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By 2020, Umesh Shah could rightly be proud of what he and his team had accomplished over the last eight years to capture white space consumers, i.e. those consumers that Unilever operating units had progressively labelled non-core or new groups created by emerging megatrends, such as globalization and digitalization. Unilever International UI was created with the mandate to create the capabilities to reach out to these consumers and re capture them for the Group. It quickly proved its case when it doubled the turnover it had inherited in less than four years. In a second phase, it doubled it again, reaching a turnover of €1 billion in 2019, ahead of plans. UI's strong performance was acknowledged within Unilever when it won the prestigious Unilever Global Compass Award in 2019. UI was now preparing to embark on the next phase of its journey, labelled UI 3.0, with the goal of again doubling its turnover to €2 billion. Three areas were singled out for attention:(1)making a strong business case for the market potential;(2)building the capabilities to scale by investing further in digital marketing and the partner network; and(3)maintaining and even enhancing the unit's entrepreneurial culture, ensuring motivation and proper compensation for its intrapreneurs. Getting to €1 billion in sales had not been easy but doubling it again would increase UI's complexity by an order of magnitude. How could UI keep pace and remain entrepreneurial while at the same time maintaining its strong governance and control systems? intaining double digit annual growth would require focusing on ever-larger opportunities and their inherent complexities, and placing larger bets, some of which would definitely fail. Was UI ready to cope with larger failures? And what about the Unilever mothership? It relished the unit's success, but would it still be there in difficult times? Umesh knew that UI's past achievements only earned it additional runway; he and his colleagues could not be

Novetex, one of the world's largest single-site spinners, was celebrating the opening of its new spinning mill in 2018. The Hong Kong-based company had spent four decades expanding its operations, and its main factory was in Zhuhai, in southern China. But this new facility would be in Hong Kong, and would produce yarn from waste material in Hong Kong's textile and apparel industry. This case looks at Novetex's commitment to environmental sustainability, and efforts to become a leader in developing cleaner solutions by focusing on circular economy solutions within the global textile and apparel industry. Global clothing production had doubled within two decades, reflecting the rise of the middle class consumer in countries like China, and increasing sales in affordable fast fashion in mature economies. But the apparel industry was a top industrial polluter, accounting for 10 percent of global carbon emissions; the polyester and nylon textile industry, moreover, released about a half-million tonnes of plastic microfibers into the oceans each year. This case study looks at the evolution and risks of "upcycling" technologies within the textile industry, and the science and partnerships behind the new Novetex Upcycling Factory in Hong Kong, which aimed to demonstrate the profitability and environmental sustainability of circular economy practices.

In 2019, the director of strategy at US-based First Financial Group (FFG) needed to decide which alternative incentive program the mid-sized bank should use to replace its current short-term incentive plan (STIP) for branch employees. The scorecard-driven STIP was found to have motivated branch sales staff to set up unauthorized accounts in order to obtain bonuses. These actions could potentially bring negative publicity and regulatory penalties to the bank in an industry fraught with such problems. Further, the current STIP had led to conflicts between the branch managers, who were compensated based on dollar sales, and the employees, who were compensated based on units of accounts sold. However, the path forward was not clear. The strategy director could revise the current scorecard or introduce a team-based incentive based on a new scorecard. Regardless of which option was chosen, the bank would have to implement additional management controls to motivate its employees while reducing the risk of fraud.

In late 2019, Dr. Hiroaki Kitano, the president and director of research at Sony Computer Science Laboratories (Sony CSL), had decided he would be stepping down from his position soon. Sony CSL, a small blue-sky fundamental research facility funded by Sony, had always operated on the strength of the trust between Sony's CEO and the lab's director. Sony had been hands-off in its management, leaving Kitano to hire, fire, fund, and evaluate the lab's researchers and project portfolio at his own discretion. Now that he was stepping down, however, he worried that Sony CSL could not withstand his departure. Kitano wanted to make a transparent plan for the organization's future before he handed off Sony CSL to his successor. That plan involved three key decisions. First, what should be the optimal structure and governance of Sony CSL? Should it maintain its independence and autonomy, or should it align more closely with Sony's business priorities? Second, how could Sony CSL scale its impact on Sony and society at large, given its small size? Finally, should Sony CSL establish some standard methods of measuring project success and strength of the portfolio? In making these decisions, Kitano wanted to ensure that he preserved the unique culture that had allowed Sony CSL to pursue path-breaking research and innovation.

While the growth of virtual reality started in gaming, the industry was increasingly focused on enterprise applications in 2020. This note explores the market opportunities and challenges for virtual reality and augmented reality in the enterprise, while diving into a number of specific applications, including education, construction, retail, and training.

