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Metro Cash and Carry India Private Limited (Metro C&C) was a chain of wholesale stores owned by the German retailer Metro Group, which opened its first store in India in the southern city of Bangalore in 2003. By 2018, the company led the cash-and-carry segment of the Indian wholesale market, but was still not profitable. It faced challenges related to high real estate costs, competition from domestic and international wholesale firms, and competition from a strengthening e-commerce sector. Its most important customer segment-small, unorganized retailers, or kiranas-faced similar challenges. With considerable investments in the country, Metro C&C needed to develop a strategy to become profitable in the country after 15 years of operations. How could it build active engagements with different customer segments to improve its performance and turn a profit?

Bikanervala was a fourth-generation Indian family business in the domestic fast-food and packaged-snacks industries. In its 65 years of existence, it had grown from a small outlet selling traditional Indian sweets and snacks to the industry's second-largest player. This case traces the evolution of Bikanervala's business model, which uniquely leveraged professional management practices along with strengths rooted in its family values. As the business expanded, Bikanervala faced further pressures to professionalize on several fronts, and the family was forced to consider whether its family-oriented management style could scale up indefinitely or whether family ownership and management had to be diluted to grow the business.

Irfhan Rawji (MBA 2004) launched MobSquad in October 2018 to help American tech start-ups retain hard-to-find talent, many of whom struggled with U.S. work visa issues, such as software engineers with experience in artificial intelligence, machine learning, or data science. MobSquad also helped companies fill open roles by tapping into its database of pre-vetted foreign tech workers. While there was growing demand for these specialists, the talent supply in the U.S. was relatively constrained and American companies often filled positions with foreign-born workers using a temporary visa called the H-1B. However, U.S. President Donald Trump temporarily suspended immigration in June 2020, including foreign workers on an H-1B visa during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rawji contemplated what kind of impact this would have on MobSquad and the tech industry in Canada. There was already evidence that a growing number of foreign tech workers were choosing Canada over the U.S. due to Trump's immigration policies. Now Rawji suspected that Trump's latest move would further accelerate this trend, and he wanted MobSquad to be ready to help companies and workers who had been counting on the H-1B.

Karen Bruck, Corporate Sales Director at MercadoLibre, Latin America's largest e-commerce platform, needs to make a decision about one of her managers, who, while analytically savvy, has an approach that does not fit in with the company's culture.

Verge Capital was a social finance organization in London, Ontario, that connected local aspiring entrepreneurs with funds that would support initiatives with societal or environmental missions that benefited local communities. In 2019, the social finance manager at Verge Capital had to recommend one of two social impact business proposals that the organization should fund a CA$30,000 loan to. The two options were (1) Sri Lankan Foods, which operated a Sri Lankan restaurant, a catering business, and a granola production facility that provided short-term employment opportunities for newcomers to Canada, and (2) Material Impact, which collected and resold used textbooks to fund donations of books and learning materials to South American universities. While both businesses aligned with Verge Capital's mandate, the social finance manager needed to choose just one. He wondered how sustainable the businesses were and what criteria Verge Capital should consider before investing.

In 2018, Toyota Tsusho South Pacific Holdings, the leading automotive company in the South Pacific, was celebrating its 20th anniversary. The company, which operated a network of 27 dealerships through subsidiary companies in seven island nations, had been through a number of dramatic changes since its origins in the 19th century, and its Brisbane, Australia, office had transitioned from its early role as a corporate head office with 15 employees to become the regional headquarters for Toyota Tsusho Corporation, one of 17 major Toyota Group companies. In early July 2018, a new managing director was selected. Among his many duties, he would need to review the steps taken to date in transforming the Brisbane office and determine the appropriate steps to take in the future. Were any changes were required in the relationship between the regional headquarters and the island subsidiaries?

By May 2014, the bakery of French pastry chef Dominique Ansel had successfully been in operation for two and a half years. During this time, the bakery had gained numerous accolades for its most viral invention-the Cronut, a hybrid between a donut and a croissant. Moving forward, there were opportunities for Ansel's company to expand beyond its current size and location in New York City. Ansel's first option was to raise prices. Because the Cronut sold out every day before noon, the bakery was severely undersupplying the market, which had a huge demand. Ansel's second option was to commercialize the Cronut. Perhaps it would be better to license the recipe to a major coffee chain, which could bring his invention to millions of people. Lastly, Ansel could expand his brand internationally to Asia or Europe. Could Ansel achieve any of these changes without compromising quality over quantity?

