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Since its establishment in 1999, Xiamen Golden Home Co., Ltd. (GoldenHome) had adopted a high-end strategic positioning for its professionally produced kitchen cabinets. The company had first established a high-end brand image by differentiating its service and providing consumers with the ultimate full-process shopping experience. It had then consolidated a high-end perception of its products in the minds of its target customers by continuously researching and developing new processes and selecting high-quality materials. When changes in market and competition patterns led it to expand into new home-furnishing categories such as wardrobes and wooden doors, the company worked to transform its brand to encompass the entire range of customized home products. While customers had long recognized the high-end nature of the company’s kitchen cabinets, it had been more difficult to transfer this brand recognition over to the new product lines. Moreover, substantial changes in the competitive landscape had made the company’s original high-end positioning ambiguous. In 2022, the company faced a dilemma about its future development: Should GoldenHome use high-level strategic changes to establish its entire series as high-end products, or should it implement differentiated positioning for different product lines, maintaining the high-end positioning of its kitchen cabinet products while positioning other product lines for mass-market consumers?

In April 2021, the owner and founder of Claw & Kitty (CK) in Markham, Ontario, was considering moving his claw machine arcade to a larger location to continue growing his business. The owner had managed to grow his business despite the challenge of numerous pandemic-related shutdowns, and now he wanted to expand. He needed to decide whether this was a good time to do so. Would CK be able to survive if the Ontario government implemented future lockdowns or capacity limits? The owner had to assess the return and payback he might expect on this large investment and consider how he would fund the expansion. He would need to analyze the incremental revenues and costs and compare these against the investment to determine whether this move made sense from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives.

Ajeet Singh was an example of an authentic leader, devoting himself to tackling the societal grand challenge of sex trafficking and child prostitution in India. Singh was the founder and leader of Guria India (Guria), a non-governmental organization with a holistic approach to improving the lives of sex workers and trafficked women and children. Through trial and error learning as well as years of immersion in and working with the community in one of India’s red-light districts, Guria had developed an end-to-end approach attacking the challenge at its systemic roots in poverty, corruption, and the failure of social institutions. However, Guria still struggled with an insecure funding base, low salaries for staff, and an insufficient leadership pipeline; Singh could identify no successor to take up his work. Singh wondered how he could extend Guria’s reach across all of India: Should Guria establish new locations in other cities, and if so, how would these be staffed, and what kind of leaders would be needed? How could Singh find and groom a cohort of successors to follow and replace him once he was no longer capable of providing his current level of proactive leadership?

In June 2022, India’s community health workers, known as accredited social health activists (ASHAs) in the state of Jharkhand, were on strike, demanding regularization of their services, increase in remuneration, and incentive benefits. Dr. Nitin Kulkarni, the health secretary for the state of Jharkhand, must deal with the strike as soon as possible, as the state immediately needs the services of ASHAs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April 2022, the founder and chief executive officer of Just Kitchen Holdings Corporation (Just Kitchen)—a Canada-based and publicly listed operator of ghost kitchens in Taiwan—was sitting with part of his team to discuss the marketing plans for the year. The company reported revenues of CA$4.6 million for the second quarter of 2022. In the second quarter 2022, total revenues increased by 127 per cent and retail order volume grew by 151 per cent. That year, the number of ghost kitchen locations had increased from 14 to 28. The founder wanted to double the company’s revenue by 2023. To achieve this goal, the management team faced several questions: Should Just Kitchen focus more on local brands in Taiwan or invest in international brand licensing and partnerships? How could the company leverage the omni-channel opportunity to better engage with its consumers and not depend on the delivery partners? What strategies should Just Kitchen consider to attract and retain customers, grow its sales revenues, and increase profitability?