With its mission to "unsmoke the world" and its bold new purpose to replace cigarettes with less harmful tobacco products, Philip Morris International (PMI) was revolutionizing every part of its existing business model and, with it, the tobacco industry. Over a four-year period, PMI had established an entirely new product category for its new heated-tobacco IQOS brand and had become the global market leader in this fastest-growing group of reduced-risk products in the tobacco industry. To stay ahead of the rapidly evolving competition and to respond fast to changing market conditions, PMI fundamentally had to change its business model and the way it worked. Everyone in the organization was encouraged and empowered to participate actively in PMI's transformation journey, and digital had become the disruptive catalyst. Digital innovations in the supply chain were challenging existing processes and unlocked other opportunities that PMI had not thought about before. PMI had a two- to four-year lead on its main competitors and was now in a position to shape its future business model. But how was the business going to develop and what type of supply chain should it create to scale up its business in a volatile market where speed was king? The executive leadership team was under pressure to make this key decision soon, as the final supply chain strategy depended on it. But for a traditional B2B consumer goods company that was transforming into a technological customer-centric organization that operated within the regulatory constraints of the tobacco industry, which business model would work best for PMI?

Jia Yuan Company was a small Chinese business founded by two brothers in 2005. The more ambitious of the brothers worked at the front of the business, successfully transforming it from a local sales agent for foreign branded products to a contractor for government-financed construction projects. He saw new opportunities for the business and wanted to make further investment in a related company that his friend worked at. However, the conservative brother, in charge of internal management, was not convinced of the project's potential and did not approve of making drastic changes to their company's overall strategy. The brothers had a history of disagreement and suppressing resolution of the problems. Can the brothers manage their conflict, or should they go their separate ways?

In 2019, the president of China's ride share company Didi Chuxing Technology Co. (Didi) faced various challenges associated with marketing and communications in a high-risk disruptive technology. As one of few female global corporate leaders, she was a role model for young women and promoted inclusion and diversity at Didi. However, the emergence of autonomous and connected vehicles in the industry forced her to make some strategic decisions. Several recent high-profile safety failures involving Didi and other industry giants had resulted in injury and death. The president needed to develop a communications and marketing plan for Didi's employee and consumer stakeholders. But how should she respond to the recent negative media reports? What promotion and communication strategies would enable the company to develop a level of trust and knowledge that would set it apart from its high-risk competitors? How could the president influence consumer perceptions of the industry's-and Didi's-legitimacy?

This case uses the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) to set the stage for unfolding an analysis of economics and values in the decision to divest tobacco stocks and bonds from the internally managed portion of the CalPERS portfolio. Written from public sources, it offers a discussion about fiduciary responsibility for long-term retirement security and investment policies around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies for the public pension fund. The material includes financial data that further allows calculations and discussion on tobacco investments outperforming the broader market. This A case opens with the CalPERS investment committee having made a decision to recommend removing tobacco investment restrictions. The CIO reflects on whether supporting investment in tobacco firms conflicts with CalPERS's member health and health care mission. Did supporting continued divestment mean CalPERS was putting its own social priority and ideals ahead of its clients' investment goals? The case data should lead most to conclude the fund was breaching its fiduciary duty.

In the fall of 2019, Sprint's Chief Digital Officer Rob Roy reflected on the telecom's efforts to improve the effectiveness of its digital marketing campaigns. Digital media buying had long been handled by an outside agency, but in 2017, Sprint brought those functions in-house to enhance the company's ability to respond to the market in real-time. Early results suggested the plan was working, but Sprint continued to face fierce competition from its rivals. Sprint's subscriber losses mounted as it attempted to merge with T-Mobile. Could digital marketing stem the losses and win consumers' hearts?

Historically, personal and commercial banks (P&CB) maintained long relationships with their clients who tended to do most if not all of their banking with one bank. However, by 2017, industry-wide change was well underway as switching costs had become negligible if not non-existent. New entrants were disrupting the banking industry as digitization allowed upstarts to break through long-standing barriers to entry. RBC's Cultural Transformation, intended to reposition the enterprise for the "new normal" in the financial industry, included the creation of this team of collaboration enablers (called Operations Transformation or OT) to drive efficiencies across operations within the current fulfillment operating model and importantly to envision and enable a new digital operating model where people only intervened in a transaction when there was an exception, i.e., a transaction that fell outside the technology's capabilities. OT was tasked with enabling-through collaboration and without radical surgery-the day-to-day optimization of P&CB fulfillment activities and facilitating major change in the way work was done. At the time of the case, eighteen months in, the team was seeing mixed results, which deeply troubled its leadership. Questions abounded: Was it foolish to try to enable major change through collaboration without upending the traditional RBC organization with more radical approaches? Or was the OT group not structured correctly to enable it-and if not, what changes should be made? Was a different collaboration model needed? Internally, some questioned whether the group was optimally located within the organization (as part of the back office organization structure), since the back office was often viewed as more of a servant to the front office. Others wondered if OT's internal structure was getting in the way of its purpose.