This case describes how consultant Margaret Huebner successfully updated the human resources (HR) function for the emergent Port of Salalah in the Sultanate of Oman in the early 2000s. The Port was at a promising stage of development when Huebner arrived and aspired to grow into a world-class shipping hub and employer of choice for Oman. However, its HR procedures were barely existent. The Port needed to hire hundreds of new employees, and its rapid growth was outpacing its compensation structure, job design, and communications system. The case provides an overview of the Port's business and workforce and then details the contextual features of the organization and nation, including the country's Omanization efforts to hire and retain local employees in key leadership positions and the role of women in the workforce. The strategic, business-oriented approach Huebner employed can serve as an example of how expatriates can affect organizational change while being respectful of local culture. How can Huebner exit her consulting role while ensuring the programs she built continued to thrive? What key points of concern must she address in terms of continuity and local acceptance? Which programs are most critical for the Port to maintain the organizational changes Huebner helped induce? This case was the second place winner in WDI Publishing's MENA Case Writing Competition "Doing Business in the Middle East North Africa Region," sponsored by Michigan Ross Executive Education.

A consultant experienced in developing predictive models for his clients to improve business operations, Everett Blake, was working with the Richardson Eye Care and Surgery Center (RECSC), which wanted to explore ways to improve its no-show rate, classifying a "no-show" as an appointment not kept without 24-hours' notice. After running variables through an XGBoost model, Blake's company had identified predictive variables, which included age and gender. However, Blake was uncomfortable with these two variables, fearing that, if they were used to identify potential no-shows (and consequently not get follow-up calls about their appointments in the future), this could be considered discriminatory and might lead to a different quality of care for different groups of patients. With this in mind, Blake had to decide what his recommendation to RECSC should be.

This case examines the unique challenges faced by ridesharing company Careem as a business operating in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The case presents issues related to Careem's growth options after it was acquired by Uber. Protagonist Mudassir Sheikha, Careem co-founder and chief executive officer, has two goals as he decides the company's future direction: 1) providing solutions benefiting Careem's customers, employees, and drivers, and 2) managing a profitable company. The terms of the Uber acquisition dictate Careem will continue to operate as a separate entity, and Sheikha must present Careem's forward-looking strategy to all relevant stakeholders in two weeks. The case addresses issues specific to the MENA region and how they differ from those in the West. Students will examine the opportunities and threats created for Careem in the wake of the Uber acquisition. This case was the first place winner in WDI Publishing's MENA Case Writing Competition "Doing Business in the Middle East North Africa Region," sponsored by Michigan Ross Executive Education.

This case presents a situation faced by Tony Douglas, CEO of Etihad Airways, a government-owned, full-service airline. It is February 6, 2020, and Douglas is reviewing the progress he has made in turning Etihad around and charting a direction for its future. The key strategic options are: 1) Contracting and turning Etihad into a regional airline, 2) reshaping Etihad as a low-cost carrier (LCC), or 3) continuing to operate Etihad as a full-service, internationally-focused airline. Additionally, the company could form an alliance with its closest competitor, Emirates Airline. Created in 2003 with a mandate to operate "safely, commercially, and profitably," Etihad positioned itself as a luxurious airline and pursued aggressive internationalization and growth. It was the second national airline in United Arab Emirates (UAE) after Dubai's Emirates Airline. Etihad's initial strategy was directed by CEO James Hogan, and while the company was profitable for many years, it began incurring losses in 2016. The case provides quantitative and qualitative information to enable students to evaluate Etihad's strategy and performance and make recommendations for its future. This case was the third place winner in WDI Publishing's MENA Case Writing Competition "Doing Business in the Middle East North Africa Region," sponsored by Michigan Ross Executive Education.