The international Vishwa Foundation (Vishwa), based in India, was started four decades ago to promote holistic healing and wellness based on the tenets of swaasthya and ancient Ayurvedic texts. Vishwa had revived the Vedic tradition of Agnihotra, or fire-offering, a daily ritual performed at the auspicious hours of dawn and dusk. The organization offered spiritual products that used Agnihotra ash as a key ingredient, offering a unique and traditional approach to personal care and wellness, and had some success. In July 2022, the president of Vishwa wanted to expand the product market by promoting Vishwa’s products as natural, eco-friendly, and holistic solutions for consumers' health and wellness needs. He was aware that Vishwa faced several challenges, including a weak distribution network and a lack of branding compared to its competitors, and he needed to explore alternatives for the company’s growth and implement the changes soon.

Circl Learning Limited (Circl), a United Kingdom–based organization that provided coaching training to professionals and diverse young leaders from under-represented groups, was facing a challenge regarding impact measurement. Founded in 2018, Circl had grown and established a significant client base in a short time. Measurement of impact was a core component of its philosophy and growth strategy. As the chief executive officer prepared for a team meeting, he contemplated the measurements that Circl had in place and was currently tracking. What other key metrics should the organization consider for 2023?

Founded in 2006, Mi Xue Bing Cheng (Mixue) had become widely popular in the Chinese market by June 2021. Mixue achieved very high levels of growth by using a low-price high-volume strategy, a clever marketing campaign, and an unconventional geographic expansion strategy that emphasized secondary markets. However, the domestic market was becoming too saturated. Seeing Mixue gain recognition, new competitors started imitating its business model and developing a fiercely competitive market. Mixue’s chief executive officer, Hongfu Zhang, was wondering how to sustain the company’s high growth rate. Should Mixue continue following its original strategy or adopt a new and different approach that includes international expansion?

Aglaia Kong, the founder and chief executive officer of Guangdong LeapFive Technology Co. Ltd., a Chinese fabless chip design start-up, is facing a broken supply chain, with issues running from electronic design automation and core internet protocol through to fabrication, packaging, and testing in bringing up her Internet of things chip sets for industrial applications. Using fifth-generation open-source reduced instruction set computing instruction set architecture, she must assess a supply chain buffeted by severe bullwhip shortages and political headwinds, analyze her company’s strategy, and plot a course to assure it will be among the 2 per cent of Chinese chip start-ups that do not fail.

A business world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) presents many leadership and governance challenges to businesses large and small. Smaller family firms, in particular, need to demonstrate resilience both in navigating changes that arise from VUCA conditions and in staying firm on the core purpose with which their enterprises were founded.<br><br>Cases A and B present the approach of a family firm based in Toronto, Canada, that manufactures and markets industrial vacuum systems. The cases provide an opportunity for instructors to convey the trials and tribulations faced by the founder and his successor in building a purpose-driven organization and in staying on the committed path of responsible leadership and governance.

Metaza SA (Metaza) was a family business created by two brothers who later invited their younger siblings to join the firm. Metaza operated in the steel sector, a capital-intensive business with fierce competition. The industry had experienced several mergers and acquisitions led by international players. To remain competitive, Metaza had changed its strategy, moving away from being a steel dealer and toward being a value-added producer. However, these changes generated debate within the family business, which operated with a low level of institutionalization. Consequently, the brothers hired a family business governance consultant for assistance. Metaza’s chair and chief executive officer needed to learn how to implement these strategic changes so that he could pass the torch of a healthier organization.

In 2020, Neha Mathur and Debi Kar co-founded the start-up Wishyogi India Pvt. Limited in Bangalore, India, and launched an online HR platform called Personifwy. Driven by artificial intelligence (AI), Personifwy analyzes employee engagement experiences and integrates data with the client’s own systems, thus serving as an HR analytics platform. During their interactions with clients, Mathur and Kar discovered a gap in the process of recruiting prospective employees. Many candidates were engaging in a phenomenon referred to as “ghosting,” which caused the talent acquisition teams of client firms to constantly restart the process, wasting time and resources. Mathur and Kar wanted to reveal the reason why candidates were dropping out of the recruitment process (or “ghosting” the employer) after receiving an offer letter and find a way to stop the practice. Potential solutions included having the client call these candidates directly or hiring consultants to establish a contact. Could AI technology help to resolve the issue? Could Mathur and Kar design an innovative solution to increase the ratio of job offer to confirmed employee for Personifwy clients? Should the company consider using employees advocates to help resolve the ghosting issue?

