's new technology platform. The product helped brand managers insert their brands virtually and in real time into television (TV) and movie scenes. With each placement customized to the individual habits and personal preferences of the viewer, virtual placement was a considerable improvement over physical placement of brands as permanent fixtures in TV plots and movie scenes. The technology represented a major disruption to the product placement industry. The company's CEO needs to resolve three dilemmas to take Ryff forward. First, how should the company find its fit with large advertising agencies that operate in a traditional placement market? Second, how should the company convert traditional industry person-to-person interactions to interactions driven by software programs? Third, how should the company take its business global?

In November 2019, Saudi Arabia's government officials and advisers had to decide whether or not to proceed with a plan to make the government-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) a private company and list it on a stock exchange. At the time, Aramco was considered to be the most profitable company in the world. Therefore, its initial public offering would potentially be the largest in history. The company's market capitalization would dwarf those of global giants Apple Inc. and Google LLC. Saudi Aramco managed the world's largest oil reserves and had the world's second-lowest cost of oil extraction. However, there were concerns about the targeted valuation of US$2 trillion. There were also various other questions to be answered: Should the government-owned Aramco become a private company? Was the timing right to list the company on a stock exchange? What fraction of shares should be offered to investors? How should the largest initial public offering in history be priced?

Between 2015 and 2018, competitors in China's two-wheel e-vehicle industry were embroiled in a price war. Yadea Group Holdings decided to differentiate its brand from competitors and move away from further price reductions, opting instead to raise prices and adopt a distinctive high-end product strategy. It planned to offer its products to Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities in China, and to expand into the international market. With upgraded product and service offerings, the company was becoming a market leader in China's two-wheel e-vehicle industry. However, its founder was well aware that competitors would soon imitate the company's high-end product strategy and could potentially overtake its market position. In the current Internet-based business environment, new sales and rental models were constantly emerging, which meant Yadea Group Holdings risked losing market share to both domestic competitors and international investors. Therefore, the founder decided that the company needed to choose between two potential five-year plan options for the future: take advantage of the existing market or take the lead in a new high-end market.

In early 2019, the executive leadership of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (Chipotle), gathered to discuss the company's 2018 performance and align the company's capital structure policy and its growth aspirations going forward. Over the previous year, the company had enjoyed a lot of success. Its same-store sales had increased 6.1%, fueled by a 2% rise in traffic, and margins that had risen to nearly 19%, reaching gourmet restaurant levels. Chipotle's mission to deliver "Food with Integrity" resonated with its customers-primarily millennials, they valued quality over price and were constantly on the go with limited time to spare for eating. The company capitalized on healthy eating trends. Its recipes relied on just 53 ingredients that people could both recognize and pronounce and did not include any artificial colors or flavors. Chipotle successfully marketed its brand by utilizing digital channels and social media alongside traditional television events and sponsorships. Yet in the long term, the company still underperformed. Chipotle stock was $431 per share-about half of the $757 per share it had reached in August 2015. The company's roughly 7% margin was a far cry from its historical 18% levels. Only 83 new locations had opened in 2018, considerably fewer than the historical average of around 200 per year. Despite all the accomplishments over the last 12 months, the executive team continued to face pressure to increase the value Chipotle delivered to company shareholders.

The case examines the focus of an early stage company, and how an unexpected external incidence can threaten or void the business model. It encompasses issues such as defining and pivoting a business model, organizational requirements for a pivot, investor relations, disruptive business models, as well as business conduct in continental Europe. In 2017, Dr. Torben Antretter, a former competitive tennis player and academic researcher, founded RightNow with his two co-founders. RightNow was set out to provide consumers with "Justice-as-a-Service" by purchasing their legal claims that they would not pursue otherwise. Just one year after its inception, the company had closed a €25 million financing to increase its market share and leverage further growth opportunities. Upon closing of this financing round, matters took a sudden and unexpected turn when the National Supreme Court announced a ruling that airlines were no longer required to refund flight tickets. This decision wiped out RightNow's profit margins. Antretter and his co-founders had to decide what they should do with the business. How should the founders approach investors? Should they quit and walk away from their entrepreneurial dream or try to reinvent the business with a different focus? What would be the strategy going forward?

The case examines issues such as cascading problems within the organization, changing founder roles, founder success criteria, as well as company exit consideration. In 2017, Dr. Torben Antretter, a former competitive tennis player and academic researcher, founded RightNow with his two co-founders. RightNow was set out to provide consumers with "Justice-as-a-Service" by purchasing their legal claims that they would not pursue otherwise. Three years after inception and after overcoming numerous consecutive hurdles, the company was entering its next stage of its lifecycle. The selection of an investor type would be instrumental to the next few years of the company and the lives of the founders. With success, considerations around company exit and defining success criteria became inevitable. Different investors types had different investment criteria with regards to target returns, growth ambitions, decision rights, and ownership stakes. Antretter and his co-founders had to decide, jointly as well as individually, what they want to do. Discussions among the founding team showed that they needed to develop an 'exit strategy' in the same way that they had developed a growth strategy. When should they consider an exit and take some chips off the table? Was it more important to become rich or to remain kings of their kingdom?

Riccardo Cortese and Federico Pinna were the CEOs of Briscola-Pizza Society, a restaurant chain they had founded in 2014 with a clear ambition: create a distinctive international pizza chain that would combine a fast-casual format with the devotion to quality that characterized family-run Italian restaurants. In 2017, Francesco Trapani, the former CEO of luxury jewelry company Bulgari, had taken a majority stake in the chain, which had switched to a format of "affordable luxury." At the end of 2019, Briscola counted six restaurants in the northern regions of Italy and its founders were grappling with a series of questions: Should they consolidate their position in other Italian regions or expand directly abroad? In which countries would their concept work best? Should they change their direct ownership model? If so, what kinds of partnerships, licensing agreements, and franchise models should they use? Finally, what was the right degree of standardization across their restaurants? Allowing some variations in the menu at the restaurant level would be attractive to target specific segments of their clientele, but would this complicate their operations and potentially hinder their growth?

&Pizza is a pizza chain that in the spring of 2020 finds its business completely up-ended by the COVID-19 crisis and shut-down. Many companies in the restaurant and hospitality sector responded to the crisis by shutting down their operations and laying off employees. &Pizza's leader took a different approach: as the company pivoted mainly to a delivery model, he realized there would be added strain on his employees, and so he decided to not only avoid lay-offs, but to increase wages and provide other benefits to its Tribe (i.e., the employees).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. David Ansell, Darlene Hightower, and Ayesho Jaco, leaders of West Side United (WSU), a coalition of Chicago hospitals, community residents, banks, and small businesses conceived in 2016, reviewed progress toward WSU's goal of ending systemic racism, particularly racial disparities in health, longevity, and economic prosperity. WSU was also the focal point for Chicago's Racial Equity Rapid Response team in the coronavirus crisis. The key leaders pondered next steps including renewing commitments from hospital partners and making it a stand-alone non-profit organization.

The General Electric Company's (GE's) iconic Appliances division enjoyed a significant role at the company throughout the 20th century, representing one of the most recognized engines of the GE brand. By the 21st century, GE had changed its focus to technology and infrastructure businesses, and GE Appliances' contribution represented less than 5% of GE's revenue and profit. This case examines GE Appliances' journey through a failed sale/spin process into a decision to invest in new products, renovated factories, and people to run the business better. The focus is the unavoidable interconnection of business strategy and organizational capability, and the three teaching notes included with the case offer exploration from business strategy, new product introduction (NPI), and industrial engineering and supply chain management perspectives. Discussion points also include optimization, making versus buying, human resources, change management, and workforce development.