On May 4, 2020, a press release from Boston, Massachusetts, announced the launch of Oxygen Esports (Oxygen), a new organization that hoped to dominate the rising esports scene in New England. Oxygen was created from a merger between Helix eSports (Helix), an owner and operator of gaming and virtual reality (VR) outlets throughout the United States, and Team Genji, an esports organization with two lines of business: esports teams competing in Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering Arena; and a talent analytics and scouting business called Genji Insights. The new entity also acquired professional rosters from Team Reciprocity and in the free agent market, positioning Oxygen to compete in six top esports. William Collis (HBS MBA, 2011), co-founder of Team Genji and Genji Insights, had played a key role in formulating Oxygen's strategy prior to launch. Collis had decided not to compete in leagues with a "hard franchise" model, where teams paid the game publishers a large up-front sum for permanent league status. Instead, Oxygen would join leagues where teams often paid little or no upfront fees for similar benefits, and where publishers exerted less control over the leagues. Moreover, Collis was focused on building regional, rather than global, teams. Did this make sense? What else might Oxygen do in pursuit of their mission "to build a sustainable esports ecosystem for gamers of every skill level"?

Hyflux Ltd., a Singapore Exchange (SGX) listed sustainable water and energy solutions company, declared losses for the first time since its listing more than a decade ago, and expressed its inability to service its debt and pay distribution to holders of its perpetual capital securities and perpetual preference shares. These investors were in a state of shock and disbelief when barely 5 months later, in May 2018, Hyflux suspended the trading of its shares on SGX and opted for a court-supervised debt reorganisation process. Where had Hyflux, the erstwhile poster child of Singapore's innovation and entrepreneurship capabilities, erred?

Iloof Technology Co. Ltd. was a Chinese start-up high-technology company at the forefront of the smart water bottle market, one of the newest sectors in the reusable water bottle industry. Smart bottles or cups, also known as interactive water bottles, were technologically advanced devices that had wireless communication capabilities to connect with electronic devices, such as smart phones. They also helped record and optimize the user's water intake and develop healthy drinking habits. In 2016, after two years of research and development, Iloof Technology Co. Ltd. released its first smart water cup, the HeyDo S1, to great success. However, after three quarters of growth, sales slowed and the company's founder considered expanding to traditional or offline channels to sustain growth. Could the company operate in both online and offline markets? What potential challenges would the company face in its sales channel expansion?

Steve Kerr, coach of the 3-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors, reflects on his values-driven leadership style in the wake of a challenging season.

When Kathy Fish, Procter & Gamble's Chief Research, Development & Innovation Officer, and a 40-year company veteran, stepped into her role in 2014, she was concerned that the world's leading consumer packaged goods company had lost its capability to produce a steady stream of disruptive innovations. This, coupled with intensifying competition from more agile, digitally-savvy direct-to-consumer companies, convinced Fish that P&G needed to renew its value proposition. She believed it was essential that all 100,000 employees see innovation as their job, and that all aspects of the consumer experience-not only the product itself-be "irresistibly superior." But making this change would require wholesale transformation, which was challenging because P&G's business units had decision-making rights for their businesses. Thus, when she launched GrowthWorks, an initiative to bring lean innovation to scale at P&G, Fish designed it to be business unit-led and corporately-supported. Fish and her team tackled challenges as they emerged along the way, such as the need to adapt career systems. Fish took a "pull" versus "push" approach and it caught on like "wildfire," eventually producing a portfolio of over 130 projects, and momentum that led P&G to headline the Consumer Electronics Show for the first time. While progress indicators were strong, the business units still struggled to incubate innovations, and Fish feared that unless P&G's overall innovation performance management and reward systems changed, the new approach to innovation would not take hold in a sustainable way. Fish grapples with whether to take a more "push" approach and add innovation metrics to the business unit presidents' annual scorecards, which typically focused on short term deliverables.

In March 2020, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the president of French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain ('PSG') sees his team clinch a spot among the last eight clubs to compete in the UEFA Champions League. Established in 1970 and initially a club with only moderate success, PSG's fortunes changed when Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) acquired the club in 2011. QSI overhauled the roster of players-by, among other measures, buying Kylian Mbappé and, in a record €222-million transfer that shook the soccer world, Neymar-and professionalized the club's management, renovated the stadium, developed a new training ground, redefined the PSG brand, and pursued a series of high-profile collaborations. The investment seems to have paid off, on and off the field: since the acquisition, PSG has amassed six French league titles and has risen to fifth place in the ranking of Europe's highest-grossing soccer clubs. But the biggest prize the club's owners are eyeing, the Champions League, has so far eluded PSG. Does the club have the right strategy to break the hegemony of Europe's long-standing soccer powerhouses? And are Al-Khelaifi and his team of executives on the right path toward their goal of establishing PSG as one of the world's top three sports brands?