<p align="justify">EatSure was the direct-to-customer platform of Rebel Foods, an internet-based restaurant. EatSure was positioned as a digital food court compared to online food aggregators and other companies in the food-service industry. Sagar Kochhar, chief executive officer of EatSure, had a meeting with his executive team to discuss the company’s goal of reaching fifty million EatSure app users. EatSure had recently reached more than seven million downloads. The team met to analyze EatSure’s positioning with respect to other food-delivery competitors following recent market research and the creation of a perceptual map. Kochhar wanted to understand the company’s existing market position and decide on a future course of action to meet this growth goal.

The concept of Jungle Bay Dominica (Jungle Bay) was created by Samuel Raphael on the island of Dominica in 1997 and first opened for business in 2005. Raphael’s philosophy was that he could profitably operate a luxury hotel with minimal disturbance to the surrounding natural environment that functioned as a tool to further the economic growth and social welfare of the local population. To its clientele, Jungle Bay offered a variety of experiences in a tropical setting, such as breathtaking views, spa treatments, lush gardens and orchards, adventure tours, and fresh organic food. For the Jungle Bay team, Raphael provided opportunities for learning new skills and a steady income, and he gave motivated individuals an opportunity to grow. However, a series of natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in Jungle Bay struggling to achieve occupancy rates above 35 per cent. Raphael had to determine the best way to expand Jungle Bay’s marketing efforts, increase occupancy rates, and increase revenue.

In October 2021, the head of digital communications and branding at the Australian biopharmaceutical conglomerate CSL Limited (CSL), was tasked with a strategic rebranding exercise. By August 2022, he and other stakeholders felt a sense of pride and satisfaction at how quickly the rebranding initiatives had been completed. CSL felt that it had achieved the desired brand associations and met its targeted brand net promoter score performance. Looking forward, the company’s executives needed to outline an implementation plan to ensure CSL’s brand positioning—its key differentiator—to ensure that CSL outpaced respected competitors and that the CSL brand connected with the company’s product brands at each customer touchpoint—all while maintaining trust and attracting the best researchers possible.

Suparshva Swabs India (SSI), a family-owned firm started by Brij Mohan Jain and his sons in 1992, when India was going through liberalization, began its journey in the personal-hygiene category by launching high-quality cotton swabs (also known as cotton buds). SSI had steadfastly managed environmental challenges on the regulatory, economic, financial, and competitive fronts to offer good-quality products in India at an affordable price. In early 2020, as COVID-19 struck the whole world and the Government of India was under pressure to increase the number of COVID-19 tests conducted per day, the high costs of importing cotton swabs from the United States, Italy, and China exacerbated the crisis, making real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests unaffordable for the average Indian and reducing the number of tests conducted per day. SSI identified the opportunity to produce swabs indigenously in India and substantially bring down the costs. With very little time to respond to the challenge and meet the government’s demand with a price acceptable to all stakeholders, SSI worked within severe time and cost constraints to make this possible. In August 2022, as the intensity of COVID-19 tapered off and a slew of substitute consumer-friendly methods for testing were arriving in the pipeline, SSI needed to determine what strategic alternatives were available for growth from this point.