In March 2020, as coronavirus reduced demand for air travel, an analyst was forecasting American Airlines' (American's) first quarter financial results. To develop a forecast, she needed to familiarize herself with Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-02, "Leases (Topic 842)," passed four years earlier by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. ASU 2016-02 required companies to disclose all leases on their balance sheets, but it made an exception for leases with variable payments, allowing companies to leave such leases off-balance sheet. The Wall Street Journal estimated that more than 50% of American's leases remained off-balance sheet due to the exclusion of variable leases. Should American and other companies be allowed to leave variable lease payments off-balance sheet? How did the decision to leave these payments off-balance sheet affect companies' risk profiles and valuations?

By 2019, Facebook Inc.'s (Facebook's), popular social media and social networking service (known as Facebook) that launched in 2004, had emerged as one of the world's largest market capitalizations. Over its 15 years, the company had experienced public relation incidents that led to controversies regarding its social media business model. Most criticism related to the unethical ways the company had handled its users' personal data. By 2019, the level of mistrust from users had skyrocketed alarmingly. Many analysts questioned the company's willingness to deal with data privacy concerns, with some alleging that its business model was fundamentally unethical by design. Clearly Facebook's chief executive officer and his team needed to step back and reflect on the company's next steps.

The case study traces the development of FC Barcelona's Innovation Hub (BIH) and its plans to go global. It describes how factors on and off the pitch led to the launch and how the BIH is preparing the club for the future at the centre of an ecosystem that includes prestigious brands, universities, start-ups, and athletes worldwide, all linked by a culture of excellence. The case considers FC Barcelona's competitive environment and its approach to digital disruption (of broadcasting, player performance, fan engagement), the professionalization of football, and the "ambidexterity" of club strategy.

Singapore organised the 28th SEA Games in June 2015. This was the fourth time that Singapore hosted the SEA Games, after a 22-year long hiatus. It was a historic SEA Games for Singapore, as it coincided with the nation's Golden Jubilee. Everything went well from the opening ceremony to the organisation of 36 sports, with around 400 events. However, there was a sudden surge in crowd during the closing ceremony. Chairman of Opening and Closing Ceremonies (OCC), Colonel Lawrence Lim planned for a contingency to handle a possible sudden surge in the crowd and the contingency plans were activated, but the lighting condition and different decisions made by different committees impeded the flow of spectators into the Singapore Sports Hub. As a result, 500 spectators who were turned away. The questions that need to be answered are; what are the lessons to be learnt? Crowd management or more than that? Scenario planning, crisis leadership under the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) environment are some of the important lessons that can be drawn from this Case Study.

This case focuses on the supply chain strategy of Apple Inc. (Apple). Set in early 2020, it provides a detailed description of the company's supply chain network and capabilities. Data in the case allows students to develop an understanding of Apple's source of competitiveness and to gain insights into the management of a large, complex global supply chain network that focused on the intersection of services, hardware and software. Students will obtain an understanding of the supply chain challenges faced by Apple, in the context of supporting its corporate strategy and growth objectives.

IDL Innovation Hong Kong Co. Ltd. (IDL) was a well-known interior design company specializing in commercial retail centres. The design company's goal was to help its partners create more value by presenting effective interior design. However, with the rise of e-commerce, the financial performance of the conventional retail industry had dropped significantly. To help the industry regain customers, the design company developed a new business framework that combined online components with traditional consumer social spaces, based on the common interests, wants, and needs of consumers. In September 2018, the design company transformed a shopping centre in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China, that had been losing sales for some time. The shopping mall soon saw a substantial and consistent increase in foot traffic, sales, and revenue. The project was a great success for both the mall and IDL, but could this concept be also effective when applied to other projects?

In January of 2019, Joe Heieck (HBS '14), CEO of gWorks, was deciding whether to proceed with his acquisition of Data Tech, that was a business roughly the same size of gWorks. gWorks, which provided geospatial software to small city and rural county governments, was acquired by Heieck in January 2015 after a 6 month search. While there were potential synergies between gWorks and Data Tech, the acquisition also presented some significant risks including its relatively high price and concerns about the need to modernize its product offerings.

Deloitte Consulting's General Manager Balaji Bondili, head of Pixel, considers how best to grow Deloitte Consulting's use of open (on-demand) talent, as consulting companies and their clients face transformative change in the way client engagements and projects get done. Pixel, started in 2014, helps facilitate open (or on-demand) talent and crowdsourcing for Deloitte Consulting client engagements, to access specific, difficult-to-find expertise, collaborate to develop new products and/or insights, and to design, build, and test new digital assets. Bondili has found some avid users-and evangelists-of Pixel's services among Deloitte Consulting's principals, however uptake across the broader organization has been slow, and in some pockets has met with deep resistance.

The case study describes the growth of CI&T, from a start-up in Brazil to a 3,000+ person consulting firm with global reach in 2019. The case describes the stages of growth the company has been through over 25 years, focusing on both the market offering and the internal organisation structure/culture. The case ends in 2019 with the founders facing decisions about their organisational structure, and specifically whether they need to 'pull back' to some degree from the entrepreneurial management model they have created