Karen Chan was a Hong Kong second-generation leader in her family business, German Pool Hong Kong Limited (German Pool), a home appliance and furniture company founded by Karen’s father, Edward Chan. By July 2022, Karen had developed the family business and founded her own high-fashion brand, Sparkle Collection, amid ongoing disruptions in Hong Kong. Karen was an innovator of products and ideas for the family business, but her niche venture Sparkle Collection gave her an understanding of the hardship her father faced starting a new business from scratch. Social unrest in Hong Kong in 2019 and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 had a strong impact on the economy, drastically affecting sales of premium products. Karen pivoted to make her venture survive. She also created a new strategic plan for the enterprise’s portfolio. Sparkle Collection targeted a niche artistic and cultural sector. In contrast, German Pool’s appliance and furniture business, along with its Happy Kitchen Cafe, catered to the mass market. Karen knew that it could take years of continued investment in Sparkle Collection to make it a “star” in the portfolio. She wondered if she could balance her roles as steward of the family business, while pursuing her passion as the entrepreneurial founder of Sparkle Collection. Should she continue to invest in her venture despite uncertainties in the economy and in her own future? Or should she give up on Sparkle Collection and refocus her efforts on steering German Pool’s existing business through the pandemic?

Jill Herzog founded Caring@Work Support Services (Caring@Work) in 2014 with a desire to give back to the community. After running a successful plastics recycling business for many years and building goodwill in both her community and in the recycling industry, Herzog saw an opportunity to start a second business dedicated to social impact, one that focused on providing both paid work and support services for clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities.<br><br>Herzog expected that her team members would be highly engaged in their work, which involved helping people with disabilities live healthier and happier lives. However, she was shocked to find out that the opposite was true. Herzog noted several instances of Caring@Work employees lacking motivation and spreading gossip. Even more problematic was the fact that the service provided to the clients was being compromised, and employees frequently failed to complete the required note taking for Medicaid reimbursements. Herzog wondered if her goal of giving back to the community while earning a modest profit would ever be realized. Were the problems due to her leadership style? Were there larger, more systemic problems precipitating the counterproductive workplace behaviour?<br><br>Clearly, something had to change. After eight years in business, Caring@Work had yet to earn a profit. Herzog knew that her business could not grow to the point of being financially sustainable without a committed workforce that shared her passion for the company’s mission. When one of Caring@Work’s top performers, Sylvia Ward, threatened to leave due to the toxic work environment, Herzog knew she needed to act fast. Over the weekend, she drafted a speech to deliver at the next staff meeting on Monday, but she wondered if this was the right approach. Would the speech alienate her workforce even further? Or might it urge them to take their jobs more seriously?

Planet Abled is a woman-led, for-profit social venture based in New Delhi, India, offering customized tours around India and South Asia for people of all disabilities. Planet Abled was formed in 2016 by its chief executive officer, Neha Arora—herself a daughter of two disabled parents. Planet Abled’s start-up story explains how social ventures can repurpose traditional travel to reveal and reverse multiple types of stigmas (public, cultural, social, and structural) as well as defy and defend against the self-stigmatization of the one billion disabled people in the world (15 per cent of the global population).<br><br>Part A of the case presents the real-time conundrum of continuity of mission in the time of COVID-19 given the complete cessation of travel following the declaration of the pandemic and the lack of economic assistance from the Indian government. Part B describes real-time experiments Planet Abled undertook in a concerted and creative team effort to survive against all odds in the first year of the global pandemic—a period of unprecedented hardship for the global tourism industry. Part C jumps forward to discuss how Arora’s mid-2022 epiphany culminated in an early 2023 tipping point for Planet Abled and the global tourism industry. The three-part Planet Abled case series invites learners to drive system change by engaging them in real-time dilemmas about diversity and inclusion in the specific context of disability rights.

Based in South Africa, United Exports was a leading producer of blueberry varieties. In April 2022, the company faced an issue of competitive positioning and entry in a crowded US market. The chief executive officer of United Exports, Americas, was preparing for a strategic planning meeting where the goal was to develop actions to grow the company and expand distribution in the United States. United Exports’ OZblu brand had simultaneously attempted to create year-round blueberry supplies and to shorten its supply chains by selling Florida-grown blueberries in the United States. The CEO knew he had to rethink supply chains in a post-pandemic world and in light of shifting consumer buyer behaviour realities. He had to find a way to best enter the US fruit produce e-commerce market while aligning with United Exports’ values and selling proposition. The CEO needed to examine and carefully consider e-commerce models, including subscription, rapid delivery, and the online grocery landscape.